Multiformat video player that doesn't need codecs

One of the most frustrating things about video playback is when you don't have the right codecs installed. SMPlayer attempts to do away with this problem completely by attempting to play videos regardless of the codecs they need.

SMPlayer uses the MPlayer engine, which the developers claim can play almost all video formats. In reality, this is not always the case. What you may find is that if you're trying to play a WMV file protected by DRM for example, you will see snippets of the film but not the whole thing.

However, SMPlayer has many other great features that make it an interesting proposition. One of the most useful is the way it remembers most of the settings of files that you play a bit like a DVD Player. If you turn off a film because you're a bit tired, when you open it later in SMPlayer, it will start from exactly the same point where you left it with all the original settings including subtitles and audio.

Another area where SMPlayer excels is in subtitles. SMPlayer allows you to choose subtitles in a variety of formats allowing you to choose the font, size, and even colors.

There are many other great aspects to SMPlayer - audio track switching, mouse scrolling and multiple speed playback - that on top of it's codec free playback, make it an excellent choice.

  • Pros

    • Not restricted by codecs
    • Resumes play from stopping point
    • Lot of subtitle control
  • Cons

    • Doesn't play some codec protected media properly
 0/4

App specs

Also available in other platforms

Program available in other languages


Icon of program: SMPlayer

SMPlayer for PC

  • Free
  • 4
    485
  • 661.4K
  • V25.6.0

User reviews about SMPlayer

4

8 reviews

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Main reviews for you

  • Anonymous user

    I'm a jazz sax player with backing tracks on a Win 10 tablet and external sound card., hooked up to a 1000 watt speaker system that I use for parties etc. This is the ONLY player I have found with the flexibility to set different equalizer settings for individual tracks and reproduce those settings ACCURATELY and effectively! I've been searching for years for such a player and was using VLC until I stumbled on THIS online. I've never looked back since!

  • Anonymous user

    Good player.. Good player. smplayer.ru - is russian support site. I using this very good player in my notebook and PC

  • Anonymous user

    Fastest and safest and most full featured media player. Firstly to comments above about the sound being too low. This is a very simple setting to adjust. Go to Options, Preferences, Audio tab, then in Max Amplification adjust the setting higher. For example 100 is 100% and 200 is 200% or x2 amplification. You can then use the audio slider on the bottom right of SMPlayer to adjust the sound volume.Okay so I first started using this software a couple of years ago when all I had to travel with was an very old Dell Laptop running Windows XP and it was a Pentium III 450Mhz with an ATI Graphics chip. With a clean install of windows and the latest drivers it would pause or go out of sync on movies/TV episodes using Windows Media Player or Using VLC Media Player. Using SMPlayer I could run movies/TV episodes full screen without pauses or speech going out of sync even using the TV out running full screen on a TV! It just goes to show this software is built well for speed and very efficient use of system resources!A very big feature of this media player is the way it installs and uses codecs. Now using windows media player over the years (and most other 3rd party media players) it is normal to have to download codecs or whole bloated codec packs to get certain videos to run. All it takes sometimes is one poorly written codec to mess up the windows media player codec system (which most 3rd party players or encoders use). It has been a few times I have seen it require a format and re-install of windows to fix a problem caused by a poorly written codec. What a pain! SMPlayer uses it's own inbuilt codec system that is separate from Windows Media Player this means it will not mess with Windows Media Player or it's codec system. Also if for whatever reason a video plays strangely or SMPlayer you can always run it on Windows Media Player as they are both separate. Please remember to choose the web installer of SMPlayer and then select extra codecs, this will make sure you have support for all the video files out there such as .mkv ect.SMPlayer is very simple and powerful to use. Features I use all the time are the video equaliser to change the brightness, gamma, saturation of a movie or TV episode to look just right for my screen. Also the scroll wheel on the mouse to go forward and back through a movie. More advanced is the configurable keyboard shortcuts which I then use with a program called Intelliremote. I can then use my HP laptop media player remote for almost any pre-set function on SMPlayer. Cons: The only real downside to this media player so far is that it's DVD menu system or navigation is not fully working. I would recommend just using Windows Media Player for watching DVD movies.

  • Anonymous user

    Best Player ever used. Hi,Recently i have started using SMPlayer and looking out the features and they way it load quickly for playing videos doesn't need any Codecs/patches for playing it, Hats off to the Developers... Excellent Product for Free of Cost.

  • Anonymous user

    The Best ;;;. So far it's the only player that make winME be able to play FLV file.And it works even with my super computer, Gateway Pentium 350.Thank a lot to the developer.

  • Anonymous user

    This player has still a long way to go. i don't why they copied the appearance of vlc media player, they should have come up wid a new look. this software is very good at playing any kind of multimedia files but the main problem is it's sound which is very low.. on the other hand vlc and bs player are much better on all the fronts Pros: plays all media filesuser friendly Cons: looks like vlc media playersound way too low

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Is SMPlayer safe?

98/100

Score result: Clean

This file passed a comprehensive security scan using VirusTotal technology. It is safe to download.

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Scan Info

Last scan
Thursday, June 19, 2025
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File Integrity

File
SMPlayer_V25.6.0.exe
SHA256
e19ff69c5d4083c852381502a98e06fcab672f0bb256f03363333e0effdc12eb
SHA1
90510337cccab8e6ff7283136014df41d143a52a

Softonic security commitment

SMPlayer has been thoroughly scanned by our advanced security systems and verified by industry-leading partners. This file comes from the official developer and has passed all our security checks, showing no signs of viruses, malware, or spyware. For more information, visit our Security and Trust Center