Archives For mpv

MPV media player logo

MPV is a free and open-source media player forked from MPlayer2. It was started to modernize MPlayer by adding modern features, and removing unmaintainable code and dropping support for very old systems.

MPV uses FFmpeg or Libav for decoding, it can be used as a library in other applications (e.g., SMPlayer, and Gnome MPV).

Notable changes from MPlayer:

  • Through youtube-dl, MPV natively supports playback of HD content on YouTube and over 300 other supported sites.
  • include customizable video output driver based on OpenGL that supports for controlling playback quality
  • MPV can be used directly by other applications through a library interface called libmpv.
  • a new video encoding mode that can save playing files under different formats.

How to Install MPV in Ubuntu:

MPV is available in official Ubuntu repositories, but it’s old and Canonical does not provide updates for it. Besides building from the source code, you can install the latest version from this PPA.

1. To add PPA, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run the command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mc3man/mpv-tests

2. Then upgrade Mpv using Software Updater or just run the command in terminal to install/upgrade it:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install mpv

3. (Optional) To remove the PPA, go to Software & Updates -> Other Software tab. And remove mpv via command:

sudo apt remove mpv && sudo apt autoremove

SMPlayer, Qt front-end for MPlayer, got a new release a few days go with many great new features and improvements.

SMPlayer 15.9 brings support for MPV, 3D stereo formats, MPRIS2, and MKV ordered chapters and precise seeking. It also brings better YouTube support, ability to stream videos from DailyMotion, Vimeo, Vevo,and more(besides Youtube). SMPlayer now uses new H2O theme as the default theme.

For more details, see smplayer.sourceforge.net/en/changes

Install / Upgrade SMPlayer in Ubuntu:

SMPlayer PPA has built the new release for Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, and their derivatives, e.g, Linux Mint 13/17.x, Elementary OS Freya and Luna.

1. To add the PPA.

Open terminal from the Dash, App Launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it opens, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rvm/smplayer

2. After that, launch Software Updater (or Update Manager) and upgrade SMPlayer after automatically checking for updates.

Don’t have a previous version installed? Just search for and install smplayer in Software Center. Or run below commands one by one in terminal:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install smplayer smtube smplayer-themes smplayer-skins

Bomi, formerly known as CMPlayer, is a graphical user interface (GUI) player based on mpv for Linux. It aims to be easy to use and also provides various powerful features and convenience functions.

By taking the advantage of mpv and GUI, bomi provides various features:

  • User-friendly interface: all features are available in context menu
  • Unlimited playback history
  • Automatic playlist generation and restoration
  • render styled subtitles such as SAMI and ASS format, bomi can render multiple subtitle files at the same time.
  • bomi supports hardware-accelerated decoding by GPU. bomi will utilize available native API for the system between VA-API and VDPAU.
  • dvd playback, image slide show, and other more basical player features.

Install Bomi player from PPA:

1. If you have CMPlayer installed on your system, you have to remove it first since it conflicts with bomi.

To do so, open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run below command:

sudo apt-get remove cmplayer

2. Bomi has an official PPA that contains the latest packages for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10 and Linux Mint 17.1.

To add the PPA, run below command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:darklin20/bomi

3. Finally search for and install bomi via Synaptic Package Manager, or by running below commands one by one:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install bomi

For those who don’t want to add PPA, grab the .deb installer directly from the PPA packages page.