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<title>SMPlayer FAQ</title>
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<h1>SMPlayer - Frequently Asked Questions</h1>
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<li><a href="#smplayer_mplayer">Sometimes I read SMPlayer, others MPlayer, what are
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they? are they the same?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#dvd_menus">DVD menus, where are they?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#output_drivers">Output drivers (directx, xv, x11, gl, alsa, oss...)
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what are they? Which one is the best?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#nvidia_problems">I have a NVidia card and gl/gl2 doesn't work,
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<li><a href="#screenshot">I try to make a screenshot but the option
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is disabled, why?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#audio_track">I try to change the audio track but it doesn't work,
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the audio remains the same. I have to stop the video and play it again to
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actually change audio. Why?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#shortcuts">How can I change the key shortcuts?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#qt">I've read something about Qt, what's that?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#codecs">With some video formats I only get audio, but not
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video. Why? Do I need some codecs?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#open_quit">What's the difference between Open -> Close and
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Open -> Quit? Do they do the same?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#audio_cd">How can I play an audio CD?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#bookmark">Where is the bookmark?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#mplayer_errors">I try to play a file but nothing happens.
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<li><a href="#preferences_delay">When I open the preferences dialog for first
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time it takes some secs to show, why?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#audio_equalizer">There's a video equalizer, but why isn't there
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an audio equalizer?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#tv">Are you going to add support for TV?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#mplayer_restart">A lot of menu options make the video to go blank
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for a moment. Why?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#crash">SMPlayer crashed, but the audio didn't stop, why?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#playlist_problem">When I'm playing a playlist, when a file ends
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SMPlayer doesn't play the next file automatically, why?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#mplayer_recommended">What version of MPlayer is recommended?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#subtitles_border">I want the subtitles to be displayed on the black
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border instead of the image, how can I do it?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#expand_filter">I want the subtitles to be displayed on the black
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border for ALL videos, is it possible?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#monitors">(Windows) The video is displayed only in the 1st
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monitor but not in the 2nd, why?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#volume_loud">The volume is too loud at the beginning of the
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videos, how can this be fixed?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#vista">(Windows) I'm using Windows Vista and every time
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I play a video Aero is disabled, why?</a></li>
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<li><a name="smplayer_mplayer"></a>
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<b>Sometimes I read SMPlayer, others MPlayer, what are they? are they
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No, they are two different applications. MPlayer is a multimedia player
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developed initially for linux and then ported to other OS. It's very
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good, it plays almost every everything, and it has for instance a lot of
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filters and so on. But most users may find it hard to use it.
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Fortunately MPlayer can work together with another application (the
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video window can be embedded in the other application GUI, it obeys
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commands sent by the application).
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So SMPlayer is just a front-end which uses MPlayer to actually play the
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SMPlayer is the window you see, the menus, the preferences dialog...
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(along with other things you don't see, like functions to control
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MPlayer). But SMPlayer knows nothing about playing files. It doesn't
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even know what a codec is.
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MPlayer on the other hand, opens the files, decodes them, displays the
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video and plays the audio. Subtitles are also read, parsed and displayed
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<li><a name="dvd_menus"></a>
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<b>DVD menus, where are they?</b>
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Currently MPlayer doesn't support DVD menus...
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Well, in fact it does if compiled with dvdnav support. The last time I
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tested it, it didn't work quite well.
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Anyway, even there are no DVD menus, you can still select your desired
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title, chapter, audio track, subtitles... in the SMPlayer menus.
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<li><a name="output_drivers"></a>
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<b>Output drivers (directx, xv, x11, gl, alsa, oss...) what are they?
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Which one is the best?</b>
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MPlayer has several output drivers, for video and sound. SMPlayer allows
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you to select the one you want among all of them (<i>Preferences -> General</i>).
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For video it's recommended that you use xv (linux) or directx (windows).
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They use hardware acceleration and give the best performance.
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The inconvenience about directx for Windows Vista users is that it
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x11 and directx:noaccel are drivers without hardware acceleration. They
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give the worst performance. Moreover directx:noaccel gives a bad quality
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gl and gl2 will use 3D acceleration from the graphic card. They will
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give better performance than directx:noaccel and x11 but no so much as
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directx or xv. gl/gl2 can be useful for Windows Vista users.
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For sound, you should usually use oss or alsa in linux. I don't like esd
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or arts, they use to use more CPU.
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In windows the sound drivers are dsound and win32. I read that dsound
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can cause sometimes audio-video sync problems. If you notice that
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problem try win32 instead.
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Other drivers allows you to save the video as image files or write the
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sound to the disk. These drivers are not officially supported by
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SMPlayer. Use them only if you know what you're doing.
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<li><a name="nvidia_problems"></a>
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<b>I have a NVidia card and gl/gl2 doesn't work, why?</b>
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It seems to be a problem with the NVidia cards or their drivers on
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Windows. gl/gl2 does work when using the real MPlayer window, but not
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when the video is embedded in another application. There's no known fix.
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The only thing you can do is either use directx instead of gl/gl2 or
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check the option to use the MPlayer window in <i>Preferences -> Advanced</i>.
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<li><a name="screenshot"></a>
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<b>I try to make a screenshot but the option is disabled, why?</b>
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You didn't choose a folder for storing the screenshots. Do it in
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<i>Preferences -> General</i>, and the screenshot option will be enabled.
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<li><a name="audio_track"></a>
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<b>I try to change the audio track but it doesn't work, the audio
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remains the same. I have to stop the video and play it again to actually
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change audio. Why?</b>
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With some formats (ike mp4 or ogm), MPlayer can't change the audio track
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at runtime. By unchecking the option "Fast audio track switching" you'll
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be able to change the audio in those formats.
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<li><a name="shortcuts"></a>
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<b>How can I change the key shortcuts?</b>
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<i>Preferences -> Keyboard and mouse</i>. You'll be able to change most key shortcuts.
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<li><a name="qt"></a>
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<b>I've read something about Qt, what's that?</b>
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SMPlayer is being developed by using Qt, which is a C++ library that
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allows cross-platform development. The same source code can be compiled
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on Windows, Linux and Mac OS.
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<a href="http://trolltech.com/products/qt">http://trolltech.com/products/qt</a>
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<li><a name="codecs"></a>
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<b>With some video formats I only get audio, but not video. Why? Do
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I need some codecs?</b>
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MPlayer can player most common formats "out of the box". But for codecs
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that haven't been yet implemented natively, it's necessary to install a
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package with binary codecs. You can get it from the
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<a href="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html">MPlayer download
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On Windows, install the codecs in the mplayer/codecs subdirectory.
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On linux distros the package may be available as a regular package,
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maybe with the name of w32codecs or something like that.
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<li><a name="open_quit"></a>
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<b>What's the difference between <i>Open -> Close</i> and <i>Open -> Quit</i>?
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Do they do the same?</b>
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If the option "Show icon in system tray" (in menu Options) is not
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checked, then yes, the two options do the same: quit the application.
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But if that option is enabled, then <i>Open -> Close</i> will just hide the
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application (and stop the current file), but SMPlayer is still running.
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<i>Open -> Quit</i> really quits the application, no matter if the system tray
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icon is enabled or not.
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<li><a name="audio_cd"></a>
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<b>How can I play an audio CD?</b>
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Support for audio CDs was added in version 0.5.18.
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Under Windows it's not possible to play audio CDs yet.
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<li><a name="bookmark"></a>
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<b>Where is the bookmark?</b>
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<li><a name="mplayer_errors"></a>
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<b>I try to play a file but nothing happens. Why?</b>
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Probably MPlayer couldn't play the file. Open the mplayer log
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(<i>Options -> View logs -> MPlayer</i>), you'll probably find an error message in
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On Windows is quite common that some MPlayer builds fail because they
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have been compiled with no support for some feature that SMPlayer tries
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to use. The error message could give you a clue. If it complains about
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cache, try disabling the cache in <i>Preferences -> Performance</i>. If it
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complains about fontconfig try to use a ttf font instead of a system
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<li><a name="preferences_delay"></a>
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<b>When I open the preferences dialog for first time it takes some
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secs to show, why?</b>
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In that moment SMPlayer calls MPlayer to get some info from it (the
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output drivers, for instance). It happens the same with <i>Options -> View
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info and properties</i>.
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<li><a name="audio_equalizer"></a>
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<b>There's a video equalizer, but why isn't there an audio equalizer?</b>
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The video equalizer was easy to do because MPlayer has slave commands to
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change brightness, contrast and so on at runtime. But I'm afraid it
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doesn't have similar commands for audio, so this can't be done.
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<li><a name="tv"></a>
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<b>Are you going to add support for TV?</b>
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That would be nice, but TV support is not planned for now. Currently
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I don't have a TV card, so I can't implement it.
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<li><a name="mplayer_restart"></a>
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<b>A lot of menu options make the video to go blank for a moment.
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Some options require to stop the MPlayer process and start it again with
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new parameters. That's why playing interrupts for a moment.
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<li><a name="crash"></a>
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<b>SMPlayer crashed, but the audio didn't stop, why?</b>
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SMPlayer crashed, but MPlayer is still running. Kill the MPlayer process
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Anyway if SMPlayer crashes, it's a serious bug that should be fixed.
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<li><a name="playlist_problem"></a>
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<b>When I'm playing a playlist, when a file ends SMPlayer doesn't
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play the next file automatically, why?</b>
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Probably your MPlayer is translated into another language. SMPlayer
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looks for some English texts in the output of MPlayer. In this case it
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looks for "Exiting... (End of file)". As MPlayer displays the messages
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in another language SMPlayer fails and won't work properly.
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Unfortunately the language of MPlayer can't be changed without
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recompiling it. But recents versions of SMPlayer allow to change the
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messages that it should look for (<i>Preferences -> Advanced -> MPlayer
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<li><a name="mplayer_recommended"></a>
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<b>What version of MPlayer is recommended?</b>
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SMPlayer can work with MPlayer 1.0rc1 (it hasn't been tested with
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older releases). Anyway that version is very old and it's not recommended at all.
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A lot of new things and improvements have been added since then.
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For instance changing audio in avi files or seeking in flv or ogm files
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don't work with that version.
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You should use at least MPlayer 1.0rc2, although some new interesting features
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have been added after its release. I recommend to use at least
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MPlayer SVN r25843 (from 2008-01-23).
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In the <a href="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html">MPlayer
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download page</a> you can get a svn tar.bz2 ready to compile. And
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compiling it is very easy (in linux, I mean...)
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<li><a name="subtitles_border"></a>
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<b>I want the subtitles to be displayed on the black border instead
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of the image, how can I do it?</b>
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<i>Video filters -> Add black borders</i>
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<li><a name="expand_filter"></a>
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<b>I want the subtitles to be displayed on the black border for ALL
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videos, is it possible?</b>
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Currently the only way is to add a video filter like
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<b>expand=:::::4/3</b> in <i>Preferences -> Advanced -> Options for MPlayer</i>.
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<li><a name="monitors"></a>
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<b>(Windows) The video is displayed only in the 1st monitor but not in the
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When you use <i>directx</i> as video driver (<i>Preferences -> General</i>)
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the video can only be displayed on one monitor. If you use instead
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<i>directx:noaccel</i>, <i>gl</i> or <i>gl2</i> the video will be displayed
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in any monitor (users of nvidia cards, please
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<a href="#nvidia_problems">read this</a>).
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Anyway if you prefer to use <i>directx</i> is still possible but you have
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to add the <i>-adapter</i> option in <i>Preferences -> Advanced -> Options
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for MPlayer</i> (<i>Options</i> field). <b>-adapter 1</b> will display the
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video on the 1st monitor, <b>-adapter 2</b> will display it on the 2nd
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monitor, and so on (I think).
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<li><a name="volume_loud"></a>
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<b>The volume is too loud at the beginning of the videos, how can this
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Check the option <i>Change volume just before playing</i> in
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<i>Preferences -> General -> Audio</i>.
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This option requires a MPlayer build which is patched to add a new option
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(<i>-volume</i>) for it. The build included in the package for Windows has
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this patch applied. The patch can be found
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<a href="http://smplayer.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/*checkout*/smplayer/mplayer-builds/patches/startupvol.diff?revision=467">here</a>.
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<li><a name="vista"></a>
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<b>(Windows) I'm using Windows Vista and every time I play a video Aero
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is disabled, why?</b>
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This happens when you're using <i>directx</i> as video driver
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(<i>Preferences -> General</i>). You can change it to <i>gl</i> or <i>gl2</i>
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(users of nvidia cards, please <a href="#nvidia_problems">read this</a>).
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