MPlayer vs SMPlayer

MPlayer is a movie player for Linux, macOS and Windows, with additional listed support for BSD, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX and QNX. It plays formats including MPEG, AVI, Ogg/OGM, ASF/WMV, MOV/MP4, RealMedia, Matroska and DVD, and accepts streams over protocols such as HTTP/FTP, RTP/RTSP, MMS/MMST, MPST and SDP. Subtitle support covers 12 formats, as well as DVD subtitles and closed captions. The player includes playback-speed control, an on-screen status display and multiple video output drivers; hardware acceleration is listed. Its MEncoder component can create MPEG program stream files. MPlayer is free under GNU General Public License version 2. The download page lists version 1.5, created on 2022-02-27, as the latest release and recommends current Subversion source for newer features and fixes. The graphical interface is not under further development and receives limited bug fixing. A complete installation requires source code and binary codecs; the GUI also needs a skin.

SMPlayer is a free media player for Windows, Linux, and macOS. It includes built-in codecs to play most audio and video formats without requiring external codecs. Listed formats include AVI, ASF/WMV/WMA, QT/MOV/MP4, RealAudio/RealVideo, Ogg/OGM, Matroska, MPEG-1/2, H.264, MPEG-4, MP3, AAC, AC3, and DTS. The player supports network playback, subtitles, hardware acceleration, and 4K playback. It provides a graphical interface for MPlayer and can also use mpv as its playback engine. SMPlayer remembers playback position and settings such as audio track, subtitles, and volume. Controls include playback speed adjustment, audio and video filters, audio and subtitle delay adjustment, and a video equalizer. It can play YouTube videos, search for subtitles through OpenSubtitles, and send local videos or online streams to Chromecast devices. The project is free and open source under the GPL, offers source code, and directs users to a forum for help and a bug tracker for reporting problems.