youtube-dl issue

[kamyogi]

HI,
SMPlayer on my computer has stopped playing YouTube video links prompting a message to download 'youtube-dl' that it can. Despite the download, it doesn't play the links and display the same message on easy attempt. My problem is much similar to this --> https://forum.smplayer.info/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12589.
How to remedy this problem? Would you please mind explain in simple steps as I am not quite familiar yet with Linux? I've been through the above mentioned thread and tried a few things, but did not work. Before messing things up, I want to go slowly.
Thanks for your help.
Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS

[rvm]

Maybe you need to install python. Try running in a terminal this command:

sudo apt-get install python

[kamyogi]

Installed Python by the command. Rebooted the PC, tried a YouTube link in the player, a new message this time... "Oops, something went wrong. MPlayer/mpv failed to start. Please check the MPlayer/mpv path in Preferences" with Showlog and OK buttons!
Do I need to do anything further? Thanks for the reply.

[rvm]

Go to preferences -> general. Which "multimedia engine" is selected? Maybe it's not installed.

[kamyogi]

It's /usr/bin/mpv. Should I change it to something else?

[rvm]

Is mpv installed?

You can try to run this in a terminal and see if it gives any error:

/usr/bin/mpv --version

[kamyogi]

...it says 'no such file or directory' !

[rvm]

[agent20]

Sorry, I know that this is not a Linux forum, but may I just add something? I am using the same distro as the kamyogi, namely Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS.

The last post is correct, but by its self,
sudo apt-get install mpv
will install possibly install an old version of mpv which is 2 year's old. Ubuntu 18.04 was created 2 year's ago.

It is better to install the latest version of mpv to match the latest version of smplayer.

In the terminal run this script:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mc3man/mpv-tests
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mpv

Kind regards. Sorry to interrupt the thread.

[kamyogi]

...it works Thankyou very much rvm. But where are my control buttons, like Stop, Play, Fast Forward/Backword etc? I don't see them. And how to make appear the text menu on upper side of the player? Icons are there, but not text menu.