Can’t find an open-source media player that perfectly fits the aesthetic of your Linux system? Try Clapper! It’s an open-source, modern media player that complements your GNOME system and provides all the necessary features of a media player.
Let’s explore the features of Clapper in this article to understand why you should at least try this media player once.
Overview of Clapper Media Player
Clapper is an open-source, well-designed GTK application powered by GStreamer as a media backend. Its GUI is built on two libraries: clapper (playback library) and clapperGTK (GTK integration library).
Additionally, let’s highlight some general features of Clapper before exploring its GUI:
- Works on both Xorg and Wayland
- Supports hardware acceleration via VA-API on AMD/Intel GPUs
- Supports MPRIS (Media Player Remote Interfacing Specification)
- Uses GJS with the GTK4 toolkit
- Operates on a playback queue model
- Renders video content utilizing OpenGL
- Offers a stylish, simple UI (user interface)
- Supports numerous file formats including MP4, AVI, and MKV
Installing Clapper Media Player in Linux
To install Clapper on your system, use the following flatpak command:
flatpak install flathub com.github.rafostar.Clapper
Note: Before running the installation command, ensure your system has Flatpak installed on it.
Exploring Clapper Media Player
After the installation of Clapper, open it by searching from Show Applications or by executing the following command:
flatpak run com.github.rafostar.Clapper
URL Support
As you open Clapper. you’ll notice a sleek-looking media player that matches your system theme and offers video playback via opening a file or URL:
You can paste in the YouTube video URL and it will start playing, without the ads.
View Modes
Clapper Media Player offers three different view modes: Fullscreen mode, Windowed mode, and Float mode.
In fullscreen mode, the Clapper media player covers the entire screen
In windowed mode, you can resize your media player as per your liking and view the floating OSD controls and playlist bar on the screen:
Additionally, in float mode, you can work on any other task while enjoying your videos. This mode always displays Clapper on top of other windows:
You must have noticed that the Clapper media player doesn’t have a typical title bar. Instead, it has floating OSD (On-Screen Display) controls on the video, which plays a vital role in making its appearance sleek and modern.
One thing I liked about Clapper is that all the controls disappear after a few seconds of mouse inactivity, giving a distraction-free experience.
Volume Amplification
Apart from different view modes, the Clapper media player supports volume amplification levels up to 200 percent:
Playback Speed Control
For any media player, one thing I always look for is playback speed control to speed up the boring parts and save time. Luckily, Clapper offers a playback speed control feature:
Playback Queue Model
As discussed earlier, Clapper operates on a playback queue model, which allows you to create a playlist of videos and play them using different queue progression modes (consecutive, repeat item, carousel, shuffle). This is a beneficial feature, as you can easily reorder the playlist by dragging and dropping multiple video files to play them one after another.
Clapper also offers a video playback repeat feature.
Subtitle Support
Another interesting feature of Clapper is subtitle support. I mean, who wouldn’t want to have subtitles while watching their favorite show or movie in a language they’re not fluent in?
However, one problem I experienced was that Clapper wasn’t showing subtitles for YouTube videos. I had to generate subtitles and open them explicitly.
Audio and Caption Offset Settings
Additionally, the Clapper media player allows you to adjust the audio and caption offset settings, as well as the caption font settings:
Keyboard Shortcuts
Since Claper is designed with user ease in mind, it’s quite obvious that it offers predefined keyboard shortcuts to enhance the user experience:
Resume Video
Another feature that I liked in Clapper Media Player is that it resumes the video from the same point you closed the player last time. However, this only applies to opening files from the system.
Control Player Remotely
Last but not least, the Clapper media player offers a WebSocket server feature, allowing users to control playback remotely:
Play along with the Clapper media player and let me know if I missed any features. Also, I’d love to hear about your experience with Clapper.
It might not be the best open-source media player, but after its recent update (version 0.6.0), it’s undoubtedly one of the sleek-looking media players with all essential features (fewer bugs).
Personal Opinion
Overall, I’m a minimalist person, and I don’t like fancy UI. I enjoyed using the Clapper media player because it adapts the style of my system. The only problem I faced was that its captions were not displaying while playing YouTube videos, which I addressed by generating the subtitles and opening them explicitly.
Removing Clapper from Linux
If you didn’t enjoy the Clapper media player, you can remove it from your system by running this flatpak command:
flatpak remove com.github.rafostar.Clapper
Alternative Media Players
You can try other open-source media players like VLC, MPV, and Exaile to see which best suits your needs and taste.
Image credit: Nimrach Chaudhry. All alterations and screenshots by Nimrah Chaudhry.
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