MPlayer GUI 2024-11-27

MPlayer GUI, better known as MPUI, puts a simple window around MPlayer, one of the most capable free video engines ever written.

MPlayer on its own runs from a command line, which is fine on Linux and awkward for almost everyone on Windows.

MPUI fixes that with a plain player window in the style of the classic Windows Media Player, and the newest build is from 27 November 2024.

What MPUI Actually Does

MPUI does not decode anything itself. It is a front end: it sends your clicks to MPlayer, and MPlayer does the playing.

That split is the whole point. MPlayer brings the format support, and MPUI brings buttons, a seek bar, a playlist and menus. If the difference between a window and a command line is new to you, our guide on GUI versus command line explains it in plain terms.

Because MPlayer carries its own decoders, MPUI plays files without Windows codecs. It does not use DirectShow filters such as LAV Filters, so it is a handy fallback when a codec setup elsewhere on the PC has gone wrong.

Which Download To Pick

The download page keeps several builds, because MPUI has been forked and repackaged many times over the years. Here is what each one is.

• MPUI 2024-11-27 (hcb) - the current build, from the MPUI-hcb project on SourceForge, released under the GPL. The large installer includes MPlayer itself. Take this one unless you have a reason not to.
• MPUI 2023-06-29 (hcb) - the previous hcb release, kept in case the newer one misbehaves on your PC.
• MPlayer for Windows 2020-04-25 (MuldeR) - a well-known all-in-one package with MPlayer, MPUI and SMPlayer. It has not been updated since April 2020, but it is still a tidy one-click install.
• MPlayer 2019-08-28 (x64, no window) - the bare 64-bit MPlayer engine for people who already have a front end or want the command line.
• MPUI 1.2 pre3, MPUI-Ve 2.3.3.88 and the MPlayer 1.0 rc2 GUI - older versions and source code, kept for reference and for very old Windows PCs.

What It Plays

MPlayer is built on the same decoding libraries as FFmpeg, so it opens almost everything you are likely to have on disk.

That covers MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, FLV and MPEG files, with H.264, MPEG-4, DivX and older formats on the video side, and MP3, AAC, AC3, Ogg Vorbis and FLAC for audio. Old AVI collections play without installing the Xvid codec separately.

The hcb build also plays DVDs with their menus, handles several audio and subtitle tracks, and can open videos, subtitles and lyrics straight from RAR, 7z and ZIP archives, without unpacking them in 7-Zip first.

Not sure what is inside a file that refuses to play? The online codec finder tells you which codecs it uses.

Subtitles Without The Fuss

MPUI-hcb picks the subtitle font and character set for you, which matters for subtitles in Cyrillic, Greek, Chinese and other non-Latin scripts. You can also resize subtitles and move them up or down with the mouse while the video plays.

If a subtitle file runs ahead of or behind the speech, our guide on how to synchronize subtitles walks through the fix, and Subtitle Edit handles bigger repairs.

How Current Is It

Worth being straight about this. MPlayer, the engine, last had a formal release with version 1.5 in February 2022. Development continues slowly in its code repository, but releases are rare.

MPUI-hcb is maintained by one developer and updates every year or so, with the latest build in November 2024. It works, and it is genuinely light, but it does not get the steady stream of fixes that the busier players do.

mpv is MPlayer's modern descendant. It grew out of the same code, and it is where the active development now happens, with proper HDR and hardware decoding support.

Who Should Look Elsewhere

If you want the MPlayer family with a modern interface, SMPlayer is the natural step up. It runs mpv or MPlayer underneath and adds YouTube playback, a resume feature and a far more complete settings screen.

If you play HDR or 4K video, choose a player built for it. MPC-HC and MPC-BE are just as light and handle HDR properly, and PotPlayer packs in more features than you will ever use.

If you want something that simply works on Windows, Mac and Linux alike, VLC Media Player is the safe default. And if your goal is to make Windows' own players handle more formats, the K-Lite Codec Pack is the better route.

The full media players section has the rest.

Quick questions

Download MPlayer GUI 2024-11-27 to try the hcb build, or tell us how it worked for you if you have used it before.