MPlayer

MPlayer is a movie player for Linux that supports a wide range of video and audio output drivers. It plays most QT/MOV/MP4, MKV, MPEG/VOB, AVI, ASF/WMA/WMV, RM, Ogg/OGM, VIVO, FLI, NuppelVideo, yuv4mpeg, FILM and RoQ files, supported by many native and binary codecs. You can watch VCD, SVCD, DVD, Blu-ray, 3ivx, DivX 3/4/5, WMV and even H.264 movies, too.

MPlayer has an onscreen display (OSD) for status information, nice big antialiased shaded subtitles and visual feedback for keyboard controls. 

If you use OGMRip application program, I highly recommend that you install MPlayer. OGMRip is an easy-to-use and efficient GUI application for ripping DVDs. It requires MPlayer and MEncoder to be installed as dependencies.

I like MPlayer because it's very customizable. You can find skins across the Internet that will allow you to change the look of the player.  I will show you how to properly install it and how to customize it using a skin of your choice.  

How to Install MPlayer:

  1. Open the Terminal (Shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + T)
  2. Type the following command to add the PPA:  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mc3man/mplay-skins 
  3. Type the following command:  sudo apt-get update
  4. Press Enter or Return and type in your password
  5. Type the following command:  sudo apt-get install mplayer mplayer-gui mplayer-skins mplayer-fonts
  6. Press Enter or Return

How to Uninstall MPlayer: 

   1. Open the Terminal (Shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + T)
   2. Type the following command:   sudo apt-get remove mplayer mplayer-gui mplayer-skins mplayer-fonts

To start MPlayer, click on the Applications menu, highlight Sound & Video, and then select MPlayer.

If you fail to add the PPA and update your repositories, you will get the following error messages when you try to open MPlayer.

You can fix these error messages without uninstalling and starting over. Just add the PPA in step 2 (above) and then type the following command: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

If you right-click anywhere on MPlayer it will bring up a menu that will allow you to open a variety of video and audio formats, open and play a CD, VCD, DVD, or other. In the menu you also can choose to rotate you video, change the aspect ratio, or change its size. You can mute the sound, bring up and adjust an Equlizer, create or add a Playlist, change the Skin, or access more option in Preferences.  

If you click the option Skin browser, you will be able to change your skin for MPlayer. Blue, clearplayer, default, and mini are the skins that are installed when you install MPlayer. I added ICY to my skins folder.

Below are some examples of some of the nice skins that are available for MPlayer.

mini Skin

default/clearplayer Skin

Blue Skin

If you want to install extra skins for MPlayer, you download a zipped or compressed package of the skin and extract it to the skins folder at: /usr/share/mplayer/skins

How to install extra skins in MPlayer.

  1. Find and download a skin or multiple skins from MPlayerHQ.hu and keep them in your Downloads folder until you are ready to move
      them.

  2. Got to the location /usr/share/mplayer/ and right-click on the Skins folder and select Open as Administrator.

  3. Enter your Password so that you can add and remove files in the skins folder.

  4. Since you are logged into your skins folder as a superuser, you can now move all of the compressed skin files from the Downloads folder
       to your skins folder. Just don't close the skins folder until you finish installing all of the skins. You can minimize the folder if you need to
       open another folder or application. 

  5. Right-click on the first compressed file and click on Extract Here to uncompress the MPlayer skin in the skins folder. Then delete
       the file that you just extracted. Continue to extract each compressed file until you extract them all and delete all the left over compressed
       files.

  6. Your skins folder should look something similar to the folder in the image below. Make sure all compressed files are uncompressed and
       deleted. Now you are ready to close this folder and use your newly installed skins.

  7. Open MPlayer and right-click on the program and click on the Skin browser option. You should see all of the skins you just installed.
       Select a skin and press the OK button for it to change the look of your MPlayer.

Here are some examples of the skins I just installed:

Phony

Neutron

Xine LCD Skin

Plastic

Divx Player

Proton

WMP6

Terminator 3

Abyss

QuickSilver

PowerPlayer

OSX Brushed

DVDPlayer

Corelian

AlienMind

Icy

NativeRed

All of those skins are nice, but the most important function of a video player is the ability to play a video as clear as possible with great sound quality. Below is a screen capture of MPlayer while it's playing a video I made on the Shutter Screenshot Tool. The playback quality was super clear and it sounded great.

Don't forget that MPlayer can be used as an audio player too. I played an audio file in my Music folder and it played with a crisp and clear sound quality.

I hope this has been helpful to you.

Take Care!

Error in skin config file at line 6: PNG read error in /usr/share/mplayer/skins/default/main


Fatal error
Config file processing error with skin 'default'

Sep 7, 2018