MPlayer - command line audio and video

6 November 2005

MPlayer is a media player, for many it is 'the' media player. Mplayer supports all formats that you are likely to ever encounter. It will play CDs and DVDs, all types of audio and video files and streams. It also supports subtitles.

You as the user have choice over which formats your MPlayer install will play. If you find that your MPlayer does not play a file then you may need to install the relevant dependency or codec.

By default it is a command-line player but it does have X-windows front-ends available. Mplayer runs on all major operating systems, in this article we will happen to look at GNU/Linux/BSD type systems.

At a basic level to run MPlayer, you type the usual command filename, so for a song:

mplayer freesong.mp3

Mplayer will also output the time and percentage elapsed so you can see how far through the file you are. You can use the left and right cursor keys to rewind and fast forward.

You can also use command-line modifiers and wild-cards. To play a directory of media files in full screen:

mplayer -fs *

You can also pass MPlayer a URL and also save streams as a file:

mplayer http://217.71.208.37:8006 -dumpstream -dumpfile stream.asf

Sometimes you may find that you have recorded a home video and want to make photos using it, mplayer is a handy tool here, you can use the screenshot option:

mplayer -vf screenshot homevideo.mpg

When you want to take a screenshot, press 's'.

For more information you can read the man page (man mplayer) or read the comprehensive full manual.

A related program, MEncoder, can be used to make (encode) media files.

You can get MPlayer from your normal package system, or from the Mplayer homepage.

1 manikandamoorthi says...

fabulous

Posted at 9:35 a.m. on January 27, 2006

2 gregory says...

I want to load the mplayer/mencoder program on my Pentium 4 for DVD player and ripping. The trouble is that beyond knowing what a path is and a dozen or so DOS commands I have little actual knowledge of command code symbology and syntax for any OS, let alone something like Linux. Do you know of a step by step tutorial for at least loading MPlayer and all of its prerequisite software for Windows XP? Perhaps after it's successfully and fully loaded, I may be able to use its built in help file (assuming it has one) to learn how to write commands to get it player/encoder to do what I want.

Please advise.

Posted at 7:57 a.m. on July 1, 2007

3 Zeth says...

Hi Gregory, thanks for you post, my reply has gotten a bit long, so I have included it in my next post.

Posted at 8:54 a.m. on July 1, 2007

4 sandeep says...

i need help in linux (rhel5 ver.). i want to play the video song, mp3 songs. i need command what need packges install to its play who`s command ?i try it help me

Posted at 6:34 a.m. on August 22, 2007

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