MX Player Pro for Android

MX Player Overview

If a video file won’t play on your Android phone or tablet, MX Player is worth a try. This versatile media player handles nearly every common video container and codec, and it also plays audio files. The paid (donation) release provides the same feature set as the free version but without advertisements.

Supported Media and Playback

• Broad format compatibility makes it a good fallback when default players fail.
• Audio playback is included, so you can use it as a general media app as well as a video player.
• Decoding can be handled by the CPU or offloaded to the GPU via hardware acceleration to improve performance on high-resolution files.

Performance and Customization Options

MX Player offers extensive settings to tune playback:

• Change the look and feel through themes and show or hide specific UI controls.
• Enable multi-core decoding to take advantage of modern, multi-core devices for smoother playback.
• Choose between different decoders and hardware acceleration modes — some files benefit from GPU decoding while others may require a software decoder, so a bit of testing can help find the best option.

Subtitles and Parental Controls

• Robust subtitle support lets you load external subtitle files and adjust timing to fix out-of-sync captions, which is especially useful for anime and foreign-language films.
• A built-in kids’ lock prevents children from leaving the app or interacting with other device functions. On Android 5.0+ this overlaps with the OS-level app pinning feature, but it remains valuable for older Android releases.

Ease of Use vs Advanced Features

MX Player is usable straight away with a clean, simple interface, yet it also exposes many advanced controls for power users. That flexibility can be intimidating if you prefer a hands-off experience, but videophiles will appreciate the fine-grained options. On mobile, MX Player often delivers a more polished playback experience than some desktop ports like VLC’s mobile builds.

Paid vs Free

• The donor version removes ads for an uninterrupted experience.
• If you prefer not to donate, the free edition contains the same capabilities but displays unobtrusive advertising.

Recent Enhancements and Notes

• Now responds to mouse wheel input on the playback screen; wheel behavior is configurable under Playback → Menu → Display → Settings → Touch → Wheel action (this setting appears only when a mouse is connected).
• Added a software-audio option tailored for network streams, accessible via Settings → Decoder.
• Subtitle playback rate can be adjusted from the subtitle submenu to better match the audio.
• A new A–B repeat tool lets you loop a specific segment for review or practice.
• Background playback interface received usability improvements for smoother background audio/video control.
• Expanded compatibility and functionality for Android TV devices.