Linux Video Playback

This article explains to you the best playback options for Linux and how provides installation instructions.

Recommended Players

SMPlayer/MPlayer

MPlayer by itself is fine but SMPlayer auto loads subtitle files, autosaves your position (can be configured), and has an easier to use interface than MPlayer so it is a better choice for most.

If you are using Ubuntu you can install it with the following command: sudo apt-get install smplayer

After installing you'll need to configure it a little:

Start SMPlayer, open the options (Ctrl + P), go to the subtitles section, within the section go to the SSA/ASS library tab and check the check box for using SSA/ASS library. With this you can see the subtitle's colors and fonts (Note: the used fonts must be installed on the system for this).

If you see a black screen at playing, or the colors doesn't seems to be right, or the playing is too slow or wrong you may need to change the video rendering mode. To do this go to the options, general section, general tab, output drivers, Video, and set it to X11 - this will use software rendering. Alternatively you can use xv for Xvideo rendering or gl/gl2 for OpenGL rendering mode (gl2 a bit better, but slower).