SMPlayer - A Worthy MPlayer Frontend

I have been using SMPlayer as the MPlayer front end for years now and I recently came to know that, not many Ubuntu users have been actually using it. That is sad, given the enhanced usability and uniqueness of SMPlayer. In my opinion, the killer app like MPlayer, with support for a wide range of codecs and file formats, is even more lethal with SMPlayer as frontend.

Feature List

Support for a wide range of codecs and file formats.

SMPlayer can remember the settings of files you play. What it means is that, while watching a movie or a video clip, if you had to stop in between and want to play it back after sometime, SMPlayer will remember the position where you stopped, and can resume it from the same position.

Audio track switching. You can choose the audio track you want to listen. Works with avi and mkv formats.

Pretty stable and easy to use and install.

SMPlayer integrates well with KDE, a huge plus for KDE users.

Now, let's get started with installation of latest smplayer in Ubuntu. You need to add the PPA key first and Repo later.

Add GPG Key

Copy-paste the following in Terminal.

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com E4A4F4F4

Done.

Now Add the Repo

Open sources.list file.

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Now copy-paste the following repo depending on the version of Ubuntu you use.

For Ubuntu karmic

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/rvm/smplayer/ubuntu karmic main

For Ubuntu Jaunty

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/rvm/smplayer/ubuntu jaunty main

For Ubuntu Intrepid

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/rvm/smplayer/ubuntu intrepid main

Done.

Installing all new Smplayer in Ubuntu

Install all new SMPlayer in Ubuntu.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install smplayer

Upgrade to Latest SMPlayer

If you have an already installed version of SMPlayer in Ubuntu, this is all you need to do.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Done.

Links

http://smplayer.sourceforge.net/

http://ubuntumanual.org/