The second option would be to install a compatible video player on their computer system to make sure they can play the videos that you send. The third and sometimes most convenient option is to use a program like Make Instant Player to combine the video with a video player that is capable of playing the video.

The last option results in an executable that contains the selected video. Make Instant Player is a free software program that combines the popular video player MPlayer with a selected video from the computer system. The user only needs to select the video from the local computer system to convert it into an executable that can be played regardless of codecs installed on a computer system.

Several options are provided to customize the output. The user can choose between fullscreen and compact mode, make the video auto quit after playback, make it stay on top or loop. The include codecs option is only needed for some video formats like wmv or Real Player but not for the majority of formats available.

It is possible to preview the video before starting the conversion. The only problem that might occur after sending the executable to recipients might be their reluctance to click on an executable file that has been send to them. But that’s probably quickly sorted out with a phone call, in person meeting or explanations in the emails.

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Since it is based on MPlayer it can play pretty much any video format right out of the box without having to search for missing codecs on the Internet. It can play DVDs, supports various subtitle formats, provides multiple audio track access, playlist support and a lot more.

One of the more recent versions added support to search for subtitles in the Open Subtitles databases. Sure, there are other video players that offer a similar all-inclusive out of the box experience and it probably boils down to which was first installed on the computer system for those users.

Anyone else who is still using a video player that needs external codecs to play video formats should take a look at the latest version of SMPlayer as it makes that a thing of the past.

Most important changes in SMPlayer 0.6.7:

• 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.

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I had to install 7-zip to unpack the package, not sure if there are other packers that support the 7z format by now. That is a bit unfortunate and it would have been nice if another format would be available as well.

SMPlayer is ready to play any video file that you throw at it after uninstallation. Just start the player and load the video that you want. The portable and installation version of SMPlayer use virtually the same amount of computer memory when running.

SMPlayer Portable comes with several themes that can be applied. The differences between the portable and installation version are the following:

• The ini will be written in the SMPlayer folder
• Nothing is written to the Windows Registry
• Default Home folders are not created. Screenshot folder for instance would have to be created separately in the root directory and a path would have to be edited in SMplayer
• No File associations

The main use would be to put the portable version on a stick and use it on computers that do not allow installations and only come with Media Player installed.

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I recently discovered that a so called additional codecs package for SMPlayer, and MPlayer obviously, is available and can be installed to support additional video and audio formats. These codecs will also be installed as so called binary codecs straight into the SMPlayer folder.

The major problem that I ran into was that I was not able to find a list of the codecs that are installed this way. The only possibility that I can think of right now is to search for the filenames in a search engine which will reveal their purpose. The codec package adds 63 new files to the codec directory. I probably would only install it if I would encounter a video that I could not play properly though.

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Before I give Noah’s method, I’d like to mention that there is a way to create animated gifs directly with MPlayer. However, the resultant gif file can sometimes be very strange-looking so it’s not very reliable. Anyway, once you figure out what video clip to use, let’s begin. Fire up MPlayer and switch to command-line operation. Then type in the following command:

mplayer -ao null -loop 0 -ss 0:11:22 -endpos 5 file.avi

This command allows you to preview what your final gif will look like. In this instance, I’ve selected a 5 second clip and looped it so it keeps repeating. If you’re satisfied with the clip, proceed to the next step.

mplayer -ao null -ss 0:11:22 -endpos 5 file.avi -vo jpeg:outdir=gifmovie

This command tells MPlayer to export your 5-second clip as a series of jpeg images to the specified folder, which in this case is ‘gifmovie’. After this step, MPlayer’s work is done and it’s time to switch to Gimp. This is where you convert the jpeg files into your gif.

Open the first jpeg image in your directory using Gimp. Then, open the rest of the images in the folder as layers (File > Open as layer). Now, all you have to do is save the file as a gif (File > Save As). In the resultant dialog box, check the ‘save as animation’ and ‘loop forever’ options. Then, click on ‘Export’ and your animated gif is ready.

You need to play around a bit with the options in Gimp if you want to add fancy effects and things like that. I tried this out and I was quite happy with my gif file. It requires a bit of practice but once you have a basic idea of where things are, it’s a breeze. Have you ever tried making an animated gif file? What program did you use? What do you think of Noah’s method?

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Luckily, there are a whole lot of Windows frontends for Mplayer. You can choose any one, depending on your needs. My favorite is SMPlayer but the one that first got me hooked on Mplayer is MPUI. It is a combination of Mplayer and a simple, neat GUI, which looks similar to the old Windows Media Player interface. The software plays virtually everything and can even take screenshots. It also has keyboard shortcuts and supports command line instructions as well.

The beauty of this media player is that it does not require any extra codecs to be installed, which is a very big advantage. The entire package comes in a 4 MB zip file and only needs to be extracted to a directory of your choice. The small size means you can simply copy the directory to a USB drive and have a media player available wherever you go.

An added bonus with this player is the ability to create a movie CD or DVD that will play automatically. Along with your movie, copy the files MPUI.exe, Mplayer.exe, and autorun.inf, to your CD. Now, whenever you put the CD into CD-Rom drive, the movie will play automatically in MPUI.

Sadly, MPUI hasn’t been updated in over a year. However, this media player is still high on my list of preferred players.

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SMPlayer is available for Windows and Linux in various languages including English and Spanish for instance. The download has a size of about 11 Megabytes which is not that much if you consider that you do not have to install additional codecs. All the usual features are supported as well including subtitle support, DVD / SVCD / VCD playback, audio track switching, video equalizers, fast forward, slow motion and lots of preferences.

It is for instance possible to use video playback without hardware acceleration to capture screenshots from the movie.

Read More:

SMPlayer Homepage

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It is also possible to play DVDs and Internet streams with the video player that is available for Windows and Linux. Several ways of displaying subtitles and various subtitle formats are supported including srt, sub and DVD subtitles. I personally think that SMPlayer is a great alternative to the VLC player.

This could be useful for everyone who is having troubles with VLC for example. The only real difference that I was able to spot was that the SMPlayer is Open Source and that it remembers where the playback of the video stopped. Make sure you download the full SMPlayer plus the update.

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