11.6 Video Players

The main video players on FreeBSD include VLC, SMPlayer, and Kodi, all of which support pkg installation. This section also includes a configuration method for playing video directly in the TTY using mpv.

VLC

Installing VLC

• Install using pkg (binary package manager):

# pkg install vlc

• Or compile and install using Ports (source code package manager):

# cd /usr/ports/multimedia/vlc/
# make install clean

Playing Video with VLC

Based on testing, common video formats can all play normally in VLC.

VLC Player

VLC Video Playback

SMPlayer

SMPlayer is a Qt graphical frontend for MPlayer (a command-line video player) and mpv.

Installing SMPlayer

• Install using the pkg binary package manager:

# pkg install smplayer

• Or compile and install using Ports source code:

# cd /usr/ports/multimedia/smplayer/
# make install clean

Playing Video with SMPlayer

Based on testing, common video formats can all play normally in SMPlayer.

SMPlayer

SMPlayer

SMPlayer

Kodi

Kodi is an open-source media center software, formerly known as XBMC (Xbox Media Center).

Installing Kodi

• Install using the pkg binary package manager:

# pkg install kodi

• Or compile and install using Ports source code:

# cd /usr/ports/multimedia/kodi/
# make install clean

Setting Up a Chinese Environment for Kodi

First, open the interface settings option in the Kodi main interface:

Kodi Settings Interface

Click the Skin option, then click the settings level button at the bottom left of the interface, changing the current Basic level to Expert or Standard level, otherwise you will not be able to see advanced settings options such as Fonts. Then set Fonts to Arial based, otherwise Chinese characters may display as garbled text.

Kodi Font Settings Interface

After returning to the previous menu, select Regional → Language → Chinese (Simplified) in sequence to complete the language switch.

Kodi Language Settings Interface

The effect after completing the Chinese interface setup is as follows:

Kodi Chinese Interface

Playing Video with Kodi

Based on testing, common video formats can all play normally in the Kodi media center.

Kodi Video Playback Test

Appendix: Playing Video Directly in TTY (mpv)

You can directly use the mpv command to play video files in a Linux/FreeBSD TTY (Teletypewriter, i.e., pure text terminal) environment.

• Install using pkg (binary package manager):

# pkg install mpv

• You can also compile and install via Ports source code:

# cd /usr/ports/multimedia/mpv/
# make install clean

After switching to the TTY terminal environment, use the mpv player to play the video file 1.mp4:

$ mpv 1.mp4

Note

This functionality depends on the DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) graphics subsystem and may not work properly in virtual machine environments.