Nifty mplayer
I know that I recently just said I use vlc for almost anything and everything. After the poll, however, I started using Audacious for music files and I’ve switched back to mplayer for watching videos. Why? Here are certain reasons why I’ve switched back to mplayer:
- Subtitles. - I’ve been watching a lot of fansubbed J-drama and K-drama, as well as anime. My problem with vlc is that I don’t always get to watch them with subtitles. Even though the srt file is just there, in the same directory as the video, it couldn’t see it. Not all the time but it does happen to me, I don’t know why. Also, I have that same problem when watching DVDs.
- Simple and easy to use keyboard shortcuts. - I’ve been taking screenshots of the videos I watch and it’s easy to take a screenshot by just pressing ’s’ and I pause with ‘p’ or a spacebar. When I want subtitles to be visible, I could just press ‘v’ — it’s quite mnemonic so I like that. No need to bother with keyboard combinations so I could quickly do things while watching the video. Sometimes using a mouse becomes tedious!
- There are things that just happen in the background. The screenshot, for example. - I sometimes take a lot of screenshots and a thing I’ve noticed with some media players is that they show you the screenshot first or ask you to save it as a particular filename in some directory. I like the way mplayer handles that because everytime I press ’s’ for a screenshot, it will automatically save the screenshot in the working directory and I don’t see the thumbnail or the image itself while watching the video. It’s not distracting. :D
- When letting another person use my computer, there’s always the GUI option. - By default, a GUI-fied mplayer is installed too. So if my sister asks me to lend her my laptop, she could use mplayer and it won’t be so difficult.
I could probably write more about basic mplayer stuff I’ve learned throughout this time. :) Til next time!
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POSTED IN: Explanation, Geeky Fun
2 opinions for Nifty mplayer
manny
Nov 17, 2007 at 11:46 pm
great!
now i know about the subtitles thing :)
Playing mkv files is as easy as 1-2-3 with VLC and Mplayer
Jul 23, 2008 at 10:52 am
[…] If you are new to Linux and are just using the applications installed by default, you might encounter some difficulties. But if you’re the type who will search for the packages which will let you do whatever you want, you’d be fine. Totem seems to lack that ease of use when it comes to new users or even not-so-new users. Mplayer might have an interface which isn’t quite as pretty as Amarok, Rhythmbox, VLC, etc. but it’s a very nifty mediaplayer. […]
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