UMPlayer

A long time ago, in a past age, I stumbled across a minimalist video player called MPlayer. When I say minimalist I really mean it. There were no buttons or sliders, no File or View menu. It was just a console window and a view window. Every command was bound to a key and for the first few viewings you had to keep a key reference handy. It wasn't at all annoying. Quite the contrary, It was giving me the impression that I was a computer wiz, sending computer commands directly with the keyboard. Yet times have changed, I no longer valued the simplicity of it all, but wanted a play button... maybe even a pause and stop button if it was not too much to ask...

It can play that too

UMPlayer resurrects the old MPlayer and applies a face lift, six different face lifts actually. MPlayer was so great because it could open any video file, including incomplete files that were a lost cause to other video players. Now we get the best of both worlds.

Besides being able to play any sort of media file, UMPlayer can also search online for subtitles and stream video from the internet. To be honest, though, video streaming is not always working, and throughout the years, UMPlayer has had troubles keeping up with YouTube in terms of compatibility. Still, searching for videos works fine and if we take into account that you can also search and play Shoutcast radio the video streaming sins are almost forgiven.

What else? Some filters and post processing. Oh, and there are buttons and a volume slider for us click-junkies.

Features

• Repairs broken video files
• Shoutcast Radio and Youtube streaming
• Searches for movie subtitles
• Lots of codecs
• Can make preview pictures

Pros

• Can play anything!
• Shoutcast is a nice bonus

Cons

• Youtube feature is kind of non-existent

Conclusion

UMPlayer should be everyone's backup player in case it's not the preferred one. Its ability to play anything is probably the best feature any video player can have.