ReinPlayer 🎬

A modern, intuitive video player for Linux inspired by PotPlayer.

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🚀 Introduction

Why ReinPlayer?

As a developer transitioning fully to Linux, I faced a surprising barrier: my favorite tools weren't available. Two of them kept me tied to Windows:

• Internet Download Manager (IDM)
• PotPlayer

I eventually found a good alternative to IDM, but PotPlayer remained unmatched. Tools like VLC and SMPlayer are powerful, yet they lack the seamless and intuitive experience PotPlayer offers, especially with playlist management.

Key Missing Features in Other Players:

• Playlists are saved as files and don't persist between sessions.
• Doesn't auto-load all similar files in a folder when opening a video (e.g., play next episode automatically)
• Must manually open playlist files, unlike PotPlayer's built-in view.
• Doesn't resume playback from the last played video
• Interfaces can feel clunky or unintuitive etc

I decided to build only what I need. ReinPlayer captures the essential experience I missed on Linux.

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🛠️ Solutions I Explored

Before building ReinPlayer, I attempted a few alternatives:

• Searched for Linux players with similar playlist behavior.
• Tried installing PotPlayer with Wine.
• Attempted Steam-based installation (unsuccessful due to constant crashes).

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💡 Why Flutter?

With a background in Java and C#, you might ask why I chose Flutter over something like Avalonia or JavaFX.

The answer is simple: I plan to build cross-platform mobile apps in the future, and Flutter is my tool of choice. ReinPlayer was a perfect opportunity to deepen my Flutter experience.

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🧩 Architecture

ReinPlayer follows the MVVM architecture along with a hybrid feature + layered approach.

• common – Shared widgets, logic, helpers.
• playback – Playback screen, video/audio controls.
• playlist – Album and playlist management.
• settings – User preferences and configuration.
• player_frame – Window actions (minimize, maximize, fullscreen, etc.)
• developer – Developer tools and logs.

📚 Read more about the architecture here: Flutter App Architecture Guide

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🎉 What's New in v1.1.0

This release brings powerful new features and significant improvements:

• 🎯 Context-Aware Keyboard Shortcuts - Arrow keys intelligently switch between player and playlist control
• 🔖 Bookmark Management - Save and navigate multiple timestamps per video
• 🔁 A-B Loop Segments - PotPlayer-compatible loop system for practice and learning
• 👁️ Seek Preview - Visual timestamp overlay when seeking
• 🎨 Enhanced Subtitle Customization - Full control over fonts, colors, and positioning
• ⏯️ Resume Playback - Pick up right where you left off with timestamp memory
• 🍎 macOS Enhancements - Set as default player, improved Finder integration
• 📋 Rich Playlist Context Menu - Delete, copy, show in file manager, and more
• ⚙️ Global Keyboard Shortcuts Toggle - Enable/disable all shortcuts instantly

View Full Changelog →

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⚙️ Features

🖥️ Player

• Modern, intuitive UI with right-click context menu
• Supports all FFmpeg-compatible video formats (see full list)
• Context-aware keyboard shortcuts - Arrow keys dynamically control volume/seeking (player mode) or navigate playlist (playlist mode) based on focus
• Customizable keyboard shortcuts with visual configuration interface:

Default Key	Action	Customizable
Spacebar	Pause / Play	✅
m	Mute / Unmute	✅
Ctrl + h	Show / Hide Subtitles	✅
Esc	Exit Fullscreen	✅
Enter	Enter Fullscreen	✅
Right Arrow	Seek Forward	✅
Left Arrow	Seek Backward	✅
Shift + Right Arrow	Big Seek Forward	✅
Shift + Left Arrow	Big Seek Backward	✅
Up Arrow	Volume Up	✅
Down Arrow	Volume Down	✅
Ctrl + b	Add Bookmark	✅
b	Jump to Next Bookmark	✅
Shift + b	Jump to Previous Bookmark	✅
Ctrl + Shift + b	Toggle Bookmark List	✅
Ctrl + p	Toggle Playlist	✅
Ctrl + l	Add A-B Loop Segment	✅
l	Toggle A-B Loop Overlay	✅
Ctrl + Shift + l	Start/Stop A-B Loop Playback	✅
[	Jump to Previous A-B Segment	✅
]	Jump to Next A-B Segment	✅
Ctrl + Shift + e	Export A-B Loops to PBF File	✅
Ctrl + k	Toggle Keyboard Bindings	✅
Ctrl + d	Toggle Developer Log	✅
x	Decrease Playback Speed	✅
c	Increase Playback Speed	✅
Page Up	Goto Previous Video	✅
Page Down	Goto Next Video	✅
Shift + Delete	Delete Video and Skip to Next	✅
s	Shuffle Playlist	✅

• Enhanced fullscreen mode with edge-hover menu display and auto-hide functionality
• Mouse wheel volume control - scroll over video to adjust volume
• Window actions (Always-on-top, minimize, maximize, fullscreen, close)
• Player controls: Play, Pause, Stop, Open, Next, Previous
• Drag-and-drop support for files and folders
• Playlist panel with folder highlighting for current video path
• Right-click context menu with quick access to settings and features
• Settings menu with customizable preferences
• Seek preview overlay - Visual timestamp preview when seeking through video
• Configurable seek intervals:
  • Adaptive mode: Percentage-based seeking (1% and 5% default)
  • Fixed mode: Fixed seconds seeking (5s and 30s default)
  • Customize both regular and big seek values
  • Tooltip shows time info during seek operations
• Enhanced volume control (0-200%) with persistent settings - Because my PC speakers are not that loud 🤣
• Integrate with GNOME to show as default video player if installed with the install script
• Command-line interface support:
  • reinplayer --version or -v: Display version information
  • reinplayer --help or -h: Show help and usage information
  • reinplayer <file>: Open and play a video file directly
• About dialog accessible from right-click menu showing version, description, and GitHub link
• Configurable double-click behavior:
  • Maximize/Minimize window (default)
  • Play/Pause video (PotPlayer style)

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🎵 Audio & Subtitles

• Multi-audio track support with automatic detection and manual selection
• Audio track switching via context menu or settings
• Auto-load subtitles from the same folder as the video
• Manual subtitle loading (SRT, VTT formats)
• Enable / Disable subtitles with customizable shortcuts
• Comprehensive subtitle customization:
  • Font family selection (12+ fonts available)
  • Adjustable font size (8-72pt)
  • Position controls (Up/Down/Left/Right)
  • Text alignment options (left, center, right)
  • Text and background color pickers
  • Adjustable outline width
  • Real-time preview
  • Settings persist across sessions

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🎵 Playlist

• Create and manage playlists with configurable playlist types:
  • Default: Standard playlist behavior
  • PotPlayer Style: Mimics PotPlayer's playlist behavior
• Persistent playlists without needing to save/import manually
• Resume playback from the last played video
• Auto-load all videos in a dropped folder into a default album
• Auto-load all similar files in a folder when opening a video (e.g., play next episode automatically)
• Smart folder highlighting - folders containing the current video are highlighted for easy navigation
• Natural sorting for better file organization
• Shuffle playlist - Randomize playlist order via keyboard shortcut (S) or context menu
• Delete & Skip - Quickly delete current video permanently and skip to next
• Rich context menu - Right-click playlist items for quick actions:
  • Delete from disk
  • Copy file path
  • Show in Finder/Nautilus/File Explorer
  • Get file properties
  • Remove from playlist
• Configurable playlist load behavior:
  • Clear and Replace: New files clear the playlist (default)
  • Append to Existing: New files are added to current playlist
• Configurable playlist end behavior:
  • Show Home Screen: Display ReinPlayer logo on black background when playlist ends (default)
  • Shutdown Application: Automatically close the app when playlist ends
• Video duration display with lazy loading and auto-formatting (MM:SS or HH:MM:SS)

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🔖 Bookmarks

• Save multiple timestamps per video with custom names
• Quick navigation between bookmarks using keyboard shortcuts
• Persistent bookmarks that survive app restarts
• Visual bookmark manager overlay
• Bookmark actions available via context menu and keyboard:
  • Add bookmark at current position (Ctrl+B)
  • Jump to next bookmark (B)
  • Jump to previous bookmark (Shift+B)
  • Toggle bookmark list overlay (Ctrl+Shift+B)
• Edit bookmark names inline
• Delete individual or clear all bookmarks
• Automatic sorting by timestamp
• Wrap-around navigation (loops to first/last)

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🔁 A-B Loop Segments (PBF Support)

Advanced practice tool with full PotPlayer compatibility!

• PotPlayer Bookmark File (.pbf) support:
  • Auto-load .pbf files when opening videos
  • Import existing PotPlayer bookmark files
  • Export segments back to .pbf format (fully compatible)
• Create multiple A-B loop segments per video:
  • Set start time and duration for each segment
  • Configure loop count (how many times to repeat)
  • Optional repeat delay (pause between loops)
  • Add titles/labels to organize segments
• Intelligent playback engine:
  • Automatically loops each segment the specified number of times
  • Moves to next segment after completing all loops
  • Wraps around to first segment when sequence completes
  • Pause on last frame between loops (configurable delay)
• Full CRUD operations:
  • Create segments with configuration modal
  • Edit existing segments (all parameters)
  • Delete individual or clear all segments
  • Visual segment manager overlay
• Perfect for:
  • Language learning (loop dialogue sections)
  • Music practice (repeat difficult passages)
  • Dance/choreography (master specific moves)
  • Sports analysis (study techniques frame-by-frame)
  • Any scenario requiring repeated playback
• Coexists with simple bookmarks - use both features independently
• All segments persist between sessions and sync with storage

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⚙️ Customization

• Custom keyboard bindings - reassign any shortcut to your preference
• Global keyboard shortcuts toggle - enable/disable all shortcuts with one click
• Playlist type configuration - choose between Default and PotPlayer-style behavior
• Playlist load behavior - choose between clearing or appending when loading files
• Playlist end behavior - choose between showing home screen or shutting down when playlist ends
• Double-click action - choose between window maximize/minimize or play/pause
• Seek interval preferences - choose between adaptive (percentage) or fixed (seconds) seeking
• Volume preferences - enhanced 0-200% volume range with persistent settings
• Subtitle preferences - auto-enable/disable settings
• All settings are automatically saved and restored between sessions

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🎯 Challenges & Future Improvements

Challenges Overcome

• Packaging Complexity: Working on packaging for Flatpak - work in progress

• Menu Architecture: Implementing a player menu with unlimited nesting capability required significant effort. While the current implementation supports unlimited depth, there's still room for optimization and refinement.

• Cross-platform Compatibility: Successfully added macOS build support alongside existing Linux and Windows support.

• I'm not a professional Flutter developer, so I'm sure there are many things that could be improved.

Current Challenges

Code

• As a personal project, documentation wasn't the primary focus
• Code could benefit from:
  • A lot of refactoring 😂
  • Better documentation of complex logic
  • Clearer naming conventions
  • Additional inline documentation

📦 Downloads

All builds are available in the releases page.

🔥 Recommended Installation

Snap Package (Recommended)

• ✅ Easy installation
• ✅ Sandboxed security
• ✅ All dependencies included
• ✅ Automatic desktop integration

Version	Format	Download URL
v1.1.0	Snap, Windows, macOS, Debian, Portable	GitHub Releases

Download player icon: Download

✅ Supported Platforms

OS	Supported	Notes
Linux	✅	Fully supported
Windows	✅	Fully supported (But honestly use PotPlayer instead unless you are just trying out ReinPlayer)
macOS	✅	Fully supported with native builds, default player integration, and Finder support
Android	❌	Not supported – designed for desktop use
iOS	❌	Not supported – designed for desktop use

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💻 Command-Line Usage

ReinPlayer supports standard CLI flags for version information and help:

# Display version information
reinplayer --version
reinplayer -v

# Show help and usage information
reinplayer --help
reinplayer -h

# Play a video file
reinplayer /path/to/video.mp4
reinplayer ~/Videos/movie.mkv

Example output:

$ reinplayer --version
ReinPlayer 1.1.0
A modern video player for Linux and macOS

Repository: https://github.com/Ahurein/rein_player

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📥 Installation Guide

🥇 Method 1: Snap Package (Recommended)

Download the snap file from the release page and install from local file:

sudo snap install --dangerous reinplayer_linux_amd64.snap

Benefits:

• ✅ All dependencies included
• ✅ Sandboxed security
• ✅ Perfect desktop integration
• ✅ No additional setup required

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🥈 Method 2: Debian Package

For other installation methods (Portable or Debian), sometimes you need to install these dependencies first:

sudo apt install zenity libmpv-dev libmpv2

# Create compatibility symlinks (choose one that works for your system)
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libmpv.so.2 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libmpv.so.1
# OR
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libmpv.so /usr/lib/libmpv.so.1

Then install package:

sudo dpkg -i reinplayer_linux_amd64.deb
sudo apt-get install -f  # Fix any dependency issues

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🥉 Method 3: Portable Bundle

Install dependencies first (Linux only):

sudo apt install zenity libmpv-dev libmpv2

# Create compatibility symlinks
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libmpv.so.2 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libmpv.so.1
# OR
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libmpv.so /usr/lib/libmpv.so.1

Then extract and run:

tar -xzf reinplayer_linux_amd64_portable.tar.gz
cd reinplayer_linux_amd64_portable
./rein_player

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🗑️ Uninstall

Snap:

sudo snap remove reinplayer

Debian Package:

sudo apt remove reinplayer

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⚠️ Troubleshooting

1. Install missing packages (Linux):

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install libmpv2 libmpv-dev zenity

2. macOS Security Warning:

   When first opening ReinPlayer downloaded from GitHub, macOS may show "cannot verify developer" warning because the app is not code-signed.

   Quick Fix:

   • Right-click (or Control+click) the app → Select "Open" → Click "Open" again

   Alternative (Terminal):

   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/rein_player.app

   Or go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Click "Open Anyway"

Note: Snap package users don't need any additional setup - all dependencies are included!

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🤝 Contributing

Although this started as a personal project, contributions are welcome! Whether it's a bug fix, UI improvement, or new feature — feel free to open a PR or issue.

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📧 Contact

Have suggestions or want to collaborate? Reach out via LinkedIn