MPlayer

MPlayer is an open source CLI application that provides users with a very powerful multimedia player for Linux. It can play any known audio or video format, including MPEG, VOB, AVI, Ogg/OGM, VIVO, ASF/WMA/WMV, QT/MOV/MP4, FLI, RM, NuppelVideo, YUV4MPEG, FILM, RoQ, and PVA files.

It can also be used to watch movies stored on DVD-Video, VideoCD, SVCD, 3ivx, and DivX 3/4/5 optical discs. Unfortunately, it’s only a command-line program, which makes it less popular among inexperienced and beginner Linux users.

Getting started with MPlayer

Softoware distributes the main source archive for MPlayer application, which needs to be extracted, configured, compiled and installed on your Linux operating system. However, we recommend to install it via the default channels of your distributions.

When running the command from a terminal emulator, users will need to type something like mplayer [options] [url|path/]filename, where [options] is completely optional. A basic example will be mplayer /home/softoware/Videos/MyMovie.mp4.

Command-line options

Basic options include the ability to select a video or audio output driver (-vo < drv >/-ao < drv >), play (S)VCD (Super Video CD) tracks (vcd://< trackno >), playback DVD titles (dvd://< titleno >), select audio or subtitle language of a DVD (-alang/-slang), or seek video files to a given position (-ss < position >).

In addition, you can choose to disable sound with the -nosound option, watch a movie in fullscreen using the -fs option, set the display resolution (-x < x > -y < y >), specify subtitle and playlist files (-sub < file >/-playlist < file >), select audio and video stream to play (-vid video_name -aid audio_name), change video and audio rate (-fps video_fps -srate audio_fps), enable post-processing filters (-pp < quality >), and frame dropping (-framedrop).

Several graphical user interfaces exist

A complete list with all the advanced options and keyboard shortcuts can be found in the man page. There are many well known open source graphical applications that are based on MPlayer, including SMPlayer, GNOME MPlayer, KMPlayer, Rosa Media Player, and Deepin Media Player.

What is new in this release:

• MPlayer 1.3.0 is compatible with the FFmpeg 3.0.x releases and (at the time of writing) with FFmpeg git. The tarball already includes a copy of FFmpeg 3.0, so you don't need to fetch it separately.
• This release brings you some new codecs and formats, a lot of fixes, and many cleanups. It also includes all the enhancements and speed-ups from FFmpeg; check their changelog if you are curious about the details.
• In addition to these, there were a lot of updates to accommodate the API changes made in FFmpeg. Some were simple renames, but others were quite invasive. None of them should have a user-visible effect, except maybe for some corner-cases in the channel order for multichannel files.

What is new in version 1.2:

• Mplayer 1.2 is compatible with the recent FFmpeg 2.8 release. The tarball already includes a copy of FFmpeg, so you don't need to fetch it separately.
• Due to some big API changes coming to FFmpeg, this release will not work with new FFmpeg master branch, nor with future FFmpeg releases.
• If you want to follow the latest improvements in MPlayer and FFmpeg, you are strongly encouraged to use Subversion HEAD and benefit from the latest features and bug fixes.
• You know how to do it. Because you aren't using a 3 years old release, hopefully. If you are, read on and find out what you missed!
• VDPAU hardware accelerated decoding now works for HEVC (if your card and driver supports it). Hardware accelerated decoding is now supported also on Os X via VDA. VAAPI is still unsupported, but you can use it via VDPAU wrapper at least for H.264.
• A lot of new codecs, thanks to FFmpeg. The list includes HEVC, VP9 and Prores; Opus, improved AAC and DTS decoders; WebP and JPEG2000; and many, many others.
• Also rtsp streaming now uses FFmpeg by default, so you don't need any additional library to use it.
• For the full list of improvements and bugfixes check the FFmpeg Changelog (note: not all features are available through MPlayer at the moment, especially filters).
• Many GUI improvements, both in functionality (eg. TV and DVB support) and appearance. If you use the GUI, be sure to grab also the latest version of your favorite skin, or try a new one. You can get them here.
• The GUI now officially needs version 2 of GTK+ and GLib (compilation with older version was already broken for quite some time).
• Starting from this release, MPlayer no longer ships with an internal copy of libdvdnav and libdvdcss. You can use the libraries provided with your distribution, or compile and install them yourself. They will be autodetect at configuration time.

What is new in version 1.1.1:

• Decoders:
• support for X8 frames (fixes "J-type picture is not supported" for WMV2)
• support for DTS WAV/DTS-CD passthrough by ad_hwac3
• Apple's raw YUV2 in MOV
• LATM over LOAS AAC decoding via internal libfaad2
• video game codecs: BFI video, Playstation MDEC video, ADPCM XA audio, EA Maxis XA ADPCM audio, RL2 video, Beam Software SIFF video, V.Flash PTX video
• AVOption support for libavcodec-based decoders
• use lavc ADPCM codecs by default
• support for progressive JPEG in ffmjpeg
• ACDSystems MJPEG (ACDV) via binary DLL and lavc
• SIF1 via binary DLL
• wincam screen capture (WCMV) via binary DLL
• Creative Labs Video Blaster Webcam mjpeg (CJPG) via binary DLL and ijpg library
• kensington webcam (AJPG, ABYR) via binary DLL
• centre for wavelets (wavc) via binary DLL
• GeoVision Advanced MPEG-4 (GMP4, GM40) via binary DLL
• Xiricam JPEG from Veo PC Camera (XJPG) via binary DLL
• WorldConnect Wavelet Video (SMSV) via binary DLL
• VDOWave 3 advanced (VDO3, VDOM, VDOW) via binary DLL
• VoxWare MetaVoice (format 0x0074) via binary DLL
• Ulead DV Audio (0x215, 0x216) via binary DLL
• GoToMeeting codec (G2M2, G2M3) via binary DLL
• SP4x codec - used by Aiptek MegaCam (SP4x) via binary DLL
• Broadway MPEG Capture Codec (BW10) via binary DLL
• ZDSoft screen recorder (ZDSV) via binary DLL
• WebTrain Communication lossless screen recorder (WTVC) via binary DLL
• xfire video (XFR1) via binary DLL
• VFAPI RGB transcode (vifp) via binary DLL
• ETI CamCorder EYECON (NUB0, NUB1, NUB2) via binary DLL
• fox motion (FMVC) via binary DLL
• Trident video (TY2C, TY2N, TY0N) via binary DLL
• 10-bit video (v210) via Cinewave binary DLL
• Brooktree YUV 4:1:1 Raw (Y41P) via binary DLL
• many rare/obscure fourccs for known formats added
• lower priority for binary Linux rv3040 codecs due to bugs
• remove native NuppelVideo decoder, use lavc instead
• Demuxers:
• -lavfdopts cryptokey allows decrypting MXF and ASF files
• support for wavpack in Matroska
• AVOption support for lavf demuxing
• prefer lavf musepack demuxer over libmpdemux
• prefer lavf MOV demuxer over libmpdemux (use -demuxer mov for old behavior)
• support program switching in lavf demuxer
• support -slang in lavf demuxer
• support nosound switching in lavf demuxer
• support libass in lavf demuxer
• support VOBsub in lavf demuxer
• support MOV subtitle format
• support for attachments in lavf demuxer
• support for chapters in lavf demuxer
• support seeking in multirate RealMedia files
• FLAC speedup in lavf demuxer
• MNG demuxer
• remove native NuppelVideo demuxer, use lavf demuxer instead
• Filters:
• vf_ow new overcomplete wavelet denoiser
• change vf_screenshot dependency from libpng to lavc
• add af_scaletempo which maintains audio pitch when changing playback speed
• fix multi-channel reordering
• af_stats filter to print information about the audio stream
• Streaming:
• tv:// support for Windows
• fix teletext on some systems
• DVD streams can switch angles
• DVD still menus are now supported via dvdnav://
• allow specifying the TV standard for each channel
• switch internal dvdread to libdvdread SVN external
• FFmpeg/libavcodec:
• DNxHD encoder
• H.264 PAFF decoding
• Nellymoser ASAO decoder
• Beam Software SIFF demuxer and decoder
• libvorbis Vorbis decoding removed in favor of native decoder
• IntraX8 (J-Frame) subdecoder for WMV2 and VC-1
• Ogg (Vorbis only) muxer
• PC Paintbrush PCX decoder
• Sun Rasterfile decoder
• TechnoTrend PVA demuxer
• Linux Media Labs MPEG-4 (LMLM4) demuxer
• AVM2 (Flash 9) SWF muxer
• QT variant of IMA ADPCM encoder
• iPod/iPhone compatible MP4 muxer
• Mimic decoder
• MSN TCP Webcam stream demuxer
• RL2 demuxer / decoder
• IFF demuxer
• 8SVX audio decoder
• BFI demuxer
• MAXIS EA XA (.xa) demuxer / decoder
• BFI video decoder
• OMA demuxer
• MLP/TrueHD decoder
• Electronic Arts CMV decoder
• Motion Pixels Video decoder
• Motion Pixels MVI demuxer
• removed animated GIF decoder/demuxer
• D-Cinema audio muxer
• Electronic Arts TGV decoder
• Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) encoder
• AAC decoder
• floating point PCM encoder/decoder
• MXF muxer
• E-AC-3 support added to AC-3 decoder
• Nellymoser ASAO encoder
• ASS and SSA demuxer and muxer
• liba52 wrapper removed
• SVQ3 watermark decoding support
• Speex decoding via libspeex
• Electronic Arts TGQ decoder
• RV30 and RV40 decoder
• QCELP / PureVoice decoder
• hybrid WavPack support
• R3D REDCODE demuxer
• Electronic Arts TQI decoder
• OpenJPEG based JPEG 2000 decoder
• NC (NC4600) cameras file demuxer
• MXF D-10 muxer
• Generic metadata API
• H.264 speedup and PAFF decoding (install Yasm for faster H.264 decoding)
• correctly decode more of the H.264 conformance testsuite
• VC-1/WMV3 decoder speedup
• VP3 decoder speedup
• VP6 decoder speedup
• Split-Radix FFT (speedup multiple audio codecs)
• MMX/SSE/ARM and other misc speedups
• libmpeg2:
• enable Alpha/ARM optimizations in libmpeg2
• SSE2-optimized IDCT routines from upstream libmpeg2
• libmpeg2 updated to version 0.5.1
• Drivers:
• replace PolypAudio by PulseAudio (-ao pulse)
• add force-pbo suboption for faster output in vo_gl
• add Nintendo Wii/GameCube video driver (-vo wii)
• VIDIX driver for SuperH Mobile VEU hardware block
• support -border on vo_gl/gl2 in x11
• Direct3D Windows video output driver added
• factorize code in vo_wii
• removed unnecessary code from vo x11, xv, xvmc
• add OS/2 DART audio driver (-ao dart)
• add VDPAU video output
• add OS/2 KVA video driver (-vo kva)
• MEncoder:
• check for system-wide configuration file in MEncoder
• AVOption support for lavc encoders
• AVOption support for lavf muxers
• Others:
• many compiler warning fixes
• basic support for Closed Captioning roll-up mode
• reworked screensaver disabling support, most users will need to use -heartbeat-cmd due to screensaver authors failing to design a common API
• grayscale decoding/encoding with FFmpeg disabled where it slowed down the color case
• Linux AppleIR remote support
• add options to disable some or all configuration files
• support for DOS-style file:///x:/path paths
• some new slave commands (check DOCS/tech/slave.txt)
• libdvdcss updated to 1.2.10, now same as upstream version
• fix -endchapter support again for -dump* options
• add startup audio volume option
• add option to disable default key binds
• change default OSD and subtitle font size to a smaller default
• libass:
• various fixes and updates to match VSFilter renderer
• support blur tag and ScaledBordersAndShadow property
• fractional arguments and subpixel accuracy
• keep positions when pan-and-scan is used
• Ports:
• small crash with vo_macosx fixed
• AC3/DTS passthrough for ao_macosx
• fix frozen OSD on OS X
• vo_gl now works with -wid and nVidia drivers on Windows (this is a hack)
• VIDIX on SuperH
• workarounds for AltiVec on Apple gcc 3.3 on OS X dropped
• vo_macosx can now be compiled in 64-bits mode
• allow multiple MPlayer instances with vo_macosx using buffer_name
• OpenGL support for unmodified MinGW64
• SWScaler:
• new LGPLed YUV to RGB tables generator