After three years after the last release, the release of the new version was announced of the media player "MPlayer 1.5", in which the changes in the new version are reduced to the integration of the improvements added during the last three years to FFmpeg (the base code is synchronized with the master branch of FFmpeg), in addition to including a copy of the new FFmpeg in the base distribution of MPlayer, which eliminates the need to install dependencies when building.
For those who are new to MPlayer, you should know that this is a cross platform media playerto which it plays most files, plus it can play VideoCD, SVCD, DVD, 3ivx and DivX/Xvid 3/4/5.
Like most modern media players, this one also comes with the option for subtitles, supporting 14 different formats (MicroDVD, SubRip, SubViewer, Sami, VPlayer, RT, SSA, AQTitle, JACOsub, VobSub, CC, OGM, PJS and MPsub).
Some main features of MPlayer are:
- Supports a wide range of video, audio and subtitle files
- Support a number of output drivers
- Based on open source ffmpeg
- You can save all streamed content to a file
- VDPAU hardware acceleration for H.265/HEVC
- TV and DVB support
- GUI improvements
- open source and cross-platform
Main new features of MPlayer 1.5
In this new version of MPlayer 1.5 that is presented, it is highlighted that added multilingual support to the GUI, with which it is now possible to choose the language for the text in the interface is chosen based on the environment variable LC_MESSAGES or LANG.
Another of the changes that stands out in this new version, this added “–enable-nls” option to enable language support at runtime (by default language support is only enabled in GUI mode yet).
In addition to this, a built-in skin style has been added that allows the use of the GUI without installing style files, in addition to that in the interface, the problem with the incorrect setting of the window size after returning from full screen mode has been fixed. .
Moreover, when building for the ARM architecture, the extensions offered by default are enabled (for example, Raspbian does not use NEON instructions by default and you must explicitly specify the “–enable-runtime-cpudetection” option when compiling to enable all CPU features).
Of the other changes that stand out from this new version:
- Support for the ffmpeg12vpdau decoder was removed, replaced by two separate components ffmpeg1vpdau and ffmpeg2vdpau.
- Deprecated and disabled by the default live555 decoder.
- Provided clearing screen after switching to full screen mode when using output driver via X server.
- Added "-fs" option (similar to load_fullscreen setting) to open in fullscreen mode.
- The OpenGL output handler provides correct styling on X11 systems.
Finally if you are interested in knowing more about it about this new released version, you can check the details In the following link.
How to install MPlayer on Linux?
For those who are interested in being able to install this multimedia player on their system, they can do so by following the instructions that we share below.
For those who are users of Ubuntu or any other distribution based on or derived from it, You can install by running the following command:
sudo apt install mplayer mplayer-gui
In the case of those who are users of Arch Linux, Manjaro, Arco Linux or any other distribution based on Arch Linux, they can install by opening a terminal and running the following command:
sudo pacman -S mplayer-gui
Now for the case of those who are users of Fedora and derivatives thereof, The installation can be done by typing:
sudo dnf install mplayer mencoder
Finally remember that MPlayer is essentially a CLI player (command line) so in order to play your files you must execute the following command:
mplayer <ruta_al_archivo_de_video>
Similarly, you can find a minimal GUI of the player in your applications menu.