Overview

SMPlayer is a free, open source, media player able to play almost any video file format. It also has a portable version and a Linux version.

Review

My favorite video player was so far GOM Player, a solid freeware program able to play many file formats. Now I decided to give SMPlayer a try, mainly because it’s open source and you already know that I have a particular weak spot for open source programs because I really believe that they represent the future of computer programs. Anyway, overall I am satisfied with GOM Player although I hoped that the new versions would bring some more features.

SMPlayer is based on MPlayer, maybe the best video playing engine out there. The people that made SMPlayer tried to add more features to this solid base and after a first look I can say that they did quite a good job. The GUI (graphic user interface) is very well designed, you have access to selecting subtitles and audio tracks right from the main toolbar. Overall the interface has no flaws, all the important commands are right there. 

If you need access to the more advanced features you can either right click on the video or go through the menus in the top toolbar. 

An interesting feature is that you can search for subtitles on opensubtitles.org right from the program.

The most interesting feature of SMPlayer is that it remembers your settings. If you play a movie and you have to leave and shut down the computer, when you come back and play that file it will play with the previous settings, from audio track and subtitles to the audio volume. 

SMPlayer will play a wide range of video files, from DVD files on your hard disk to flash video or avi. Here are a few more features for your consideration:

- Configurable subtitles. You can choose font and size, and even colors for the subtitles.
- Audio track switching. You can choose the audio track you want to listen. Works with avi and mkv. And of course with DVDs.
- Seeking by mouse wheel. You can use your mouse wheel to go forward or backward in the video.
- Video equalizer, allows you to adjust the brightness, contrast, hue, saturation and gamma of the video image.
- Multiple speed playback. You can play at 2X, 4X… and even in slow motion.
- Filters. Several filters are available: deinterlace, postprocessing, denoise… and even a karaoke filter (voice removal).
- Audio and subtitles delay adjustment. Allows you to sync audio and subtitles.
- Advanced options, such as selecting a demuxer or video & audio codecs.
- Playlist. Allows you to enqueue several files to be played one after each other. Autorepeat and shuffle supported too.
- Preferences dialog. You can easily configure every option of SMPlayer by using a nice preferences dialog.

The one that I like the most is the seeking by mouse wheel, it’s so easy and it works so well… If GOM Player would have added such a feature I might never have tried another program…

Version Tested

0.6.7

Author

Ricardo Villalba

Operating System

Windows, Linux

Download link

Summary

 Open source and multi platform.

 A few interesting features and a portable version.

Rating

Verdict

I’m switching to SMPlayer starting today, it’s better than GOM Player and it’s open source. The features that made me make this decision are the possiblity to seek by mouse wheel, the fact that it remembers the settings for each file that I play and last but not least the very good graphical user interface. I also liked the fact that you can customize the subtitles and the portable version, which means that I can take this program on my USB stick and use it on my computer at the office. 

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If you have any trouble with this software just leave a comment, I’ll help you out! If you know better free programs in the same category, please let me know!