Movie Player programs for LiNUX

Last update: Jan 14 2001


[collected by A'rpi / ESP-team]

If you know about any player not listed here, please contact me and send the URL


Program: MPlayer (was: mpg12play)
Author: Arpad Gereoffy (A'rpi/ESP-team)
Homepage: http://banki1.banki.hu/~arpi/MPlayer.html
File formats: MPG/VOB/BIN, AVI
Video Codecs: libmpeg2, Win32/VfW
Audio Codecs: mp3lib (mpg123), libac3, Win32/ACM
Video output: X11/Shm/Xv, OpenGL, mga_vid
Audio output: OSS
GUI type: console (seek/pause with keys)
The best player I've ever seen :)))


Program: AVIfile / aviplay
Author: Eugene Kuznetsov
Homepage: http://divx.euro.ru
File formats: AVI, ASF
Video Codecs: Win32/VfW
Audio Codecs: mpeg ???, libac3 (optional), Win32/ACM
Video output: X11/Shm/Xv, SDL
GUI type: X11 using Qt 2.1.x/2.2.x
AVI file player and recorder(!), worth to see! Also has beta ASF support.


Program: LiViD / OMS
Author: Matthew R. Pavlovich.
Homepage: http://www.linuxvideo.org
File formats: VOB
Video Codecs: libmpeg2
Audio Codecs: libac3, mpg123
Video output: X11/Shm/Xv, SDL
Audio output: OSS, esd, wav
GUI type: X11 using GTK (with skins)
Very nice (at least the screenshots) DVD player for linux. Unfortunately I couldn't get it work yet.


Program: mpeg2dec
Author: Aaron Holtzman and Michel Lespinasse (walken)
Homepage: http://www.linuxvideo.org/mpeg2dec
File formats: VOB, MPG
Video Codecs: libmpeg2
Audio Codecs: -
Video output: X11/Shm/Xv, OpenGL, mga_vid, SDL(?)
GUI type: commandline
Test player program for the libmpeg2 codec. The codec itself is lowlevel optimized for MMX/3Dnow/SSE, while has mpeg1 and mpeg2 standars conformance.


Program: XMPS
Author: Damien Chavarria
Homepage: http://xmps.sourceforge.net
File formats: FLI/FLX, MPG, AVI
Video Codecs: smpeg, libmpeg3, Win32/VfW
Audio Codecs: libac3/libmpeg3, mpg123
Video output: X11, SDL, OpenGL
Audio output: SDL (OSS/esd)
GUI type: X11, gnome or skinned GTK
Nice try, but very alpha/unstable yet.


Program: xine
Author: Guenter Bartsch
Homepage: http://xine.sourceforge.net
File formats: MPG, VOB
Video Codecs: libmpeg2
Audio Codecs: libac3, libmpg123
Video output: X11 with XShm or Xv
Audio output: OSS?
GUI type: X11, skinned
Simple but working, usable player.


Program: dvdview
Author: Dirk Farin
Homepage: http://rachmaninoff.ti.uni-mannheim.de/dvdview/
File formats: MPG, VOB
Video Codecs: dvdview (C++)
Audio Codecs: -
Video output: X11, mga_vid
GUI type: console, commandline
It's more like a codec library than a player. Btw it has high image quality, and well-designed C++ API. The player has option for display motion vectors and macroblocks.


Program: xmovie
Author: Adam Williams
Homepage: http://www.heroinewarrior.com
File formats: MPG, VOB
Video Codecs: libmpeg3 (mpeg 1/2)
Audio Codecs: libmpeg3 (mpeg,ac3,pcm)
Video output: X11/Xv
Audio output: OSS
GUI type: X11, very nice gui (gtk???)
It's the primary player using libmpeg3 codecs. The only problem with it is the bad image quality. Btw it has the nicest GUI I've ever seen.


Program: mtv
Author: MpegTV
Homepage: http://www.mpegtv.com
File formats: MPG (mpeg-1 only)
Video Codecs: mtvp
Video output: X11/SDL
Audio output: OSS
GUI type: simple X11 (xforms)
This is the old only one commercial mpeg player for linux.


Program: VideoLAN
Author: VideoLAN team
Homepage: http://www.videolan.org
File formats: VOB
Video Codecs: built-in
Audio Codecs: built-in
Video output: X11, mga_vid, glide, ggi, fb
Audio output: OSS, esd
GUI type: X11, gnome
This player was designed for mpeg-2 streaming over LAN.


Program: LAMP
Author: Fabrice Le Fessant
Homepage: http://http://pauillac.inria.fr/lamp
File formats: MPG, AVI, .mov/.qt
Video Codecs: SMPEG, avifile, xanim, libmpeg3/libmpeg2
Audio Codecs: ???
Video output: XShm, DGA, Xv
Audio output: OSS?
GUI type: none (keyboard controlled)
I've never tried.


Program: Xtheater
Author: Jarrod Johnson
Homepage: http://xtheater.sourceforge.net
File formats: MPG, AVI, ASF
Video Codecs: SMPEG, libaviplay
Video output: SDL
GUI type: X11 gtk-based
I've never tried.


Program: kmpg
Author: Martin Vogt
Homepage: http://www.rhrk.uni-kl.de/~mvogt/linux/kmpg/index.html
File formats: MPG
Video Codecs: ???
Audio Codecs: multithreaded audio library (yaf)
GUI type: X11 KDE
I've never tried.


Program: ZZplayer
Author: Nicolas Vignal
Homepage: http://www.chez.com/tsc/zzplayer/zzplayer.html
File formats: MPG
Video Codecs: SMPEG
Video output: SDL
GUI type: X11 KDE using Qt 1.44
I've never tried.


Program: xanim
Author: Mark Podlipec
Homepage: http://xanim.va.pubnix.com/
File formats: avi (no DivX), mov (qt & sgi), fli/flc, gif, etc...
Video Codecs: own or licensed (binary-only)
Video output: X11 window
Audio output: OSS
GUI type: X11 simple
Plays near everything, except closed tech codecs (like divx). It's multiplatform, not linux-only.

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