Software:CherryPlayer

CherryPlayer

Initial release	10 December 2011 (2011-12-10)
Stable release	2.4.6 / April 10, 2017 (2017-04-10)
Written in	Qt
Operating system	Microsoft Windows
Platform	x86
Size	26.6 MB
Available in	44 languages
Type	Media player
License	Freeware
Website	cherryplayer.com

CherryPlayer is a freeware closed-source media player of streaming media, audio and video files for the Microsoft Windows operating systems. It supports almost all popular audio and video file formats, streaming protocols, subtitle files and playlists. A distinctive feature of the player is the minimum number of settings (which initially gave rise to compare it in this regard with the browser Chrome) and the ability to play almost any streaming video and audio broadcasts, including live ones and radio.

Key capabilities

• local and streaming media files playback of almost all the file formats and types;
• support of various audio and video online content providers (e.g., YouTube, 4shared, Twitch and so on), as well as search by them;
• support of external subtitles, playlists, audio tracks;
• support hardware acceleration DXVA1 (Windows XP) and DXVA2 (Windows Vista and later);
• a built-in codecs makes a player independent of the installed ones in the system;
• built-in playlists of most popular music charts in the world like BBC Radio, Billboard, Last.fm;
• built-in set of radio stations with an ability to choose by countries and categories;
• built-in video playlists, grouped by categories and video services;
• online search of audio and video;
• the ability to add and play external links of online audio, video, live broadcasts and radio;
• support of downloading from YouTube of all the possible types of files (audio and video), related to the particular link;
• presence of a portable version, which stores all the settings on a local drive instead of registry;
• very low CPU and memory usage and minimum system overloading;
• support of over 40 languages.

Features

1. Almost the complete absence of the setting in the CherryPlayer became an object of the critics from the very beginning. From the one side it was a desire of developers to minimize Interface and rid users from excessive controls which they almost always use with the default settings, and to focus on playing online media files, especially as main changes in the latest releases were concerned to playback online content. But posts about necessity of adding basic settings to CherryPlayer appear very often. However, everybody knows that online video services like (YouTube, Vimeo and so on) do not provide an ability to control video setting except timeline and quality, but that doesn't prevent them to be one of the most popular services on the web.
2. One of the key features of CherryPlayer is support of such
   • audio services
     • 4shared
     • SoundCloud
     • VK
     • YouTube
     • Zaycev.net
   • video services
     • 4shared
     • Twitch
     • VK
     • YouTube
3. YouTube, Twitch and VKontakte are supported with the native API of these sites. This feature is unique. CherryPlayer provides an ability to log into account and view its contents in the same way as in browser. Need to note that at the moment of the release 2.2.11 version of the player there were realized only basic functions to work with account on the mentioned services. For example, for YouTube it is not possible to see all the available playlists, there is no way to like videos or dislike, put comments.
4. The structure of the playlist in CherryPlayer is unique, too. First of all, it is divided into two audio and video parts and need to say that there is no differences in displaying local files and links to web content (absence of the visual notification could be considered as shortcoming). Secondly, there is a set of predefined playlists of the music Charts (BBC Radio, Billboard, Last.fm) and video playlists of YouTube and Twitch.

Supported file formats

Audio

aac, ac3, aif, aifc, aiff, alac, amr, au, caf, flac, m4a, m4b, m4p, m4r, mka, mp1, mp2, mp3, ogg, oma, ra, voc, wav, wma, wv

Video

3g2, 3gp, 3gp2, 3gpp, amv, asf, avi, divx, dv, evo, f4v, flv, hdmov, m1v, m2p, m2v, m4v, mkv, mov, mp2v, mp4, mp4v, mpe, mpeg, mpg, mpv2, mpv4, ogm, ogv, pva, qt, ram, rm, rmm, rmvb, rpm, rv, vob, webm, wm, wmp, wmv

Playlists

m3u, m3u8, pls

Disadvantages

Along with the conclusive advantages comparing with other media players, there are also significant shortcomings:

• almost total absence of audio and video settings;
• lack of an ability to tune keyboard shortcuts;
• skins support is absent;
• there is no feature to set file associations with a player from the program;
• there is no feature to use full functionality of the accounts in the supported services;
• cross-platforming is absent;
• mobile version is absent;
• absent sorting and searching in the existing playlists.

Version history (according to the official blog)

Version	Release date
1.0	12-10-2011
1.0.1	12-15-2011
1.0.2	01-16-2012
1.0.3	03-17-2012
1.0.4	03-19-2012
1.0.5	03-26-2012
1.0.6	04-01-2012
1.1	04-09-2012
1.1.1	04-24-2012
1.1.2	05-15-2012
1.1.3	05-17-2012
1.1.4	05-31-2012
1.1.5	06-11-2012
1.1.6	06-16-2012
1.1.7	06-29-2012
1.1.8	07-27-2012
1.1.9	08-14-2012
1.2.0	10-14-2012
1.2.1	10-17-2012
1.2.2	10-25-2012
1.2.3	11-02-2012
1.2.4	11-27-2012
1.2.5	12-23-2012
1.2.6	01-11-2013
1.2.7	01-26-2013
1.2.8	03-19-2013
1.2.9	03-27-2013
2.0 (beta)	10-14-2013
2.0.1 (prerelease)	11-15-2013
2.0.1	11-26-2013
2.0.2	11-28-2013
2.0.3	12-19-2013
2.0.4	12-27-2013
2.0.5	01-13-2014
2.0.6	01-28-2014
2.0.7	?
2.0.71	02-06-2014
2.0.72	02-11-2014
2.0.73	03-10-2014
2.0.8	04-15-2014
2.0.9	08-06-2014
2.0.91	08-29-2014
2.1.0	09-18-2014
2.1.1	10-01-2014
2.2.0	12-31-2015
2.2.1	01-10-2015
2.2.2	03-06-2015
2.2.3	04-08-2015
2.2.4	05-02-2015
2.2.5	05-14-2015
2.2.6	07-22-2015
2.2.7	08-01-2015
2.2.8	08-08-2015
2.2.9	08-25-2015
2.2.10	09-11-2015
2.2.11	09-16-2015
2.2.12	10-02-2015
2.3.0	12-16-2015
2.4.0	05-12-2016
2.4.1	06-06-2016
2.4.2	06-22-2016
2.4.3 (beta 1)	07-10-2016
2.4.3 (beta 2)	11-25-2016
2.4.3	12-29-2016
2.4.4 (beta)	01-08-2017
2.4.4	01-26-2017
2.4.5	02-21-2017
2.4.6 beta	03-03-2017
2.4.6	04-10-2017

Used libraries

Judging by the libraries present in the distribution of CherryPlayer, from the very first version user interface was based on the Qt (or rather QML). It's unknown whether any other technique used but Qt. By the same dll files in the distribution it is known that FFmpeg library is used. Also it is known that from one version of the player to another FFmpeg library files are replaced by newer, that indicates updating of the FFmpeg files, but this fact is nowhere mentioned - even in release notes.

Developers

The information about the developers is closed. On the forums and the discussion areas of the player, those who introduce themselves as the developers answer the questions and proposals in Russian. On the official blog, the description of the new version is written in English and Russian languages (but only beginning with the version 2.1.1). However, the domain cherryplayer.com is registered by the person with a Swedish name and surname (JOHAN WENNBERG) and a Swedish address. Sweden is specified in the description of the official YouTube channel CherryPlayer.

The description of the domain also indicates the organization "WAKENET AB" whose main activity is focused on "Advertising and market research, Media representation." It needs to be pointed out that one "Johan" has also been posting on the official blog. It is unknown whether the organization "WAKENET AB" has been directly related to the development of CherryPlayer, yet probing this organization via a Google search returns mentions of it in the context of the player.

Trivia

On some forums, there are a few posts reporting that CherryPlayer helps to avoid lags in playback videos and especially live streams in high resolution on Twitch.tv, which are observed even with a good internet connection speed. It is noted that this happens due to the low use of system resources compared to the browser, along with the use of less traffic and thanks to the available hardware acceleration.