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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Microsoft has changed their stance on providing additional codecs with an operating system in Windows 7. Windows 7 will ship with a few codecs preinstalled (Divx, H.264) which is great but not enough to play all multimedia files.

The Windows 7 Codec package has been created by the same author who publishes the Windows Vista Codec Package. It will automatically install a number of missing codecs in Windows 7 and uninstall several other codec packages that might be installed on the computer system to avoid compatibility issues.

There are obviously two alternatives to installing a codec package on a computer system. The first is to install codecs only if they are needed to playback a multimedia file. The other to install a software player that comes with binary codecs that can play virtually any file without having to be installed on the computer system at all. The SMPlayer comes to mind that can play virtually any multimedia files out of the box.

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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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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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