GridPlayer Alabaster 0.2beta_rc1 (portable zip)

Windows 10/11 64-bit (x64) portable zip — release candidate 1 of GridPlayer Alabaster 0.2beta. This is a prerelease.

🚀 Release Announcement: GridPlayer Alabaster v0.2beta_rc1

I’m excited to share GridPlayer Alabaster 0.2beta_rc1, a portable Windows fork of Vlad (vzhd1701)'s GridPlayer, built from GridPlayer 0.5.5 plus upstream's newer, still-unreleased work.

Alabaster puts more of the player on direct keys and mouse buttons, streamlines single-cell media workflows, and keeps the portable build's settings in its own folder, without writing to the Windows Registry.

🙏 Credit: what's Vlad's and what's Alabaster's

Alabaster started from GridPlayer 0.5.5. It's built on Vlad's development code from Oct 20, 2026, which adds about 219 of his own commits after 0.5.5. He hasn't put that code in a numbered release yet; it's only in his own "continuous" development build. Vlad has no 1.0 release, so Alabaster isn't standing in for one, and it doesn't claim to be the next official GridPlayer.

Correction note: the first version of these notes went up without separating Vlad's features from Alabaster's. That was an oversight, not an attempt to take credit for his work. The tags below fix it.

Each feature below carries one of these tags:

• [Vlad 0.5.5]: already in GridPlayer 0.5.5.
• [Vlad, after 0.5.5]: Vlad's newer work. It's in his development code but not in a numbered release yet, so this RC is just one way to try it early. The credit is his.
• [Alabaster]: added in this fork.

⚠️ Release candidate. Test it, break it, report it. Windows 10/11 x64 only.

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📦 Download

File	GridPlayer-Alabaster-57f21b1-win64-portable.zip
Size	135,235,014 bytes (about 129 MB)
SHA256	02af3a7c5b5508598978efa9f950e250f2d0ed7f378032f17e079078793ed745
Built from	commit 57f21b1
Platform	Windows 10/11, 64-bit only

• Unsigned build: Windows SmartScreen may warn before it runs ("More info" → "Run anyway").
• Extract it into a new folder of its own. The zip holds one folder, GridPlayer-Alabaster-portable; run GridPlayer-Alabaster-portable\GridPlayer.exe.
• Leaves upstream GridPlayer alone: it installs nothing, registers no file types, and won't touch an installed upstream GridPlayer. Settings, logs and cache stay in portable_data next to the exe.
• VLC (libVLC) and yt-dlp are bundled. Deno (for YouTube's JavaScript challenge) and FFmpeg are not.

(All releases: https://github.com/XDevMatt/alabaster-gridplayer/releases)

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🔥 Key Features & Enhancements

1. Universal Action & Hotkey System

• [Alabaster] SubtitleCat search: Find subtitles for the playing video on SubtitleCat.com. It shows up once SubtitleCat is turned on in Settings.
• [Vlad 0.5.5 / after 0.5.5, ~20 Alabaster] ~400 bindable actions: Nearly every menu command (transforms, aspect, crop, tracks, zoom, sync, snapshots) is a named action you can put on a key or mouse button, so you skip the right-click submenus. (The action system comes from upstream; Alabaster adds about 20 of its own actions: Keep, Copy File, Toggle Loop File, Randomize List, Rotate to Fit, Files to Play, Other orientation, SubtitleCat search and more.)
• [Vlad, after 0.5.5] Built-in Shortcut Remapper: Rebind keys and mouse buttons to any action in Settings → Shortcuts (also on the right-click menu). Conflict detection shows which action already uses a key and asks before reassigning it. No PowerToys needed.
• [Alabaster] Mouse Side Buttons: Back / Forward (and extra buttons) can be bound like keys, for example to next and previous file. They keep working even with Disable mouse click events on. They have no default binding.

2. Canvas, Zoom & Layout Workflows

• [Vlad: + - *; Alabaster: . , /] Direct Zoom Keys: Zoom in with . or +, zoom out with , or -, and reset with / or *. Add Shift for all cells.
• [Alabaster] Rotate to Fit: Optional, off by default. It turns a landscape video in a tall cell, or a portrait video in a wide cell, 90° clockwise or counter-clockwise (your choice) to use more of the cell.
• [Alabaster] Single-Cell Repaint: In a grid, Next now repaints only the cell that changes, not the whole window. (On Windows a pane can still go grey for a moment; see Known Limitations.)
• [Alabaster] Keep with E: In Single Mode, E copies (never moves) the playing local file to ../<folder>_keep/ and steps to the next file. Files that are already there are skipped.

3. Stream Sync & Per-Cell Controls

• [Vlad, after 0.5.5] Per-Cell Audio Output: Send different cells to different audio output devices (cell menu → Audio Device).
• [Vlad, after 0.5.5] Fine Delay Adjustments: Audio delay on J / K and subtitle delay on G / H, per cell (add Shift for all cells).
• [Vlad; Alabaster added Other orientation and moved the A-B keys] Per-Cell Picture & Loops: Per-cell zoom, crop, aspect, transform, deinterlace, the Other orientation filter (skip files that don't match the cell's shape), and A-B looping with [ (start), ] (end) and \ (reset). (Deband and scaling-filter controls are planned, not in this build.)
• [Vlad 0.5.5 seek sync; the rest Vlad, after 0.5.5] Sync Modes: Grid-wide toggles for seek sync (by percent or timecode), zoom and position, play/pause, and speed.

4. Portability & Playlists

• [Vlad 0.5.5] Portable Storage: In the portable zip, settings (settings.ini), logs, thumbnail cache and screenshots live in portable_data beside the exe. Nothing is written to the Registry or AppData.
• [Vlad; Alabaster added per-cell profiles] .gpls Playlists (JSON): Save the whole grid: cells, lists, loop points, bookmarks and Alabaster's per-cell profiles under stable cell IDs. Relative paths are an option (off by default).

📋 Additional Features & Workflow Enhancements

1. Clipboard Ingestion & Player Handoff (Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V)

• [Vlad 0.5.5] Instant Media Handoff: Copy files, paths or stream links from Explorer, Everything.exe, a browser or another player, then press Ctrl+V to add them as new cells.
• [Vlad] Muted by Default: New cells start muted, so a full grid doesn't play every soundtrack at once. They start playing unless you set the start state to Paused in Settings.
• [Alabaster Ctrl+C] Cell Duplication: Ctrl+C on a cell puts its file or link on the clipboard, and Ctrl+V opens it in a new cell. You can also paste it into Explorer or a chat.
• [Alabaster] Overflow Protection: Fast Ctrl+V presses are debounced (one paste while another is still loading, 150 ms between pastes), the grid is capped at 32 cells, and you get a warning above 12.

2. Dynamic Playlist & Loop Controls

• [List window: Vlad, after 0.5.5; L key and folder prompt: Alabaster] L (List):
  • On a single file, it asks whether to play "Just this video" or "Everything in its folder" (with an Include subfolders option).
  • On a list, it opens the List window: find, sort, reverse, randomize, move, rename and remove items, export to M3U, and add files, folders and links on the fly.
• [Alabaster] Shift+L (Toggle Loop File): Switches the cell to Loop This File. Press it again to go back to the cell's previous When-finished action, for example Play next file.
• [Alabaster] Ctrl+Shift+N (Randomize List): Shuffles the cell's list once, with the playing item first.

3. Mixed Media

• [Vlad / Alabaster] Video, Audio & Pictures: Videos, audio files and pictures can share one grid and one playlist.
• [Alabaster] Pictures as Slides: Each picture shows for the cell's Slide duration (default 10 seconds, 1–3600), then the cell moves on like at the end of a video. To step through the pictures in a folder, set Files to Play to All Media or Images Only. The default is Videos Only.

4. Sync Logic & Individual Cell Control

• [Vlad 0.5.5] Play One Cell, or All: Start a paused cell on its own with its play button or Ctrl+Space, or play/pause every cell with Space.
• [Vlad] Sync Options: Separate toggles for seek sync (Timecode or Percent), Zoom and Position, Speed, and Play/Pause.

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💬 Feedback & Issues

Since this is a Release Candidate (rc1), please test out your custom layouts and report any bugs, edge cases, or feature suggestions on the GridPlayer Alabaster Issues Page. Please check Known Limitations first.

GridPlayer Alabaster is not the official GridPlayer. It is a GPLv3 modification of GridPlayer by Vlad (vzhd1701), and most of the credit goes to him. Full source code & documentation: XDevMatt/alabaster-gridplayer.