“A must have free video player”

It's considered to be a must have free video player. It can play any type of video including 192 video codec and 85 audio coded - like VLC player, but with a nicer interface. It is also supposed to optimize CPU usage and use as few resources as possible. The package contains optimized builds for Pentiums, Athalons and Dual Core processors. You just select the one suitable for you during the installation process.

The package installs both MPlayer and the front-end SMPlayer, which is the same program but with a nicer looking interface. A number of useful features are included: the subtitles option for example, allows you to load subtitle files and link them to a video. You also have many options to deinterlace, denoise and apply filters to improve the video rendering.

I've noticed minor usability issues: when you stop the video for example, the pointer in the status bar should restart from the beginning, whereas with this player it just stays at the point of the film you stopped it, making no difference with the pause function. Also the program doesn't remember the volume of the sound when you close and re-open the application.

MPlayer supports 192 video codec and also video streaming, QuickTime and RealAudio files making it the perfect choice if you don't want to mess around with a different player for each video format.

Languages:

English

Minimum requirements for MPlayer:

OS: Win98/Me/2000/NT/XP/Vista

Pros

Impressive video compatibility
Optimizes CPU usage

Cons

The volume isn't stored
Stop button doesn't differ from the Pause one

Did you like this review?

4 of 4 users liked it (100%)

From the publisher of MPlayer

MPlayer is arguably the best media player application of the world. Is is almost strictly monolithic, which means that it mainly consists of a single 7 MB executable that already contains all necessary codecs – for most files, it does not need any external codecs to be installed. If you want to know more about this wonderful program, please visit the MPlayer homepage.

The roots of MPlayer are in the Unix environment, and it shows in the way MPlayer is used: There is no graphical user interface, or at least none worth mentioning. Instead, MPlayer completely relies on a well-crafted command line interface and powerful keyboard shortcuts. While this is perfectly OK for Unix enthusiasts, Mac and Windows users prefer nice and more or less colorful graphical interfaces. There is already a »semi-official« OS X port, but up to now, no such project exists for the Windows platform.

This is where MPUI comes into play. It is a small program for Windows that takes the command-line hassle off you. Instead, you will get a no-frills, straight-to-the-point GUI that resembles the venerable Windows Media Player 6. It does not support every feature of MPlayer – there are just too many of them – but it is a solid »workhorse« media player tool suitable for most, if not all, everyday needs.
Features

Features:

A media player with a clean and simple interface
Plays hundreds of different video and audio formats, including MPEG-1, -2 and -4 (DivX), H.264, MP3, Ogg Vorbis and AAC. For most media files, no additional codecs are needed (This is because MPlayer is not one of the uncounted DirectShow players – the codecs are directly integrated into MPlayer.exe.)
MPUI and MPlayer together are just about 3.5 MB in size
The most important MPlayer options (aspect ratio, deinterlacing, and postprocessing) can be configured without typing in cryptic command-line options (But if you want or need some non-standard options, you can still add them by hand.)
Support for multiple audio and subtitle tracks on DVDs
Combines MPlayer's cool keyboard navigation with a mouse-controlled seekbar
Plays files, network streams and discs (such as (S)VCD or DVD)
Drag&Drop supported
Multilingual user interface
No installation is required to use MPUI/MPlayer. Simply copy the two .exe files into a directory of your choice an run MPUI
Using a special autorun.inf file, self-playing DivX CDs can be made. This adds only 3.5 MB to your CD, and on the computer playing the disc, no codecs need to be installed
Both programs are free, licensed under the GNU General Public License