SMPlayer intends to be a complete front-end for MPlayer, from basic features like playing videos, DVDs, and VCDs to more advanced features like support for MPlayer filters and more. One of the most interesting features of SMPlayer: it remembers the settings of all files you play. So you start to watch a movie but you have to leave... don't worry, when you open that movie again it will resume at the same point you left it, and with the same settings: audio track, subtitles, volume...
* Due to changes in opensubtitles.org, smplayer couldn't find subtitles anymore. This has been fixed.
* The interface with support for skins is now the default.
* An option to enter url(s) in the playlist has been added.
* The options to change the size of the main window work now even if the autoresize is set to never.
* Two new options for Audio -> Stereo mode: Mono and Reverse.
* The option "Move the window when the video area is dragged" is now disabled by default because it has some issues that need to be addressed.
* (Linux) The problem with mplayer2 and the -fontconfig option has been fixed (sort of).
* New translation: Malay.
* Some configuration options are changed to new defaults after installation to ease upgrade from old versions.
* New option to select the fps for external subtitles.
* The video equalizer dialog has been rewritten.
* Now smplayer checks for updates automatically and notifies the user if a new version is found.
* Support for encoding ISO-8859-16 for subtitles.
* New translations: Thai and Hebrew.
* Some bugfixes.
* Fix for youtube playback.
* A skinnable interface has been added. Several skins are included.
* Support for 6.1 and 7.1 audio output.
* A "Privacy" section in the preferences dialog has been added. You can disable saving the recent files or URLs.
* The main window can be moved by dragging the video area.
* Fix for a freeze that may happen on Windows XP.
* (Windows) The font cache is created before showing the GUI.
* Fix youtube.
* Other minor changes.
* A toolbar editor has been added. Now it's possible to select the buttons and controls that want to appear in the toolbars.
* New video filters: gradfun, blur and sharpen.
* Now it's possible to change the GUI (default, mini, mpc) at runtime, no restart required.
* sub files from opensubtitles should work again.
* (Youtube) Recognize short urls (like this one: http://y2u.be/F5OcZBVPwOA)
* Better support for chapters in video files.
* Bug fix: remote m3u files work from the favorites menu or command line.
* Internal changes in the single instance option (switch to QtSingleApplication).
This version include some bug fixes, some of them important. It's highly
recommended to update.
* SMPlayer took more than 10 seconds to show when running for the very first time.
* The links to download subtitles from Opensubtitles were wrong.
* SMPlayer crashed in the favorite editor when trying to select a file if the KDE open dialog was used.
* Some translations were missing in the Windows package.
* By default the screenshots are saved in the user's pictures folder instead of the SMPlayer's config folder.
* Now it's possible to change the opensubtitles server.
* Youtube: seeking is slow with flv videos, so now flv videos have the lowest priority.
* Youtube: now it's possible to search and download videos from youtube. This is provided by an external application (in linux you have to install an independent package: smtube).
Most important changes since 0.6.10:
* New favorite menu, where you can add your favorite videos, music, streams, youtube videos... It's also possible to add submenus.
* Support for youtube. Now you can open urls like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=..... using the Open -> URL dialog or dragging a link from a browser to the smplayer window.
* Support for mplayer2 (http://www.mplayer2.org). It's a fork of mplayer with interesting features like precise seeking, ordered chapters in mkv videos and better pause handling (e.g. seek works while the video is paused).
* New translation: croatian.
0.6.11 pre 3
(2012-01-13 - 2012-01-21)
* New favorite menu, where you can add your favorite videos, music, streams, youtube videos... It's also possible to add submenus.
* Use QtLockedFile instead of QxtFileLock, so we can get rid of the libqxt dependency on windows. The QtLockedFile is under the BSD license.
* The title of youtube videos is displayed correctly. And the stream url is replaced by the url of the youtube page.
* Added the Croatian translation, by jk.
* Detect asx, m3u, pls, and ram streams and pass -playlist to mplayer, so the user doesn't have to indicate if a url is a playlist.
* Added an option in preferences -> performance to select the desired quality for youtube videos.
* Added a very basic support for youtube. Now you can open urls like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq4Oj5quskI in smplayer (Open -> URL)
* New option "Hide video window when playing audio files" in preferences -> interface.
Most important changes since 0.6.9:
* New vdpau configuration dialog, which allow to select the vdpau codecs to use.
* Port for OS/2 (by Silvan Scherrer).
* New menu to select the closed caption channel (requires mplayer >= r32607).
* Possibility to select the seeking method (absolute or relative).
* Possibility to sort the items of the playlist.
Version 0.6.9.3603 experimental
This installer has multiple MPlayer builds available, as opposed to just one:
Generic (Utilizes runtime CPU detection)
FFmpeg-mt, multithreaded builds for both AMD and Intel processors to take advantage of more than one core.
This installer is also experimental, may be buggy. Please provide feedback to the following thread: http://smplayer.berlios.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=149 to iron out any bugs or imporve the installer.
Most important changes since 0.6.8:
* A serious bug has been fixed: sometimes smplayer failed to find subtitles in opensubtitles.org.
* Implemented the possibility to mark an A-B section, to play a part of the file only.
* (Linux) smplayer doesn't use alsa as default audio driver anymore. It should fix freezing problems on Ubuntu.
* Possibility to display the video resolution and frames per second in the status bar.
* Audio: selection of left or right channel does work now.
* (Linux) Improved support for vdpau.
Still has MPlayer r30369.
I've just created a package for windows with the latest version of smplayer (svn r3403) and mplayer-mt r29319 (from http://oss.netfarm.it/mplayer-win32.php). This is the multithreaded version of mplayer, which could improve performance of HD videos on multi-core processors. (Select at least 2 threads for decoding in preferences -> performance). smplayer 0.6.9 will be released soon.
Most important changes since 0.6.7:
* Added support for TV (more info in Watching_TV.txt).
* New option to enable a global volume.
* (Linux) Support for vdpau.
* New option to take consecutive screenshots.
* Possibility to add some of the submenus to the toolbars.
* Better support for *.ts files (requires mplayer >= r29381).
* Added the Vietnamese translation.
* Added the Estonian translation.
* (Windows) New options to try to disable the screensaver.
Most important changes since 0.6.6:
* Added experimental (and uncomplete) support for dvd menus. Requires a mplayer build compiled with dvdnav support. Please read dvdmenus.txt to know how to enable it.
* Now loading an external subtitle file doesn't require to restart the mplayer process (except for idx/sub subtitles).
* (Playlist) When a file is added to the playlist, if it was already in the list, it's moved to the end of the list.
* Options for mplayer: finally spaces in arguments between quotes are handled properly.
* Added two options (in the audio and subtitle menus) to allow the user to enter the audio and subtitle delay (in milliseconds).
* (ASS subtitles) The outline and shadow options now accept values with decimals.
* (ASS subtitles) Possibility to change the color of the border and shadow.
* Now the default value for the "correct pts" option is auto.
* (Windows) Now the screensaver is allowed to turn on if the file is paused or it's an audio file.
* (Windows) The direct3d video output is now the default for Windows Vista.
Release Name: 0.6.6
Most important changes since 0.6.5:
* Added an option to generate a preview (thumbnails) of the video.
* Added a new gui (mpcgui, a media player classic clone) developed by Matthias Petri.
* Added some auto zoom options, to display the video without black borders.
* Implemented a new (and optional) method to save the file settings. This method uses an ini file per each played file. It's faster than the old one.
* Added a new option in Preferences->Video: add black borders on fullscreen. If this option is enabled, black borders will be added to the image in fullscreen mode. This allows subtitles to be displayed on the black borders.
* Increased the resolution of the seekbar. Allows a more accurate seeking.
* Added 3 modes for the stay on top option: always, never and while playing.
* Added a history to the open URL dialog.
* Added new action to cycle through all aspect ratios. Assigned by default to key "A".
* It's possible to run some specified actions every time a file is loaded.
* Possibility to set up a proxy for internet connections (used for subtitle downloading).
Most important changes since 0.6.4:
* The subtitles when using the SSA/ASS library can now be further customized. It's possible to select the font, size, colors, bold, italic, outline, shadow...
* (Linux) Now smplayer tries to follow the XDG Base Directory Specification for the config files. That means the now the configuration files will be saved under the directory $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/smplayer (or $HOME/.config/smplayer if $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not defined). If you want to keep your preferences, copy or move the files from $HOME/.smplayer to the new location.
* Added some options in Preferences->Interface to configure the floating control.
* The commandline option -ini-path has been removed and replaced with -config-path, which specifies the directory where smplayer will store its data (not only smplayer.ini).
Most important changes since 0.6.3:
* Now the dialog to find subtitles can also download the subtitle file and
load it in smplayer automatically.
* (Linux) The black screen problem when using Compiz should really be fixed now.
* Added support for encoding autodetection for subtitle files. Requires a
mplayer compiled with enca support.
* (Linux) Now it's possible to choose the audio device to be used with alsa
(needs the application "aplay").
* (Windows) Now it's possible to choose the audio device to be used with
* (Windows) The menu Video->Screen displays now the actual available screens
with their names.
* Added the possibility to add consecutive files (video_01.avi, video_02.avi..)
automatically to the playlist.
* Bugfix: logout is not cancelled by smplayer.
* Now the options in preferences display a tooltip with a help message.
* Now it's possible to change the video track.
* Added the Galician translation.
Release Name: 0.6.3.1
This release includes a fix for an important bug in 0.6.3 which affected the version for Windows: the video window would be black on the first video played, or always if the user opened the preferences dialog before playing a video. In those cases "directx," was used as video driver but the -colorkey option was not passed to mplayer producing the problem. Windows Vista probably wasn't affected by this bug, as it uses a different video driver as default.
Most important changes since 0.6.2 (see the Changelog for the whole list):
* Two fixes for Windows Vista. Now IPv4 is used by default (connection to networks are faster). And now it really uses "gl:yuv=2:force-pbo:ati-hack" as the default video output driver. Note: this mode could give problems with some graphic cards (specially ATI), if you experience any, try the other gl variants, or just directx.
* (Linux) Added a fix for a black screen problem when using Compiz.
* Added an option to select the number of threads that mplayer will use for decoding (only works for MPEG-1/2 and some H.264 videos).
* Added the possibility to disable the audio equalizer. Seems to be necessary to use the S/PDIF output.
* Added some options to increase/decrease the speed by 1% and 4%. This allows to play 24 fps movies at 25 fps speed and vice versa.
* Fix: sometimes the playlist is not shown. Added a workaround for the problem.
* Added some checks to avoid crashes when selecting subtitle tracks.
* (Windows) Added a new submenu Video->Screen to select the screen which will display the video when using directx.
* The settings in smplayer.ini have been reorganized in several sections. (This also means most of your preferences will be lost and you will have to reconfigure smplayer again).
* Added an option to mirror the video. And now it's also possible to flip and rotate the subtitles along with the image.
* Added a new shortcut set (sda.keys) which can be loaded in the shortcut editor in preferences.
* Added two new translations: Arabic and Kurdish.
Most important changes since 0.6.1:
* Added an audio equalizer (please read Audio_equalizer.txt).
* Added a dialog to search and download subtitles from opensubtitles.org (See Finding_subtitles.txt).
* The toolbars can be configured. The user can remove, add or change the order of the buttons. Right now it can only be done by editing manuallythe configuration file. A graphical editor will be added in the next version. See Configuring_the_toolbars.txt.
* The single instance port can now be chosen automatically by the application.
* Possibility to compile a portable version which (by default) won't write anything outside the smplayer's folder. It won't write either anything in the Windows registry. See Portable_Edition.txt for details.
* Added the Slovenian translation.
Most important changes since 0.6.0 final:
* Now compact mode resizes the window, instead of leaving black borders.
* Added an option in Preferences->Interface which allows the user to select his/her preferred GUI. This way it's easier to use the mini GUI, for those who prefer a simpler interface with few buttons.
* One more fix for Qt 4.4. The option FAQ in the Help menu didn't work.
* (Windows) Fix: zoom didn't work well (black blocks appeared) if using directx.
* Added the Catalan translation.
The main program appears to work fine and offers a lot of functionality. I haven't really tested it enough to make an overall comparison to VLC or MPC. One problem I had, though, was when I tied to run the smtube.exe program. Norton antivirus immediately picked it up as a security danger and removed it from my computer! It's not a feature I really need, but it sort of made me wonder. Is it a false positive?
This is somewhat preliminary ... I haven't been using it that long. But so far I really like it. It handles a ton of formats, in fact it'[s as good as vlc that way, and doesn't load weird codecs that'll conflict.
There are probably some quirks, like many Linux to Windows ports, but I haven't seen many of that yet. Despite quirks I've had very good results in general with Linux ports.
One quirk is that it doesn't handle DVD menus well. But it certainly doesn't seem as buggy as vlc. And I can still use mpchc for DVDs.
I've been using vlc (mostly) and mpchc. The latter really just for DVDs because vlc doesn't play them properly. The docs for vlc are much better than mpchc, though that's damning with faint praise. But vlc is just too buggy for me. The more I use it the less I like it.
However, the one thing vlc has for me is that it's much more forgiving with pixelated videos.
Except for this. SMPlayer has an option under Filters for adding noise to the signal. That's exactly the thing I wanted ... just like dithering in digital audio, which adds noise to mask quantization distortion. Which is pretty much analagous to pixelated video. It works very well. Why can't those other players put something like this into the mass of poorly documented (if at all) video options? And make it easy to find like with this?
In other words, I really like this interface. It's very intuitive and well designed. So few of these freeware coders understand that, yes, some tasks are inherently complex, but there are almost always certain things you're going to be using 80% of the time. And a properly designed interface with at least put those things at the top of the menu or just make them more prominent.
In fact, the interface is good enough that I don't mind the relative lack of documentation.
The video rendering quality is excellent too. It seems to use many of the same filters as avidemux, which is a good thing. I watched some video that is a good quality rip as far as the use of transcoding software is concerned but the bit rate is somewhat too low so it's definitely pixelated. Even with no filtering the pixelation was only really obvious in one scene, and that scene's a torture test.
The other thing, and the main reason I wanted to try this really, is that if you close the program before you finish watching a video it remembers the time and other settings. This is a great and, really, obvious feature.
I guess I like this program. I've had vlc set as my default player for videos other than dvd source for a while. That will probably change.
Possibly the best free player (PotPlayer is great too).
However one infuriating thing is that SMPlayer insists on scanning the entire fonts folder if you've made any changes since it was last launched. It seems there is no way to switch off this behaviour and it's pretty annoying, particularly as the majority of users probably have no need of fonts in a media player.
The only player that will play 1080 (2k H264) files on me Pentium pro without stuttering or losing audio sync. Plays them better than VLC. I still like KMplayer because of the huge number of features but SMPlayer is faster and seems to play all file types.
I agree. Best media player I've ever used. Only player I found that plays my recorded DVD-RAM discs flawlessly. Also has option to rotate vid 90 degrees clockwise or counterclockwise for the occasional annoying clips that are recorded sideways.
Great player, deserves to be counted among the best, since the interface is very clear, extremely user-friendly and reacts fast.
MPlayer-GUIs I have tried always were lacking a bit in versatility or reliability. This one has it ALL. Almost any concievable variety of setup-options - you name it, it's there. The order in the setup menu also is very logically done, options are easily found and accessible. Installation runs smoothly and undaunting.
One drawback for me was the fact that with the version I tried (0.6.2) everytime I changed setup during playback, the player took a few seconds to reload the streams. You are advised of the fact on their site (obviously it's meant to be that way), but it can get a bit frustrating, if you are working on a video-file and need to test it quickly (and e.g., subs). For the time being I gave up on it, although I certainly will watch the project progressing. If it does the way it did so far, this player could get my favourite, over VLC...
Posted September 26, 2008 by nbarzgar.
Tool version 0.6.2
using OS WinXP
Ease of use 10
Value for money 10
Overall score 10
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