mpv logo

mpv

Command line media player with broad format, codec, and subtitle support

Repository activity
  • Stars35.6k
  • Forks3.4k
  • Open Issues1.1k
mpv-player-mpv health score - Linux Foundation Insights
License

Other

Languages
  • C
  • Lua
  • Swift
mpv screenshot

About mpv

mpv is a free, lightweight media player driven from the command line. It plays a wide range of file formats, audio and video codecs, and subtitle types on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and runs entirely on your own machine.

Video rendering and scaling are shader-based for high-quality output, with hardware decoding available through the --hwdec option. Behavior is configured through command-line options and config files, and optional Lua scripting powers the on-screen controller and youtube-dl integration for online videos.

Descended from the MPlayer project, mpv is GPLv2 or later by default, or LGPLv2.1 with a build flag. Prebuilt downloads and third-party packages are available for all three platforms.

Key features

  • Plays many file formats, codecs, and subtitle types
  • Shader-based video rendering and scaling
  • Hardware decoding with --hwdec
  • Configurable through command-line options and config files
  • Lua scripting plus youtube-dl for online videos

Details

On GitHub since
2012
Platforms
Windows · macOS · Linux · CLI
License
GPLv2+; LGPLv2.1 optional
Rendering
Shader-based; --hwdec
Scripting
Lua · youtube-dl
Playback
Audio · video · subtitles