Smplayer2 extends it with the following APIs:

Lua is a very compact, relatively fast and easily extensible functional programming language. Smplayer2 uses the LUA programming engine for screen and media setup and to control the display while the player is running. These make callbacks to scripts wich control visualizers. The program thread executes the media script and performs all “work” in controller- and visualizer-coroutines (not real threads). The drawing algorithm allows for flatfield calibration (keystone). The graphics thread controls the drawing of OpenGL textures at a fixed rate to the physical screen. The software implements a multithreaded scriptable “game loop”. Other than that, it is a very unique and capable piece of software that can help solve unique media display problems in a neat way. – Currently no (or very limited) audio support. – Scripts are not easy to program and debug lack of IDE. This is done using a custom mplayer binary and the files may consume a lot of disk space. – video must be converted into proprietary file format (stream of compressed textures) before playback.

– many image sources (images, video clips, webcam, VNC) – contains many utility commands for controlling display script (i.e. – contains many commands for drawing graphics and text to screen – can handle several SD and HD streams concurrently – allows for flat-field calibrated synchronized playback on up to 2 screens It is based on a Linux PC with OpenGL graphics acceleration.

The smplayer2 software was created as a frontend driver for digital signage project and has since been used in some media-art installations. The software is © Andreas Schiffler, aschiffler at, but released under a liberal OSS license. This is the source archive for smplayer a Linux+OpenGL based LUA scriptable mediaplayer that supports HD video playback and custom digital IO controls it was used as Digital Retina media art installation by Jill Scott in Version 2.0.