What is SMPlayer. Uses, Features, Opinions, Prices

SMPlayer is a free and open-source graphical interface for MPlayer , the popular multimedia player that is capable of playing all kinds of audio and video formats.

SMPlayer comes with built-in codecs, so we don't need to install any external codecs or plugins to play any type of audio or video files.

Simply install SMPlayer , sit back, and start watching your media files. SMPlayer supports almost all popular media formats and codecs, including AVI, MP4, MKV, MPEG, MOV, DivX, H.264, and more.

It is a cross-platform player, so it is compatible with GNU/ Linux and Microsoft Windows operating systems.

What is SMPlayer

SMPlayer is a lightweight multimedia player and does not need additional codecs to play any video or audio file on Windows or Linux.

It provides many useful functions similar to the VLC media player. SMPlayer offers a multipurpose user interface for playing all known audio and video files. It also plays and downloads YouTube videos.

It is released under the GPL license. It comes with its own built-in codecs, allowing you to play almost all types of video and audio. SMPlayer is based on the popular MPlayer playback engine and includes additional features such as downloading subtitles and playing your favorite YouTube videos.

It also searches for and downloads subtitles from opensubtitles.org . It comes with skins and icon themes to change the look of the media player and is available in a wide variety of languages, including Spanish.

SMPlayer is considered popular among media players due to its well-known graphical interface. What the graphical front-end does is provide SMPlayer with special GUI widgets.

GUI stands for Graphical User Interface, which is offered by Qt company. SMPlayer is open source and free for multiple platforms. It supports playing video content at different speeds and users can set single step forward and backward.

With the ability to remember settings, it can automatically continue playing all files from any time you pause.

If you need additional subtitles, SMPlayer lets you search online via your network connection. After downloading those subtitles, you can adjust them by changing their font, size, and color.

Although SMPlayer is acclaimed for supporting all media formats including audio and video, such as AVI, MP4, MKV, MPEG, MOV, DivX, h.264, some users find that it is not available for many formats like HEVC, 3GP, WTV, etc.

Moreover, the fact that SMPlayer cannot support Blu-ray playback also makes it lose potential users.

What can SMPlayer be used for?

Let's look at some features you can take advantage of in SMPlayer.

1. Play media files

After installing SMPlayer, you can launch it simply by double-clicking. The default SMPlayer interface will look like this. To play any media file, click " Open ," then " File " in the menu bar, and select the audio or video file you want to play.

You will be able to play audio or video from a large number of different formats. This is one of its best features, and why it is so popular.

2. Download subtitles

As I mentioned before, we can download subtitles for any movie directly from SMPlayer. First, play the movie and go to " Subtitles ," then to " Search for subtitles " on opensubtitles.org from the menu bar.

SMPlayer will search for and display the appropriate subtitles. Simply select the subtitle and click the " Download" button . The selected subtitles will be downloaded and displayed automatically during movie playback. This is definitely a great feature, especially coming from free software.

3. Download YouTube videos

There are many applications available to download videos from YouTube and other similar sites, but SMPlayer is much better because it will download the video for you, using YouTube's built-in browser function.

You just need to go to the “YouTube Browser” from the SMPlayer menu bar. From the YouTube browser, you can watch the videos without having to go to the official YouTube website. Simply enter the video name in the search bar and start playing the videos right away. The selected video will start playing in SMPlayer itself.

You don't need to access the YouTube website. This is another very popular feature, especially due to the large amount of traffic generated by this video platform.

4. Performance optimization

If you experience technical issues while playing high definition (HD) movies, you can improve performance as described below.

Go to the " Preferences " window from the Options menu. In the Preferences window, select the " Performance " tab in the left sidebar. Then, increase the " Threads to Decode " value according to the number of cores in your processor.

For example, if you have 2 cores, select 2 threads. If you have 4 cores, you can select up to 4 threads, and so on.

You can also use How to Enable Real Player in Google Chrome

How to use SMPlayer

SMPlayer is a media player that plays or streams almost any audio and video file.

It is a front-end for MPlayer media player, which besides standard functions displays advanced features such as filter settings in the menu, starts playing a file after interruption at the last viewed position and with the same settings, such as subtitles or language.

The open-source tool SMPlayer plays all DVDs, video streams, and movies without constantly requesting the correct audio or video codec. To achieve this, the free player uses the MPlayer engine. Various deinterlacing and noise reduction filters ensure optimal output quality.

Conveniently, the tool also remembers your last settings. If you have to interrupt playback, the movie will continue in the next program, starting from where you left off, with all your settings (image format, subtitles, audio output, etc.).

SMPlayer Features

Any modern media player should be able to play a wide variety of formats, but a successful application needs some additional features and advanced options that enhance the viewing experience.

One of its notable features is that it remembers your media settings. This means that you close the video at any time and can watch the same video at the point where you left off earlier with the same settings such as audio track, subtitles, and volume.

Another interesting feature is that we can download subtitles for any movie using SMPlayer. Download subtitle files from opensubtitles.org . Additionally, we can play YouTube videos without having to download and save them to our local drive.

SMPlayer also streams YouTube videos effectively without internet browser support. The latest version of SMPlayer has added YouTube browser.

This built-in browser displays 3 tabs for YouTube which are Top Rated, Most Popular and Top Rated Music. With this browser, double click on your preferred YouTube videos on any tab for streaming.

So you don't need to browse the YouTube website on the computer browser. Moreover, a built-in search bar has been added in SMPlayer. This search bar helps you to search YouTube videos quickly.

Users can also customize their experience due to other interesting features. The filters provided by SMPlayer relate to image and sound processing, and even include a karaoke filter that removes vocals.

Browsing your media has never been easier. You can use the mouse wheel to fast forward or rewind and enjoy playback at multiple speeds (2X, 4X, etc. and slow motion).

SMPlayer helps you make the most of your movies, so your evening won't be ruined by late or early subtitles or the sound that doesn't match the picture. You can easily sync subtitles and audio with your video.

SMPlayer not only provides the tools you need to play media, but it has also been revised many times to give you flawless playback.

Advantages

• It is not restricted by codecs.
• Resume playing the audio or video from the stopped point.
• Lots of subtitle control.
• Is free.
• Supports a wide range of audio/video formats.
• Comfortable and feature-rich.

 Disadvantages

• Does not play some codec-protected media correctly.
• Does not play Blu-Ray.

Plans and prices

SMPlayer is available on its official website and does not offer any paid plans. It is completely free and safe.

How and where to download SMPlayer

As mentioned above, SMPlayer is available on its official website: SMPlayer . Follow these steps to download and install SMPlayer on different platforms.

To install on Windows

• visit the site SMPlayer.
• You will find on the main page, a big blue button that says “Download SMPlayer for free”. Click it.
• A new page opens. downloads, where you can see all available versions of SMPlayer and their updates. Click on the version that matches your system, in our case, Windows 10 32-bit.
• The installer file will begin downloading to your “ folder.Downloads” from your PC.
• Once the download is complete, double-click the installation file to run it.
• The License Agreement window will appear. Accept the terms and click “Next".
• In the next window, you will be able to select where the software will be installed, you can leave the default option and click on “Next".
• The installation window appears, click on “Install".
• Start the installation process, wait for it to run completely.
• After finishing the installation, a window appears, click on “End".
• Done, you have already installed SMPlayer on your Windows PC.

To install on Linux

On Arch Linux:

SMPlayer is available in the official Arch Linux repositories . To install it on Arch Linux and its derivatives such as Anterogs and Manajro, run the following command:

sudo pacman -S smplayer

On Debian 8 'Jessie':

Download and add the SMPlayer signing key using commands as root user :

wget http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:smplayerdev/Debian_8.0/Release.key

apt-key add -

apt-get update

Then, add the SMPlayer repository and install it as shown below.

echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/smplayerdev/Debian_8.0/ /' >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/smplayer.list

apt-get update

apt-get install smplayer

In Ubuntu:

SMPlayer developers have developed an official PPA. Add SMPlayer using the command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rvm /smplayer

Update the list of sources:

sudo apt-get update

Then install it using the following command:

sudo apt-get install smplayer smplayer-themes smplayer-skins

In Fedora 23:

Add SMPlayer repository:

sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/smplayerdev/Fedora_23/home:smplayerdev.repo

Install SMPlayer as shown below:

sudo dnf install smplayer

In Fedora 22:

Add the SMPlayer repository and install it using the following commands.

sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/smplayerdev/Fedora_22/home:smplayerdev.repo

sudo dnf install smplayer

On openSUSE:

SMPlayer is available in the default openSUSE repositories. To install it on openSUSE distributions, run the following commands as root depending on the version you are using.

openSUSE Tumbleweed:

zypper addrepo http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:smplayerdev/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/home:smplayerdev.repo

zypper refresh

zypper install smplayer

openSUSE Leap 42.1:

zypper addrepo http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:smplayerdev/openSUSE_Leap_42.1/home:smplayerdev.repo

zypper refresh

zypper install smplayer

openSUSE 13.2:

zypper addrepo http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:smplayerdev/openSUSE_13.2/home:smplayerdev.repo

zypper refresh

zypper install smplayer

Opinions from users who have used SMPlayer

Let's look at some opinions and comments made by users who have already downloaded and tested SMPlayer.

• alexrossberg

“I am using this player to slow down certain pieces of music and see exactly what the fingers are doing on an instrument when I can’t figure it out on my own. This is great for this purpose. Thank you so much.”

• sr-grass:

“Thank you very much for the program distributed under a free open license!”

• agecanonix:

“SMplayer is very popular on the Puppy Linux Forum. Very good media player. It works with the Qt libraries. In the small Puppy Linux Tharpup and Xenial, they are included. French speakers, take the Triton, everything is in French on the screen.”

• hanzschroeder12:

“This is a very useful video player because it can resume playback from the saved point and because it can play YouTube videos. I use it together with a video converter, Mp4 Video 1 Click for Windows (also found on sourceforge).”

SMPlayer Alternatives. Top 5 of this year

Let's look at some of the best SMPlayer alternatives for Windows.

1. Leawo Blu-ray Player

Leawo Blu-ray Player can play DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and ISO files perfectly without any additional fees. Leawo Blu-ray Player supports all popular video and audio formats, including HEVC, 3GP, and WTV files.

If you are interested in exploring more rare media video formats from around the world, you can travel with this tool with great performance.

No matter where the media source comes from, the format library contains over 180 formats for both input and output. Moreover, with this free Blu-ray player, you can directly open all DVD discs regardless of the region code.

Its features also include the ability to display the most detailed images. Simultaneously, this program has all the features of SMPlayer, such as customizable skins and themes, full control during playback, stereo sound, and multilingual interface environment.

Additional features like instant screenshots and power manager will illustrate this feature of modern technology. It has become one of the most practical applications.

2. 5KPlayer

Since there isn't a Mac version of SMPlayer , 5KPlayer can do the job for it. However, it can do much more than SMPlayer.

You can use this app to download YouTube videos. Subtitles can be added online at any time. Its standout feature, surpassing SMPlayer, is AirPlay streaming.

Other functions such as video playback and audio image processing are provided. 5KPlayer, the best free media player for MacOS Sierra, offers a wealth of utilities that can replace SMplayer on Mac.

Full support for free YouTube video download, robust support for adding subtitles, free AirPlay audio and video streaming, and many more advanced features related to filters, tuners, playback speed change, audio and subtitle delay adjustment, and video equalizer, etc.

These features perfectly boost the loss of SMplayer for Mac and elevate it to a better effect in terms of video and audio image processing.

3.PotPlayer

On Windows systems, PotPlayer has almost the same functions as SMPlayer. Besides this similarity, such as marking playback points and analyzing YouTube playlists, this SMPlayer alternative is better due to other associated features.

This player remembers the settings of a specific video/audio file and where you stopped looking if that is the utility you want to extract from SMplayer and bring it along with your system experience.

This PotPlayer is also good at parsing YouTube playlists, streaming video capture with strong GPU acceleration.

It is available for Windows 8.1, 8, 7 Vista and XP, for 32 and 64 bits.

4. UMPlayer

UMPlayer 's greatest strength lies not only in its format library, which includes output drivers such as X11, Xv, DGA, OpenGL, SVGAlib, AAlib, DirectFB, and more. It also functions as a movie player with support for less common codecs like XAnim and Win32 DLL.

This allows you to enjoy DVD video content in full screen. The company designed a useful widget to inform users about its status information as it is called on-screen display (OSD).

Young people can also enjoy some particular Korean subtitles as Korean drama series are popular among young people and this player can be the best choice.

5.VLC

It goes without saying that VLC Media Player will always be among the best media players. Besides being a free, open-source, cross-platform alternative to SMPlayer, it provides the most reliable decoding technology.

DVD playback can be easily done even with ISO files with this powerful tool.

For beginners or those looking to delve deeper into certain needs, such as YouTube playback and downloading or 8/10-bit HEVC decoding, this player with significant media features would not be as good as dedicated media player Mac apps.

FAQ

Let's look at some frequently asked questions related to SMPlayer.

Is SMPlayer free?

Yes, completely. You can get it on the official SMPlayer website.

Is SMPlayer a virus?

SMPlayer is by no means a virus. If you downloaded from its official website, you will not have any security issues.

On which platforms can I download SMPlayer?

SMPlayer is available for Windows and Linux.

How to uninstall SMPlayer from Windows 10?

1. Open Windows 10 Settings.
2. Now, navigate to the applications section.
3. The list of applications will appear, search SMPlayer.
4. Click on it.
5. Then click on "uninstall".
6. After that, confirm.

Conclusion

You might also be interested in 10 Programs to Rip DVDs: Free and Paid Tools

SMPlayer is a favorite player for many people. It plays almost all audio and video formats. I've been using it for months and haven't had any problems so far.

Plus, it runs much faster than VLC and other players.