Less than a month after CMC v3.2, we’re happy to announce that CMC v3.3 is ready for your enjoyment.
CMC v3.3 is primarily a polish and bug fix release. With about 13 usability enhancements and nearly 20 important bug fixes, CMC v3.3 and CME v1.4 should run better than ever.
While most of these bug fixes are addressing minor issues, probably the most important bug fix is for the CMC new version check. Apparently CMC has been failing to check for updates on some machines because a DLL path wasn’t properly defined, something we accidentally broke in a code cleanup over a year ago. If you disabled CMC new version checks due to error messages, we encourage you to try again with v3.3 as now the issue is hopefully resolved.
Another important bug fix is related to running multiple instances of CMC simultaneously. CMC should only run one instance, and if you attempt to run a second instance it should be prevented. While this was working in older CMC versions, the last several releases have been broken, allowing for multiple instances of CMC to run at the same time. Not only is this fixed in CMC v3.3, it is better than ever, as launching CMC a 2nd time should immediately bring the first instance back to focus. This is perfect in cases where CMC has lost focus (i.e. a Windows pop-up notification stole focus away now and you can’t control CMC) – simply press the remote button you configured to launch CMC and voila, CMC is focused again and you didn’t have to break out the keyboard.
But v3.3 isn’t all about bug fixes and a paint touch-up, there are lots of new features as well, among them a few new features that deserve a special mention.
One new feature is automatically dismounting ISO’s when you close CMC. This new feature is optional, and works only for Virtual CloneDrive (VCD) users. Previously if you mounted an ISO to watch, it stayed mounted until you rebooted, manually dismounted it, or mounted another ISO in its place. Now when you close CMC, any ISO mounted to the configured VCD drive letter will be automatically dismounted. This can help NAS servers spin down hard drives by freeing up connection streams.
Another new feature is that all external Media Players, like PowerDVD, MPC, JRiver, and more, can be configured as an External Link. Previously you could only open external players by playing media, or manually configuring a custom External Link to open one. With CMC v3.3, you can easily assign pre-configured External Links to easily launch any of the supported players without having to play media.
The last notable new feature is a new version check and updater for AnyDVD. If you are an AnyDVD user, CMC can optionally check if a new version is available. If an update exists, CMC will display the changelog, and optionally download and begin the update for you. The best part of this new feature is that now you don’t have to break out the keyboard just to install frequent AnyDVD updates, as even the few install prompts during a normal AnyDVD install can be handled with a standard remote control.
To read up on all the new features, improvements, and bug fixes, head over to the Downloads page for the full changelog.
CMC v3.3 is a free upgrade for all users. For current users, if you’ve granted firewall access then CMC will let you auto-update to the new version the next time you run your current version (assuming your PC wasn’t affected by that new version check bug we just fixed for v3.3). Otherwise, you can manually download the new version.