Without a doubt, the absolute favorite program to watch videos and movies on your computer is VLC which works with practically any video format.
The more traditionalists instead use the good old Windows Media Player (including video codec) which always remains a decent media player, but now really old.
In this article I want to recommend an alternative and new program that I had already included in the list of the best audio and video media players and that is really proving to be a little gem, suitable for everyone, simple and very light.
I'm talking about SMPlayer, an open source media player that can easily become the default program for viewing videos and movies on the PC .
The most important feature of SMPlayer, in addition to the clear and easy to use interface, is its speed and lightness in memory, even on older computers and the fact that it can also play Youtube videos.
SMPlayer, as well as wmp 12 and VLC, uses the GPU for video rendering or uses the memory of the graphics card so as to leave the processor and RAM free to do other things.
It can be downloaded for free on a Windows PC in an installation or portable version for a 32-bit or 64-bit PC.
SMPlayer works to watch video files (AVI, MKV, MP4, MOV, WMV, DivX, MPEG, FLV), to listen to audio and music, to open video streams from the internet and is also a DVD and BlueRay player .
Like VLC, SMPlayer also works to play incomplete files, those that have only been partially downloaded, so as to preview them even during the download.
Even if you don't set it as your default player, you can still use SMPlayer whenever you want, simply by opening it and dragging the videos you want to see on it.
A very useful function is to be able to configure automatic actions, choosing, for example, to turn off the computer, put it on standby or disconnect it when a music or video ends.
In this way, if you see a movie on the computer while lying on the bed, you can fall asleep quietly, without having to get up to turn off the computer.
For fans of original language films and TV shows, one of the unique features of SMPlayer is that you can add subtitles by uploading the srt file.
SMPlayer offers the possibility to leave the video window always superimposed or to set a certain degree of transparency so that it remains on the background of the screen, but always visible.
You can save images of a video so as to take photographs and extract frames, rotate videos, adjust contrast and brightness and so on.
Another interesting function that makes SMPlayer an alternative program to VLC, is the recording from a webcam and also the audio recording in a separate Wav file.
To view and choose the options you can use the pop-up bar at the top or you have to press the right button on the SMPlayer interface and move around the menu by enabling or disabling the various functions available.
In Display, GPU acceleration is enabled, transparency can be configured, video can be resized or rotated; in Audio you can enable the equalizer, from the Capture menu you can capture images from the video, from the Playback menu you can set automatic actions such as shutdown while in GUI> More Panel you can access advanced video options.
Although I don't recommend using it as a default program, this SMPlayer proves to be an excellent program to try because it is complete, light and full of features.
Those who have already used it or are using it, if they want, can leave a comment to confirm or not my good impression.
