Media players: who needs another one, right?
Well, it comes down to choice.
A box of chocolates (oh dear, here I go with movie analogies in a video player post) would be boring if each sweet was the same. In a sense, that’s sort of the case with desktop apps: you have to chew on a few ones you don’t like to find the one you really do like.
For some, UMPlayer will be their flavour.
UMPlayer Media Player
UMplayer (which stands for Universal Multimedia Player) is a cross-platform app and a fork of the popular Qt media player SMPlayer (which, in turn, is based on MPlayer).
Despite the linage, UMPlayer is more than simply a redressed SMPlayer clone. It’s jam-packed with neat features and tools that are all of its own.
Watch and Download YouTube Videos
One of the most ‘unique’ features of UMPlayer is its ability to search, play and ‘record’ (i.e., save a copy of) YouTube videos.
Yes, YouTube – streaming video, not local video.
As the search box is accessible in the main screen at all times, you’ll never not know this feature is there. Search results appear in a small popup window.
You can set a default playback quality for YouTube videos, from pixelated 360p to high-definition 1080p, and your preferred quality and file format/container for downloaded videos – all via the Preferences menu.
Customise the UI with UMPlayer Skins
I generally like my desktop applications to “match” my Ubuntu desktop’s GTK theme, but being a Qt- UMPlayer doesn’t do this off the bat.
In fact, the way UMPlayer look by default leaves a lot – and I mean a lot – to be desired on Ubuntu:
Thankfully, UMPlayer includes a bunch of skins (aka themes).
My favourite is the ‘Modern’ skin, which is what you’ll see in most of the screenshots on this page. It also has one of the nicest OSD control bars I’ve ever seen on a Linux media player:
You can enable the full bling-factor by enabling the Animation setting in ‘Preferences > Interface > Floating Control’.
Solid Support for Subtitles
I rely on subtitles when watching a lot of non-English language TV shows and movies, and one thing I use a lot in VLC is its built-in subtitle downloading plugin. I was pleased to see UMPlayer has its own built-in subtitles search/download feature.
Plus, it’s possible to customise the font, size and colour used by subtitles, while options for adjusting subtitle delay – useful for when things go out of sync – can be accessed quickly through the ‘Subtitles’ menu in the application’s menu bar.
Playback bonanza
UMPlayer comes with over 270 built-in audio and video codecs, meaning it should be able to play most media formats you chuck at it, including common formats like AVI, DIVX, FLV and MOV, as well as Matroska (MKV), WMV, and oldie-ones like RealMedia.
Plenty of Options
Other UMPlayer features include:
- Choose specific video and audio outputs
- Apply ‘real time’ audio and video filters and effects
- Force aspect ratio
- Select audio track
- Playlist
- MPlayer ‘pass’ options
- Configurable mouse and keyboard functions
For a full list of what UMPlayer can do head to LINK BROKEN.
Flaws
Like a lot of media players available on Linux (barring VLC), UMplayer lacks comprehensive DVD menu navigation support. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Similarly, unlike the Windows and OS X versions, the Linux build of UMPlayer isn’t optimised for the latest CPU and iGPU features – if you’re not on a netbook or low-end hardware this won’t affect you too much, but it would still be nice to ‘have’.
Download UMPlayer
UMPlayer 0.95 is available to install from the Ubuntu Software Centre in Ubuntu 11.04, no PPA needed. Just search it out by name.
Easy-to-install DEB installers for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS through 11.04 are available to download the projects’ official development page on Sourceforge, should you prefer.