HomeFormats
The formats it plays
On Android TV and phones, TMPlayer plays through Media3 with FFmpeg decoders built in. On Windows and Linux it plays through mpv, which opens nearly anything.
Which files show up in a chat
The same on every platform.
Videos
Anything Telegram sent as a video, whatever the format.
Files sent as documents
Films are often sent as files to keep their quality and audio tracks. They show up when Telegram calls them video, or when the name ends in MKV, MP4, M4V, AVI, MOV, WebM, TS, M2TS, MTS, FLV, WMV, MPG, MPEG, 3GP, OGV, DivX, VOB, ASF or RMVB.
Silent clips
The short looping videos Telegram calls GIFs, which are really MP4 files.
On Android TV and phones
The device's own decoders come first, because they are the fastest. FFmpeg decoders inside the app take over for what the device has no chip for, which is most often DTS and TrueHD audio.
| What | Plays |
|---|---|
| Containers | MKV, WebM, MP4, M4V, MOV, TS, M2TS, MTS, AVI, FLV, MPG, MPEG, 3GP. VOB and DivX files usually play too. |
| Video: H.264, HEVC (H.265), VP9, VP8, MPEG-2 | Yes. In hardware where the device can, in software through FFmpeg where it cannot. Software decoding is slower, so a 4K file wants a device that decodes it in hardware. |
| Video: AV1, MPEG-4 Part 2 (Xvid, DivX) | Through the device's own decoder. Newer TVs and phones handle AV1 well; older sticks may not. |
| Audio: AAC, MP3, Opus, Vorbis, FLAC, ALAC, PCM | Yes. |
| Audio: Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC-3, Atmos included), DTS, DTS-HD, TrueHD | Sent as it is to a soundbar or receiver that takes it, otherwise decoded in the app. Downmix to stereo in Settings folds surround into two speakers. |
| Several audio tracks | Yes, switched during playback, and remembered for the rest of a series. |
| Subtitles inside the file | SRT, ASS and SSA (with simplified styling), WebVTT, and image subtitles such as PGS and VobSub. |
| HDR | Handed to the device's decoder and screen, so it shows in HDR where both support it. |
| Frame rate matching | On Android TV 12 and later with Match content frame rate set to Always, the screen switches to the film's own rate, so 24 fps plays at 24 Hz. Elsewhere it switches only when that needs no blank screen. |
Not on Android: WMV and ASF, RealMedia (RMVB) and Ogg video (OGV). They still show up in the chat. When one will not play, the player offers Open in another app, which hands the downloaded file to a player such as VLC or MX Player.
On Windows and Linux
The desktop app plays through mpv, bundled inside it. Nothing else to install.
| What | Plays |
|---|---|
| Containers | Every one in the list above, WMV, ASF, RMVB and OGV included. |
| Video | H.264, HEVC, VP9, AV1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2 and the older formats mpv reads. Hardware decoding where it is safe, with Force software decoding in Settings for a driver that misbehaves. |
| Audio | AAC, MP3, Opus, Vorbis, FLAC, Dolby Digital and Digital Plus, DTS, DTS-HD and TrueHD. |
| Subtitles inside the file | Text and image subtitles alike, ASS with its full styling. |
| Several audio tracks | Yes, from the right click menu or the keyboard. |
Subtitle files of your own
For a video whose subtitles are not inside it.
On a phone
In the player's menu, Load a subtitle file opens the phone's file picker. It takes .srt, .ass, .ssa, .vtt and text .sub (MicroDVD) files. Older files in a Windows code page keep their accents.
On Windows and Linux
Drop the file on the picture while the video plays. The same formats work: .srt, .ass, .ssa, .vtt and .sub.
Picture-based VobSub .sub files cannot be loaded this way, though the same subtitles inside an MKV play fine.