Linux Video Playback
This article explains the best video playback options for Linux and provides installation instructions.
List of recommended players
MPlayer
Installing MPlayer
Perform the one of the following commands as root, depending on your distribution.
Gentoo
emerge -ptva mplayer
OpenSuse
opensuse-package-manager-name --install-command mplayer
Debian based distributions (Includes Ubuntu)
apt-get install mplayer
Fedora/Red Hat based distributions
yum install mplayer
MPlayer codecs
Not all distributions include the full set of mplayer codecs in their repositories. To install the full set follow these easy steps.
1. Download: http://www4.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/all-20071007.tar.bz2
2. Extract with: tar xvf all-20071007.tar.bz2
3. Copy the codecs (but not the directory) to the MPlayer codec directory. Default is /usr/lib/win32
MPlayer tweaks
These are some sample configuration files tailored for specific preferences. The MPlayer configuration file can be found at: (~/.mplayer/config)
For English audio preference, then Spanish, with 4 audio channels for surround sound files.
vo=xv ao=alsa channels=4 alang=en,es
For Japanese audio preference, subtitles on. SDL A/V output for performence.
ao=sdl vo=sdl #Note: SDL video output does not work well with xinerama. Those wishing to watch video on a TV or other display should use "vo=xv" alang=jpn,Japanese #Not all files use the correct tags, so sometimes it will be necessary to switch audio streams manually or from the command line with "-aid x", where "x" is the number of the audio stream. sid=0 subfont-autoscale=1 ass=1
SMPlayer
MPlayer by itself is fine but SMPlayer provides an easy to use interface to MPlayer so it is a better choice for most. It contains a couple of nice features, including autosaving the playback position so you can continue watching your anime the next time you start it (this feature can be disabled of course).
Installing SMPlayer
- For OpenSUSE users you can grab the .rpm from SMPlayer's website, for Ubuntu users you can use the .deb from SMPlayer's website or you can install it by running the following command as root:
apt-get install smplayer
- If you don't use OpenSUSE or Ubuntu then you can compile from source, the source code along with installation instructions are available on SMPlayer's website.
- After installation 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).
SMPlayer tweaks
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 either gl or gl2 for OpenGL rendering. In general you should try these options in the following order for best quality and performance: xv, gl2, gl and finally x11.