You can donate to SMPlayer.
New opportunities
Play on Chromecast
To play your video on Chromecast, simply select the "Play on Chromecast" menu option. This will open the Chromecast control page with SMPlayer in your browser with a link to the video. This page can interact with your Chromecast device. You will find settings for connecting / disconnecting, starting playback, as well as buttons to control playback, pause, volume and rewind ... You can also control playback from your smartphone or tablet by scanning the QR code on the page. ...
Output video to an external screen
You can output video to a secondary computer monitor while the application itself is displayed on the primary monitor. Just select the "Send video to screen" option from the Video menu and select a monitor.
The main
Playing a video file
To open the file, click on the first button on the "Main Panel" or select the option File... on the menu Open... You can select any file in the format supported by SMPlayer: avi, mp4, mkv, ts, mpg ... The video will start playing. You can use the bar at the bottom of the player screen to pause, rewind ...
To switch to full screen mode, click on the full screen toggle button () in the floating panel or click F... In full screen mode, after moving the mouse to the bottom of the screen, a "Floating Panel" will appear. To return to windowed mode, click on the full screen toggle button on the floating panel, or press F or ESC... You can also right-click any time you need the context menu.
You can easily change the audio track, select subtitles, use the video filter, change the speed ... just explore the player menu.
YouTube video playback
To play YouTube videos, select YouTube browser on the menu Instruments... Then the YouTube Browser window will open. This program allows you to view the most popular, most viewed and most rated videos. You can find the video by typing its title at the bottom of the window. To play a video, just click on it.
Download subtitles
SMPlayer can find and download subtitles for you. Just open the video and select Search for subtitles on Opensubtitles.org on the menu Subtitles... A new window will appear listing the available subtitles. Just select the subtitles you want to download and click on the button Download... The subtitle file will be automatically downloaded and shown in the video.
Cover change
You can easily change the cover. Click on the screwdriver button () in the main panel or select Settings on the menu Instruments... Then a window with settings will open. Now select the section on the left Appearance... Then select Interface with covers in options Interface... Finally select the cover you want to use in the option Cover.
Miniature generator
SMPlayer includes a Thumbnail Generator that allows you to see a preview of your video. It's easy to use: open the video and then select Miniature generator on the menu Video.
Performance improvement
If you're having trouble playing HD videos, you can improve your performance by following these tips:
- If you have a multi-core processor: select Preferences from the Tools menu. Then a window with settings will open. Go to the Performance section. Now increase the number of "Decode Threads" depending on the number of cores in your processor (For example, if you have 2 cores, then select 2 threads, if 4 cores, then 4 threads, and so on).
- If you do not have a multi-core processor: select Preferences from the Tools menu. Then a window with settings will open. Go to the Performance section. Enable the "Allow frames to drop" option. This will help keep the audio and video in sync, but there may be problems with some formats. You can also experiment with the "Loopback" settings in the H.264 section.
A simple and convenient video player based on standard Windows Media codecs, but much more convenient to use. Has many handy features for subtitle videos. According to reviews - the best player for anime people.
I don’t know about you, but I personally don’t watch movies on TV for a long time. Firstly, if you have a good collection of videodiscs, you can watch your favorite films in much better quality than TV shows. And secondly, you can enjoy watching a movie at any convenient time! But watching video on a computer is fraught with some, albeit small, but difficulties. The first is the age-old problem of codecs.
In principle, it is solved quite easily - we just need to install a certain package of video encoders / decoders (for example, the K-Lite Codec Pack) that are compatible with the standard Windows player. The second problem is that the capabilities of the standard Windows Media Player are often lacking - and this is where the problem of choosing an alternative player arises.
However, there are a number of software players that initially, often possessing more functionality than a standard player, also include a number of the most common built-in codecs. Thus, these programs solve the problem of playing video on a computer in one fell swoop.
We have already talked about a very good Daum PotPlayer, and today I would like to introduce you to another representative of this class of programs - SMPlayer. Despite the similar names of the players, they turned out to be very different both in functions and in general solution.
If Daum PotPlayer was originally developed as an alternative video player for Windows, then SMPlayer "came" to us from Linux. As for the functionality, the main advantages of both players can be formulated: Daum PotPlayer - has many useful tools for correcting and improving sound quality (and partly video), while SMPlayer is more aimed at watching DVD videos and movies with multiple audio tracks and subtitles ...
You can compare SMPlayer with a paid video player - CrystalPlayer Professional.
Comparison of the free SMPlayer video player with the paid analogue CrystalPlayer Professional
Conclusion on the table - "why pay more";)? Having a simple and "unloaded" interface, SMPlayer consumes less system resources than its paid counterpart, and also has a number of other advantages (more on that later).
Installing SMPlayer
A fairly simple installer will help you install SMPlayer. We can interfere in his actions twice. The first time, when prompted to select the language of the program:
And the second, when we will be offered a choice of program configuration:
At this point, it is best to select the "Recommended" installation type. This will install all the necessary program components necessary for comfortable everyday work.
SMPlayer interface
Upon completion of the installation, you can immediately start working with the program. Let's start SMPlayer and look at its working window:
If you have ever worked with soft media players, then the SMPlayer interface will not seem unusual to you. Below, under the viewing window, are the main buttons for controlling video playback. The menu bar is traditionally placed at the top. The only element that looks a bit new is the toolbar. On it, among other fairly understandable icons, there are two buttons: "Sound" and "Subtitles".
In most cases, if you click on one of these buttons while watching a movie in AVI format, you will see the inscription “Nothing”. The fact is that these buttons allow you to quickly access alternative audio tracks and subtitles in DVD or video in MKV container, for example.
To better understand the features of the program, I suggest you a short "excursion" through the SMPlayer menu bar.
And our first stop is the "Open" menu.
The screenshot clearly shows all the options for opening video files for playback. In addition to the usual playback from a file and from a disk, we have a number of additional features.
Those who like to store DVD movies on their hard drive will love the function of directly opening DVDs from a specific folder (while all the menus remain functional!). And fans of online video and radio stations will appreciate the ability to watch / listen to their favorite channels directly through the SMPlayer interface.
To do this, just select the type of online multimedia content (TV or Radio) and enter the address of the desired station in the specially designated window. Let's go further :).
With your permission, we will not consider the Playback menu. I will only say that all those buttons and settings are collected here that are responsible for video playback at the moment (play, pause, stop, rewind, etc.).
Video settings
Much more interesting is the next menu - "Video".
If we compare the video processing capabilities with those of the same Daum PotPlayer, for example, then SMPlayer, of course, lags behind it in their number. In SMPlayer, we can adjust the aspect ratio of the video, apply some filters to improve the quality (for example, reduce noise or remove edge artifacts), and also set the rotation angle of the picture.
Among the interesting features here we should note the "Video Equalizer". In practice, these are fairly standard settings for video players for contrast, brightness, saturation, etc. But due to the fact that they are all collected in one place and processing occurs immediately during playback, there is a good opportunity to experiment with video parameters (and sometimes significantly improve its quality).
There is also an opportunity to take both a single screenshot and a serial one. All that is required for this is to specify the folder for saving screenshots in the settings. And "for a snack" we are offered a rather curious opportunity called "Preview".
When this button is pressed, SMPlayer gives us full information about the video parameters (duration, format, bitrates, etc.) and creates a series of screenshots of the current movie in chronological order. Thus, we can (or cannot :)) understand the main plot of the film from this series of shots. We can save the screenshots taken on the hard disk (in the folder with the movie, for example).
Sound settings
Not very much (again, comparatively) we have in the "Sound" menu.
Here we have a 10-band equalizer, channel settings (up to 5.1 configuration) and several filters. Specifically, there are only three of them, of which the "Karaoke" filter will be interesting. It allows you to suppress the voice and leave only a narrow band of frequencies (high frequencies - the rest are simply cut off :(). Although this approach to suppressing vocals, in my opinion, does not look entirely successful, someone may like it.
This menu also duplicates (and somewhat expands) the function of the "Sound" button on the toolbar. We can also choose a soundtrack to accompany the film, but if there is none in the film itself, then we can connect any external (if any, of course) in any audio format.
Sometimes it happens that the video sequence does not match the soundtrack of the movie. And if some other players give in to this problem, then SMPlayer can help us. The fact is that we can control the delay of the scale by simply pressing the "+" and "-" keys, or set the value in milliseconds for the entire movie at once (the "Set delay" button).
Connecting subtitles
But where you can really roam is in the "Subtitles" menu.
We can select and display any "built-in" titles on the screen, connect separate external subtitles even for films in which they are not provided, control their appearance and display parameters.
As in the case of audio, we can set the delay in displaying subtitles, and if for some reason they are out of sync with the video sequence, we can scroll through them manually using hotkeys (by default, "Y" - forward and "G" - back ). We also have the opportunity to search for ready-made subtitles for the current film on one of the best library sites OpenSubtitles.org.
General SMPlayer settings
And now it's time to "visit" the "Settings" of the program.
They are not replete with special terms, so everyone can understand them and, accordingly, customize them to fit their needs. All settings are divided into several items, each of which is responsible for certain parameters. Let's take a closer look at some of the sections.
As mentioned above, SMPlayer has very rich options for customizing subtitles. Go to the "Subtitles" section.
The first thing to enable here is automatic language detection. Otherwise, instead of Russian letters, some kind of krakozyabry will be displayed in the subtitles :). If, even after installing autodetection, problems arise, then you can select the encoding manually thanks to the drop-down menu.
Let's see how subtitles are displayed in a movie:
Agree, the standard white color and small font size somehow doesn't look very good. Well, this can be easily corrected. Go to the second tab of the "Subtitles" section - "Font and colors".
To get access to advanced settings, press the "Enable SSA / ASS subtitles" button. Now we have the opportunity to completely customize the appearance of the labels on the screen. There are settings for text colors, shadows, borders, font selection, subtitle position and much more. After completing the configuration, remember to apply the changes.
Let's see what we got:
In my opinion, this is much better :).
Association with media files
And finally, I want to draw your attention to how quickly and easily you can associate different types of media files with SMPlayer. To do this, in the settings you need to go to the "File types" section and just tick the necessary extensions:
conclusions
Within the framework of this article, only the most characteristic features of SMPlayer are indicated, because a full detailed description of all the functions and capabilities of the program will take more than a dozen pages. You yourself will be able to discover many more useful features of this player, such as, for example, playing and creating playlists, displaying media file statistics, fully customizing hotkey controls, etc.
If you want to have a simple and convenient tool for everyday viewing of videos with subtitles and several audio tracks, then you will probably end up choosing SMPlayer.
P.S. It is allowed to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.
It is a powerful MPlayer based video player for Linux and Windows that has endless possibilities and options. Together with VLC, it makes up a couple of absolute favorites in its class.
In this article, I will consider the main advantages that allow us to talk about SMPlayer as one of the best programs in its class. SMPlayer is written in Qt 4.8 and uses MPlayer2 to play videos. Personally, I can only find words of praise for him, so I decided to write this review. Let's take a look at the main features of SMPlayer.
Huge number of supported formats
SMPlayer can play all formats supported by MPlayer like AVI, MKV or MPG. In addition, SMPlayer can play DVD, Blu-ray, and DVD discs in ISO image format, or copied to hard drive, while recognizing the DVD folder structure. X11, Xv, OpenGL, VESA, and some others can be used as a driver for output.
Support for themes
The appearance of the main window can be customized using various skins that can be changed in the program settings. In addition, there is a "compact" mode, which removes the toolbar and simplifies the program interface.
Using Noiae Icon Theme:
Save the point where you stopped and resume playback
SMPlayer is able to remember the settings for the current file. If after that you close the program and open the same file again, playback will continue from the same place, with the same volume level. The player window size for the current file is also preserved.
Scaling and adjusting the picture
You can scale the frame size, change the aspect ratio, and apply various filters to your footage:
The video equalizer allows you to change contrast, brightness, saturation, lightness and gamma.
Audio Effects
There are also some sound effects available, such as karaoke or normalization:
File information
Extended information about the file, including encoding algorithm, container, resolution, duration, and so on:
Search for subtitles on the Internet
SMPlayer has the option to search and download subtitles on the internet from OpenSubtitles.org.
Playlist settings
The built-in playlist in SMPlayer can be attached to the main window, or displayed in a separate child window of the program. The program provides the ability to create, save and load playlists.
The playlist can be attached to either side of the main window (including the top or bottom).
Customization options
Almost anything can be configured in the program's Preferences dialog box: order of using subtitles, video and sound options, system tray integration, interface, hotkeys, updates, and so on:
There are no native HD video codecs for operating systems based on the Linux kernel. There is, of course, the possibility of running windows codecs in Linux through, but this is not exactly the solution that users of these operating systems are waiting for.
But as it turned out, the SMP layer multimedia player can be configured in such a way that it is possible to view HD-video without "brakes" not only in Windows.
In fact, the SMP layer is a graphical frontend for Mplayer, which has tremendous functionality.
Screenshots
Description
Strengths of SMP layer:
- SMP layer supports just a huge number of formats, which include Audio CD, DVD, Video CD, AVI, ASF / WMV / WMA, MOV / MP4, RealMedia, Ogg Vorbis, NUT, NSV, VIVO, FLI, NuppelVideo, yuv4mpeg, FILM (.cpk) format, RoQ, PVA and Matroska recorded with DivX, MPEG -1, MPEG -2, MPEG -4, Sorenson, WMV, RealVideo, x264, H.264, MP3, Musepack, Vorbis, RealAudio, AC3 video codecs / A52 (Dolby Digital), AAC (MPEG -4 audio), QuickTime, VIVO audio, WMA and others.
- The “picture” of the video can be adjusted by changing the brightness, gamma, contrast, saturation, and hue.
- You can customize the display of subtitles. There is a possibility to change the subtitle font, its size, position and color.
- It is possible to manage multiple video and audio tracks. The SMP layer understands audio tracks as separate files.
- It is convenient to rewind the video using the mouse wheel.
- It is possible to slow down the video a little or speed it up.
- You can apply 7 filters to the video being played: deinterlacing, post-processing, noise removal, karaoke filter, banding, blurring and sharpness (their number may grow from version to version of this player).
- The SMP layer allows you to select a demultiplexer for audio and video codecs.
- A very large number of settings.
- Almost all languages are supported.
Weaknesses of the SMP layer:
No weaknesses have been identified.
Interface language: Russian
License type: GNU GPL
Installation
- For OS Windows you can download the SMP layer version from the official project repository:
- For OS Ubuntu a specially created PPA-repository, which will allow later to automatically update the application to the new version. You can connect this repository by running 2 commands in sequence:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa: rvm / smplayer && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install smplayer smtube smplayer-themes
After successful installation, the SMP layer can be loaded by going to the Gnome menu Applications → Audio & Video → SMP layer.
Smooth HD video playback in SMP layer
There are specialized drivers for owners of nvidia or ATI video cards, but for integrated Intel video cards, things are not so rosy. Of course, there are also special drivers (vaapi), but they do not always help out Linux users. For example, on Intel Atom, no driver helps. Only manual adjustment of the SMP layer allowed Intel Atom to achieve smooth HD video playback.
Was done:
- Disable frame dropping Settings -> Performance -> Allow Frame Dropping.
- disable direct rendering Settings -> General -> Video -> Direct Rendering
- Specify the number of decoding streams, which should be equal to the number of cores Settings -> Performance -> Decode Streams
- Increasing the cache local files and streams. It is selected experimentally. For example, for Intel Atom N280 their value is 400 MB, that is 400000 KB. Settings -> Performance -> Cache
P.S. Sometimes you want variety in your life. And you strive to achieve this diversity in everything: change the ringtone on the phone, change the Windows themes, change the password for mail, and so on. And this aspiration is absolutely normal for every person. By the way, almost everyone can change the Windows desktop theme, it is a fairly simple and quick procedure.
Similar 7 programs:
Comments (1)
- OllyCat
October 31, 01:39 -
ITShaman
October 31, 05:08OllyCat:"There are no native HD video codecs for operating systems based on the Linux kernel." - and the guys from ffmpeg don't even know about it. :) I didn't know either, and that's why I used native codecs to this day. Now I will know and start to suffer! ;)
Hi, I don't know much about video player or codecs, etc., and I am trying to squeeze the best quality picture out of Mplayer (I am using SMplayer interface).
My questions are: should I enable postprocessing (I don't know what it is, but it looks like it could improve the quality) and direct rendering? (also looks like it might improve the quality) can anyone explain what they are doing ?.
As for the output driver, I am using vdpau, is this the best for cards?
Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Thanks to.
Using vdpau with Nvidia cards should vdpau give you excellent performance with smplayer and will ensure that you use very little CPU when playing DVDs and x264 encoded videos. As discussed in detail in the Ubuntu forums, very important note that
Wdpaw is two things. One is a display device such as xv. The other is a codec that the PureVideo chip can use to decode certain files.
such as mpeg1 / 2 and x264. If your card supports it (see here for a list of gpus supported), this is a better option than the old xv, and especially xll, which will use significantly more CPU.
There are some options in smplayer that can be accessed using the configure button next to the vdpau option (see screenshot), but you usually don't have to mess around with them unless you have video performance issues.
NOTE. Especially important note that when vdpau vdpau codecs such as ffh264vdpau, no one from the following smplayer gui options like post-processing, deinterlace, etc. will have no effect. In the screenshot, you can also see that "disable software filters" is checked when clicking the vdpau properties.
However, as noted in the Mplayer manual, special options such as deint can be passed on the command line when using vdpau, although this is usually not required; these special options are not supported in the smplayer gui.
Vdpau (with -vc ffmpeg12vdpau, ffwmv3vdpau, ffvc1vdpau, ffh264vdpau or ffodivxvdpau) Video output that uses VDPAU to decode video via hardware. Also supports displaying of software-decoded video. sharpen =<-1-1>For positive values, apply a sharpening algorithm to the video, for negative values a blurring algorithm (de- fault: 0). denoise =<0-1>Apply a noise reduction algorithm to the video (default: 0, no noise reduction). deint =<0-4>Select the deinterlacer (default: 0). All modes> 0 re- spect -field-dominance.
As shown in this forum,
Deint is a option for the video out (vdpau) not for the codec
and so to specify one of these special options (where vo is the video output and vc is the video codec), you can use the following command (taken from the forum above):
Mplayer -vo vdpau: deint = 1 -vc ffh264vdpau 00007.MTS
So when using vdpau you really not you have to worry about these special parameters or any other settings in the smplayer gui, such as post-processing or direct rendering, which you normally cannot apply when using vdpau.
To contribute to Mick's answer, you can use vdpau in smplayer and enable deinterlacing by adding command line arguments to the SMPlayer settings menu.
Settings> Advanced> Options for MPlayer
In the Parameters field, add the required command line arguments. for example
