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OverviewSimpleVP (SVP) is a video player, that also plays audio media. SVP is a simple GUI frontend for CLI (commandline) media players, such as VLC, FFplay and Omxplayer.SVP is written in Bash shell script, and uses GTKDialog to achieve the graphical windows (requiring GTK+2), and utilities xdotool, wmctrl, xwininfo and xprop to interact with the CLI player. SVP is intended to be very easy to use, with a fairly minimal user interface. There is a simple main window, and when a video or audio file is played, there is an On-Screen Controls (OSC) window with buttons for play, pause, stop, etc. The GUIWhen launched, this is the main window:![]()
The Setup section is self-explanatory. Options are automatically configured to suit the CLI player chosen and the Xorg, audio and hardware setup. For example, if the Omxplayer is chosen in the Raspberry Pi, only "OpenMAX" (hardware accelerated video output) is offered for the "Video out" drop-down list, and only "Analog" and "HDMI" offered for the "Audio output". Similarly, the "Size" drop-down list only offers options appropriate for the chosen CLI player and video Xorg-driver and hardware. OSCThis will vary, but basically looks like this when a video is playing:![]() The OSC window displays when a video is playing in a window, not when playing fullscreen. In the latter case, keyboard hot-keys can be used, such as the space-bar to pause and "q" to quit. Raspberry PiQuirky Linux 8.1+ runs on the Pi2 and Pi3, and includes SimpleVP, with the CLI players FFplay, VLC and Omxplayer.VLC has been compiled especially for the Pi, with hardware acceleration using OpenMAX, as well as software rendering with X11 and SDL output modes. OpenMAX video output mode is fullscreen only and there is no OSC, and the hot-keys do not work. Omxplayer uses OpenMAX only. OpenMAX renders direct to the screen, bypassing Xorg, so is normally used for fullscreen playing. However, Omxplayer can render in a portion of the screen, giving a window-like effect and allowing the OSC. For low-resolution videos, up to about 480p, software rendering works OK with VLC. Omxplayer will play up to 1080p smoothly, whereas VLC (with OpenMAX) experiences some stuttering at 1080p and should be limited to 720p. This is testing on the Pi2. |