mpv
Free, open-source, command-line-driven media player for video and audio across desktop platforms.
HN commenters recommend mpv as a hackable, scriptable player with broad feature support,1234 often paired with yt-dlp and ffmpeg for local files and online video.5678 The only caveat raised is that macOS users may need to wrap it in their own app bundle.9
Why people recommend it
Scriptable and hackable · 3
Commenters control mpv through IPC, extensions, config files and their own scripts or tools.
“MPV is amazingly hackable and has an IPC, you can nearly fully control it without touching it.”
“just downloading anything you want and using mpv with any extension you want”
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“It uses Radio Browser for the station directory and mpv for playback.”
Pairs with yt-dlp · 3
Commenters combine it with yt-dlp and ffmpeg to play downloaded and online video.
“I've switched to watching youtube videos using mpv.”
“Not at all: ffmpeg + mpv”
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“MPV+yt-dlp for videos”
Broad feature support · 3
Commenters cite backward frame stepping, Vulkan video decoding and global audio offset.
“So anyways, I switched to mpv.”
“have been using vulkan video decoding via mpv for a while now and it seems fine with little or no performance hits”
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“MPV .conf can set audio offset globally to sync everything nicely”
Replaces other players · 3
Users switched to it from VLC, the YouTube web player and Jellyfin's playback.
“So anyways, I switched to mpv.”
“I've switched to watching youtube videos using mpv.”
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“I wound up just mounting my remote drives and playing in my local mpv.”
Runs on netbooks · 3
Commenters use it on old netbooks alongside other CLI and TUI tools.
“I use Flubox+UXTerm+a bunch of CLI/TUI tools among mpv, nsxiv and mupdf.”
“MPV+yt-dlp for videos”
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Caveats and dissent
macOS packaging · 1
One macOS user had to write a simple Swift wrapper to create an app bundle.
“I have been using mpv on MacOS too.”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- Reviving a 15-year-old netbook with Arch Linux 2 mentions
- Rust Style Guide 1 mention
- What I self-host 1 mention
- Disney+ and Hulu raise prices by up to 13 percent after doubling profits 1 mention
- Warez: The Infrastructure and Aesthetics of Piracy (2021) 1 mention
- Jellyfin 12.0 1 mention
Data: mpv.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 23
“same with MupDF, sxiv for images and MPV”
“mpv, which seems to have excellent support for everything you would want a player to do.”
“just downloading anything you want and using mpv with any extension you want”
“For multimedia there are very few use cases not covered by ffmpeg and mpv.”
“though, mpv can likely handle it”
“MPV .conf can set audio offset globally to sync everything nicely”
“Not at all: ffmpeg + mpv”
“1) one, via mpv, and”
“Normal files you get to play using mpv.”
“I'd just use mpv and record the stream into a local file, as-is.”
“I wound up just mounting my remote drives and playing in my local mpv.”
“have been using vulkan video decoding via mpv for a while now and it seems fine with little or no performance hits”
“I use Flubox+UXTerm+a bunch of CLI/TUI tools among mpv, nsxiv and mupdf.”
“MPV+yt-dlp for videos”
“It uses Radio Browser for the station directory and mpv for playback.”
“Video/audio player: Mpv”
“I have been using mpv on MacOS too.”
“MPV is amazingly hackable and has an IPC, you can nearly fully control it without touching it.”
“now I am too used to using mpv for literally anything related to audio and video”
“Using Cron and Mpv to shuffle-play activity-specific folders of MP3s”
“a remote with access to all of the MPV shortcuts”
“I've switched to watching youtube videos using mpv.”
“So anyways, I switched to mpv.”