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Releases
Choose a build deliberately. Rolling follows development; version tags preserve an earlier release. The filename and in-app version are not enough to identify an October test build.
| Channel | Use it for | Identity |
|---|---|---|
| Rolling development | Current fixes, features and issue retests. Updated by successful master publication. | The release notes' commit and the tester bundle's build-info.json. |
| v3.0.0-rev1 stable tag | The fixed July 2026 release. It predates the October fixes and converter additions. | Tag/source 95b803ba07d1c55aa644acbd633936eb0a1e6ad6; published 2026-07-26 UTC. |
| Actions / PR artifacts | Testing a particular unmerged candidate. | Exact run, artifact and manifest head/source SHA. A rolling download cannot test an unmerged PR. |
The latest stable release link excludes prereleases, so it can still lead to July while rolling contains much newer work.
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Simple-Media-System.zip | Standard, packed and DIAG ELFs, build manifest and SMB component notices. |
Simple-Media-System.elf |
Standard player; use this for ordinary playback and first comparisons. |
Simple-Media-System-packed.elf |
The same player in a self-extracting executable. Use the standard ELF if your loader has trouble with packed files. |
Simple-Media-System-DIAG.elf |
On-screen startup/probe labels for reporting freezes. Record the number and label. |
| Simple-Media-System-languages.zip | Language variants matching this build's string table, including Spanish. See installation. |
| SMS-Media-Converter.exe | Windows 10/11 converter. |
| SMS-Media-Converter-Win7.exe | Python 3.8 / Qt5 build for Windows 7. Packaging CI runs on a current Windows runner; it is not live Win7 acceptance. |
| SMS-Media-Converter-Linux.zip | Linux source/application package; follow the included Python/PySide instructions. FFmpeg/FFprobe are separate tools. |
Embedded IOP modules are carried inside the player ELF; normal installation does not require copying loose IRX files. Keep matching translations with each build you compare.
PR #30 merged on 2026-10-27 as 4a6959a. It includes MPEG-PS/MOV probing and progress fixes, stream failure recovery, MPEG RGB-frame ownership and shutdown cleanup, folder shuffle, Spanish integration and converter controls. See the open acceptance work before treating a reported issue as resolved.
Rolling assets are replaced over time. Read build-info.json inside the tester ZIP and keep it with your test report; it contains source/head commits, the Actions run and ELF SHA-256 hashes. Compare a downloaded ELF with those hashes, rather than a hash copied from an older guide.
sha256sum Simple-Media-System.elf
# PowerShell:
Get-FileHash .\Simple-Media-System.elf -Algorithm SHA256
The July stable release retains its own asset hashes on its release page. A source-code archive from a mutable rolling tag is not a substitute for the tester bundle's build identity.
The merged work passed host regression tests, target builds and controlled emulator probes. Those checks expose specific parser, I/O and frame-lifetime defects. They do not establish affected-console color, USB throughput, exact-file MP4/MPEG playback, skin restart, shuffle or audio-switching acceptance. All nine reported issues were still open at this audit.
The test-media prerelease is regenerated on master from tools/gen-test-media.sh. It includes short codec fixtures and the MP4 matrix with a README. Generation is a host operation. Record your console, storage source, build and actual result when playing it.
SMS has a long history. It was created by Eugene Plotnikov as, in his own words, "the simplest DivX player able to play good-resolution movies at good frame rate on the unmodded PS2 without any extra equipment," and was developed intensively across 2005–2009 before the ps2homebrew community carried it forward. The high-level lineage below is drawn from the project's own CHANGELOG.md — refer to that file in the repository for the exhaustive, entry-by-entry history.
| Era | What arrived |
|---|---|
| Mid–2005 — foundations | The core DivX/XviD/MPEG-4 player using the PS2's IPU for colour conversion; CDDAFS (playing data off a burned audio CD on an unmodded console); early A/V synchronisation and V-Blank sync; internal HDD support via APA/PFS partitions; a heavily PS2-optimised FFmpeg-derived core. |
| Summer 2005 — the GUI | The three-area GUI that SMS still uses — device menu, file browser and status line — with pause / resume / stop, the file browser, and screen-alignment adjustments; USB mass-storage support; AC3 audio; config saved to the memory card. |
| Late 2005 — network & discs | Network (host:) playback; ISO CD/DVD and later DVD-Video disc reading on unmodded consoles; more codecs; skin/background-image support; a proper SMS menu and internationalised, scalable fonts. |
| Late 2005 / early 2006 — subtitles & playlists | External SRT / SUB subtitles with adjustable size and colour, plus manual A/V and subtitle sync; multi-audio-track support; the object-oriented desktop rewrite; early MP3 / M3U playback and "play all in folder". |
| 2006 — more formats & input | Remote-control support; MPEG-1/2 program-stream video; DTS and OGG Vorbis audio; on-disc file management (copy/delete on the internal HDD); pan-scan and display tuning; HD/DTV video-mode groundwork. |
| Late 2006 — SMB | The SMB/CIFS network client, so SMS could browse Windows / Samba shares over the network adapter; faster network transfers; UTF-8 subtitle support. |
| 2007 — HD video & WMA | 720p / 1080i and VESA/DTV video modes; a new floating-point MPEG audio decoder; WMA (ASF) and raw PCM audio; multiple SMB servers; assorted decoder and sync refinements. |
| 2008 — audio breadth & pictures | AAC / M4A and FLAC audio; a baseline JPEG viewer with slideshow and rotate; big (4 GB) OpenDML AVI support; USB/FAT driver rewrites; an on-screen exception handler. |
| 2009 — later refinements | 576p video mode and 2:2 pulldown for smoother 24fps playback; audio-driver and AC3 downmix improvements; further USB/FAT speed work — the last stretch of the original development line before the project's community era. |
| This fork — stable and rolling development |
Working MX4SIO playback, MP4/mp4v video, UDPFS, exFAT/ATA HDD, i.LINK, MMCE, DualShock 3/4 input, on-screen network/SMB setup, save-to-boot-device config, a refreshed theme and the reliability fixes listed above. |
ℹ Reading the full changelog
The dates and one-liners above summarise a much larger record. The complete, dated changelog lives in the repository as CHANGELOG.md; open it there if you want the exact entry for a given feature or fix.
Why does this fork jump to version 3.0?
SMS versioning has never been a single tidy line — the original author noted early on that different "distributors" would put their own signature on their builds. This documentation set describes the build labelled v3.0.0-rev1, displayed by SMS as Version 3.0 (Rev.1): a storage-focused fork that keeps SMS's decades-old playback while adding the devices, MP4 path and on-screen setup covered throughout this site. The version shows on-screen during startup, so you can always confirm what you are running.
Is this an official SMS release?
No. This is a community fork built on the work of many contributors — Eugene Plotnikov's original SMS, the ps2homebrew community's modernisation, and KrahJohlito's BDM/MX4SIO integration foundation among them. It is offered as-is, not as an official release. See Credits & Sources for the full acknowledgements.
Companion tools and files for classic SMS, preserved from the original ps2-home.com forum posts so they don't vanish. They are third-party works by their original authors, kept here purely for archival — we didn't write them and can't vouch for the Windows binaries.
Third-party, as-is
The .exe tools below are old Windows binaries (2005–2014) from the PS2 homebrew community, with no stated license; we have not run or vetted them, and antivirus may flag old packed executables — use at your own discretion. Credit belongs to their original authors. Some archives are .rar (open with 7-Zip / WinRAR).
| Download | What it is | Author / source |
|---|---|---|
| SMS manual (PDF) | The classic Simple Media System user manual. | SMS community · ps2-home.com |
| Language pack — SMS_lng09 | 20 community translations (.lng): BG, CA, CZ, DE, EN, ES, FR, HU, ID, IT, NL, PL, PT, PT-BR, RU, SE, SK, TR, UA. Vintage 2009 — likely missing newer menu strings, so treat as a reference/starting point. |
Translators credited in the pack's README (EN by Eugene Plotnikov) |
| pic2smi | Windows tool: converts a picture into an SMS .smi skin / background. |
ps2-home.com |
| smspal | Windows tool: edit / generate an SMS palette (SMS.pal). |
ps2-home.com |
| Rad HOST Client 1.8a | Windows PC tool: streams media to SMS over its host: connection. |
ps2-home.com |
- Install & First Boot Get the ELF running
- MX4SIO The headline feature
- Building from Source Compile it yourself
- Credits & Sources Who built what