Skip to content

Alpha Player

Alpha Player is a multimedia core for RePlay OS, based on a port of the powerful FFmpeg audio/video decoding library to the libretro platform. This allows seamless playback of a wide variety of audio and video formats, along with advanced features like audio visualizations and smooth interframe blending for non-native framerates.

Features

  • Wide format support: Thanks to FFmpeg, supports most common video and audio file formats (MKV, MP4, AVI, MP3, FLAC, OGG, WAV, M4A, etc.)
  • Audio Visualizer: Displays a real-time FFT-based audio visualizer when playing music.
  • Interframe Blending: Enables smoother playback for videos with non-native framerates.
  • Playlist Support: Play M3U playlists with track navigation.
  • Subtitle Support: Toggle subtitle tracks and display them in video playback.
  • Audio Track Selection: Easily switch between multiple audio tracks in supported media.
  • Custom Loop Modes: Supports track repeat, loop all, and shuffle for playlists.
  • On-Screen Progress and Info: Quick access to current time, progress, and media info.

Usage Notes

Note: Alpha Player is focused on Raspberry Pi devices and is actively developed for RePlay OS. It is not guaranteed to work on other platforms or general Linux systems.

Controls

Button Action
START Play/Pause
A Display current progress/time
B Display media title
X Enable/disable video subtitles
Y Change audio track
L Previous track (M3U)
R Next track (M3U)
LEFT Seek -15s
RIGHT Seek +15s
UP Seek +3min (180s)
DOWN Seek -3min (180s)
L2 Seek -5min (300s)
R2 Seek +5min (300s)

Supported Formats

  • Video: .mkv, .avi, .mp4, .mov, .flv, .wmv, .webm, .mpeg, .mpg, .m2ts, .vob, etc.
  • Audio: .mp3, .flac, .ogg, .m4a, .wav, .wma, etc.
  • Playlists: .m3u
  • (Full list matches libretro FFmpeg core formats)

Project Origins and License

  • Based on: libretro FFmpeg core, authored by Fabrice Bellard and the FFmpeg team.
  • Reworked and ported by: Rubén Tomás (RTA)
  • Notes: The codebase has been heavily refactored and reorganized to separate it from RetroArch’s internal version.

Changelog

v2.1.0

  • Changed scaling from POINT to BILINEAR for improved image quality
  • Fixed seeking functionality
  • Fixed random crash when changing audio tracks

v2.0.4

  • Reverted changes from v2.0.2 that caused video issues

v2.0.3

  • Added audio gain for videos with 5.1 channel audio tracks

v2.0.2

  • Fixed crash when seeking in many videos

v2.0.1

  • Fixed crash with music containing embedded images in GIF/BMP format

v2.0.0

  • Major update to modern FFmpeg and libretro APIs
  • Added playlist support, loop/shuffle modes, new debug flags, improved OSD info, audio visualizer resolution options, and more

Known Issues / TODO

  • Playback of videos using non-standard timings (e.g. 288p PAL 60Hz) on CRTs may not work correctly.

Further Information