mplayer2

[SYSTEM]

MPlayer has currently serious problems with MP3 audio:

http://irclogger.com/.mplayer/2011-05-19#1305794110

If the mpg123 development headers aren't installed, the default MP3 decoder of MPlayer is now ffmp3float. In addition, due to a bug in MPlayer, using ffmp3float with MPlayer results is clipping audio.

Let me repeat: with the default settings, MPlayer has clipping issues with MP3 audio.

I noticed the bug yesterday after recompiling MPlayer under GNU/Linux in order to get CD Audio support. While troubleshooting the problem, I found the IRC log above.

03:08 <uau> axaith: hmm yes the mp3lib decoder was marked as buggy there, which means it's no longer the default; but unlike mplayer2 the clipping issue with ffmp3float hasn't been fixed

That message made me interested. At first, I thought mplayer2 is an official MPlayer 2.0 development branch or something like that. Later I googled mplayer2 and found...

http://www.mplayer2.org/

Mplayer2 is actually a fork of MPlayer. IMO, MPlayer is almost unrivaled media player, but after reading the official comparison page I decided to switch to mplayer2 myself.

Now, the disadvantages...

• I have no idea if the Windows build is portable.
• Like MPlayer, mplayer2 is a command-line program.

Still, I think nearly everyone would like if e.g. SMPlayer switched to using mplayer2 as the back end...

[Ruby]

I just downloaded this; singe executable in a zip file.

I renamed the file mplayer.exe > mplayer2.exe and dropped it in SMPlayer/mplayer/ folder and edited SMPlayer.ini:
mplayer_bin=./mplayer/mplayer.exe >
mplayer_bin=./mplayer/mplayer2.exe <

I opened a video (1280x720) and it was scaled down and all options in the right-click menu were grayed out.

I have the latest SMPlayer (0.6.9), however it still has mplayer from 0.6.8.

[Midas]

Hi @ll.

Since reading/posting here, I've been playing with SMPlayer2 (found @ http://smplayer2.srsfckn.biz/) which has a native x64 build packed into a rather tiny 4MB download. Although not declared portable like its SMPlayer ancestor, it behaves like a portable after extraction (beware: not thoroughly tested!), occupying around 30MB of disk space after some very mild pruning and keeping most settings in a smplayer2.ini file in the program's folder; by default, it uses the mplayer2 forked builds; it's skinnable and has had the interface translated into many languages; and it also has auto-updating capabilities via an included updater.exe, which is rather convenient.



I have a help request for my distinguished and highly learned forum colleagues: before I do any further testing, I would very much like to transfer the program's settings files to a dedicated sub-folder (let's call it 'data' for the time being) inside the portable folder. Up to now, I have failed miserably in finding any way to do just that, hence my current plea. Here's a list of the created files I found:

Code: Select all

favorites.m3u8
radio.m3u8
smplayer2.ini
smplayer2_log.txt
styles.ass
themes.stamp
tv.m3u8

Any help will be deeply appreciated...

[joby_toss]

I imagine you cannot do that without modifying the application itself...

I just wanted to say that SMPlayer also has a 64bit version that can be made portable by creating a smplayer.ini file (+changing the screenshot folder, etc.).

[Midas]

I just wanted to say that SMPlayer also has a 64bit version that can be made portable by creating a smplayer.ini file (+changing the screenshot folder, etc.).

I noticed that, but being a new user of XmplayerX, I was (easily) convinced by what I read around that the *2 forks where superior for having solved many bugs present in the upstream versions...

Well, as I'm not about to recompile SMPlayer2, I guess the only option left is for me to mail the developer...

[lautrepay]

Since reading/posting here, I've been playing with SMPlayer2

Mentioned here, not there.

Although not declared portable like its SMPlayer ancestor, it behaves like a portable after extraction (beware: not thoroughly tested!)

SMPlayer2 is portable, and stealth if you:
1) Under Options>Preferences>Subtitles>Font and Colors, untick "Use mplayer2 defaults", click on "Enable normal subtitles" and choose the subfont.ttf in the mplayer subfolder.
2) Pass the -nofontconfig parameter to mplayer2 (under Options>Preferences>Advanced>Options for mplayer>Options).
That's to prevent the creation of the usual fonts cache.
To make it more portable, if needed, modify the path to mplayer2 in the ini file and make it relative: ./mplayer2.
Since v0.71, SMPlayer recognizes mplayer2, so there's no need to rename any files.
Anyway, it's possible to use mplayer2 with other players like MPUI-hcb (recommended), MPUI-Ve, rulesPlayer, etc. Just rename the executable mplayer2>mplayer. You can also place two or three players in the same folder sharing one mplayer2
Finally, as joby said, you can't change the path of smplayer2.ini.
Between, what's XmplayerX?

[Midas]

Since reading/posting here, I've been playing with SMPlayer2

Mentioned here, not there.

SMplayer is indeed introduced by you in the later topic, but it was my posting in the former, followed by a reply by webfork that prompted my interest in SMPlayer...

SMPlayer2 is portable, and stealth if you:

1) Under Options>Preferences>Subtitles>Font and Colors, untick "Use mplayer2 defaults", click on "Enable normal subtitles" and choose the subfont.ttf in the mplayer subfolder.

2) Pass the -nofontconfig parameter to mplayer2 (under Options>Preferences>Advanced>Options for mplayer>Options). That's to prevent the creation of the usual fonts cache.

To make it more portable, if needed, modify the path to mplayer2 in the ini file and make it relative: ./mplayer2.

Since v0.71, SMPlayer recognizes mplayer2, so there's no need to rename any files.

Anyway, it's possible to use mplayer2 with other players like MPUI-hcb (recommended), MPUI-Ve, rulesPlayer, etc. Just rename the executable mplayer2>mplayer. You can also place two or three players in the same folder sharing one mplayer2.

Finally, as joby said, you can't change the path of smplayer2.ini.

Thanks for all the useful info, lautrepay.

Could smplayer2.ini be used to relocate the remaining files?

Between, what's XmplayerX?

It was meant to be an overall reference for all versions of [s]mplayer[2], but I guess it didn't work...

[lautrepay]

SMplayer is indeed introduced by you in the later topic, but it was my posting in the former, followed by a reply by webfork that prompted my interest in SMPlayer...

Sorry, I thought that you were referring to SMPlayer2...

Could smplayer2.ini be used to relocate the remaining files?

I don't think so.

It was meant to be an overall reference for all versions of [s]mplayer[2], but I guess it didn't work...

Oh silly me! I thought that there was a renewed version of the good and old (and closed source) XMPlay...

[SYSTEM]

I wonder why media players are forked so often...

https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/ ... hanges.rst

[Midas]

I wonder why media players are forked so often...

mplayer2 development is slow, and it's hard to get in changes. Details withheld as to not turn this into a rant.

I know yours was a rhetorical question, but... (given the required skills) that seems to me like a good enough reason...

[Ruby]

Hi all, I just wanted to share a tidbit of info - regarding MPlayer - that I came across while cleaning up my 'Portables' drive(s); eliminating some of the many (redundant) video players I've used/collected over the years.

While MPlayer is not my default media player it is my go-to/play-all for quick play/run/test of various media; audio, video, streaming, etc...

As I have mentioned in another thread, I keep SMPlayer for it's ability to retain a 'Normal' voice/audio (pitch) when changing the speed of a video, e.g. avoiding the 'chipmunk' effect when increasing video speed.

While this is transparent to the user as an SMPlayer feature, it is in fact an audio filter of the backend MPlayer passed on the command-line via an argument/parameter.

The command-line argument/parameter is:

Code: Select all

-af scaletempo,equalizer=0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0

But MPlayer also reads configs from a file located in a subfolder to it's executable, e.g. [mplayer/config] and the af (audio filter) can be applied here and should - in theory - be available to any front-end GUI that calls it.
The syntax to be applied in the config is slightly different and as follows:

Code: Select all

af=scaletempo,equalizer=0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0

So, now whether increasing/decreasing the playback speed of a podcast or watching a 2 hour movie in 1.5 hour you can enjoy the audio at it's 'Normal' intended pitch.

~Ruby

[SYSTEM]

The mplayer2 project seems to be dead. The latest commit was made on April: http://git.mplayer2.org/mplayer2/log/

MPV is still alive and kicking: https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/commits/master

[Midas]

MPV is still alive and kicking...

32 and 64 bit binaries for MPV latest Windows release (20141111) are available for download from http://smplayer2.srsfckn.biz/.

As mentioned, the upstream MPV changelog (currently for v0.6.2?; release date is 't-20') is at http://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/releases.

Just to recap, the latest portable versions of SMPlayer (currently v14.9.0; changelog at http://smplayer.sourceforge.net/en/changes) can be had from http://smplayer.sourceforge.net/en/downloads (click "See more packages").

BTW, I found this at the Official SMPlayer Blog:

I’m very happy to announce that the next version of SMPlayer will support MPV. I’m currently adding support for MPV, it’s not an easy task, since every single command has to be reimplemented, so it’s a slow process. At this point the basic functions (play, pause, seek, etc.) and most of the options in the menus "Play", "Video", "Audio" and "Subtitles" work.

[SYSTEM]

I found out that MPV gained a "portable config mode" on Windows in version 0.10.0 (September 3).

https://mpv.io/manual/master/#files-on-windows

If a directory named portable_config next to the mpv.exe exists, all config will be loaded from this directory only. Watch later config files are written to this directory as well. (This exists on Windows only and is redundant with $MPV_HOME. However, since Windows is very scripting unfriendly, a wrapper script just setting $MPV_HOME, like you could do it on other systems, won't work. portable_config is provided for convenience to get around this restriction.)