SMPlayer Support Forum

I am trying to play an Mp4 file with smplayer; it is being played but the sound is playing smoothly but the video is buffering; the frames are staggering.

That's weird. Try to set the cache to 0. Sometimes that helps.

I too have had this MP4 playback problem for about 2 years, during which time I would update my smplayer to the most recent versions, hoping the problem would be fixed. So far, still not fixed. I've tried playing with the cache and other things gleaned on the forums - none of them helped.

Here is my not-so-elegant "solution":

1. create a new file extension for the smplayer-unfriendly mp4 file:

ie. *.mp4 --> *.mpz

2. associate *.mpz to vlc player

That way smplayer will still play the mp4's that it can play, but will not touch those pesky mpz's that it can't play. Instead, another player will play them. I chose vlc player because I like the hotkeys, but freeplayer or some other mplayer-based player is equally capable.