Provided by: mpv_0.40.0-3ubuntu1_amd64 
NAME
mpv - a media player
SYNOPSIS
mpv [options] [file|URL|PLAYLIST|-]
mpv [options] files
DESCRIPTION
mpv is a media player based on MPlayer and mplayer2. It supports a wide variety of video file formats,
audio and video codecs, and subtitle types. Special input URL types are available to read input from a
variety of sources other than disk files. Depending on platform, a variety of different video and audio
output methods are supported.
Usage examples to get you started quickly can be found at the end of this man page.
INTERACTIVE CONTROL
mpv has a fully configurable, command-driven control layer which allows you to control mpv using
keyboard, mouse, or remote control (there is no LIRC support - configure remotes as input devices
instead).
See the --input- options for ways to customize it.
The following listings are not necessarily complete. See etc/input.conf in the mpv source files for a
list of default bindings. User input.conf files and Lua scripts can define additional key bindings.
See COMMAND INTERFACE and Key names sections for more details on configuring keybindings.
See also --input-test for interactive binding details by key, and the stats built-in script for key
bindings list (including print to terminal). By default, the ? key toggles the display of this list.
Keyboard Control
LEFT and RIGHT
Seek backward/forward 5 seconds. Shift+arrow does a 1 second exact seek (see --hr-seek).
UP and DOWN
Seek forward/backward 1 minute. Shift+arrow does a 5 second exact seek (see --hr-seek).
Ctrl+LEFT and Ctrl+RIGHT
Seek to the previous/next subtitle. Subject to some restrictions and might not always work; see
sub-seek command.
Ctrl+Shift+LEFT and Ctrl+Shift+RIGHT
Adjust subtitle delay so that the previous or next subtitle is displayed now. This is especially
useful to sync subtitles to audio.
[ and ]
Decrease/increase current playback speed by 10%.
{ and }
Halve/double current playback speed.
BACKSPACE
Reset playback speed to normal.
Shift+BACKSPACE
Undo the last seek. This works only if the playlist entry was not changed. Hitting it a second
time will go back to the original position. See revert-seek command for details.
Shift+Ctrl+BACKSPACE
Mark the current position. This will then be used by Shift+BACKSPACE as revert position (once you
seek back, the marker will be reset). You can use this to seek around in the file and then return
to the exact position where you left off.
< and >
Go backward/forward in the playlist.
ENTER Go forward in the playlist.
Shift+HOME and Shift+END
Go to the first/last playlist entry.
p and SPACE
Pause (pressing again unpauses).
. Step forward. Pressing once will pause, every consecutive press will play one frame and then go
into pause mode again.
, Step backward. Pressing once will pause, every consecutive press will play one frame in reverse
and then go into pause mode again.
q Stop playing and quit.
Q Like q, but store the current playback position. Playing the same file later will resume at the
old playback position if possible. See RESUMING PLAYBACK.
/ and *
Decrease/increase volume.
KP_DIVIDE and KP_MULTIPLY
Decrease/increase volume.
9 and 0
Decrease/increase volume.
m Mute sound.
_ Cycle through the available video tracks.
# Cycle through the available audio tracks.
E Cycle through the available Editions.
f Toggle fullscreen (see also --fs).
ESC Exit fullscreen mode.
T Toggle stay-on-top (see also --ontop).
w and W
Decrease/increase pan-and-scan range. The e key does the same as W currently, but use is
discouraged. See --panscan for more information.
o and P
Show progression bar, elapsed time and total duration on the OSD.
O Toggle OSD states between normal and playback time/duration.
v Toggle subtitle visibility.
j and J
Cycle through the available subtitles.
z and Z
Adjust subtitle delay by -/+ 0.1 seconds. The x key does the same as Z currently, but use is
discouraged.
l Set/clear A-B loop points. See ab-loop command for details.
L Toggle infinite looping.
Ctrl++ and Ctrl+-
Adjust audio delay (A/V sync) by +/- 0.1 seconds.
Ctrl+KP_ADD and Ctrl+KP_SUBTRACT
Adjust audio delay (A/V sync) by +/- 0.1 seconds.
G and F
Adjust subtitle font size by +/- 10%.
u Switch between applying only --sub-ass-* overrides (default) to SSA/ASS subtitles, and overriding
them almost completely with the normal subtitle style. See --sub-ass-override for more info.
V Cycle through which video data gets used for ASS rendering. See --sub-ass-use-video-data for more
info.
r and R
Move subtitles up/down. The t key does the same as R currently, but use is discouraged.
s Take a screenshot.
S Take a screenshot, without subtitles. (Whether this works depends on VO driver support.)
Ctrl+s Take a screenshot, as the window shows it (with subtitles, OSD, and scaled video).
HOME Seek to the beginning of the file.
PGUP and PGDWN
Seek to the beginning of the previous/next chapter. In most cases, "previous" will actually go to
the beginning of the current chapter; see --chapter-seek-threshold.
Shift+PGUP and Shift+PGDWN
Seek backward or forward by 10 minutes. (This used to be mapped to PGUP/PGDWN without Shift.)
b Activate/deactivate debanding.
d Cycle the deinterlacing filter.
A Cycle aspect ratio override.
Ctrl+h Toggle hardware video decoding on/off.
Alt+LEFT, Alt+RIGHT, Alt+UP, Alt+DOWN
Move the video rectangle (panning).
Alt++ and Alt+-
Change video zoom.
Alt+KP_ADD and Alt+KP_SUBTRACT
Change video zoom.
Alt+BACKSPACE
Reset the pan/zoom settings.
F8 Show the playlist and the current position in it.
F9 Show the list of audio and subtitle streams.
Ctrl+v Append the file or URL in the clipboard to the playlist. If nothing is currently playing, it is
played immediately. Only works on platforms that support the clipboard property.
i and I
Show/toggle an overlay displaying statistics about the currently playing file such as codec,
framerate, number of dropped frames and so on. See STATS for more information.
? Toggle an overlay displaying the active key bindings. See STATS for more information.
DEL Cycle OSC visibility between never / auto (mouse-move) / always
` Show the console. (ESC closes it again. See CONSOLE.)
(The following keys are valid only when using a video output that supports the corresponding adjustment.)
1 and 2
Adjust contrast.
3 and 4
Adjust brightness.
5 and 6
Adjust gamma.
7 and 8
Adjust saturation.
Alt+0 (and Command+0 on macOS)
Resize video window to half its original size.
Alt+1 (and Command+1 on macOS)
Resize video window to its original size.
Alt+2 (and Command+2 on macOS)
Resize video window to double its original size.
Command + f (macOS only)
Toggle fullscreen (see also --fs).
(The following keybindings open a menu in the console that lets you choose from a list of items by typing
part of the desired item, by clicking the desired item, or by navigating them with keybindings: Down and
Ctrl+n go down, Up and Ctrl+p go up, Page down and Ctrl+f scroll down one page, and Page up and Ctrl+b
scroll up one page.)
In track menus, selecting the current tracks disables it.
g-p Select a playlist entry.
g-s Select a subtitle track.
g-S Select a secondary subtitle track.
g-a Select an audio track.
g-v Select a video track.
g-t Select a track of any type.
g-c Select a chapter.
g-e Select an MKV edition or DVD/Blu-ray title.
g-l Select a subtitle line to seek to. This currently requires ffmpeg in PATH, or in the same folder
as mpv on Windows.
g-d Select an audio device.
g-h Select a file from the watch history. Requires --save-watch-history.
g-w Select a file from watch later config files (see RESUMING PLAYBACK) to resume playing. Requires
--write-filename-in-watch-later-config.
g-b Select a defined input binding.
g-r Show the values of all properties.
g-m, MENU, Ctrl+p
Show a menu with miscellaneous entries.
See SELECT for more information.
(The following keys are valid if you have a keyboard with multimedia keys.)
PAUSE Pause.
STOP Stop playing and quit.
PREVIOUS and NEXT
Seek backward/forward 1 minute.
ZOOMIN and ZOOMOUT
Change video zoom.
If you miss some older key bindings, look at etc/restore-old-bindings.conf in the mpv git repository.
Mouse Control
Ctrl+left click
Pan while holding the button, keeping the clicked part of the video under the cursor.
Left double click
Toggle fullscreen on/off.
Right click
Toggle pause on/off.
Forward/Back button
Skip to next/previous entry in playlist.
Wheel up/down
Decrease/increase volume.
Wheel left/right
Seek forward/backward 10 seconds.
Ctrl+Wheel up/down
Change video zoom keeping the part of the video hovered by the cursor under it.
Context Menu
WARNING:
This feature is experimental. It may not work with all VOs. A libass based fallback may be implemented
in the future.
Context Menu is a menu that pops up on the video window on user interaction (mouse right click, etc.).
To use this feature, you need to fill the menu-data property with menu definition data, and add a
keybinding to run the context-menu command, which can be done with a user script.
USAGE
Command line arguments starting with - are interpreted as options, everything else as filenames or URLs.
All options except flag options (or choice options which include yes) require a parameter in the form
--option=value.
One exception is the lone - (without anything else), which means media data will be read from stdin.
Also, -- (without anything else) will make the player interpret all following arguments as filenames,
even if they start with -. (To play a file named -, you need to use ./-.)
Every flag option has a no-flag counterpart, e.g. the opposite of the --fs option is --no-fs. --fs=yes is
same as --fs, --fs=no is the same as --no-fs.
If an option is marked as (XXX only), it will only work in combination with the XXX option or if XXX is
compiled in.
Legacy option syntax
The --option=value syntax is not strictly enforced, and the alternative legacy syntax -option value and
-option=value will also work. This is mostly for compatibility with MPlayer. Using these should be
avoided. Their semantics can change any time in the future.
For example, the alternative syntax will consider an argument following the option a filename. mpv -fs no
will attempt to play a file named no, because --fs is a flag option that requires no parameter. If an
option changes and its parameter becomes optional, then a command line using the alternative syntax will
break.
Until mpv 0.31.0, there was no difference whether an option started with -- or a single -. Newer mpv
releases strictly expect that you pass the option value after a =. For example, before mpv --log-file
f.txt would write a log to f.txt, but now this command line fails, as --log-file expects an option value,
and f.txt is simply considered a normal file to be played (as in mpv f.txt).
The future plan is that -option value will not work anymore, and options with a single - behave the same
as -- options.
Escaping spaces and other special characters
Keep in mind that the shell will partially parse and mangle the arguments you pass to mpv. For example,
you might need to quote or escape options and filenames:
mpv "filename with spaces.mkv" --title="window title"
It gets more complicated if the suboption parser is involved. The suboption parser puts several options
into a single string, and passes them to a component at once, instead of using multiple options on the
level of the command line.
The suboption parser can quote strings with " and [...]. Additionally, there is a special form of
quoting with %n% described below.
For example, assume the hypothetical foo filter can take multiple options:
mpv test.mkv --vf=foo:option1=value1:option2:option3=value3,bar
This passes option1 and option3 to the foo filter, with option2 as flag (implicitly option2=yes), and
adds a bar filter after that. If an option contains spaces or characters like , or :, you need to quote
them:
mpv '--vf=foo:option1="option value with spaces",bar'
Shells may actually strip some quotes from the string passed to the commandline, so the example quotes
the string twice, ensuring that mpv receives the " quotes.
The [...] form of quotes wraps everything between [ and ]. It's useful with shells that don't interpret
these characters in the middle of an argument (like bash). These quotes are balanced (since mpv 0.9.0):
the [ and ] nest, and the quote terminates on the last ] that has no matching [ within the string. (For
example, [a[b]c] results in a[b]c.)
The fixed-length quoting syntax is intended for use with external scripts and programs.
It is started with % and has the following format:
%n%string_of_length_n
Examples
mpv '--vf=foo:option1=%11%quoted text' test.avi
Or in a script:
mpv --vf=foo:option1=%`expr length "$NAME"`%"$NAME" test.avi
Note: where applicable with JSON-IPC, %n% is the length in UTF-8 bytes, after decoding the JSON data.
Suboptions passed to the client API are also subject to escaping. Using mpv_set_option_string() is
exactly like passing --name=data to the command line (but without shell processing of the string). Some
options support passing values in a more structured way instead of flat strings, and can avoid the
suboption parsing mess. For example, --vf supports MPV_FORMAT_NODE, which lets you pass suboptions as a
nested data structure of maps and arrays.
Paths
Some care must be taken when passing arbitrary paths and filenames to mpv. For example, paths starting
with - will be interpreted as options. Likewise, if a path contains the sequence ://, the string before
that might be interpreted as protocol prefix, even though :// can be part of a legal UNIX path. To avoid
problems with arbitrary paths, you should be sure that absolute paths passed to mpv start with /, and
prefix relative paths with ./.
Using the file:// pseudo-protocol is discouraged, because it involves strange URL unescaping rules.
The name - itself is interpreted as stdin, and will cause mpv to disable console controls. (Which makes
it suitable for playing data piped to stdin.)
The special argument -- can be used to stop mpv from interpreting the following arguments as options.
For paths passed to mpv suboptions (options that have multiple : and ,-separated values), the situation
is further complicated by the need to escape special characters. To work around this, the path can
instead be wrapped in the "fixed-length" syntax, e.g. %n%string_of_length_n (see above).
When using the libmpv API, you should strictly avoid using mpv_command_string for invoking the loadfile
command, and instead prefer e.g. mpv_command to avoid the need for filename escaping.
The same applies when you're using the scripting API, where you should avoid using mp.command, and
instead prefer using "separate parameter" APIs, such as mp.commandv and mp.command_native.
Some mpv options will interpret special meanings for paths starting with ~, making it easy to dynamically
find special directories, such as referring to the current user's home directory or the mpv configuration
directory.
When using the special ~ prefix, there must always be a trailing / after the special path prefix. In
other words, ~ doesn't work, but ~/ will work.
The following special paths/keywords are currently recognized:
WARNING:
Beware that if --no-config is used, all of the "config directory"-based paths (~~/, ~~home/ and
~~global/) will be empty strings.
This means that ~~home/ would expand to an empty string, and that sub-paths such as ~~home/foo/bar"
would expand to a relative path (foo/bar), which may not be what you expected.
Furthermore, any commands that search in config directories will fail to find anything, since there
won't be any directories to search in.
Be sure that your scripts can handle these "no config" scenarios.
┌──────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Name │ Meaning │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ~/ │ The current user's home directory │
│ │ (equivalent to ~/ and $HOME/ in │
│ │ terminal environments). │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ~~/ │ If the sub-path exists in any of │
│ │ mpv's config directories, then the │
│ │ path of the existing file/dir is │
│ │ returned. Otherwise this is │
│ │ equivalent to ~~home/. │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ~~home/ │ mpv's config dir (for example │
│ │ ~/.config/mpv/). │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ~~global/ │ The global config path (such as │
│ │ /etc/mpv), if available (not on │
│ │ win32). │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ~~osxbundle/ │ The macOS bundle resource path (macOS │
│ │ only). │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ~~desktop/ │ The path to the desktop (win32, │
│ │ macOS). │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ~~exe_dir/ │ The path to the directory containing │
│ │ mpv.exe (for config file purposes, │
│ │ $MPV_HOME will override this) (win32 │
│ │ only). │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ~~cache/ │ The path to application cache data │
│ │ (~/.cache/mpv/). On some platforms, │
│ │ this will be the same as ~~home/. │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ~~state/ │ The path to application state data │
│ │ (~/.local/state/mpv/). On some │
│ │ platforms, this will be the same as │
│ │ ~~home/. │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ~~old_home/ │ Do not use. │
└──────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
Per-File Options
When playing multiple files, any option given on the command line usually affects all files. Example:
mpv --a file1.mkv --b file2.mkv --c
┌───────────┬────────────────┐
│ File │ Active options │
├───────────┼────────────────┤
│ file1.mkv │ --a --b --c │
├───────────┼────────────────┤
│ file2.mkv │ --a --b --c │
└───────────┴────────────────┘
(This is different from MPlayer and mplayer2.)
Also, if any option is changed at runtime (via input commands), they are not reset when a new file is
played.
Sometimes, it is useful to change options per-file. This can be achieved by adding the special per-file
markers --{ and --}. (Note that you must escape these on some shells.) Example:
mpv --a file1.mkv --b --\{ --c file2.mkv --d file3.mkv --e --\} file4.mkv --f
┌───────────┬─────────────────────────┐
│ File │ Active options │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ file1.mkv │ --a --b --f │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ file2.mkv │ --a --b --f --c --d --e │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ file3.mkv │ --a --b --f --c --d --e │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ file4.mkv │ --a --b --f │
└───────────┴─────────────────────────┘
Additionally, any file-local option changed at runtime is reset when the current file stops playing. If
option --c is changed during playback of file2.mkv, it is reset when advancing to file3.mkv. This only
affects file-local options. The option --a is never reset here.
List Options
Some options which store lists of option values can have action suffixes. For example, the --display-tags
option takes a ,-separated list of tags, but the option also allows you to append a single tag with
--display-tags-append, and the tag name can for example contain a literal , without the need for
escaping.
String list and path list options
String lists are separated by ,. The strings are not parsed or interpreted by the option system itself.
However, most path or file list options use : (Unix) or ; (Windows) as separator, instead of ,.
They support the following operations:
┌─────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Suffix │ Meaning │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -set │ Set a list of items (using the list │
│ │ separator, escaped with backslash) │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -append │ Append single item (does not │
│ │ interpret escapes) │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -add │ Append 1 or more items (same syntax │
│ │ as -set) │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -pre │ Prepend 1 or more items (same syntax │
│ │ as -set) │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -clr │ Clear the option (remove all items) │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -del │ Delete 1 or more items if present │
│ │ (same syntax as -set) │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -remove │ Delete item if present (does not │
│ │ interpret escapes) │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -toggle │ Append an item, or remove it if it │
│ │ already exists (no escapes) │
└─────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
-append is meant as a simple way to append a single item without having to escape the argument (you may
still need to escape on the shell level).
Key/value list options
A key/value list is a list of key/value string pairs. In programming languages, this type of data
structure is often called a map or a dictionary. The order normally does not matter, although in some
cases the order might matter.
They support the following operations:
┌─────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Suffix │ Meaning │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -set │ Set a list of items (using , as │
│ │ separator) │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -append │ Append a single item (escapes for the │
│ │ key, no escapes for the value) │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -add │ Append 1 or more items (same syntax │
│ │ as -set) │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -clr │ Clear the option (remove all items) │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -del │ Delete 1 or more keys if present │
│ │ (same syntax as -set) │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -remove │ Delete item by key if present (does │
│ │ not interpret escapes) │
└─────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
Keys are unique within the list. If an already present key is set, the existing key is removed before the
new value is appended.
If you want to pass a value without interpreting it for escapes or ,, it is recommended to use the
-append variant. When using libmpv, prefer using MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP; when using a scripting backend or
the JSON IPC, use an appropriate structured data type.
Prior to mpv 0.33, : was also recognized as separator by -set.
Object settings list options
This is a very complex option type for some options, such as --af and --vf. They often require
complicated escaping. See VIDEO FILTERS for details.
They support the following operations:
┌─────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Suffix │ Meaning │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -set │ Set a list of items (using , as │
│ │ separator) │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -append │ Append single item │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -add │ Append 1 or more items (same syntax │
│ │ as -set) │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -pre │ Prepend 1 or more items (same syntax │
│ │ as -set) │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -clr │ Clear the option (remove all items) │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -remove │ Delete 1 or items if present (same │
│ │ syntax as -set) │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -toggle │ Append an item, or remove it if it │
│ │ already exists │
├─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ -help │ Pseudo operation that prints a help │
│ │ text to the terminal │
└─────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
General
Without suffix, the operation used is normally -set.
Some operations like -add and -pre specify multiple items, but be aware that you may need to escape the
arguments. -append accepts a single, unescaped item only (so the , separator will not be interpreted and
is passed on as part of the value).
Some options (like --sub-file, --audio-file, --glsl-shader) are aliases for the proper option with
-append action. For example, --sub-file is an alias for --sub-files-append.
Options of this type can be changed at runtime using the change-list command, which takes the suffix
(without the -) as separate operation parameter.
An object settings list can hold up to 100 elements.
CONFIGURATION FILES
Location and Syntax
You can put all of the options in configuration files which will be read every time mpv is run. The
system-wide configuration file 'mpv.conf' is in your configuration directory (e.g. /etc/mpv or
/usr/local/etc/mpv), the user-specific one is ~/.config/mpv/mpv.conf. For details and platform specifics
(in particular Windows paths) see the FILES section.
User-specific options override system-wide options and options given on the command line override both.
The syntax of the configuration files is option=value. Everything after a # is considered a comment.
Options that work without values can be enabled by setting them to yes and disabled by setting them to
no, and if the value is omitted, yes is implied. Even suboptions can be specified in this way.
Example configuration file
# Don't allow new windows to be larger than the screen.
autofit-larger=100%x100%
# Enable hardware decoding if available, =yes is implied.
hwdec
# Spaces don't have to be escaped.
osd-playing-msg=File: ${filename}
Escaping special characters
This is done like with command line options. A config entry can be quoted with ", ', as well as with the
fixed-length syntax (%n%) mentioned before. This is like passing the exact contents of the quoted string
as a command line option. C-style escapes are currently _not_ interpreted on this level, although some
options do this manually (this is a mess and should probably be changed at some point). The shell is not
involved here, so option values only need to be quoted to escape # anywhere in the value, ", ' or % at
the beginning of the value, and leading and trailing whitespace.
Putting Command Line Options into the Configuration File
Almost all command line options can be put into the configuration file. Here is a small guide:
┌───────────────────┬──────────────────────────┐
│ Option │ Configuration file entry │
├───────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ --flag │ flag │
├───────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ -opt val │ opt=val │
├───────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ --opt=val │ opt=val │
├───────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ -opt "has spaces" │ opt=has spaces │
└───────────────────┴──────────────────────────┘
File-specific Configuration Files
You can also write file-specific configuration files. If you wish to have a configuration file for a file
called 'video.avi', create a file named 'video.avi.conf' with the file-specific options in it and put it
in ~/.config/mpv/. You can also put the configuration file in the same directory as the file to be
played. Both require you to set the --use-filedir-conf option (either on the command line or in your
global config file). If a file-specific configuration file is found in the same directory, no
file-specific configuration is loaded from ~/.config/mpv. In addition, the --use-filedir-conf option
enables directory-specific configuration files. For this, mpv first tries to load a mpv.conf from the
same directory as the file played and then tries to load any file-specific configuration.
Profiles
To ease working with different configurations, profiles can be defined in the configuration files. A
profile starts with its name in square brackets, e.g. [my-profile]. All following options will be part of
the profile. A description (shown by --profile=help) can be defined with the profile-desc option. To end
the profile, start another one or use the profile name default to continue with normal options.
You can list profiles with --profile=help, and show the contents of a profile with --show-profile=<name>
(replace <name> with the profile name). You can apply profiles on start with the --profile=<name> option,
or at runtime with the apply-profile <name> command.
Example mpv config file with profiles
# normal top-level option
fullscreen=yes
# a profile that can be enabled with --profile=big-cache
[big-cache]
cache=yes
demuxer-max-bytes=512MiB
demuxer-readahead-secs=20
[network]
profile-desc="profile for content over network"
force-window=immediate
# you can also include other profiles
profile=big-cache
[reduce-judder]
video-sync=display-resample
interpolation=yes
# using a profile again extends it
[network]
demuxer-max-back-bytes=512MiB
# reference a builtin profile
profile=fast
Runtime profiles
Profiles can be set at runtime with apply-profile command. Since this operation is "destructive" (every
item in a profile is simply set as an option, overwriting the previous value), you can't just enable and
disable profiles again.
As a partial remedy, there is a way to make profiles save old option values before overwriting them with
the profile values, and then restoring the old values at a later point using apply-profile <profile-name>
restore.
This can be enabled with the profile-restore option, which takes one of the following options:
default
Does nothing, and nothing can be restored (default).
copy When applying a profile, copy the old values of all profile options to a backup before setting
them from the profile. These options are reset to their old values using the backup when
restoring.
Every profile has its own list of backed up values. If the backup already exists (e.g. if
apply-profile name was called more than once in a row), the existing backup is no changed. The
restore operation will remove the backup.
It's important to know that restoring does not "undo" setting an option, but simply copies the
old option value. Consider for example vf-add, appends an entry to vf. This mechanism will
simply copy the entire vf list, and does _not_ execute the inverse of vf-add (that would be
vf-remove) on restoring.
Note that if a profile contains recursive profiles (via the profile option), the options in
these recursive profiles are treated as if they were part of this profile. The referenced
profile's backup list is not used when creating or using the backup. Restoring a profile does
not restore referenced profiles, only the options of referenced profiles (as if they were part
of the main profile).
copy-equal
Similar to copy, but restore an option only if it has the same value as the value effectively
set by the profile. This tries to deal with the situation when the user does not want the
option to be reset after interactively changing it.
Example
[something]
profile-restore=copy-equal
vf-add=rotate=PI/2 # rotate by 90 degrees
Then running these commands will result in behavior as commented:
set vf vflip
apply-profile something
vf add hflip
apply-profile something
# vf == vflip,rotate=PI/2,hflip,rotate=PI/2
apply-profile something restore
# vf == vflip
Conditional auto profiles
Profiles which have the profile-cond option set are applied automatically if the associated condition
matches (unless auto profiles are disabled). The option takes a string, which is interpreted as Lua
expression. If the expression evaluates as truthy, the profile is applied. If the expression errors or
evaluates as falsy, the profile is not applied. This Lua code execution is not sandboxed.
Any variables in condition expressions can reference properties. If an identifier is not already defined
by Lua or mpv, it is interpreted as property. For example, pause would return the current pause status.
You cannot reference properties with - this way since that would denote a subtraction, but if the
variable name contains any _ characters, they are turned into -. For example, playback_time would return
the property playback-time.
A more robust way to access properties is using p.property_name or get("property-name", default_value).
The automatic variable to property magic will break if a new identifier with the same name is introduced
(for example, if a function named pause() were added, pause would return a function value instead of the
value of the pause property).
Note that if a property is not available, it will return nil, which can cause errors if used in
expressions. These are logged in verbose mode, and the expression is considered to be false.
Whenever a property referenced by a profile condition changes, the condition is re-evaluated. If the
return value of the condition changes from falsy or error to truthy, the profile is applied.
This mechanism tries to "unapply" profiles once the condition changes from truthy to falsy or error. If
you want to use this, you need to set profile-restore for the profile. Another possibility it to create
another profile with an inverse condition to undo the other profile.
Recursive profiles can be used. But it is discouraged to reference other conditional profiles in a
conditional profile, since this can lead to tricky and unintuitive behavior.
Example
Make only HD video look funny:
[something]
profile-desc=HD video sucks
profile-cond=width >= 1280
hue=-50
Make only videos containing "youtube" or "youtu.be" in their path brighter:
[youtube]
profile-cond=path:find('youtu%.?be')
gamma=20
If you want the profile to be reverted if the condition goes to false again, you can set
profile-restore:
[something]
profile-desc=Mess up video when entering fullscreen
profile-cond=fullscreen
profile-restore=copy
vf-add=rotate=PI/2 # rotate by 90 degrees
This appends the rotate filter to the video filter chain when entering fullscreen. When leaving
fullscreen, the vf option is set to the value it had before entering fullscreen. Note that this would
also remove any other filters that were added during fullscreen mode by the user. Avoiding this is
trickier, and could for example be solved by adding a second profile with an inverse condition and
operation:
[something]
profile-cond=fullscreen
vf-add=@rot:rotate=PI/2
[something-inv]
profile-cond=not fullscreen
vf-remove=@rot
WARNING:
Every time an involved property changes, the condition is evaluated again. If your condition uses
p.playback_time for example, the condition is re-evaluated approximately on every video frame. This is
probably slow.
This feature is managed by an internal Lua script. Conditions are executed as Lua code within this
script. Its environment contains at least the following things:
(function environment table)
Every Lua function has an environment table. This is used for identifier access. There is no named
Lua symbol for it; it is implicit.
The environment does "magic" accesses to mpv properties. If an identifier is not already defined
in _G, it retrieves the mpv property of the same name. Any occurrences of _ in the name are
replaced with - before reading the property. The returned value is as retrieved by
mp.get_property_native(name). Internally, a cache of property values, updated by observing the
property is used instead, so properties that are not observable will be stuck at the initial value
forever.
If you want to access properties, that actually contain _ in the name, use get() (which does not
perform transliteration).
Internally, the environment table has a __index meta method set, which performs the access logic.
p A "magic" table similar to the environment table. Unlike the latter, this does not prefer
accessing variables defined in _G - it always accesses properties.
get(name [, def])
Read a property and return its value. If the property value is nil (e.g. if the property does not
exist), def is returned.
This is superficially similar to mp.get_property_native(name). An important difference is that
this accesses the property cache, and enables the change detection logic (which is essential to
the dynamic runtime behavior of auto profiles). Also, it does not return an error value as second
return value.
The "magic" tables mentioned above use this function as backend. It does not perform the _
transliteration.
In addition, the same environment as in a blank mpv Lua script is present. For example, math is defined
and gives access to the Lua standard math library.
WARNING:
This feature is subject to change indefinitely. You might be forced to adjust your profiles on mpv
updates.
Legacy auto profiles
Some profiles are loaded automatically using a legacy mechanism. The following example demonstrates this:
Auto profile loading
[extension.mkv]
profile-desc="profile for .mkv files"
vf=vflip
The profile name follows the schema type.name, where type can be protocol for the input/output protocol
in use (see --list-protocols), and extension for the extension of the path of the currently played file
(not the file format).
This feature is very limited, and is considered soft-deprecated. Use conditional auto profiles.
USING MPV FROM OTHER PROGRAMS OR SCRIPTS
There are three choices for using mpv from other programs or scripts:
1. Calling it as UNIX process. If you do this, do not parse terminal output. The terminal output is
intended for humans, and may change any time. In addition, terminal behavior itself may change any
time. Compatibility cannot be guaranteed.
Your code should work even if you pass --terminal=no. Do not attempt to simulate user input by
sending terminal control codes to mpv's stdin. If you need interactive control, using
--input-ipc-server or --input-ipc-client is recommended. This gives you access to the JSON IPC
over unix domain sockets (or named pipes on Windows).
Depending on what you do, passing --no-config or --config-dir may be a good idea to avoid conflicts
with the normal mpv user configuration intended for CLI playback.
Using --input-ipc-server or --input-ipc-client is also suitable for purposes like remote control
(however, the IPC protocol itself is not "secure" and not intended to be so).
2. Using libmpv. This is generally recommended when mpv is used as playback backend for a completely
different application. The provided C API is very close to CLI mechanisms and the scripting API.
Note that even though libmpv has different defaults, it can be configured to work exactly like the
CLI player (except command line parsing is unavailable).
See EMBEDDING INTO OTHER PROGRAMS (LIBMPV).
3. As a user script (LUA SCRIPTING, JAVASCRIPT, C PLUGINS). This is recommended when the goal is to
"enhance" the CLI player. Scripts get access to the entire client API of mpv.
This is the standard way to create third-party extensions for the player.
All these access the client API, which is the sum of the various mechanisms provided by the player core,
as documented here: OPTIONS, List of Input Commands, Properties, List of events (also see C API), Hooks.
TAKING SCREENSHOTS
Screenshots of the currently played file can be taken using the 'screenshot' input mode command, which is
by default bound to the s key. Files named mpv-shotNNNN.jpg will be saved in the working directory, using
the first available number - no files will be overwritten. In pseudo-GUI mode, the screenshot will be
saved somewhere else. See PSEUDO GUI MODE.
A screenshot will usually contain the unscaled video contents at the end of the video filter chain and
subtitles. By default, S takes screenshots without subtitles, while s includes subtitles.
Unlike with MPlayer, the screenshot video filter is not required. This filter was never required in mpv,
and has been removed.
TERMINAL STATUS LINE
During playback, mpv shows the playback status on the terminal. It looks like something like this:
AV: 00:03:12 / 00:24:25 (13%) A-V: -0.000
The status line can be overridden with the --term-status-msg option.
The following is a list of things that can show up in the status line. Input properties, that can be used
to get the same information manually, are also listed.
• AV: or V: (video only) or A: (audio only)
• The current time position in HH:MM:SS format (playback-time property)
• The total file duration (absent if unknown) (duration property)
• Playback speed, e.g. x2.0. Only visible if the speed is not normal. This is the user-requested speed,
and not the actual speed (usually they should be the same, unless playback is too slow). (speed
property.)
• Playback percentage, e.g. (13%). How much of the file has been played. Normally calculated out of
playback position and duration, but can fallback to other methods (like byte position) if these are not
available. (percent-pos property.)
• The audio/video sync as A-V: 0.000. This is the difference between audio and video time. Normally it
should be 0 or close to 0. If it's growing, it might indicate a playback problem. (avsync property.)
• Total A/V sync change, e.g. ct: -0.417. Normally invisible. Can show up if there is audio "missing", or
not enough frames can be dropped. Usually this will indicate a problem. (total-avsync-change property.)
• Encoding state in {...}, only shown in encoding mode.
• Display sync state. If display sync is active (display-sync-active property), this shows DS: 2.500/13,
where the first number is average number of vsyncs per video frame (e.g. 2.5 when playing 24Hz videos
on 60Hz screens), which might jitter if the ratio doesn't round off, or there are mistimed frames
(vsync-ratio), and the second number of estimated number of vsyncs which took too long
(vo-delayed-frame-count property). The latter is a heuristic, as it's generally not possible to
determine this with certainty.
• Dropped frames, e.g. Dropped: 4. Shows up only if the count is not 0. Can grow if the video framerate
is higher than that of the display, or if video rendering is too slow. May also be incremented on
"hiccups" and when the video frame couldn't be displayed on time. (frame-drop-count property.) If the
decoder drops frames, the number of decoder-dropped frames is appended to the display as well, e.g.:
Dropped: 4/34. This happens only if decoder frame dropping is enabled with the --framedrop options.
(decoder-frame-drop-count property.)
• Cache state, e.g. Cache: 2s/134KB. Visible if the stream cache is enabled. The first value shows the
amount of video buffered in the demuxer in seconds, the second value shows the estimated size of the
buffered amount in kilobytes. (demuxer-cache-duration and demuxer-cache-state properties.)
LOW LATENCY PLAYBACK
mpv is optimized for normal video playback, meaning it actually tries to buffer as much data as it seems
to make sense. This will increase latency. Reducing latency is possible only by specifically disabling
features which increase latency.
The builtin low-latency profile tries to apply some of the options which can reduce latency. You can use
--profile=low-latency to apply all of them. You can list the contents with --show-profile=low-latency
(some of the options are quite obscure, and may change every mpv release).
Be aware that some of the options can reduce playback quality.
Most latency is actually caused by inconvenient timing behavior. You can disable this with --untimed, but
it will likely break, unless the stream has no audio, and the input feeds data to the player at a
constant rate.
Another common problem is with MJPEG streams. These do not signal the correct framerate. Using --untimed
or --correct-pts=no --container-fps-override=60 might help.
For livestreams, data can build up due to pausing the stream, due to slightly lower playback rate, or
"buffering" pauses. If the demuxer cache is enabled, these can be skipped manually. The experimental
drop-buffers command can be used to discard any buffered data, though it's very disruptive.
In some cases, manually tuning TCP buffer sizes and such can help to reduce latency.
Additional options that can be tried:
• --opengl-glfinish=yes, can reduce buffering in the graphics driver
• --opengl-swapinterval=0, same
• --vo=xv, same
• without audio --framedrop=no --speed=1.01 may help for live sources (results can be mixed)
RESUMING PLAYBACK
mpv is capable of storing the playback position of the currently playing file and resume from there the
next time that file is played. This is done with the commands quit-watch-later (bound to Shift+Q by
default) and write-watch-later-config, and with the --save-position-on-quit option.
The difference between always quitting with a key bound to quit-watch-later and using
--save-position-on-quit is that the latter will save the playback position even when mpv is closed with a
method other than a keybinding, such as clicking the close button in the window title bar. However if mpv
is terminated abruptly and doesn't have the time to save, then the position will not be saved. For
example, if you shutdown your system without closing mpv beforehand.
mpv also stores options other than the playback position when they have been modified after playback
began, for example the volume and selected audio/subtitles, and restores their values the next time the
file is played. Which options are saved can be configured with the --watch-later-options option.
When playing multiple playlist entries, mpv checks if one them has a resume config file associated, and
if it finds one it restarts playback from it. For example, if you use quit-watch-later on the 5th episode
of a show, and later play all the episodes, mpv will automatically resume playback from episode 5.
More options to configure this functionality are listed in Watch Later.
PROTOCOLS
mpv://...
mpv protocol. This is used for starting mpv from URL handler. The protocol is stripped and the rest is
passed to the player as a normal open argument. Only safe network protocols are allowed to be opened
this way.
http://..., https://, ...
Many network protocols are supported, but the protocol prefix must always be specified. mpv will never
attempt to guess whether a filename is actually a network address. A protocol prefix is always
required.
Note that not all prefixes are documented here. Undocumented prefixes are either aliases to documented
protocols, or are just redirections to protocols implemented and documented in FFmpeg.
data: is supported, but needs to be in the format data://. This is done to avoid ambiguity with
filenames. You can also prefix it with lavf:// or ffmpeg://.
ytdl://...
By default, the youtube-dl hook script only looks at http(s) URLs. Prefixing an URL with ytdl://
forces it to be always processed by the script. This can also be used to invoke special youtube-dl
functionality like playing a video by ID or invoking search.
Keep in mind that you can't pass youtube-dl command line options by this, and you have to use
--ytdl-raw-options instead.
-
Play data from stdin.
smb://PATH
Play a path from Samba share. (Requires FFmpeg support.)
bd://[title][/device] --bluray-device=PATH
Play a Blu-ray disc. Since libbluray 1.0.1, you can read from ISO files by passing them to
--bluray-device.
title can be: longest or first (selects the default playlist); mpls/<number> (selects <number>.mpls
playlist); <number> (select playlist with the same index). mpv will list the available playlists on
loading.
bluray:// is an alias.
dvd://[title][/device] --dvd-device=PATH
Play a DVD. DVD menus are not supported. If no title is given, the longest title is auto-selected.
Without --dvd-device, it will probably try to open an actual optical drive, if available and
implemented for the OS.
dvdnav:// is an old alias for dvd:// and does exactly the same thing.
dvb://[cardnumber@]channel --dvbin-...
Digital TV via DVB. (Linux only.)
mf://[@listfile|filemask|glob|printf-format] --mf-...
Play a series of images as video.
If the URL path begins with @, it is interpreted as the path to a file containing a list of image
paths separated by newlines. If the URL path contains ,, it is interpreted as a list of image paths
separated by ,. If the URL path does not contain % and if on POSIX platforms, is interpreted as a
glob, and * is automatically appended if it was not specified. Otherwise, the printf sequences
%[.][NUM]d, where NUM is one, two, or three decimal digits, and %% and are interpreted. For example,
mf://image-%d.jpg plays files like image-1.jpg, image-2.jpg and image-10.jpg, provided that there are
no big gaps between the files.
cdda://[device] --cdda-device=PATH
Play CD. You can select a specific range of tracks to play by using the --start and --end options and
specifying chapters. Navigating forwards and backwards through tracks can also be done by navigating
through chapters (PGUP and PGDOWN in the default keybinds).
Example
mpv cdda:// --start=#4 --end=#6
This will start from track 4, play track 5, and then end.
lavf://...
Access any FFmpeg libavformat protocol. Basically, this passed the string after the // directly to
libavformat.
av://type:options
This is intended for using libavdevice inputs. type is the libavdevice demuxer name, and options is
the (pseudo-)filename passed to the demuxer.
Example
mpv av://v4l2:/dev/video0 --profile=low-latency --untimed
This plays video from the first v4l input with nearly the lowest latency possible. It's a good
replacement for the removed tv:// input. Using --untimed is a hack to output a captured frame
immediately, instead of respecting the input framerate. (There may be better ways to handle this
in the future.)
avdevice:// is an alias.
file://PATH
A local path as URL. Might be useful in some special use-cases. Note that PATH itself should start
with a third / to make the path an absolute path.
appending://PATH
Play a local file, but assume it's being appended to. This is useful for example for files that are
currently being downloaded to disk. This will block playback, and stop playback only if no new data
was appended after a timeout of about 2 seconds.
Using this is still a bit of a bad idea, because there is no way to detect if a file is actually being
appended, or if it's still written. If you're trying to play the output of some program, consider
using a pipe (something | mpv -). If it really has to be a file on disk, use tail to make it wait
forever, e.g. tail -f -c +0 file.mkv | mpv -.
fd://123
Read data from the given file descriptor (for example 123). This is similar to piping data to stdin
via -, but can use an arbitrary file descriptor. mpv may modify some file descriptor properties when
the stream layer "opens" it.
fdclose://123
Like fd://, but the file descriptor is closed after use. When using this you need to ensure that the
same fd URL will only be used once.
edl://[edl specification as in edl-mpv.rst]
Stitch together parts of multiple files and play them.
slice://start[-end]@URL
Read a slice of a stream.
start and end represent a byte range and accept suffixes such as KiB and MiB. end is optional.
if end starts with +, it is considered as offset from start.
Only works with seekable streams.
Examples:
mpv slice://1g-2g@cap.ts
This starts reading from cap.ts after seeking 1 GiB, then
reads until reaching 2 GiB or end of file.
mpv slice://1g-+2g@cap.ts
This starts reading from cap.ts after seeking 1 GiB, then
reads until reaching 3 GiB or end of file.
mpv slice://100m@appending://cap.ts
This starts reading from cap.ts after seeking 100MiB, then
reads until end of file.
null://
Simulate an empty file. If opened for writing, it will discard all data. The null demuxer will
specifically pass autoprobing if this protocol is used (while it's not automatically invoked for empty
files).
memory://data
Use the data part as source data.
hex://data
Like memory://, but the string is interpreted as hexdump.
PSEUDO GUI MODE
mpv has no official GUI, other than the OSC (ON SCREEN CONTROLLER), which is not a full GUI and is not
meant to be. However, to compensate for the lack of expected GUI behavior, mpv will in some cases start
with some settings changed to behave slightly more like a GUI mode.
Currently this happens only in the following cases:
• if started using the mpv.desktop file on Linux (e.g. started from menus or file associations provided
by desktop environments)
• if started from explorer.exe on Windows (technically, if it was started on Windows, and all of the
stdout/stderr/stdin handles are unset)
• started out of the bundle on macOS
• if you manually use --player-operation-mode=pseudo-gui on the command line
This mode applies options from the builtin profile builtin-pseudo-gui, but only if these haven't been set
in the user's config file or on the command line, which is the main difference to using
--profile=builtin-pseudo-gui.
The profile is currently defined as follows:
[builtin-pseudo-gui]
terminal=no
force-window=yes
idle=once
screenshot-directory=~~desktop/
The pseudo-gui profile exists for compatibility. The options in the pseudo-gui profile are applied
unconditionally. In addition, the profile makes sure to enable the pseudo-GUI mode, so that
--profile=pseudo-gui works like in older mpv releases:
[pseudo-gui]
player-operation-mode=pseudo-gui
WARNING:
Currently, you can extend the pseudo-gui profile in the config file the normal way. This is
deprecated. In future mpv releases, the behavior might change, and not apply your additional settings,
and/or use a different profile name.
OPTIONS
Track Selection
--alang=<languagecode[,languagecode,...]>
Specify a prioritized list of audio languages to use, as IETF language tags. Equivalent ISO 639-1
two-letter and ISO 639-2 three-letter codes are treated the same. The first tag in the list that
matches track's language in the file will be used. A track that matches more subtags will be
preferred over one that matches fewer. See also --aid.
This is a string list option. See List Options for details.
Examples
• mpv dvd://1 --alang=hu,en chooses the Hungarian language track on a DVD and falls back on
English if Hungarian is not available.
• mpv --alang=jpn example.mkv plays a Matroska file with Japanese audio.
--slang=<languagecode[,languagecode,...]>
Equivalent to --alang, for subtitle tracks.
This is a string list option. See List Options for details.
Examples
• mpv dvd://1 --slang=hu,en chooses the Hungarian subtitle track on a DVD and falls back on
English if Hungarian is not available.
• mpv --slang=jpn example.mkv plays a Matroska file with Japanese subtitles.
• mpv --slang=pt-BR example.mkv plays a Matroska file with Brazilian Portuguese subtitles if
available, and otherwise any Portuguese subtitles.
--vlang=<...>
Equivalent to --alang and --slang, for video tracks.
This is a string list option. See List Options for details.
--aid=<ID|auto|no>
Select audio track. auto selects the default, no disables audio. See also --alang. mpv normally
prints available audio tracks on the terminal when starting playback of a file.
--audio is an alias for --aid.
--aid=no or --audio=no disables audio playback. (The latter variant does not work with the client
API.)
NOTE:
The track selection options (--aid but also --sid and the others) sometimes expose behavior
that may appear strange. Also, the behavior tends to change around with each mpv release.
The track selection properties will return the option value outside of playback (as expected),
but during playback, the affective track selection is returned. For example, with --aid=auto,
the aid property will suddenly return 2 after playback initialization (assuming the file has at
least 2 audio tracks, and the second is the default).
At mpv 0.32.0 (and some releases before), if you passed a track value for which a corresponding
track didn't exist (e.g. --aid=2 and there was only 1 audio track), the aid property returned
no. However if another audio track was added during playback, and you tried to set the aid
property to 2, nothing happened, because the aid option still had the value 2, and writing the
same value has no effect.
With mpv 0.33.0, the behavior was changed. Now track selection options are reset to auto at
playback initialization, if the option had tries to select a track that does not exist. The
same is done if the track exists, but fails to initialize. The consequence is that unlike
before mpv 0.33.0, the user's track selection parameters are clobbered in certain situations.
Also since mpv 0.33.0, trying to select a track by number will strictly select this track.
Before this change, trying to select a track which did not exist would fall back to track
default selection at playback initialization. The new behavior is more consistent.
Setting a track selection property at runtime, and then playing a new file might reset the
track selection to defaults, if the fingerprint of the track list of the new file is different.
Be aware of tricky combinations of all of all of the above: for example, mpv --aid=2
file_with_2_audio_tracks.mkv file_with_1_audio_track.mkv would first play the correct track,
and the second file without audio. If you then go back the first file, its first audio track
will be played, and the second file is played with audio. If you do the same thing again but
instead of using --aid=2 you run set aid 2 while the file is playing, then changing to the
second file will play its audio track. This is because runtime selection enables the
fingerprint heuristic.
Most likely this is not the end.
--sid=<ID|auto|no>
Display the subtitle stream specified by <ID>. auto selects the default, no disables subtitles.
--sub is an alias for --sid.
--sid=no or --sub=no disables subtitle decoding. (The latter variant does not work with the
client API.)
--vid=<ID|auto|no>
Select video channel. auto selects the default, no disables video.
--video is an alias for --vid.
--vid=no or --video=no disables video playback. (The latter variant does not work with the client
API.)
If video is disabled, mpv will try to download the audio only if media is streamed with
youtube-dl, because it saves bandwidth. This is done by setting the ytdl_format to
"bestaudio/best" in the ytdl_hook.lua script.
--edition=<ID|auto>
(Matroska files only) Specify the edition (set of chapters) to use, where 0 is the first. If set
to auto (the default), mpv will choose the first edition declared as a default, or if there is no
default, the first edition defined.
--track-auto-selection=<yes|no>
Enable the default track auto-selection (default: yes). Enabling this will make the player select
streams according to --aid, --alang, and others. If it is disabled, no tracks are selected. In
addition, the player will not exit if no tracks are selected, and wait instead (this wait mode is
similar to pausing, but the pause option is not set).
This is useful with --lavfi-complex: you can start playback in this mode, and then set select
tracks at runtime by setting the filter graph. Note that if --lavfi-complex is set before
playback is started, the referenced tracks are always selected.
--subs-with-matching-audio=<yes|forced|no>
When autoselecting a subtitle track, select it even if the selected audio stream matches you
preferred subtitle language (default: yes). If this option is set to no, then no subtitle track
that matches the audio language will ever be autoselected by mpv regardless of --slang or
subs-fallback. If set to forced, then only forced subtitles will be selected.
--subs-match-os-language=<yes|no>
When autoselecting a subtitle track, select the track that matches the language of your OS if the
audio stream is in a different language if suitable (default track or a forced track under the
right conditions). Note that if --slang is set, this will be completely ignored (default: yes).
--subs-fallback=<yes|default|no>
When autoselecting a subtitle track, if no tracks match your preferred languages, select a full
track even if it doesn't match your preferred subtitle language (default: default). Setting this
to default means that only streams flagged as default will be selected.
--subs-fallback-forced=<yes|no|always>
When autoselecting a subtitle track, the default value of yes will prefer using a forced subtitle
track if the subtitle language matches the audio language and matches your list of preferred
languages. The special value always will only select forced subtitle tracks and never fallback on
a non-forced track. Conversely, no will never select a forced subtitle track.
Playback Control
--start=<relative time>
Seek to given time position.
The general format for times is [+|-][[hh:]mm:]ss[.ms]. If the time is prefixed with -, the time
is considered relative from the end of the file (as signaled by the demuxer/the file). A + is
usually ignored (but see below).
The following alternative time specifications are recognized:
pp% seeks to percent position pp (0-100).
#c seeks to chapter number c. (Chapters start from 1.)
none resets any previously set option (useful for libmpv).
If --rebase-start-time=no is given, then prefixing times with + makes the time relative to the
start of the file. A timestamp without prefix is considered an absolute time, i.e. should seek to
a frame with a timestamp as the file contains it. As a bug, but also a hidden feature, putting 1
or more spaces before the + or - always interprets the time as absolute, which can be used to seek
to negative timestamps (useful for debugging at most).
Examples
--start=+56, --start=00:56
Seeks to the start time + 56 seconds.
--start=-56, --start=-00:56
Seeks to the end time - 56 seconds.
--start=01:10:00
Seeks to 1 hour 10 min.
--start=50%
Seeks to the middle of the file.
--start=30 --end=40
Seeks to 30 seconds, plays 10 seconds, and exits.
--start=-3:20 --length=10
Seeks to 3 minutes and 20 seconds before the end of the file, plays 10 seconds, and
exits.
--start='#2' --end='#4'
Plays chapters 2 and 3, and exits.
--end=<relative time>
Stop at given time. Use --length if the time should be relative to --start. See --start for valid
option values and examples.
--length=<relative time>
Stop after a given time relative to the start time. See --start for valid option values and
examples.
If both --end and --length are provided, playback will stop when it reaches either of the two
endpoints.
Obscurity note: this does not work correctly if --rebase-start-time=no, and the specified time is
not an "absolute" time, as defined in the --start option description.
--rebase-start-time=<yes|no>
Whether to move the file start time to 00:00:00 (default: yes). This is less awkward for files
which start at a random timestamp, such as transport streams. On the other hand, if there are
timestamp resets, the resulting behavior can be rather weird. For this reason, and in case you are
actually interested in the real timestamps, this behavior can be disabled with no.
--speed=<0.01-100>
Slow down or speed up playback by the factor given as parameter.
If --audio-pitch-correction (on by default) is used, playing with a speed higher than normal
automatically inserts the scaletempo2 audio filter.
--pitch=<0.01-100>
Raise or lower the audio's pitch by the factor given as parameter. Does not affect playback speed.
Playing with an altered pitch automatically inserts the scaletempo2 audio filter.
Since pitch change is achieved by combining pitch-preserving speed change and resampling, the
range of pitch change is effectively limited by the min-speed and max-speed parameters of
scaletempo2: for example, a min-speed of 0.25 limits the highest pitch factor to 4 (1/0.25).
In a standard 12-tone scale system, octaves are separated by a factor of 2 whereas semitones are
represented by a factor of 2^(1/12). This means pitches can easily be shifted up or down with a
simple multiplier.
Examples
--pitch=2
Shifts the pitch up a full octave.
--pitch=0.5
Shifts the pitch down an octave.
--pitch=1.498307 (2^(7/12))
Shifts the pitch up a perfect fifth.
--pitch=0.667420 (2^(-7/12))
Shifts the pitch down a perfect fifth.
--pitch=1.059463 (2^(1/12))
Shifts the pitch up a semitone.
--pitch=0.943874 (2^(-1/12))
Shifts the pitch down a semitone.
--pause
Start the player in paused state.
--shuffle
Play files in random order.
--playlist-start=<auto|index>
Set which file on the internal playlist to start playback with. The index is an integer, with 0
meaning the first file. The value auto means that the selection of the entry to play is left to
the playback resume mechanism (default). If an entry with the given index doesn't exist, the
behavior is unspecified and might change in future mpv versions. The same applies if the playlist
contains further playlists (don't expect any reasonable behavior). Passing a playlist file to mpv
should work with this option, though. E.g. mpv playlist.m3u --playlist-start=123 will work as
expected, as long as playlist.m3u does not link to further playlists.
The value no is a deprecated alias for auto.
--playlist=<filename>
Play files according to a playlist file. Supports some common formats. If no format is detected,
it will be treated as list of files, separated by newline characters. You may need this option to
load plaintext files as a playlist. Note that XML playlist formats are not supported.
This option forces --demuxer=playlist to interpret the playlist file. Some playlist formats,
notably CUE and optical disc formats, need to use different demuxers and will not work with this
option. They still can be played directly, without using this option.
You can play playlists directly, without this option. Before mpv version 0.31.0, this option
disabled any security mechanisms that might be in place, but since 0.31.0 it uses the same
security mechanisms as playing a playlist file directly. If you trust the playlist file, you can
disable any security checks with --load-unsafe-playlists. Because playlists can load other
playlist entries, consider applying this option only to the playlist itself and not its entries,
using something along these lines:
mpv --{ --playlist=filename --load-unsafe-playlists --}
WARNING:
The way older versions of mpv played playlist files via --playlist was not safe against
maliciously constructed files. Such files may trigger harmful actions. This has been the case
for all versions of mpv prior to 0.31.0, and all MPlayer versions, but unfortunately this fact
was not well documented earlier, and some people have even misguidedly recommended the use of
--playlist with untrusted sources. Do NOT use --playlist with random internet sources or files
you do not trust if you are not sure your mpv is at least 0.31.0.
In particular, playlists can contain entries using protocols other than local files, such as
special protocols like avdevice:// (which are inherently unsafe).
--chapter-merge-threshold=<number>
Threshold for merging almost consecutive ordered chapter parts in milliseconds (default: 100).
Some Matroska files with ordered chapters have inaccurate chapter end timestamps, causing a small
gap between the end of one chapter and the start of the next one when they should match. If the
end of one playback part is less than the given threshold away from the start of the next one then
keep playing video normally over the chapter change instead of doing a seek.
--chapter-seek-threshold=<seconds>
Distance in seconds from the beginning of a chapter within which a backward chapter seek will go
to the previous chapter (default: 5.0). Past this threshold, a backward chapter seek will go to
the beginning of the current chapter instead. A negative value means always go back to the
previous chapter.
--hr-seek=<no|absolute|yes|default>
Select when to use precise seeks that are not limited to keyframes. Such seeks require decoding
video from the previous keyframe up to the target position and so can take some time depending on
decoding performance. For some video formats, precise seeks are disabled. This option selects the
default choice to use for seeks; it is possible to explicitly override that default in the
definition of key bindings and in input commands.
no Never use precise seeks.
absolute
Use precise seeks if the seek is to an absolute position in the file, such as a chapter
seek, but not for relative seeks like the default behavior of arrow keys.
default
Like absolute, but enable hr-seeks in audio-only cases. The exact behavior is
implementation specific and may change with new releases (default).
yes Use precise seeks whenever possible.
always Same as yes (for compatibility).
--hr-seek-demuxer-offset=<seconds>
This option exists to work around failures to do precise seeks (as in --hr-seek) caused by bugs or
limitations in the demuxers for some file formats. Some demuxers fail to seek to a keyframe before
the given target position, going to a later position instead. The value of this option is
subtracted from the time stamp given to the demuxer. Thus, if you set this option to 1.5 and try
to do a precise seek to 60 seconds, the demuxer is told to seek to time 58.5, which hopefully
reduces the chance that it erroneously goes to some time later than 60 seconds. The downside of
setting this option is that precise seeks become slower, as video between the earlier demuxer
position and the real target may be unnecessarily decoded.
--hr-seek-framedrop=<yes|no>
Allow the video decoder to drop frames during seek, if these frames are before the seek target. If
this is enabled, precise seeking can be faster, but if you're using video filters which modify
timestamps or add new frames, it can lead to precise seeking skipping the target frame. This e.g.
can break frame backstepping when deinterlacing is enabled.
Default: yes
--index=<mode>
Controls how to seek in files. Note that if the index is missing from a file, it will be built on
the fly by default, so you don't need to change this. But it might help with some broken files.
default
use an index if the file has one, or build it if missing
recreate
don't read or use the file's index
NOTE:
This option only works if the underlying media supports seeking (i.e. not with stdin, pipe,
etc).
--load-unsafe-playlists
Load URLs from playlists which are considered unsafe (default: no). This includes special
protocols and anything that doesn't refer to normal files. Local files and HTTP links on the
other hand are always considered safe.
In addition, if a playlist is loaded while this is set, the added playlist entries are not marked
as originating from network or potentially unsafe location. (Instead, the behavior is as if the
playlist entries were provided directly to mpv command line or loadfile command.)
--access-references=<yes|no>
Follow any references in the file being opened (default: yes). Disabling this is helpful if the
file is automatically scanned (e.g. thumbnail generation). If the thumbnail scanner for example
encounters a playlist file, which contains network URLs, and the scanner should not open these,
enabling this option will prevent it. This option also disables ordered chapters, mov reference
files, opening of archives, and a number of other features.
On older FFmpeg versions, this will not work in some cases. Some FFmpeg demuxers might not respect
this option.
This option does not prevent opening of paired subtitle files and such. Use --autoload-files=no to
prevent this.
This option does not always work if you open non-files (for example using dvd://directory would
open a whole bunch of files in the given directory). Prefixing the filename with ./ if it doesn't
start with a / will avoid this.
--loop-playlist=<N|inf|force|no>, --loop-playlist
Loops playback N times. A value of 1 plays it one time (default), 2 two times, etc. inf means
forever. no is the same as 1 and disables looping. If several files are specified on command line,
the entire playlist is looped. --loop-playlist is the same as --loop-playlist=inf.
The force mode is like inf, but does not skip playlist entries which have been marked as failing.
This means the player might waste CPU time trying to loop a file that doesn't exist. But it might
be useful for playing webradios under very bad network conditions.
--loop-file=<N|inf|no>, --loop=<N|inf|no>
Loop a single file N times. inf means forever, no means normal playback. For compatibility,
--loop-file and --loop-file=yes are also accepted, and are the same as --loop-file=inf.
The difference to --loop-playlist is that this doesn't loop the playlist, just the file itself. If
the playlist contains only a single file, the difference between the two option is that this
option performs a seek on loop, instead of reloading the file.
NOTE:
--loop-file counts the number of times it causes the player to seek to the beginning of the
file, not the number of full playthroughs. This means --loop-file=1 will end up playing the
file twice. Contrast with --loop-playlist, which counts the number of full playthroughs.
--loop is an alias for this option.
--ab-loop-a=<time>, --ab-loop-b=<time>
Set loop points. If playback passes the b timestamp, it will seek to the a timestamp. Seeking past
the b point doesn't loop (this is intentional).
If a is after b, the behavior is as if the points were given in the right order, and the player
will seek to b after crossing through a. This is different from old behavior, where looping was
disabled (and as a bug, looped back to a on the end of the file).
If either options are set to no (or unset), looping is disabled. This is different from old
behavior, where an unset a implied the start of the file, and an unset b the end of the file.
The loop-points can be adjusted at runtime with the corresponding properties. See also ab-loop
command.
--ab-loop-count=<N|inf>
Run A-B loops only N times, then ignore the A-B loop points (default: inf). inf means that
looping goes on forever. If this option is set to 0, A-B looping is ignored, and even the ab-loop
command will not enable looping again (the command will show (disabled) on the OSD message if both
loop points are set, but ab-loop-count is 0).
--ordered-chapters=<yes|no>
Enable support for Matroska ordered chapters. mpv will load and search for video segments from
other files, and will also respect any chapter order specified for the main file (default: yes).
--ordered-chapters-files=<playlist-file>
Loads the given file as playlist, and tries to use the files contained in it as reference files
when opening a Matroska file that uses ordered chapters. This overrides the normal mechanism for
loading referenced files by scanning the same directory the main file is located in.
Useful for loading ordered chapter files that are not located on the local filesystem, or if the
referenced files are in different directories.
Note: a playlist can be as simple as a text file containing filenames separated by newlines.
--chapters-file=<filename>
Load chapters from this file, instead of using the chapter metadata found in the main file.
This accepts a media file (like mkv) or even a pseudo-format like ffmetadata and uses its chapters
to replace the current file's chapters. This doesn't work with OGM or XML chapters directly.
--sstep=<sec>
Skip <sec> seconds after every frame.
NOTE:
Without --hr-seek, skipping will snap to keyframes.
--stop-playback-on-init-failure=<yes|no>
Stop playback if either audio or video fails to initialize (default: no). With no, playback will
continue in video-only or audio-only mode if one of them fails. This doesn't affect playback of
audio-only or video-only files.
--play-direction=<forward|+|backward|->
Control the playback direction (default: forward). Setting backward will attempt to play the file
in reverse direction, with decreasing playback time. If this is set on playback starts, playback
will start from the end of the file. If this is changed at during playback, a hr-seek will be
issued to change the direction.
+ and - are aliases for forward and backward.
The rest of this option description pertains to the backward mode.
NOTE:
Backward playback is extremely fragile. It may not always work, is much slower than forward
playback, and breaks certain other features. How well it works depends mainly on the file being
played. Generally, it will show good results (or results at all) only if the stars align.
mpv, as well as most media formats, were designed for forward playback only. Backward playback is
bolted on top of mpv, and tries to make a medium effort to make backward playback work. Depending
on your use-case, another tool may work much better.
Backward playback is not exactly a 1st class feature. Implementation tradeoffs were made, that are
bad for backward playback, but in turn do not cause disadvantages for normal playback. Various
possible optimizations are not implemented in order to keep the complexity down. Normally, a media
player is highly pipelined (future data is prepared in separate threads, so it is available in
realtime when the next stage needs it), but backward playback will essentially stall the pipeline
at various random points.
For example, for intra-only codecs are trivially backward playable, and tools built around them
may make efficient use of them (consider video editors or camera viewers). mpv won't be efficient
in this case, because it uses its generic backward playback algorithm, that on top of it is not
very optimized.
If you just want to quickly go backward through the video and just show "keyframes", just use
forward playback, and hold down the left cursor key (which on CLI with default config sends many
small relative seek commands).
The implementation consists of mostly 3 parts:
• Backward demuxing. This relies on the demuxer cache, so the demuxer cache should (or must,
didn't test it) be enabled, and its size will affect performance. If the cache is too small or
too large, quadratic runtime behavior may result.
• Backward decoding. The decoder library used (libavcodec) does not support this. It is emulated
by feeding bits of data in forward, putting the result in a queue, returning the queue data to
the VO in reverse, and then starting over at an earlier position. This can require buffering an
extreme amount of decoded data, and also completely breaks pipelining.
• Backward output. This is relatively simple, because the decoder returns the frames in the needed
order. However, this may cause various problems because filters see audio and video going
backward.
Known problems:
• It's fragile. If anything doesn't work, random behavior may occur. In simple cases, the player
will just play nonsense and artifacts. In other cases, it may get stuck or heat the CPU.
(Exceeding memory usage significantly beyond the user-set limits would be a bug, though.)
• Performance and resource usage isn't good. In part this is inherent to backward playback of
normal media formats, and in parts due to implementation choices and tradeoffs.
• This is extremely reliant on good demuxer behavior. Although backward demuxing requires no
special demuxer support, it is required that the demuxer performs seeks reliably, fulfills some
specific requirements about packet metadata, and has deterministic behavior.
• Starting playback exactly from the end may or may not work, depending on seeking behavior and
file duration detection.
• Some container formats, audio, and video codecs are not supported due to their behavior. There
is no list, and the player usually does not detect them. Certain live streams (including TV
captures) may exhibit problems in particular, as well as some lossy audio codecs. h264
intra-refresh is known not to work due to problems with libavcodec. WAV and some other raw audio
formats tend to have problems - there are hacks for dealing with them, which may or may not
work.
• Backward demuxing of subtitles is not supported. Subtitle display still works for some external
text subtitle formats. (These are fully read into memory, and only backward display is needed.)
Text subtitles that are cached in the subtitle renderer also have a chance to be displayed
correctly.
• Some features dealing with playback of broken or hard to deal with files will not work fully
(such as timestamp correction).
• If demuxer low level seeks (i.e. seeking the actual demuxer instead of just within the demuxer
cache) are performed by backward playback, the created seek ranges may not join, because not
enough overlap is achieved.
• Trying to use this with hardware video decoding will probably exhaust all your GPU memory and
then crash a thing or two. Or it will fail because --hwdec-extra-frames will certainly be set
too low.
• Stream recording is broken. --stream-record may keep working if you backward play within a
cached region only.
• Relative seeks may behave weird. Small seeks backward (towards smaller time, i.e. seek -1) may
not really seek properly, and audio will remain muted for a while. Using hr-seek is recommended,
which should have none of these problems.
• Some things are just weird. For example, while seek commands manipulate playback time in the
expected way (provided they work correctly), the framestep commands are transposed. Backstepping
will perform very expensive work to step forward by 1 frame.
Tuning:
• Remove all --vf/--af filters you have set. Disable hardware decoding. Disable functions like
SPDIF passthrough.
• Increasing --video-reversal-buffer might help if reversal queue overflow is reported, which may
happen in high bitrate video, or video with large GOP. Hardware decoding mostly ignores this,
and you need to increase --hwdec-extra-frames instead (until you get playback without logged
errors).
• The demuxer cache is essential for backward demuxing. Make sure to set --cache=yes. The cache
size might matter. If it's too small, a queue overflow will be logged, and backward playback
cannot continue, or it performs too many low level seeks. If it's too large, implementation
tradeoffs may cause general performance issues. Use --demuxer-max-bytes to potentially increase
the amount of packets the demuxer layer can queue for reverse demuxing (basically it's the
--video-reversal-buffer equivalent for the demuxer layer).
• Setting --vd-queue-enable=yes can help a lot to make playback smooth (once it works).
• --demuxer-backward-playback-step also factors into how many seeks may be performed, and whether
backward demuxing could break due to queue overflow. If it's set too high, the backstep
operation needs to search through more packets all the time, even if the cache is large enough.
• Setting --demuxer-cache-wait may be useful to cache the entire file into the demuxer cache. Set
--demuxer-max-bytes to a large size to make sure it can read the entire cache;
--demuxer-max-back-bytes should also be set to a large size to prevent that tries to trim the
cache.
• If audio artifacts are audible, even though the AO does not underrun, increasing
--audio-backward-overlap might help in some cases.
--video-reversal-buffer=<bytesize>, --audio-reversal-buffer=<bytesize>
For backward decoding. Backward decoding decodes forward in steps, and then reverses the decoder
output. These options control the approximate maximum amount of bytes that can be buffered. The
main use of this is to avoid unbounded resource usage; during normal backward playback, it's not
supposed to hit the limit, and if it does, it will drop frames and complain about it.
Use this option if you get reversal queue overflow errors during backward playback. Increase the
size until the warning disappears. Usually, the video buffer will overflow first, especially if
it's high resolution video.
This does not work correctly if video hardware decoding is used. The video frame size will not
include the referenced GPU and driver memory. Some hardware decoders may also be limited by
--hwdec-extra-frames.
How large the queue size needs to be depends entirely on the way the media was encoded. Audio
typically requires a very small buffer, while video can require excessively large buffers.
(Technically, this allows the last frame to exceed the limit. Also, this does not account for
other buffered frames, such as inside the decoder or the video output.)
This does not affect demuxer cache behavior at all.
See --list-options for defaults and value range. <bytesize> options accept suffixes such as KiB
and MiB.
--video-backward-overlap=<auto|number>, --audio-backward-overlap=<auto|number>
Number of overlapping keyframe ranges to use for backward decoding (default: auto) ("keyframe" to
be understood as in the mpv/ffmpeg specific meaning). Backward decoding works by forward decoding
in small steps. Some codecs cannot restart decoding from any packet (even if it's marked as seek
point), which becomes noticeable with backward decoding (in theory this is a problem with seeking
too, but --hr-seek-demuxer-offset can fix it for seeking). In particular, MDCT based audio codecs
are affected.
The solution is to feed a previous packet to the decoder each time, and then discard the output.
This option controls how many packets to feed. The auto choice is currently hardcoded to 0 for
video, and uses 1 for lossy audio, 0 for lossless audio. For some specific lossy audio codecs,
this is set to 2.
--video-backward-overlap can potentially handle intra-refresh video, depending on the exact
conditions. You may have to use the --vd-lavc-show-all option as well.
--video-backward-batch=<number>, --audio-backward-batch=<number>
Number of keyframe ranges to decode at once when backward decoding (default: 1 for video, 10 for
audio). Another pointless tuning parameter nobody should use. This should affect performance only.
In theory, setting a number higher than 1 for audio will reduce overhead due to less frequent
backstep operations and less redundant decoding work due to fewer decoded overlap frames (see
--audio-backward-overlap). On the other hand, it requires a larger reversal buffer, and could make
playback less smooth due to breaking pipelining (e.g. by decoding a lot, and then doing nothing
for a while).
It probably never makes sense to set --video-backward-batch. But in theory, it could help with
intra-only video codecs by reducing backstep operations.
--demuxer-backward-playback-step=<seconds>
Number of seconds the demuxer should seek back to get new packets during backward playback
(default: 60). This is useful for tuning backward playback, see --play-direction for details.
Setting this to a very low value or 0 may make the player think seeking is broken, or may make it
perform multiple seeks.
Setting this to a high value may lead to quadratic runtime behavior.
Program Behavior
--help, --h
Show short summary of options.
You can also pass a string to this option, which will list all top-level options which contain the
string in the name, e.g. --h=scale for all options that contain the word scale. The special string
* lists all top-level options.
-v Increment verbosity level, one level for each -v found on the command line.
--version, -V
Print version string and exit.
--no-config
Do not load default configuration or any user files. This prevents loading of both the user-level
and system-wide mpv.conf and input.conf files. Other user files are blocked as well, such as
resume playback files and cache files. This option only takes effect when used as a command line
flag.
NOTE:
Files explicitly requested by command line options, like --include or --use-filedir-conf, will
still be loaded.
See also: --config-dir.
--list-options
Prints all available options.
--list-properties
Print a list of the available properties.
--list-protocols
Print a list of the supported protocols.
--log-file=<path>
Opens the given path for writing, and print log messages to it. Existing files will be truncated.
The log level is at least -v -v, but can be raised via --msg-level (the option cannot lower it
below the forced minimum log level).
A special case is the macOS bundle, it will create a log file at ~/Library/Logs/mpv.log by
default.
--config-dir=<path>
Force a different configuration directory. If this is set, the given directory is used to load
configuration files, and all other configuration directories are ignored. This means the global
mpv configuration directory as well as per-user directories are ignored, and overrides through
environment variables (MPV_HOME) are also ignored.
Note that the cache and state paths (~~/cache, ~~/state) are not considered "configuration" and
keep their auto-detection logic.
Note that the --no-config option takes precedence over this option.
--dump-stats=<filename>
Write certain statistics to the given file. The file is truncated on opening. The file will
contain raw samples, each with a timestamp. To make this file into a readable, the script
TOOLS/stats-conv.py can be used (which currently displays it as a graph).
This option is useful for debugging only.
--idle=<no|yes|once>
Makes mpv wait idly instead of quitting when there is no file to play. Mostly useful in input
mode, where mpv can be controlled through input commands. (Default: no)
once will only idle at start and let the player close once the first playlist has finished playing
back.
--include=<configuration-file>
Specify configuration file to be parsed after the default ones.
--load-scripts=<yes|no>
If set to no, don't auto-load scripts from the scripts configuration subdirectory (usually
~/.config/mpv/scripts/). (Default: yes)
--script=<filename>, --scripts=file1.lua:file2.lua:...
Load a Lua script. The second option allows you to load multiple scripts by separating them with
the path separator (: on Unix, ; on Windows).
--scripts is a path list option. See List Options for details.
--script-opt=<key=value>, --script-opts=key1=value1,key2=value2,...
Set options for scripts. A script can query an option by key. If an option is used and what
semantics the option value has depends entirely on the loaded scripts. Values not claimed by any
scripts are ignored.
Each use of the --script-opt option will add another option to the internal list, while
--script-opts takes a list of options at once, and overwrites the internal list with it. The
latter is a key/value list option. See List Options for details.
--merge-files
Pretend that all files passed to mpv are concatenated into a single, big file. This uses
timeline/EDL support internally.
--profile=<profile1,profile2,...>
Use the given profile(s), --profile=help displays a list of the defined profiles.
--reset-on-next-file=<all|option1,option2,...>
Normally, mpv will try to keep all settings when playing the next file on the playlist, even if
they were changed by the user during playback. (This behavior is the opposite of MPlayer's, which
tries to reset all settings when starting next file.)
Default: Do not reset anything.
This can be changed with this option. It accepts a list of options, and mpv will reset the value
of these options on playback start to the initial value. The initial value is either the default
value, or as set by the config file or command line.
The special name all resets as many options as possible.
This is a string list option. See List Options for details.
Examples
• --reset-on-next-file=pause Reset pause mode when switching to the next file.
• --reset-on-next-file=fullscreen,speed Reset fullscreen and playback speed settings if they
were changed during playback.
• --reset-on-next-file=all Try to reset all settings that were changed during playback.
--show-profile=<profile>
Show the description and content of a profile. Lists all profiles if no parameter is provided.
--use-filedir-conf
Look for a file-specific configuration file in the same directory as the file that is being
played. See File-specific Configuration Files.
WARNING:
May be dangerous if playing from untrusted media.
--ytdl=<yes|no>
Enable the youtube-dl hook-script. It will look at the input URL, and will play the video located
on the website. This works with many streaming sites, not just the one that the script is named
after. This requires a recent version of youtube-dl to be installed on the system (default: yes).
If the script can't do anything with an URL, it will do nothing.
This accepts a set of options, which can be passed to it with the --script-opts option (using
ytdl_hook- as prefix):
try_ytdl_first=<yes|no>
If 'yes' will try parsing the URL with youtube-dl first, instead of the default where it's
only after mpv failed to open it. This mostly depends on whether most of your URLs need
youtube-dl parsing.
exclude=<URL1|URL2|...
A |-separated list of URL patterns which mpv should not use with youtube-dl. The patterns
are matched after the http(s):// part of the URL.
^ matches the beginning of the URL, $ matches its end, and you should use % before any of
the characters ^$()%|,.[]*+-? to match that character.
URLs are converted to lower case before matching.
Examples
• --script-opts=ytdl_hook-exclude='^youtube%.com' will exclude any URL that starts with
http://youtube.com or https://youtube.com.
• --script-opts=ytdl_hook-exclude='%.mkv$|%.mp4$' will exclude any URL that ends with
.mkv or .mp4.
See more lua patterns here: <https://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/manual.html#5.4.1>
include=<URL1|URL2|...
A |-separated list of URL patterns which mpv should try to parse with youtube-dl first when
try_ytdl_first is no. The patterns are matched in the same way as exclude.
Default: ^%w+%.youtube%.com/|^youtube%.com/|^youtu%.be/|^%w+%.twitch%.tv/|^twitch%.tv/
all_formats=<yes|no>
If 'yes' will attempt to add all formats found reported by youtube-dl (default: no). Each
format is added as a separate track. In addition, they are delay-loaded, and actually
opened only when a track is selected (this should keep load times as low as without this
option).
It adds average bitrate metadata, if available, which means you can use --hls-bitrate to
decide which track to select. (HLS used to be the only format whose alternative quality
streams were exposed in a similar way, thus the option name.)
Tracks which represent formats that were selected by youtube-dl as default will have the
default flag set. This means mpv should generally still select formats chosen with
--ytdl-format by default.
Although this mechanism makes it possible to switch streams at runtime, it's not suitable
for this purpose for various technical reasons. (It's slow, which can't be really fixed.)
In general, this option is not useful, and was only added to show that it's possible.
There are two cases that must be considered when doing quality/bandwidth selection:
1. Completely separate audio and video streams (DASH-like). Each of these streams
contain either only audio or video, so you can mix and combine audio/video bandwidths
without restriction. This intuitively matches best with the concept of selecting
quality by track (what all_formats is supposed to do).
2. Separate sets of muxed audio and video streams. Each version of the media contains
both an audio and video stream, and they are interleaved. In order not to waste
bandwidth, you should only select one of these versions (if, for example, you select
an audio stream, then video will be downloaded, even if you selected video from a
different stream).
mpv will still represent them as separate tracks, but will set the title of each
track to muxed-N, where N is replaced with the youtube-dl format ID of the
originating stream.
Some sites will mix 1. and 2., but we assume that they do so for compatibility reasons, and
there is no reason to use them at all.
force_all_formats=<yes|no>
If set to 'yes', and all_formats is also set to 'yes', this will try to represent all
youtube-dl reported formats as tracks, even if mpv would normally use the direct URL
reported by it (default: yes).
It appears this normally makes a difference if youtube-dl works on a master HLS playlist.
If this is set to 'no', this specific kind of stream is treated like all_formats is set to
'no', and the stream selection as done by youtube-dl (via --ytdl-format) is used.
thumbnails=<all|best|none>
Add thumbnails as video tracks (default: none).
Thumbnails get downloaded when they are added as tracks, so 'all' can have a noticeable
impact on how long it takes to open the video when there are a lot of thumbnails.
use_manifests=<yes|no>
Make mpv use the master manifest URL for formats like HLS and DASH, if available, allowing
for video/audio selection in runtime (default: no). It's disabled ("no") by default for
performance reasons.
ytdl_path=youtube-dl
Configure paths to youtube-dl's executable or a compatible fork's. The paths should be
separated by : on Unix and ; on Windows. mpv looks in order for the configured paths in
PATH and in mpv's config directory. The defaults are "yt-dlp", "yt-dlp_x86" and
"youtube-dl". On Windows the suffix extension is not necessary, but only ".exe" is
acceptable.
Why do the option names mix _ and -?
I have no idea.
--ytdl-format=<ytdl|best|worst|mp4|webm|...>
Video format/quality that is directly passed to youtube-dl. The possible values are specific to
the website and the video, for a given url the available formats can be found with the command
youtube-dl --list-formats URL. See youtube-dl's documentation for available aliases. (Default:
bestvideo+bestaudio/best)
The ytdl value does not pass a --format option to youtube-dl at all, and thus does not override
its default. Note that sometimes youtube-dl returns a format that mpv cannot use, and in these
cases the mpv default may work better.
--ytdl-raw-options=<key>=<value>[,<key>=<value>[,...]]
Pass arbitrary options to youtube-dl. Parameter and argument should be passed as a key-value pair.
Options without argument must include =.
There is no sanity checking so it's possible to break things (i.e. passing invalid parameters to
youtube-dl).
A proxy URL can be passed for youtube-dl to use it in parsing the website. This is useful for
geo-restricted URLs. After youtube-dl parsing, some URLs also require a proxy for playback, so
this can pass that proxy information to mpv. Take note that SOCKS proxies aren't supported and
https URLs also bypass the proxy. This is a limitation in FFmpeg.
This is a key/value list option. See List Options for details.
Example
• --ytdl-raw-options=username=user,password=pass
• --ytdl-raw-options=force-ipv6=
• --ytdl-raw-options=proxy=[http://127.0.0.1:3128]
• --ytdl-raw-options-append=proxy=http://127.0.0.1:3128
--js-memory-report=<yes|no>
Enable memory reporting for javascript scripts in the stats overlay. This is disabled by default
because it has an overhead and increases memory usage. This option will only work if it is enabled
before mpv is started.
--load-stats-overlay=<yes|no>
Enable the builtin script that shows useful playback information on a key binding (default: yes).
By default, the i key is used (I to make the overlay permanent).
--load-console=<yes|no>
Enable the built-in script to handle textual input (default: yes).
--load-commands=<yes|no>
Enable the built-in script to enter commands in the console (default: yes). The ` key is used to
activate this by default.
--load-auto-profiles=<yes|no|auto>
Enable the builtin script that does auto profiles (default: auto). See Conditional auto profiles
for details. auto will load the script, but immediately unload it if there are no conditional
profiles.
--load-select=<yes|no>
Enable the builtin script that lets you select from lists of items (default: yes). By default, its
keybindings start with the g key.
--load-positioning=<yes|no>
Enable the builtin script that provides various keybindings to pan videos and images (default:
yes).
--player-operation-mode=<cplayer|pseudo-gui>
For enabling "pseudo GUI mode", which means that the defaults for some options are changed. This
option should not normally be used directly, but only by mpv internally, or mpv-provided scripts,
config files, or .desktop files. See PSEUDO GUI MODE for details.
Watch Later
--save-position-on-quit
Always save the current playback position on quit, and also when the loadfile command is used to
replace the current playlist. When this file is played again later, the player will seek to the
old playback position on start. This does not happen if playback of a file is stopped in other
ways. For example, going to the next file in the playlist will not save the position, and will
start playback at beginning the next time the file is played.
This behavior is disabled by default, but is always available when quitting the player with
Shift+Q.
See RESUMING PLAYBACK.
--watch-later-dir=<path>
The directory in which to store the "watch later" temporary files.
--watch-later-directory is an alias for --watch-later-dir.
If this option is unset, the files will be stored in a subdirectory named "watch_later" underneath
the local state directory (usually ~/.local/state/mpv/).
--resume-playback=<yes|no>
Restore playback position from the watch_later configuration subdirectory, usually
~/.config/mpv/watch_later/ (default: yes).
--resume-playback-check-mtime=<yes|no>
Only restore the playback position from the watch_later configuration subdirectory (usually
~/.config/mpv/watch_later/) if the file's modification time is the same as at the time of saving.
This may prevent skipping forward in files with the same name which have different content.
(Default: no)
--watch-later-options=option1,option2,...
The options that are saved in "watch later" files if they have been changed since when mpv
started. These values will be restored the next time the files are played. Note that the playback
position is saved via the start option.
When removing options, existing watch later data won't be modified and will still be applied
fully, but new watch later data won't contain these options.
See --help=watch-later-options for the list of the properties that are restored by default.
This is a string list option. See List Options for details.
Examples
• --watch-later-options-remove=sid The subtitle track selection will not be restored.
• --watch-later-options-remove=volume --watch-later-options-remove=mute The volume and mute
state won't be saved to watch later files.
• --watch-later-options=start No option will be saved to watch later files, except the playback
position.
--write-filename-in-watch-later-config
Prepend the watch later config files with the name of the file they refer to. This is simply
written as comment on the top of the file.
WARNING:
This option may expose privacy-sensitive information and is thus disabled by default.
--ignore-path-in-watch-later-config
Ignore path (i.e. use filename only) when using watch later feature. (Default: disabled)
Watch History
--save-watch-history
Whether to save which files are played. These can be then selected with the default g-h key
binding.
WARNING:
This option may expose privacy-sensitive information and is thus disabled by default.
--watch-history-path=<path>
The path in which to store the watch history. Default: ~~state/watch_history.jsonl (see PATHS).
This file contains one JSON object per line. Its time field is the UNIX timestamp when the file
was opened, its path field is the normalized path, and its title field is the title when it was
available.
Video
--vo=<driver>
Specify the video output backend to be used. See VIDEO OUTPUT DRIVERS for details and descriptions
of available drivers.
--vd=<...>
Specify a priority list of video decoders to be used, according to their family and name. See --ad
for further details. Both of these options use the same syntax and semantics; the only difference
is that they operate on different codec lists.
NOTE:
See --vd=help for a full list of available decoders.
--vf=<filter1[=parameter1:parameter2:...],filter2,...>
Specify a list of video filters to apply to the video stream. See VIDEO FILTERS for details and
descriptions of the available filters. The option variants --vf-add, --vf-pre, and --vf-clr exist
to modify a previously specified list, but you should not need these for typical use.
--untimed
Do not sleep when outputting video frames. Useful for benchmarks when used with --audio=no.
--framedrop=<mode>
Skip displaying some frames to maintain A/V sync on slow systems, or playing high framerate video
on video outputs that have an upper framerate limit.
The argument selects the drop methods, and can be one of the following:
<no> Disable any frame dropping. Not recommended, for testing only.
<vo> Drop late frames on video output (default). This still decodes and filters all frames, but
doesn't render them on the VO. Drops are indicated in the terminal status line as Dropped:
field.
In audio sync. mode, this drops frames that are outdated at the time of display. If the
decoder is too slow, in theory all frames would have to be dropped (because all frames are
too late) - to avoid this, frame dropping stops if the effective framerate is below 10
FPS.
In display-sync. modes (see --video-sync), this affects only how A/V drops or repeats
frames. If this mode is disabled, A/V desync will in theory not affect video scheduling
anymore (much like the display-resample-desync mode). However, even if disabled, frames
will still be skipped (i.e. dropped) according to the ratio between video and display
frequencies.
This is the recommended mode, and the default.
<decoder>
Old, decoder-based framedrop mode. (This is the same as --framedrop=yes in mpv 0.5.x and
before.) This tells the decoder to skip frames (unless they are needed to decode future
frames). May help with slow systems, but can produce unwatchable choppy output, or even
freeze the display completely.
This uses a heuristic which may not make sense, and in general cannot achieve good
results, because the decoder's frame dropping cannot be controlled in a predictable manner.
Not recommended.
Even if you want to use this, prefer decoder+vo for better results.
The --vd-lavc-framedrop option controls what frames to drop.
<decoder+vo>
Enable both modes. Not recommended. Better than just decoder mode.
NOTE:
--vo=vdpau has its own code for the vo framedrop mode. Slight differences to other VOs are
possible.
--video-latency-hacks=<yes|no>
Enable some things which tend to reduce video latency by 1 or 2 frames (default: no). Note that
this option might be removed without notice once the player's timing code does not inherently need
to do these things anymore. Using this option is known to break other options such as
interpolation, so it is not recommended to enable this.
This does:
• Use the demuxer reported FPS for frame dropping. This avoids the player needing to decode 1
frame in advance, lowering total latency in effect. This also means that if the demuxer reported
FPS is wrong, or the video filter chain changes FPS (e.g. deinterlacing), then it could drop too
many or not enough frames.
• Disable waiting for the first video frame. Normally the player waits for the first video frame
to be fully rendered before starting playback properly. Some VOs will lazily initialize stuff
when rendering the first frame, so if this is not done, there is some likeliness that the VO has
to drop some frames if rendering the first frame takes longer than needed.
--display-fps-override=<fps>
Set the display FPS used with the --video-sync=display-* modes. By default, a detected value is
used. Keep in mind that setting an incorrect value (even if slightly incorrect) can ruin video
playback. On multi-monitor systems, there is a chance that the detected value is from the wrong
monitor.
Set this option only if you have reason to believe the automatically determined value is wrong.
--hwdec=<api1,api2,...|no|auto|auto-copy>
Specify the hardware video decoding API that should be used if possible. Whether hardware
decoding is actually done depends on the video codec. If hardware decoding is not possible, mpv
will fall back on software decoding.
Hardware decoding is not enabled by default, to keep the out-of-the-box configuration as reliable
as possible. However, when using modern hardware, hardware video decoding should work correctly,
offering reduced CPU usage, and possibly lower power consumption. On older systems, it may be
necessary to use hardware decoding due to insufficient CPU resources; and even on modern systems,
sufficiently complex content (eg: 4K60 AV1) may require it.
This is a string list option. See List Options for details.
NOTE:
Use the Ctrl+h shortcut to toggle hardware decoding at runtime. It toggles this option between
auto and no.
If you decide you want to use hardware decoding by default, the general recommendation is to
try out decoding with the command line option, and prove to yourself that it works as desired
for the content you care about. After that, you can add it to your config file.
When testing, you should start by using hwdec=auto as it will limit itself to choosing from
hwdecs that are actively supported by the development team. If that doesn't result in working
hardware decoding, you can try hwdec=auto-unsafe to have it attempt to load every possible
hwdec, but if auto didn't work, you will probably need to know exactly which hwdec matches your
hardware and read up on that entry below.
If auto produced the desired results, we recommend just sticking with that and only setting a
specific hwdec in your config file if it is really necessary.
If you use the Ubuntu package, keep in mind that their /etc/mpv/mpv.conf contains hwdec=vaapi,
which is less than ideal as it may not be the right choice for your system, and it may end up
using an inefficient wrapper library under the covers. We recommend removing this line or
deleting the file altogether.
NOTE:
Even if enabled, hardware decoding is still only white-listed for some codecs. See
--hwdec-codecs to enable hardware decoding in more cases.
Which method to choose?
• If you only want to enable hardware decoding at runtime, don't set the parameter, or put
hwdec=no into your mpv.conf (relevant on distros which force-enable it by default, such as on
Ubuntu). Use the Ctrl+h default binding to enable it at runtime.
• If you're not sure, but want hardware decoding always enabled by default, put hwdec=yes into
your mpv.conf, and acknowledge that this may cause problems.
• If you want to test available hardware decoding methods, pass --hwdec=auto --hwdec-codecs=all
and look at the terminal output.
• If you're a developer, or want to perform elaborate tests, you may need any of the other
possible option values.
This option accepts a comma delimited list of api types, along with certain special values:
no always use software decoding (default)
auto enable any whitelisted hw decoder (see below)
auto-unsafe
forcibly enable any hw decoder found (see below)
yes exactly the same as auto
auto-safe
exactly the same as auto
NOTE:
Special values can be mixed with api names. eg: vaapi,auto will try and use the vaapi hwdec,
and if that fails, will run through the normal auto logic.
Actively supported hwdecs:
d3d11va
requires --vo=gpu with --gpu-context=d3d11 or --gpu-context=angle (Windows 8+ only)
d3d11va-copy
copies video back to system RAM (Windows 8+ only)
videotoolbox
requires --vo=gpu (macOS 10.8 and up), or --vo=libmpv (iOS 9.0 and up)
videotoolbox-copy
copies video back into system RAM (macOS 10.8 or iOS 9.0 and up)
vaapi requires --vo=gpu, --vo=vaapi or --vo=dmabuf-wayland (Linux only)
vaapi-copy
copies video back into system RAM (Linux with some GPUs or Windows)
nvdec requires --vo=gpu (Any platform CUDA is available)
nvdec-copy
copies video back to system RAM (Any platform CUDA is available)
drm requires --vo=gpu (Linux only)
drm-copy
copies video back to system RAM (Linux only)
vulkan requires --vo=gpu-next (Any platform with Vulkan Video Decoding)
vulkan-copy
copies video back to system RAM (Any platform with Vulkan Video Decoding)
Other hwdecs (only use if you know you have to):
dxva2 requires --vo=gpu with --gpu-context=d3d11, --gpu-context=angle or --gpu-context=dxinterop
(Windows only)
dxva2-copy
copies video back to system RAM (Windows only)
vdpau requires --vo=gpu with --gpu-context=x11, or --vo=vdpau (Linux only)
vdpau-copy
copies video back into system RAM (Linux with some GPUs only)
mediacodec
requires --vo=gpu --gpu-context=android or --vo=mediacodec_embed (Android only)
mediacodec-copy
copies video back to system RAM (Android only)
cuda requires --vo=gpu (Any platform CUDA is available)
cuda-copy
copies video back to system RAM (Any platform CUDA is available)
crystalhd
copies video back to system RAM (Any platform supported by hardware)
rkmpp requires --vo=gpu (some RockChip devices only)
auto tries to automatically enable hardware decoding using the first available method, but allows
only whitelisted methods that are considered "safe". This is supposed to be a reasonable way to
enable hardware decoding by default in a config file (even though you shouldn't do that anyway;
prefer runtime enabling with Ctrl+h). Unlike auto-unsafe, this will not try to enable unknown or
known-to-be-bad methods. In addition, this may disable hardware decoding in other situations when
it's known to cause problems, but currently this mechanism is quite primitive. (As an example for
something that still causes problems: certain combinations of HEVC and Intel chips on Windows tend
to cause mpv to crash, most likely due to driver bugs.)
auto-unsafe is similar to auto, but without the whitelist. In general, you should never need to
use this beyond debugging or development use. Any known unsafe hwdec you want to test can simply
be appended to the list option such as --hwdec=auto,unsafe-hwdec. This still depends what VO you
are using. See the list above, for which --vo and gpu-context is required for a given hwdec. It
will go down the list of available hwdecs until one is successfully initialised. If all of them
fail, it will fallback to software decoding.
auto-copy selects only modes that copy the video data back to system memory after decoding. This
selects modes like vaapi-copy (and so on), but it only allows whitelisted methods that are
considered "safe". If none of these work, hardware decoding is disabled. This mode is usually
guaranteed to incur no additional quality loss compared to software decoding (assuming modern
codecs and an error free video stream), and will allow CPU processing with video filters. This
mode works with all video filters and VOs.
auto-copy-safe is an alias for auto-copy
auto-copy-unsafe is the same as auto-copy except that it goes through all methods and not just the
whitelisted ones that are considered "safe".
Because these copy the decoded video back to system RAM, they're often less efficient than the
direct modes, and may not help too much over software decoding if you are short on CPU resources.
NOTE:
Most non-copy methods only work with the OpenGL GPU backend. Currently, only the vaapi, nvdec,
cuda and vulkan methods work with Vulkan.
The vaapi mode, if used with --vo=gpu or --vo=gpu-next most likely works with Intel and AMD GPUs
only. It requires the opengl EGL backend if the GPU does not support drm modifiers.
nvdec and nvdec-copy are the newest, and recommended method to do hardware decoding on Nvidia
GPUs.
cuda and cuda-copy are an older implementation of hardware decoding on Nvidia GPUs that uses
Nvidia's bitstream parsers rather than FFmpeg's. This can lead to feature deficiencies, such as
incorrect playback of HDR content, and nvdec/nvdec-copy should always be preferred unless you
specifically need Nvidia's deinterlacing algorithms. To use this deinterlacing you must pass the
option: vd-lavc-o=deint=[weave|bob|adaptive]. Pass weave (or leave the option unset) to not
attempt any deinterlacing.
Quality reduction with hardware decoding
In theory, hardware decoding does not reduce video quality (at least for the codecs h264
and HEVC). However, due to restrictions in video output APIs, as well as bugs in the
actual hardware decoders, there can be some loss, or even blatantly incorrect results.
This has largely ceased to be a problem with modern hardware, but there is a lot of
hardware out there, so caveat emptor. Known problems are discussed below, but the list
cannot be considered exhaustive, as even hwdecs that work well on certain hardware
generations may be problematic on other ones.
In some cases, RGB conversion is forced, which means the RGB conversion is performed by
the hardware decoding API, instead of the shaders used by --vo=gpu. This means certain
colorspaces may not display correctly, and certain filtering (such as debanding) cannot
be applied in an ideal way. This will also usually force the use of low quality chroma
scalers instead of the one specified by --cscale. In other cases, hardware decoding can
also reduce the bit depth of the decoded image, which can introduce banding or precision
loss for 10-bit files.
vdpau always does RGB conversion in hardware, which does not support newer colorspaces
like BT.2020 correctly. However, vdpau doesn't support 10 bit or HDR encodings, so these
limitations are unlikely to be relevant.
dxva2 is not safe. It appears to always use BT.601 for forced RGB conversion, but actual
behavior depends on the GPU drivers. Some drivers appear to convert to limited range
RGB, which gives a faded appearance. In addition to driver-specific behavior, global
system settings might affect this additionally. This can give incorrect results even
with completely ordinary video sources.
mediacodec is not safe. It forces RGB conversion (not with -copy) and how well it
handles non-standard colorspaces is not known. In the rare cases where 10-bit is
supported the bit depth of the output will be reduced to 8.
cuda should usually be safe, but depending on how a file/stream has been mixed, it has
been reported to corrupt the timestamps causing glitched, flashing frames. It can also
sometimes cause massive framedrops for unknown reasons. Caution is advised, and nvdec
should always be preferred.
crystalhd is not safe. It always converts to 4:2:2 YUV, which may be lossy, depending on
how chroma sub-sampling is done during conversion. It also discards the top left pixel
of each frame for some reason.
If you run into any weird decoding issues, frame glitches or discoloration, and you have
--hwdec turned on, the first thing you should try is disabling it.
--gpu-hwdec-interop=<auto|all|no|name>
This option is for troubleshooting hwdec interop issues. Since it's a debugging option, its
semantics may change at any time.
This is useful for the gpu and libmpv VOs for selecting which hwdec interop context to use
exactly. Effectively it also can be used to block loading of certain backends.
If set to auto (default), the behavior depends on the VO: for gpu, it does nothing, and the
interop context is loaded on demand (when the decoder probes for --hwdec support). For libmpv,
which has has no on-demand loading, this is equivalent to all.
The empty string is equivalent to auto.
If set to all, it attempts to load all interop contexts at GL context creation time.
Other than that, a specific backend can be set, and the list of them can be queried with help (mpv
CLI only).
Runtime changes to this are ignored (the current option value is used whenever the renderer is
created).
--hwdec-extra-frames=<N>
Number of GPU frames hardware decoding should preallocate (default: see --list-options output). If
this is too low, frame allocation may fail during decoding, and video frames might get dropped
and/or corrupted. Setting it too high simply wastes GPU memory and has no advantages.
This value is used only for hardware decoding APIs which require preallocating surfaces (known
examples include d3d11va and vaapi). For other APIs, frames are allocated as needed. The details
depend on the libavcodec implementations of the hardware decoders.
The required number of surfaces depends on dynamic runtime situations. The default is a fixed
value that is thought to be sufficient for most uses. But in certain situations, it may not be
enough.
--hwdec-image-format=<name>
Set the internal pixel format used by hardware decoding via --hwdec (default no). The special
value no selects an implementation specific standard format. Most decoder implementations support
only one format, and will fail to initialize if the format is not supported.
Some implementations might support multiple formats. In particular, videotoolbox is known to
require uyvy422 for good performance on some older hardware. d3d11va can always use yuv420p, which
uses an opaque format, with likely no advantages.
--cuda-decode-device=<auto|0..>
Choose the GPU device used for decoding when using the cuda or nvdec hwdecs with the OpenGL GPU
backend, and with the cuda-copy or nvdec-copy hwdecs in all cases.
For the OpenGL GPU backend, the default device used for decoding is the one being used to provide
gpu output (and in the vast majority of cases, only one GPU will be present).
For the copy hwdecs, the default device will be the first device enumerated by the CUDA libraries
- however that is done.
For the Vulkan GPU backend, decoding must always happen on the display device, and this option has
no effect.
--vaapi-device=<device file|adapter name>
Choose the DRM device for vaapi-copy. This should be the path to a DRM device file. (Default:
/dev/dri/renderD128)
On Windows this takes adapter name as an input. Will pick the default adapter if unset.
Alternatives are listed when the name "help" is given.
--panscan=<0.0-1.0>
Enables pan-and-scan functionality (cropping the sides of e.g. a 16:9 video to make it fit a 4:3
display without black bands). The range controls how much of the image is cropped. May not work
with all video output drivers.
This option has no effect if --video-unscaled option is used.
The difference between --panscan and --video-zoom is that --panscan can only zoom in until either
the video width or height fills the window, while --video-zoom can zoom in or out arbitrary
amounts, and also works with --video-unscaled.
--video-aspect-override=<ratio|no>
Override video aspect ratio, in case aspect information is incorrect or missing in the file being
played.
These values have special meaning:
no use the method of the --video-aspect-method option (default)
0 disable aspect ratio handling, pretend the video has square pixels (deprecated, use
--video-aspect-override=no --video-aspect-method=ignore instead)
-1 strictly prefer the container aspect ratio (deprecated, use --video-aspect-override=no
--video-aspect-method=container instead)
But note that handling of these special values might change in the future.
Examples
• --video-aspect-override=4:3 or --video-aspect-override=1.3333
• --video-aspect-override=16:9 or --video-aspect-override=1.7777
• --no-video-aspect-override or --video-aspect-override=no
--video-aspect-method=<bitstream|container|ignore>
This sets the default video aspect determination method (if the aspect is _not_ overridden by the
user with --video-aspect-override or others).
container
Strictly prefer the container aspect ratio. This is apparently the default behavior with
VLC, at least with Matroska. Note that if the container has no aspect ratio set, the
behavior is the same as with bitstream.
bitstream
Strictly prefer the bitstream aspect ratio, unless the bitstream aspect ratio is not set.
This is apparently the default behavior with XBMC/kodi, at least with Matroska.
ignore Disable aspect ratio handling, pretend the video has square pixels.
The current default for mpv is container.
Normally you should not set this. Try the various choices if you encounter video that has the
wrong aspect ratio in mpv, but seems to be correct in other players.
--video-unscaled=<no|yes|downscale-big>
Disable scaling of the video. If the window is larger than the video, black bars are added.
Otherwise, the video is cropped, unless the option is set to downscale-big, in which case the
video is fit to window. The video still can be influenced by the other --video-... options. This
option disables the effect of --panscan.
Note that the scaler algorithm may still be used, even if the video isn't scaled. For example,
this can influence chroma conversion. The video will also still be scaled in one dimension if the
source uses non-square pixels (e.g. anamorphic widescreen DVDs).
This option is disabled if --keepaspect=no is used.
--video-pan-x=<value>, --video-pan-y=<value>
Moves the displayed video rectangle by the given value in the X or Y direction. The unit is in
fractions of the size of the scaled video (the full size, even if parts of the video are not
visible due to panscan or other options).
For example, displaying a video fullscreen on a 1920x1080 screen with --video-pan-x=-0.1 would
move the video 192 pixels to the left and --video-pan-y=-0.1 would move the video 108 pixels up.
This option is disabled if --keepaspect=no is used.
--video-rotate=<0-359|no>
Rotate the video clockwise, in degrees. If no is given, the video is never rotated, even if the
file has rotation metadata. (The rotation value is added to the rotation metadata, which means the
value 0 would rotate the video according to the rotation metadata.)
When using hardware decoding without copy-back, only 90° steps work, while software decoding and
hardware decoding methods that copy the video back to system memory support all values between 0
and 359.
--video-crop=<[W[xH]][+x+y]>, --video-crop=<x:y>
Crop the video by starting at the x, y offset for w, h pixels. The crop is applied to the source
video rectangle (before anamorphic stretch) by the VO. A crop rectangle that is not within the
video rectangle will be ignored. This works with hwdec, unlike the equivalent 'lavfi-crop'. When
offset is omitted, the central area will be cropped. Setting the crop to empty one
--video-crop=0x0+0+0 overrides container crop and disables cropping. Setting the crop to
--video-crop="" disables manual cropping and restores the container crop if it's specified.
--video-zoom=<value>
Adjust the video display scale factor by the given value. The parameter is given log 2. For
example, --video-zoom=0 is unscaled, --video-zoom=1 is twice the size, --video-zoom=-2 is one
fourth of the size, and so on.
This option is disabled if --keepaspect=no is used.
--video-scale-x=<value>, --video-scale-y=<value>
Multiply the video display size with the given value (default: 1.0). If a non-default value is
used, this will be different from the window size, so video will be either cut off, or black bars
are added.
This value is multiplied with the value derived from --video-zoom and the normal video aspect
ratio. This option is disabled if --keepaspect=no is used.
--video-align-x=<-1-1>, --video-align-y=<-1-1>
When the video is bigger than the window, these move the displayed rectangle to show different
parts of the video. --video-align-y=-1 would display the top of the video, 0 would display the
center (default), and 1 would display the bottom.
When the video is smaller than the window and --video-recenter is disabled, these move the video
rectangle within the black borders, which are usually added to pad the video to the window if
video and window aspect ratios are different. --video-align-y=-1 would move the video to the top
of the window (leaving a border only on the bottom), 0 would center it, and 1 would put the video
at the bottom of the window.
If video and screen aspect match perfectly, these options do nothing.
Unlike --video-pan-x and --video-pan-y, these don't go beyond the video's or window's boundaries
or make the displayed rectangle drift off after zooming.
This option is disabled if --keepaspect=no is used.
--video-recenter=<yes|no>
Whether to behave as if --video-align-x and --video-align-y were 0 when the video becomes smaller
than the window in the respective direction
After zooming in until the video is bigger the window, panning with --video-align-x and/or
--video-align-y, and zooming out until the video is smaller than the window, this is useful to
recenter the video in the window.
Default: no.
--video-margin-ratio-left=<val>, --video-margin-ratio-right=<val>, --video-margin-ratio-top=<val>,
--video-margin-ratio-bottom=<val>
Set extra video margins on each border (default: 0). Each value is a ratio of the window size,
using a range 0.0-1.0. For example, setting the option --video-margin-ratio-right=0.2 at a window
size of 1000 pixels will add a 200 pixels border on the right side of the window.
The video is "boxed" by these margins. The window size is not changed. In particular it does not
enlarge the window, and the margins will cause the video to be downscaled by default. This may or
may not change in the future.
The margins are applied after 90° video rotation, but before any other video transformations.
This option is disabled if --keepaspect=no is used.
Subtitles still may use the margins, depending on --sub-use-margins and similar options.
These options were created for the OSC. Some odd decisions, such as making the margin values a
ratio (instead of pixels), were made for the sake of the OSC. It's possible that these options may
be replaced by ones that are more generally useful. The behavior of these options may change to
fit OSC requirements better, too.
--correct-pts=<yes|no>
--correct-pts=no switches mpv to a mode where video timing is determined using a fixed framerate
value (either using the --container-fps-override option, or using file information). Sometimes,
files with very broken timestamps can be played somewhat well in this mode. Note that video
filters, subtitle rendering, seeking (including hr-seeks and backstepping), and audio
synchronization can be completely broken in this mode.
--container-fps-override=<float>
Override video framerate. Useful if the original value is wrong or missing.
NOTE:
Works in --correct-pts=no mode only.
--deinterlace=<yes|no|auto>
Enable or disable deinterlacing (default: no). Interlaced video shows ugly comb-like artifacts,
which are visible on fast movement. Enabling this typically inserts the bwdif video filter in
order to deinterlace the video, or lets the video output apply deinterlacing if supported.
When using auto, mpv will insert a deinterlacing filter if ffmpeg detects that the video frame is
interlaced. Be aware that there can be false positives in certain cases, such as when files are
encoded as interlaced despite the video not actually being so. This is why auto is not the default
value.
Keep in mind that using this filter will conflict with any manually inserted deinterlacing
filters, and that this will make video look worse if it's not actually interlaced.
--deinterlace-field-parity=<tff|bff|auto>
Specify the field parity/order when deinterlacing (default: auto). Each frame of an interlaced
video is divided into two fields, which are then separately transmitted. Top field represents even
lines while bottom field represents odd lines. When deinterlacing the deinterlacer needs to know
the correct temporal order of the fields else the video will appear jittery.
auto will automatically try to detect the field order of the video, tff forces top field first
while bff forces bottom field first.
--frames=<number>
Play/convert only first <number> video frames, then quit.
--frames=0 loads the file, but immediately quits before initializing playback. (Might be useful
for scripts which just want to determine some file properties.)
For audio-only playback, any value greater than 0 will quit playback immediately after
initialization. The value 0 works as with video.
--video-output-levels=<outputlevels>
RGB color levels used with YUV to RGB conversion. Normally, output devices such as PC monitors use
full range color levels. However, some TVs and video monitors expect studio RGB levels. Providing
full range output to a device expecting studio level input results in crushed blacks and whites,
the reverse in dim gray blacks and dim whites.
Not all VOs support this option. Some will silently ignore it.
Available color ranges are:
auto automatic selection (equals to full range) (default)
limited
limited range (16-235 per component), studio levels
full full range (0-255 per component), PC levels
NOTE:
It is advisable to use your graphics driver's color range option instead, if available.
--hwdec-codecs=<codec1,codec2,...|all>
Allow hardware decoding for a given list of codecs only. The special value all always allows all
codecs.
You can get the list of allowed codecs with mpv --vd=help. Remove the prefix, e.g. instead of
lavc:h264 use h264.
By default, this is set to h264,vc1,hevc,vp8,vp9,av1,prores. Note that the hardware acceleration
special codecs like h264_vdpau are not relevant anymore, and in fact have been removed from FFmpeg
in this form.
This is usually only needed with broken GPUs, where a codec is reported as supported, but decoding
causes more problems than it solves.
NOTE:
On some broken drivers (e.g. NVIDIA on Linux), probing for codecs which the GPU does not
support can unnecessarily slow down video playback initialization. To alleviate this,
explicitly specify a list which only includes the codecs supported on the setup.
Example
mpv --hwdec=vdpau --hwdec-codecs=h264,mpeg2video
Enable vdpau decoding for h264 and mpeg2 only.
--hwdec-software-fallback=<yes|no|N>
Fallback to software decoding if the hardware-accelerated decoder fails (default: 3). If this is a
number, then fallback will be triggered if N frames fail to decode in a row. 1 is equivalent to
yes.
Setting this to a higher number might break the playback start fallback: if a fallback happens,
parts of the file will be skipped, approximately by to the number of packets that could not be
decoded. Values below an unspecified count will not have this problem, because mpv retains the
packets.
--vd-lavc-check-hw-profile=<yes|no>
Check hardware decoder profile (default: yes). If no is set, the highest profile of the hardware
decoder is unconditionally selected, and decoding is forced even if the profile of the video is
higher than that. The result is most likely broken decoding, but may also help if the detected or
reported profiles are somehow incorrect.
--vd-lavc-film-grain=<auto|cpu|gpu>
Enables film grain application on the GPU. If video decoding is done on the CPU, doing film grain
application on the GPU can speed up decoding. This option can also help hardware decoding, as it
can reduce the number of frame copies done.
By default, it's set to auto, so if the VO supports film grain application, then it will be
treated as gpu. If the VO does not support this, then it will be treated as cpu, regardless of the
setting. Currently, only gpu-next supports film grain application.
--vd-lavc-dr=<auto|yes|no>
Enable direct rendering (default: auto). If this is set to yes, the video will be decoded directly
to GPU video memory (or staging buffers). This can speed up video upload, and may help with large
resolutions or slow hardware. This works only with the following VOs:
• gpu: requires at least OpenGL 4.4 or Vulkan.
• libmpv: The libmpv render API has optional support.
The auto option will try to guess whether DR can improve performance on your particular hardware.
Currently this enables it on AMD or NVIDIA if using OpenGL or unconditionally if using Vulkan.
Using video filters of any kind that write to the image data (or output newly allocated frames)
will silently disable the DR code path.
--vd-lavc-bitexact
Only use bit-exact algorithms in all decoding steps (for codec testing).
--vd-lavc-fast (MPEG-1/2 and H.264 only)
Enable optimizations which do not comply with the format specification and potentially cause
problems, like simpler dequantization, simpler motion compensation, assuming use of the default
quantization matrix, assuming YUV 4:2:0 and skipping a few checks to detect damaged bitstreams.
--vd-lavc-o=<key>=<value>[,<key>=<value>[,...]]
Pass AVOptions to libavcodec decoder. Note, a patch to make the o= unneeded and pass all unknown
options through the AVOption system is welcome. A full list of AVOptions can be found in the
FFmpeg manual.
Some options which used to be direct options can be set with this mechanism, like bug, gray, idct,
ec, vismv, skip_top (was st), skip_bottom (was sb), debug.
This is a key/value list option. See List Options for details.
Example
--vd-lavc-o=debug=pict
--vd-lavc-show-all=<yes|no>
Show even broken/corrupt frames (default: no). If this option is set to no, libavcodec won't
output frames that were either decoded before an initial keyframe was decoded, or frames that are
recognized as corrupted.
--vd-lavc-skiploopfilter=<skipvalue> (H.264, HEVC only)
Skips the loop filter (AKA deblocking) during decoding. Since the filtered frame is supposed to be
used as reference for decoding dependent frames, this has a worse effect on quality than not doing
deblocking on e.g. MPEG-2 video. But at least for high bitrate HDTV, this provides a big speedup
with little visible quality loss. Codecs other than H.264 or HEVC may have partial support for
this option (often only all and none).
<skipvalue> can be one of the following:
none Never skip.
default
Skip useless processing steps (e.g. 0 size packets in AVI).
nonref Skip frames that are not referenced (i.e. not used for decoding other frames, the error
cannot "build up").
bidir Skip B-Frames.
nonkey Skip all frames except keyframes.
all Skip all frames.
--vd-lavc-skipidct=<skipvalue> (MPEG-1/2/4 only)
Skips the IDCT step. This degrades quality a lot in almost all cases (see skiploopfilter for
available skip values).
--vd-lavc-skipframe=<skipvalue>
Skips decoding of frames completely. Big speedup, but jerky motion and sometimes bad artifacts
(see skiploopfilter for available skip values).
--vd-lavc-framedrop=<skipvalue>
Set framedropping mode used with --framedrop (see skiploopfilter for available skip values).
--vd-lavc-threads=<N>
Number of threads to use for decoding. Whether threading is actually supported depends on codec
(default: 0). 0 means autodetect number of cores on the machine and use that, up to the maximum of
16. You can set more than 16 threads manually.
--vd-lavc-assume-old-x264=<yes|no>
Assume the video was encoded by an old, buggy x264 version (default: no). Normally, this is
autodetected by libavcodec. But if the bitstream contains no x264 version info (or it was somehow
skipped), and the stream was in fact encoded by an old x264 version (build 150 or earlier), and if
the stream uses 4:4:4 chroma, then libavcodec will by default show corrupted video. This option
sets the libavcodec x264_build option to 150, which means that if the stream contains no version
info, or was not encoded by x264 at all, it assumes it was encoded by the old version. Enabling
this option is pretty safe if you want your broken files to work, but in theory this can break on
streams not encoded by x264, or if a stream encoded by a newer x264 version contains no version
info.
--vd-apply-cropping
Certain video codecs support cropping, meaning that only a sub-rectangle of the decoded frame is
intended for display. This option controls how cropping is handled by libavcodec. Cropping during
decoding has certain limitations with regards to alignment and hardware decoding. If this option
is enabled, decoder will apply the crop, else VO will handle it. Enabled by default.
--swapchain-depth=<N>
Allow up to N in-flight frames. This essentially controls the frame latency. Increasing the
swapchain depth can improve pipelining and prevent missed vsyncs, but increases visible latency.
This option only mandates an upper limit, the implementation can use a lower latency than
requested internally. A setting of 1 means that the VO will wait for every frame to become visible
before starting to render the next frame. (Default: 3)
Audio
--audio-pitch-correction=<yes|no>
If this is enabled (default), playing with a speed different from normal automatically inserts the
scaletempo2 audio filter. You can insert filters besides scaletempo2 and modify their params using
Conditional auto profiles:
[af_insert]
profile-cond=speed ~= 1
profile-restore=copy
af-add=scaletempo2=search-interval=50 # Insert filter and params here.
Filters set this way replace the scaletempo2 default, instead of overlapping with it. If there are
multiple audio filters inserted that can do pitch correction, then only the last one in the filter
chain is used. For details on the specifics of each available filter, see the audio filter
section.
--audio-device=<name>
Use the given audio device. This consists of the audio output name, e.g. alsa, followed by /,
followed by the audio output specific device name. The default value for this option is auto,
which tries every audio output in preference order with the default device.
You can list audio devices with --audio-device=help. This outputs the device name in quotes,
followed by a description. The device name is what you have to pass to the --audio-device option.
The list of audio devices can be retrieved by API by using the audio-device-list property.
While the option normally takes one of the strings as indicated by the methods above, you can also
force the device for most AOs by building it manually. For example name/foobar forces the AO name
to use the device foobar. However, the --ao option will strictly force a specific AO. To avoid
confusion, don't use --ao and --audio-device together.
Example for ALSA
MPlayer and mplayer2 required you to replace any ',' with '.' and any ':' with '=' in
the ALSA device name. For example, to use the device named dmix:default, you had to do:
-ao alsa:device=dmix=default
In mpv you could instead use:
--audio-device=alsa/dmix:default
--audio-exclusive=<yes|no>
Enable exclusive output mode. In this mode, the system is usually locked out, and only mpv will be
able to output audio.
This only works for some audio outputs, such as wasapi, coreaudio, pipewire and audiounit. Other
audio outputs silently ignore this option. They either have no concept of exclusive mode, or the
mpv side of the implementation is missing.
--audio-fallback-to-null=<yes|no>
If no audio device can be opened, behave as if --ao=null was given. This is useful in combination
with --audio-device: instead of causing an error if the selected device does not exist, the client
API user (or a Lua script) could let playback continue normally, and check the current-ao and
audio-device-list properties to make high-level decisions about how to continue.
--ao=<driver>
Specify the audio output drivers to be used. See AUDIO OUTPUT DRIVERS for details and descriptions
of available drivers.
--af=<filter1[=parameter1:parameter2:...],filter2,...>
Specify a list of audio filters to apply to the audio stream. See AUDIO FILTERS for details and
descriptions of the available filters. The option variants --af-add, --af-pre, and --af-clr exist
to modify a previously specified list, but you should not need these for typical use.
--audio-spdif=<codecs>
List of codecs for which compressed audio passthrough should be used. This works for both classic
S/PDIF and HDMI.
Possible codecs are ac3, dts, dts-hd, eac3, truehd. Multiple codecs can be specified by
separating them with ,. dts refers to low bitrate DTS core, while dts-hd refers to DTS MA
(receiver and OS support varies). If both dts and dts-hd are specified, it behaves equivalent to
specifying dts-hd only.
In earlier mpv versions you could use --ad to force the spdif wrapper. This does not work
anymore.
WARNING:
There is not much reason to use this. HDMI supports uncompressed multichannel PCM, and mpv
supports lossless DTS-HD decoding via FFmpeg's new DCA decoder (based on libdcadec).
--ad=<decoder1,decoder2,...[-]>
Specify a priority list of audio decoders to be used, according to their decoder name. When
determining which decoder to use, the first decoder that matches the audio format is selected. If
that is unavailable, the next decoder is used. Finally, it tries all other decoders that are not
explicitly selected or rejected by the option.
- at the end of the list suppresses fallback on other available decoders not on the --ad list.
This should not normally be used, because they break normal decoder auto-selection! The - mode is
deprecated.
Examples
--ad=mp3float
Prefer the FFmpeg mp3float decoder over all other MP3 decoders.
--ad=help
List all available decoders.
WARNING:
Enabling compressed audio passthrough (AC3 and DTS via SPDIF/HDMI) with this option is not
possible. Use --audio-spdif instead.
--volume=<value>
Set the startup volume. 0 means silence, 100 means no volume reduction or amplification. Negative
values can be passed for compatibility, but are treated as 0.
Since mpv 0.18.1, this always controls the internal mixer (aka software volume).
--volume-max=<100.0-1000.0>
Set the maximum amplification level in percent (default: 130). A value of 130 will allow you to
adjust the volume up to about double the normal level.
--volume-gain=<db>
Set the volume gain in dB. This is applied on top of other volume and gain settings.
--volume-gain-max=<0.0-150.0>, --volume-gain-min=<-150.0-0.0>
Set the volume gain range in dB (default: -96 dB min, 12 dB max).
--replaygain=<no|track|album>
Adjust volume gain according to replaygain values stored in the file metadata. With
--replaygain=no (the default), perform no adjustment. With --replaygain=track, apply track gain.
With --replaygain=album, apply album gain if present and fall back to track gain otherwise.
--replaygain-preamp=<db>
Pre-amplification gain in dB to apply to the selected replaygain gain (default: 0).
--replaygain-clip=<yes|no>
Allow the volume gain to clip (default: no). If this option is not enabled, mpv automatically will
prevent clipping by lowering the gain.
--replaygain-fallback=<db>
Gain in dB to apply if the file has no replay gain tags. This option is always applied if the
replaygain logic is somehow inactive. If this is applied, no other replaygain options are applied.
--audio-delay=<sec>
Audio delay in seconds (positive or negative float value). Positive values delay the audio, and
negative values delay the video.
--mute=<yes|no>
Set startup audio mute status (default: no).
See also: --volume.
--audio-demuxer=<[+]name>
Use this audio demuxer type when using --audio-file. Use a '+' before the name to force it; this
will skip some checks. Give the demuxer name as printed by --audio-demuxer=help.
--ad-lavc-ac3drc=<level>
Select the Dynamic Range Compression level for AC-3 audio streams. <level> is a float value
ranging from 0 to 1, where 0 means no compression (which is the default) and 1 means full
compression (make loud passages more silent and vice versa). Values up to 6 are also accepted, but
are purely experimental. This option only shows an effect if the AC-3 stream contains the required
range compression information.
The standard mandates that DRC is enabled by default, but mpv (and some other players) ignore this
for the sake of better audio quality.
--ad-lavc-downmix=<yes|no>
Whether to request audio channel downmixing from the decoder (default: no). Some decoders, like
AC-3, AAC and DTS, can remix audio on decoding. The requested number of output channels is set
with the --audio-channels option. Useful for playing surround audio on a stereo system.
--ad-lavc-threads=<0-16>
Number of threads to use for decoding. Whether threading is actually supported depends on codec.
As of this writing, it's supported for some lossless codecs only. 0 means autodetect number of
cores on the machine and use that, up to the maximum of 16 (default: 1).
--ad-lavc-o=<key>=<value>[,<key>=<value>[,...]]
Pass AVOptions to libavcodec decoder. Note, a patch to make the o= unneeded and pass all unknown
options through the AVOption system is welcome. A full list of AVOptions can be found in the
FFmpeg manual.
This is a key/value list option. See List Options for details.
--ad-spdif-dtshd=<yes|no>, --dtshd=<yes|no>
If DTS is passed through, use DTS-HD.
WARNING:
This and enabling passthrough via --ad are deprecated in favor of using --audio-spdif=dts-hd.
--audio-channels=<auto-safe|auto|layouts>
Control which audio channels are output (e.g. surround vs. stereo). There are the following
possibilities:
•
--audio-channels=auto-safe
Use the system's preferred channel layout. If there is none (such as when accessing a
hardware device instead of the system mixer), force stereo. Some audio outputs might
simply accept any layout and do downmixing on their own.
This is the default.
•
--audio-channels=auto
Send the audio device whatever it accepts, preferring the audio's original channel
layout. Can cause issues with HDMI (see the warning below).
•
--audio-channels=layout1,layout2,...
List of ,-separated channel layouts which should be allowed. Technically, this only
adjusts the filter chain output to the best matching layout in the list, and passes the
result to the audio API. It's possible that the audio API will select a different
channel layout.
Using this mode is recommended for direct hardware output, especially over HDMI (see HDMI
warning below).
•
--audio-channels=<stereo|mono>
Force a downmix to stereo or mono. These are special-cases of the previous item. (See
paragraphs below for implications.)
If a list of layouts is given, each item can be either an explicit channel layout name (like 5.1),
or a channel number. Channel numbers refer to default layouts, e.g. 2 channels refer to stereo, 6
refers to 5.1.
See --audio-channels=help output for defined default layouts. This also lists speaker names, which
can be used to express arbitrary channel layouts (e.g. fl-fr-lfe is 2.1).
If the list of channel layouts has only 1 item, the decoder is asked to produce according output.
This sometimes triggers decoder-downmix, which might be different from the normal mpv downmix.
(Only some decoders support remixing audio, like AC-3, AAC or DTS. You can use
--ad-lavc-downmix=no to make the decoder always output its native layout.) One consequence is that
--audio-channels=stereo triggers decoder downmix, while auto or auto-safe never will, even if they
end up selecting stereo. This happens because the decision whether to use decoder downmix happens
long before the audio device is opened.
If the channel layout of the media file (i.e. the decoder) and the AO's channel layout don't
match, mpv will attempt to insert a conversion filter. You may need to change the channel layout
of the system mixer to achieve your desired output as mpv does not have control over it. Another
work-around for this on some AOs is to use --audio-exclusive=yes to circumvent the system mixer
entirely.
WARNING:
Using auto can cause issues when using audio over HDMI. The OS will typically report all
channel layouts that _can_ go over HDMI, even if the receiver does not support them. If a
receiver gets an unsupported channel layout, random things can happen, such as dropping the
additional channels, or adding noise.
You are recommended to set an explicit whitelist of the layouts you want. For example, most A/V
receivers connected via HDMI and that can do 7.1 would be served by:
--audio-channels=7.1,5.1,stereo
--audio-display=<no|embedded-first|external-first>
Determines whether to display cover art when playing audio files and with what priority. It will
display the first image found, and additional images are available as video tracks.
no Disable display of video entirely when playing audio files.
embedded-first
Display embedded images and external cover art, giving priority to embedded images
(default).
external-first
Display embedded images and external cover art, giving priority to external files.
This option has no influence on files with normal video tracks.
--audio-files=<files>
Play audio from an external file while viewing a video.
This is a path list option. See List Options for details.
--audio-file=<file>
CLI/config file only alias for --audio-files-append. Each use of this option will add a new audio
track. The details are similar to how --sub-file works.
--audio-format=<format>
Select the sample format used for output from the audio filter layer to the sound card. The values
that <format> can adopt are listed below in the description of the format audio filter.
--audio-samplerate=<Hz>
Select the output sample rate to be used (of course sound cards have limits on this). If the
sample frequency selected is different from that of the current media, the internal swresample
audio filter will be inserted into the audio filter layer to compensate for the difference.
--gapless-audio=<no|yes|weak>
Try to play consecutive audio files with no silence or disruption at the point of file change.
Default: weak.
no Disable gapless audio.
yes The audio device is opened using parameters chosen for the first file played and is then
kept open for gapless playback. This means that if the first file for example has a low
sample rate, then the following files may get resampled to the same low sample rate,
resulting in reduced sound quality. If you play files with different parameters, consider
using options such as --audio-samplerate and --audio-format to explicitly select what the
shared output format will be.
weak Normally, the audio device is kept open (using the format it was first initialized with).
If the audio format the decoder output changes, the audio device is closed and reopened.
This means that you will normally get gapless audio with files that were encoded using the
same settings, but might not be gapless in other cases. The exact conditions under which
the audio device is kept open is an implementation detail, and can change from version to
version. Currently, the device is kept even if the sample format changes, but the sample
formats are convertible. If video is still going on when there is still audio, trying to
use gapless is also explicitly given up.
NOTE:
This feature is implemented in a simple manner and relies on audio output device buffering to
continue playback while moving from one file to another. If playback of the new file starts
slowly, for example because it is played from a remote network location or because you have
specified cache settings that require time for the initial cache fill, then the buffered audio
may run out before playback of the new file can start.
--initial-audio-sync=<yes|no>
When starting a video file or after events such as seeking, mpv will by default modify the audio
stream to make it start from the same timestamp as video, by either inserting silence at the start
or cutting away the first samples. Disabling this option makes the player behave like older mpv
versions did: video and audio are both started immediately even if their start timestamps differ,
and then video timing is gradually adjusted if necessary to reach correct synchronization later.
--audio-file-auto=<no|exact|fuzzy|all>
Load additional audio files matching the video filename. The parameter specifies how external
audio files are matched.
no Don't automatically load external audio files (default).
exact Load the media filename with audio file extension.
fuzzy Load all audio files containing the media filename.
all Load all audio files in the current and --audio-file-paths directories.
--audio-exts=ext1,ext2,...
Audio file extensions to try to match when using --audio-file-auto, --autocreate-playlist or
--directory-filter-types.
This is a string list option. See List Options for details. Use --help=audio-exts to see default
extensions.
--audio-file-paths=<path1:path2:...>
Equivalent to --sub-file-paths option, but for auto-loaded audio files.
This is a path list option. See List Options for details.
--audio-client-name=<name>
The application name the player reports to the audio API. Can be useful if you want to force a
different audio profile (e.g. with PulseAudio), or to set your own application name when using
libmpv.
--audio-buffer=<seconds>
Set the audio output minimum buffer. The audio device might actually create a larger buffer if it
pleases. If the device creates a smaller buffer, additional audio is buffered in an additional
software buffer.
Making this larger may make soft-volume and other filters react slower, introduce additional
issues on playback speed change, and block the player on audio format changes. A smaller buffer
might lead to audio dropouts.
This option should be used for testing only. If a non-default value helps significantly, the mpv
developers should be contacted.
Default: 0.2 (200 ms).
--audio-stream-silence=<yes|no>
Cash-grab consumer audio hardware (such as A/V receivers) often ignore initial audio sent over
HDMI. This can happen every time audio over HDMI is stopped and resumed. In order to compensate
for this, you can enable this option to not to stop and restart audio on seeks, and fill the gaps
with silence. Likewise, when pausing playback, audio is not stopped, and silence is played while
paused. Note that if no audio track is selected, the audio device will still be closed
immediately.
Not all AOs support this.
WARNING:
This modifies certain subtle player behavior, like A/V-sync and underrun handling. Enabling
this option is strongly discouraged.
--audio-wait-open=<secs>
This makes sense for use with --audio-stream-silence=yes. If this option is given, the player will
wait for the given amount of seconds after opening the audio device before sending actual audio
data to it. Useful if your expensive hardware discards the first 1 or 2 seconds of audio data sent
to it. If --audio-stream-silence=yes is not set, this option will likely just waste time.
Subtitles
NOTE:
Changing styling and position does not work with all subtitles. Image-based subtitles (DVD,
Bluray/PGS, DVB) cannot changed for fundamental reasons. Subtitles in ASS format are normally not
changed intentionally, but overriding them can be controlled with --sub-ass-override.
--sub-demuxer=<[+]name>
Force subtitle demuxer type for --sub-file. Give the demuxer name as printed by
--sub-demuxer=help.
--sub-lavc-o=<key>=<value>[,<key>=<value>[,...]]
Pass AVOptions to libavcodec decoder. Note, a patch to make the o= unneeded and pass all unknown
options through the AVOption system is welcome. A full list of AVOptions can be found in the
FFmpeg manual.
This is a key/value list option. See List Options for details.
--sub-delay=<sec>
Delays primary subtitles by <sec> seconds. Can be negative.
--secondary-sub-delay=<sec>
Delays secondary subtitles by <sec> seconds. Can be negative.
--sub-files=<file-list>, --sub-file=<filename>
Add a subtitle file to the list of external subtitles.
If you use --sub-file only once, this subtitle file is displayed by default.
If --sub-file is used multiple times, the subtitle to use can be switched at runtime by cycling
subtitle tracks. It's possible to show two subtitles at once: use --sid to select the first
subtitle index, and --secondary-sid to select the second index. (The index is printed on the
terminal output after the --sid= in the list of streams.)
--sub-files is a path list option (see List Options for details), and can take multiple file
names separated by : (Unix) or ; (Windows), while --sub-file takes a single filename, but can be
used multiple times to add multiple files. Technically, --sub-file is a CLI/config file only alias
for --sub-files-append.
--secondary-sid=<ID|auto|no>
Select a secondary subtitle stream. This is similar to --sid. If a secondary subtitle is selected,
it will be rendered as toptitle (i.e. on the top of the screen) alongside the normal subtitle by
default, and provides a way to render two subtitles at once.
There are some caveats associated with this feature. For example, bitmap subtitles will always be
rendered in their usual position, so selecting a bitmap subtitle as secondary subtitle will result
in overlapping subtitles. Secondary subtitles are never shown on the terminal if video is
disabled.
NOTE:
Styling and interpretation of any formatting tags is disabled for the secondary subtitle.
Internally, the same mechanism as --sub-ass=no is used to strip the styling.
NOTE:
If the main subtitle stream contains formatting tags which display the subtitle at the top of
the screen, it will overlap with the secondary subtitle. To prevent this, you could use
--sub-ass=no to disable styling in the main subtitle stream.
--sub-scale=<0-100>
Factor for the text subtitle font size (default: 1).
NOTE:
This affects ASS subtitles as well, and may lead to incorrect subtitle rendering. Use with
care, or use --sub-font-size instead.
--sub-scale-signs=<yes|no>
When set to yes, also apply --sub-scale to typesetting (or "signs"). When this is set to no,
--sub-scale is only applied to dialogue. The distinction between dialogue and typesetting is done
on a best effort basis and is not infallible (default: no).
--sub-scale-by-window=<yes|no>
Whether to scale subtitles with the window size (default: yes). If this is disabled while
--sub-scale-with-window is set to yes, changing the window size won't change the subtitle font
size.
Affects plain text subtitles only (or ASS if --sub-ass-override is set high enough).
--sub-scale-with-window=<yes|no>
Make the subtitle font size relative to the window (default: yes). If this is disabled while
--sub-scale-by-window is set to yes, the subtitle font size is scaled relative to the video size
instead.
Affects plain text subtitles only (or ASS if --sub-ass-override is set high enough).
NOTE:
By default, the subtitle font size is scaled with the window size. To make the font size
constant, set only --sub-scale-by-window to no. To make the font size scale with video size
instead, set only --sub-scale-with-window to no. It's not meaningful to set both options to
no.
--sub-ass-scale-with-window=<yes|no>
Like --sub-scale-with-window, but affects subtitles in ASS format only. Like --sub-scale, this
can break ASS subtitles.
Default: no.
--embeddedfonts=<yes|no>
Use fonts embedded in Matroska container files and ASS scripts (default: yes). These fonts can be
used for SSA/ASS subtitle rendering.
--sub-pos=<0-150>
Specify the position of subtitles on the screen. The value is the vertical position of the
subtitle in % of the screen height. 100 is the original position, which is often not the absolute
bottom of the screen, but with some margin between the bottom and the subtitle. Values above 100
move the subtitle further down.
WARNING:
Text subtitles (as opposed to image subtitles) may be cut off if the value of the option is
above 100. This is a libass restriction.
This affects ASS subtitles as well, and may lead to incorrect subtitle rendering in addition to
the problem above.
Using --sub-margin-y can achieve this in a better way.
--secondary-sub-pos=<0-150>
Specify the position of secondary subtitles on the screen. This is similar to --sub-pos but for
secondary subtitles.
--sub-speed=<0.1-10.0>
Multiply the subtitle event timestamps with the given value. Can be used to fix the playback speed
for frame-based subtitle formats. Affects text subtitles only.
Example
--sub-speed=25/23.976 plays frame based subtitles which have been loaded assuming a
framerate of 23.976 at 25 FPS.
--sub-ass-style-overrides=<[Style.]Param=Value[,...]>
Override some style or script info parameters.
This is a string list option. See List Options for details.
Examples
• --sub-ass-style-overrides=FontName=Arial,Default.Bold=1
• --sub-ass-style-overrides=PlayResY=768
NOTE:
Using this option may lead to incorrect subtitle rendering.
--sub-hinting=<none|light|normal|native>
Set font hinting type. <type> can be:
none no hinting (default)
light FreeType autohinter, light mode
normal FreeType autohinter, normal mode
native font native hinter
WARNING:
Enabling hinting can lead to mispositioned text (in situations it's supposed to match up video
background), or reduce the smoothness of animations with some badly authored ASS scripts. It is
recommended to not use this option, unless really needed.
--sub-line-spacing=<value>
Set line spacing value for SSA/ASS renderer.
--sub-shaper=<simple|complex>
Set the text layout engine used by libass.
simple uses Fribidi only, fast, doesn't render some languages correctly
complex
uses HarfBuzz, slower, wider language support
complex is the default. If libass hasn't been compiled against HarfBuzz, libass silently reverts
to simple.
--sub-ass-prune-delay=<-1|seconds>
Set the delay for automatic pruning of events from memory in libass. When enabled, subtitle events
are removed from memory once their end timestamp is older than the specified delay.
-1 disables automatic pruning (default).
seconds
specify how many seconds after an event is no longer displayed should the pruning occur. 0
prunes events as soon as they're off screen.
NOTE:
This breaks sub-seek and subtitle rendering when changing play-direction from forward to
backward during runtime for events that were already "seen" and need to be rendered again, if
those events got pruned.
--sub-ass-styles=<filename>
Load all SSA/ASS styles found in the specified file and use them for rendering text subtitles. The
syntax of the file is exactly like the [V4 Styles] / [V4+ Styles] section of SSA/ASS.
NOTE:
Using this option may lead to incorrect subtitle rendering.
--sub-ass-override=<no|yes|scale|force|strip>
Control whether user style overrides should be applied. Note that all of these overrides try to be
somewhat smart about figuring out whether or not a subtitle is considered a "sign" and try to be
as non-destructive as possible.
no Render subtitles as specified by the subtitle scripts, without overrides.
yes Apply all the --sub-ass-* style override options. Changing the default for any of these
options can lead to incorrect subtitle rendering.
scale Like yes, but also apply --sub-scale (default).
force Like yes, but also force all --sub-* options. Can break rendering easily. Certain options
aren't overridden if they can potentially be too destructive.
strip Radically strip all ASS tags and styles from the subtitle. This is equivalent to the old
--no-ass / --no-sub-ass options.
This also controls some bitmap subtitle overrides, as well as HTML tags in formats like SRT,
despite the name of the option.
--secondary-sub-ass-override=<no|yes|scale|force|strip>
Control whether user secondary substyle overrides should be applied. This works exactly like
--sub-ass-override.
Default: strip.
--sub-ass-force-margins
Enables placing toptitles and subtitles in black borders when they are available, if the subtitles
are in the ASS format.
Default: no.
--sub-use-margins
Enables placing toptitles and subtitles in black borders when they are available, if the subtitles
are in a plain text format (or ASS if --sub-ass-override is set high enough).
Default: yes.
--sub-ass-use-video-data=<none|aspect-ratio|all>
Controls which information about the video stream is passed to libass. Any option but all is
incompatible with standard ASS as defined by VSFilter, whose behavior most subtitle scripts and
renderers target, including libass. Video stream properties are needed to accurately emulate
VSFilter semantics and withholding them will likely result in broken subtitle rendering for most
files. It's thus recommended to only change this selectively if required on a per-file basis.
none Don't forward any video stream information.
aspect-ratio
Only forward aspect ratio; fallbacks are used for other properties. This makes behavior
consistent across different video resolutions.
all Forward all available information, notably including storage resolution.
For certain kinds of broken ASS files which got repurposed across several video resolutions
without either setting LayoutRes headers or adjusting affected effects, it may be desirable to
withhold storage resolution information from libass to ensure consistent rendering across
resolutions. Among others this affects 3D rotations and blurs. When encountering such files, try
setting aspect-ratio.
Even more broken files on anamorphic video might also exhibit stretching unless aspect ratio
information is also faked, in this case you can try using none. This has never an effect on
non-anamorphic video.
Default: all
--sub-ass-video-aspect-override=<no|ratio>
Allows passing any arbitrary aspect ratio to libass instead of the video’s actual aspect ratio.
Zero aspect ratio is identical to no.
This has no effect if sub-ass-use-video-data is set to none.
--sub-vsfilter-bidi-compat=<yes|no>
Set implicit bidi detection to ltr instead of auto to match ASS' default. This also disables
libass' incompatible extensions. This currently includes bracket pair matching according to the
revised Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm introduced in Unicode 6.3, and also affects how BiDi runs
are split and processed, as well as soft linewrapping of Unicode text.
This affects plaintext (non-ASS) subtitles only. Default: no.
--sub-ass-vsfilter-color-compat=<basic|full|force-601|no>
Mangle colors like (xy-)vsfilter do (default: basic). Historically, VSFilter was not color space
aware. This was no problem as long as the color space used for SD video (BT.601) was used. But
when everything switched to HD (BT.709), VSFilter was still converting RGB colors to BT.601,
rendered them into the video frame, and handled the frame to the video output, which would use
BT.709 for conversion to RGB. The result were mangled subtitle colors. Later on, bad hacks were
added on top of the ASS format to control how colors are to be mangled.
basic Handle only BT.601->BT.709 mangling, if the subtitles seem to indicate that this is
required (default).
full Handle the full YCbCr Matrix header with all video color spaces supported by libass and
mpv. This might lead to bad breakages in corner cases and is not strictly needed for
compatibility (hopefully), which is why this is not default.
force-601
Force BT.601->BT.709 mangling, regardless of subtitle headers or video color space.
no Disable color mangling completely. All colors are RGB.
Choosing anything other than no will make the subtitle color depend on the video color space, and
it's for example in theory not possible to reuse a subtitle script with another video file. The
--sub-ass-override option doesn't affect how this option is interpreted.
--stretch-dvd-subs=<yes|no>
Stretch DVD subtitles when playing anamorphic videos for better looking fonts on badly mastered
DVDs. This switch has no effect when the video is stored with square pixels - which for DVD input
cannot be the case though.
Many studios tend to use bitmap fonts designed for square pixels when authoring DVDs, causing the
fonts to look stretched on playback on DVD players. This option fixes them, however at the price
of possibly misaligning some subtitles (e.g. sign translations).
Disabled by default.
--stretch-image-subs-to-screen=<yes|no>
Stretch DVD and other image subtitles to the screen, ignoring the video margins. This has a
similar effect as --sub-use-margins for text subtitles, except that the text itself will be
stretched, not only just repositioned. (At least in general it is unavoidable, as an image bitmap
can in theory consist of a single bitmap covering the whole screen, and the player won't know
where exactly the text parts are located.)
This option does not display subtitles correctly. Use with care.
Disabled by default.
--image-subs-video-resolution=<yes|no>
Override the image subtitle resolution with the video resolution (default: no). Normally, the
subtitle canvas is fit into the video canvas (e.g. letterboxed). Setting this option uses the
video size as subtitle canvas size. Can be useful to test broken subtitles, which often happen
when the video was transcoded, while attempting to keep the old subtitles.
--sub-ass=<yes|no>
Render ASS subtitles natively (default: yes).
NOTE:
This has been deprecated by --sub-ass-override=strip. You also may need --embeddedfonts=no to
get the same behavior. Also, using --sub-ass-override=style should give better results without
breaking subtitles too much.
If --sub-ass=no is specified, all tags and style declarations are stripped and ignored on display.
The subtitle renderer uses the font style as specified by the --sub- options instead.
NOTE:
Using --sub-ass=no may lead to incorrect or completely broken rendering of ASS/SSA subtitles.
It can sometimes be useful to forcibly override the styling of ASS subtitles, but should be
avoided in general.
--sub-auto=<no|exact|fuzzy|all>
Load additional subtitle files matching the video filename. The parameter specifies how external
subtitle files are matched. exact is enabled by default.
no Don't automatically load external subtitle files.
exact Load the media filename with subtitle file extension and possibly language suffixes
(default).
fuzzy Load all subs containing the media filename.
all Load all subs in the current and --sub-file-paths directories.
--sub-auto-exts=ext1,ext2,...
Subtitle extensions to try and match when using --sub-auto. Note that modifying this list will
also affect what mpv recognizes as subtitles when using drag and drop.
This is a string list option. See List Options for details.
--sub-codepage=<codepage>
You can use this option to specify the subtitle codepage. uchardet will be used to guess the
charset. (If mpv was not compiled with uchardet, then utf-8 is the effective default.)
The default value for this option is auto, which enables autodetection.
The following steps are taken to determine the final codepage, in order:
• if the specific codepage has a +, use that codepage
• if the data looks like UTF-8, assume it is UTF-8
• if --sub-codepage is set to a specific codepage, use that
• run uchardet, and if successful, use that
• otherwise, use UTF-8-BROKEN
Examples
• --sub-codepage=latin2 Use Latin 2 if input is not UTF-8.
• --sub-codepage=+cp1250 Always force recoding to cp1250.
The pseudo codepage UTF-8-BROKEN is used internally. If it's set, subtitles are interpreted as
UTF-8 with "Latin 1" as fallback for bytes which are not valid UTF-8 sequences. iconv is never
involved in this mode.
NOTE:
This works for text subtitle files only. Other types of subtitles (in particular subtitles in
mkv files) are always assumed to be UTF-8.
--sub-stretch-durations=<yes|no>
Stretch a subtitle duration so it ends when the next one starts. Should help with subtitles which
erroneously have zero durations.
NOTE:
Only applies to text subtitles.
--sub-fix-timing=<yes|no>
Adjust subtitle timing is to remove minor gaps or overlaps between subtitles (if the difference is
smaller than 210 ms, the gap or overlap is removed).
--sub-forced-events-only=<yes|no>
Enabling this displays only forced events within subtitle streams. Only some bitmap subtitle
formats (such as DVD or PGS) are capable of having a mixture of forced and unforced events within
the stream. Enabling this on text subtitles will cause no subtitles to be displayed (default: no).
--sub-fps=<rate>
Specify the framerate of the subtitle file (default: video fps). Affects text subtitles only.
NOTE:
<rate> > video fps speeds the subtitles up for frame-based subtitle files and slows them down
for time-based ones.
See also: --sub-speed.
--sub-gauss=<0.0-3.0>
Apply Gaussian blur to image subtitles (default: 0). This can help to make pixelated DVD/Vobsubs
look nicer. A value other than 0 also switches to software subtitle scaling. Might be slow.
NOTE:
Never applied to text subtitles.
--sub-gray
Convert image subtitles to grayscale. Can help to make yellow DVD/Vobsubs look nicer.
NOTE:
Never applied to text subtitles.
--sub-file-paths=<path-list>
Specify extra directories to search for subtitles matching the video. Multiple directories can be
separated by ":" (";" on Windows). Paths can be relative or absolute. Relative paths are
interpreted relative to video file directory. If the file is a URL, only absolute paths and sub
configuration subdirectory will be scanned.
Example
Assuming that /path/to/video/video.avi is played and --sub-file-paths=sub:subtitles is
specified, mpv searches for subtitle files in these directories:
• /path/to/video/
• /path/to/video/sub/
• /path/to/video/subtitles/
• the sub configuration subdirectory (usually ~/.config/mpv/sub/)
This is a path list option. See List Options for details.
--sub-visibility=<yes|no>
Can be used to disable display of subtitles, but still select and decode them.
--secondary-sub-visibility=<yes|no>
Can be used to disable display of secondary subtitles, but still select and decode them.
--sub-clear-on-seek
(Obscure, rarely useful.) Can be used to play broken mkv files with duplicate ReadOrder fields.
ReadOrder is the first field in a Matroska-style ASS subtitle packets. It should be unique, and
libass uses it for fast elimination of duplicates. This option disables caching of subtitles
across seeks, so after a seek libass can't eliminate subtitle packets with the same ReadOrder as
earlier packets. Note that enabling this option can result in broken subtitle behavior if you are
not actually playing one of the aforementioned broken mkv files.
--teletext-page=<-1-999>
Select a teletext page number to decode.
This works for dvb_teletext subtitle streams, and if FFmpeg has been compiled with support for it.
Values 1-999 are for individual pages. Special value 0 (default) matches all subtitle pages.
Special value -1 matches all pages.
Note that page 100 is the default start page of actual teletext. It is also the former default
value of this option.
See the libzvbi-teletext section in FFmpeg documentation for details.
Default: 0
--sub-past-video-end
After the last frame of video, if this option is enabled, subtitles will continue to update based
on audio timestamps. Otherwise, the subtitles for the last video frame will stay onscreen.
Default: disabled
--sub-font=<name>
Specify font to use for subtitles that do not themselves specify a particular font. The default is
sans-serif.
Examples
• --sub-font='Bitstream Vera Sans'
• --sub-font='Comic Sans MS'
NOTE:
The --sub-font option (and many other style related --sub- options) are ignored when
ASS-subtitles are rendered, unless --sub-ass=no is specified.
This used to support fontconfig patterns. Starting with libass 0.13.0, this stopped working.
--sub-font-size=<size>
Specify the sub font size. The unit is the size in scaled pixels at a window height of 720. The
actual pixel size is scaled with the window height: if the window height is larger or smaller than
720, the actual size of the text increases or decreases as well.
Default: 38
--sub-blur=<0..20.0>
Gaussian blur factor applied to the sub font border. 0 means no blur applied (default).
--sub-bold=<yes|no>
Format text on bold.
--sub-italic=<yes|no>
Format text on italic.
--sub-outline-color=<color>
See --sub-color. Color used for the sub font outline.
--sub-border-color is an alias for --sub-outline-color.
--sub-back-color=<color>
See --sub-color. Color used for sub text background.
--sub-shadow-color is an alias for --sub-back-color.
--sub-outline-size=<size>
Size of the sub font outline in scaled pixels (see --sub-font-size for details). A value of 0
disables outlines.
--sub-border-size is an alias for --sub-outline-size.
Default: 1.65
--sub-border-style=<outline-and-shadow|opaque-box|background-box>
The style of the border.
• outline-and-shadow: draw outline and shadow. The size of the outline is determined by
--sub-outline-size, and the offset of the shadow is determined by --sub-shadow-offset. The
outline is colored by --sub-outline-color, and the shadow is colored by --sub-back-color. This
corresponds to BorderStyle=1 in the ASS spec.
• opaque-box: draw outline and shadow as opaque boxes that tightly wrap each lines of text. The
margin of the outline opaque box is determined by --sub-outline-size, and the offset of the
shadow opaque box is determined by --sub-shadow-offset. The outline opaque box is colored by
--sub-outline-color, and the shadow opaque box is colored by --sub-back-color. Despite its
name, the opaque box can be semi-transparent. This corresponds to BorderStyle=3 in the ASS
spec.
• background-box: draw a background box that bounds all lines of text. The background box is
colored by --sub-back-color, and the margin of the background box is determined by
--sub-shadow-offset. The behavior of the outline is the same as the outline-and-shadow style.
This corresponds to BorderStyle=4, which is a libass-specific extension.
Default: outline-and-shadow.
Predefined profiles are available to enable optimized background-box style for OSD and subtitles.
Profiles
• --profile=sub-box applies the background-box style to subtitles
• --profile=osd-box applies the background-box style to the OSD, including stats and console
• --profile=box applies the background-box style to both subtitles and OSD
--sub-color=<color>
Specify the color used for unstyled text subtitles.
The color is specified in the form r/g/b, where each color component is specified as number in the
range 0.0 to 1.0. It's also possible to specify the transparency by using r/g/b/a, where the alpha
value 0 means fully transparent, and 1.0 means opaque. If the alpha component is not given, the
color is 100% opaque.
Passing a single number to the option sets the sub to gray, and the form gray/a lets you specify
alpha additionally.
Examples
• --sub-color=1.0/0.0/0.0 set sub to opaque red
• --sub-color=1.0/0.0/0.0/0.75 set sub to opaque red with 75% alpha
• --sub-color=0.5/0.75 set sub to 50% gray with 75% alpha
Alternatively, the color can be specified as a RGB hex triplet in the form #RRGGBB, where each
2-digit group expresses a color value in the range 0 (00) to 255 (FF). For example, #FF0000 is
red. Alpha is given with #AARRGGBB.
Examples
• --sub-color='#FF0000' set sub to opaque red
• --sub-color='#C0808080' set sub to 50% gray with 75% alpha
--sub-margin-x=<size>
Left and right screen margin for the subs in scaled pixels (see --sub-font-size for details).
This option specifies the distance of the sub to the left, as well as at which distance from the
right border long sub text will be broken.
Default: 19
--sub-margin-y=<size>
Top and bottom screen margin for the subs in scaled pixels (see --sub-font-size for details).
This option specifies the vertical margins of unstyled text subtitles. If you just want to raise
the vertical subtitle position, use --sub-pos.
Default: 34
--sub-align-x=<left|center|right>
Control to which corner of the screen text subtitles should be aligned to (default: center).
Never applied to ASS subtitles, except in --sub-ass=no mode. Likewise, this does not apply to
image subtitles.
--sub-align-y=<top|center|bottom>
Vertical position (default: bottom). Details see --sub-align-x.
--sub-justify=<auto|left|center|right>
Control how multi line subs are justified irrespective of where they are aligned (default: auto
which justifies as defined by --sub-align-x). Left justification is recommended to make the subs
easier to read as it is easier for the eyes.
--sub-ass-justify=<yes|no>
Applies justification as defined by --sub-justify on ASS subtitles if --sub-ass-override is not
set to no. Default: no.
--sub-shadow-offset=<size>
Displacement of the sub text shadow in scaled pixels (see --sub-font-size for details). A value of
0 disables shadows.
Default: 0.
--sub-spacing=<size>
Horizontal sub font spacing in scaled pixels (see --sub-font-size for details). This value is
added to the normal letter spacing. Negative values are allowed.
Default: 0.
--sub-filter-sdh=<yes|no>
Applies filter removing subtitle additions for the deaf or hard-of-hearing (SDH). This is
intended for English, but may in part work for other languages too. The intention is that it can
be always enabled so may not remove all parts added.
It removes speaker labels (like MAN:) and any text enclosed within symbols like parentheses or
brackets as specified by the --sub-filter-sdh-enclosures option. Note that parenthesis (full
width parenthesis and the normal variant) are a special case and only upper case text is removed.
For more filtering, you can use the --sub-filter-sdh-harder option.
Default: no.
--sub-filter-sdh-harder=<yes|no>
Do harder SDH filtering (if enabled by --sub-filter-sdh). Will also remove speaker labels and
text within parentheses using both lower and upper case letters.
Default: no.
--sub-filter-sdh-enclosures=<string>
Specify a string of characters that --sub-filter-sdh will use to potentially remove text. Text
that is enclosed within characters specified by this string will be removed. Note that bracket
characters with known pairs (such as ( or [) will be mapped internally to their matching right
hand character, so you only need to specify left hand characters.
Default: ([（.
--sub-filter-regex-...=...
Set a list of regular expressions to match on text subtitles, and remove any lines that match
(default: empty). This is a string list option. See List Options for details. Normally, you should
use --sub-filter-regex-append=<regex>, where each option use will append a new regular expression,
without having to fight escaping problems.
List items are matched in order. If a regular expression matches, the process is stopped, and the
subtitle line is discarded. The text matched against is, by default, the Text field of ASS events
(if the subtitle format is different, it is always converted). This may include formatting tags.
Matching is case-insensitive, but how this is done depends on the libc, and most likely works in
ASCII only. It does not work on bitmap/image subtitles. Unavailable on inferior OSes (requires
POSIX regex support).
Example
--sub-filter-regex-append=opensubtitles\.org filters some ads.
Technically, using a list for matching is redundant, since you could just use a single combined
regular expression. But it helps with diagnosis, ease of use, and temporarily disabling or
enabling individual filters.
WARNING:
This is experimental. The semantics most likely will change, and if you use this, you should be
prepared to update the option later. Ideas include replacing the regexes with a very primitive
and small subset of sed, or some method to control case-sensitivity.
--sub-filter-jsre-...=...
Same as --sub-filter-regex but with JavaScript regular expressions. Shares/affected-by all
--sub-filter-regex-* control options (see below), and also experimental. Requires only JavaScript
support.
--sub-filter-regex-plain=<yes|no>
Whether to first convert the ASS "Text" field to plain-text (default: no). This strips ASS tags
and applies ASS directives, like \N to new-line. If the result is multi-line then the regexp
anchors ^ and $ match each line, but still any match discards all lines.
--sub-filter-regex-warn=<yes|no>
Log dropped lines with warning log level, instead of verbose (default: no). Helpful for testing.
--sub-filter-regex-enable=<yes|no>
Whether to enable regex filtering (default: yes). Note that if no regexes are added to the
--sub-filter-regex list, setting this option to yes has no effect. It's meant to easily disable or
enable filtering temporarily.
--sub-create-cc-track=<yes|no>
For every video stream, create a closed captions track (default: no). The only purpose is to make
the track available for selection at the start of playback, instead of creating it lazily. This
applies only to ATSC A53 Part 4 Closed Captions (displayed by mpv as subtitle tracks using the
codec eia_608). The CC track is marked "default" and selected according to the normal subtitle
track selection rules. You can then use --sid to explicitly select the correct track too.
If the video stream contains no closed captions, or if no video is being decoded, the CC track
will remain empty and will not show any text.
--sub-font-provider=<auto|none|fontconfig>
Which libass font provider backend to use (default: auto). auto will attempt to use the native
font provider: fontconfig on Linux, CoreText on macOS, DirectWrite on Windows. fontconfig forces
fontconfig, if libass was built with support (if not, it behaves like none).
The none font provider effectively disables system fonts. It will still attempt to use embedded
fonts (unless --embeddedfonts=no is set; this is the same behavior as with all other font
providers), subfont.ttf if provided, and fonts in the fonts sub-directory if provided. (The
fallback is more strict than that of other font providers, and if a font name does not match, it
may prefer not to render any text that uses the missing font.)
--sub-fonts-dir=<path>
Font files in this directory are used by mpv/libass for subtitles. Useful if you do not want to
install fonts to your system. Note that files in this directory are loaded into memory before
being used by mpv. If you have a lot of fonts, consider using fonts.conf (see FILES section) to
include additional mpv user settings.
If this option is not specified, ~~/fonts will be used by default.
Window
--title=<string>
Set the window title. This is used for the video window, and if possible, also sets the audio
stream title.
Properties are expanded. (See Property Expansion.)
WARNING:
There is a danger of this causing significant CPU usage, depending on the properties used.
Changing the window title is often a slow operation, and if the title changes every frame,
playback can be ruined.
--screen=<default|0-32>
In multi-monitor configurations (i.e. a single desktop that spans across multiple displays), this
option tells mpv which screen to display the video on.
Note (X11)
This option does not work properly with all window managers. In these cases, you can try
to use --geometry to position the window explicitly. It's also possible that the window
manager provides native features to control which screens application windows should
use.
Note (Wayland)
This option does not actually work on wayland since window placement is not allowed.
However setting this option does influence mpv's initial guess at finding an output
which may be useful for options like --geometry or --autofit which depend on the monitor
resolution.
See also --fs-screen.
--screen-name=<string>
In multi-monitor configurations, this option tells mpv which screen to display the video on based
on the screen name from the video backend. The same caveats in the --screen option also apply
here. This option is ignored and does nothing if --screen is explicitly set.
--fullscreen, --fs
Fullscreen playback.
--fs-screen=<all|current|0-32>
In multi-monitor configurations (i.e. a single desktop that spans across multiple displays), this
option tells mpv which screen to go fullscreen to. If current is used mpv will fallback on what
the user provided with the screen option.
Note (X11)
This option works properly only with window managers which understand the EWMH
_NET_WM_FULLSCREEN_MONITORS hint.
Note (macOS)
all does not work on macOS and will behave like current.
See also --screen.
--fs-screen-name=<string>
In multi-monitor configurations, this option tells mpv which screen to go fullscreen to based on
the screen name from the video backend. The same caveats in the --fs-screen option also apply
here. This option is ignored and does nothing if --fs-screen is explicitly set.
--keep-open=<yes|no|always>
Do not terminate when playing or seeking beyond the end of the file, and there is no next file to
be played (and --loop is not used). Instead, pause the player. When trying to seek beyond end of
the file, the player will attempt to seek to the last frame.
Normally, this will act like set pause yes on EOF, unless the --keep-open-pause=no option is set.
The following arguments can be given:
no If the current file ends, go to the next file or terminate. (Default.)
yes Don't terminate if the current file is the last playlist entry. Equivalent to --keep-open
without arguments.
always Like yes, but also applies to files before the last playlist entry. This means playback
will never automatically advance to the next file.
NOTE:
This option is not respected when using --frames. Explicitly skipping to the next file if the
binding uses force will terminate playback as well.
Also, if errors or unusual circumstances happen, the player can quit anyway.
Since mpv 0.6.0, this doesn't pause if there is a next file in the playlist, or the playlist is
looped. Approximately, this will pause when the player would normally exit, but in practice there
are corner cases in which this is not the case (e.g. mpv --keep-open file.mkv /dev/null will play
file.mkv normally, then fail to open /dev/null, then exit). (In mpv 0.8.0, always was introduced,
which restores the old behavior.)
--keep-open-pause=<yes|no>
If set to no, instead of pausing when --keep-open is active, just stop at end of file and continue
playing forward when you seek backwards until end where it stops again. Default: yes.
--image-display-duration=<seconds|inf>
If the current file is an image, play the image for the given amount of seconds (default: 5). inf
means the file is kept open forever (until the user stops playback manually).
Unlike --keep-open, the player is not paused, but simply continues playback until the time has
elapsed. (It should not use any resources during "playback".)
This affects image files, which are defined as having only 1 video frame and no audio. The player
may recognize certain non-images as images, for example if --length is used to reduce the length
to 1 frame, or if you seek to the last frame.
This option does not affect the framerate used for mf:// or --merge-files. For that, use --mf-fps
instead.
When viewing images, the playback time is not tracked on the command line output, and the image
frame is not duplicated when encoding. To force the player into "dumb mode" and actually count out
seconds, or to duplicate the image when encoding, you need to use --demuxer=lavf
--demuxer-lavf-o=loop=1, and use --length or --frames to stop after a particular time.
--force-window=<yes|no|immediate>
Create a video output window even if there is no video. This can be useful when pretending that
mpv is a GUI application. Currently, the window always has the size 960x540, and is subject to
--geometry, --autofit, and similar options.
WARNING:
The window is created only after initialization (to make sure default window placement still
works if the video size is different from the --force-window default window size). This can be
a problem if initialization doesn't work perfectly, such as when opening URLs with bad network
connection, or opening broken video files. The immediate mode can be used to create the window
always on program start, but this may cause other issues.
--taskbar-progress=<yes|no>
(Windows only) Enable/disable playback progress rendering in taskbar (Windows 7 and above).
Enabled by default.
--snap-window
(Windows only) Snap the player window to screen edges.
--drag-and-drop=<no|auto|replace|append|insert-next>
Controls the default behavior of drag and drop on platforms that support this. auto will obey what
the underlying os/platform gives mpv. Typically, holding shift during the drag and drop will
append the item to the playlist. Otherwise, it will completely replace it. replace, append, and
insert-next always force replacing, appending to, and inserting next into the playlist
respectively. no disables all drag and drop behavior.
--ontop
Makes the player window stay on top of other windows.
On Windows, if combined with fullscreen mode, this causes mpv to be treated as exclusive
fullscreen window that bypasses the Desktop Window Manager.
--ontop-level=<window|system|desktop|level>
(macOS only) Sets the level of an on-top window (default: window).
window On top of all other windows.
system On top of system elements like Taskbar, Menubar and Dock.
desktop
On top of the Desktop behind windows and Desktop icons.
level A level as integer.
--focus-on=<never|open|all>,
(macOS only) Focus the video window and make it the front most window on specific events (default:
open).
never Never focus the window on open or new file load events.
open Focus the window on creation, eg when a vo is initialised.
all Focus the window on open and new file load event.
--window-corners=<default|donotround|round|roundsmall>
(Windows only) Set the preference for window corner rounding.
default
Let the system decide whether or not to round window corners
donotround
Never round window corners
round Round the corners if appropriate
roundsmall
Round the corners if appropriate, with a small radius
--border=<yes|no>
Play video with window border and decorations. Since this is on by default, use --no-border to
disable the standard window decorations.
--title-bar=<yes|no>
(Windows and X11 only) Play video with the window title bar. Since this is on by default, use
--title-bar=no to hide the title bar. The --border option takes precedence.
--on-all-workspaces
(X11 and macOS only) Show the video window on all virtual desktops.
--geometry=<[W[xH]][+-x+-y][/WS]>, --geometry=<x:y>
Adjust the initial window position or size. W and H set the window size in pixels. x and y set the
window position, measured in pixels from the top-left corner of the screen to the top-left corner
of the image being displayed. If a percentage sign (%) is given after the argument, it turns the
value into a percentage of the screen size in that direction. Positions are specified similar to
the standard X11 --geometry option format, in which e.g. +10-50 means "place 10 pixels from the
left border and 50 pixels from the lower border" and "--20+-10" means "place 20 pixels beyond the
right and 10 pixels beyond the top border". A trailing / followed by an integer denotes on which
workspace (virtual desktop) the window should appear (X11 only).
If an external window is specified using the --wid option, this option is ignored.
The coordinates are relative to the screen given with --screen for the video output drivers that
fully support --screen.
NOTE:
Generally only supported by GUI VOs. Ignored for encoding.
Note (macOS)
On macOS, the origin of the screen coordinate system is located on the bottom-left
corner. For instance, 0:0 will place the window at the bottom-left of the screen.
Note (X11)
This option does not work properly with all window managers.
Note (Wayland)
Wayland does not allow a client to position itself so this option will only affect the
window size.
Examples
50:40 Places the window at x=50, y=40.
50%:50%
Places the window in the middle of the screen.
100%:100%
Places the window at the bottom right corner of the screen.
50% Sets the window width to half the screen width. Window height is set so that the window
has the video aspect ratio.
50%x50%
Forces the window width and height to half the screen width and height. Will show black
borders to compensate for the video aspect ratio (with most VOs and with
--keepaspect=yes).
50%+10+10/2
Sets the window to half the screen widths, and positions it 10 pixels below/left of the
top left corner of the screen, on the second workspace.
See also --autofit and --autofit-larger for fitting the window into a given size without changing
aspect ratio.
--autofit=<[W[xH]]>
Set the initial window size to a maximum size specified by WxH, without changing the window's
aspect ratio. The size is measured in pixels, or if a number is followed by a percentage sign (%),
in percents of the screen size.
This option never changes the aspect ratio of the window. If the aspect ratio mismatches, the
window's size is reduced until it fits into the specified size.
Window position is not taken into account, nor is it modified by this option (the window manager
still may place the window differently depending on size). Use --geometry to change the window
position. Its effects are applied after this option.
See --geometry for details how this is handled with multi-monitor setups.
Use --autofit-larger instead if you just want to limit the maximum size of the window, rather than
always forcing a window size.
Use --geometry if you want to force both window width and height to a specific size.
NOTE:
Generally only supported by GUI VOs. Ignored for encoding.
Examples
70% Make the window width 70% of the screen size, keeping aspect ratio.
1000 Set the window width to 1000 pixels, keeping aspect ratio.
70%x60%
Make the window as large as possible, without being wider than 70% of the screen width,
or higher than 60% of the screen height.
--autofit-larger=<[W[xH]]>
This option behaves exactly like --autofit, except that it sets the maximum size of the window.
Example
90%x80%
If the video is larger than 90% of the screen width or 80% of the screen height, make
the window smaller until either its width is 90% of the screen, or its height is 80% of
the screen.
--autofit-smaller=<[W[xH]]>
This option behaves exactly like --autofit, except that it sets the minimum size of the window
(just as --autofit-larger sets the maximum).
Example
500x500
Make the window at least 500 pixels wide and 500 pixels high (depending on the video
aspect ratio, the width or height will be larger than 500 in order to keep the aspect
ratio the same).
--window-scale=<factor>
Resize the video window to a multiple (or fraction) of the video size. This option is applied
before --autofit and other options are applied (so they override this option). Changing this
option while the window is maximized can unmaximize the window depending on the OS and window
manager. If the window does not unmaximize, the multiplier will be applied if the user
unmaximizes the window later.
For example, --window-scale=0.5 would show the window at half the video size.
--window-minimized=<yes|no>
Whether the video window is minimized or not. Setting this will minimize, or unminimize, the video
window if the current VO supports it. Note that some VOs may support minimization while not
supporting unminimization (eg: Wayland).
Whether this option and --window-maximized work on program start or at runtime, and whether
they're (at runtime) updated to reflect the actual window state, heavily depends on the VO and the
windowing system. Some VOs simply do not implement them or parts of them, while other VOs may be
restricted by the windowing systems (especially Wayland).
--window-maximized=<yes|no>
Whether the video window is maximized or not. Setting this will maximize, or unmaximize, the video
window if the current VO supports it. See --window-minimized for further remarks.
--cursor-autohide=<number|no|always>
Make mouse cursor automatically hide after given number of milliseconds (default: 1000 ms). no
will disable cursor autohide. always means the cursor will stay hidden.
--cursor-autohide-fs-only
If this option is given, the cursor is always visible in windowed mode. In fullscreen mode, the
cursor is shown or hidden according to --cursor-autohide.
--force-rgba-osd-rendering
Change how some video outputs render the OSD and text subtitles. This does not change appearance
of the subtitles and only has performance implications. For VOs which support native ASS rendering
(like gpu, vdpau, direct3d), this can be slightly faster or slower, depending on GPU drivers and
hardware. For other VOs, this just makes rendering slower.
--force-render
Forces mpv to always render frames regardless of the visibility of the window. Currently only
affects X11 and Wayland VOs since they are the only ones that have this optimization (i.e.
everything else always renders regardless of visibility).
--force-window-position
Forcefully move mpv's video output window to default location whenever there is a change in video
parameters, video stream or file. This used to be the default behavior. Currently only affects
X11, macvk and SDL VOs.
--auto-window-resize=<yes|no>
By default, mpv will automatically resize itself if the video's size changes (i.e. advancing
forward in a playlist). Setting this to no disables this behavior so the window size never changes
automatically. This option does not have any impact on the --autofit or --geometry options.
--keepaspect=<yes|no>
--keepaspect=no will always stretch the video to window size, and will disable the window manager
hints that force the window aspect ratio. (Ignored in fullscreen mode.)
--keepaspect-window=<yes|no>
--keepaspect-window=yes (the default) will lock the window size to the video aspect.
--keepaspect-window=no disables this behavior, and will instead add black bars if window aspect
and video aspect mismatch. Whether this actually works depends on the VO backend. (Ignored in
fullscreen mode.)
--monitoraspect=<ratio>
Set the aspect ratio of your monitor or TV screen. A value of 0 disables a previous setting (e.g.
in the config file). Overrides the --monitorpixelaspect setting if enabled.
See also --monitorpixelaspect and --video-aspect-override.
Examples
• --monitoraspect=4:3 or --monitoraspect=1.3333
• --monitoraspect=16:9 or --monitoraspect=1.7777
--hidpi-window-scale=<yes|no>
Scale the window size according to the backing DPI scale factor from the OS (default: no). For
example, if the OS DPI scaling is set to 200%, mpv's window size will be multiplied by 2.
--native-fs=<yes|no>
(macOS only) Uses the native fullscreen mechanism of the OS (default: yes).
--show-in-taskbar=<yes|no>
(Windows and X11 only) Show mpv in the taskbar (default: yes). If set to no, mpv will no longer
appear in taskbars and tasklists in supported window managers, and may be excluded from Alt+Tab
window switching.
--monitorpixelaspect=<ratio>
Set the aspect of a single pixel of your monitor or TV screen (default: 1). A value of 1 means
square pixels (correct for (almost?) all LCDs). See also --monitoraspect and
--video-aspect-override.
--stop-screensaver=<yes|no|always>
Turns off the screensaver (or screen blanker and similar mechanisms) at startup and turns it on
again on exit (default: yes). When using yes, the screensaver will re-enable when playback is not
active. always will always disable the screensaver. Note that stopping the screensaver is only
possible if a video output is available (i.e. there is an open mpv window). This is not supported
on all video outputs, platforms, or desktop environments.
Before mpv 0.33.0, the X11 backend ran xdg-screensaver reset in 10 second intervals when not
paused in order to support screensaver inhibition in some environments. This functionality was
removed in 0.33.0, but it is possible to call the xdg-screensaver command line program from a user
script instead.
--wid=<ID>
This tells mpv to attach to an existing window. If a VO is selected that supports this option, it
will use that window for video output. mpv will scale the video to the size of this window, and
will add black bars to compensate if the aspect ratio of the video is different.
On X11, the ID is interpreted as a Window on X11. Unlike MPlayer/mplayer2, mpv always creates its
own window, and sets the wid window as parent. The window will always be resized to cover the
parent window fully. The value 0 is interpreted specially, and mpv will draw directly on the root
window.
On win32, the ID is interpreted as HWND. Pass it as value cast to uint32_t (all Windows handles
are 32-bit), this is important as mpv will not accept negative values. mpv will create its own
window and set the wid window as parent, like with X11.
On Android, the ID is interpreted as android.view.Surface. Pass it as a value cast to intptr_t.
Use with --vo=mediacodec_embed and --hwdec=mediacodec for direct rendering using MediaCodec, or
with --vo=gpu --gpu-context=android (with or without --hwdec=mediacodec).
--window-dragging=<yes|no>
Move the window when clicking on it and moving the mouse pointer (default: yes).
--x11-name=<string>
Set the window instance name for X11-based video output methods.
--x11-netwm=<yes|no|auto>
(X11 only) Control the use of NetWM protocol features.
This may or may not help with broken window managers. This provides some functionality that was
implemented by the now removed --fstype option. Actually, it is not known to the developers to
which degree this option was needed, so feedback is welcome.
Specifically, yes will force use of NetWM fullscreen support, even if not advertised by the WM.
This can be useful for WMs that are broken on purpose, like XMonad. (XMonad supposedly doesn't
advertise fullscreen support, because Flash uses it. Apparently, applications which want to use
fullscreen anyway are supposed to either ignore the NetWM support hints, or provide a workaround.
Shame on XMonad for deliberately breaking X protocols (as if X isn't bad enough already).
By default, NetWM support is autodetected (auto).
This option might be removed in the future.
--x11-bypass-compositor=<yes|no|fs-only|never>
If set to yes, then ask the compositor to unredirect the mpv window (default: fs-only). This uses
the _NET_WM_BYPASS_COMPOSITOR hint.
fs-only asks the window manager to disable the compositor only in fullscreen mode.
no sets _NET_WM_BYPASS_COMPOSITOR to 0, which is the default value as declared by the EWMH
specification, i.e. no change is done.
never asks the window manager to never disable the compositor.
--x11-present=<no|auto|yes>
Whether or not to use presentation statistics from X11's presentation extension (default: auto).
mpv asks X11 for present events which it then may use for more accurate frame presentation. This
only has an effect if --video-sync=display-... is being used.
The auto option enumerates XRandr providers for autodetection. If amd, radeon, intel, or nouveau
(the standard x86 Mesa drivers) is found presentation feedback is enabled. Other drivers are not
assumed to work, so they are not enabled automatically.
yes or no can still be passed regardless to enable/disable this mechanism in case there is
good/bad behavior with whatever your combination of hardware/drivers/etc. happens to be.
--x11-wid-title=<yes|no>
Whether or not to set the window title when mpv is embedded on X11 (default: no).
Disc Devices
--cdda-device=<path>
Specify the CD device for CDDA playback. The default device path depends on the OS. See the
OPTICAL DRIVES section.
--dvd-device=<path>
Specify the DVD device or .iso filename. You can also specify a directory that contains files
previously copied directly from a DVD (with e.g. vobcopy). The default device path depends on the
OS. See the OPTICAL DRIVES section.
Example
mpv dvd:// --dvd-device=/path/to/dvd/
--bluray-device=<path>
Specify the Blu-ray disc location. Must be a directory with Blu-ray structure. The default device
path depends on the OS. See the OPTICAL DRIVES section.
Example
mpv bd:// --bluray-device=/path/to/bd/
--cdda-...
These options can be used to tune the CD Audio reading feature of mpv.
--cdda-speed=<value>
Set CD spin speed.
--cdda-paranoia=<0-2>
Set paranoia level. Values other than 0 seem to break playback of anything but the first track.
0 disable checking (default)
1 overlap checking only
2 full data correction and verification
--cdda-sector-size=<value>
Set atomic read size.
--cdda-overlap=<value>
Force minimum overlap search during verification to <value> sectors.
--cdda-toc-offset=<value>
Add <value> sectors to the values reported when addressing tracks. May be negative.
--cdda-skip=<yes|no>
(Never) accept imperfect data reconstruction.
--cdda-cdtext=<yes|no>
Print CD text. This is disabled by default, because it ruins performance with CD-ROM drives for
unknown reasons.
--dvd-speed=<speed>
Try to limit DVD speed (default: 0, no change). DVD base speed is 1385 kB/s, so an 8x drive can
read at speeds up to 11080 kB/s. Slower speeds make the drive more quiet. For watching DVDs, 2700
kB/s should be quiet and fast enough. mpv resets the speed to the drive default value on close.
Values of at least 100 mean speed in kB/s. Values less than 100 mean multiples of 1385 kB/s, i.e.
--dvd-speed=8 selects 11080 kB/s.
NOTE:
You need write access to the DVD device to change the speed.
--dvd-angle=<ID>
Some DVDs contain scenes that can be viewed from multiple angles. This option tells mpv which
angle to use (default: 1).
Equalizer
--brightness=<-100-100>
Adjust the brightness of the video signal (default: 0). Not supported by all video output drivers.
--contrast=<-100-100>
Adjust the contrast of the video signal (default: 0). Not supported by all video output drivers.
--saturation=<-100-100>
Adjust the saturation of the video signal (default: 0). You can get grayscale output with this
option. Not supported by all video output drivers.
--gamma=<-100-100>
Adjust the gamma of the video signal (default: 0). Not supported by all video output drivers.
--hue=<-100-100>
Adjust the hue of the video signal (default: 0). You can get a colored negative of the image with
this option. Not supported by all video output drivers.
Demuxer
--demuxer=<[+]name>
Force demuxer type. Use a '+' before the name to force it; this will skip some checks. Give the
demuxer name as printed by --demuxer=help.
--demuxer-lavf-analyzeduration=<value>
Maximum length in seconds to analyze the stream properties.
--demuxer-lavf-probe-info=<yes|no|auto|nostreams>
Whether to probe stream information (default: auto). Technically, this controls whether
libavformat's avformat_find_stream_info() function is called. Usually it's safer to call it, but
it can also make startup slower.
The auto choice (the default) tries to skip this for a few know-safe whitelisted formats, while
calling it for everything else.
The nostreams choice only calls it if and only if the file seems to contain no streams after
opening (helpful in cases when calling the function is needed to detect streams at all, such as
with FLV files).
--demuxer-lavf-probescore=<1-100>
Minimum required libavformat probe score. Lower values will require less data to be loaded (makes
streams start faster), but makes file format detection less reliable. Can be used to force
auto-detected libavformat demuxers, even if libavformat considers the detection not reliable
enough. (Default: 26.)
--demuxer-lavf-allow-mimetype=<yes|no>
Allow deriving the format from the HTTP MIME type (default: yes). Set this to no in case playing
things from HTTP mysteriously fails, even though the same files work from local disk.
This is default in order to reduce latency when opening HTTP streams.
--demuxer-lavf-format=<name>
Force a specific libavformat demuxer.
--demuxer-lavf-hacks=<yes|no>
By default, some formats will be handled differently from other formats by explicitly checking for
them. Most of these compensate for weird or imperfect behavior from libavformat demuxers. Passing
no disables these. For debugging and testing only.
--demuxer-lavf-o=<key>=<value>[,<key>=<value>[,...]]
Pass AVOptions to libavformat demuxer.
Note, a patch to make the o= unneeded and pass all unknown options through the AVOption system is
welcome. A full list of AVOptions can be found in the FFmpeg manual. Note that some options may
conflict with mpv options.
This is a key/value list option. See List Options for details.
Example
--demuxer-lavf-o=fflags=+ignidx
--demuxer-lavf-probesize=<value>
Maximum amount of data to probe during the detection phase. In the case of MPEG-TS this value
identifies the maximum number of TS packets to scan.
--demuxer-lavf-buffersize=<value>
Size of the stream read buffer allocated for libavformat in bytes (default: 32768). Lowering the
size could lower latency. Note that libavformat might reallocate the buffer internally, or not
fully use all of it.
--demuxer-lavf-linearize-timestamps=<yes|no|auto>
Attempt to linearize timestamp resets in demuxed streams (default: auto). This was tested only
for single audio streams. It's unknown whether it works correctly for video (but likely won't).
Note that the implementation is slightly incorrect either way, and will introduce a discontinuity
by about 1 codec frame size.
The auto mode enables this for OGG audio stream. This covers the common and annoying case of OGG
web radio streams. Some of these will reset timestamps to 0 every time a new song begins. This
breaks the mpv seekable cache, which can't deal with timestamp resets. Note that
FFmpeg/libavformat's seeking API can't deal with this either; it's likely that if this option
breaks this even more, while if it's disabled, you can at least seek within the first song in the
stream. Well, you won't get anything useful either way if the seek is outside of mpv's cache.
--demuxer-lavf-propagate-opts=<yes|no>
Propagate FFmpeg-level options to recursively opened connections (default: yes). This is needed
because FFmpeg will apply these settings to nested AVIO contexts automatically. On the other hand,
this could break in certain situations - it's the FFmpeg API, you just can't win.
This affects in particular the --timeout option and anything passed with --demuxer-lavf-o.
If this option is deemed unnecessary at some point in the future, it will be removed without
notice.
--demuxer-mkv-subtitle-preroll=<yes|index|no>
Try harder to show embedded soft subtitles when seeking somewhere. Normally, it can happen that
the subtitle at the seek target is not shown due to how some container file formats are designed.
The subtitles appear only if seeking before or exactly to the position a subtitle first appears.
To make this worse, subtitles are often timed to appear a very small amount before the associated
video frame, so that seeking to the video frame typically does not demux the subtitle at that
position.
Enabling this option makes the demuxer start reading data a bit before the seek target, so that
subtitles appear correctly. Note that this makes seeking slower, and is not guaranteed to always
work. It only works if the subtitle is close enough to the seek target.
Works with the internal Matroska demuxer only. Always enabled for absolute and hr-seeks, and this
option changes behavior with relative or imprecise seeks only.
You can use the --demuxer-mkv-subtitle-preroll-secs option to specify how much data the demuxer
should pre-read at most in order to find subtitle packets that may overlap. Setting this to 0 will
effectively disable this preroll mechanism. Setting a very large value can make seeking very slow,
and an extremely large value would completely reread the entire file from start to seek target on
every seek - seeking can become slower towards the end of the file. The details are messy, and the
value is actually rounded down to the cluster with the previous video keyframe.
Some files, especially files muxed with newer mkvmerge versions, have information embedded that
can be used to determine what subtitle packets overlap with a seek target. In these cases, mpv
will reduce the amount of data read to a minimum. (Although it will still read all data between
the cluster that contains the first wanted subtitle packet, and the seek target.) If the index
choice (which is the default) is specified, then prerolling will be done only if this information
is actually available. If this method is used, the maximum amount of data to skip can be
additionally controlled by --demuxer-mkv-subtitle-preroll-secs-index (it still uses the value of
the option without -index if that is higher).
See also --hr-seek-demuxer-offset option. This option can achieve a similar effect, but only if
hr-seek is active. It works with any demuxer, but makes seeking much slower, as it has to decode
audio and video data instead of just skipping over it.
--demuxer-mkv-subtitle-preroll-secs=<value>
See --demuxer-mkv-subtitle-preroll.
--demuxer-mkv-subtitle-preroll-secs-index=<value>
See --demuxer-mkv-subtitle-preroll.
--demuxer-mkv-probe-start-time=<yes|no>
Check the start time of Matroska files (default: yes). This simply reads the first cluster
timestamps and assumes it is the start time. Technically, this also reads the first timestamp,
which may increase latency by one frame (which may be relevant for live streams).
--demuxer-mkv-probe-video-duration=<yes|no|full>
When opening the file, seek to the end of it, and check what timestamp the last video packet has,
and report that as file duration. This is strictly for compatibility with Haali only. In this
mode, it's possible that opening will be slower (especially when playing over http), or that
behavior with broken files is much worse. So don't use this option.
The yes mode merely uses the index and reads a small number of blocks from the end of the file.
The full mode actually traverses the entire file and can make a reliable estimate even without an
index present (such as partial files).
--demuxer-mkv-crop-compat=<yes|no>
Enable compatibility mode for files that do not fully comply with the Matroska specification.
(default: yes)
Most files containing cropping metadata require this mode to display correctly.
If this option is enabled, crop metadata will be applied before calculating the video's aspect
ratio, ensuring it is cropped accordingly. If this option is disabled, the image will be cropped
first and then stretched to match DisplayWidth and DisplayHeight.
According to the Matroska specification, the Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAR) should be calculated after
cropping. However, the majority of files do not adhere to this rule, as it would cause
incompatibility with crop-unaware players. Additionally, MKVToolNix does not automatically adjust
DisplayWidth and DisplayHeight when cropping metadata is applied, leading to most of files created
with it also failing to conform to the specification.
See for more details:
<https://github.com/ietf-wg-cellar/matroska-specification/pull/947>
<https://gitlab.com/mbunkus/mkvtoolnix/-/issues/2389>
<https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/pull/13446>
--demuxer-rawaudio-channels=<value>
Number of channels (or channel layout) if --demuxer=rawaudio is used (default: stereo).
--demuxer-rawaudio-format=<value>
Sample format for --demuxer=rawaudio (default: s16le). Use --demuxer-rawaudio-format=help to get
a list of all formats.
--demuxer-rawaudio-rate=<value>
Sample rate for --demuxer=rawaudio (default: 44 kHz).
--demuxer-rawvideo-fps=<value>
Rate in frames per second for --demuxer=rawvideo (default: 25.0).
--demuxer-rawvideo-w=<value>, --demuxer-rawvideo-h=<value>
Image dimension in pixels for --demuxer=rawvideo.
Example
Play a raw YUV sample:
mpv sample-720x576.yuv --demuxer=rawvideo \
--demuxer-rawvideo-w=720 --demuxer-rawvideo-h=576
--demuxer-rawvideo-format=<value>
Color space (fourcc) in hex or string for --demuxer=rawvideo (default: YV12).
--demuxer-rawvideo-mp-format=<value>
Color space by internal video format for --demuxer=rawvideo. Use --demuxer-rawvideo-mp-format=help
for a list of possible formats.
--demuxer-rawvideo-codec=<value>
Set the video codec instead of selecting the rawvideo codec when using --demuxer=rawvideo. This
uses the same values as codec names in --vd (but it does not accept decoder names).
--demuxer-rawvideo-size=<value>
Frame size in bytes when using --demuxer=rawvideo.
--demuxer-max-bytes=<bytesize>
This controls how much the demuxer is allowed to buffer ahead. The demuxer will normally try to
read ahead as much as necessary, or as much is requested with --demuxer-readahead-secs. The option
can be used to restrict the maximum readahead. This limits excessive readahead in case of broken
files or desynced playback. The demuxer will stop reading additional packets as soon as one of the
limits is reached. (The limits still can be slightly overstepped due to technical reasons.)
Set these limits higher if you get a packet queue overflow warning, and you think normal playback
would be possible with a larger packet queue.
See --list-options for defaults and value range. <bytesize> options accept suffixes such as KiB
and MiB.
--demuxer-max-back-bytes=<bytesize>
This controls how much past data the demuxer is allowed to preserve. This is useful only if the
cache is enabled.
Unlike the forward cache, there is no control how many seconds are actually cached - it will
simply use as much memory this option allows. Setting this option to 0 will strictly disable any
back buffer, but this will lead to the situation that the forward seek range starts after the
current playback position (as it removes past packets that are seek points).
If the end of the file is reached, the remaining unused forward buffer space is "donated" to the
backbuffer (unless the backbuffer size is set to 0, or --demuxer-donate-buffer is set to no).
This still limits the total cache usage to the sum of the forward and backward cache, and
effectively makes better use of the total allowed memory budget. (The opposite does not happen:
free backward buffer is never "donated" to the forward buffer.)
Keep in mind that other buffers in the player (like decoders) will cause the demuxer to cache
"future" frames in the back buffer, which can skew the impression about how much data the
backbuffer contains.
See --list-options for defaults and value range.
--demuxer-donate-buffer=<yes|no>
Whether to let the back buffer use part of the forward buffer (default: yes). If set to yes, the
"donation" behavior described in the option description for --demuxer-max-back-bytes is enabled.
This means the back buffer may use up memory up to the sum of the forward and back buffer options,
minus the active size of the forward buffer. If set to no, the options strictly limit the forward
and back buffer sizes separately.
Note that if the end of the file is reached, the buffered data stays the same, even if you seek
back within the cache. This is because the back buffer is only reduced when new data is read.
--demuxer-seekable-cache=<yes|no|auto>
Debugging option to control whether seeking can use the demuxer cache (default: auto). Normally
you don't ever need to set this; the default auto does the right thing and enables cache seeking
it if --cache is set to yes (or is implied yes if --cache=auto).
If enabled, short seek offsets will not trigger a low level demuxer seek (which means for example
that slow network round trips or FFmpeg seek bugs can be avoided). If a seek cannot happen within
the cached range, a low level seek will be triggered. Seeking outside of the cache will start a
new cached range, but can discard the old cache range if the demuxer exhibits certain unsupported
behavior.
The special value auto means yes in the same situation as --cache-secs is used (i.e. when the
stream appears to be a network stream or the stream cache is enabled).
--demuxer-thread=<yes|no>
Run the demuxer in a separate thread, and let it prefetch a certain amount of packets (default:
yes). Having this enabled leads to smoother playback, enables features like prefetching, and
prevents that stuck network freezes the player. On the other hand, it can add overhead, or the
background prefetching can hog CPU resources.
Disabling this option is not recommended. Use it for debugging only.
--demuxer-termination-timeout=<seconds>
Number of seconds the player should wait to shutdown the demuxer (default: 0.1). The player will
wait up to this much time before it closes the stream layer forcefully. Forceful closing usually
means the network I/O is given no chance to close its connections gracefully (of course the OS can
still close TCP connections properly), and might result in annoying messages being logged, and in
some cases, confused remote servers.
This timeout is usually only applied when loading has finished properly. If loading is aborted by
the user, or in some corner cases like removing external tracks sourced from network during
playback, forceful closing is always used.
--demuxer-readahead-secs=<seconds>
If --demuxer-thread is enabled, this controls how much the demuxer should buffer ahead in seconds
(default: 1). As long as no packet has a timestamp difference higher than the readahead amount
relative to the last packet returned to the decoder, the demuxer keeps reading.
Note that enabling the cache (such as --cache=yes, or if the input is considered a network stream,
and --cache=auto is used), this option is mostly ignored. (--cache-secs will override this.
Technically, the maximum of both options is used.)
The main purpose of this option is to limit the readhead for local playback, since a large
readahead value is not overly useful in this case.
(This value tends to be fuzzy, because many file formats don't store linear timestamps.)
--demuxer-hysteresis-secs=<seconds>
Once the demuxer limit is reached (--demuxer-max-bytes, --demuxer-readahead-secs or --cache-secs),
this value can be used to specify a hysteresis before the demuxer will buffer ahead again. This
specifies the maximum number of seconds from the current playback position that needs to be
remaining in the cache before the demuxer will continue buffering ahead.
For example, with a value of 10 seconds specified, the demuxer will buffer ahead up to the demuxer
limit and won't start buffering ahead again until there is only 10 seconds of content left in the
cache.
This can provide significant power savings and reduce load by making the demuxer only buffer ahead
in chunks at a time rather than buffering ahead nonstop to keep the cache filled.
If you want to save power and reduce load, configure this to a small number that's much lower than
--cache-secs or --demuxer-readahead-secs. If it takes a long time to buffer anything at all for a
given stream (like when reading from a very slow disk is involved), then the hysteresis value
should be larger to compensate.
The default value is 0 seconds, which disables the caching hysteresis. A value of 10 seconds
probably works well for most usecases.
--prefetch-playlist=<yes|no>
Prefetch next playlist entry while playback of the current entry is ending (default: yes).
This does not prefill the cache with the video data of the next URL. Prefetching video data is
supported only for the current playlist entry, and depends on the demuxer cache settings (on by
default). This merely opens the URL of the next playlist entry as soon the current URL is fully
read.
This does not work with URLs resolved by the youtube-dl wrapper, and it won't.
This can occasionally make wrong prefetching decisions. For example, it can't predict whether you
go backwards in the playlist, and assumes you won't edit the playlist.
--force-seekable=<yes|no>
If the player thinks that the media is not seekable (e.g. playing from a pipe, or it's an http
stream with a server that doesn't support range requests), seeking will be disabled. This option
can forcibly enable it. For seeks within the cache, there's a good chance of success.
--demuxer-cache-wait=<yes|no>
Before starting playback, read data until either the end of the file was reached, or the demuxer
cache has reached maximum capacity. Only once this is done, playback starts. This intentionally
happens before the initial seek triggered with --start. This does not change any runtime behavior
after the initial caching. This option is useless if the file cannot be cached completely.
--rar-list-all-volumes=<yes|no>
When opening multi-volume rar files, open all volumes to create a full list of contained files
(default: no). If disabled, only the archive entries whose headers are located within the first
volume are listed (and thus played when opening a .rar file with mpv). Doing so speeds up opening,
and the typical idiotic use-case of playing uncompressed multi-volume rar files that contain a
single media file is made faster.
Opening is still slow, because for unknown, idiotic, and unnecessary reasons libarchive opens all
volumes anyway when playing the main file, even though mpv iterated no archive entries yet.
--directory-mode=<auto|lazy|recursive|ignore>
When opening a directory, open subdirectories lazily, recursively or not at all. The default is
auto, which behaves like recursive with --shuffle, and like lazy otherwise.
--directory-filter-types=<video,audio,image,archive,playlist>
Media file types to filter when opening directory. If the list is empty, all files are added to
the playlist. (Default: video,audio,image,archive,playlist)
This is a string list option. See List Options for details.
--autocreate-playlist=<no|filter|same>
When opening a local file, act as if the parent directory is opened and create a playlist
automatically.
no Load a single file (default).
filter Create a playlist from the parent directory with files matching --directory-filter-types.
same Create a playlist from the parent directory with files matching the same category as the
currently loaded file. One of the *-exts is selected based on the input file and only files
with matching extensions are added to the playlist. If the input file itself is not
matched to any extension list, the playlist is not autogenerated.
Input
--native-keyrepeat=<yes|no>
Use system settings for keyrepeat delay and rate, instead of --input-ar-delay and --input-ar-rate
(default: no). Whether this applies depends on the VO backend and how it handles keyboard input.
Does not apply to terminal input.
--native-touch=<yes|no>
(Windows only) For platforms which send emulated mouse inputs for touch-unaware clients, such as
Windows, use system native touch events, instead of receiving them as emulated mouse events
(default: no). This is required for multi-touch support for these platforms.
Note that this option has no effect on other platforms: either native touch is not supported by
mpv, or the platform does not give an option to receive emulated mouse inputs (so native touch is
always enabled, e.g. Wayland).
--input-ar-delay
Delay in milliseconds before we start to autorepeat a key (default: 200). Set it to 0 to disable.
--input-ar-rate
Number of key presses to generate per second on autorepeat (default: 40).
--input-conf=<filename>
Specify input configuration file other than the default location in the mpv configuration
directory (usually ~/.config/mpv/input.conf).
--input-default-bindings=<yes|no>
Enable default-level ("weak") key bindings (default: yes). These are bindings which config files
like input.conf can override. It currently affects the builtin key bindings, and keys which
scripts bind using mp.add_key_binding (but not mp.add_forced_key_binding because this overrides
input.conf).
--input-builtin-bindings=<yes|no>
Enable loading of built-in key bindings during start-up (default: yes). This option is applied
only during (lib)mpv initialization, and if disabled then it will not be not possible to enable
them later. May be useful to libmpv clients.
--input-builtin-dragging=<yes|no>
Enable the built-in window-dragging behavior (default: yes). Setting it to no disables the
built-in dragging behavior. Note that unlike the window-dragging option, this option only affects
VOs which support the begin-vo-dragging command, and does not disable window dragging initialized
with the command.
--input-cmdlist
Prints all commands that can be bound to keys.
--input-commands=<cmd1,cmd2,...>
Define a list of commands for mpv to run. The syntax is the same as format as input.conf but
without the key binding argument at the beginning. When this option is set at startup, the
commands will run after audio and video playback are about to begin if applicable (in idle mode
with no file, it will run immediately). When changing values at runtime, the commands will also
run as soon as possible.
This is a string list option. See List Options for details.
Example
--input-commands="playlist-play-index 1,set ao-volume 40"
sets the playlist index to 1 and the ao-volume to 40
--input-doubleclick-time=<milliseconds>
Time in milliseconds to recognize two consecutive button presses as a double-click (default: 300).
--input-keylist
Prints all keys that can be bound to commands.
--input-key-fifo-size=<2-65000>
Specify the size of the FIFO that buffers key events (default: 7). If it is too small, some events
may be lost. The main disadvantage of setting it to a very large value is that if you hold down a
key triggering some particularly slow command then the player may be unresponsive while it
processes all the queued commands.
--input-test
Input test mode. Instead of executing commands on key presses, mpv will show the keys and the
bound commands on the OSD. Has to be used with a dummy video, and the normal ways to quit the
player will not work (key bindings that normally quit will be shown on OSD only, just like any
other binding). See INPUT.CONF.
--input-terminal=<yes|no>
--input-terminal=no prevents the player from reading key events from standard input. Useful when
reading data from standard input. This is automatically enabled when - is found on the command
line. There are situations where you have to set it manually, e.g. if you open /dev/stdin (or the
equivalent on your system), use stdin in a playlist or intend to read from stdin later on via the
loadfile or loadlist input commands.
--input-ipc-server=<filename>
Enable the IPC support and create the listening socket at the given path.
On Linux and Unix, the given path is a regular filesystem path. On Windows, named pipes are used,
so the path refers to the pipe namespace (\\.\pipe\<name>). If the \\.\pipe\ prefix is missing,
mpv will add it automatically before creating the pipe, so --input-ipc-server=/tmp/mpv-socket and
--input-ipc-server=\\.\pipe\tmp\mpv-socket are equivalent for IPC on Windows.
See JSON IPC for details.
--input-ipc-client=fd://<N>
Connect a single IPC client to the given FD. This is somewhat similar to --input-ipc-server,
except no socket is created, and instead the passed FD is treated like a socket connection
received from accept(). In practice, you could pass either a FD created by socketpair(), or a
pipe. In both cases, you must make sure that the FD is actually inherited by mpv (do not set the
POSIX CLOEXEC flag).
The player quits when the connection is closed.
This is somewhat similar to the removed --input-file option, except it supports only integer FDs,
and cannot open actual paths.
Example
--input-ipc-client=fd://123
NOTE:
To use this option on Windows, the fd must refer to a wrapped (created by _open_osfhandle)
named pipe server handle with a client already connected. The named pipe must be created duplex
with overlapped IO and inheritable handles. The program communicates with mpv through the
client handle.
WARNING:
Writing to the input-ipc-server option at runtime will start another instance of an IPC client
handler for the input-ipc-client option, because initialization is bundled, and this thing is
stupid. This is a bug. Writing to input-ipc-client at runtime will start another IPC client
handler for the new value, without stopping the old one, even if the FD value is the same (but
the string is different e.g. due to whitespace). This is not a bug.
--input-gamepad=<yes|no>
Enable/disable SDL2 Gamepad support. Disabled by default.
--input-cursor=<yes|no>
Permit mpv to receive pointer events reported by the video output driver. Necessary to use the
OSC. Support depends on the VO in use.
--input-cursor-passthrough=<yes|no>
Tell the backend windowing system to allow pointer events to passthrough the mpv window. This
allows windows under mpv to instead receive pointer events as if the mpv window was never there.
--input-media-keys=<yes|no>
On systems where mpv can choose between receiving media keys or letting the system handle them -
this option controls whether mpv should receive them.
Default: yes (except for libmpv). macOS and Windows only, because elsewhere mpv doesn't have a
choice - the system decides whether to send media keys to mpv. For instance, on X11 or Wayland,
system-wide media keys are not implemented. Whether media keys work when the mpv window is focused
is implementation-defined.
--input-preprocess-wheel=<yes|no>
Preprocess WHEEL_* events so that while scrolling on the horizontal or vertical direction, the
events aren't generated for another direction even when the two directions are scrolled together
(default: yes).
This preprocessing can be beneficial for preventing accidentally seeking while changing the volume
by scrolling on a touchpad with the default keybind. Due to the deadzone mechanism used, disabling
the preprocessing allows for diagonal scrolling (such as panning) and potentially reduces input
latency.
Note that disabling the preprocessing does not affect any filtering done by the OS/driver before
these events are delivered to mpv, if any.
--input-right-alt-gr=<yes|no>
(macOS and Windows only) Use the right Alt key as Alt Gr to produce special characters. If
disabled, count the right Alt as an Alt modifier key. Enabled by default.
--input-vo-keyboard=<yes|no>
Disable all keyboard input on for VOs which can't participate in proper keyboard input
dispatching. May not affect all VOs. Generally useful for embedding only.
On X11, a sub-window with input enabled grabs all keyboard input as long as it is 1. a child of a
focused window, and 2. the mouse is inside of the sub-window. It can steal away all keyboard input
from the application embedding the mpv window, and on the other hand, the mpv window will receive
no input if the mouse is outside of the mpv window, even though mpv has focus. Modern toolkits
work around this weird X11 behavior, but naively embedding foreign windows breaks it.
The only way to handle this reasonably is using the XEmbed protocol, which was designed to solve
these problems. GTK provides GtkSocket, which supports XEmbed. Qt doesn't seem to provide anything
working in newer versions.
If the embedder supports XEmbed, input should work with default settings and with this option
disabled. Note that input-default-bindings is disabled by default in libmpv as well - it should be
enabled if you want the mpv default key bindings.
--input-touch-emulate-mouse=<yes|no>
When multi-touch support is enabled (either required by the platform, or enabled by
--native-touch), emulate mouse move and button presses for the touch events (default: yes). This
is useful for compatibility for mouse key bindings and scripts which read mouse positions for
platforms which do not support --native-touch=no (e.g. Wayland).
--input-dragging-deadzone=<N>
Begin the built-in window dragging when the mouse moves outside a deadzone of N pixels while the
mouse button is being held down (default: 3). This only affects VOs which support the
begin-vo-dragging command.
--input-ime=<yes|no>
Enable keyboard input via an active input method (IME) connected to the VO. (default: no). The
input popup window, if there is any, is always positioned at the top left of the window. Whether
pre-edit text is drawn depends on the platform. You may need to configure your IME to display the
pre-edit inside of the input popup window if you cannot read the pre-edit text in the mpv window.
Wayland and Windows only. This option is not applicable to terminal input.
NOTE:
Enabling IME can cause problems with key bindings, because mpv cannot detect any key presses
when they go into the IME pre-edit area. It is recommended to enable IME on demand only for
the duration while text input is expected.
The builtin console and input selector enable IME for the duration of accepting text input.
OSD
--osc=<yes|no>
Whether to load the on-screen-controller (default: yes).
--osd-bar=<yes|no>
Enable display of the OSD bar (default: yes).
You can configure this on a per-command basis in input.conf using osd- prefixes, see Input Command
Prefixes. If you want to disable the OSD completely, use --osd-level=0.
--osd-on-seek=<no,bar,msg,msg-bar>
Set what is displayed on the OSD during seeks. The default is bar.
You can configure this on a per-command basis in input.conf using osd- prefixes, see Input Command
Prefixes.
--osd-duration=<time>
Set the duration of the OSD messages in ms (default: 1000).
--osd-font=<name>
Specify font to use for OSD. The default is sans-serif.
Examples
• --osd-font='Bitstream Vera Sans'
• --osd-font='Comic Sans MS'
--osd-font-size=<size>
Specify the OSD font size. See --sub-font-size for details.
Default: 30
--osd-msg1=<string>
Show this string as message on OSD with OSD level 1 (visible by default). The message will be
visible by default, and as long as no other message covers it, and the OSD level isn't changed
(see --osd-level). Expands properties; see Property Expansion.
--osd-msg2=<string>
Similar to --osd-msg1, but for OSD level 2. If this is an empty string (default), then the
playback time is shown.
--osd-msg3=<string>
Similar to --osd-msg1, but for OSD level 3. If this is an empty string (default), then the
playback time, duration, and some more information is shown.
This is used for the show-progress command (by default mapped to P), and when seeking if enabled
with --osd-on-seek or by osd- prefixes in input.conf (see Input Command Prefixes).
--osd-status-msg is a legacy equivalent (but with a minor difference).
--osd-status-msg=<string>
Show a custom string during playback instead of the standard status text. This overrides the
status text used for --osd-level=3, when using the show-progress command (by default mapped to P),
and when seeking if enabled with --osd-on-seek or osd- prefixes in input.conf (see Input Command
Prefixes). Expands properties. See Property Expansion.
This option has been replaced with --osd-msg3. The only difference is that this option implicitly
includes ${osd-sym-cc}. This option is ignored if --osd-msg3 is not empty.
--osd-playing-msg=<string>
Show a message on OSD when playback starts. The string is expanded for properties, e.g.
--osd-playing-msg='file: ${filename}' will show the message file: followed by a space and the
currently played filename.
See Property Expansion.
--osd-playing-msg-duration=<time>
Set the duration of osd-playing-msg in ms. If this is unset, osd-playing-msg stays on screen for
the duration of osd-duration.
--osd-playlist-entry=<title|filename|both>
Whether to display the media title, filename, or both. If the media-title is not available, it
will display only the filename.
Default: title.
--osd-bar-align-x=<-1-1>
Position of the OSD bar. -1 is far left, 0 is centered, 1 is far right. Fractional values (like
0.5) are allowed.
--osd-bar-align-y=<-1-1>
Position of the OSD bar. -1 is top, 0 is centered, 1 is bottom. Fractional values (like 0.5) are
allowed.
--osd-bar-w=<1-100>
Width of the OSD bar, in percentage of the screen width (default: 75). A value of 50 means the
bar is half the screen wide.
--osd-bar-h=<0.1-50>
Height of the OSD bar, in percentage of the screen height (default: 3.125).
--osd-bar-outline-size=<size>
Size of the outline of the OSD bar in scaled pixels (see --sub-font-size for details).
--osd-bar-border-size is an alias for --osd-bar-outline-size.
Default: 0.5.
--osd-bar-marker-scale=<0-100>
Factor for the OSD bar marker size relative to the OSD bar outline size.
Default: 1.3.
--osd-bar-marker-min-size=<size>
Minimum OSD bar marker size.
Default: 1.6.
--osd-bar-marker-style=<none|triangle|line>
Set the OSD bar marker style.
none Don't draw markers.
triangle
Draw markers as triangles (default).
line Draw markers as lines.
--osd-blur=<0..20.0>
Gaussian blur factor applied to the OSD font border. 0 means no blur applied (default).
--osd-bold=<yes|no>
Format text on bold.
--osd-italic=<yes|no>
Format text on italic.
--osd-outline-color=<color>
See --sub-color. Color used for the OSD font outline.
--osd-border-color is an alias for --osd-outline-color.
--osd-back-color=<color>
See --sub-color. Color used for OSD text background.
--osd-shadow-color is an alias for --osd-back-color.
--osd-outline-size=<size>
Size of the OSD font outline in scaled pixels (see --sub-font-size for details). A value of 0
disables outlines.
--osd-border-size is an alias for --osd-outline-size.
Default: 1.65
--osd-border-style=<outline-and-shadow|opaque-box|background-box>
See --sub-border-style. Style used for OSD text border.
--osd-color=<color>
Specify the color used for OSD. See --sub-color for details.
--osd-selected-color=<color>
The color of the selected item in lists. See --sub-color for details.
--osd-selected-outline-color=<color>
The outline color of the selected item in lists. See --sub-color for details.
--osd-fractions
Show OSD times with fractions of seconds (in millisecond precision). Useful to see the exact
timestamp of a video frame.
--osd-level=<0-3>
Specifies which mode the OSD should start in.
0 OSD completely disabled (subtitles only)
1 enabled (shows up only on user interaction)
2 enabled + current time visible by default
3 enabled + --osd-status-msg (current time and status by default)
--osd-margin-x=<size>
Left and right screen margin for the OSD in scaled pixels (see --sub-font-size for details).
This option specifies the distance of the OSD to the left, as well as at which distance from the
right border long OSD text will be broken.
Default: 16
--osd-margin-y=<size>
Top and bottom screen margin for the OSD in scaled pixels (see --sub-font-size for details).
This option specifies the vertical margins of the OSD.
Default: 16
--osd-align-x=<left|center|right>
Control to which corner of the screen OSD should be aligned to (default: left).
--osd-align-y=<top|center|bottom>
Vertical position (default: top). Details see --osd-align-x.
--osd-scale=<factor>
OSD font size multiplier, multiplied with --osd-font-size value.
--osd-scale-by-window=<yes|no>
Whether to scale the OSD with the window size (default: yes). If this is disabled, --osd-font-size
and other OSD options that use scaled pixels are always in actual pixels. The effect is that
changing the window size won't change the OSD font size.
NOTE:
For scripts which draw user interface elements, it is recommended to respect the value of this
option when deciding whether the elements are scaled with window size or not.
--osd-shadow-offset=<size>
Displacement of the OSD shadow in scaled pixels (see --sub-font-size for details). A value of 0
disables shadows.
Default: 0.
--osd-spacing=<size>
Horizontal OSD/sub font spacing in scaled pixels (see --sub-font-size for details). This value is
added to the normal letter spacing. Negative values are allowed.
Default: 0.
--video-osd=<yes|no>
Enabled OSD rendering on the video window (default: yes). This can be used in situations where
terminal OSD is preferred. If you just want to disable all OSD rendering, use --osd-level=0.
It does not affect subtitles or overlays created by scripts (in particular, the OSC needs to be
disabled with --osc=no).
This option is somewhat experimental and could be replaced by another mechanism in the future.
--osd-font-provider=<...>
See --sub-font-provider for details and accepted values. Note that unlike subtitles, OSD never
uses embedded fonts from media files.
--osd-fonts-dir=<path>
See --sub-fonts-dir for details. Defaults to ~~/fonts.
Screenshot
--screenshot-format=<type>
Set the image file type used for saving screenshots.
Available choices:
png PNG
jpg JPEG (default)
jpeg JPEG (alias for jpg)
webp WebP
jxl JPEG XL
avif AVIF
--screenshot-tag-colorspace=<yes|no>
Tag screenshots with the appropriate colorspace (default: yes).
Note that not all formats support this. When it is unsupported, or when this option is disabled,
screenshots will be converted to sRGB before being written.
--screenshot-high-bit-depth=<yes|no>
If possible, write screenshots with a bit depth similar to the source video (default: yes). This
is interesting in particular for PNG, as this sometimes triggers writing 16 bit PNGs with huge
file sizes. This will also include an unused alpha channel in the resulting files if 16 bit is
used.
--screenshot-template=<template>
Specify the filename template used to save screenshots. The template specifies the filename
without file extension, and can contain format specifiers, which will be substituted when taking a
screenshot. By default, the template is mpv-shot%n, which results in filenames like
mpv-shot0012.png for example.
The template can start with a relative or absolute path, in order to specify a directory location
where screenshots should be saved.
If the final screenshot filename points to an already existing file, the file will not be
overwritten. The screenshot will either not be saved, or if the template contains %n, saved using
different, newly generated filename.
Allowed format specifiers:
%[#][0X]n
A sequence number, padded with zeros to length X (default: 04). E.g. passing the format
%04n will yield 0012 on the 12th screenshot. The number is incremented every time a
screenshot is taken or if the file already exists. The length X must be in the range 0-9.
With the optional # sign, mpv will use the lowest available number. For example, if you
take three screenshots--0001, 0002, 0003--and delete the first two, the next two
screenshots will not be 0004 and 0005, but 0001 and 0002 again.
%f Filename of the currently played video.
%F Same as %f, but strip the file extension, including the dot.
%x Directory path of the currently played video. If the video is not on the filesystem (but
e.g. http://), this expand to an empty string.
%X{fallback}
Same as %x, but if the video file is not on the filesystem, return the fallback string
inside the {...}.
%p Current playback time, in the same format as used in the OSD. The result is a string of the
form "HH:MM:SS". For example, if the video is at the time position 5 minutes and 34
seconds, %p will be replaced with "00:05:34".
%P Similar to %p, but extended with the playback time in milliseconds. It is formatted as
"HH:MM:SS.mmm", with "mmm" being the millisecond part of the playback time.
NOTE:
This is a simple way for getting unique per-frame timestamps. (Frame numbers would be
more intuitive, but are not easily implementable because container formats usually use
time stamps for identifying frames.)
%wX Specify the current playback time using the format string X. %p is like %wH:%wM:%wS, and
%P is like %wH:%wM:%wS.%wT.
Valid format specifiers:
%wH hour (padded with 0 to two digits)
%wh hour (not padded)
%wM minutes (00-59)
%wm total minutes (includes hours, unlike %wM)
%wS seconds (00-59)
%ws total seconds (includes hours and minutes)
%wf like %ws, but as float
%wT milliseconds (000-999)
%tX Specify the current local date/time using the format X. This format specifier uses the UNIX
strftime() function internally, and inserts the result of passing "%X" to strftime. For
example, %tm will insert the number of the current month as number. You have to use
multiple %tX specifiers to build a full date/time string.
%{prop[:fallback text]}
Insert the value of the input property 'prop'. E.g. %{filename} is the same as %f. If the
property does not exist or is not available, an error text is inserted, unless a fallback
is specified.
%% Replaced with the % character itself.
--screenshot-dir=<path>
Store screenshots in this directory. This path is joined with the filename generated by
--screenshot-template. If the template filename is already absolute, the directory is ignored.
--screenshot-directory is an alias for --screenshot-dir.
If the directory does not exist, it is created on the first screenshot. If it is not a directory,
an error is generated when trying to write a screenshot.
This option is not set by default, and thus will write screenshots to the directory from which mpv
was started. In pseudo-gui mode (see PSEUDO GUI MODE), this is set to the desktop.
--screenshot-jpeg-quality=<0-100>
Set the JPEG quality level. Higher means better quality. The default is 90.
--screenshot-jpeg-source-chroma=<yes|no>
Write JPEG files with the same chroma subsampling as the video (default: yes). If disabled, the
libjpeg default is used.
--screenshot-png-compression=<0-9>
Set the PNG compression level. Higher means better compression. This will affect the file size of
the written screenshot file and the time it takes to write a screenshot. Too high compression
might occupy enough CPU time to interrupt playback. The default is 7.
--screenshot-png-filter=<0-5>
Set the filter applied prior to PNG compression. 0 is none, 1 is "sub", 2 is "up", 3 is "average",
4 is "Paeth", and 5 is "mixed". This affects the level of compression that can be achieved. For
most images, "mixed" achieves the best compression ratio, hence it is the default.
--screenshot-webp-lossless=<yes|no>
Write lossless WebP files. --screenshot-webp-quality is ignored if this is set. The default is no.
--screenshot-webp-quality=<0-100>
Set the WebP quality level. Higher means better quality. The default is 75.
--screenshot-webp-compression=<0-6>
Set the WebP compression level. Higher means better compression, but takes more CPU time. Note
that this also affects the screenshot quality when used with lossy WebP files. The default is 4.
--screenshot-jxl-distance=<0-15>
Set the JPEG XL Butteraugli distance. Lower means better quality. Lossless is 0.0, and 1.0 is
approximately equivalent to JPEG quality 90 for photographic content. Use 0.1 for "visually
lossless" screenshots. The default is 1.0.
--screenshot-jxl-effort=<1-9>
Set the JPEG XL compression effort. Higher effort (usually) means better compression, but takes
more CPU time. The default is 4.
--screenshot-avif-encoder=<encoder>
Specify the AV1 encoder to be used by libavcodec for encoding avif screenshots.
Default: libaom-av1
--screenshot-avif-pixfmt=<format>
Specify the pixel format for the libavcodec encoder. Defaults to empty, which lets mpv pick one
close to the source format.
--screenshot-avif-opts=key1=value1,key2=value2,...
Specifies libavcodec options for selected encoder. For more information, consult the FFmpeg
documentation.
Default: usage=allintra,crf=0,cpu-used=8
Note: the default is only guaranteed to work with the libaom-av1 encoder. Above options may not
be valid and or optimal for other encoders.
This is a key/value list option. See List Options for details.
Example
"--screenshot-avif-opts=crf=23,aq-mode=complexity"
sets the crf to 23 and quantization (aq-mode) to complexity based.
--screenshot-sw=<yes|no>
Whether to use software rendering for screenshots (default: no).
If set to no, the screenshot will be rendered by the current VO (only vo_gpu or vo_gpu_next
currently). The advantage is that this will (probably) always show up as in the video window,
because the same code is used for rendering. But since the renderer needs to be reinitialized,
this can be slow and interrupt playback.
If set to yes, the software scaler is used to convert the video to RGB (or whatever the target
screenshot requires). In this case, conversion will run in a separate thread and will probably not
interrupt playback. The software renderer may lack some capabilities, such as HDR rendering. If
window mode is used, the image will also be scaled in software which may not accurately reflect
the actual visible result.
Software Scaler
--sws-scaler=<name>
Specify the software scaler algorithm to be used with --vf=scale. This also affects video output
drivers which lack hardware acceleration, e.g. x11. See also --vf=scale.
To get a list of available scalers, run --sws-scaler=help.
Default: bicubic.
--sws-lgb=<0-100>
Software scaler Gaussian blur filter (luma). See --sws-scaler.
--sws-cgb=<0-100>
Software scaler Gaussian blur filter (chroma). See --sws-scaler.
--sws-ls=<-100-100>
Software scaler sharpen filter (luma). See --sws-scaler.
--sws-cs=<-100-100>
Software scaler sharpen filter (chroma). See --sws-scaler.
--sws-chs=<h>
Software scaler chroma horizontal shifting. See --sws-scaler.
--sws-cvs=<v>
Software scaler chroma vertical shifting. See --sws-scaler.
--sws-bitexact=<yes|no>
Unknown functionality (default: no). Consult libswscale source code. The primary purpose of this,
as far as libswscale API goes), is to produce exactly the same output for the same input on all
platforms (output has the same "bits" everywhere, thus "bitexact"). Typically disables
optimizations.
--sws-fast=<yes|no>
Allow optimizations that help with performance, but reduce quality (default: no).
VOs like drm and x11 will benefit a lot from using --sws-fast. You may need to set other options,
like --sws-scaler. The builtin sws-fast profile sets this option and some others to gain
performance for reduced quality. Also see --sws-allow-zimg.
--sws-allow-zimg=<yes|no>
Allow using zimg (if the component using the internal swscale wrapper explicitly allows so)
(default: yes). In this case, zimg may be used, if the internal zimg wrapper supports the input
and output formats. It will silently or noisily fall back to libswscale if one of these conditions
does not apply.
If zimg is used, the other --sws- options are ignored, and the --zimg- options are used instead.
If the internal component using the swscale wrapper hooks up logging correctly, a verbose priority
log message will indicate whether zimg is being used.
Most things which need software conversion can make use of this.
NOTE:
Do note that zimg may be slower than libswscale. Usually, it's faster on x86 platforms, but
slower on ARM (due to lack of ARM specific optimizations). The mpv zimg wrapper uses
unoptimized repacking for some formats, for which zimg cannot be blamed.
--zimg-scaler=<point|bilinear|bicubic|spline16|spline36|lanczos>
Zimg luma scaler to use (default: lanczos).
--zimg-scaler-param-a=<default|float>, --zimg-scaler-param-b=<default|float>
Set scaler parameters. By default, these are set to the special string default, which maps to a
scaler-specific default value. Ignored if the scaler is not tunable.
lanczos
--zimg-scaler-param-a is the number of taps.
bicubic
a and b are the bicubic b and c parameters.
--zimg-scaler-chroma=...
Same as --zimg-scaler, for for chroma interpolation (default: bilinear).
--zimg-scaler-chroma-param-a, --zimg-scaler-chroma-param-b
Same as --zimg-scaler-param-a / --zimg-scaler-param-b, for chroma.
--zimg-dither=<no|ordered|random|error-diffusion>
Dithering (default: random).
--zimg-threads=<auto|integer>
Set the maximum number of threads to use for scaling (default: auto). auto uses the number of
logical cores on the current machine. Note that the scaler may use less threads (or even just 1
thread) depending on stuff. Passing a value of 1 disables threading and always scales the image
in a single operation. Higher thread counts waste resources, but make it typically faster.
Note that some zimg git versions had bugs that will corrupt the output if threads are used.
--zimg-fast=<yes|no>
Allow optimizations that help with performance, but reduce quality (default: yes). Currently, this
may simplify gamma conversion operations.
Audio Resampler
This controls the default options of any resampling done by mpv (but not within libavfilter, within the
system audio API resampler, or any other places).
--audio-resample-filter-size=<length>
Length of the filter with respect to the lower sampling rate. (default: 16)
--audio-resample-phase-shift=<count>
Log2 of the number of polyphase entries. (..., 10->1024, 11->2048, 12->4096, ...) (default:
10->1024)
--audio-resample-cutoff=<cutoff>
Cutoff frequency (0.0-1.0), default set depending upon filter length.
--audio-resample-linear=<yes|no>
If set then filters will be linearly interpolated between polyphase entries. (default: no)
--audio-normalize-downmix=<yes|no>
Enable/disable normalization if surround audio is downmixed to stereo (default: no). If this is
disabled, downmix can cause clipping. If it's enabled, the output might be too quiet. It depends
on the source audio.
If downmix happens outside of mpv for some reason, or in the decoder (decoder downmixing), or in
the audio output (system mixer), this has no effect.
--audio-resample-max-output-size=<length>
Limit maximum size of audio frames filtered at once, in ms (default: 40). The output size size is
limited in order to make resample speed changes react faster. This is necessary especially if
decoders or filters output very large frame sizes (like some lossless codecs or some DRC filters).
This option does not affect the resampling algorithm in any way.
For testing/debugging only. Can be removed or changed any time.
--audio-swresample-o=<string>
Set AVOptions on the SwrContext or AVAudioResampleContext. These should be documented by FFmpeg.
This is a key/value list option. See List Options for details.
Terminal
--quiet
Make console output less verbose; in particular, prevents the status line (i.e. AV: 3.4
(00:00:03.37) / 5320.6 ...) from being displayed. Particularly useful on slow terminals or broken
ones which do not properly handle carriage return (i.e. \r).
See also: --really-quiet and --msg-level.
--really-quiet
Display even less output and status messages than with --quiet.
--terminal=<yes|no>
--terminal=no disables any use of the terminal and stdin/stdout/stderr. This completely silences
any message output.
Unlike --really-quiet, this disables input and terminal initialization as well.
--msg-color=<yes|no>
Enable colorful console output on terminals (default: yes).
--msg-level=<module1=level1,module2=level2,...>
Control verbosity directly for each module. The all module changes the verbosity of all the
modules. The verbosity changes from this option are applied in order from left to right, and each
item can override a previous one.
Run mpv with --msg-level=all=trace to see all messages mpv outputs. You can use the module names
printed in the output (prefixed to each line in [...]) to limit the output to interesting modules.
This also affects --log-file, and in certain cases libmpv API logging.
NOTE:
Some messages are printed before the command line is parsed and are therefore not affected by
--msg-level. To control these messages, you have to use the MPV_VERBOSE environment variable;
see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES for details.
Available levels:
no complete silence
fatal fatal messages only
error error messages
warn warning messages
info informational messages
status status messages (default)
v verbose messages
debug debug messages
trace very noisy debug messages
Example
mpv --msg-level=ao/sndio=no
Completely silences the output of ao_sndio, which uses the log prefix [ao/sndio].
mpv --msg-level=all=warn,ao/alsa=error
Only show warnings or worse, and let the ao_alsa output show errors only.
--term-osd=<auto|no|force>
Control whether OSD messages are shown on the console when no video output is available (default:
auto).
auto use terminal OSD if no video output active
no disable terminal OSD
force use terminal OSD even if video output active
The auto mode also enables terminal OSD if --video-osd=no was set.
--term-osd-bar=<yes|no>
Enable printing a progress bar under the status line on the terminal. (Disabled by default.)
--term-osd-bar-chars=<string>
Customize the --term-osd-bar feature. The string is expected to consist of 5 characters (start,
left space, position indicator, right space, end). You can use Unicode characters, but note that
double- width characters will not be treated correctly.
Default: [-+-].
--term-playing-msg=<string>
Print out a string after starting playback. The string is expanded for properties, e.g.
--term-playing-msg='file: ${filename}' will print the string file: followed by a space and the
currently played filename.
See Property Expansion.
--term-status-msg=<string>
Print out a custom string during playback instead of the standard status line. Expands properties.
See Property Expansion.
--term-title=<string>
Set the terminal title. Currently, this simply concatenates the escape sequence setting the window
title with the provided (property expanded) string. This will mess up if the expanded string
contain bytes that end the escape sequence, or if the terminal does not understand the sequence.
The latter probably includes the regrettable win32.
Expands properties. See Property Expansion.
--msg-module
Prepend module name to each console message.
--msg-time
Prepend timing information to each console message. The time is in seconds since the player
process was started (technically, slightly later actually), using a monotonic time source
depending on the OS. This is CLOCK_MONOTONIC on sane UNIX variants.
Cache
--cache=<yes|no|auto>
Decide whether to use network cache settings (default: auto).
If enabled, use up to --cache-secs for the cache size (but still limited to --demuxer-max-bytes),
and make the cached data seekable (if possible). If disabled, --cache-pause and related are
implicitly disabled.
The auto choice enables this depending on whether the stream is thought to involve network
accesses or other slow media (this is an imperfect heuristic).
Before mpv 0.30.0, this used to accept a number, which specified the size of the cache in
kilobytes. Use e.g. --cache --demuxer-max-bytes=123k instead.
--cache-secs=<seconds>
How many seconds of audio/video to prefetch if the cache is active. This overrides the
--demuxer-readahead-secs option if and only if the cache is enabled and the value is larger. The
default value is set to something very high, so the actually achieved readahead will usually be
limited by the value of the --demuxer-max-bytes option. Setting this option is usually only useful
for limiting readahead.
--cache-on-disk=<yes|no>
Write packet data to a temporary file, instead of keeping them in memory. This makes sense only
with --cache. If the normal cache is disabled, this option is ignored.
The cache file is append-only. Even if the player appears to prune data, the file space freed by
it is not reused. The cache file is deleted when playback is closed.
Note that packet metadata is still kept in memory. --demuxer-max-bytes and related options are
applied to metadata only. The size of this metadata varies, but 50 MB per hour of media is
typical. The cache statistics will report this metadats size, instead of the size of the cache
file. If the metadata hits the size limits, the metadata is pruned (but not the cache file).
When the media is closed, the cache file is deleted. A cache file is generally worthless after the
media is closed, and it's hard to retrieve any media data from it (it's not supported by design).
If the option is enabled at runtime, the cache file is created, but old data will remain in the
memory cache. If the option is disabled at runtime, old data remains in the disk cache, and the
cache file is not closed until the media is closed. If the option is disabled and enabled again,
it will continue to use the cache file that was opened first.
--demuxer-cache-dir=<path>
Directory where to create temporary files. Cache is stored in the system's cache directory
(usually ~/.cache/mpv) if this is unset.
Currently, this is used for --cache-on-disk only.
--cache-pause=<yes|no>
Whether the player should automatically pause when the cache runs out of data and stalls
decoding/playback (default: yes). If enabled, it will pause and unpause once more data is
available, aka "buffering".
--cache-pause-wait=<seconds>
Number of seconds the packet cache should have buffered before starting playback again if
"buffering" was entered (default: 1). This can be used to control how long the player rebuffers if
--cache-pause is enabled, and the demuxer underruns. If the given time is higher than the maximum
set with --cache-secs or --demuxer-readahead-secs, or prefetching ends before that for some other
reason (like file end or maximum configured cache size reached), playback resumes earlier.
--cache-pause-initial=<yes|no>
Enter "buffering" mode before starting playback (default: no). This can be used to ensure playback
starts smoothly, in exchange for waiting some time to prefetch network data (as controlled by
--cache-pause-wait). For example, some common behavior is that playback starts, but network caches
immediately underrun when trying to decode more data as playback progresses.
Another thing that can happen is that the network prefetching is so CPU demanding (due to demuxing
in the background) that playback drops frames at first. In these cases, it helps enabling this
option, and setting --cache-secs and --cache-pause-wait to roughly the same value.
This option also triggers when playback is restarted after seeking.
--demuxer-cache-unlink-files=<immediate|whendone|no>
Whether or when to unlink cache files (default: immediate). This affects cache files which are
inherently temporary, and which make no sense to remain on disk after the player terminates. This
is a debugging option.
immediate
Unlink cache file after they were created. The cache files won't be visible anymore, even
though they're in use. This ensures they are guaranteed to be removed from disk when the
player terminates, even if it crashes.
whendone
Delete cache files after they are closed.
no Don't delete cache files. They will consume disk space without having a use.
Currently, this is used for --cache-on-disk only.
--stream-buffer-size=<bytesize>
Size of the low level stream byte buffer (default: 128KB). This is used as buffer between demuxer
and low level I/O (e.g. sockets). Generally, this can be very small, and the main purpose is
similar to the internal buffer FILE in the C standard library will have.
Half of the buffer is always used for guaranteed seek back, which is important for unseekable
input.
There are known cases where this can help performance to set a large buffer:
1. mp4 files. libavformat may trigger many small seeks in both directions, depending on how the
file was muxed.
2. Certain network filesystems, which do not have a cache, and where small reads can be
inefficient.
In other cases, setting this to a large value can reduce performance.
Usually, read accesses are at half the buffer size, but it may happen that accesses are done
alternating with smaller and larger sizes (this is due to the internal ring buffer wrap-around).
See --list-options for defaults and value range. <bytesize> options accept suffixes such as KiB
and MiB.
--vd-queue-enable=<yes|no>, --ad-queue-enable
Enable running the video/audio decoder on a separate thread (default: no). If enabled, the
decoder is run on a separate thread, and a frame queue is put between decoder and higher level
playback logic. The size of the frame queue is defined by the other options below.
This is probably quite pointless. libavcodec already has multithreaded decoding (enabled by
default), which makes this largely unnecessary. It might help in some corner cases with high
bandwidth video that is slow to decode (in these cases libavcodec would block the playback logic,
while using a decoding thread would distribute the decoding time evenly without affecting the
playback logic). In other situations, it will simply make seeking slower and use significantly
more memory.
The queue size is restricted by the other --vd-queue-... options. The final queue size is the
minimum as indicated by the option with the lowest limit. Each decoder/track has its own queue
that may use the full configured queue size.
Most queue options can be changed at runtime. --vd-queue-enable itself (and the audio equivalent)
update only if decoding is completely reinitialized. However, setting --vd-queue-max-samples=1
should almost lead to the same behavior as --vd-queue-enable=no, so that value can be used for
effectively runtime enabling/disabling the queue.
This should not be used with hardware decoding. It is possible to enable this for audio, but it
makes even less sense.
--vd-queue-max-bytes=<bytesize>, --ad-queue-max-bytes
Maximum approximate allowed size of the queue. If exceeded, decoding will be stopped. The maximum
size can be exceeded by about 1 frame.
See --list-options for defaults and value range. <bytesize> options accept suffixes such as KiB
and MiB.
--vd-queue-max-samples=<int>, --ad-queue-max-samples
Maximum number of frames (video) or samples (audio) of the queue. The audio size may be exceeded
by about 1 frame.
See --list-options for defaults and value range.
--vd-queue-max-secs=<seconds>, --ad-queue-max-secs
Maximum number of seconds of media in the queue. The special value 0 means no limit is set. The
queue size may be exceeded by about 2 frames. Timestamp resets may lead to random queue size
usage.
See --list-options for defaults and value range.
Network
--user-agent=<string>
Use <string> as user agent for HTTP streaming.
--cookies=<yes|no>
Support cookies when making HTTP requests. Disabled by default.
--cookies-file=<filename>
Read HTTP cookies from <filename>. The file is assumed to be in Netscape format.
--http-header-fields=<field1,field2>
Set custom HTTP fields when accessing HTTP stream.
This is a string list option. See List Options for details.
Example
mpv --http-header-fields='Field1: value1','Field2: value2' \
http://localhost:1234
Will generate HTTP request:
GET / HTTP/1.0
Host: localhost:1234
User-Agent: MPlayer
Icy-MetaData: 1
Field1: value1
Field2: value2
Connection: close
--http-proxy=<proxy>
URL of the HTTP/HTTPS proxy. If this is set, the http_proxy environment is ignored. The no_proxy
environment variable is still respected. This option is silently ignored if it does not start with
http://. Proxies are not used for https URLs. Setting this option does not try to make the ytdl
script use the proxy.
--tls-ca-file=<filename>
Certificate authority database file for use with TLS. (Silently fails with older FFmpeg versions.)
--tls-verify
Verify peer certificates when using TLS (e.g. with https://...). (Silently fails with older
FFmpeg versions.)
--tls-cert-file
A file containing a certificate to use in the handshake with the peer.
--tls-key-file
A file containing the private key for the certificate.
--referrer=<string>
Specify a referrer path or URL for HTTP requests.
--network-timeout=<seconds>
Specify the network timeout in seconds (default: 60 seconds). This affects at least HTTP. The
special value 0 uses the FFmpeg defaults. If a protocol is used which does not support timeouts,
this option is silently ignored.
WARNING:
This breaks the RTSP protocol, because of inconsistent FFmpeg API regarding its internal
timeout option. Not only does the RTSP timeout option accept different units (seconds instead
of microseconds, causing mpv to pass it huge values), it will also overflow FFmpeg internal
calculations. The worst is that merely setting the option will put RTSP into listening mode,
which breaks any client uses. At time of this writing, the fix was not made effective yet. For
this reason, this option is ignored (or should be ignored) on RTSP URLs. You can still set the
timeout option directly with --demuxer-lavf-o.
--rtsp-transport=<lavf|udp|udp_multicast|tcp|http>
Select RTSP transport method (default: tcp). This selects the underlying network transport when
playing rtsp://... URLs. The value lavf leaves the decision to libavformat.
--hls-bitrate=<no|min|max|<rate>>
If HLS streams are played, this option controls what streams are selected by default. The option
allows the following parameters:
no Don't do anything special. Typically, this will simply pick the first audio/video streams
it can find.
min Pick the streams with the lowest bitrate.
max Same, but highest bitrate. (Default.)
Additionally, if the option is a number, the stream with the highest rate equal or below the
option value is selected.
The bitrate as used is sent by the server, and there's no guarantee it's actually meaningful.
DVB
--dvbin-prog=<string>
This defines the program to tune to. Usually, you may specify this by using a stream URI like
"dvb://ZDF HD", but you can tune to a different channel by writing to this property at runtime.
Also see dvbin-channel-switch-offset for more useful channel switching functionality.
--dvbin-card=<0-15>
Specifies using card number 0-15 (default: 0).
--dvbin-file=<filename>
Instructs mpv to read the channels list from <filename>. The default is in the mpv configuration
directory (usually ~/.config/mpv) with the filename channels.conf.{sat,ter,cbl,atsc,isdbt} (based
on your card type) or channels.conf as a last resort. Please note that using specific file name
with card type is recommended, since the legacy channel format is not fully standardized so
autodetection of the delivery system may fail otherwise. For DVB-S/2 cards, a VDR 1.7.x format
channel list is recommended as it allows tuning to DVB-S2 channels, enabling subtitles and
decoding the PMT (which largely improves the demuxing). Classic mplayer format channel lists are
still supported (without these improvements), and for other card types, only limited VDR format
channel list support is implemented (patches welcome). For channels with dynamic PID switching or
incomplete channels.conf, --dvbin-full-transponder or the magic PID 8192 are recommended.
--dvbin-timeout=<seconds>
Maximum number of seconds to wait when trying to tune a frequency before giving up (default: 30).
--dvbin-full-transponder=<yes|no>
Apply no filters on program PIDs, only tune to frequency and pass full transponder to demuxer.
The player frontend selects the streams from the full TS in this case, so the program which is
shown initially may not match the chosen channel. Switching between the programs is possible by
cycling the program property. This is useful to record multiple programs on a single transponder,
or to work around issues in the channels.conf. It is also recommended to use this for channels
which switch PIDs on-the-fly, e.g. for regional news.
Default: no
--dvbin-channel-switch-offset=<integer>
This value is not meant for setting via configuration, but used in channel switching. An
input.conf can cycle this value up and down to perform channel switching. This number effectively
gives the offset to the initially tuned to channel in the channel list.
An example input.conf could contain: H cycle dvbin-channel-switch-offset up, K cycle
dvbin-channel-switch-offset down
GPU renderer options
The following video options are currently all specific to --vo=gpu, --vo=libmpv and --vo=gpu-next, which
are the only VOs that implement them.
--scale=<filter>
The filter function to use when upscaling video.
bilinear
Bilinear hardware texture filtering (fastest, very low quality). This is the default when
using the fast profile.
lanczos
Lanczos scaling. Provides good balance between quality and performance. This is the
default for scale. The number of taps can be controlled with scale-radius, but is best left
unchanged.
(This filter is an alias for sinc-windowed sinc)
ewa_lanczos
Elliptic weighted average Lanczos scaling. Also known as Jinc. Relatively slow, but very
good quality. The radius can be controlled with scale-radius. Increasing the radius makes
the filter sharper but adds more ringing.
(This filter is an alias for jinc-windowed jinc)
ewa_lanczossharp
A slightly sharpened version of ewa_lanczos. This is the default when using the
high-quality profile. Blur value determined by method originally developed by Nicolas
Robidoux for Image Magick, see:
<https://www.imagemagick.org/discourse-server/viewtopic.php?p=89068#p89068>
ewa_lanczos4sharpest
Very sharp scaler, but also slightly slower than ewa_lanczossharp. Prone to ringing, so
it's recommended to combine this with an anti-ringing shader. On --vo=gpu-next, setting
this filter enables built-in anti-ringing, so no extra action needs to be taken.
For more details, see:
<https://www.imagemagick.org/discourse-server/viewtopic.php?p=128587#p128587>
mitchell
Mitchell-Netravali. Piecewise cubic filter with a support of radius 2.0. Provides a
balanced compromise of all scaling artifacts. This filter has both B and C set to 1/3. The
B and C parameters can be controlled with --scale-param1 and --scale-param2.
hermite
Hermite spline. Similar to bicubic but with B set to 0.0. This filter has the special
property of having a support of radius 1.0, making it very fast in comparison, but prone to
blocking. This is the default for --dscale.
catmull_rom
Catmull-Rom spline. Similar to mitchell, but with B and C set to 0.0 and 0.5 respectively.
This filter is sharper than mitchell, but prone to ringing.
oversample
A version of nearest neighbour that (naively) oversamples pixels, so that pixels
overlapping edges get linearly interpolated instead of rounded. This essentially removes
the small imperfections and judder artifacts caused by nearest-neighbour interpolation, in
exchange for adding some blur. This can also be used for frame mixing, where it is commonly
known as "smoothmotion" (see --tscale).
linear A --tscale filter.
There are some more filters, but most are not as useful. For a complete list, pass help as value,
e.g.:
mpv --scale=help
--cscale=<filter>
As --scale, but for interpolating chroma information. If the image is not subsampled, this option
is ignored entirely. If this option is unset, the filter implied by --scale will be applied.
--dscale=<filter>
Like --scale, but apply these filters on downscaling instead.
--tscale=<filter>
The filter used for interpolating the temporal axis (frames). This is only used if --interpolation
is enabled. The only valid choices for --tscale are separable convolution filters (use
--tscale=help to get a list). The default is oversample.
Common --tscale choices include oversample, linear, catmull_rom, mitchell, gaussian, or bicubic.
These are listed in increasing order of smoothness/blurriness, with bicubic being the
smoothest/blurriest and oversample being the sharpest/least smooth.
--scale-param1=<value>, --scale-param2=<value>, --cscale-param1=<value>, --cscale-param2=<value>,
--dscale-param1=<value>, --dscale-param2=<value>, --tscale-param1=<value>, --tscale-param2=<value>
Set filter parameters. By default, these are set to the special string default, which maps to a
scaler-specific default value. Ignored if the filter is not tunable. Currently, this affects the
following filter parameters:
bicubic
Spline parameters (B and C). Defaults to B=1 and C=0.
gaussian
Scale parameter (t). Increasing this makes the result blurrier. Defaults to 1.
oversample
Minimum distance to an edge before interpolation is used. Setting this to 0 will always
interpolate edges, whereas setting it to 0.5 will never interpolate, thus behaving as if
the regular nearest neighbour algorithm was used. Defaults to 0.0.
--scale-blur=<value>, --cscale-blur=<value>, --dscale-blur=<value>, --tscale-blur=<value>
Kernel scaling factor (also known as a blur factor). Decreasing this makes the result sharper,
increasing it makes it blurrier (default 0). If set to 0, the kernel's preferred blur factor is
used. Note that setting this too low (eg. 0.5) leads to bad results. It's generally recommended to
stick to values between 0.8 and 1.2.
--scale-clamp=<0.0-1.0>, --cscale-clamp, --dscale-clamp, --tscale-clamp
Specifies a weight bias to multiply into negative coefficients. Specifying --scale-clamp=1 has the
effect of removing negative weights completely, thus effectively clamping the value range to
[0-1]. Values between 0.0 and 1.0 can be specified to apply only a moderate diminishment of
negative weights. This is especially useful for --tscale, where it reduces excessive ringing
artifacts in the temporal domain (which typically manifest themselves as short flashes or fringes
of black, mostly around moving edges) in exchange for potentially adding more blur. The default
for --tscale-clamp is 1.0, the others default to 0.0.
--scale-taper=<value>, --scale-wtaper=<value>, --dscale-taper=<value>, --dscale-wtaper=<value>,
--cscale-taper=<value>, --cscale-wtaper=<value>, --tscale-taper=<value>, --tscale-wtaper=<value>
Kernel/window taper factor. Increasing this flattens the filter function. Value range is 0 to 1.
A value of 0 (the default) means no flattening, a value of 1 makes the filter completely flat
(equivalent to a box function). Values in between mean that some portion will be flat and the
actual filter function will be squeezed into the space in between.
--scale-radius=<value>, --cscale-radius=<value>, --dscale-radius=<value>, --tscale-radius=<value>
Set radius for tunable filters, must be a float number between 0.5 and 16.0. Defaults to the
filter's preferred radius if not specified. Doesn't work for every scaler and VO combination.
Note that depending on filter implementation details and video scaling ratio, the radius that
actually being used might be different (most likely being increased a bit).
--scale-antiring=<value>, --cscale-antiring=<value>, --dscale-antiring=<value>, --tscale-antiring=<value>
Set the antiringing strength. This tries to eliminate ringing, but can introduce other artifacts
in the process. Must be a float number between 0.0 and 1.0. The default value of 0.0 disables
antiringing entirely.
Note that this doesn't affect the special filters bilinear and bicubic_fast, nor does it affect
any polar (EWA) scalers.
On --vo=gpu-next, this also affects polar (EWA) scalers. Certain filter aliases may also
implicitly enable antiringing, regardless of this setting (see --scale).
NOTE:
When downscaling with separable (orthogonal) filters, setting --dscale-antiring to a value
other than 0.0 (default) will reduce scaler quality and produce aliasing artifacts. On
--vo=gpu-next, --dscale-antiring is disabled for separable (orthogonal) filters.
--scale-window=<window>, --cscale-window=<window>, --dscale-window=<window>, --tscale-window=<window>
(Advanced users only) Choose a custom windowing function for the kernel. Defaults to the filter's
preferred window if unset. Use --scale-window=help to get a list of supported windowing functions.
--scale-wparam=<window>, --cscale-wparam=<window>, --cscale-wparam=<window>, --tscale-wparam=<window>
(Advanced users only) Configure the parameter for the window function given by --scale-window etc.
By default, these are set to the special string default, which maps to a window-specific default
value. Ignored if the window is not tunable. Currently, this affects the following window
parameters:
kaiser Window parameter (alpha). Defaults to 6.33.
blackman
Window parameter (alpha). Defaults to 0.16.
gaussian
Scale parameter (t). Increasing this makes the window wider. Defaults to 1.
--scaler-resizes-only
Disable the scaler if the video image is not resized. In that case, bilinear is used instead of
whatever is set with --scale. Bilinear will reproduce the source image perfectly if no scaling is
performed. Enabled by default. Note that this option never affects --cscale.
--correct-downscaling
When using convolution based filters, extend the filter size when downscaling. Increases quality,
but reduces performance while downscaling. Enabled by default.
This will perform slightly sub-optimally for anamorphic video (but still better than without it)
since it will extend the size to match only the milder of the scale factors between the axes.
Note: this option is ignored when using bilinear downscaling with --vo=gpu.
--linear-downscaling
Scale in linear light when downscaling. It should only be used with a --fbo-format that has at
least 16 bit precision. This option has no effect on HDR content. Enabled by default.
--linear-upscaling
Scale in linear light when upscaling. Like --linear-downscaling, it should only be used with a
--fbo-format that has at least 16 bits precisions. This is not usually recommended except for
testing/specific purposes. Users are advised to either enable --sigmoid-upscaling or keep both
options disabled (i.e. scaling in gamma light).
--sigmoid-upscaling
When upscaling, use a sigmoidal color transform to avoid emphasizing ringing artifacts. Enabled by
default. This is incompatible with and replaces --linear-upscaling. (Note that sigmoidization also
requires linearization, so the LINEAR rendering step fires in both cases)
For more information about sigmoidization, see:
<https://imagemagick.org/Usage/resize/#resize_sigmoidal>
--sigmoid-center
The center of the sigmoid curve used for --sigmoid-upscaling, must be a float between 0.0 and 1.0.
Defaults to 0.75 if not specified.
--sigmoid-slope
The slope of the sigmoid curve used for --sigmoid-upscaling, must be a float between 1.0 and 20.0.
Defaults to 6.5 if not specified.
--interpolation
Reduce stuttering caused by mismatches in the video fps and display refresh rate (also known as
judder).
WARNING:
This requires setting the --video-sync option to one of the display- modes, or it will be
silently disabled. This was not required before mpv 0.14.0.
This essentially attempts to interpolate the missing frames by convoluting the video along the
temporal axis. The filter used can be controlled using the --tscale setting.
--interpolation-threshold=<0..1,-1>
Threshold below which frame ratio interpolation gets disabled (default: 0.01). This is calculated
as abs(disphz/vfps - 1) < threshold, where vfps is the speed-adjusted video FPS, and disphz the
display refresh rate. (The speed-adjusted video FPS is roughly equal to the normal video FPS, but
with slowdown and speedup applied. This matters if you use --video-sync=display-resample to make
video run synchronously to the display FPS, or if you change the speed property.)
The default is intended to enable interpolation in scenarios where retiming with the
--video-sync=display-* cannot adjust the speed of the video sufficiently for smooth playback. For
example if a video is 60.00 FPS and your display refresh rate is 59.94 Hz, interpolation will
never be activated, since the mismatch is within 1% of the refresh rate. The default also handles
the scenario when mpv cannot determine the container FPS, such as during certain live streams, and
may dynamically toggle interpolation on and off. In this scenario, the default would be to not use
interpolation but rather to allow --video-sync=display-* to retime the video to match display
refresh rate. See --video-sync-max-video-change for more information about how mpv will retime
video.
Also note that if you use e.g. --video-sync=display-vdrop, small deviations in the rate can
disable interpolation and introduce a discontinuity every other minute.
Set this to -1 to disable this logic.
--interpolation-preserve
Preserve the previous frames' interpolated results even when renderer parameters are changed -
with the exception of options related to cropping and video placement, which always invalidate the
cache. Enabling this option makes dynamic updates of renderer settings slightly smoother at the
cost of slightly higher latency in response to such changes. Defaults to on. (Only affects
--vo=gpu-next, note that --vo=gpu always invalidates interpolated frames)
--opengl-pbo
Enable use of PBOs. On some drivers this can be faster, especially if the source video size is
huge (e.g. so called "4K" video). On other drivers it might be slower or cause latency issues.
--dither-depth=<N|no|auto>
Set dither target depth to N. Default: auto.
no Disable any dithering done by mpv.
auto Automatic selection. On --vo=gpu: detected depth or 8 bpc otherwise On --vo=gpu-next:
detected depth or 8 bpc (for SDR target)
8 Dither to 8 bit output.
Note that the on-the-wire bit depth cannot be detected except when using gpu-api=d3d11. Explicitly
setting the value to your display's bit depth is recommended, as dithering performed by some LCD
panels can be of low quality.
--dither-size-fruit=<2-8>
Set the size of the dither matrix (default: 6). The actual size of the matrix is (2^N) x (2^N) for
an option value of N, so a value of 6 gives a size of 64x64. The matrix is generated at startup
time, and a large matrix can take rather long to compute (seconds).
Used in --dither=fruit mode only.
--dither=<fruit|ordered|error-diffusion|no>
Select dithering algorithm (default: fruit). (Normally, the --dither-depth option controls whether
dithering is enabled.)
The error-diffusion option requires compute shader support. It also requires large amount of
shared memory to run, the size of which depends on both the kernel (see --error-diffusion option
below) and the height of video window. It will fallback to fruit dithering if there is no enough
shared memory to run the shader.
--temporal-dither
Enable temporal dithering. (Only active if dithering is enabled in general.) This changes between
8 different dithering patterns on each frame by changing the orientation of the tiled dithering
matrix. Unfortunately, this can lead to flicker on LCD displays, since these have a high reaction
time.
--temporal-dither-period=<1-128>
Determines how often the dithering pattern is updated when --temporal-dither is in use. 1 (the
default) will update on every video frame, 2 on every other frame, etc.
--error-diffusion=<kernel>
The error diffusion kernel to use when --dither=error-diffusion is set.
simple Propagate error to only two adjacent pixels. Fastest but low quality.
sierra-lite
Fast with reasonable quality. This is the default.
floyd-steinberg
Most notable error diffusion kernel.
atkinson
Looks different from other kernels because only fraction of errors will be propagated
during dithering. A typical use case of this kernel is saving dithered screenshot (in
window mode). This kernel produces slightly smaller file, with still reasonable dithering
quality.
There are other kernels (use --error-diffusion=help to list) but most of them are much slower and
demanding even larger amount of shared memory. Among these kernels, burkes achieves a good
balance between performance and quality, and probably is the one you want to try first.
--gpu-debug
Enables GPU debugging. What this means depends on the API type. For OpenGL, it calls glGetError(),
and requests a debug context. For Vulkan, it enables validation layers.
--opengl-swapinterval=<n>
Interval in displayed frames between two buffer swaps. 1 is equivalent to enable VSYNC, 0 to
disable VSYNC. Defaults to 1 if not specified.
Note that this depends on proper OpenGL vsync support. On some platforms and drivers, this only
works reliably when in fullscreen mode. It may also require driver-specific hacks if using
multiple monitors, to ensure mpv syncs to the right one. Compositing window managers can also lead
to bad results, as can missing or incorrect display FPS information (see --display-fps-override).
--egl-config-id=<ID>
(EGL only) Select EGLConfig with specific EGL_CONFIG_ID. Rendering surfaces and contexts will be
created using this EGLConfig. You can use --msg-level=vo=trace to obtain a list of available
configs.
--egl-output-format=<auto|rgb8|rgba8|rgb10|rgb10_a2|rgb16|rgba16|rgb16f|rgba16f|rgb32f|rgba32f>
(EGL only) Select a specific EGL output format to utilize for OpenGL rendering. This option is
mutually exclusive with --egl-config-id. "auto" is the default, which will pick the first usable
config based on the order given by the driver.
All formats are not available. A fatal error is caused if an unavailable format is selected.
NOTE:
There is no reliable API to query desktop bit depth in EGL. You can manually set this option
according to the bit depth of your display. This option also affects the auto-detection of
--dither-depth.
NOTE:
Unlike --d3d11-output-format, this option also takes effect with --vo=gpu-next.
--vulkan-device=<device name|UUID>
The name or UUID of the Vulkan device to use for rendering and presentation. Use
--vulkan-device=help to see the list of available devices and their names and UUIDs. If left
unspecified, the first enumerated hardware Vulkan device will be used.
--vulkan-swap-mode=<mode>
Controls the presentation mode of the vulkan swapchain. This is similar to the
--opengl-swapinterval option.
auto Use the preferred swapchain mode for the vulkan context. (Default)
fifo Non-tearing, vsync blocked. Similar to "VSync on".
fifo-relaxed
Tearing, vsync blocked. Late frames will tear instead of stuttering.
mailbox
Non-tearing, not vsync blocked. Similar to "triple buffering".
immediate
Tearing, not vsync blocked. Similar to "VSync off".
--vulkan-queue-count=<1..8>
Controls the number of VkQueues used for rendering (limited by how many your device supports). In
theory, using more queues could enable some parallelism between frames (when using a
--swapchain-depth higher than 1), but it can also slow things down on hardware where there's no
true parallelism between queues. (Default: 1)
--vulkan-async-transfer
Enables the use of async transfer queues on supported vulkan devices. Using them allows transfer
operations like texture uploads and blits to happen concurrently with the actual rendering, thus
improving overall throughput and power consumption. Enabled by default, and should be relatively
safe.
--vulkan-async-compute
Enables the use of async compute queues on supported vulkan devices. Using this, in theory, allows
out-of-order scheduling of compute shaders with graphics shaders, thus enabling the hardware to do
more effective work while waiting for pipeline bubbles and memory operations. Not beneficial on
all GPUs. It's worth noting that if async compute is enabled, and the device supports more compute
queues than graphics queues (bound by the restrictions set by --vulkan-queue-count), mpv will
internally try and prefer the use of compute shaders over fragment shaders wherever possible.
Enabled by default, although Nvidia users may want to disable it.
--vulkan-display-display=<n>
The index of the display, on the selected Vulkan device, to present on when using the displayvk
GPU context. Use --vulkan-display-display=help to see the list of available displays. If left
unspecified, the first enumerated display will be used.
--vulkan-display-mode=<n>
The index of the display mode, of the selected Vulkan display, to use when using the displayvk GPU
context. Use --vulkan-display-mode=help to see the list of available modes. If left unspecified,
the first enumerated mode will be used.
--vulkan-display-plane=<n>
The index of the plane, on the selected Vulkan device, to present on when using the displayvk GPU
context. Use --vulkan-display-plane=help to see the list of available planes. If left unspecified,
the first enumerated plane will be used.
--d3d11-exclusive-fs=<yes|no>
Switches the D3D11 swap chain fullscreen state to 'fullscreen' when fullscreen video is requested.
Also known as "exclusive fullscreen" or "D3D fullscreen" in other applications. Gives mpv full
control of rendering on the swap chain's screen. Off by default.
--d3d11-warp=<yes|no|auto>
Use WARP (Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform) with the D3D11 GPU backend (default: auto).
This is a high performance software renderer. By default, it is only used when the system has no
hardware adapters that support D3D11. While the extended GPU features will work with WARP, they
can be very slow.
--d3d11-feature-level=<12_1|12_0|11_1|11_0|10_1|10_0|9_3|9_2|9_1>
Select a specific feature level when using the D3D11 GPU backend. By default, the highest
available feature level is used. This option can be used to select a lower feature level, which is
mainly useful for debugging. Most extended GPU features will not work at 9_x feature levels.
--d3d11-flip=<yes|no>
Enable flip-model presentation, which avoids unnecessarily copying the backbuffer by sharing
surfaces with the DWM (default: yes). This may cause performance issues with older drivers. If
flip-model presentation is not supported (for example, on Windows 7 without the platform update),
mpv will automatically fall back to the older bitblt presentation model.
flip-model needs presentation needs to be disabled for background transparency to work.
--d3d11-sync-interval=<0..4>
Schedule each frame to be presented for this number of VBlank intervals. (default: 1) Setting to
1 will enable VSync, setting to 0 will disable it.
--d3d11-adapter=<adapter name|help>
Select a specific D3D11 adapter to utilize for D3D11 rendering. Will pick the default adapter if
unset. Alternatives are listed when the name "help" is given.
Checks for matches based on the start of the string, case insensitive. Thus, if the description of
the adapter starts with the vendor name, that can be utilized as the selection parameter.
Hardware decoders utilizing the D3D11 rendering abstraction's helper functionality to receive a
device, such as D3D11VA or DXVA2's DXGI mode, will be affected by this choice.
--d3d11-output-format=<auto|rgba8|bgra8|rgb10_a2|rgba16f>
Select a specific D3D11 output format to utilize for D3D11 rendering. "auto" is the default,
which will pick either rgba8 or rgb10_a2 depending on the configured desktop bit depth. rgba16f
and bgra8 are left out of the autodetection logic, and are available for manual testing.
NOTE:
Desktop bit depth querying is only available from an API available from Windows 10. Thus on
older systems it will only automatically utilize the rgba8 output format.
NOTE:
For --vo=gpu-next, this is used as a best-effort hint and libplacebo has the last say on which
format is utilized.
--d3d11-output-csp=<auto|srgb|linear|pq|bt.2020>
Select a specific D3D11 output color space to utilize for D3D11 rendering. "auto" is the default,
which will select the color space of the desktop on which the swap chain is located.
Values other than "srgb" and "pq" have had issues in testing, so they are mostly available for
manual testing.
NOTE:
Swap chain color space configuration is only available from an API available from Windows 10.
Thus on older systems it will not work.
--d3d11va-zero-copy=<yes|no>
By default, when using hardware decoding with --gpu-api=d3d11, the video image will be copied
(GPU-to-GPU) from the decoder surface to a shader resource. Set this option to avoid that copy by
sampling directly from the decoder image. This may increase performance and reduce power usage,
but can cause the image to be sampled incorrectly on the bottom and right edges due to padding,
and may invoke driver bugs, since Direct3D 11 technically does not allow sampling from a decoder
surface (though most drivers support it.)
Currently only relevant for --gpu-api=d3d11.
--wayland-app-id=<string>
Set the client app id for Wayland-based video output methods (default: mpv).
--wayland-configure-bounds=<auto|yes|no>
Controls whether or not mpv opts into the configure bounds event if sent by the compositor
(default: auto). This restricts the initial size of the mpv window to a certain maximum size
intended by the compositor. In most cases, this simply just prevents the mpv window from being
larger than the size of the monitor when it first renders. With the default value of auto,
configure-bounds will silently be ignored if any autofit or geometry type option is also set.
--wayland-content-type=<auto|none|photo|video|game>
If supported by the compositor, mpv will send a hint using the content-type protocol telling the
compositor what type of content is being displayed. auto (default) will automatically switch
between telling the compositor the content is a photo, video or possibly none depending on
internal heuristics.
--wayland-edge-pixels-pointer=<value>
Defines the size of an edge border (default: 16) to initiate client side resize events in the
wayland contexts with the mouse. This is only active if there are no server side decorations from
the compositor.
--wayland-edge-pixels-touch=<value>
Defines the size of an edge border (default: 32) to initiate client side resizes events in the
wayland contexts with touch events.
--wayland-internal-vsync=<no|auto|yes>
Controls whether to use mpv's internal vsync for Wayland-base video outputs (default: auto). This
is mainly useful for benchmarking wayland VOs when combined with video-sync=display-desync,
--audio=no, and --untimed=yes. The special auto value will disable the internal vsync if the
compositor supports the fifo protocol and version 2 of the presentation time protocol when using
--gpu-api=vulkan. In any other situation, it is exactly the same as yes.
--wayland-present=<yes|no>
Enable the use of wayland's presentation time protocol for more accurate frame presentation if it
is supported by the compositor (default: yes). This only has an effect if
--video-sync=display-... is being used.
--spirv-compiler=<compiler>
Controls which compiler is used to translate GLSL to SPIR-V. This is only relevant for
--gpu-api=d3d11 with --vo=gpu. The possible choices are currently:
auto Use the first available compiler. (Default)
shaderc
Use libshaderc, which is an API wrapper around glslang. This is generally the most
preferred, if available.
NOTE:
This option is deprecated, since there is only one usable value. It may be removed in the
future.
--glsl-shader=<file>, --glsl-shaders=<file-list>
Custom GLSL hooks. These are a flexible way to add custom fragment shaders, which can be injected
at almost arbitrary points in the rendering pipeline, and access all previous intermediate
textures.
Each use of the --glsl-shader option will add another file to the internal list of shaders, while
--glsl-shaders takes a list of files, and overwrites the internal list with it. The latter is a
path list option (see List Options for details).
WARNING:
The syntax is not stable yet and may change any time.
The general syntax of a user shader looks like this:
//!METADATA ARGS...
//!METADATA ARGS...
vec4 hook() {
...
return something;
}
//!METADATA ARGS...
//!METADATA ARGS...
...
Each section of metadata, along with the non-metadata lines after it, defines a single block.
There are currently two types of blocks, HOOKs and TEXTUREs.
A TEXTURE block can set the following options:
TEXTURE <name> (required)
The name of this texture. Hooks can then bind the texture under this name using BIND. This
must be the first option of the texture block.
SIZE <width> [<height>] [<depth>] (required)
The dimensions of the texture. The height and depth are optional. The type of texture (1D,
2D or 3D) depends on the number of components specified.
FORMAT <name> (required)
The texture format for the samples. Supported texture formats are listed in debug logging
when the gpu VO is initialized (look for Texture formats:). Usually, this follows OpenGL
naming conventions. For example, rgb16 provides 3 channels with normalized 16 bit
components. One oddity are float formats: for example, rgba16f has 16 bit internal
precision, but the texture data is provided as 32 bit floats, and the driver converts the
data on texture upload.
Although format names follow a common naming convention, not all of them are available on
all hardware, drivers, GL versions, and so on.
FILTER <LINEAR|NEAREST>
The min/magnification filter used when sampling from this texture.
BORDER <CLAMP|REPEAT|MIRROR>
The border wrapping mode used when sampling from this texture.
Following the metadata is a string of bytes in hexadecimal notation that define the raw texture
data, corresponding to the format specified by FORMAT, on a single line with no extra whitespace.
A HOOK block can set the following options:
HOOK <name> (required)
The texture which to hook into. May occur multiple times within a metadata block, up to a
predetermined limit. See below for a list of hookable textures.
DESC <title>
User-friendly description of the pass. This is the name used when representing this shader
in the list of passes for property vo-passes.
BIND <name>
Loads a texture (either coming from mpv or from a TEXTURE block) and makes it available to
the pass. When binding textures from mpv, this will also set up macros to facilitate
accessing it properly. See below for a list. By default, no textures are bound. The special
name HOOKED can be used to refer to the texture that triggered this pass.
SAVE <name>
Gives the name of the texture to save the result of this pass into. By default, this is set
to the special name HOOKED which has the effect of overwriting the hooked texture.
WIDTH <szexpr>, HEIGHT <szexpr>
Specifies the size of the resulting texture for this pass. szexpr refers to an expression
in RPN (reverse polish notation), using the operators + - * / > < !, floating point
literals, and references to sizes of existing texture (such as MAIN.width or
CHROMA.height), OUTPUT, or NATIVE_CROPPED (size of an input texture cropped after
pan-and-scan, video-align-x/y, video-pan-x/y, etc. and possibly prescaled). By default,
these are set to HOOKED.w and HOOKED.h, espectively.
WHEN <szexpr>
Specifies a condition that needs to be true (non-zero) for the shader stage to be
evaluated. If it fails, it will silently be omitted. (Note that a shader stage like this
which has a dependency on an optional hook point can still cause that hook point to be
saved, which has some minor overhead)
OFFSET <ox oy | ALIGN>
Indicates a pixel shift (offset) introduced by this pass. These pixel offsets will be
accumulated and corrected during the next scaling pass (cscale or scale). The default
values are 0 0 which correspond to no shift. Note that offsets are ignored when not
overwriting the hooked texture.
A special value of ALIGN will attempt to fix existing offset of HOOKED by align it with
reference. It requires HOOKED to be resizable (see below). It works transparently with
fragment shader. For compute shader, the predefined texmap macro is required to handle
coordinate mapping.
COMPONENTS <n>
Specifies how many components of this pass's output are relevant and should be stored in
the texture, up to 4 (rgba). By default, this value is equal to the number of components in
HOOKED.
COMPUTE <bw> <bh> [<tw> <th>]
Specifies that this shader should be treated as a compute shader, with the block size bw
and bh. The compute shader will be dispatched with however many blocks are necessary to
completely tile over the output. Within each block, there will be tw*th threads, forming a
single work group. In other words: tw and th specify the work group size, which can be
different from the block size. So for example, a compute shader with bw, bh = 32 and tw, th
= 8 running on a 500x500 texture would dispatch 16x16 blocks (rounded up), each with 8x8
threads.
Compute shaders in mpv are treated a bit different from fragment shaders. Instead of
defining a vec4 hook that produces an output sample, you directly define void hook which
writes to a fixed writeonly image unit named out_image (this is bound by mpv) using
imageStore. To help translate texture coordinates in the absence of vertices, mpv provides
a special function NAME_map(id) to map from the texel space of the output image to the
texture coordinates for all bound textures. In particular, NAME_pos is equivalent to
NAME_map(gl_GlobalInvocationID), although using this only really makes sense if (tw,th) ==
(bw,bh).
Each bound mpv texture (via BIND) will make available the following definitions to that shader
pass, where NAME is the name of the bound texture:
vec4 NAME_tex(vec2 pos)
The sampling function to use to access the texture at a certain spot (in texture coordinate
space, range [0,1]). This takes care of any necessary normalization conversions.
vec4 NAME_texOff(vec2 offset)
Sample the texture at a certain offset in pixels. This works like NAME_tex but additionally
takes care of necessary rotations, so that sampling at e.g. vec2(-1,0) is always one pixel
to the left.
vec2 NAME_pos
The local texture coordinate of that texture, range [0,1].
vec2 NAME_size
The (rotated) size in pixels of the texture.
mat2 NAME_rot
The rotation matrix associated with this texture. (Rotates pixel space to texture
coordinates)
vec2 NAME_pt
The (unrotated) size of a single pixel, range [0,1].
float NAME_mul
The coefficient that needs to be multiplied into the texture contents in order to normalize
it to the range [0,1].
sampler NAME_raw
The raw bound texture itself. The use of this should be avoided unless absolutely
necessary.
Normally, users should use either NAME_tex or NAME_texOff to read from the texture. For some
shaders however , it can be better for performance to do custom sampling from NAME_raw, in which
case care needs to be taken to respect NAME_mul and NAME_rot.
In addition to these parameters, the following uniforms are also globally available:
float random
A random number in the range [0-1], different per frame.
int frame
A simple count of frames rendered, increases by one per frame and never resets (regardless
of seeks).
vec2 input_size
The size in pixels of the input image (possibly cropped and prescaled).
vec2 target_size
The size in pixels of the visible part of the scaled (and possibly cropped) image.
vec2 tex_offset
Texture offset introduced by user shaders or options like panscan, video-align-x/y,
video-pan-x/y.
Internally, vo_gpu may generate any number of the following textures. Whenever a texture is
rendered and saved by vo_gpu, all of the passes that have hooked into it will run, in the order
they were added by the user. This is a list of the legal hook points:
RGB, LUMA, CHROMA, ALPHA, XYZ (resizable)
Source planes (raw). Which of these fire depends on the image format of the source.
CHROMA_SCALED, ALPHA_SCALED (fixed)
Source planes (upscaled). These only fire on subsampled content.
NATIVE (resizable)
The combined image, in the source colorspace, before conversion to RGB.
MAINPRESUB (resizable)
The image, after conversion to RGB, but before --blend-subtitles=video is applied.
MAIN (resizable)
The main image, after conversion to RGB but before upscaling.
LINEAR (fixed)
Linear light image, before scaling. This only fires when --linear-upscaling,
--linear-downscaling or --sigmoid-upscaling is in effect.
SIGMOID (fixed)
Sigmoidized light, before scaling. This only fires when --sigmoid-upscaling is in effect.
PREKERNEL (fixed)
The image immediately before the scaler kernel runs.
POSTKERNEL (fixed)
The image immediately after the scaler kernel runs.
SCALED (fixed)
The final upscaled image, before color management.
OUTPUT (fixed)
The final output image, after color management but before dithering and drawing to screen.
Only the textures labelled with resizable may be transformed by the pass. When overwriting a
texture marked fixed, the WIDTH, HEIGHT and OFFSET must be left at their default values.
--glsl-shader=<file>
CLI/config file only alias for --glsl-shaders-append.
--glsl-shader-opts=param1=value1,param2=value2,...
Specifies the options to use for tunable shader parameters. You can target specific named shaders
by prefixing the shader name with a /, e.g. shader/param=value. Without a prefix, parameters
affect all shaders. The shader name is the base part of the shader filename, without the
extension. (--vo=gpu-next only)
Some parameters are filled automatically if the shader requests them. Currently following
parameters are available:
PTS PTS of the current frame in seconds.
chroma_offset_x
chroma offset to the reference plane in x direction.
chroma_offset_y
chroma offset to the reference plane in y direction.
min_luma
Minimum luminance value (in cd/m²).
max_luma
Maximum luminance value (in cd/m²).
max_cll
Maximum Content Light Level (in cd/m²).
max_fall
Maximum Frame Average Light Level (in cd/m²).
scene_max_r
Maximum scene light level of the red channel (in cd/m²).
scene_max_g
Maximum scene light level of the green channel (in cd/m²).
scene_max_b
Maximum scene light level of the blue channel (in cd/m²).
scene_avg
Average scene light level (in cd/m²).
max_pq_y
Maximum PQ luminance (in PQ, 0-1).
avg_pq_y
Average PQ luminance (in PQ, 0-1).
--deband
Enable the debanding algorithm. This greatly reduces the amount of visible banding, blocking and
other quantization artifacts, at the expense of very slightly blurring some of the finest details.
In practice, it's virtually always an improvement - the only reason to disable it would be for
performance.
--deband-iterations=<0..16>
The number of debanding steps to perform per sample. Each step reduces a bit more banding, but
takes time to compute. Note that the strength of each step falls off very quickly, so high numbers
(>4) are practically useless. (Default 1)
--deband-threshold=<0..4096>
The debanding filter's cut-off threshold. Higher numbers increase the debanding strength
dramatically but progressively diminish image details. (Default 48)
--deband-range=<1..64>
The debanding filter's initial radius. The radius increases linearly for each iteration. A higher
radius will find more gradients, but a lower radius will smooth more aggressively. (Default 16)
If you increase the --deband-iterations, you should probably decrease this to compensate.
--deband-grain=<0..4096>
Add some extra noise to the image. This significantly helps cover up remaining quantization
artifacts. Higher numbers add more noise. (Default 32)
--corner-rounding=<0..1>
If set to a value above 0.0, the output will be rendered with rounded corners, as if an alpha
transparency mask had been applied. The value indicates the relative fraction of the side length
to round - a value of 1.0 rounds the corners as much as possible. (--vo=gpu-next only)
--sharpen=<value>
If set to a value other than 0, enable an unsharp masking filter. Positive values will sharpen the
image (but add more ringing and aliasing). Negative values will blur the image. If your GPU is
powerful enough, consider alternatives like the ewa_lanczossharp scale filter, or the --scale-blur
option. (Only for --vo=gpu)
--opengl-glfinish
Call glFinish() before swapping buffers (default: disabled). Slower, but might improve results
when doing framedropping. Can completely ruin performance. The details depend entirely on the
OpenGL driver.
--opengl-waitvsync
Call glXWaitVideoSyncSGI after each buffer swap (default: disabled). This may or may not help
with video timing accuracy and frame drop. It's possible that this makes video output slower, or
has no effect at all.
X11/GLX only.
--opengl-dwmflush=<no|windowed|yes|auto>
(Windows only) Calls DwmFlush after swapping buffers on Windows (default: auto). It also sets
SwapInterval(0) to ignore the OpenGL timing. Values are: no (disabled), windowed (only in windowed
mode), yes (also in full screen).
The value auto will try to determine whether the compositor is active, and calls DwmFlush only if
it seems to be.
This may help to get more consistent frame intervals, especially with high-fps clips - which might
also reduce dropped frames. Typically, a value of windowed should be enough, since full screen may
bypass the DWM.
--angle-d3d11-feature-level=<11_0|10_1|10_0|9_3>
Selects a specific feature level when using the ANGLE backend with D3D11. By default, the highest
available feature level is used. This option can be used to select a lower feature level, which is
mainly useful for debugging. Note that OpenGL ES 3.0 is only supported at feature level 10_1 or
higher. Most extended OpenGL features will not work at lower feature levels (similar to
--gpu-dumb-mode).
Windows with ANGLE only.
--angle-d3d11-warp=<yes|no|auto>
Use WARP (Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform) when using the ANGLE backend with D3D11
(default: auto). This is a high performance software renderer. By default, it is used when the
Direct3D hardware does not support Direct3D 11 feature level 9_3. While the extended OpenGL
features will work with WARP, they can be very slow.
Windows with ANGLE only.
--angle-egl-windowing=<yes|no|auto>
Use ANGLE's built in EGL windowing functions to create a swap chain (default: auto). If this is
set to no and the D3D11 renderer is in use, ANGLE's built in swap chain will not be used and a
custom swap chain that is optimized for video rendering will be created instead. If set to auto, a
custom swap chain will be used for D3D11 and the built in swap chain will be used for D3D9. This
option is mainly for debugging purposes, in case the custom swap chain has poor performance or
does not work.
If set to yes, the --angle-flip option will have no effect.
Windows with ANGLE only.
--angle-flip=<yes|no>
Enable flip-model presentation, which avoids unnecessarily copying the backbuffer by sharing
surfaces with the DWM (default: yes). This may cause performance issues with older drivers. If
flip-model presentation is not supported (for example, on Windows 7 without the platform update),
mpv will automatically fall back to the older bitblt presentation model.
If set to no, the --angle-swapchain-length option will have no effect.
Windows with ANGLE only.
--angle-renderer=<d3d9|d3d11|auto>
Forces a specific renderer when using the ANGLE backend (default: auto). In auto mode this will
pick D3D11 for systems that support Direct3D 11 feature level 9_3 or higher, and D3D9 otherwise.
This option is mainly for debugging purposes. Normally there is no reason to force a specific
renderer, though --angle-renderer=d3d9 may give slightly better performance on old hardware. Note
that the D3D9 renderer only supports OpenGL ES 2.0, so most extended OpenGL features will not work
if this renderer is selected (similar to --gpu-dumb-mode).
Windows with ANGLE only.
--macos-force-dedicated-gpu=<yes|no>
Deactivates the automatic graphics switching and forces the dedicated GPU. (default: no)
macOS only.
--cocoa-cb-sw-renderer=<yes|no|auto>
Use the Apple Software Renderer when using cocoa-cb (default: auto). If set to no the software
renderer is never used and instead fails when a the usual pixel format could not be created, yes
will always only use the software renderer, and auto only falls back to the software renderer when
the usual pixel format couldn't be created.
macOS and cocoa-cb only.
--cocoa-cb-10bit-context=<yes|no>
Creates a 10bit capable pixel format for the context creation (default: yes). Instead of 8bit
integer framebuffer a 16bit half-float framebuffer is requested.
macOS and cocoa-cb only.
--cocoa-cb-output-csp=<csp>
This sets the color space of the layer to activate the macOS color transformation. Depending on
the color space used the system's EDR (HDR) support will be activated. To get correct results,
this needs to be set to the color primaries/transfer characteristics of the VO target. It is
recommended to use this switch together with --target-trc and --target-prim.
<csp> can be one of the following:
auto Sets the color space to the icc profile of the screen (default).
display-p3
DCI P3 primaries, a D65 white point and the sRGB transfer function.
display-p3-hlg
DCI P3 primaries, a D65 white point and the Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) transfer function.
display-p3-pq
DCI P3 primaries, a D65 white point and the Perceptual Quantizer (PQ) transfer function.
display-p3-linear
DCI P3 primaries, a D65 white point and linear transfer function.
dci-p3 DCI P3 color space.
bt.2020
ITU BT.2020 color space.
bt.2020-linear
ITU BT.2020 color space and linear transfer function.
bt.2100-hlg
ITU BT.2100 and the Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) transfer function.
bt.2100-pq
ITU BT.2100 and the Perceptual Quantizer (PQ) transfer function.
bt.709 ITU BT.709 color space.
srgb sRGB colorimetry and non-linear transfer function.
srgb-linear
Same as sRGB but linear transfer function.
rgb-linear
RGB and linear transfer function.
adobe Adobe RGB (1998) color space.
macOS and cocoa-cb only.
--macos-title-bar-appearance=<appearance>
Sets the appearance of the title bar (default: auto). Not all combinations of appearances and
--macos-title-bar-material materials make sense or are unique. Appearances that are not supported
by you current macOS version fall back to the default value. macOS only
<appearance> can be one of the following:
auto Detects the system settings and sets the title bar appearance appropriately. On macOS 10.14
it also detects run time changes.
aqua The standard macOS Light appearance.
darkAqua
The standard macOS Dark appearance. (macOS 10.14+)
vibrantLight
Light vibrancy appearance with.
vibrantDark
Dark vibrancy appearance with.
aquaHighContrast
Light Accessibility appearance. (macOS 10.14+)
darkAquaHighContrast
Dark Accessibility appearance. (macOS 10.14+)
vibrantLightHighContrast
Light vibrancy Accessibility appearance. (macOS 10.14+)
vibrantDarkHighContrast
Dark vibrancy Accessibility appearance. (macOS 10.14+)
--macos-title-bar-material=<material>
Sets the material of the title bar (default: titlebar). All deprecated materials should not be
used on macOS 10.14+ because their functionality is not guaranteed. Not all combinations of
materials and --macos-title-bar-appearance appearances make sense or are unique. Materials that
are not supported by you current macOS version fall back to the default value. macOS only
<material> can be one of the following:
titlebar
The standard macOS title bar material.
selection
The standard macOS selection material.
menu The standard macOS menu material. (macOS 10.11+)
popover
The standard macOS popover material. (macOS 10.11+)
sidebar
The standard macOS sidebar material. (macOS 10.11+)
headerView
The standard macOS header view material. (macOS 10.14+)
sheet The standard macOS sheet material. (macOS 10.14+)
windowBackground
The standard macOS window background material. (macOS 10.14+)
hudWindow
The standard macOS hudWindow material. (macOS 10.14+)
fullScreen
The standard macOS full screen material. (macOS 10.14+)
toolTip
The standard macOS tool tip material. (macOS 10.14+)
contentBackground
The standard macOS content background material. (macOS 10.14+)
underWindowBackground
The standard macOS under window background material. (macOS 10.14+)
underPageBackground
The standard macOS under page background material. (deprecated in macOS 10.14+)
dark The standard macOS dark material. (deprecated in macOS 10.14+)
light The standard macOS light material. (macOS 10.14+)
mediumLight
The standard macOS mediumLight material. (macOS 10.11+, deprecated in macOS 10.14+)
ultraDark
The standard macOS ultraDark material. (macOS 10.11+ deprecated in macOS 10.14+)
--macos-title-bar-color=<color>
Sets the color of the title bar (default: completely transparent). Is influenced by
--macos-title-bar-appearance and --macos-title-bar-material. See --sub-color for color syntax.
--macos-fs-animation-duration=<default|0-1000>
Sets the fullscreen resize animation duration in ms (default: default). The default value is
slightly less than the system's animation duration (500ms) to prevent some problems when the end
of an async animation happens at the same time as the end of the system wide fullscreen animation.
Setting anything higher than 500ms will only prematurely cancel the resize animation after the
system wide animation ended. The upper limit is still set at 1000ms since it's possible that Apple
or the user changes the system defaults. Anything higher than 1000ms though seems too long and
shouldn't be set anyway. (macOS)
--macos-app-activation-policy=<regular|accessory|prohibited>
Changes the App activation policy. With accessory the mpv icon in the Dock can be hidden.
(default: regular)
macOS only.
--macos-geometry-calculation=<visible|whole>
This changes the rectangle which is used to calculate the screen position and size of the window
(default: visible). visible takes the the menu bar and Dock into account and the window is only
positioned/sized within the visible screen frame rectangle, whole takes the whole screen frame
rectangle and ignores the menu bar and Dock. Other previous restrictions still apply, like the
window can't be placed on top of the menu bar etc.
macOS only.
--macos-render-timer=<timer>
Sets the mode (default: callback) for syncing the rendering of frames to the display's vertical
refresh rate. macOS and Vulkan (macvk) only.
<timer> can be one of the following:
callback
Syncs to the CVDisplayLink callback
precise
Syncs to the time of the next vertical display refresh reported by the CVDisplayLink
callback provided information
system No manual syncing, depend on the layer mechanic and the next drawable
feedback
Same as precise but uses the presentation feedback core mechanism
--macos-menu-shortcuts=<yes|no>
Enables the default menu bar shortcuts (default: yes). The menu bar shortcuts always take
precedence over any other shortcuts, they are not propagated to the mpv core and they can't be
used in config files like input.conf or script bindings.
--macos-bundle-path=path1,path2,...
App Bundles operate in their own shell environment that is different from the one in the terminal.
The default PATH variable for all Bundles is /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin. Because of that mpv
can not find binaries installed by package manager that might be used in scripts for example. This
option prepends all given paths to the default Bundle PATH.
Default value in following order:
/usr/local/bin
homebrew (Intel) install path
/usr/local/sbin
homebrew (Intel) install path
/opt/local/bin
MacPorts install path
/opt/local/sbin
MacPorts install path
/opt/homebrew/bin
homebrew (ARM) install path
/opt/homebrew/sbin
homebrew (ARM) install path
--android-surface-size=<WxH>
Set dimensions of the rendering surface used by the Android gpu context. Needs to be set by the
embedding application if the dimensions change during runtime (i.e. if the device is rotated), via
the surfaceChanged callback.
Android with --gpu-context=android only.
--gpu-sw
Continue even if a software renderer is detected. This only works with OpenGL/Vulkan backends. For
d3d11, see --d3d11-warp.
--gpu-context=<context1,context2,...[,]>
Specify a priority list of the GPU contexts to be used. The value auto (the default) selects the
GPU context with the default autoprobe order. You can also pass help to get a complete list of
compiled in backends (sorted by the default autoprobe order).
Note that the default GPU context is subject to change, and must not be relied upon. If a certain
GPU context needs to be used, it must be explicitly specified.
auto auto-select (default). Note that this context must be used alone and does not participate
in the priority list.
win Win32/WGL
winvk VK_KHR_win32_surface
angle Direct3D11 through the OpenGL ES translation layer ANGLE. This supports almost everything
the win backend does (if the ANGLE build is new enough).
dxinterop (experimental)
Win32, using WGL for rendering and Direct3D 9Ex for presentation. Works on Nvidia and AMD.
Newer Intel chips with the latest drivers may also work.
d3d11 Win32, with native Direct3D 11 rendering.
x11 X11/GLX (deprecated/legacy, EGL is preferred these days)
x11vk VK_KHR_xlib_surface
wayland
Wayland/EGL
waylandvk
VK_KHR_wayland_surface
drm DRM/EGL
displayvk
VK_KHR_display. This backend is roughly the Vulkan equivalent of DRM/EGL, allowing for
direct rendering via Vulkan without a display manager.
x11egl X11/EGL
android
Android/EGL. Requires --wid be set to an android.view.Surface.
macvk Vulkan on macOS with a metal surface through a translation layer (experimental)
This is an object settings list option. See List Options for details.
--gpu-api=<type1,type2,...[,]>
Specify a priority list of accepted graphics APIs.
auto Use any available API (default). Note that the default GPU API used for this value is
subject to change, and must not be relied upon. If a certain GPU API needs to be used, it
must be explicitly specified.
opengl Allow only OpenGL (requires OpenGL 2.1+ or GLES 2.0+)
vulkan Allow only Vulkan (requires a valid/working --spirv-compiler)
d3d11 Allow only --gpu-context=d3d11
This is an object settings list option. See List Options for details.
--opengl-es=<mode>
Controls which type of OpenGL context will be accepted:
auto Allow all types of OpenGL (default)
yes Only allow GLES
no Only allow desktop/core GL
--fbo-format=<fmt>
Selects the internal format of textures used for FBOs. The format can influence performance and
quality of the video output. fmt can be one of: rgb8, rgb10, rgb10_a2, rgb16, rgb16f, rgb32f,
rgba12, rgba16, rgba16f, rgba16hf, rgba32f.
Default: auto, which first attempts to utilize 16bit float (rgba16f, rgba16hf), and falls back to
rgba16 if those are not available. Finally, attempts to utilize rgb10_a2 or rgba8 if all of the
previous formats are not available.
--gamma-factor=<0.1..2.0>
Set an additional raw gamma factor (default: 1.0). If gamma is adjusted in other ways (like with
the --gamma option or key bindings and the gamma property), the value is multiplied with the other
gamma value.
--gamma-auto
Automatically corrects the gamma value depending on ambient lighting conditions (adding a gamma
boost for bright rooms).
This option is deprecated and may be removed in the future.
NOTE: Only implemented on macOS and --vo=gpu.
--image-lut=<file>
Specifies a custom LUT file (in Adobe .cube format) to apply to the colors during image decoding.
The exact interpretation of the LUT depends on the value of --image-lut-type. (Only for
--vo=gpu-next)
--image-lut-type=<value>
Controls the interpretation of color values fed to and from the LUT specified as --image-lut.
Valid values are:
auto Chooses the interpretation of the LUT automatically from tagged metadata, and otherwise
falls back to native. (Default)
native Applied to the raw image contents in its native colorspace, before decoding to RGB. For
example, for a HDR10 image, this would be fed PQ-encoded YCbCr values in the range 0.0 -
1.0.
normalized
Applied to the normalized RGB image contents, after decoding from its native color
encoding, but before linearization.
conversion
Fully replaces the color decoding. A LUT of this type should ingest the image's native
colorspace and output normalized non-linear RGB.
--target-colorspace-hint=<auto|yes|no>
Automatically configure the output colorspace of the display to pass through the input values of
the stream (e.g. for HDR passthrough), if possible. In auto mode, the target colorspace is only
set, if the display signals support for HDR colorspace. Requires a supporting driver and
--vo=gpu-next. (Default: no)
--target-prim=<value>
Specifies the primaries of the display. Video colors will be adapted to this colorspace when ICC
color management is not being used. Valid values are:
auto Disable any adaptation, except for atypical color spaces. Specifically, wide/unusual gamuts
get automatically adapted to BT.709, while standard gamut (i.e. BT.601 and BT.709) content
is not touched. (default)
bt.470m
ITU-R BT.470 M
bt.601-525
ITU-R BT.601 (525-line SD systems, eg. NTSC), SMPTE 170M/240M
bt.601-625
ITU-R BT.601 (625-line SD systems, eg. PAL/SECAM), ITU-R BT.470 B/G
bt.709 ITU-R BT.709 (HD), IEC 61966-2-4 (sRGB), SMPTE RP177 Annex B
bt.2020
ITU-R BT.2020 (UHD)
apple Apple RGB
adobe Adobe RGB (1998)
prophoto
ProPhoto RGB (ROMM)
cie1931
CIE 1931 RGB (not to be confused with CIE XYZ)
dci-p3 DCI-P3 (Digital Cinema Colorspace), SMPTE RP431-2
v-gamut
Panasonic V-Gamut (VARICAM) primaries
s-gamut
Sony S-Gamut (S-Log) primaries
--target-trc=<value>
Specifies the transfer characteristics (gamma) of the display. Video colors will be adjusted to
this curve when ICC color management is not being used. Valid values are:
auto Disable any adaptation, except for atypical transfers. Specifically, HDR or linear light
source material gets automatically converted to gamma 2.2, while SDR content is not
touched. (default)
bt.1886
ITU-R BT.1886 curve (assuming infinite contrast)
srgb IEC 61966-2-4 (sRGB)
linear Linear light output
gamma1.8
Pure power curve (gamma 1.8), also used for Apple RGB
gamma2.0
Pure power curve (gamma 2.0)
gamma2.2
Pure power curve (gamma 2.2)
gamma2.4
Pure power curve (gamma 2.4)
gamma2.6
Pure power curve (gamma 2.6)
gamma2.8
Pure power curve (gamma 2.8), also used for BT.470-BG
prophoto
ProPhoto RGB (ROMM)
pq ITU-R BT.2100 PQ (Perceptual quantizer) curve, aka SMPTE ST2084
hlg ITU-R BT.2100 HLG (Hybrid Log-gamma) curve, aka ARIB STD-B67
v-log Panasonic V-Log (VARICAM) curve
s-log1 Sony S-Log1 curve
s-log2 Sony S-Log2 curve
NOTE:
When using HDR output formats, mpv will encode to the specified curve but it will not set any
HDMI flags or other signalling that might be required for the target device to correctly
display the HDR signal. The user should independently guarantee this before using these signal
formats for display.
--target-peak=<auto|nits>
Specifies the measured peak brightness of the output display, in cd/m^2 (AKA nits). The
interpretation of this brightness depends on the configured --target-trc. In all cases, it imposes
a limit on the signal values that will be sent to the display. If the source exceeds this
brightness level, a tone mapping filter will be inserted. For HLG, it has the additional effect of
parametrizing the inverse OOTF, in order to get colorimetrically consistent results with the
mastering display. For SDR, or when using an ICC (profile (--icc-profile), setting this to a value
above 203 essentially causes the display to be treated as if it were an HDR display in disguise.
(See the note below)
In auto mode (the default), the chosen peak is an appropriate value based on the TRC in use. For
SDR curves, it uses 203. For HDR curves, it uses 203 * the transfer function's nominal peak. If
available, it will use the target display's peak brightness as reported by the display.
NOTE:
When using an SDR transfer function, this is normally not needed, and setting it may lead to
very unexpected results. The one time it is useful is if you want to calibrate a HDR display
using traditional transfer functions and calibration equipment. In such cases, you can set your
HDR display to a high brightness such as 800 cd/m^2, and then calibrate it to a standard curve
like gamma2.8. Setting this value to 800 would then instruct mpv to essentially treat it as an
HDR display with the given peak. This may be a good alternative in environments where PQ or HLG
input to the display is not possible, and makes it possible to use HDR displays with mpv
regardless of operating system support for HDMI HDR metadata.
In such a configuration, we highly recommend setting --tone-mapping to mobius or even clip.
--target-contrast=<auto|10-1000000|inf>
Specifies the measured contrast of the output display. --target-contrast in conjunction with
--target-peak value is used to calculate display black point. Used in black point compensation
during HDR tone-mapping. auto is the default and assumes 1000:1 contrast as a typical SDR display
would have or an infinite contrast when HDR --target-trc is used. If supported by the API,
display contrast will be used as reported. inf contrast specifies display with perfect black
level, in practice OLED. (Only for --vo=gpu-next)
--target-gamut=<value>
Constrains the gamut of the display. You can use this option to output e.g. DCIP3-in-BT.2020. Set
--target-prim to the primaries of the containing colorspace (into which values will be encoded),
and --target-gamut to the gamut you want to limit colors to. Takes the same values as
--target-prim. (Only for --vo=gpu-next)
--target-lut=<file>
Specifies a custom LUT file (in Adobe .cube format) to apply to the colors before display
on-screen. This LUT is fed values in normalized RGB, after encoding into the target colorspace, so
after the application of --target-trc. (Only for --vo=gpu-next)
--tone-mapping=<value>
Specifies the algorithm used for tone-mapping images onto the target display. This is relevant for
both HDR->SDR conversion as well as gamut reduction (e.g. playing back BT.2020 content on a
standard gamut display). Valid values are:
auto Maps to bt.2390 when using --vo=gpu, and to spline with --vo=gpu-next. (Default)
clip Hard-clip any out-of-range values. Use this when you care about perfect color accuracy for
in-range values at the cost of completely distorting out-of-range values. Not generally
recommended.
mobius Generalization of Reinhard to a Möbius transform with linear section. Smoothly maps
out-of-range values while retaining contrast and colors for in-range material as much as
possible. Use this when you care about color accuracy more than detail preservation. This
is somewhere in between clip and reinhard, depending on the value of --tone-mapping-param.
reinhard
Reinhard tone mapping algorithm. Very simple continuous curve. Preserves overall image
brightness but uses nonlinear contrast, which results in flattening of details and
degradation in color accuracy.
hable Similar to reinhard but preserves both dark and bright details better (slightly sigmoidal),
at the cost of slightly darkening / desaturating everything. Developed by John Hable for
use in video games. Use this when you care about detail preservation more than
color/brightness accuracy. This is roughly equivalent to --tone-mapping=reinhard
--tone-mapping-param=0.24. If possible, you should also enable --hdr-compute-peak for the
best results.
bt.2390
Perceptual tone mapping curve (EETF) specified in ITU-R Report BT.2390.
gamma Fits a logarithmic transfer between the tone curves.
linear Linearly stretches the entire reference gamut to (a linear multiple of) the display.
spline Perceptually linear single-pivot polynomial. (--vo=gpu-next only)
bt.2446a
HDR<->SDR mapping specified in ITU-R Report BT.2446, method A. This is the recommended
curve for well-mastered content. (--vo=gpu-next only)
st2094-40
Dynamic HDR10+ tone-mapping method specified in SMPTE ST2094-40 Annex B. In the absence of
metadata, falls back to a fixed spline matched to the input/output average brightness
characteristics. (--vo=gpu-next only)
st2094-10
Dynamic tone-mapping method specified in SMPTE ST2094-10 Annex B.2. Conceptually simpler
than ST2094-40, and generally produces worse results.
--tone-mapping-param=<value>
Set tone mapping parameters. By default, this is set to the special string default, which maps to
an algorithm-specific default value. Ignored if the tone mapping algorithm is not tunable. This
affects the following tone mapping algorithms:
clip Specifies an extra linear coefficient to multiply into the signal before clipping. Defaults
to 1.0.
mobius Specifies the transition point from linear to mobius transform. Every value below this
point is guaranteed to be mapped 1:1. The higher the value, the more accurate the result
will be, at the cost of losing bright details. Defaults to 0.3, which due to the steep
initial slope still preserves in-range colors fairly accurately.
reinhard
Specifies the local contrast coefficient at the display peak. Defaults to 0.5, which means
that in-gamut values will be about half as bright as when clipping.
bt.2390
Specifies the offset for the knee point. Defaults to 1.0, which is higher than the value
from the original ITU-R specification (0.5). (--vo=gpu-next only)
gamma Specifies the exponent of the function. Defaults to 1.8.
linear Specifies the scale factor to use while stretching. Defaults to 1.0.
spline Specifies the knee point (in PQ space). Defaults to 0.30.
st2094-10
Specifies the contrast (slope) at the knee point. Defaults to 1.0.
--inverse-tone-mapping
If set, allows inverse tone mapping (expanding SDR to HDR). Not supported by all tone mapping
curves. Use with caution. (--vo=gpu-next only)
--tone-mapping-max-boost=<1.0..10.0>
Upper limit for how much the tone mapping algorithm is allowed to boost the average brightness by
over-exposing the image. The default value of 1.0 allows no additional brightness boost. A value
of 2.0 would allow over-exposing by a factor of 2, and so on. Raising this setting can help reveal
details that would otherwise be hidden in dark scenes, but raising it too high will make dark
scenes appear unnaturally bright. (--vo=gpu only)
--tone-mapping-visualize
Display a (PQ-PQ) graph of the active tone-mapping LUT. Intended only for debugging purposes. The
X axis shows PQ input values, the Y axis shows PQ output values. The tone-mapping curve is shown
in green/yellow. Yellow means the brightness has been boosted from the source, dark blue regions
show where the brightness has been reduced. The extra colored regions and lines indicate various
monitor limits, as well a reference diagonal (neutral tone-mapping) and source scene average
brightness information (if available). (--vo=gpu-next only)
--gamut-mapping-mode
Specifies the algorithm used for reducing the gamut of images for the target display, after any
tone mapping is done.
auto Choose the best mode automatically. (Default)
clip Hard-clip to the gamut (per-channel). Very low quality, but free.
perceptual
Performs a perceptually balanced gamut mapping using a soft knee function to roll-off
clipped regions, and a hue shifting function to preserve saturation. (--vo=gpu-next only)
relative
Performs relative colorimetric clipping, while maintaining an exponential relationship
between brightness and chromaticity. (--vo=gpu-next only)
saturation
Performs simple RGB->RGB saturation mapping. The input R/G/B channels are mapped directly
onto the output R/G/B channels. Will never clip, but will distort all hues and/or result in
a faded look. (--vo=gpu-next only)
absolute
Performs absolute colorimetric clipping. Like relative, but does not adapt the white point.
(--vo=gpu-next only)
desaturate
Performs constant-luminance colorimetric clipping, desaturing colors towards white until
they're in-range.
darken Uniformly darkens the input slightly to prevent clipping on blown-out highlights, then
clamps colorimetrically to the input gamut boundary, biased slightly to preserve
chromaticity over luminance. (--vo=gpu-next only)
warn Performs no gamut mapping, but simply highlights out-of-gamut pixels.
linear Linearly/uniformly desaturates the image in order to bring the entire image into the target
gamut. (--vo=gpu-next only)
--hdr-compute-peak=<auto|yes|no>
Compute the HDR peak and frame average brightness per-frame instead of relying on tagged metadata.
These values are averaged over local regions as well as over several frames to prevent the value
from jittering around too much. This option basically gives you dynamic, per-scene tone mapping.
Requires compute shaders, which is a fairly recent OpenGL feature, and will probably also perform
horribly on some drivers, so enable at your own risk. The special value auto (default) will
enable HDR peak computation automatically if compute shaders and SSBOs are supported.
--allow-delayed-peak-detect
When using --hdr-compute-peak, allow delaying the detected peak by a frame when beneficial for
performance. In particular, this is required to avoid an unnecessary FBO indirection when no
advanced rendering is required otherwise. Has no effect if there already is an indirect pass, such
as when advanced scaling is enabled. Defaults to no. (Only affects --vo=gpu-next, note that
--vo=gpu always delays the peak.)
--hdr-peak-percentile=<0.0..100.0>
Which percentile of the input image brightness histogram to consider as the true peak of the
scene. If this is set to 100 (default), the brightest pixel is measured. Otherwise, the top of the
frequency distribution is progressively cut off. Setting this too low will cause clipping of very
bright details, but can improve the dynamic brightness range of scenes with very bright isolated
highlights. Values other than 100 come with a small performance penalty. (Only for --vo=gpu-next)
--hdr-peak-decay-rate=<0.0..1000.0>
The decay rate used for the HDR peak detection algorithm (default: 20.0). This is only relevant
when --hdr-compute-peak is enabled. Higher values make the peak decay more slowly, leading to more
stable values at the cost of more "eye adaptation"-like effects (although this is mitigated
somewhat by --hdr-scene-threshold). A value of 0.0 (the lowest possible) disables all averaging,
meaning each frame's value is used directly as measured, but doing this is not recommended for
"noisy" sources since it may lead to excessive flicker. (In signal theory terms, this controls the
time constant "tau" of an IIR low pass filter)
--hdr-scene-threshold-low=<0.0..100.0>, --hdr-scene-threshold-high=<0.0..100.0>
The lower and upper thresholds (in dB) for a brightness difference to be considered a scene change
(default: 1.0 low, 3.0 high). This is only relevant when --hdr-compute-peak is enabled. Normally,
small fluctuations in the frame brightness are compensated for by the peak averaging mechanism,
but for large jumps in the brightness this can result in the frame remaining too bright or too
dark for up to several seconds, depending on the value of --hdr-peak-decay-rate. To counteract
this, when the brightness between the running average and the current frame exceeds the low
threshold, mpv will make the averaging filter more aggressive, up to the limit of the high
threshold (at which point the filter becomes instant).
--hdr-contrast-recovery=<0.0..2.0>, --hdr-contrast-smoothness=<1.0..100.0>
Enables the HDR contrast recovery algorithm, which is to designed to enhance contrast of HDR video
after tone mapping. The strength (default: 0.0) indicates the degree of contrast recovery, with
0.0 being completely disabled and 1.0 being 100% strength. Values higher than 1.0 are allowed, but
may result in excessive sharpening. The smoothness (default: 3.5) indicates the degree to which
the HDR source is low-passed in order to obtain contrast information - a value of 2.0 corresponds
to 2x downscaling. Users on low DPI displays (<= 100) may want to lower this value, while users
on very high DPI displays ("retina") may want to increase it. (Only for vo=gpu-next)
--use-embedded-icc-profile
Load the embedded ICC profile contained in media files such as PNG images. (Default: yes). Note
that this option only works when also using a display ICC profile (--icc-profile or
--icc-profile-auto), and also requires LittleCMS 2 support.
--icc-profile=<file>
Load an ICC profile and use it to transform video RGB to screen output. Needs LittleCMS 2 support
compiled in. This option overrides the --target-prim, --target-trc and --icc-profile-auto options.
--icc-profile-auto
Automatically select the ICC display profile currently specified by the display settings of the
operating system.
NOTE: On Windows, the default profile must be an ICC profile. WCS profiles are not supported.
Applications using libmpv with the render API need to provide the ICC profile via
MPV_RENDER_PARAM_ICC_PROFILE.
--icc-cache
Store and load 3DLUTs created from the ICC profile on disk in the cache directory (Default: yes).
This can be used to speed up loading, since LittleCMS 2 can take a while to create a 3D LUT. Note
that these files contain uncompressed LUTs. Their size depends on the --icc-3dlut-size, and can be
very big.
On --vo=gpu-next, files that have not been accessed in the last 24 hours may be cleared if the
cache limit (1.5 GiB) is exceeded.
On --vo=gpu, this is not cleaned automatically, so old, unused cache files may stick around
indefinitely.
--icc-cache-dir
The directory where icc cache is stored. Cache is stored in the system's cache directory (usually
~/.cache/mpv) if this is unset.
--icc-intent=<value>
Specifies the ICC intent used for the color transformation (when using --icc-profile).
0 perceptual
1 relative colorimetric (default)
2 saturation
3 absolute colorimetric
--icc-3dlut-size=<auto|RxGxB>
Size of the 3D LUT generated from the ICC profile in each dimension. The default of auto means to
pick the size automatically based on the profile characteristics. Sizes may range from 2 to 512.
NOTE: Setting this option to anything other than auto is strongly discouraged, except for testing.
--icc-force-contrast=<no|0-1000000|inf>
Override the target device's detected contrast ratio by a specific value. This is detected
automatically from the profile if possible, but for some profiles it might be missing, causing the
contrast to be assumed as infinite. As a result, video may appear darker than intended. If this is
the case, setting this option might help. This only affects BT.1886 content. The default of no
means to use the profile values. The special value inf causes the BT.1886 curve to be treated as a
pure power gamma 2.4 function.
--icc-use-luma
Use ICC profile luminance value. (Only for --vo=gpu-next)
--lut=<file>
Specifies a custom LUT (in Adobe .cube format) to apply to the colors as part of color conversion.
The exact interpretation depends on the value of --lut-type. (Only for --vo=gpu-next)
--lut-type=<value>
Controls the interpretation of color values fed to and from the LUT specified as --lut. Valid
values are:
auto Chooses the interpretation of the LUT automatically from tagged metadata, and otherwise
falls back to native. (Default)
native Applied to raw image contents in its native RGB colorspace (non-linear light), before
conversion to the output color space.
normalized
Applied to the normalized RGB image contents, in linear light, before conversion to the
output color space.
conversion
Fully replaces the conversion from the image color space to the output color space. If such
a LUT is present, it has the highest priority, and overrides any ICC profiles, as well as
options related to tone mapping and output colorimetry (--target-prim, --target-trc etc.).
--blend-subtitles=<yes|video|no>
Blend subtitles directly onto upscaled video frames, before interpolation and/or color management
(default: no). Enabling this causes subtitles to be affected by --icc-profile, --target-prim,
--target-trc, --interpolation, --gamma-factor and --glsl-shaders. It also increases subtitle
performance when using --interpolation.
The downside of enabling this is that it restricts subtitles to the visible portion of the video,
so you can't have subtitles exist in the black margins below a video (for example).
If video is selected, the behavior is similar to yes, but subs are drawn at the video's native
resolution, and scaled along with the video.
WARNING:
This changes the way subtitle colors are handled. Normally, subtitle colors are assumed to be
in sRGB and color managed as such. Enabling this makes them treated as being in the video's
color space instead. This is good if you want things like softsubbed ASS signs to match the
video colors, but may cause SRT subtitles or similar to look slightly off.
--background=<none|color|tiles>
If the frame has an alpha component, decide what kind of background, if any, to blend it with.
This does nothing if there is no alpha component.
color Blend the frame against the background color (--background-color, normally black).
tiles Blend the frame against a 16x16 gray/white tiles background (default).
none Do not blend the frame and leave the alpha as is.
Background transparency on d3d11 requires --d3d11-flip=no.
Before mpv 0.38.0, this option used to accept a color value specifying the background color. This
is now done by the --background-color option. Use that instead.
--background-color=<color>
Color used to draw parts of the mpv window not covered by video. See the --sub-color option for
how colors are defined.
--border-background=<none|color|tiles>
Same as --background but only applies to the black bar/border area of the window. vo=gpu-next
only. Defaults to color.
--opengl-rectangle-textures
Force use of rectangle textures (default: no). Normally this shouldn't have any advantages over
normal textures. Note that hardware decoding overrides this flag. Could be removed any time.
--gpu-tex-pad-x, --gpu-tex-pad-y
Enlarge the video source textures by this many pixels. For debugging only (normally textures are
sized exactly, but due to hardware decoding interop we may have to deal with additional padding,
which can be tested with these options). Could be removed any time.
--opengl-early-flush=<yes|no|auto>
Call glFlush() after rendering a frame and before attempting to display it (default: auto). Can
fix stuttering in some cases, in other cases probably causes it. The auto mode will call glFlush()
only if the renderer is going to wait for a while after rendering, instead of flipping GL front
and backbuffers immediately (i.e. it doesn't call it in display-sync mode).
On macOS this is always deactivated because it only causes performance problems and other
regressions.
--gpu-dumb-mode=<yes|no|auto>
This mode is extremely restricted, and will disable most extended features. That includes high
quality scalers and custom shaders!
It is intended for hardware that does not support FBOs (including GLES, which supports it
insufficiently), or to get some more performance out of bad or old hardware.
This mode is forced automatically if needed, and this option is mostly useful for debugging. The
default of auto will enable it automatically if nothing uses features which require FBOs.
This option might be silently removed in the future.
--gpu-shader-cache
Store and load compiled GLSL shaders in the cache directory (Default: yes). Normally, shader
compilation is very fast, so this is not usually needed. It mostly matters for anything involving
GLSL to SPIR-V conversion, that is: D3D11, ANGLE or Vulkan, as well as on some other proprietary
drivers. Enabling this can improve startup performance on these platforms.
On --vo=gpu-next, files that have not been accessed in the last 24 hours may be cleared if the
cache limit (128 MiB) is exceeded.
On --vo=gpu, this is not cleaned automatically, so old, unused cache files may stick around
indefinitely.
--gpu-shader-cache-dir
The directory where gpu shader cache is stored. Cache is stored in the system's cache directory
(usually ~/.cache/mpv) if this is unset.
--libplacebo-opts=<key>=<value>[,<key>=<value>[,...]]
Passes extra raw option to the libplacebo rendering backend (used by --vo=gpu-next). May override
the effects of any other options set using the normal options system. Requires libplacebo v6.309
or higher. Included for debugging purposes only. For more information, see:
<https://libplacebo.org/options/>
Video Sync
--mc=<seconds/frame>
Maximum A-V sync correction per frame (in seconds)
--autosync=<factor>
Gradually adjusts the A/V sync based on audio delay measurements. Specifying --autosync=0, the
default, will cause frame timing to be based entirely on audio delay measurements. Specifying
--autosync=1 will do the same, but will subtly change the A/V correction algorithm. An uneven
video framerate in a video which plays fine with --audio=no can often be helped by setting this to
an integer value greater than 1. The higher the value, the closer the timing will be to
--audio=no. Try --autosync=30 to smooth out problems with sound drivers which do not implement a
perfect audio delay measurement. With this value, if large A/V sync offsets occur, they will only
take about 1 or 2 seconds to settle out. This delay in reaction time to sudden A/V offsets should
be the only side effect of turning this option on, for all sound drivers.
--video-timing-offset=<seconds>
Control how long before video display target time the frame should be rendered (default: 0.050).
If a video frame should be displayed at a certain time, the VO will start rendering the frame
earlier, and then will perform a blocking wait until the display time, and only then "swap" the
frame to display. The rendering cannot start before the previous frame is displayed, so this value
is implicitly limited by the video framerate. With normal video frame rates, the default value
will ensure that rendering is always immediately started after the previous frame was displayed.
On the other hand, setting a too high value can reduce responsiveness with low FPS value.
This option is interesting for client API users using the render API because you can stop it from
limiting your FPS (see mpv_render_context_render() documentation).
This applies only to audio timing modes (e.g. --video-sync=audio). In other modes
(--video-sync=display-...), video timing relies on vsync blocking, and this option is not used.
--video-sync=<audio|...>
How the player synchronizes audio and video.
If you use this option, you usually want to set it to display-resample to enable a timing mode
that tries to not skip or repeat frames when for example playing 24fps video on a 24Hz screen.
The modes starting with display- try to output video frames completely synchronously to the
display, using the detected display vertical refresh rate as a hint how fast frames will be
displayed on average. These modes change video speed slightly to match the display. See
--video-sync-... options for fine tuning. The robustness of this mode is further reduced by
making a some idealized assumptions, which may not always apply in reality. Behavior can depend
on the VO and the system's video and audio drivers. Media files must use constant framerate.
Section-wise VFR might work as well with some container formats (but not e.g. mkv).
Under some circumstances, the player automatically reverts to audio mode for some time or
permanently. This can happen on very low framerate video, or if the framerate cannot be detected.
Also in display-sync modes it can happen that interruptions to video playback (such as toggling
fullscreen mode, or simply resizing the window) will skip the video frames that should have been
displayed, while audio mode will display them after the renderer has resumed (typically resulting
in a short A/V desync and the video "catching up").
Before mpv 0.30.0, there was a fallback to audio mode on severe A/V desync. This was changed for
the sake of not sporadically stopping. Now, display-desync does what it promises and may desync
with audio by an arbitrary amount, until it is manually fixed with a seek.
These modes also require a vsync blocked presentation mode. For OpenGL, this translates to
--opengl-swapinterval=1. For Vulkan, it translates to --vulkan-swap-mode=fifo (or fifo-relaxed).
The modes with desync in their names do not attempt to keep audio/video in sync. They will slowly
(or quickly) desync, until e.g. the next seek happens. These modes are meant for testing, not
serious use.
audio Time video frames to audio. This is the most robust mode, because the player doesn't have
to assume anything about how the display behaves. The disadvantage is that it can lead to
occasional frame drops or repeats. If audio is disabled, this uses the system clock. This
is the default mode.
display-resample
Resample audio to match the video. This mode will also try to adjust audio speed to
compensate for other drift. (This means it will play the audio at a different speed every
once in a while to reduce the A/V difference.)
display-resample-vdrop
Resample audio to match the video. Drop video frames to compensate for drift.
display-resample-desync
Like the previous mode, but no A/V compensation.
display-tempo
Same as display-resample, but apply audio speed changes to audio filters instead of
resampling to avoid the change in pitch. Beware that some audio filters don't do well with
a speed close to 1. It is recommend to use a conditional profile to automatically switch to
display-resample when speed gets too close to 1 for your filter setup. Use (speed *
video_speed_correction) to get the actual playback speed in the condition. See Conditional
auto profiles for details.
display-vdrop
Drop or repeat video frames to compensate desyncing video. (Although it should have the
same effects as audio, the implementation is very different.)
display-adrop
Drop or repeat audio data to compensate desyncing video. This mode will cause severe audio
artifacts if the real monitor refresh rate is too different from the reported or forced
rate. Since mpv 0.33.0, this acts on entire audio frames, instead of single samples.
display-desync
Sync video to display, and let audio play on its own.
desync Sync video according to system clock, and let audio play on its own.
--video-sync-max-factor=<value>
Maximum multiple for which to try to fit the video's FPS to the display's FPS (default: 5).
For example, if this is set to 1, the video FPS is forced to an integer multiple of the display
FPS, as long as the speed change does not exceed the value set by --video-sync-max-video-change.
See --interpolation-threshold for how this option affects interpolation.
--video-sync-max-video-change=<value>
Maximum speed difference in percent that is applied to video with --video-sync=display-...
(default: 1). Display sync mode will be disabled if the monitor and video refresh way do not match
within the given range. It tries multiples as well: playing 30 fps video on a 60 Hz screen will
duplicate every second frame. Playing 24 fps video on a 60 Hz screen will play video in a
2-3-2-3-... pattern.
The default settings are not loose enough to speed up 23.976 fps video to 25 fps. We consider the
pitch change too extreme to allow this behavior by default. Set this option to a value of 5 to
enable it.
Note that --video-sync=display-tempo avoids this pitch change.
Also note that in the --video-sync=display-resample or --video-sync=display-tempo mode, audio
speed will additionally be changed by a small amount if necessary for A/V sync. See
--video-sync-max-audio-change.
--video-sync-max-audio-change=<value>
Maximum additional speed difference in percent that is applied to audio with
--video-sync=display-... (default: 0.125). Normally, the player plays the audio at the speed of
the video. But if the difference between audio and video position is too high, e.g. due to drift
or other timing errors, it will attempt to speed up or slow down audio by this additional factor.
Too low values could lead to video frame dropping or repeating if the A/V desync cannot be
compensated, too high values could lead to chaotic frame dropping due to the audio "overshooting"
and skipping multiple video frames before the sync logic can react.
Miscellaneous
--display-tags=tag1,tags2,...
Set the list of tags that should be displayed on the terminal and stats. Tags that are in the
list, but are not present in the played file, will not be shown. If a value ends with *, all tags
are matched by prefix (though there is no general globbing). Just passing * essentially filtering.
The default includes a common list of tags, call mpv with --list-options to see it.
This is a string list option. See List Options for details.
--mf-fps=<value>
Framerate used when decoding from multiple PNG or JPEG files with mf:// (default: 1).
--mf-type=<value>
Input file type for mf:// (available: jpeg, png, tga, sgi). By default, this is guessed from the
file extension.
--stream-dump=<destination-filename>
Instead of playing a file, read its byte stream and write it to the given destination file. The
destination is overwritten. Can be useful to test network-related behavior.
--stream-lavf-o=opt1=value1,opt2=value2,...
Set AVOptions on streams opened with libavformat. Unknown or misspelled options are silently
ignored. (They are mentioned in the terminal output in verbose mode, i.e. --v. In general we can't
print errors, because other options such as e.g. user agent are not available with all protocols,
and printing errors for unknown options would end up being too noisy.)
This is a key/value list option. See List Options for details.
--backdrop-type=<auto|none|mica|acrylic|mica-alt>
(Windows only) Controls the backdrop/border style.
auto Default Windows behavior
none The backdrop will be black or white depending on the system's theme settings.
mica Enables the Mica style, which is the default on Windows 11.
acrylic
Enables the Acrylic style (frosted glass look).
mica-alt
Same as Mica, except reversed.
--window-affinity=<default|excludefromcmcapture|monitor>
(Windows only) Controls the window affinity behavior of mpv.
default
Default Windows behavior
excludefromcapture
mpv's window will be completely excluded from capture by external applications or screen
recording software.
monitor
Blacks out the mpv window
--vo-mmcss-profile=<name>
(Windows only) Set the MMCSS profile for the video renderer thread (default: Playback).
--priority=<prio>
(Windows only) Set process priority for mpv according to the predefined priorities available under
Windows.
Possible values of <prio>: idle|belownormal|normal|abovenormal|high|realtime
WARNING:
Using realtime priority can cause system lockup.
--media-controls=<yes|no>
(Windows only) Enable integration of media control interface SystemMediaTransportControls.
Default: yes (except for libmpv)
--force-media-title=<string>
Force the contents of the media-title property to this value. Useful for scripts which want to set
a title, without overriding the user's setting in --title.
--external-files=<file-list>
Load a file and add all of its tracks. This is useful to play different files together (for
example audio from one file, video from another), or for advanced --lavfi-complex used (like
playing two video files at the same time).
Unlike --sub-files and --audio-files, this includes all tracks, and does not cause default stream
selection over the "proper" file. This makes it slightly less intrusive. (In mpv 0.28.0 and
before, this was not quite strictly enforced.)
This is a path list option. See List Options for details.
--external-file=<file>
CLI/config file only alias for --external-files-append. Each use of this option will add a new
external file.
--cover-art-files=<file-list>
Use an external file as cover art while playing audio. This makes it appear on the track list and
subject to automatic track selection. Options like --audio-display control whether such tracks are
supposed to be selected.
(The difference to loading a file with --external-files is that video tracks will be marked as
being pictures, which affects the auto-selection method. If the passed file is a video, only the
first frame will be decoded and displayed. Enabling the cover art track during playback may show a
random frame if the source file is a video. Normally you're not supposed to pass videos to this
option, so this paragraph describes the behavior coincidentally resulting from implementation
details.)
This is a path list option. See List Options for details.
--cover-art-file=<file>
CLI/config file only alias for --cover-art-files-append. Each use of this option will add a new
external file.
--cover-art-auto=<no|exact|fuzzy|all>
Whether to load _external_ cover art automatically. Similar to --sub-auto and --audio-file-auto.
If a video already has tracks (which are not marked as cover art), external cover art will not be
loaded.
no Don't automatically load cover art.
exact Load the media filename with an image file extension (default).
fuzzy Load all cover art containing the media filename.
all Load all images in the current directory.
See --cover-art-files for details about what constitutes cover art.
See --audio-display how to control display of cover art (this can be used to disable cover art
that is part of the file).
--image-exts=ext1,ext2,...
Image file extensions to try to match when using --cover-art-auto, --autocreate-playlist or
--directory-filter-types.
This is a string list option. See List Options for details. Use --help=image-exts to see default
extensions.
--cover-art-whitelist=filename1,filename2,...
Filenames to load as cover art, sorted by descending priority. They are combined with the
extensions in --image-exts. This has no effect if cover-art-auto is no.
Default: AlbumArt,Album,cover,front,AlbumArtSmall,Folder,.folder,thumb
This is a string list option. See List Options for details.
--video-exts=ext1,ext2,...
Video file extensions to try to match when using --autocreate-playlist or
--directory-filter-types.
This is a string list option. See List Options for details. Use --help=video-exts to see default
extensions.
--archive-exts=ext1,ext2,...
Archive file extensions to try to match when using --autocreate-playlist or
--directory-filter-types.
This is a string list option. See List Options for details. Use --help=archive-exts to see the
default extensions.
--playlist-exts=ext1,ext2,...
Playlist file extensions to try to match when using --autocreate-playlist or
--directory-filter-types.
This is a string list option. See List Options for details. Use --help=playlist-exts to see the
default extensions.
--autoload-files=<yes|no>
Automatically load/select external files (default: yes).
If set to no, then do not automatically load external files as specified by --sub-auto,
--audio-file-auto and --cover-art-auto. If external files are forcibly added (like with
--sub-files), they will not be auto-selected.
This does not affect playlist expansion, redirection, or other loading of referenced files like
with ordered chapters.
--stream-record=<file>
Write received/read data from the demuxer to the given output file. The output file will always be
overwritten without asking. The output format is determined by the extension of the output file.
Switching streams or seeking during recording might result in recording being stopped and/or
broken files. Use with care.
Seeking outside of the demuxer cache will result in "skips" in the output file, but seeking within
the demuxer cache should not affect recording. One exception is when you seek back far enough to
exceed the forward buffering size, in which case the cache stops actively reading. This will
return in dropped data if it's a live stream.
If this is set at runtime, the old file is closed, and the new file is opened. Note that this will
write only data that is appended at the end of the cache, and the already cached data cannot be
written. You can try the dump-cache command as an alternative.
External files (--audio-file etc.) are ignored by this, it works on the "main" file only. Using
this with files using ordered chapters or EDL files will also not work correctly in general.
There are some glitches with this because it uses FFmpeg's libavformat for writing the output
file. For example, it's typical that it will only work if the output format is the same as the
input format. This is the case even if it works with the ffmpeg tool. One reason for this is that
ffmpeg and its libraries contain certain hacks and workarounds for these issues, that are
unavailable to outside users.
--lavfi-complex=<string>
Set a "complex" libavfilter filter, which means a single filter graph can take input from multiple
source audio and video tracks. The graph can result in a single audio or video output (or both).
Currently, the filter graph labels are used to select the participating input tracks and
audio/video output. The following rules apply:
• A label of the form aidN selects audio track N as input (e.g. aid1).
• A label of the form vidN selects video track N as input.
• A label named ao will be connected to the audio output.
• A label named vo will be connected to the video output.
Each label can be used only once. If you want to use e.g. an audio stream for multiple filters,
you need to use the asplit filter. Multiple video or audio outputs are not possible, but you can
use filters to merge them into one.
It's not possible to change the tracks connected to the filter at runtime, unless you explicitly
change the lavfi-complex property and set new track assignments. When the graph is changed, the
track selection is changed according to the used labels as well.
Other tracks, as long as they're not connected to the filter, and the corresponding output is not
connected to the filter, can still be freely changed with the normal methods.
Note that the normal filter chains (--af, --vf) are applied between the complex graphs (e.g. ao
label) and the actual output.
Examples
• --lavfi-complex='[aid1] [aid2] amix [ao]' Play audio track 1 and 2 at the same time.
• --lavfi-complex='[vid1] [vid2] vstack [vo]' Stack video track 1 and 2 and play them at the
same time. Note that both tracks need to have the same width, or filter initialization will
fail (you can add scale filters before the vstack filter to fix the size). To load a video
track from another file, you can use --external-file=other.mkv.
• --lavfi-complex='[vid1] [vid2] [vid3] hstack=inputs=3 [vo]' Use the inputs option to stack
more than 2 tracks.
• --lavfi-complex='[aid1] asplit [t1] [ao] ; [t1] showvolume [t2] ; [vid1] [t2] overlay [vo]'
Play audio track 1, and overlay the measured volume for each speaker over video track 1.
See the FFmpeg libavfilter documentation for details on the available filters.
--metadata-codepage=<codepage>
Codepage for various input metadata (default: auto). This affects how file tags, chapter titles,
etc. are interpreted. In most cases, this merely evaluates to UTF-8 as non-UTF-8 codepages are
obscure.
See --sub-codepage option on how codepages are specified and further details regarding
autodetection and codepage conversion. (The underlying code is the same.)
Conversion is not applied to metadata that is updated at runtime.
--clipboard-backends=<backend1,backend2,...[,]>
Specify a priority list of the clipboard backends to be used. You can also pass help to get a
complete list of compiled in backends.
If the list is not empty, it enables native clipboard support for the specified backends. This
allows reading and writing to the clipboard property to get and set clipboard contents.
Native clipboard support is enabled by default. To disable this, remove all backends in this list
with --clipboard-backends-clr.
Note that the default clipboard backends are subject to change, and must not be relied upon.
The following clipboard backends are implemented:
win32 Windows backend.
mac macOS backend.
wayland
Wayland backend. This backend is only available if the compositor supports the
ext-data-control-v1 protocol.
vo VO backend. Requires an active VO window, and support differs across platforms. Currently,
this is used as a fallback for Wayland compositors without support for the
ext-data-control-v1 protocol, or if the wayland backend is disabled.
This is an object settings list option. See List Options for details.
--clipboard-monitor=<yes|no>
(Windows, Wayland and macOS only)
Enable clipboard monitoring so that the clipboard property can be observed for content changes
(default: no). This only affects clipboard implementations which use polling to monitor clipboard
updates. Other platforms currently ignore this option and always/never notify changes.
On Wayland, this option only has effect on the wayland backend, and not for the vo backend. See
current-clipboard-backend property for more details.
AUDIO OUTPUT DRIVERS
Audio output drivers are interfaces to different audio output facilities. The syntax is:
--ao=<driver1,driver2,...[,]>
Specify a priority list of audio output drivers to be used.
If the list has a trailing ',', mpv will fall back on drivers not contained in the list.
This is an object settings list option. See List Options for details.
NOTE:
See --ao=help for a list of compiled-in audio output drivers sorted by autoprobe order.
Note that the default audio output driver is subject to change, and must not be relied upon. If a
certain AO needs to be used, it must be explicitly specified.
Available audio output drivers are:
alsa ALSA audio output driver.
The following global options are supported by this audio output:
--alsa-resample=yes
Enable ALSA resampling plugin. (This is disabled by default, because some drivers report
incorrect audio delay in some cases.)
--alsa-mixer-device=<device>
Set the mixer device used with ao-volume (default: default).
--alsa-mixer-name=<name>
Set the name of the mixer element (default: Master). This is for example PCM or Master.
--alsa-mixer-index=<number>
Set the index of the mixer channel (default: 0). Consider the output of "amixer scontrols",
then the index is the number that follows the name of the element.
--alsa-non-interleaved
Allow output of non-interleaved formats (if the audio decoder uses this format). Currently
disabled by default, because some popular ALSA plugins are utterly broken with
non-interleaved formats.
--alsa-ignore-chmap
Don't read or set the channel map of the ALSA device - only request the required number of
channels, and then pass the audio as-is to it. This option most likely should not be used.
It can be useful for debugging, or for static setups with a specially engineered ALSA
configuration (in this case you should always force the same layout with --audio-channels,
or it will work only for files which use the layout implicit to your ALSA device).
--alsa-buffer-time=<microseconds>
Set the requested buffer time in microseconds. A value of 0 skips requesting anything from
the ALSA API. This and the --alsa-periods option uses the ALSA near functions to set the
requested parameters. If doing so results in an empty configuration set, setting these
parameters is skipped.
Both options control the buffer size. A low buffer size can lead to higher CPU usage and
audio dropouts, while a high buffer size can lead to higher latency in volume changes and
other filtering.
--alsa-periods=<number>
Number of periods requested from the ALSA API. See --alsa-buffer-time for further remarks.
WARNING:
To get multichannel/surround audio, use --audio-channels=auto. The default for this option is
auto-safe, which makes this audio output explicitly reject multichannel output, as there is no
way to detect whether a certain channel layout is actually supported.
You can also try using the upmix plugin <https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/wiki/ALSA-Surround-
Sound-and-Upmixing> . This setup enables multichannel audio on the default device with
automatic upmixing with shared access, so playing stereo and multichannel audio at the same
time will work as expected.
oss OSS audio output driver
jack JACK (Jack Audio Connection Kit) audio output driver.
The following global options are supported by this audio output:
--jack-port=<name>
Connects to the ports with the given name (default: physical ports).
--jack-name=<client>
Client name that is passed to JACK (default: mpv). Useful if you want to have certain
connections established automatically.
--jack-autostart=<yes|no>
Automatically start jackd if necessary (default: disabled). Note that this tends to be
unreliable and will flood stdout with server messages.
--jack-connect=<yes|no>
Automatically create connections to output ports (default: enabled). When enabled, the
maximum number of output channels will be limited to the number of available output ports.
--jack-std-channel-layout=<waveext|any>
Select the standard channel layout (default: waveext). JACK itself has no notion of channel
layouts (i.e. assigning which speaker a given channel is supposed to map to) - it just
takes whatever the application outputs, and reroutes it to whatever the user defines. This
means the user and the application are in charge of dealing with the channel layout.
waveext uses WAVE_FORMAT_EXTENSIBLE order, which, even though it was defined by Microsoft,
is the standard on many systems. The value any makes JACK accept whatever comes from the
audio filter chain, regardless of channel layout and without reordering. This mode is
probably not very useful, other than for debugging or when used with fixed setups.
coreaudio (macOS only)
Native macOS audio output driver using AudioUnits and the CoreAudio sound server.
Automatically redirects to coreaudio_exclusive when playing compressed formats.
The following global options are supported by this audio output:
--coreaudio-change-physical-format=<yes|no>
Change the physical format to one similar to the requested audio format (default: no). This
has the advantage that multichannel audio output will actually work. The disadvantage is
that it will change the system-wide audio settings. This is equivalent to changing the
Format setting in the Audio Devices dialog in the Audio MIDI Setup utility. Note that this
does not affect the selected speaker setup.
--coreaudio-spdif-hack=<yes|no>
Try to pass through AC3/DTS data as PCM. This is useful for drivers which do not report AC3
support. It converts the AC3 data to float, and assumes the driver will do the inverse
conversion, which means a typical A/V receiver will pick it up as compressed IEC framed AC3
stream, ignoring that it's marked as PCM. This disables normal AC3 passthrough (even if the
device reports it as supported). Use with extreme care.
coreaudio_exclusive (macOS only)
Native macOS audio output driver using direct device access and exclusive mode (bypasses the sound
server).
avfoundation (macOS only)
Native macOS audio output driver using AVSampleBufferAudioRenderer in AVFoundation, which supports
spatial audio <https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211775> .
WARNING:
Turning on spatial audio may hang the playback if mpv is not started out of the bundle, though
playback with spatial audio off always works.
audiounit (iOS only)
Native iOS audio output driver using AudioUnits and AudioToolbox.
openal OpenAL audio output driver.
--openal-num-buffers=<2-128>
Specify the number of audio buffers to use. Lower values are better for lower CPU usage.
Default: 4.
--openal-num-samples=<256-32768>
Specify the number of complete samples to use for each buffer. Higher values are better for
lower CPU usage. Default: 8192.
--openal-direct-channels=<yes|no>
Enable OpenAL Soft's direct channel extension when available to avoid tinting the sound
with ambisonics or HRTF. Default: yes.
pulse PulseAudio audio output driver
The following global options are supported by this audio output:
--pulse-host=<host>
Specify the host to use. An empty <host> string uses a local connection, "localhost" uses
network transfer (most likely not what you want).
--pulse-buffer=<1-2000|native>
Set the audio buffer size in milliseconds. A higher value buffers more data, and has a
lower probability of buffer underruns. A smaller value makes the audio stream react faster,
e.g. to playback speed changes. "native" lets the sound server determine buffers.
--pulse-latency-hacks=<yes|no>
Enable hacks to workaround PulseAudio timing bugs (default: yes). If enabled, mpv will do
elaborate latency calculations on its own. If disabled, it will use PulseAudio
automatically updated timing information. Disabling this might help with e.g. networked
audio or some plugins, while enabling it might help in some unknown situations (it is
currently enabled due to known bugs with PulseAudio 16.0).
--pulse-allow-suspended=<yes|no>
Allow mpv to use PulseAudio even if the sink is suspended (default: no). Can be useful if
PulseAudio is running as a bridge to jack and mpv has its sink-input set to the one jack is
using.
pipewire
PipeWire audio output driver
The following global options are supported by this audio output:
--pipewire-buffer=<1-2000|native>
Set the audio buffer size in milliseconds. A higher value buffers more data, and has a
lower probability of buffer underruns. A smaller value makes the audio stream react faster,
e.g. to playback speed changes. "native" lets the sound server determine buffers.
--pipewire-remote=<remote>
Specify the PipeWire remote daemon name to connect to via local UNIX sockets. An empty
<remote> string uses the default remote named pipewire-0.
--pipewire-volume-mode=<channel|global>
Specify if the ao-volume property should apply to the channel volumes or the global volume.
By default the channel volumes are used.
sdl SDL 2.0+ audio output driver. Should work on any platform supported by SDL 2.0, but may require
the SDL_AUDIODRIVER environment variable to be set appropriately for your system.
NOTE:
This driver is for compatibility with extremely foreign environments, such as systems where
none of the other drivers are available.
The following global options are supported by this audio output:
--sdl-buflen=<length>
Sets the audio buffer length in seconds. Is used only as a hint by the sound system.
Playing a file with -v will show the requested and obtained exact buffer size. A value of 0
selects the sound system default.
null Produces no audio output but maintains video playback speed. You can use --ao=null
--ao-null-untimed for benchmarking.
The following global options are supported by this audio output:
--ao-null-untimed
Do not simulate timing of a perfect audio device. This means audio decoding will go as fast
as possible, instead of timing it to the system clock.
--ao-null-buffer
Simulated buffer length in seconds.
--ao-null-outburst
Simulated chunk size in samples.
--ao-null-speed
Simulated audio playback speed as a multiplier. Usually, a real audio device will not go
exactly as fast as the system clock. It will deviate just a little, and this option helps
to simulate this.
--ao-null-latency
Simulated device latency. This is additional to EOF.
--ao-null-broken-eof
Simulate broken audio drivers, which always add the fixed device latency to the reported
audio playback position.
--ao-null-broken-delay
Simulate broken audio drivers, which don't report latency correctly.
--ao-null-channel-layouts
If not empty, this is a , separated list of channel layouts the AO allows. This can be used
to test channel layout selection.
--ao-null-format
Force the audio output format the AO will accept. If unset accepts any.
pcm Raw PCM/WAVE file writer audio output
The following global options are supported by this audio output:
--ao-pcm-waveheader=<yes|no>
Include or do not include the WAVE header (default: included). When not included, raw PCM
will be generated.
--ao-pcm-file=<filename>
Write the sound to <filename> instead of the default audiodump.wav. If no-waveheader is
specified, the default is audiodump.pcm.
--ao-pcm-append=<yes|no>
Append to the file, instead of overwriting it. Always use this with the no-waveheader
option - with waveheader it's broken, because it will write a WAVE header every time the
file is opened.
sndio Audio output to the OpenBSD sndio sound system
(Note: only supports mono, stereo, 4.0, 5.1 and 7.1 channel layouts.)
wasapi Audio output to the Windows Audio Session API.
The following global options are supported by this audio output:
--wasapi-exclusive-buffer=<default|min|1-2000000>
Set buffer duration in exclusive mode (i.e., with --audio-exclusive=yes). default and min
use the default and minimum device period reported by WASAPI, respectively. You can also
directly specify the buffer duration in microseconds, in which case a duration shorter than
the minimum device period will be rounded up to the minimum period.
The default buffer duration should provide robust playback in most cases, but reportedly on
some devices there are glitches following stream resets under the default setting. In such
cases, specifying a shorter duration might help.
VIDEO OUTPUT DRIVERS
Video output drivers are interfaces to different video output facilities. The syntax is:
--vo=<driver1,driver2,...[,]>
Specify a priority list of video output drivers to be used.
If the list has a trailing ,, mpv will fall back on drivers not contained in the list.
This is an object settings list option. See List Options for details.
NOTE:
See --vo=help for a list of compiled-in video output drivers.
The recommended output driver is --vo=gpu, which is the default. All other drivers are for
compatibility or special purposes. If the default does not work, it will fallback to other drivers (in
the same order as listed by --vo=help).
Note that the default video output driver is subject to change, and must not be relied upon. If a
certain VO needs to be used (e.g. for libmpv rendering API), it must be explicitly specified.
Available video output drivers are:
gpu General purpose, customizable, GPU-accelerated video output driver. It supports extended scaling
methods, dithering, color management, custom shaders, HDR, and more.
See GPU renderer options for options specific to this VO.
By default, mpv utilizes settings that balance quality and performance. Additionally, two
predefined profiles are available: fast for maximum performance and high-quality for superior
rendering quality. You can apply a specific profile using the --profile=<name> option and inspect
its contents using --show-profile=<name>.
This VO abstracts over several possible graphics APIs and windowing contexts, which can be
influenced using the --gpu-api and --gpu-context options.
Hardware decoding over OpenGL-interop is supported to some degree. Note that in this mode, some
corner case might not be gracefully handled, and color space conversion and chroma upsampling is
generally in the hand of the hardware decoder APIs.
gpu makes use of FBOs by default. Sometimes you can achieve better quality or performance by
changing the --fbo-format option to rgb16f, rgb32f or rgb. Known problems include Mesa/Intel not
accepting rgb16, Mesa sometimes not being compiled with float texture support, and some macOS
setups being very slow with rgb16 but fast with rgb32f. If you have problems, you can also try
enabling the --gpu-dumb-mode=yes option.
gpu-next
Experimental video renderer based on libplacebo. This supports almost the same set of features as
--vo=gpu. See GPU renderer options for a list.
Should generally be faster and higher quality, but some features may still be missing or
misbehave. Expect (and report!) bugs. See here for a list of known differences and bugs:
<https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/wiki/GPU-Next-vs-GPU>
xv (X11 only)
Uses the XVideo extension to enable hardware-accelerated display. This is the most compatible VO
on X, but may be low-quality, and has issues with OSD and subtitle display.
NOTE:
This driver is for compatibility with old systems.
The following global options are supported by this video output:
--xv-adaptor=<number>
Select a specific XVideo adapter (check xvinfo results).
--xv-port=<number>
Select a specific XVideo port.
--xv-ck=<cur|use|set>
Select the source from which the color key is taken (default: cur).
cur The default takes the color key currently set in Xv.
use Use but do not set the color key from mpv (use the --colorkey option to change it).
set Same as use but also sets the supplied color key.
--xv-ck-method=<none|man|bg|auto>
Sets the color key drawing method (default: man).
none Disables color-keying.
man Draw the color key manually (reduces flicker in some cases).
bg Set the color key as window background.
auto Let Xv draw the color key.
--xv-colorkey=<number>
Changes the color key to an RGB value of your choice. 0x000000 is black and 0xffffff is
white.
--xv-buffers=<number>
Number of image buffers to use for the internal ringbuffer (default: 2). Increasing this
will use more memory, but might help with the X server not responding quickly enough if
video FPS is close to or higher than the display refresh rate.
x11 (X11 only)
Shared memory video output driver without hardware acceleration that works whenever X11 is
present.
Since mpv 0.30.0, you may need to use --profile=sw-fast to get decent performance.
NOTE:
This is a fallback only, and should not be normally used.
vdpau (X11 only)
Uses the VDPAU interface to display and optionally also decode video. Hardware decoding is used
with --hwdec=vdpau. Note that there is absolutely no reason to use this, other than compatibility.
We strongly recommend that you use --vo=gpu with --hwdec=nvdec instead.
NOTE:
Earlier versions of mpv (and MPlayer, mplayer2) provided sub-options to tune vdpau
post-processing, like deint, sharpen, denoise, chroma-deint, pullup, hqscaling. These
sub-options are deprecated, and you should use the vdpaupp video filter instead.
The following global options are supported by this video output:
--vo-vdpau-sharpen=<-1-1>
(Deprecated. See note about vdpaupp.)
For positive values, apply a sharpening algorithm to the video, for negative values a
blurring algorithm (default: 0).
--vo-vdpau-denoise=<0-1>
(Deprecated. See note about vdpaupp.)
Apply a noise reduction algorithm to the video (default: 0; no noise reduction).
--vo-vdpau-chroma-deint
(Deprecated. See note about vdpaupp.)
Makes temporal deinterlacers operate both on luma and chroma (default). Use
no-chroma-deint to solely use luma and speed up advanced deinterlacing. Useful with slow
video memory.
--vo-vdpau-pullup
(Deprecated. See note about vdpaupp.)
Try to apply inverse telecine, needs motion adaptive temporal deinterlacing.
--vo-vdpau-hqscaling=<0-9>
(Deprecated. See note about vdpaupp.)
0 Use default VDPAU scaling (default).
1-9 Apply high quality VDPAU scaling (needs capable hardware).
--vo-vdpau-fps=<number>
Override autodetected display refresh rate value (the value is needed for framedrop to
allow video playback rates higher than display refresh rate, and for vsync-aware frame
timing adjustments). Default 0 means use autodetected value. A positive value is
interpreted as a refresh rate in Hz and overrides the autodetected value. A negative value
disables all timing adjustment and framedrop logic.
--vo-vdpau-composite-detect
NVIDIA's current VDPAU implementation behaves somewhat differently under a compositing
window manager and does not give accurate frame timing information. With this option
enabled, the player tries to detect whether a compositing window manager is active. If one
is detected, the player disables timing adjustments as if the user had specified fps=-1 (as
they would be based on incorrect input). This means timing is somewhat less accurate than
without compositing, but with the composited mode behavior of the NVIDIA driver, there is
no hard playback speed limit even without the disabled logic. Enabled by default, use
--vo-vdpau-composite-detect=no to disable.
--vo-vdpau-queuetime-windowed=<number> and queuetime-fs=<number>
Use VDPAU's presentation queue functionality to queue future video frame changes at most
this many milliseconds in advance (default: 50). See below for additional information.
--vo-vdpau-output-surfaces=<2-15>
Allocate this many output surfaces to display video frames (default: 3). See below for
additional information.
--vo-vdpau-colorkey=<#RRGGBB|#AARRGGBB>
Set the VDPAU presentation queue background color, which in practice is the colorkey used
if VDPAU operates in overlay mode (default: #020507, some shade of black). If the alpha
component of this value is 0, the default VDPAU colorkey will be used instead (which is
usually green).
--vo-vdpau-force-yuv
Never accept RGBA input. This means mpv will insert a filter to convert to a YUV format
before the VO. Sometimes useful to force availability of certain YUV-only features, like
video equalizer or deinterlacing.
Using the VDPAU frame queuing functionality controlled by the queuetime options makes mpv's frame
flip timing less sensitive to system CPU load and allows mpv to start decoding the next frame(s)
slightly earlier, which can reduce jitter caused by individual slow-to-decode frames. However, the
NVIDIA graphics drivers can make other window behavior such as window moves choppy if VDPAU is
using the blit queue (mainly happens if you have the composite extension enabled) and this feature
is active. If this happens on your system and it bothers you then you can set the queuetime value
to 0 to disable this feature. The settings to use in windowed and fullscreen mode are separate
because there should be no reason to disable this for fullscreen mode (as the driver issue should
not affect the video itself).
You can queue more frames ahead by increasing the queuetime values and the output_surfaces count
(to ensure enough surfaces to buffer video for a certain time ahead you need at least as many
surfaces as the video has frames during that time, plus two). This could help make video smoother
in some cases. The main downsides are increased video RAM requirements for the surfaces and
laggier display response to user commands (display changes only become visible some time after
they're queued). The graphics driver implementation may also have limits on the length of maximum
queuing time or number of queued surfaces that work well or at all.
direct3d (Windows only)
Video output driver that uses the Direct3D interface.
NOTE:
This driver is for compatibility with systems that don't provide proper OpenGL drivers, and
where ANGLE does not perform well.
The following global options are supported by this video output:
--vo-direct3d-disable-texture-align
Normally texture sizes are always aligned to 16. With this option enabled, the video
texture will always have exactly the same size as the video itself.
Debug options. These might be incorrect, might be removed in the future, might crash, might cause
slow downs, etc. Contact the developers if you actually need any of these for performance or
proper operation.
--vo-direct3d-force-power-of-2
Always force textures to power of 2, even if the device reports non-power-of-2 texture
sizes as supported.
--vo-direct3d-texture-memory=<mode>
Only affects operation with shaders/texturing enabled, and (E)OSD. Possible values:
default (default)
Use D3DPOOL_DEFAULT, with a D3DPOOL_SYSTEMMEM texture for locking. If the driver
supports D3DDEVCAPS_TEXTURESYSTEMMEMORY, D3DPOOL_SYSTEMMEM is used directly.
default-pool
Use D3DPOOL_DEFAULT. (Like default, but never use a shadow-texture.)
default-pool-shadow
Use D3DPOOL_DEFAULT, with a D3DPOOL_SYSTEMMEM texture for locking. (Like default,
but always force the shadow-texture.)
managed
Use D3DPOOL_MANAGED.
scratch
Use D3DPOOL_SCRATCH, with a D3DPOOL_SYSTEMMEM texture for locking.
--vo-direct3d-swap-discard
Use D3DSWAPEFFECT_DISCARD, which might be faster. Might be slower too, as it must(?) clear
every frame.
--vo-direct3d-exact-backbuffer
Always resize the backbuffer to window size.
sdl SDL 2.0+ Render video output driver, depending on system with or without hardware acceleration.
Should work on all platforms supported by SDL 2.0. For tuning, refer to your copy of the file
SDL_hints.h.
NOTE:
This driver is for compatibility with systems that don't provide proper graphics drivers.
The following global options are supported by this video output:
--sdl-sw
Continue even if a software renderer is detected.
--sdl-switch-mode
Instruct SDL to switch the monitor video mode when going fullscreen.
dmabuf-wayland
Experimental Wayland output driver designed for use with either drm stateless or VA API hardware
decoding. The driver is designed to avoid any GPU to CPU copies, and to perform scaling and color
space conversion using fixed-function hardware, if available, rather than GPU shaders. This frees
up GPU resources for other tasks. It is highly recommended to use this VO with the appropriate
--hwdec option such as auto-safe. It can still work in some circumstances without --hwdec due to
mpv's internal conversion filters, but this is not recommended as it's a needless extra step.
Correct output depends on support from your GPU, drivers, and compositor. This requires the
compositor and mpv to support color-management-v1 to accurately display colorspaces that are
different from the compositor default (bt.601 in most cases).
WARNING:
This driver is not required for mpv to work on Wayland. vo=gpu and vo=gpu-next will switch to
the appropriate Wayland context automatically. This driver is experimental and generally lower
quality than gpu/gpu-next.
vaapi Intel VA API video output driver with support for hardware decoding. Note that there is absolutely
no reason to use this, other than compatibility. This is low quality, and has issues with OSD. We
strongly recommend that you use --vo=gpu with --hwdec=vaapi instead.
The following global options are supported by this video output:
--vo-vaapi-scaling=<algorithm>
default
Driver default (mpv default as well).
fast Fast, but low quality.
hq Unspecified driver dependent high-quality scaling, slow.
nla non-linear anamorphic scaling
--vo-vaapi-scaled-osd=<yes|no>
If enabled, then the OSD is rendered at video resolution and scaled to display resolution.
By default, this is disabled, and the OSD is rendered at display resolution if the driver
supports it.
null Produces no video output. Useful for benchmarking.
Usually, it's better to disable video with --video=no instead.
The following global options are supported by this video output:
--vo-null-fps=<value>
Simulate display FPS. This artificially limits how many frames the VO accepts per second.
caca Color ASCII art video output driver that works on a text console.
This driver reserves some keys for runtime configuration. These keys are hardcoded and cannot be
bound:
d and D
Toggle dithering algorithm.
a and A
Toggle antialiasing method.
h and H
Toggle charset method.
c and C
Toggle color method.
NOTE:
This driver is a joke.
tct Color Unicode art video output driver that works on a text console. By default depends on support
of true color by modern terminals to display the images at full color range, but 256-colors output
is also supported (see below). On Windows it requires an ansi terminal such as mintty.
Since mpv 0.30.0, you may need to use --profile=sw-fast to get decent performance.
Note: the TCT image output is not synchronized with other terminal output from mpv, which can lead
to broken images. The options --terminal=no or --really-quiet can help with that.
--vo-tct-algo=<algo>
Select how to write the pixels to the terminal.
half-blocks
Uses Unicode LOWER HALF BLOCK character to achieve higher vertical resolution.
(Default.)
plain Uses spaces. Causes vertical resolution to drop twofolds, but in theory works in
more places.
--vo-tct-buffering=<pixel|line|frame>
Specifies the size of data batches buffered before being sent to the terminal.
TCT image output is not synchronized with other terminal output from mpv, which can lead to
broken images. Sending data to the terminal in small batches may improve parallelism
between terminal processing and mpv processing but incurs a static overhead of generating
tens of thousands of small writes. Also, depending on the terminal used, sending frames in
one chunk might help with tearing of the output, especially if not used with --really-quiet
and other logs interrupt the data stream.
pixel Send data to terminal for each pixel.
line Send data to terminal for each line. (Default)
frame Send data to terminal for each frame.
--vo-tct-width=<width> --vo-tct-height=<height>
Assume the terminal has the specified character width and/or height. These default to
80x25 if the terminal size cannot be determined.
--vo-tct-256=<yes|no> (default: no)
Use 256 colors - for terminals which don't support true color.
kitty Graphical output for the terminal, using the kitty graphics protocol. Tested with kitty and
Konsole.
You may need to use --profile=sw-fast to get decent performance.
Kitty size and alignment options:
--vo-kitty-cols=<columns>, --vo-kitty-rows=<rows> (default: 0)
Specify the terminal size in character cells, otherwise (0) read it from the terminal, or
fall back to 80x25.
--vo-kitty-width=<width>, --vo-kitty-height=<height> (default: 0)
Specify the available size in pixels, otherwise (0) read it from the terminal, or fall back
to 320x240.
--vo-kitty-left=<col>, --vo-kitty-top=<row> (default: 0)
Specify the position in character cells where the image starts (1 is the first column or
row). If 0 (default) then try to automatically determine it according to the other values
and the image aspect ratio and zoom.
--vo-kitty-config-clear=<yes|no> (default: yes)
Whether or not to clear the terminal whenever the output is reconfigured (e.g. when video
size changes).
--vo-kitty-alt-screen=<yes|no> (default: yes)
Whether or not to use the alternate screen buffer and return the terminal to its previous
state on exit. When set to no, the last kitty image stays on screen after quit, with the
cursor following it.
--vo-kitty-use-shm=<yes|no> (default: no)
Use shared memory objects to transfer image data to the terminal. This is much faster than
sending the data as escape codes, but is not supported by as many terminals. It also only
works on the local machine and not via e.g. SSH connections.
This option is not implemented on Windows.
sixel Graphical output for the terminal, using sixels. Tested with mlterm and xterm.
Note: the Sixel image output is not synchronized with other terminal output from mpv, which can
lead to broken images. The option --really-quiet can help with that, and is recommended. On some
platforms, using the --vo-sixel-buffered option may work as well.
You may need to use --profile=sw-fast to get decent performance.
Note: at the time of writing, xterm does not enable sixel by default - launching it as xterm -ti
340 is one way to enable it. Also, xterm does not display images bigger than 1000x1000 pixels by
default.
To render and align sixel images correctly, mpv needs to know the terminal size both in cells and
in pixels. By default it tries to use values which the terminal reports, however, due to
differences between terminals this is an error-prone process which cannot be automated with
certainty - some terminals report the size in pixels including the padding - e.g. xterm, while
others report the actual usable number of pixels - like mlterm. Additionally, they may behave
differently when maximized or in fullscreen, and mpv cannot detect this state using standard
methods.
Sixel size and alignment options:
--vo-sixel-cols=<columns>, --vo-sixel-rows=<rows> (default: 0)
Specify the terminal size in character cells, otherwise (0) read it from the terminal, or
fall back to 80x25. Note that mpv doesn't use the the last row with sixel because this
seems to result in scrolling.
--vo-sixel-width=<width>, --vo-sixel-height=<height> (default: 0)
Specify the available size in pixels, otherwise (0) read it from the terminal, or fall back
to 320x240. Other than excluding the last line, the height is also further rounded down to
a multiple of 6 (sixel unit height) to avoid overflowing below the designated size.
--vo-sixel-left=<col>, --vo-sixel-top=<row> (default: 0)
Specify the position in character cells where the image starts (1 is the first column or
row). If 0 (default) then try to automatically determine it according to the other values
and the image aspect ratio and zoom.
--vo-sixel-pad-x=<pad_x>, --vo-sixel-pad-y=<pad_y> (default: -1)
Used only when mpv reads the size in pixels from the terminal. Specify the number of
padding pixels (on one side) which are included at the size which the terminal reports. If
-1 (default) then the number of pixels is rounded down to a multiple of number of cells
(per axis), to take into account padding at the report - this only works correctly when the
overall padding per axis is smaller than the number of cells.
--vo-sixel-config-clear=<yes|no> (default: yes)
Whether or not to clear the terminal whenever the output is reconfigured (e.g. when video
size changes).
--vo-sixel-alt-screen=<yes|no> (default: yes)
Whether or not to use the alternate screen buffer and return the terminal to its previous
state on exit. When set to no, the last sixel image stays on screen after quit, with the
cursor following it.
--vo-sixel-exit-clear is a deprecated alias for this option and may be removed in the
future.
--vo-sixel-buffered=<yes|no> (default: no)
Buffers the full output sequence before writing it to the terminal. On POSIX platforms,
this can help prevent interruption (including from other applications) and thus broken
images, but may come at a performance cost with some terminals and is subject to
implementation details.
Sixel image quality options:
--vo-sixel-dither=<algo>
Selects the dither algorithm which libsixel should apply. Can be one of the below list as
per libsixel's documentation.
auto (Default)
Let libsixel choose the dithering method.
none Don't diffuse
atkinson
Diffuse with Bill Atkinson's method.
fs Diffuse with Floyd-Steinberg method
jajuni Diffuse with Jarvis, Judice & Ninke method
stucki Diffuse with Stucki's method
burkes Diffuse with Burkes' method
arithmetic
Positionally stable arithmetic dither
xor Positionally stable arithmetic xor based dither
--vo-sixel-fixedpalette=<yes|no> (default: yes)
Use libsixel's built-in static palette using the XTERM256 profile for dither. Fixed palette
uses 256 colors for dithering. Note that using no (at the time of writing) will slow down
xterm.
--vo-sixel-reqcolors=<colors> (default: 256)
Has no effect with fixed palette. Set up libsixel to use required number of colors for
dynamic palette. This value depends on the terminal emulator as well. Xterm supports 256
colors. Can set this to a lower value for faster performance.
--vo-sixel-threshold=<threshold> (default: -1)
Has no effect with fixed palette. Defines the threshold to change the palette - as
percentage of the number of colors, e.g. 20 will change the palette when the number of
colors changed by 20%. It's a simple measure to reduce the number of palette changes,
because it can be slow in some terminals (xterm). The default (-1) will choose a palette on
every frame and will have better quality.
image Output each frame into an image file in the current directory. Each file takes the frame number
padded with leading zeros as name.
The following global options are supported by this video output:
--vo-image-format=<format>
Select the image file format.
jpg JPEG files, extension .jpg. (Default.)
jpeg JPEG files, extension .jpeg.
png PNG files.
webp WebP files.
--vo-image-png-compression=<0-9>
PNG compression factor (speed vs. file size tradeoff) (default: 7)
--vo-image-png-filter=<0-5>
Filter applied prior to PNG compression (0 = none; 1 = sub; 2 = up; 3 = average; 4 = Paeth;
5 = mixed) (default: 5)
--vo-image-jpeg-quality=<0-100>
JPEG quality factor (default: 90)
--vo-image-jpeg-optimize=<0-100>
JPEG optimization factor (default: 100)
--vo-image-webp-lossless=<yes|no>
Enable writing lossless WebP files (default: no)
--vo-image-webp-quality=<0-100>
WebP quality (default: 75)
--vo-image-webp-compression=<0-6>
WebP compression factor (default: 4)
--vo-image-outdir=<dirname>
Specify the directory to save the image files to (default: ./).
libmpv For use with libmpv direct embedding. As a special case, on macOS it is used like a normal VO
within mpv (cocoa-cb). Otherwise useless in any other contexts. (See <mpv/render.h>.)
This also supports many of the options the gpu VO has, depending on the backend.
drm (Direct Rendering Manager)
Video output driver using Kernel Mode Setting / Direct Rendering Manager. Should be used when one
doesn't want to install full-blown graphical environment (e.g. no X). Does not support hardware
acceleration (if you need this, check the drm backend for gpu VO).
Since mpv 0.30.0, you may need to use --profile=sw-fast to get decent performance.
The following global options are supported by this video output:
--drm-connector=<name>
Select the connector to use (usually this is a monitor.) If <name> is empty or auto, mpv
renders the output on the first available connector. Use --drm-connector=help to get a list
of available connectors. (default: empty)
--drm-device=<path>
Select the DRM device file to use. If specified this overrides automatic card selection.
(default: empty)
--drm-mode=<preferred|highest|N|WxH[@R]>
Mode to use (resolution and frame rate). Possible values:
preferred
Use the preferred mode for the screen on the selected connector. (default)
highest
Use the mode with the highest resolution available on the selected connector.
N Select mode by index.
WxH[@R]
Specify mode by width, height, and optionally refresh rate. In case several modes
match, selects the mode that comes first in the EDID list of modes.
Use --drm-mode=help to get a list of available modes for all active connectors.
--drm-draw-plane=<primary|overlay|N>
Select the DRM plane to which video and OSD is drawn to, under normal circumstances. The
plane can be specified as primary, which will pick the first applicable primary plane;
overlay, which will pick the first applicable overlay plane; or by index. The index is zero
based, and related to the CRTC. (default: primary)
When using this option with the drmprime-overlay hwdec interop, only the OSD is rendered to
this plane.
--drm-drmprime-video-plane=<primary|overlay|N>
Select the DRM plane to use for video with the drmprime-overlay hwdec interop (used by e.g.
the rkmpp hwdec on RockChip SoCs, and v4l2 hwdec:s on various other SoC:s). The plane is
unused otherwise. This option accepts the same values as --drm-draw-plane. (default:
overlay)
To be able to successfully play 4K video on various SoCs you might need to set
--drm-draw-plane=overlay --drm-drmprime-video-plane=primary and setting
--drm-draw-surface-size=1920x1080, to render the OSD at a lower resolution (the video when
handled by the hwdec will be on the drmprime-video plane and at full 4K resolution)
--drm-format=<xrgb8888|xbgr8888|xrgb2101010|xbgr2101010|yuyv>
Select the DRM format to use (default: xrgb8888). This allows you to choose the bit depth
and color type of the DRM mode.
xrgb8888 is your usual 24bpp packed RGB format with 8 bits of padding. xrgb2101010 is a
30bpp packed RGB format with 2 bits of padding. yuyv is a 32bpp packed YUV 4:2:2 format.
No planar formats are currently supported.
There are cases when xrgb2101010 will work with the drm VO, but not with the drm backend
for the gpu VO. This is because with the gpu VO, in addition to requiring support in your
DRM driver, requires support for xrgb2101010 in your EGL driver. yuyv only ever works with
the drm VO.
--drm-draw-surface-size=<[WxH]>
Sets the size of the surface used on the draw plane. The surface will then be upscaled to
the current screen resolution. This option can be useful when used together with the
drmprime-overlay hwdec interop at high resolutions, as it allows scaling the draw plane
(which in this case only handles the OSD) down to a size the GPU can handle.
When used without the drmprime-overlay hwdec interop this option will just cause the video
to get rendered at a different resolution and then scaled to screen size.
(default: display resolution)
--drm-vrr-enabled=<no|yes|auto>
Toggle use of Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), aka Freesync or Adaptive Sync on compatible
systems. VRR allows for the display to be refreshed at any rate within a range (usually
~40Hz-60Hz for 60Hz displays). This can help with playback of 24/25/50fps content. Support
depends on the use of a compatible monitor, GPU, and a sufficiently new kernel with drivers
that support the feature.
no Do not attempt to enable VRR. (default)
yes Attempt to enable VRR, whether the capability is reported or not.
auto Attempt to enable VRR if support is reported.
mediacodec_embed (Android)
Renders IMGFMT_MEDIACODEC frames directly to an android.view.Surface. Requires --hwdec=mediacodec
for hardware decoding, along with --vo=mediacodec_embed and
--wid=(intptr_t)(*android.view.Surface).
Since this video output driver uses native decoding and rendering routines, many of mpv's features
(subtitle rendering, OSD/OSC, video filters, etc) are not available with this driver.
To use hardware decoding with --vo=gpu instead, use --hwdec=mediacodec or mediacodec-copy along
with --gpu-context=android.
wlshm (Wayland only)
Shared memory video output driver without hardware acceleration that works whenever Wayland is
present.
Since mpv 0.30.0, you may need to use --profile=sw-fast to get decent performance.
NOTE:
This is a fallback only, and should not be normally used.
AUDIO FILTERS
Audio filters allow you to modify the audio stream and its properties. The syntax is:
--af=...
Setup a chain of audio filters. See --vf (VIDEO FILTERS) for the full syntax.
This is an object settings list option. See List Options for details.
NOTE:
To get a full list of available audio filters, see --af=help.
Also, keep in mind that most actual filters are available via the lavfi wrapper, which gives you
access to most of libavfilter's filters. This includes all filters that have been ported from MPlayer
to libavfilter.
The --vf description describes how libavfilter can be used and how to workaround deprecated mpv
filters.
See --vf group of options for info on how --af-add, --af-pre, --af-clr, and possibly others work.
Available filters are:
lavcac3enc[=options]
Encode multi-channel audio to AC-3 at runtime using libavcodec. Supports 16-bit native-endian
input format, maximum 6 channels. The output is big-endian when outputting a raw AC-3 stream,
native-endian when outputting to S/PDIF. If the input sample rate is not 48 kHz, 44.1 kHz or 32
kHz, it will be resampled to 48 kHz.
tospdif=<yes|no>
Output raw AC-3 stream if no, output to S/PDIF for pass-through if yes (default).
bitrate=<rate>
The bitrate use for the AC-3 stream. Set it to 384 to get 384 kbps.
The default is 640. Some receivers might not be able to handle this.
Valid values: 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, 80, 96, 112, 128, 160, 192, 224, 256, 320, 384, 448, 512,
576, 640.
The special value auto selects a default bitrate based on the input channel number:
1ch 96
2ch 192
3ch 224
4ch 384
5ch 448
6ch 448
minch=<n>
If the input channel number is less than <minch>, the filter will detach itself (default:
3).
encoder=<name>
Select the libavcodec encoder used. Currently, this should be an AC-3 encoder, and using
another codec will fail horribly.
format=format:srate:channels:out-srate:out-channels
Does not do any format conversion itself. Rather, it may cause the filter system to insert
necessary conversion filters before or after this filter if needed. It is primarily useful for
controlling the audio format going into other filters. To specify the format for audio output, see
--audio-format, --audio-samplerate, and --audio-channels. This filter is able to force a
particular format, whereas --audio-* may be overridden by the ao based on output compatibility.
All parameters are optional. The first 3 parameters restrict what the filter accepts as input.
They will therefore cause conversion filters to be inserted before this one. The out- parameters
tell the filters or audio outputs following this filter how to interpret the data without actually
doing a conversion. Setting these will probably just break things unless you really know you want
this for some reason, such as testing or dealing with broken media.
<format>
Force conversion to this format. Use --af=format=format=help to get a list of valid
formats.
<srate>
Force conversion to a specific sample rate. The rate is an integer, 48000 for example.
<channels>
Force mixing to a specific channel layout. See --audio-channels option for possible values.
<out-srate>
<out-channels>
NOTE: this filter used to be named force. The old format filter used to do conversion itself,
unlike this one which lets the filter system handle the conversion.
scaletempo[=option1:option2:...]
Scales audio tempo without altering pitch, optionally synced to playback speed.
This works by playing 'stride' ms of audio at normal speed then consuming 'stride*scale' ms of
input audio. It pieces the strides together by blending 'overlap'% of stride with audio following
the previous stride. It optionally performs a short statistical analysis on the next 'search' ms
of audio to determine the best overlap position.
scale=<amount>
Nominal amount to scale tempo. Scales this amount in addition to speed. (default: 1.0)
stride=<amount>
Length in milliseconds to output each stride. Too high of a value will cause noticeable
skips at high scale amounts and an echo at low scale amounts. Very low values will alter
pitch. Increasing improves performance. (default: 60)
overlap=<factor>
Factor of stride to overlap. Decreasing improves performance. (default: .20)
search=<amount>
Length in milliseconds to search for best overlap position. Decreasing improves performance
greatly. On slow systems, you will probably want to set this very low. (default: 14)
speed=<tempo|pitch|both|none>
Set response to speed change.
tempo Scale tempo in sync with speed (default).
pitch Reverses effect of filter. Scales pitch without altering tempo. Add this to your
input.conf to step by musical semi-tones:
[ multiply speed 0.9438743126816935
] multiply speed 1.059463094352953
WARNING:
Loses sync with video.
both Scale both tempo and pitch.
none Ignore speed changes.
Examples
mpv --af=scaletempo --speed=1.2 media.ogg
Would play media at 1.2x normal speed, with audio at normal pitch. Changing playback
speed would change audio tempo to match.
mpv --af=scaletempo=scale=1.2:speed=none --speed=1.2 media.ogg
Would play media at 1.2x normal speed, with audio at normal pitch, but changing playback
speed would have no effect on audio tempo.
mpv --af=scaletempo=stride=30:overlap=.50:search=10 media.ogg
Would tweak the quality and performance parameters.
mpv --af=scaletempo=scale=1.2:speed=pitch audio.ogg
Would play media at 1.2x normal speed, with audio at normal pitch. Changing playback
speed would change pitch, leaving audio tempo at 1.2x.
scaletempo2[=option1:option2:...]
Scales audio tempo without altering pitch. The algorithm is ported from chromium and uses the
Waveform Similarity Overlap-and-add (WSOLA) method. It seems to achieves higher audio quality
than scaletempo, and rubberband R2 engine, or engine=faster. This filter is inserted automatically
if audio-pitch-correction option is used (on by default) when the playback speed is changed.
By default, the search-interval and window-size parameters have the same values as in chromium.
min-speed=<speed>
Mute audio if the playback speed is below <speed>. (default: 0.25)
max-speed=<speed>
Mute audio if the playback speed is above <speed> and <speed> != 0. (default: 8.0)
search-interval=<amount>
Length in milliseconds to search for best overlap position. (default: 40)
window-size=<amount>
Length in milliseconds of the overlap-and-add window. (default: 12)
rubberband
High quality pitch correction with librubberband. This can be used in place of scaletempo and
scaletempo2, and will be used to adjust audio pitch when playing at speed different from normal.
It can also be used to adjust audio pitch without changing playback speed.
pitch-scale=<amount>
Sets the pitch scaling factor. Frequencies are multiplied by this value. (default: 1.0)
engine=<faster|finer>
Select the core Rubberband engine to be used. There are two available:
Faster This is the Rubberband R2 engine. It uses significantly less CPU than the Finer (R3)
engine.
Finer This is the Rubberband R3 engine. This engine is only available with librubberband
version 3 or newer. This produces significantly higher quality output, at the cost
of higher CPU usage. (Default if available)
This filter has a number of additional sub-options. You can list them with mpv
--af=rubberband=help. This will also show the default values for each option. The options are not
documented here, because they are merely passed to librubberband. Look at the librubberband
documentation to learn what each option does:
<https://breakfastquay.com/rubberband/code-doc/classRubberBand_1_1RubberBandStretcher.html> Do
note that certain options are only applicable to one of R2 (faster) and R3 (finer) engines. (The
mapping of the mpv rubberband filter sub-option names and values to those of librubberband follows
a simple pattern: "Option" + Name + Value.)
This filter supports the following af-command commands:
set-pitch
Set the <pitch-scale> argument dynamically. This can be used to change the playback pitch
at runtime. Note that speed is controlled using the standard speed property, not
af-command.
multiply-pitch <factor>
Multiply the current value of <pitch-scale> dynamically.
lavfi=graph
Filter audio using FFmpeg's libavfilter.
<graph>
Libavfilter graph. See lavfi video filter for details - the graph syntax is the same.
WARNING:
Don't forget to quote libavfilter graphs as described in the lavfi video filter section.
o=<string>
AVOptions.
fix-pts=<yes|no>
Determine PTS based on sample count (default: no). If this is enabled, the player won't
rely on libavfilter passing through PTS accurately. Instead, it pass a sample count as PTS
to libavfilter, and compute the PTS used by mpv based on that and the input PTS. This helps
with filters which output a recomputed PTS instead of the original PTS (including filters
which require the PTS to start at 0). mpv normally expects filters to not touch the PTS (or
only to the extent of changing frame boundaries), so this is not the default, but it will
be needed to use broken filters. In practice, these broken filters will either cause slow
A/V desync over time (with some files), or break playback completely if you seek or start
playback from the middle of a file.
drop This filter drops or repeats audio frames to adapt to playback speed. It always operates on full
audio frames, because it was made to handle SPDIF (compressed audio passthrough). This is used
automatically if the --video-sync=display-adrop option is used. Do not use this filter (or the
given option); they are extremely low quality.
VIDEO FILTERS
Video filters allow you to modify the video stream and its properties. All of the information described
in this section applies to audio filters as well (generally using the prefix --af instead of --vf).
The exact syntax is:
--vf=<filter1[=parameter1:parameter2:...],filter2,...>
Setup a chain of video filters. This consists on the filter name, and an option list of parameters
after =. The parameters are separated by : (not ,, as that starts a new filter entry).
Before the filter name, a label can be specified with @name:, where name is an arbitrary
user-given name, which identifies the filter. This is only needed if you want to toggle the filter
at runtime.
A ! before the filter name means the filter is disabled by default. It will be skipped on filter
creation. This is also useful for runtime filter toggling.
See the vf command (and toggle sub-command) for further explanations and examples.
This is an object settings list option. See List Options for details.
The general filter entry syntax is:
["@"<label-name>":"] ["!"] <filter-name> [ "=" <filter-parameter-list> ]
or for the special "toggle" syntax (see vf command):
"@"<label-name>
and the filter-parameter-list:
<filter-parameter> | <filter-parameter> "," <filter-parameter-list>
and filter-parameter:
( <param-name> "=" <param-value> ) | <param-value>
param-value can further be quoted in [ / ] in case the value contains characters like , or =. This
is used in particular with the lavfi filter, which uses a very similar syntax as mpv (MPlayer
historically) to specify filters and their parameters.
NOTE:
--vf can only take a single track as input, even if the filter supports dynamic input. Filters that
require multiple inputs can't be used. Use --lavfi-complex for such a use case. This also applies for
--af.
Filters can be manipulated at run time. You can use @ labels as described above in combination with the
vf command (see COMMAND INTERFACE) to get more control over this. Initially disabled filters with ! are
useful for this as well.
NOTE:
To get a full list of available video filters, see --vf=help and
<https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html> .
Also, keep in mind that most actual filters are available via the lavfi wrapper, which gives you
access to most of libavfilter's filters. This includes all filters that have been ported from MPlayer
to libavfilter.
Most builtin filters are deprecated in some ways, unless they're only available in mpv (such as
filters which deal with mpv specifics, or which are implemented in mpv only).
If a filter is not builtin, the lavfi-bridge will be automatically tried. This bridge does not support
help output, and does not verify parameters before the filter is actually used. Although the mpv
syntax is rather similar to libavfilter's, it's not the same. (Which means not everything accepted by
vf_lavfi's graph option will be accepted by --vf.)
You can also prefix the filter name with lavfi- to force the wrapper. This is helpful if the filter
name collides with a deprecated mpv builtin filter. For example --vf=lavfi-scale=args would use
libavfilter's scale filter over mpv's deprecated builtin one.
Video filters are managed in lists. There are a few commands to manage the filter list.
--vf-append=filter
Appends the filter given as arguments to the filter list.
--vf-add=filter
Appends the filter given as arguments to the filter list. (Passing multiple filters is currently
still possible, but deprecated.)
--vf-pre=filter
Prepends the filters given as arguments to the filter list. (Passing multiple filters is currently
still possible, but deprecated.)
--vf-remove=filter
Deletes the filter from the list. The filter can be either given the way it was added (filter name
and its full argument list), or by label (prefixed with @). Matching of filters works as follows:
if either of the compared filters has a label set, only the labels are compared. If none of the
filters have a label, the filter name, arguments, and argument order are compared. (Passing
multiple filters is currently still possible, but deprecated.)
--vf-toggle=filter
Add the given filter to the list if it was not present yet, or remove it from the list if it was
present. Matching of filters works as described in --vf-remove.
--vf-clr
Completely empties the filter list.
With filters that support it, you can access parameters by their name.
--vf=<filter>=help
Prints the parameter names and parameter value ranges for a particular filter.
Available mpv-only filters are:
format=fmt=<value>:colormatrix=<value>:...
Applies video parameter overrides, with optional conversion. By default, this overrides the
video's parameters without conversion (except for the fmt parameter), but can be made to perform
an appropriate conversion with convert=yes for parameters for which conversion is supported.
<fmt> Image format name, e.g. rgb15, bgr24, 420p, etc. (default: don't change).
This filter always performs conversion to the given format.
NOTE:
For a list of available formats, use --vf=format=fmt=help.
NOTE:
Conversion between hardware formats is supported in some cases. eg: cuda to vulkan, or
vaapi to vulkan.
<convert=yes|no>
Force conversion of color parameters (default: no).
If this is disabled (the default), the only conversion that is possibly performed is format
conversion if <fmt> is set. All other parameters (like <colormatrix>) are forced without
conversion. This mode is typically useful when files have been incorrectly tagged.
If this is enabled, libswscale or zimg is used if any of the parameters mismatch. zimg is
used of the input/output image formats are supported by mpv's zimg wrapper, and if
--sws-allow-zimg=yes is used. Both libraries may not support all kinds of conversions. This
typically results in silent incorrect conversion. zimg has in many cases a better chance of
performing the conversion correctly.
In both cases, the color parameters are set on the output stage of the image format
conversion (if fmt was set). The difference is that with convert=no, the color parameters
are not passed on to the converter.
If input and output video parameters are the same, conversion is always skipped.
When converting between hardware formats, this parameter has no effect, and the only
conversion that is done is the format conversion.
Examples
mpv test.mkv --vf=format:colormatrix=ycgco
Results in incorrect colors (if test.mkv was tagged correctly).
mpv test.mkv --vf=format:colormatrix=ycgco:convert=yes --sws-allow-zimg
Results in true conversion to ycgco, assuming the renderer supports it (--vo=gpu
normally does). You can add --vo=xv to force a VO which definitely does not
support it, which should show incorrect colors as confirmation.
Using --sws-allow-zimg=no (or disabling zimg at build time) will use libswscale,
which cannot perform this conversion as of this writing.
<colormatrix>
Controls the YUV to RGB color space conversion when playing video. There are various
standards. Normally, BT.601 should be used for SD video, and BT.709 for HD video. (This is
done by default.) Using incorrect color space results in slightly under or over saturated
and shifted colors.
These options are not always supported. Different video outputs provide varying degrees of
support. The gpu and vdpau video output drivers usually offer full support. The xv output
can set the color space if the system video driver supports it, but not input and output
levels. The scale video filter can configure color space and input levels, but only if the
output format is RGB (if the video output driver supports RGB output, you can force this
with --vf=scale,format=rgba).
If this option is set to auto (which is the default), the video's color space flag will be
used. If that flag is unset, the color space will be selected automatically. This is done
using a simple heuristic that attempts to distinguish SD and HD video. If the video is
larger than 1279x576 pixels, BT.709 (HD) will be used; otherwise BT.601 (SD) is selected.
Available color spaces are:
auto automatic selection (default)
bt.601 ITU-R Rec. BT.601 (SD)
bt.709 ITU-R Rec. BT.709 (HD)
bt.2020-ncl
ITU-R Rec. BT.2020 (non-constant luminance)
bt.2020-cl
ITU-R Rec. BT.2020 (constant luminance)
bt.2100-pq
ITU-R Rec. BT.2100 ICtCp PQ variant
bt.2100-hlg
ITU-R Rec. BT.2100 ICtCp HLG variant
dolbyvision
Dolby Vision
smpte-240m
SMPTE-240M
<colorlevels>
YUV color levels used with YUV to RGB conversion. This option is only necessary when
playing broken files which do not follow standard color levels or which are flagged wrong.
If the video does not specify its color range, it is assumed to be limited range.
The same limitations as with <colormatrix> apply.
Available color ranges are:
auto automatic selection (normally limited range) (default)
limited
limited range (16-235 for luma, 16-240 for chroma)
full full range (0-255 for both luma and chroma)
<primaries>
RGB primaries the source file was encoded with. Normally this should be set in the file
header, but when playing broken or mistagged files this can be used to override the
setting.
This option only affects video output drivers that perform color management, for example
gpu with the target-prim or icc-profile suboptions set.
If this option is set to auto (which is the default), the video's primaries flag will be
used. If that flag is unset, the color space will be selected automatically, using the
following heuristics: If the <colormatrix> is set or determined as BT.2020 or BT.709, the
corresponding primaries are used. Otherwise, if the video height is exactly 576 (PAL),
BT.601-625 is used. If it's exactly 480 or 486 (NTSC), BT.601-525 is used. If the video
resolution is anything else, BT.709 is used.
Available primaries are:
auto automatic selection (default)
bt.601-525
ITU-R BT.601 (SD) 525-line systems (NTSC, SMPTE-C)
bt.601-625
ITU-R BT.601 (SD) 625-line systems (PAL, SECAM)
bt.709 ITU-R BT.709 (HD) (same primaries as sRGB)
bt.2020
ITU-R BT.2020 (UHD)
apple Apple RGB
adobe Adobe RGB (1998)
prophoto
ProPhoto RGB (ROMM)
cie1931
CIE 1931 RGB
dci-p3 DCI-P3 (Digital Cinema)
v-gamut
Panasonic V-Gamut primaries
<gamma>
Gamma function the source file was encoded with. Normally this should be set in the file
header, but when playing broken or mistagged files this can be used to override the
setting.
This option only affects video output drivers that perform color management.
If this option is set to auto (which is the default), the gamma will be set to BT.1886 for
YCbCr content, sRGB for RGB content and Linear for XYZ content.
Available gamma functions are:
auto automatic selection (default)
bt.1886
ITU-R BT.1886 (EOTF corresponding to BT.601/BT.709/BT.2020)
srgb IEC 61966-2-4 (sRGB)
linear Linear light
gamma1.8
Pure power curve (gamma 1.8)
gamma2.0
Pure power curve (gamma 2.0)
gamma2.2
Pure power curve (gamma 2.2)
gamma2.4
Pure power curve (gamma 2.4)
gamma2.6
Pure power curve (gamma 2.6)
gamma2.8
Pure power curve (gamma 2.8)
prophoto
ProPhoto RGB (ROMM) curve
pq ITU-R BT.2100 PQ (Perceptual quantizer) curve
hlg ITU-R BT.2100 HLG (Hybrid Log-gamma) curve
v-log Panasonic V-Log transfer curve
s-log1 Sony S-Log1 transfer curve
s-log2 Sony S-Log2 transfer curve
<sig-peak>
Reference peak illumination for the video file, relative to the signal's reference white
level. This is mostly interesting for HDR, but it can also be used tone map SDR content to
simulate a different exposure. Normally inferred from tags such as MaxCLL or mastering
metadata.
The default of 0.0 will default to the source's nominal peak luminance.
<light>
Light type of the scene. This is mostly correctly inferred based on the gamma function,
but it can be useful to override this when viewing raw camera footage (e.g. V-Log),
which is normally scene-referred instead of display-referred.
Available light types are:
auto Automatic selection (default)
display
Display-referred light (most content)
hlg Scene-referred using the HLG OOTF (e.g. HLG content)
709-1886
Scene-referred using the BT709+BT1886 interaction
gamma1.2
Scene-referred using a pure power OOTF (gamma=1.2)
<dolbyvision=yes|no>
Whether or not to include Dolby Vision metadata (default: yes). If disabled, any Dolby
Vision metadata will be stripped from frames.
<hdr10plus=yes|no>
Whether or not to include HDR10+ metadata (default: yes). If disabled, any HDR10+ metadata
will be stripped from frames.
<film-grain=yes|no>
Whether or not to include film grain metadata (default: yes). If disabled, any film grain
metadata will be stripped from frames.
<chroma-location>
Set the chroma loc of the video. Use --vf=format:chroma-location=help to list all available
modes.
<stereo-in>
Set the stereo mode the video is assumed to be encoded in. Use --vf=format:stereo-in=help
to list all available modes. Check with the stereo3d filter documentation to see what the
names mean.
<rotate>
Set the rotation the video is assumed to be encoded with in degrees. The special value -1
uses the input format.
<w>, <h>
If not 0, perform conversion to the given size. Ignored if convert=yes is not set.
<dw>, <dh>
Set the display size. Note that setting the display size such that the video is scaled in
both directions instead of just changing the aspect ratio is an implementation detail, and
might change later.
<dar> Set the display aspect ratio of the video frame. This is a float, but values such as [16:9]
can be passed too ([...] for quoting to prevent the option parser from interpreting the :
character).
<force-scaler=auto|zimg|sws>
Force a specific scaler backend, if applicable. This is a debug option and could go away
any time.
<alpha=auto|straight|premul>
Set the kind of alpha the video uses. Undefined effect if the image format has no alpha
channel (could be ignored or cause an error, depending on how mpv internals evolve).
Setting this may or may not cause downstream image processing to treat alpha differently,
depending on support. With convert and zimg used, this will convert the alpha. libswscale
and other FFmpeg components completely ignore this.
lavfi=graph[:sws-flags[:o=opts]]
Filter video using FFmpeg's libavfilter.
<graph>
The libavfilter graph string. The filter must have a single video input pad and a single
video output pad.
See <https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html> for syntax and available filters.
WARNING:
If you want to use the full filter syntax with this option, you have to quote the filter
graph in order to prevent mpv's syntax and the filter graph syntax from clashing. To
prevent a quoting and escaping mess, consider using --lavfi-complex if you know which
video track you want to use from the input file. (There is only one video track for
nearly all video files anyway.)
Examples
--vf=lavfi=[gradfun=20:30,vflip]
gradfun filter with nonsense parameters, followed by a vflip filter. (This
demonstrates how libavfilter takes a graph and not just a single filter.) The
filter graph string is quoted with [ and ]. This requires no additional quoting
or escaping with some shells (like bash), while others (like zsh) require
additional " quotes around the option string.
'--vf=lavfi="gradfun=20:30,vflip"'
Same as before, but uses quoting that should be safe with all shells. The outer '
quotes make sure that the shell does not remove the " quotes needed by mpv.
'--vf=lavfi=graph="gradfun=radius=30:strength=20,vflip"'
Same as before, but uses named parameters for everything.
<sws-flags>
If libavfilter inserts filters for pixel format conversion, this option gives the flags
which should be passed to libswscale. This option is numeric and takes a bit-wise
combination of SWS_ flags.
See https://git.videolan.org/?p=ffmpeg.git;a=blob;f=libswscale/swscale.h.
<o> Set AVFilterGraph options. These should be documented by FFmpeg.
Example
'--vf=lavfi=yadif:o="threads=2,thread_type=slice"'
forces a specific threading configuration.
sub=[=bottom-margin:top-margin]
Moves subtitle rendering to an arbitrary point in the filter chain, or force subtitle rendering in
the video filter as opposed to using video output OSD support.
<bottom-margin>
Adds a black band at the bottom of the frame. The SSA/ASS renderer can place subtitles
there (with --sub-use-margins).
<top-margin>
Black band on the top for toptitles (with --sub-use-margins).
Examples
--vf=sub,eq
Moves sub rendering before the eq filter. This will put both subtitle colors and video
under the influence of the video equalizer settings.
vapoursynth=file:buffered-frames:concurrent-frames:user-data
Loads a VapourSynth filter script. This is intended for streamed processing: mpv actually provides
a source filter, instead of using a native VapourSynth video source. The mpv source will answer
frame requests only within a small window of frames (the size of this window is controlled with
the buffered-frames parameter), and requests outside of that will return errors. As such, you
can't use the full power of VapourSynth, but you can use certain filters.
WARNING:
Do not use this filter, unless you have expert knowledge in VapourSynth, and know how to fix
bugs in the mpv VapourSynth wrapper code.
If you just want to play video generated by VapourSynth (i.e. using a native VapourSynth video
source), it's better to use vspipe and a pipe or FIFO to feed the video to mpv. The same applies
if the filter script requires random frame access (see buffered-frames parameter).
file Filename of the script source. Currently, this is always a python script (.vpy in
VapourSynth convention).
The variable video_in is set to the mpv video source, and it is expected that the script
reads video from it. (Otherwise, mpv will decode no video, and the video packet queue will
overflow, eventually leading to only audio playing, or worse.)
The filter graph created by the script is also expected to pass through timestamps using
the _DurationNum and _DurationDen frame properties.
See the end of the option list for a full list of script variables defined by mpv.
Example:
import vapoursynth as vs
from vapoursynth import core
core.std.AddBorders(video_in, 10, 10, 20, 20).set_output()
WARNING:
The script will be reloaded on every seek. This is done to reset the filter properly on
discontinuities.
buffered-frames
Maximum number of decoded video frames that should be buffered before the filter (default:
4). This specifies the maximum number of frames the script can request in backward
direction.
E.g. if buffered-frames=5, and the script just requested frame 15, it can still request
frame 10, but frame 9 is not available anymore. If it requests frame 30, mpv will decode
15 more frames, and keep only frames 25-30.
The only reason why this buffer exists is to serve the random access requests the
VapourSynth filter can make.
The VapourSynth API has a getFrameAsync function, which takes an absolute frame number.
Source filters must respond to all requests. For example, a source filter can request frame
2432, and then frame 3. Source filters typically implement this by pre-indexing the
entire file.
mpv on the other hand is stream oriented, and does not allow filters to seek. (And it would
not make sense to allow it, because it would ruin performance.) Filters get frames
sequentially in playback direction, and cannot request them out of order.
To compensate for this mismatch, mpv allows the filter to access frames within a certain
window. buffered-frames controls the size of this window. Most VapourSynth filters happen
to work with this, because mpv requests frames sequentially increasing from it, and most
filters only require frames "close" to the requested frame.
If the filter requests a frame that has a higher frame number than the highest buffered
frame, new frames will be decoded until the requested frame number is reached. Excessive
frames will be flushed out in a FIFO manner (there are only at most buffered-frames in this
buffer).
If the filter requests a frame that has a lower frame number than the lowest buffered
frame, the request cannot be satisfied, and an error is returned to the filter. This kind
of error is not supposed to happen in a "proper" VapourSynth environment. What exactly
happens depends on the filters involved.
Increasing this buffer will not improve performance. Rather, it will waste memory, and slow
down seeks (when enough frames to fill the buffer need to be decoded at once). It is only
needed to prevent the error described in the previous paragraph.
How many frames a filter requires depends on filter implementation details, and mpv has no
way of knowing. A scale filter might need only 1 frame, an interpolation filter may require
a small number of frames, and the Reverse filter will require an infinite number of frames.
If you want reliable operation to the full extend VapourSynth is capable, use vspipe.
The actual number of buffered frames also depends on the value of the concurrent-frames
option. Currently, both option values are multiplied to get the final buffer size.
concurrent-frames
Number of frames that should be requested in parallel. The level of concurrency depends on
the filter and how quickly mpv can decode video to feed the filter. This value should
probably be proportional to the number of cores on your machine. Most time, making it
higher than the number of cores can actually make it slower.
Technically, mpv will call the VapourSynth getFrameAsync function in a loop, until there
are concurrent-frames frames that have not been returned by the filter yet. This also
assumes that the rest of the mpv filter chain reads the output of the vapoursynth filter
quickly enough. (For example, if you pause the player, filtering will stop very soon,
because the filtered frames are waiting in a queue.)
Actual concurrency depends on many other factors.
By default, this uses the special value auto, which sets the option to the number of
detected logical CPU cores.
user-data
Optional arbitrary string that is passed to the script. Default to empty string if not set.
The following .vpy script variables are defined by mpv:
video_in
The mpv video source as vapoursynth clip. Note that this has an incorrect (very high)
length set, which confuses many filters. This is necessary, because the true number of
frames is unknown. You can use the Trim filter on the clip to reduce the length.
video_in_dw, video_in_dh
Display size of the video. Can be different from video size if the video does not use
square pixels (e.g. DVD).
container_fps
FPS value as reported by file headers. This value can be wrong or completely broken (e.g. 0
or NaN). Even if the value is correct, if another filter changes the real FPS (by dropping
or inserting frames), the value of this variable will not be useful. Note that the
--container-fps-override command line option overrides this value.
Useful for some filters which insist on having a FPS.
display_fps
Refresh rate of the current display. Note that this value can be 0.
display_res
Resolution of the current display. This is an integer array with the first entry
corresponding to the width and the second entry corresponding to the height. These values
can be 0. Note that this will not respond to monitor changes and may not work on all
platforms.
user_data
User data passed from the filter. This variable always exists, and defaults to empty
string.
vavpp VA-API video post processing. Requires the system to support VA-API, i.e. Linux/BSD only. Works
with --vo=vaapi and --vo=gpu only. Currently deinterlaces. This filter is automatically inserted
if deinterlacing is requested (either using the d key, by default mapped to the command cycle
deinterlace, or the --deinterlace option).
deint=<method>
Select the deinterlacing algorithm.
no Don't perform deinterlacing.
auto Select the best quality deinterlacing algorithm (default). This goes by the order of
the options as documented, with motion-compensated being considered best quality.
first-field
Show only first field.
bob bob deinterlacing.
weave, motion-adaptive, motion-compensated
Advanced deinterlacing algorithms. Whether these actually work depends on the GPU
hardware, the GPU drivers, driver bugs, and mpv bugs.
<interlaced-only>
no Deinterlace all frames (default).
yes Only deinterlace frames marked as interlaced.
reversal-bug=<yes|no>
no Use the API as it was interpreted by older Mesa drivers. While this interpretation
was more obvious and intuitive, it was apparently wrong, and not shared by Intel
driver developers.
yes Use Intel interpretation of surface forward and backwards references (default). This
is what Intel drivers and newer Mesa drivers expect. Matters only for the advanced
deinterlacing algorithms.
vdpaupp
VDPAU video post processing. Works with --vo=vdpau and --vo=gpu only. This filter is automatically
inserted if deinterlacing is requested (either using the d key, by default mapped to the command
cycle deinterlace, or the --deinterlace option). When enabling deinterlacing, it is always
preferred over software deinterlacer filters if the vdpau VO is used, and also if gpu is used and
hardware decoding was activated at least once (i.e. vdpau was loaded).
sharpen=<-1-1>
For positive values, apply a sharpening algorithm to the video, for negative values a
blurring algorithm (default: 0).
denoise=<0-1>
Apply a noise reduction algorithm to the video (default: 0; no noise reduction).
deint=<yes|no>
Whether deinterlacing is enabled (default: no). If enabled, it will use the mode selected
with deint-mode.
deint-mode=<first-field|bob|temporal|temporal-spatial>
Select deinterlacing mode (default: temporal).
Note that there's currently a mechanism that allows the vdpau VO to change the deint-mode
of auto-inserted vdpaupp filters. To avoid confusion, it's recommended not to use the
--vo=vdpau suboptions related to filtering.
first-field
Show only first field.
bob Bob deinterlacing.
temporal
Motion-adaptive temporal deinterlacing. May lead to A/V desync with slow video
hardware and/or high resolution.
temporal-spatial
Motion-adaptive temporal deinterlacing with edge-guided spatial interpolation. Needs
fast video hardware.
chroma-deint
Makes temporal deinterlacers operate both on luma and chroma (default). Use
no-chroma-deint to solely use luma and speed up advanced deinterlacing. Useful with slow
video memory.
pullup Try to apply inverse telecine, needs motion adaptive temporal deinterlacing.
interlaced-only=<yes|no>
If yes, only deinterlace frames marked as interlaced (default: no).
hqscaling=<0-9>
0 Use default VDPAU scaling (default).
1-9 Apply high quality VDPAU scaling (needs capable hardware).
d3d11vpp
Direct3D 11 video post-processing. Requires a D3D11 context and works best with hardware decoding.
Software frames are automatically uploaded to hardware for processing.
format Convert to the selected image format, e.g., nv12, p010, etc. (default: don't change).
Format names can be queried with --vf=d3d11vpp=format=help. Note that only a limited
subset is supported, and actual support depends on your hardware. Normally, this shouldn't
be changed unless some processing only works with a specific format, in which case it can
be selected here.
deint=<yes|no>
Whether deinterlacing is enabled (default: no).
scale Scaling factor for the video frames (default: 1.0).
scaling-mode=<standard,intel,nvidia>
Select the scaling mode to be used. Note that this only enables the appropriate processing
extensions; whether it actually works or not depends on your hardware and the settings in
your GPU driver's control panel (default: standard).
standard
Default scaling mode as decided by d3d11vpp implementation.
intel Intel Video Super Resolution.
nvidia NVIDIA RTX Super Resolution.
interlaced-only=<yes|no>
If yes, only deinterlace frames marked as interlaced (default: no).
mode=<blend|bob|adaptive|mocomp|ivctc|none>
Tries to select a video processor with the given processing capability. If a video
processor supports multiple capabilities, it is not clear which algorithm is actually
selected. none always falls back. On most if not all hardware, this option will probably do
nothing, because a video processor usually supports all modes or none.
nvidia-true-hdr
Enable NVIDIA RTX Video HDR processing.
fingerprint=...
Compute video frame fingerprints and provide them as metadata. Actually, it currently barely
deserved to be called fingerprint, because it does not compute "proper" fingerprints, only tiny
downscaled images (but which can be used to compute image hashes or for similarity matching).
The main purpose of this filter is to support the skip-logo.lua script. If this script is
dropped, or mpv ever gains a way to load user-defined filters (other than VapourSynth), this
filter will be removed. Due to the "special" nature of this filter, it will be removed without
warning.
The intended way to read from the filter is using vf-metadata (also see clear-on-query filter
parameter). The property will return a list of key/value pairs as follows:
fp0.pts = 1.2345
fp0.hex = 1234abcdef...bcde
fp1.pts = 1.4567
fp1.hex = abcdef1234...6789
...
fpN.pts = ...
fpN.hex = ...
type = gray-hex-16x16
Each fp<N> entry is for a frame. The pts entry specifies the timestamp of the frame (within the
filter chain; in simple cases this is the same as the display timestamp). The hex field is the hex
encoded fingerprint, whose size and meaning depend on the type filter option. The type field has
the same value as the option the filter was created with.
This returns the frames that were filtered since the last query of the property. If
clear-on-query=no was set, a query doesn't reset the list of frames. In both cases, a maximum of
10 frames is returned. If there are more frames, the oldest frames are discarded. Frames are
returned in filter order.
(This doesn't return a structured list for the per-frame details because the internals of the
vf-metadata mechanism suck. The returned format may change in the future.)
This filter uses zimg for speed and profit. However, it will fallback to libswscale in a number of
situations: lesser pixel formats, unaligned data pointers or strides, or if zimg fails to
initialize for unknown reasons. In these cases, the filter will use more CPU. Also, it will output
different fingerprints, because libswscale cannot perform the full range expansion we normally
request from zimg. As a consequence, the filter may be slower and not work correctly in random
situations.
type=...
What fingerprint to compute. Available types are:
gray-hex-8x8
grayscale, 8 bit, 8x8 size
gray-hex-16x16
grayscale, 8 bit, 16x16 size (default)
Both types simply remove all colors, downscale the image, concatenate all pixel values to a
byte array, and convert the array to a hex string.
clear-on-query=yes|no
Clear the list of frame fingerprints if the vf-metadata property for this filter is queried
(default: yes). This requires some care by the user. Some types of accesses might query the
filter multiple times, which leads to lost frames.
print=yes|no
Print computed fingerprints to the terminal (default: no). This is mostly for testing and
such. Scripts should use vf-metadata to read information from this filter instead.
gpu=...
Convert video to RGB using the Vulkan or OpenGL renderer normally used with --vo=gpu. In case of
OpenGL, this requires that the EGL implementation supports off-screen rendering on the default
display. (This is the case with Mesa.)
Sub-options:
api=<type>
The value type selects the rendering API. You can also pass help to get a complete list of
compiled in backends.
egl EGL (default if available)
vulkan Vulkan
w=<pixels>, h=<pixels>
Size of the output in pixels (default: 0). If not positive, this will use the size of the
first filtered input frame.
WARNING:
This is highly experimental. Performance is bad, and it will not work everywhere in the first
place. Some features are not supported.
WARNING:
This does not do OSD rendering. If you see OSD, then it has been rendered by the VO backend.
(Subtitles are rendered by the gpu filter, if possible.)
WARNING:
If you use this with encoding mode, keep in mind that encoding mode will convert the RGB
filter's output back to yuv420p in software, using the configured software scaler. Using zimg
might improve this, but in any case it might go against your goals when using this filter.
WARNING:
Do not use this with --vo=gpu. It will apply filtering twice, since most --vo=gpu options are
unconditionally applied to the gpu filter. There is no mechanism in mpv to prevent this.
ENCODING
You can encode files from one format/codec to another using this facility.
--o=<filename>
Enables encoding mode and specifies the output file name.
--of=<format>
Specifies the output format (overrides autodetection by the file name extension of the file
specified by --o). See --of=help for a full list of supported formats.
--ofopts=<options>
Specifies the output format options for libavformat. See --ofopts=help for a full list of
supported options.
This is a key/value list option. See List Options for details.
--ofopts-add=<option>
Appends the option given as an argument to the options list. (Passing multiple options is
currently still possible, but deprecated.)
--ofopts=""
Completely empties the options list.
--oac=<codec>
Specifies the output audio codec. See --oac=help for a full list of supported codecs.
--oacopts=<options>
Specifies the output audio codec options for libavcodec. See --oacopts=help for a full list of
supported options.
Example
"--oac=libmp3lame --oacopts=b=128000"
selects 128 kbps MP3 encoding.
This is a key/value list option. See List Options for details.
--oacopts-add=<option>
Appends the option given as an argument to the options list. (Passing multiple options is
currently still possible, but deprecated.)
--oacopts=""
Completely empties the options list.
--ovc=<codec>
Specifies the output video codec. See --ovc=help for a full list of supported codecs.
--ovcopts=<options>
Specifies the output video codec options for libavcodec. See --ovcopts=help for a full list of
supported options.
Examples
"--ovc=mpeg4 --ovcopts=qscale=5"
selects constant quantizer scale 5 for MPEG-4 encoding.
"--ovc=libx264 --ovcopts=crf=23"
selects VBR quality factor 23 for H.264 encoding.
This is a key/value list option. See List Options for details.
--ovcopts-add=<option>
Appends the option given as an argument to the options list. (Passing multiple options is
currently still possible, but deprecated.)
--ovcopts=""
Completely empties the options list.
--orawts
Copies input pts to the output video (not supported by some output container formats, e.g. AVI).
In this mode, discontinuities are not fixed and all pts are passed through as-is. Never seek
backwards or use multiple input files in this mode!
--ocopy-metadata=<yes|no>
Copy metadata from input files to output files when encoding (default: yes).
--oset-metadata=<metadata-tag[,metadata-tag,...]>
Specifies metadata to include in the output file. Supported keys vary between output formats. For
example, Matroska (MKV) and FLAC allow almost arbitrary keys, while support in MP4 and MP3 is more
limited.
This is a key/value list option. See List Options for details.
Example
"--oset-metadata=title="Output title",comment="Another tag""
adds a title and a comment to the output file.
--oremove-metadata=<metadata-tag[,metadata-tag,...]>
Specifies metadata to exclude from the output file when copying from the input file.
This is a string list option. See List Options for details.
Example
"--oremove-metadata=comment,genre"
excludes copying of the the comment and genre tags to the output file.
COMMAND INTERFACE
The mpv core can be controlled with commands and properties. A number of ways to interact with the player
use them: key bindings (input.conf), OSD (showing information with properties), JSON IPC, the client API
(libmpv), and the classic slave mode.
input.conf
The input.conf file consists of a list of key bindings, for example:
s screenshot # take a screenshot with the s key
LEFT seek 15 # map the left-arrow key to seeking forward by 15 seconds
Each line maps a key to an input command. Keys are specified with their literal value (upper case if
combined with Shift), or a name for special keys. For example, a maps to the a key without shift, and A
maps to a with shift.
The file is located in the mpv configuration directory (normally at ~/.config/mpv/input.conf depending on
platform). The default bindings are defined here:
https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/etc/input.conf
A list of special keys can be obtained with
mpv --input-keylist
In general, keys can be combined with Shift, Ctrl and Alt:
ctrl+q quit
mpv can be started in input test mode, which displays key bindings and the commands they're bound to on
the OSD, instead of executing the commands:
mpv --input-test --force-window --idle
(Only closing the window will make mpv exit, pressing normal keys will merely display the binding, even
if mapped to quit.)
Also see Key names.
input.conf syntax
[Shift+][Ctrl+][Alt+][Meta+]<key> [{<section>}] <command> ( ; <command> )*
Note that by default, the right Alt key can be used to create special characters, and thus does not
register as a modifier. This can be changed with --input-right-alt-gr option.
Newlines always start a new binding. # starts a comment (outside of quoted string arguments). To bind
commands to the # key, SHARP can be used.
<key> is either the literal character the key produces (ASCII or Unicode character), or a symbolic name
(as printed by --input-keylist).
<section> (braced with { and }) is the input section for this command.
<command> is the command itself. It consists of the command name and multiple (or none) arguments, all
separated by whitespace. String arguments should be quoted, typically with ". See Flat command syntax.
You can bind multiple commands to one key. For example:
a show-text "command 1" ; show-text "command 2"
It's also possible to bind a command to a sequence of keys:
a-b-c show-text "command run after a, b, c have been pressed"
(This is not shown in the general command syntax.)
If a or a-b or b are already bound, this will run the first command that matches, and the multi-key
command will never be called. Intermediate keys can be remapped to ignore in order to avoid this issue.
The maximum number of (non-modifier) keys for combinations is currently 4.
Key names
All mouse and keyboard input is to converted to mpv-specific key names. Key names are either special
symbolic identifiers representing a physical key, or text key names, which are Unicode code points
encoded as UTF-8. These are what keyboard input would normally produce, for example a for the A key.
These are influenced by keyboard modifiers which affect produced text, such as shift and caps lock. As a
consequence, mpv uses input translated by the current OS keyboard layout, rather than physical scan
codes.
Currently there is the hardcoded assumption that every text key can be represented as a single Unicode
code point (in NFKC form).
All key names can be combined with the modifiers Shift, Ctrl, Alt, Meta. They must be prefixed to the
actual key name, where each modifier is followed by a + (for example ctrl+q).
NOTE:
The Shift modifier requires some attention. In general, when the Shift modifier is combined with a key
which produces text, the actual produced text key name when shift is pressed should be used.
For instance, on the US keyboard layout, Shift+2 should usually be specified as key-name @ at
input.conf, and similarly the combination Alt+Shift+2 is usually Alt+@, etc.
In general, the Shift modifier, when specified with text key names, is ignored: for instance, mpv
interprets Shift+2 as 2. The only exceptions are ASCII letters, which are normalized by mpv. For
example, Shift+a is interpreted as A.
Special key names like Shift+LEFT work as expected. If in doubt - use --input-test to check how a
key/combination is seen by mpv.
Symbolic key names and modifier names are case-insensitive. Unicode key names are case-sensitive just
like how keyboard text input would produce.
Another type of key names are hexadecimal key names, which start with 0x, followed by the hexadecimal
value of the key. The hexadecimal value can be either a Unicode code point value, or can serve as
fallback for special keys that do not have a special mpv defined name. They will break as soon as mpv
adds proper names for them, but can enable you to use a key at all if that does not happen.
All symbolic names are listed by --input-keylist. --input-test is a special mode that prints all input on
the OSD.
Comments on some symbolic names:
KP* Keypad names. Behavior varies by backend (whether they implement this, and on how they treat
numlock), but typically, mpv tries to map keys on the keypad to separate names, even if they
produce the same text as normal keys.
MOUSE_BTN*, MBTN*
Various mouse buttons.
Depending on backend, the mouse wheel might also be represented as a button. In addition,
MOUSE_BTN3 to MOUSE_BTN6 are deprecated aliases for WHEEL_UP, WHEEL_DOWN, WHEEL_LEFT, WHEEL_RIGHT.
MBTN* are aliases for MOUSE_BTN*.
WHEEL_*
Mouse wheels and touch pads (typically).
These key are scalable when used with scalable commands if the underlying device supports
high-resolution scrolling (e.g. touch pads).
AXIS_* Deprecated aliases for WHEEL_*.
*_DBL Mouse button double clicks.
MOUSE_MOVE, MOUSE_ENTER, MOUSE_LEAVE
Emitted by mouse move events. Enter/leave happens when the mouse enters or leave the mpv window
(or the current mouse region, using the deprecated mouse region input section mechanism).
CLOSE_WIN
Pseudo key emitted when closing the mpv window using the OS window manager (for example, by
clicking the close button in the window title bar).
GAMEPAD_*
Keys emitted by the SDL gamepad backend.
UNMAPPED
Pseudo-key that matches any unmapped key. (You should probably avoid this if possible, because it
might change behavior or get removed in the future.)
ANY_UNICODE
Pseudo-key that matches any key that produces text. (You should probably avoid this if possible,
because it might change behavior or get removed in the future.)
Flat command syntax
This is the syntax used in input.conf, and referred to "input.conf syntax" in a number of other places.
<command> ::= [<prefixes>] <command_name> (<argument>)*
<argument> ::= (<unquoted> | " <double_quoted> " | ' <single_quoted> ' | `X <custom_quoted> X`)
command_name is an unquoted string with the command name itself. See List of Input Commands for a list.
Arguments are separated by whitespaces even if the command expects only one argument. Arguments with
whitespaces or other special characters must be quoted, or the command cannot be parsed correctly.
Double quotes interpret JSON/C-style escaping, like \t or \" or \\. JSON escapes according to RFC 8259,
minus surrogate pair escapes. This is the only form which allows newlines at the value - as \n.
Single quotes take the content literally, and cannot include the single-quote character at the value.
Custom quotes also take the content literally, but are more flexible than single quotes. They start with
` (back-quote) followed by any ASCII character, and end at the first occurrence of the same pair in
reverse order, e.g. `-foo-` or ``bar``. The final pair sequence is not allowed at the value - in these
examples -` and `` respectively. In the second example the last character of the value also can't be a
back-quote.
Mixed quoting at the same argument, like 'foo'"bar", is not supported.
Note that argument parsing and property expansion happen at different stages. First, arguments are
determined as described above, and then, where applicable, properties are expanded - regardless of
argument quoting. However, expansion can still be prevented with the raw prefix or $>. See Input Command
Prefixes and Property Expansion.
Commands specified as arrays
This applies to certain APIs, such as mp.commandv() or mp.command_native() (with array parameters) in Lua
scripting, or mpv_command() or mpv_command_node() (with MPV_FORMAT_NODE_ARRAY) in the C libmpv client
API.
The command as well as all arguments are passed as a single array. Similar to the Flat command syntax,
you can first pass prefixes as strings (each as separate array item), then the command name as string,
and then each argument as string or a native value.
Since these APIs pass arguments as separate strings or native values, they do not expect quotes, and do
support escaping. Technically, there is the input.conf parser, which first splits the command string into
arguments, and then invokes argument parsers for each argument. The input.conf parser normally handles
quotes and escaping. The array command APIs mentioned above pass strings directly to the argument
parsers, or can sidestep them by the ability to pass non-string values.
Property expansion is disabled by default for these APIs. This can be changed with the expand-properties
prefix. See Input Command Prefixes.
Sometimes commands have string arguments, that in turn are actually parsed by other components (e.g.
filter strings with vf add) - in these cases, you you would have to double-escape in input.conf, but not
with the array APIs.
For complex commands, consider using Named arguments instead, which should give slightly more
compatibility. Some commands do not support named arguments and inherently take an array, though.
Named arguments
This applies to certain APIs, such as mp.command_native() (with tables that have string keys) in Lua
scripting, or mpv_command_node() (with MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP) in the C libmpv client API.
The name of the command is provided with a name string field. The name of each command is defined in each
command description in the List of Input Commands. --input-cmdlist also lists them. See the subprocess
command for an example.
Some commands do not support named arguments (e.g. run command). You need to use APIs that pass arguments
as arrays.
Named arguments are not supported in the "flat" input.conf syntax, which means you cannot use them for
key bindings in input.conf at all.
Property expansion is disabled by default for these APIs. This can be changed with the expand-properties
prefix. See Input Command Prefixes.
List of Input Commands
Commands with parameters have the parameter name enclosed in < / >. Don't add those to the actual
command. Optional arguments are enclosed in [ / ]. If you don't pass them, they will be set to a default
value.
Remember to quote string arguments in input.conf (see Flat command syntax).
Playback Control
seek <target> [<flags>]
Change the playback position. By default, seeks by a relative amount of seconds.
The second argument consists of flags controlling the seek mode:
relative (default)
Seek relative to current position (a negative value seeks backwards).
absolute
Seek to a given time (a negative value starts from the end of the file).
absolute-percent
Seek to a given percent position.
relative-percent
Seek relative to current position in percent.
keyframes
Always restart playback at keyframe boundaries (fast).
exact Always do exact/hr/precise seeks (slow).
Multiple flags can be combined, e.g.: absolute+keyframes.
By default, keyframes is used for relative, relative-percent, and absolute-percent seeks, while
exact is used for absolute seeks.
Before mpv 0.9, the keyframes and exact flags had to be passed as 3rd parameter (essentially using
a space instead of +). The 3rd parameter is still parsed, but is considered deprecated.
This is a scalable command. See the documentation of nonscalable input command prefix in Input
Command Prefixes for details.
revert-seek [<flags>]
Undoes the seek command, and some other commands that seek (but not necessarily all of them).
Calling this command once will jump to the playback position before the seek. Calling it a second
time undoes the revert-seek command itself. This only works within a single file.
The first argument is optional, and can change the behavior:
mark Mark the current time position. The next normal revert-seek command will seek back to this
point, no matter how many seeks happened since last time.
mark-permanent
If set, mark the current position, and do not change the mark position before the next
revert-seek command that has mark or mark-permanent set (or playback of the current file
ends). Until this happens, revert-seek will always seek to the marked point. This flag
cannot be combined with mark.
Using it without any arguments gives you the default behavior.
sub-seek <skip> [<flags>]
Change video and audio position such that the subtitle event after <skip> subtitle events is
displayed. For example, sub-seek 1 skips to the next subtitle, sub-seek -1 skips to the previous
subtitles, and sub-seek 0 seeks to the beginning of the current subtitle.
This is similar to sub-step, except that it seeks video and audio instead of adjusting the
subtitle delay.
Secondary argument:
primary (default)
Seeks through the primary subtitles.
secondary
Seeks through the secondary subtitles.
For embedded subtitles (like with Matroska), this works only with subtitle events that have
already been displayed, or are within a short prefetch range. See Cache for details on how to
control the available prefetch range.
frame-step [<frames>] [<flags>]
Go forward or backwards by a given amount of frames. If <frames> is omitted, the value is assumed
to be 1.
The second argument consists of flags controlling the frameskip mode:
play (default)
Play the video forward by the desired amount of frames and then pause. This only works
with a positive value (i.e. frame stepping forwards).
seek Perform a very exact seek that attempts to seek by the desired amount of frames. If
<frames> is -1, this will go exactly to the previous frame.
mute The same as play but mutes the audio stream if there is any during the duration of the
frame step.
Note that the default frameskip mode, play, is more accurate but can be slow depending on how many
frames you are skipping (i.e. skipping forward 100 frames will play 100 frames of video before
stopping). This mode only works when going forwards. Frame stepping back always performs a seek.
When using seek mode, this can still be very slow (it tries to be precise, not fast), and
sometimes fails to behave as expected. How well this works depends on whether precise seeking
works correctly (e.g. see the --hr-seek-demuxer-offset option). Video filters or other video
post-processing that modifies timing of frames (e.g. deinterlacing) should usually work, but might
make framestepping silently behave incorrectly in corner cases. Using --hr-seek-framedrop=no
should help, although it might make precise seeking slower. Also if the video is VFR,
framestepping using seeks will probably not work correctly except for the -1 case.
This does not work with audio-only playback.
frame-back-step
Calls frame-step with a value of -1 and the seek flag.
This does not work with audio-only playback.
stop [<flags>]
Stop playback and clear playlist. With default settings, this is essentially like quit. Useful for
the client API: playback can be stopped without terminating the player.
The first argument is optional, and supports the following flags:
keep-playlist
Do not clear the playlist.
Property Manipulation
set <name> <value>
Set the given property or option to the given value.
del <name>
Delete the given property. Most properties cannot be deleted.
add <name> [<value>]
Add the given value to the property or option. On overflow or underflow, clamp the property to the
maximum. If <value> is omitted, assume 1.
Whether or not key-repeat is enabled by default depends on the property. Currently properties
with continuous values are repeatable by default (like volume), while discrete values are not
(like osd-level).
This is a scalable command. See the documentation of nonscalable input command prefix in Input
Command Prefixes for details.
multiply <name> <value>
Similar to add, but multiplies the property or option with the numeric value.
cycle <name> [<value>]
Cycle the given property or option. The second argument can be up or down to set the cycle
direction. On overflow, set the property back to the minimum, on underflow set it to the maximum.
If up or down is omitted, assume up.
Whether or not key-repeat is enabled by default depends on the property. Currently properties
with continuous values are repeatable by default (like volume), while discrete values are not
(like osd-level).
This is a scalable command. See the documentation of nonscalable input command prefix in Input
Command Prefixes for details.
cycle-values [<"!reverse">] <property> <value1> [<value2> [...]]
Cycle through a list of values. Each invocation of the command will set the given property to the
next value in the list. The command will use the current value of the property/option, and use it
to determine the current position in the list of values. Once it has found it, it will set the
next value in the list (wrapping around to the first item if needed).
This command has a variable number of arguments, and cannot be used with named arguments.
The special argument !reverse can be used to cycle the value list in reverse. The only advantage
is that you don't need to reverse the value list yourself when adding a second key binding for
cycling backwards.
change-list <name> <operation> <value>
This command changes list options as described in List Options. The <name> parameter is the normal
option name, while <operation> is the suffix or action used on the option.
Some operations take no value, but the command still requires the value parameter. In these cases,
the value must be an empty string.
Example
change-list glsl-shaders append file.glsl
Add a filename to the glsl-shaders list. The command line equivalent is
--glsl-shaders-append=file.glsl or alternatively --glsl-shader=file.glsl.
Playlist Manipulation
playlist-next [<flags>]
Go to the next entry on the playlist.
First argument:
weak (default)
If the last file on the playlist is currently played, do nothing.
force Terminate playback if there are no more files on the playlist.
playlist-prev [<flags>]
Go to the previous entry on the playlist.
First argument:
weak (default)
If the first file on the playlist is currently played, do nothing.
force Terminate playback if the first file is being played.
playlist-next-playlist
Go to the next entry on the playlist with a different playlist-path.
playlist-prev-playlist
Go to the first of the previous entries on the playlist with a different playlist-path.
playlist-play-index <integer|current|none>
Start (or restart) playback of the given playlist index. In addition to the 0-based playlist entry
index, it supports the following values:
<current>
The current playlist entry (as in playlist-current-pos) will be played again (unload and
reload). If none is set, playback is stopped. (In corner cases, playlist-current-pos can
point to a playlist entry even if playback is currently inactive,
<none> Playback is stopped. If idle mode (--idle) is enabled, the player will enter idle mode,
otherwise it will exit.
This command is similar to loadfile in that it only manipulates the state of what to play next,
without waiting until the current file is unloaded, and the next one is loaded.
Setting playlist-pos or similar properties can have a similar effect to this command. However,
it's more explicit, and guarantees that playback is restarted if for example the new playlist
entry is the same as the previous one.
loadfile <url> [<flags> [<index> [<options>]]]
Load the given file or URL and play it. Technically, this is just a playlist manipulation command
(which either replaces the playlist or adds an entry to it). Actual file loading happens
independently. For example, a loadfile command that replaces the current file with a new one
returns before the current file is stopped, and the new file even begins loading.
Second argument:
<replace> (default)
Stop playback of the current file, and play the new file immediately.
<append>
Append the file to the playlist.
<append-play>
Append the file, and if nothing is currently playing, start playback. (Always starts with
the added file, even if the playlist was not empty before running this command.)
<insert-next>
Insert the file into the playlist, directly after the current entry.
<insert-next-play>
Insert the file next, and if nothing is currently playing, start playback. (Always starts
with the added file, even if the playlist was not empty before running this command.)
<insert-at>
Insert the file into the playlist, at the index given in the third argument.
<insert-at-play>
Insert the file at the index given in the third argument, and if nothing is currently
playing, start playback. (Always starts with the added file, even if the playlist was not
empty before running this command.)
The third argument is an insertion index, used only by the insert-at and insert-at-play actions.
When used with those actions, the new item will be inserted at the index position in the playlist,
or appended to the end if index is less than 0 or greater than the size of the playlist. This
argument will be ignored for all other actions. This argument is added in mpv 0.38.0.
The fourth argument is a list of options and values which should be set while the file is playing.
It is of the form opt1=value1,opt2=value2,... When using the client API, this can be a
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP (or a Lua table), however the values themselves must be strings currently.
These options are set during playback, and restored to the previous value at end of playback (see
Per-File Options).
WARNING:
Since mpv 0.38.0, an insertion index argument is added as the third argument. This breaks all
existing uses of this command which make use of the argument to include the list of options to
be set while the file is playing. To address this problem, the third argument now needs to be
set to -1 if the fourth argument needs to be used.
loadlist <url> [<flags> [<index>]]
Load the given playlist file or URL (like --playlist).
Second argument:
<replace> (default)
Stop playback and replace the internal playlist with the new one.
<append>
Append the new playlist at the end of the current internal playlist.
<append-play>
Append the new playlist, and if nothing is currently playing, start playback. (Always
starts with the new playlist, even if the internal playlist was not empty before running
this command.)
<insert-next>
Insert the new playlist into the current internal playlist, directly after the current
entry.
<insert-next-play>
Insert the new playlist, and if nothing is currently playing, start playback. (Always
starts with the new playlist, even if the internal playlist was not empty before running
this command.)
<insert-at>
Insert the new playlist at the index given in the third argument.
<insert-at-play>
Insert the new playlist at the index given in the third argument, and if nothing is
currently playing, start playback. (Always starts with the new playlist, even if the
internal playlist was not empty before running this command.)
The third argument is an insertion index, used only by the insert-at and insert-at-play actions.
When used with those actions, the new playlist will be inserted at the index position in the
internal playlist, or appended to the end if index is less than 0 or greater than the size of the
internal playlist. This argument will be ignored for all other actions.
playlist-clear
Clear the playlist, except the currently played file.
playlist-remove <index>
Remove the playlist entry at the given index. Index values start counting with 0. The special
value current removes the current entry. Note that removing the current entry also stops playback
and starts playing the next entry.
playlist-move <index1> <index2>
Move the playlist entry at index1, so that it takes the place of the entry index2. (Paradoxically,
the moved playlist entry will not have the index value index2 after moving if index1 was lower
than index2, because index2 refers to the target entry, not the index the entry will have after
moving.)
playlist-shuffle
Shuffle the playlist. This is similar to what is done on start if the --shuffle option is used.
playlist-unshuffle
Attempt to revert the previous playlist-shuffle command. This works only once (multiple successive
playlist-unshuffle commands do nothing). May not work correctly if new recursive playlists have
been opened since a playlist-shuffle command.
Track Manipulation
sub-add <url> [<flags> [<title> [<lang>]]]
Load the given subtitle file or stream. By default, it is selected as current subtitle after
loading.
The flags argument is one of the following values:
<select>
Select the subtitle immediately (default).
<auto>
Don't select the subtitle. (Or in some special situations, let the default stream selection
mechanism decide.)
<cached>
Select the subtitle. If a subtitle with the same filename was already added, that one is
selected, instead of loading a duplicate entry. (In this case, title/language are ignored, and
if the was changed since it was loaded, these changes won't be reflected.)
Additionally the following flags can be added with a +:
<hearing-impaired>
Marks the track as suitable for the hearing impaired.
<visual-impaired>
Marks the track as suitable for the visually impaired.
<attached-picture> (only for video-add)
Marks the track as an attached picture, same as albumart argument for `video-add.
The title argument sets the track title in the UI.
The lang argument sets the track language, and can also influence stream selection with flags set
to auto.
sub-remove [<id>]
Remove the given subtitle track. If the id argument is missing, remove the current track. (Works
on external subtitle files only.)
sub-reload [<id>]
Reload the given subtitle tracks. If the id argument is missing, reload the current track. (Works
on external subtitle files only.)
This works by unloading and re-adding the subtitle track.
sub-step <skip> [<flags>]
Change subtitle timing such, that the subtitle event after the next <skip> subtitle events is
displayed. <skip> can be negative to step backwards.
Secondary argument:
primary (default)
Steps through the primary subtitles.
secondary
Steps through the secondary subtitles.
audio-add <url> [<flags> [<title> [<lang>]]]
Load the given audio file. See sub-add command.
audio-remove [<id>]
Remove the given audio track. See sub-remove command.
audio-reload [<id>]
Reload the given audio tracks. See sub-reload command.
video-add <url> [<flags> [<title> [<lang> [<albumart>]]]]
Load the given video file. See sub-add command for common options.
albumart (MPV_FORMAT_FLAG)
If enabled, mpv will load the given video as album art.
video-remove [<id>]
Remove the given video track. See sub-remove command.
video-reload [<id>]
Reload the given video tracks. See sub-reload command.
rescan-external-files [<mode>]
Rescan external files according to the current --sub-auto, --audio-file-auto and --cover-art-auto
settings. This can be used to auto-load external files after the file was loaded.
The mode argument is one of the following:
<reselect> (default)
Select the default audio and subtitle streams, which typically selects external files with
the highest preference. (The implementation is not perfect, and could be improved on
request.)
<keep-selection>
Do not change current track selections.
Text Manipulation
print-text <text>
Print text to stdout. The string can contain properties (see Property Expansion). Take care to put
the argument in quotes.
expand-text <text>
Property-expand the argument and return the expanded string. This can be used only through the
client API or from a script using mp.command_native. (see Property Expansion).
expand-path <text>
Expand a path's double-tilde placeholders into a platform-specific path. As expand-text, this can
only be used through the client API or from a script using mp.command_native.
Example
mp.osd_message(mp.command_native({"expand-path", "~~home/"}))
This line of Lua would show the location of the user's mpv configuration directory on
the OSD.
normalize-path <filename>
Return a canonical representation of the path filename by converting it to an absolute path,
removing consecutive slashes, removing . components, resolving .. components, and converting
slashes to backslashes on Windows. Symlinks are not resolved unless the platform is Unix-like and
one of the path components is ... If filename is a URL, it is returned unchanged. This can only be
used through the client API or from a script using mp.command_native.
Example
mp.osd_message(mp.command_native({"normalize-path", "/foo//./bar"}))
This line of Lua prints "/foo/bar" on the OSD.
escape-ass <text>
Modify text so that commands and functions that interpret ASS tags, such as osd-overlay and
mp.create_osd_overlay, will display it verbatim, and return it. This can only be used through the
client API or from a script using mp.command_native.
Example
mp.osd_message(mp.command_native({"escape-ass", "foo {bar}"}))
This line of Lua prints "foo \{bar}" on the OSD.
Configuration Commands
apply-profile <name> [<mode>]
Apply the contents of a named profile. This is like using profile=name in a config file, except
you can map it to a key binding to change it at runtime.
The mode argument:
apply Apply the profile. Default if the argument is omitted.
restore
Restore options set by a previous apply-profile command for this profile. Only works if the
profile has profile-restore set to a relevant mode. Prints a warning if nothing could be
done. See Runtime profiles for details.
load-config-file <filename>
Load a configuration file, similar to the --include option. If the file was already included, its
previous options are not reset before it is reparsed.
write-watch-later-config
Write the resume config file that the quit-watch-later command writes, but continue playback
normally.
delete-watch-later-config [<filename>]
Delete any existing resume config file that was written by quit-watch-later or
write-watch-later-config. If a filename is specified, then the deleted config is for that file;
otherwise, it is the same one as would be written by quit-watch-later or write-watch-later-config
in the current circumstance.
OSD Commands
show-text <text> [<duration>|-1 [<level>]]
Show text on the OSD. The string can contain properties, which are expanded as described in
Property Expansion. This can be used to show playback time, filename, and so on. no-osd has no
effect on this command.
<duration>
The time in ms to show the message for. By default, it uses the same value as
--osd-duration.
<level>
The minimum OSD level to show the text at (see --osd-level).
show-progress
Show the progress bar, the elapsed time and the total duration of the file on the OSD. no-osd has
no effect on this command.
overlay-add <id> <x> <y> <file> <offset> <fmt> <w> <h> <stride> <dw> <dh>
Add an OSD overlay sourced from raw data. This might be useful for scripts and applications
controlling mpv, and which want to display things on top of the video window.
Overlays are usually displayed in screen resolution, but with some VOs, the resolution is reduced
to that of the video's. You can read the osd-width and osd-height properties. At least with
--vo-xv and anamorphic video (such as DVD), osd-par should be read as well, and the overlay should
be aspect-compensated.
This has the following named arguments. The order of them is not guaranteed, so you should always
call them with named arguments, see Named arguments.
id is an integer between 0 and 63 identifying the overlay element. The ID can be used to add
multiple overlay parts, update a part by using this command with an already existing ID, or to
remove a part with overlay-remove. Using a previously unused ID will add a new overlay, while
reusing an ID will update it.
x and y specify the position where the OSD should be displayed.
file specifies the file the raw image data is read from. It can be either a numeric UNIX file
descriptor prefixed with @ (e.g. @4), or a filename. The file will be mapped into memory with
mmap(), copied, and unmapped before the command returns (changed in mpv 0.18.1).
It is also possible to pass a raw memory address for use as bitmap memory by passing a memory
address as integer prefixed with an & character. Passing the wrong thing here will crash the
player. This mode might be useful for use with libmpv. The offset parameter is simply added to the
memory address (since mpv 0.8.0, ignored before).
offset is the byte offset of the first pixel in the source file. (The current implementation
always mmap's the whole file from position 0 to the end of the image, so large offsets should be
avoided. Before mpv 0.8.0, the offset was actually passed directly to mmap, but it was changed to
make using it easier.)
fmt is a string identifying the image format. Currently, only bgra is defined. This format has 4
bytes per pixels, with 8 bits per component. The least significant 8 bits are blue, and the most
significant 8 bits are alpha (in little endian, the components are B-G-R-A, with B as first byte).
This uses premultiplied alpha: every color component is already multiplied with the alpha
component. This means the numeric value of each component is equal to or smaller than the alpha
component. (Violating this rule will lead to different results with different VOs: numeric
overflows resulting from blending broken alpha values is considered something that shouldn't
happen, and consequently implementations don't ensure that you get predictable behavior in this
case.)
w, h, and stride specify the size of the overlay. w is the visible width of the overlay, while
stride gives the width in bytes in memory. In the simple case, and with the bgra format,
stride==4*w. In general, the total amount of memory accessed is stride * h. (Technically, the
minimum size would be stride * (h - 1) + w * 4, but for simplicity, the player will access all
stride * h bytes.)
dw and dh specify the (optional) display size of the overlay. The overlay visible portion of the
overlay (w and h) is scaled to in display to dw and dh. If parameters are not present, the values
for w and h are used.
NOTE:
Before mpv 0.18.1, you had to do manual "double buffering" when updating an overlay by
replacing it with a different memory buffer. Since mpv 0.18.1, the memory is simply copied and
doesn't reference any of the memory indicated by the command's arguments after the command
returns. If you want to use this command before mpv 0.18.1, reads the old docs to see how to
handle this correctly.
overlay-remove <id>
Remove an overlay added with overlay-add and the same ID. Does nothing if no overlay with this ID
exists.
osd-overlay
Add/update/remove an OSD overlay.
(Although this sounds similar to overlay-add, osd-overlay is for text overlays, while overlay-add
is for bitmaps. Maybe overlay-add will be merged into osd-overlay to remove this oddity.)
You can use this to add text overlays in ASS format. ASS has advanced positioning and rendering
tags, which can be used to render almost any kind of vector graphics.
This command accepts the following parameters:
id Arbitrary integer that identifies the overlay. Multiple overlays can be added by calling
this command with different id parameters. Calling this command with the same id replaces
the previously set overlay.
There is a separate namespace for each libmpv client (i.e. IPC connection, script), so IDs
can be made up and assigned by the API user without conflicting with other API users.
If the libmpv client is destroyed, all overlays associated with it are also deleted. In
particular, connecting via --input-ipc-server, adding an overlay, and disconnecting will
remove the overlay immediately again.
format String that gives the type of the overlay. Accepts the following values (HTML rendering of
this is broken, view the generated manpage instead, or the raw RST source):
ass-events
The data parameter is a string. The string is split on the newline character. Every
line is turned into the Text part of a Dialogue ASS event. Timing is unused (but
behavior of timing dependent ASS tags may change in future mpv versions).
Note that it's better to put multiple lines into data, instead of adding multiple
OSD overlays.
This provides 2 ASS Styles. OSD contains the text style as defined by the current
--osd-... options. Default is similar, and contains style that OSD would have if all
options were set to the default.
In addition, the res_x and res_y options specify the value of the ASS PlayResX and
PlayResY header fields. If res_y is set to 0, PlayResY is initialized to an
arbitrary default value (but note that the default for this command is 720, not 0).
If res_x is set to 0, PlayResX is set based on res_y such that a virtual ASS pixel
has a square pixel aspect ratio.
none Special value that causes the overlay to be removed. Most parameters other than id
and format are mostly ignored.
data String defining the overlay contents according to the format parameter.
res_x, res_y
Used if format is set to ass-events (see description there). Optional, defaults to 0/720.
z The Z order of the overlay. Optional, defaults to 0.
Note that Z order between different overlays of different formats is static, and cannot be
changed (currently, this means that bitmap overlays added by overlay-add are always on top
of the ASS overlays added by osd-overlay). In addition, the builtin OSD components are
always below any of the custom OSD. (This includes subtitles of any kind as well as text
rendered by show-text.)
It's possible that future mpv versions will randomly change how Z order between different
OSD formats and builtin OSD is handled.
hidden If set to true, do not display this (default: false).
compute_bounds
If set to true, attempt to determine bounds and write them to the command's result value as
x0, x1, y0, y1 rectangle (default: false). If the rectangle is empty, not known, or somehow
degenerate, it is not set. x1/y1 is the coordinate of the bottom exclusive corner of the
rectangle.
The result value may depend on the VO window size, and is based on the last known window
size at the time of the call. This means the results may be different from what is actually
rendered.
For ass-events, the result rectangle is recomputed to PlayRes coordinates (res_x/res_y). If
window size is not known, a fallback is chosen.
You should be aware that this mechanism is very inefficient, as it renders the full result,
and then uses the bounding box of the rendered bitmap list (even if hidden is set). It will
flush various caches. Its results also depend on the used libass version.
This feature is experimental, and may change in some way again.
NOTE:
Always use named arguments (mpv_command_node()). Lua scripts should use the
mp.create_osd_overlay() helper instead of invoking this command directly.
Input and Keybind Commands
mouse <x> <y> [<button> [<mode>]]
Send a mouse event with given coordinate (<x>, <y>).
Second argument:
<button>
The button number of clicked mouse button. This should be one of 0-19. If <button> is
omitted, only the position will be updated.
Third argument:
<single> (default)
The mouse event represents regular single click.
<double>
The mouse event represents double-click.
keypress <name> [<scale>]
Send a key event through mpv's input handler, triggering whatever behavior is configured to that
key. name uses the input.conf naming scheme for keys and modifiers. scale is used to scale
numerical change effected by the bound command (same mechanism as precise scrolling). Useful for
the client API: key events can be sent to libmpv to handle internally.
keydown <name>
Similar to keypress, but sets the KEYDOWN flag so that if the key is bound to a repeatable
command, it will be run repeatedly with mpv's key repeat timing until the keyup command is called.
keyup [<name>]
Set the KEYUP flag, stopping any repeated behavior that had been triggered. name is optional. If
name is not given or is an empty string, KEYUP will be set on all keys. Otherwise, KEYUP will only
be set on the key specified by name.
keybind <name> <cmd> [<comment>]
Binds a key to an input command. cmd must be a complete command containing all the desired
arguments and flags. Both name and cmd use the input.conf naming scheme. comment is an optional
string which can be read as the comment entry of input-bindings. This is primarily useful for the
client API.
enable-section <name> [<flags>]
This command is deprecated, except for mpv-internal uses.
Enable all key bindings in the named input section.
The enabled input sections form a stack. Bindings in sections on the top of the stack are
preferred to lower sections. This command puts the section on top of the stack. If the section was
already on the stack, it is implicitly removed beforehand. (A section cannot be on the stack more
than once.)
The flags parameter can be a combination (separated by +) of the following flags:
<exclusive>
All sections enabled before the newly enabled section are disabled. They will be
re-enabled as soon as all exclusive sections above them are removed. In other words, the
new section shadows all previous sections.
<allow-hide-cursor>
This feature can't be used through the public API.
<allow-vo-dragging>
Same.
disable-section <name>
This command is deprecated, except for mpv-internal uses.
Disable the named input section. Undoes enable-section.
define-section <name> <contents> [<flags>]
This command is deprecated, except for mpv-internal uses.
Create a named input section, or replace the contents of an already existing input section. The
contents parameter uses the same syntax as the input.conf file (except that using the section
syntax in it is not allowed), including the need to separate bindings with a newline character.
If the contents parameter is an empty string, the section is removed.
The section with the name default is the normal input section.
In general, input sections have to be enabled with the enable-section command, or they are
ignored.
The last parameter has the following meaning:
<default> (also used if parameter omitted)
Use a key binding defined by this section only if the user hasn't already bound this key to
a command.
<force>
Always bind a key. (The input section that was made active most recently wins if there are
ambiguities.)
This command can be used to dispatch arbitrary keys to a script or a client API user. If the input
section defines script-binding commands, it is also possible to get separate events on key
up/down, and relatively detailed information about the key state. The special key name unmapped
can be used to match any unmapped key.
load-input-conf <filename>
Load an input configuration file, similar to the --input-conf option. If the file was already
included, its previous bindings are not reset before it is reparsed.
Execution Commands
run <command> [<arg1> [<arg2> [...]]]
Run the given command. Unlike in MPlayer/mplayer2 and earlier versions of mpv (0.2.x and older),
this doesn't call the shell. Instead, the command is run directly, with each argument passed
separately. Each argument is expanded like in Property Expansion.
This command has a variable number of arguments, and cannot be used with named arguments.
The program is run in a detached way. mpv doesn't wait until the command is completed, but
continues playback right after spawning it.
To get the old behavior, use /bin/sh and -c as the first two arguments.
Example
run "/bin/sh" "-c" "echo ${title} > /tmp/playing"
This is not a particularly good example, because it doesn't handle escaping, and a
specially prepared file might allow an attacker to execute arbitrary shell commands. It
is recommended to write a small shell script, and call that with run.
subprocess
Similar to run, but gives more control about process execution to the caller, and does not detach
the process.
You can avoid blocking until the process terminates by running this command asynchronously. (For
example mp.command_native_async() in Lua scripting.)
This has the following named arguments. The order of them is not guaranteed, so you should always
call them with named arguments, see Named arguments.
args (MPV_FORMAT_NODE_ARRAY[MPV_FORMAT_STRING])
Array of strings with the command as first argument, and subsequent command line arguments
following. This is just like the run command argument list.
The first array entry is either an absolute path to the executable, or a filename with no
path components, in which case the executable is searched in the directories in the PATH
environment variable. On Unix, this is equivalent to posix_spawnp and execvp behavior.
playback_only (MPV_FORMAT_FLAG)
Boolean indicating whether the process should be killed when playback of the current
playlist entry terminates (optional, default: true). If enabled, stopping playback will
automatically kill the process, and you can't start it outside of playback.
capture_size (MPV_FORMAT_INT64)
Integer setting the maximum number of stdout plus stderr bytes that can be captured
(optional, default: 64MB). If the number of bytes exceeds this, capturing is stopped. The
limit is per captured stream.
capture_stdout (MPV_FORMAT_FLAG)
Capture all data the process outputs to stdout and return it once the process ends
(optional, default: no).
capture_stderr (MPV_FORMAT_FLAG)
Same as capture_stdout, but for stderr.
detach (MPV_FORMAT_FLAG)
Whether to run the process in detached mode (optional, default: no). In this mode, the
process is run in a new process session, and the command does not wait for the process to
terminate. If neither capture_stdout nor capture_stderr have been set to true, the command
returns immediately after the new process has been started, otherwise the command will read
as long as the pipes are open.
env (MPV_FORMAT_NODE_ARRAY[MPV_FORMAT_STRING])
Set a list of environment variables for the new process (default: empty). If an empty list
is passed, the environment of the mpv process is used instead. (Unlike the underlying OS
mechanisms, the mpv command cannot start a process with empty environment. Fortunately,
that is completely useless.) The format of the list is as in the execle() syscall. Each
string item defines an environment variable as in NAME=VALUE.
On Lua, you may use utils.get_env_list() to retrieve the current environment if you e.g.
simply want to add a new variable.
stdin_data (MPV_FORMAT_STRING)
Feed the given string to the new process' stdin. Since this is a string, you cannot pass
arbitrary binary data. If the process terminates or closes the pipe before all data is
written, the remaining data is silently discarded. Probably does not work on win32.
passthrough_stdin (MPV_FORMAT_FLAG)
If enabled, wire the new process' stdin to mpv's stdin (default: no). Before mpv 0.33.0,
this argument did not exist, but the behavior was as if this was set to true.
The command returns the following result (as MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP):
status (MPV_FORMAT_INT64)
Typically this is the process exit code (0 or positive) if the process terminates normally,
or negative for other errors (failed to start, terminated by mpv, and others). The meaning
of negative values is undefined, other than meaning error (and does not correspond to OS
low level exit status values).
On Windows, it can happen that a negative return value is returned even if the process
terminates normally, because the win32 UINT exit code is assigned to an int variable before
being set as int64_t field in the result map. This might be fixed later.
stdout (MPV_FORMAT_BYTE_ARRAY)
Captured stdout stream, limited to capture_size.
stderr (MPV_FORMAT_BYTE_ARRAY)
Same as stdout, but for stderr.
error_string (MPV_FORMAT_STRING)
Empty string if the process terminated normally. The string killed if the process was
terminated in an unusual way. The string init if the process could not be started.
On Windows, killed is only returned when the process has been killed by mpv as a result of
playback_only being set to true.
killed_by_us (MPV_FORMAT_FLAG)
Whether the process has been killed by mpv, for example as a result of playback_only being
set to true, aborting the command (e.g. by mp.abort_async_command()), or if the player is
about to exit.
Note that the command itself will always return success as long as the parameters are correct.
Whether the process could be spawned or whether it was somehow killed or returned an error status
has to be queried from the result value.
This command can be asynchronously aborted via API. Also see Asynchronous command details. Only
the run command can start processes in a truly detached way.
NOTE:
The subprocess will always be terminated on player exit if it wasn't started in detached mode,
even if playback_only is false.
WARNING:
Don't forget to set the playback_only field to false if you want the command to run while the
player is in idle mode, or if you don't want the end of playback to kill the command.
Example
local r = mp.command_native({
name = "subprocess",
playback_only = false,
capture_stdout = true,
args = {"cat", "/proc/cpuinfo"},
})
if r.status == 0 then
print("result: " .. r.stdout)
end
This is a fairly useless Lua example, which demonstrates how to run a process in a blocking
manner, and retrieving its stdout output.
quit [<code>]
Exit the player. If an argument is given, it's used as process exit code.
quit-watch-later [<code>]
Exit player, and store current playback position. Playing that file later will seek to the
previous position on start. The (optional) argument is exactly as in the quit command. See
RESUMING PLAYBACK.
Scripting Commands
script-message [<arg1> [<arg2> [...]]]
Send a message to all clients, and pass it the following list of arguments. What this message
means, how many arguments it takes, and what the arguments mean is fully up to the receiver and
the sender. Every client receives the message, so be careful about name clashes (or use
script-message-to).
This command has a variable number of arguments, and cannot be used with named arguments.
script-message-to <target> [<arg1> [<arg2> [...]]]
Same as script-message, but send it only to the client named <target>. Each client (scripts etc.)
has a unique name. For example, Lua scripts can get their name via mp.get_script_name(). Note that
client names only consist of alphanumeric characters and _.
This command has a variable number of arguments, and cannot be used with named arguments.
script-binding <name> [<arg>]
Invoke a script-provided key binding. This can be used to remap key bindings provided by external
Lua scripts.
<name> is the name of the binding. <arg> is a user-provided arbitrary string which can be used to
provide extra information.
It can optionally be prefixed with the name of the script, using / as separator, e.g.
script-binding scriptname/bindingname. Note that script names only consist of alphanumeric
characters and _.
For completeness, here is how this command works internally. The details could change any time. On
any matching key event, script-message-to or script-message is called (depending on whether the
script name is included), with the following arguments in string format:
1. The string key-binding.
2. The name of the binding (as established above).
3. The key state as string (see below).
4. The key name (since mpv 0.15.0).
5. The text the key would produce, or empty string if not applicable.
6. The scale of the key, such as the ones produced by WHEEL_* keys. The scale is 1 if the key is
nonscalable.
7. The user-provided string <arg>, or empty string if the argument is not used.
The 5th argument is only set if no modifiers are present (using the shift key with a letter is
normally not emitted as having a modifier, and results in upper case text instead, but some
backends may mess up).
The key state consists of 3 characters:
1. One of d (key was pressed down), u (was released), r (key is still down, and was repeated; only
if key repeat is enabled for this binding), p (key was pressed; happens if up/down can't be
tracked).
2. Whether the event originates from the mouse, either m (mouse button) or - (something else).
3. Whether the event results from a cancellation (e.g. the key is logically released but not
physically released), either c (canceled) or - (something else). Not all types of cancellations
set this flag.
Future versions can add more arguments and more key state characters to support more input
peculiarities.
This is a scalable command. See the documentation of nonscalable input command prefix in Input
Command Prefixes for details.
load-script <filename>
Load a script, similar to the --script option. Whether this waits for the script to finish
initialization or not changed multiple times, and the future behavior is left undefined.
On success, returns a mpv_node with a client_id field set to the return value of the
mpv_client_id() API call of the newly created script handle.
Screenshot Commands
screenshot [<flags>]
Take a screenshot.
Multiple flags are available (some can be combined with +):
<subtitles> (default)
Save the video image, in its original resolution, and with subtitles. Some video outputs
may still include the OSD in the output under certain circumstances.
<video>
Like subtitles, but typically without OSD or subtitles. The exact behavior depends on the
selected video output.
<window>
Save the contents of the mpv window. Typically scaled, with OSD and subtitles. The exact
behavior depends on the selected video output.
<each-frame>
Take a screenshot each frame. Issue this command again to stop taking screenshots. Note
that you should disable frame-dropping when using this mode - or you might receive
duplicate images in cases when a frame was dropped. This flag can be combined with the
other flags, e.g. video+each-frame.
Older mpv versions required passing single and each-frame as second argument (and did not have
flags). This syntax is still understood, but deprecated and might be removed in the future.
If you combine this command with another one using ;, you can use the async flag to make
encoding/writing the image file asynchronous. For normal standalone commands, this is always
asynchronous, and the flag has no effect. (This behavior changed with mpv 0.29.0.)
On success, returns a mpv_node with a filename field set to the saved screenshot location.
screenshot-to-file <filename> [<flags>]
Take a screenshot and save it to a given file. The format of the file will be guessed by the
extension (and --screenshot-format is ignored - the behavior when the extension is missing or
unknown is arbitrary).
The second argument is like the first argument to screenshot and supports subtitles, video,
window.
If the file already exists, it's overwritten.
Like all input command parameters, the filename is subject to property expansion as described in
Property Expansion.
screenshot-raw [<flags> [<format>]]
Return a screenshot in memory. This can be used only through the client API. The
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP returned by this command has the w, h, stride fields set to obvious contents.
The format field is set to the format of the screenshot image data. This can be controlled by the
format argument. The format can be one of the following:
bgr0 (default)
This format is organized as B8G8R8X8 (where B is the LSB). The contents of the padding X
are undefined.
bgra This format is organized as B8G8R8A8 (where B is the LSB).
rgba This format is organized as R8G8B8A8 (where R is the LSB).
rgba64 This format is organized as R16G16B16A16 (where R is the LSB). Each component occupies 2
bytes per pixel. When this format is used, the image data will be high bit depth, and
--screenshot-high-bit-depth is ignored.
The data field is of type MPV_FORMAT_BYTE_ARRAY with the actual image data. The image is freed as
soon as the result mpv_node is freed. As usual with client API semantics, you are not allowed to
write to the image data.
The stride is the number of bytes from a pixel at (x0, y0) to the pixel at (x0, y0 + 1). This can
be larger than w * bpp if the image was cropped, or if there is padding. This number can be
negative as well. You access a pixel with byte_index = y * stride + x * bpp. Here, bpp is the
number of bytes per pixel, which is 8 for rgba64 format and 4 for other formats.
The flags argument is like the first argument to screenshot and supports subtitles, video, window.
Filter Commands
af <operation> <value>
Change audio filter chain. See vf command.
vf <operation> <value>
Change video filter chain.
The semantics are exactly the same as with option parsing (see VIDEO FILTERS). As such the text
below is a redundant and incomplete summary.
The first argument decides what happens:
<set> Overwrite the previous filter chain with the new one.
<add> Append the new filter chain to the previous one.
<toggle>
Check if the given filter (with the exact parameters) is already in the video chain. If it
is, remove the filter. If it isn't, add the filter. (If several filters are passed to the
command, this is done for each filter.)
A special variant is combining this with labels, and using @name without filter name and
parameters as filter entry. This toggles the enable/disable flag.
<remove>
Like toggle, but always remove the given filter from the chain.
<clr> Remove all filters. Note that like the other sub-commands, this does not control
automatically inserted filters.
The argument is always needed. E.g. in case of clr use vf clr "".
You can assign labels to filter by prefixing them with @name: (where name is a user-chosen
arbitrary identifier). Labels can be used to refer to filters by name in all of the filter chain
modification commands. For add, using an already used label will replace the existing filter.
The vf command shows the list of requested filters on the OSD after changing the filter chain.
This is roughly equivalent to show-text ${vf}. Note that auto-inserted filters for format
conversion are not shown on the list, only what was requested by the user.
Normally, the commands will check whether the video chain is recreated successfully, and will undo
the operation on failure. If the command is run before video is configured (can happen if the
command is run immediately after opening a file and before a video frame is decoded), this check
can't be run. Then it can happen that creating the video chain fails.
Example for input.conf
• a vf set vflip turn the video upside-down on the a key
• b vf set "" remove all video filters on b
• c vf toggle gradfun toggle debanding on c
Example how to toggle disabled filters at runtime
• Add something like vf-add=@deband:!gradfun to mpv.conf. The @deband: is the label, an
arbitrary, user-given name for this filter entry. The ! before the filter name disables the
filter by default. Everything after this is the normal filter name and possibly filter
parameters, like in the normal --vf syntax.
• Add a vf toggle @deband to input.conf. This toggles the "disabled" flag for the filter with
the label deband when the a key is hit.
vf-command <label> <command> <argument> [<target>]
Send a command to the filter. Note that currently, this only works with the lavfi filter. Refer to
the libavfilter documentation for the list of supported commands for each filter.
<label> is a mpv filter label, use all to send it to all filters at once.
<command> and <argument> are filter-specific strings.
<target> is a filter or filter instance name and defaults to all. Note that the target is an
additional specifier for filters that support them, such as complex lavfi filter chains.
af-command <label> <command> <argument> [<target>]
Same as vf-command, but for audio filters.
Miscellaneous Commands
ignore Use this to "block" keys that should be unbound, and do nothing. Useful for disabling default
bindings, without disabling all bindings with --input-default-bindings=no.
drop-buffers
Drop audio/video/demuxer buffers, and restart from fresh. Might help with unseekable streams that
are going out of sync. This command might be changed or removed in the future.
dump-cache <start> <end> <filename>
Dump the current cache to the given filename. The <filename> file is overwritten if it already
exists. <start> and <end> give the time range of what to dump. If no data is cached at the given
time range, nothing may be dumped (creating a file with no packets).
Dumping a larger part of the cache will freeze the player. No effort was made to fix this, as this
feature was meant mostly for creating small excerpts.
See --stream-record for various caveats that mostly apply to this command too, as both use the
same underlying code for writing the output file.
If <filename> is an empty string, an ongoing dump-cache is stopped.
If <end> is no, then continuous dumping is enabled. Then, after dumping the existing parts of the
cache, anything read from network is appended to the cache as well. This behaves similar to
--stream-record (although it does not conflict with that option, and they can be both active at
the same time).
If the <end> time is after the cache, the command will _not_ wait and write newly received data to
it.
The end of the resulting file may be slightly damaged or incomplete at the end. (Not enough effort
was made to ensure that the end lines up properly.)
Note that this command will finish only once dumping ends. That means it works similar to the
screenshot command, just that it can block much longer. If continuous dumping is used, the command
will not finish until playback is stopped, an error happens, another dump-cache command is run, or
an API like mp.abort_async_command was called to explicitly stop the command. See Synchronous vs.
Asynchronous.
NOTE:
This was mostly created for network streams. For local files, there may be much better methods
to create excerpts and such. There are tons of much more user-friendly Lua scripts, that will
re-encode parts of a file by spawning a separate instance of ffmpeg. With network streams, this
is not that easily possible, as the stream would have to be downloaded again. Even if
--stream-record is used to record the stream to the local filesystem, there may be problems,
because the recorded file is still written to.
This command is experimental, and all details about it may change in the future.
ab-loop
Cycle through A-B loop states. The first command will set the A point (the ab-loop-a property);
the second the B point, and the third will clear both points.
ab-loop-dump-cache <filename>
Essentially calls dump-cache with the current AB-loop points as arguments. Like dump-cache, this
will overwrite the file at <filename>. Likewise, if the B point is set to no, it will enter
continuous dumping after the existing cache was dumped.
The author reserves the right to remove this command if enough motivation is found to move this
functionality to a trivial Lua script.
ab-loop-align-cache
Re-adjust the A/B loop points to the start and end within the cache the ab-loop-dump-cache command
will (probably) dump. Basically, it aligns the times on keyframes. The guess might be off
especially at the end (due to granularity issues due to remuxing). If the cache shrinks in the
meantime, the points set by the command will not be the effective parameters either.
This command has an even more uncertain future than ab-loop-dump-cache and might disappear without
replacement if the author decides it's useless.
begin-vo-dragging
Begin window dragging if supported by the current VO. This command should only be called while a
mouse button is being pressed, otherwise it will be ignored. The exact effect of this command
depends on the VO implementation of window dragging. For example, on Windows and macOS only the
left mouse button can begin window dragging, while X11 and Wayland allow other mouse buttons.
context-menu
Show context menu on the video window. See Context Menu section for details.
Undocumented commands: ao-reload (experimental/internal).
List of events
This is a partial list of events. This section describes what mpv_event_to_node() returns, and which is
what scripting APIs and the JSON IPC sees. Note that the C API has separate C-level declarations with
mpv_event, which may be slightly different.
Note that events are asynchronous: the player core continues running while events are delivered to
scripts and other clients. In some cases, you can use hooks to enforce synchronous execution.
All events can have the following fields:
event Name as the event (as returned by mpv_event_name()).
id The reply_userdata field (opaque user value). If reply_userdata is 0, the field is not added.
error Set to an error string (as returned by mpv_error_string()). This field is missing if no error
happened, or the event type does not report error. Most events leave this unset.
This list uses the event name field value, and the C API symbol in brackets:
start-file (MPV_EVENT_START_FILE)
Happens right before a new file is loaded. When you receive this, the player is loading the file
(or possibly already done with it).
This has the following fields:
playlist_entry_id
Playlist entry ID of the file being loaded now.
end-file (MPV_EVENT_END_FILE)
Happens after a file was unloaded. Typically, the player will load the next file right away, or
quit if this was the last file.
The event has the following fields:
reason Has one of these values:
eof The file has ended. This can (but doesn't have to) include incomplete files or
broken network connections under circumstances.
stop Playback was ended by a command.
quit Playback was ended by sending the quit command.
error An error happened. In this case, an error field is present with the error string.
redirect
Happens with playlists and similar. Details see MPV_END_FILE_REASON_REDIRECT in the
C API.
unknown
Unknown. Normally doesn't happen, unless the Lua API is out of sync with the C API.
(Likewise, it could happen that your script gets reason strings that did not exist
yet at the time your script was written.)
playlist_entry_id
Playlist entry ID of the file that was being played or attempted to be played. This has the
same value as the playlist_entry_id field in the corresponding start-file event.
file_error
Set to mpv error string describing the approximate reason why playback failed. Unset if no
error known. (In Lua scripting, this value was set on the error field directly. This is
deprecated since mpv 0.33.0. In the future, this error field will be unset for this
specific event.)
playlist_insert_id
If loading ended, because the playlist entry to be played was for example a playlist, and
the current playlist entry is replaced with a number of other entries. This may happen at
least with MPV_END_FILE_REASON_REDIRECT (other event types may use this for similar but
different purposes in the future). In this case, playlist_insert_id will be set to the
playlist entry ID of the first inserted entry, and playlist_insert_num_entries to the total
number of inserted playlist entries. Note this in this specific case, the ID of the last
inserted entry is playlist_insert_id+num-1. Beware that depending on circumstances, you
may observe the new playlist entries before seeing the event (e.g. reading the "playlist"
property or getting a property change notification before receiving the event). If this is
0 in the C API, this field isn't added.
playlist_insert_num_entries
See playlist_insert_id. Only present if playlist_insert_id is present.
file-loaded (MPV_EVENT_FILE_LOADED)
Happens after a file was loaded and begins playback.
seek (MPV_EVENT_SEEK)
Happens on seeking. (This might include cases when the player seeks internally, even without user
interaction. This includes e.g. segment changes when playing ordered chapters Matroska files.)
playback-restart (MPV_EVENT_PLAYBACK_RESTART)
Start of playback after seek or after file was loaded.
shutdown (MPV_EVENT_SHUTDOWN)
Sent when the player quits, and the script should terminate. Normally handled automatically. See
Details on the script initialization and lifecycle.
log-message (MPV_EVENT_LOG_MESSAGE)
Receives messages enabled with mpv_request_log_messages() (Lua: mp.enable_messages).
This contains, in addition to the default event fields, the following fields:
prefix The module prefix, identifies the sender of the message. This is what the terminal player
puts in front of the message text when using the --v option, and is also what is used for
--msg-level.
level The log level as string. See msg.log for possible log level names. Note that later
versions of mpv might add new levels or remove (undocumented) existing ones.
text The log message. The text will end with a newline character. Sometimes it can contain
multiple lines.
Keep in mind that these messages are meant to be hints for humans. You should not parse them, and
prefix/level/text of messages might change any time.
hook The event has the following fields:
hook_id
ID to pass to mpv_hook_continue(). The Lua scripting wrapper provides a better API around
this with mp.add_hook().
get-property-reply (MPV_EVENT_GET_PROPERTY_REPLY)
See C API.
set-property-reply (MPV_EVENT_SET_PROPERTY_REPLY)
See C API.
command-reply (MPV_EVENT_COMMAND_REPLY)
This is one of the commands for which the `error field is meaningful.
JSON IPC and Lua and possibly other backends treat this specially and may not pass the actual
event to the user. See C API.
The event has the following fields:
result The result (on success) of any mpv_node type, if any.
client-message (MPV_EVENT_CLIENT_MESSAGE)
Lua and possibly other backends treat this specially and may not pass the actual event to the
user.
The event has the following fields:
args Array of strings with the message data.
video-reconfig (MPV_EVENT_VIDEO_RECONFIG)
Happens on video output or filter reconfig.
audio-reconfig (MPV_EVENT_AUDIO_RECONFIG)
Happens on audio output or filter reconfig.
property-change (MPV_EVENT_PROPERTY_CHANGE)
Happens when a property that is being observed changes value.
The event has the following fields:
name The name of the property.
data The new value of the property.
The following events also happen, but are deprecated: idle, tick Use mpv_observe_property() (Lua:
mp.observe_property()) instead.
Hooks
Hooks are synchronous events between player core and a script or similar. This applies to client API
(including the Lua scripting interface). Normally, events are supposed to be asynchronous, and the hook
API provides an awkward and obscure way to handle events that require stricter coordination. There are no
API stability guarantees made. Not following the protocol exactly can make the player freeze randomly.
Basically, nobody should use this API.
The C API is described in the header files. The Lua API is described in the Lua section.
Before a hook is actually invoked on an API clients, it will attempt to return new values for all
observed properties that were changed before the hook. This may make it easier for an application to set
defined "barriers" between property change notifications by registering hooks. (That means these hooks
will have an effect, even if you do nothing and make them continue immediately.)
The following hooks are currently defined:
on_load
Called when a file is to be opened, before anything is actually done. For example, you could read
and write the stream-open-filename property to redirect an URL to something else (consider support
for streaming sites which rarely give the user a direct media URL), or you could set per-file
options with by setting the property file-local-options/<option name>. The player will wait until
all hooks are run.
Ordered after start-file and before playback-restart.
on_load_fail
Called after after a file has been opened, but failed to. This can be used to provide a fallback
in case native demuxers failed to recognize the file, instead of always running before the native
demuxers like on_load. Demux will only be retried if stream-open-filename was changed. If it fails
again, this hook is _not_ called again, and loading definitely fails.
Ordered after on_load, and before playback-restart and end-file.
on_preloaded
Called after a file has been opened, and before tracks are selected and decoders are created. This
has some usefulness if an API users wants to select tracks manually, based on the set of available
tracks. It's also useful to initialize --lavfi-complex in a specific way by API, without having to
"probe" the available streams at first.
Note that this does not yet apply default track selection. Which operations exactly can be done
and not be done, and what information is available and what is not yet available yet, is all
subject to change.
Ordered after on_load_fail etc. and before playback-restart.
on_unload
Run before closing a file, and before actually uninitializing everything. It's not possible to
resume playback in this state.
Ordered before end-file. Will also happen in the error case (then after on_load_fail).
on_before_start_file
Run before a start-file event is sent. (If any client changes the current playlist entry, or sends
a quit command to the player, the corresponding event will not actually happen after the hook
returns.) Useful to drain property changes before a new file is loaded.
on_after_end_file
Run after an end-file event. Useful to drain property changes after a file has finished.
Input Command Prefixes
These prefixes are placed between key name and the actual command. Multiple prefixes can be specified.
They are separated by whitespace.
osd-auto
Use the default behavior for this command. This is the default for input.conf commands. Some
libmpv/scripting/IPC APIs do not use this as default, but use no-osd instead.
no-osd Do not use any OSD for this command.
osd-bar
If possible, show a bar with this command. Seek commands will show the progress bar, property
changing commands may show the newly set value.
osd-msg
If possible, show an OSD message with this command. Seek command show the current playback time,
property changing commands show the newly set value as text.
osd-msg-bar
Combine osd-bar and osd-msg.
raw Do not expand properties in string arguments. (Like "${property-name}".) This is the default for
some libmpv/scripting/IPC APIs.
expand-properties
All string arguments are expanded as described in Property Expansion. This is the default for
input.conf commands.
repeatable
For some commands, keeping a key pressed doesn't run the command repeatedly. This prefix forces
enabling key repeat in any case. For a list of commands: the first command determines the
repeatability of the whole list (up to and including version 0.33 - a list was always repeatable).
nonrepeatable
For some commands, keeping a key pressed runs the command repeatedly. This prefix forces
disabling key repeat in any case.
nonscalable
When some commands (e.g. add) are bound to scalable keys associated to a high-precision input
device like a touchpad (e.g. WHEEL_UP), the value specified in the command is scaled to smaller
steps based on the high resolution input data if available. This prefix forces disabling this
behavior, so the value is always changed in the discrete unit specified in the key binding.
async Allow asynchronous execution (if possible). Note that only a few commands will support this
(usually this is explicitly documented). Some commands are asynchronous by default (or rather,
their effects might manifest after completion of the command). The semantics of this flag might
change in the future. Set it only if you don't rely on the effects of this command being fully
realized when it returns. See Synchronous vs. Asynchronous.
sync Allow synchronous execution (if possible). Normally, all commands are synchronous by default, but
some are asynchronous by default for compatibility with older behavior.
All of the osd prefixes are still overridden by the global --osd-level settings.
Synchronous vs. Asynchronous
The async and sync prefix matter only for how the issuer of the command waits on the completion of the
command. Normally it does not affect how the command behaves by itself. There are the following cases:
• Normal input.conf commands are always run asynchronously. Slow running commands are queued up or run in
parallel.
• "Multi" input.conf commands (1 key binding, concatenated with ;) will be executed in order, except for
commands that are async (either prefixed with async, or async by default for some commands). The async
commands are run in a detached manner, possibly in parallel to the remaining sync commands in the list.
• Normal Lua and libmpv commands (e.g. mpv_command()) are run in a blocking manner, unless the async
prefix is used, or the command is async by default. This means in the sync case the caller will block,
even if the core continues playback. Async mode runs the command in a detached manner.
• Async libmpv command API (e.g. mpv_command_async()) never blocks the caller, and always notify their
completion with a message. The sync and async prefixes make no difference.
• Lua also provides APIs for running async commands, which behave similar to the C counterparts.
• In all cases, async mode can still run commands in a synchronous manner, even in detached mode. This
can for example happen in cases when a command does not have an asynchronous implementation. The async
libmpv API still never blocks the caller in these cases.
Before mpv 0.29.0, the async prefix was only used by screenshot commands, and made them run the file
saving code in a detached manner. This is the default now, and async changes behavior only in the ways
mentioned above.
Currently the following commands have different waiting characteristics with sync vs. async: sub-add,
audio-add, sub-reload, audio-reload, rescan-external-files, screenshot, screenshot-to-file, dump-cache,
ab-loop-dump-cache.
Asynchronous command details
On the API level, every asynchronous command is bound to the context which started it. For example, an
asynchronous command started by mpv_command_async is bound to the mpv_handle passed to the function. Only
this mpv_handle receives the completion notification (MPV_EVENT_COMMAND_REPLY), and only this handle can
abort a still running command directly. If the mpv_handle is destroyed, any still running async. commands
started by it are terminated.
The scripting APIs and JSON IPC give each script/connection its own implicit mpv_handle.
If the player is closed, the core may abort all pending async. commands on its own (like a forced
mpv_abort_async_command() call for each pending command on behalf of the API user). This happens at the
same time MPV_EVENT_SHUTDOWN is sent, and there is no way to prevent this.
Input Sections
Input sections group a set of bindings, and enable or disable them at once. In input.conf, each key
binding is assigned to an input section, rather than actually having explicit text sections.
See also: enable-section and disable-section commands.
Predefined bindings:
default
Bindings without input section are implicitly assigned to this section. It is enabled by default
during normal playback.
encode Section which is active in encoding mode. It is enabled exclusively, so that bindings in the
default sections are ignored.
Properties
Properties are used to set mpv options during runtime, or to query arbitrary information. They can be
manipulated with the set/add/cycle commands, and retrieved with show-text, or anything else that uses
property expansion. (See Property Expansion.)
If an option is referenced, the property will normally take/return exactly the same values as the option.
In these cases, properties are merely a way to change an option at runtime.
Note that many properties are unavailable at startup. See Details on the script initialization and
lifecycle.
Property list
NOTE:
Most options can be set at runtime via properties as well. Just remove the leading -- from the option
name. These are not documented below, see OPTIONS instead. Only properties which do not exist as
option with the same name, or which have very different behavior from the options are documented
below.
Properties marked as (RW) are writeable, while those that aren't are read-only.
audio-speed-correction, video-speed-correction
Factor multiplied with speed at which the player attempts to play the file. Usually it's exactly
1. (Display sync mode will make this useful.)
OSD formatting will display it in the form of +1.23456%, with the number being (raw - 1) * 100 for
the given raw property value.
display-sync-active
Whether --video-sync=display is actually active.
filename
Currently played file, with path stripped. If this is an URL, try to undo percent encoding as
well. (The result is not necessarily correct, but looks better for display purposes. Use the path
property to get an unmodified filename.)
This has a sub-property:
filename/no-ext
Like the filename property, but if the text contains a ., strip all text after the last ..
Usually this removes the file extension.
file-size
Length in bytes of the source file/stream. (This is the same as ${stream-end}. For
segmented/multi-part files, this will return the size of the main or manifest file, whatever it
is.)
estimated-frame-count
Total number of frames in current file.
NOTE:
This is only an estimate. (It's computed from two unreliable quantities: fps and stream
length.)
estimated-frame-number
Number of current frame in current stream.
NOTE:
This is only an estimate. (It's computed from two unreliable quantities: fps and possibly
rounded timestamps.)
pid Process-id of mpv.
path Full absolute path of the currently played file.
stream-open-filename
The full path to the currently played media. This is different from path only in special cases. In
particular, if --ytdl=yes is used, and the URL is detected by youtube-dl, then the script will set
this property to the actual media URL. This property should be set only during the on_load or
on_load_fail hooks, otherwise it will have no effect (or may do something implementation defined
in the future). The property is reset if playback of the current media ends.
media-title
If the currently played file has a title tag, use that.
Otherwise, return the filename property.
file-format
Symbolic name of the file format. In some cases, this is a comma-separated list of format names,
e.g. mp4 is mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 (the list may grow in the future for any format).
current-demuxer
Name of the current demuxer. (This is useless.)
(Renamed from demuxer.)
stream-path
Filename (full path) of the stream layer filename. (This is probably useless and is almost never
different from path.)
stream-pos
Raw byte position in source stream. Technically, this returns the position of the most recent
packet passed to a decoder.
stream-end
Raw end position in bytes in source stream.
duration
Duration of the current file in seconds. If the duration is unknown, the property is unavailable.
Note that the file duration is not always exactly known, so this is an estimate.
This replaces the length property, which was deprecated after the mpv 0.9 release. (The semantics
are the same.)
This has a sub-property:
duration/full
duration with milliseconds.
avsync Last A/V synchronization difference. Unavailable if audio or video is disabled.
total-avsync-change
Total A-V sync correction done. Unavailable if audio or video is disabled.
decoder-frame-drop-count
Video frames dropped by decoder, because video is too far behind audio (when using
--framedrop=decoder). Sometimes, this may be incremented in other situations, e.g. when video
packets are damaged, or the decoder doesn't follow the usual rules. Unavailable if video is
disabled.
frame-drop-count
Frames dropped by VO (when using --framedrop=vo).
mistimed-frame-count
Number of video frames that were not timed correctly in display-sync mode for the sake of keeping
A/V sync. This does not include external circumstances, such as video rendering being too slow or
the graphics driver somehow skipping a vsync. It does not include rounding errors either (which
can happen especially with bad source timestamps). For example, using the display-desync mode
should never change this value from 0.
vsync-ratio
For how many vsyncs a frame is displayed on average. This is available if display-sync is active
only. For 30 FPS video on a 60 Hz screen, this will be 2. This is the moving average of what
actually has been scheduled, so 24 FPS on 60 Hz will never remain exactly on 2.5, but jitter
depending on the last frame displayed.
vo-delayed-frame-count
Estimated number of frames delayed due to external circumstances in display-sync mode. Note that
in general, mpv has to guess that this is happening, and the guess can be inaccurate.
percent-pos (RW)
Position in current file (0-100). The advantage over using this instead of calculating it out of
other properties is that it properly falls back to estimating the playback position from the byte
position, if the file duration is not known.
time-pos (RW)
Position in current file in seconds.
This has a sub-property:
time-pos/full
time-pos with milliseconds.
time-start
Deprecated. Always returns 0. Before mpv 0.14, this used to return the start time of the file
(could affect e.g. transport streams). See --rebase-start-time option.
time-remaining
Remaining length of the file in seconds. Note that the file duration is not always exactly known,
so this is an estimate.
This has a sub-property:
time-remaining/full
time-remaining with milliseconds.
audio-pts
Current audio playback position in current file in seconds. Unlike time-pos, this updates more
often than once per frame. This is mostly equivalent to time-pos for audio-only files however it
also takes into account the audio driver delay. This can lead to negative values in certain cases,
so in general you probably want to simply use time-pos.
This has a sub-property:
audio-pts/full
audio-pts with milliseconds.
playtime-remaining
time-remaining scaled by the current speed.
This has a sub-property:
playtime-remaining/full
playtime-remaining with milliseconds.
playback-time (RW)
Alias for time-pos.
Prior to mpv 0.39.0, time-pos and playback-time could report different values in certain edge
cases.
This has a sub-property:
playback-time/full
playback-time with milliseconds.
remaining-file-loops
How many more times the current file is going to be looped. This is initialized from the value of
--loop-file. This counts the number of times it causes the player to seek to the beginning of the
file, so it is 0 the last the time is played. -1 corresponds to infinity.
remaining-ab-loops
How many more times the current A-B loop is going to be looped, if one is active. This is
initialized from the value of --ab-loop-count. This counts the number of times it causes the
player to seek to --ab-loop-a, so it is 0 the last the time the loop is played. -1 corresponds to
infinity.
chapter (RW)
Current chapter number. The number of the first chapter is 0. A value of -1 indicates that the
current playback position is before the start of the first chapter,
Setting this property results in an absolute seek to the start of the chapter. However, if the
property is changed with add or cycle command which results in a decrement in value, it may go to
the start of the current chapter instead of the previous chapter. See --chapter-seek-threshold
for details.
edition (RW)
Current edition number. Setting this property to a different value will restart playback. The
number of the first edition is 0.
For Matroska files, this is the edition. For DVD/Blu-ray, this is the title.
Before mpv 0.31.0, this showed the actual edition selected at runtime, if you didn't set the
option or property manually. With mpv 0.31.0 and later, this strictly returns the user-set option
or property value, and the current-edition property was added to return the runtime selected
edition (this matters with --edition=auto, the default).
current-edition
Currently selected edition. This property is unavailable if no file is loaded, or the file has no
editions. (Matroska files make a difference between having no editions and a single edition, which
will be reflected by the property, although in practice it does not matter.)
chapters
Number of chapters.
editions
Number of editions.
edition-list
List of editions, current entry marked.
This has a number of sub-properties. Replace N with the 0-based edition index.
edition-list/count
Number of editions. If there are no editions, this can be 0 or 1 (1 if there's a useless
dummy edition).
edition-list/N/id
Edition ID as integer. Currently, this is the same as the edition index.
edition-list/N/default
Whether this is the default edition.
edition-list/N/title
Edition title as stored in the file. Not always available.
When querying the property with the client API using MPV_FORMAT_NODE, or with Lua
mp.get_property_native, this will return a mpv_node with the following contents:
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_ARRAY
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP (for each edition)
"id" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"title" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"default" MPV_FORMAT_FLAG
metadata
Metadata key/value pairs.
If the property is accessed with Lua's mp.get_property_native, this returns a table with metadata
keys mapping to metadata values. If it is accessed with the client API, this returns a
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP, with tag keys mapping to tag values.
For OSD, it returns a formatted list. Trying to retrieve this property as a raw string doesn't
work.
This has a number of sub-properties:
metadata/by-key/<key>
Value of metadata entry <key>.
metadata/list/count
Number of metadata entries.
metadata/list/N/key
Key name of the Nth metadata entry. (The first entry is 0).
metadata/list/N/value
Value of the Nth metadata entry.
metadata/<key>
Old version of metadata/by-key/<key>. Use is discouraged, because the metadata key string
could conflict with other sub-properties.
The layout of this property might be subject to change. Suggestions are welcome how exactly this
property should work.
When querying the property with the client API using MPV_FORMAT_NODE, or with Lua
mp.get_property_native, this will return a mpv_node with the following contents:
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP
(key and string value for each metadata entry)
filtered-metadata
Like metadata, but includes only fields listed in the --display-tags option. This is the same set
of tags that is printed to the terminal.
chapter-metadata
Metadata of current chapter. Works similar to metadata property. It also allows the same access
methods (using sub-properties).
Per-chapter metadata is very rare. Usually, only the chapter name (title) is set.
For accessing other information, like chapter start, see the chapter-list property.
vf-metadata/<filter-label>
Metadata added by video filters. Accessed by the filter label, which, if not explicitly specified
using the @filter-label: syntax, will be <filter-name>.NN.
Works similar to metadata property. It allows the same access methods (using sub-properties).
An example of this kind of metadata are the cropping parameters added by --vf=lavfi=cropdetect.
af-metadata/<filter-label>
Equivalent to vf-metadata/<filter-label>, but for audio filters.
deinterlace-active
Returns yes/true if mpv's deinterlacing filter is active. Note that it will not detect any
manually inserted deinterlacing filters done via --vf.
idle-active
Returns yes/true if no file is loaded, but the player is staying around because of the --idle
option.
(Renamed from idle.)
core-idle
Whether the playback core is paused. This can differ from pause in special situations, such as
when the player pauses itself due to low network cache.
This also returns yes/true if playback is restarting or if nothing is playing at all. In other
words, it's only no/false if there's actually video playing. (Behavior since mpv 0.7.0.)
cache-speed
Current I/O read speed between the cache and the lower layer (like network). This gives the
number bytes per seconds over a 1 second window (using the type MPV_FORMAT_INT64 for the client
API).
This is the same as demuxer-cache-state/raw-input-rate.
demuxer-cache-duration
Approximate duration of video buffered in the demuxer, in seconds. The guess is very unreliable,
and often the property will not be available at all, even if data is buffered.
demuxer-cache-time
Approximate time of video buffered in the demuxer, in seconds. Same as demuxer-cache-duration but
returns the last timestamp of buffered data in demuxer.
demuxer-cache-idle
Whether the demuxer is idle, which means that the demuxer cache is filled to the requested amount,
and is currently not reading more data.
demuxer-cache-state
Each entry in seekable-ranges represents a region in the demuxer cache that can be seeked to, with
a start and end fields containing the respective timestamps. If there are multiple demuxers
active, this only returns information about the "main" demuxer, but might be changed in future to
return unified information about all demuxers. The ranges are in arbitrary order. Often, ranges
will overlap for a bit, before being joined. In broken corner cases, ranges may overlap all over
the place.
The end of a seek range is usually smaller than the value returned by the demuxer-cache-time
property, because that property returns the guessed buffering amount, while the seek ranges
represent the buffered data that can actually be used for cached seeking.
bof-cached indicates whether the seek range with the lowest timestamp points to the beginning of
the stream (BOF). This implies you cannot seek before this position at all. eof-cached indicates
whether the seek range with the highest timestamp points to the end of the stream (EOF). If both
bof-cached and eof-cached are true, and there's only 1 cache range, the entire stream is cached.
fw-bytes is the number of bytes of packets buffered in the range starting from the current
decoding position. This is a rough estimate (may not account correctly for various overhead), and
stops at the demuxer position (it ignores seek ranges after it).
file-cache-bytes is the number of bytes stored in the file cache. This includes all overhead, and
possibly unused data (like pruned data). This member is missing if the file cache wasn't enabled
with --cache-on-disk=yes.
cache-end is demuxer-cache-time. Missing if unavailable.
reader-pts is the approximate timestamp of the start of the buffered range. Missing if
unavailable.
cache-duration is demuxer-cache-duration. Missing if unavailable.
raw-input-rate is the estimated input rate of the network layer (or any other byte-oriented input
layer) in bytes per second. May be inaccurate or missing.
ts-per-stream is an array containing an entry for each stream type: video, audio, and subtitle.
For each stream type, the details for the demuxer cache for that stream type are available as
cache-duration, reader-pts and cache-end.
When querying the property with the client API using MPV_FORMAT_NODE, or with Lua
mp.get_property_native, this will return a mpv_node with the following contents:
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP
"seekable-ranges" MPV_FORMAT_NODE_ARRAY
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP
"start" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"end" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"bof-cached" MPV_FORMAT_FLAG
"eof-cached" MPV_FORMAT_FLAG
"fw-bytes" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"file-cache-bytes" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"cache-end" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"reader-pts" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"cache-duration" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"raw-input-rate" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"ts-per-stream" MPV_FORMAT_NODE_ARRAY
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP
"type" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"cache-duration" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"reader-pts" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"cache-end" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
Other fields (might be changed or removed in the future):
eof Whether the reader thread has hit the end of the file.
underrun
Whether the reader thread could not satisfy a decoder's request for a new packet.
idle Whether the thread is currently not reading.
total-bytes
Sum of packet bytes (plus some overhead estimation) of the entire packet queue, including
cached seekable ranges.
demuxer-via-network
Whether the stream demuxed via the main demuxer is most likely played via network. What
constitutes "network" is not always clear, might be used for other types of untrusted streams,
could be wrong in certain cases, and its definition might be changing. Also, external files (like
separate audio files or streams) do not influence the value of this property (currently).
demuxer-start-time
The start time reported by the demuxer in fractional seconds.
paused-for-cache
Whether playback is paused because of waiting for the cache.
cache-buffering-state
The percentage (0-100) of the cache fill status until the player will unpause (related to
paused-for-cache).
eof-reached
Whether the end of playback was reached. Note that this is usually interesting only if --keep-open
is enabled, since otherwise the player will immediately play the next file (or exit or enter idle
mode), and in these cases the eof-reached property will logically be cleared immediately after
it's set.
seeking
Whether the player is currently seeking, or otherwise trying to restart playback. (It's possible
that it returns yes/true while a file is loaded. This is because the same underlying code is used
for seeking and resyncing.)
mixer-active
Whether the audio mixer is active.
This option is relatively useless. Before mpv 0.18.1, it could be used to infer behavior of the
volume property.
ao-volume (RW)
System volume. This property is available only if mpv audio output is currently active, and only
if the underlying implementation supports volume control. What this option does, or how the value
is interpreted depends on the API. For example, on ALSA this usually changes system-wide audio
volume on a linear curve, while with PulseAudio this controls per-application volume on a cubic
curve.
ao-mute (RW)
Similar to ao-volume, but controls the mute state. May be unimplemented even if ao-volume works.
audio-params
Audio format as output by the audio decoder. This has a number of sub-properties:
audio-params/format
The sample format as string. This uses the same names as used in other places of mpv.
audio-params/samplerate
Samplerate.
audio-params/channels
The channel layout as a string. This is similar to what the --audio-channels accepts.
audio-params/hr-channels
As channels, but instead of the possibly cryptic actual layout sent to the audio device,
return a hopefully more human readable form. (Usually only audio-out-params/hr-channels
makes sense.)
audio-params/channel-count
Number of audio channels. This is redundant to the channels field described above.
When querying the property with the client API using MPV_FORMAT_NODE, or with Lua
mp.get_property_native, this will return a mpv_node with the following contents:
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP
"format" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"samplerate" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"channels" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"channel-count" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"hr-channels" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
audio-out-params
Same as audio-params, but the format of the data written to the audio API.
colormatrix
Redirects to video-params/colormatrix. This parameter (as well as similar ones) can be overridden
with the format video filter.
colormatrix-input-range
See colormatrix.
colormatrix-primaries
See colormatrix.
hwdec (RW)
Reflects the --hwdec option.
Writing to it may change the currently used hardware decoder, if possible. (Internally, the
player may reinitialize the decoder, and will perform a seek to refresh the video properly.) You
can watch the other hwdec properties to see whether this was successful.
Unlike in mpv 0.9.x and before, this does not return the currently active hardware decoder. Since
mpv 0.18.0, hwdec-current is available for this purpose.
hwdec-current
The current hardware decoding in use. If decoding is active, return one of the values used by the
hwdec option/property. no/false indicates software decoding. If no decoder is loaded, the property
is unavailable.
hwdec-interop
This returns the currently loaded hardware decoding/output interop driver. This is known only
once the VO has opened (and possibly later). With some VOs (like gpu), this might be never known
in advance, but only when the decoder attempted to create the hw decoder successfully. (Using
--gpu-hwdec-interop can load it eagerly.) If there are multiple drivers loaded, they will be
separated by ,.
If no VO is active or no interop driver is known, this property is unavailable.
This does not necessarily use the same values as hwdec. There can be multiple interop drivers for
the same hardware decoder, depending on platform and VO.
width, height
Video size. This uses the size of the video as decoded, or if no video frame has been decoded yet,
the (possibly incorrect) container indicated size.
video-params
Video parameters, as output by the decoder (with overrides like aspect etc. applied). This has a
number of sub-properties:
video-params/pixelformat
The pixel format as string. This uses the same names as used in other places of mpv.
video-params/hw-pixelformat
The underlying pixel format as string. This is relevant for some cases of hardware decoding
and unavailable otherwise.
video-params/average-bpp
Average bits-per-pixel as integer. Subsampled planar formats use a different resolution,
which is the reason this value can sometimes be odd or confusing. Can be unavailable with
some formats.
video-params/w, video-params/h
Video size as integers, with no aspect correction applied.
video-params/dw, video-params/dh
Video size as integers, scaled for correct aspect ratio.
video-params/crop-x, video-params/crop-y
Crop offset of the source video frame.
video-params/crop-w, video-params/crop-h
Video size after cropping.
video-params/aspect
Display aspect ratio as double.
video-params/aspect-name
Display aspect ratio name as string. The name corresponds to motion picture film format
that introduced given aspect ratio in film.
video-params/par
Pixel aspect ratio.
video-params/sar
Storage aspect ratio.
video-params/sar-name
Storage aspect ratio name as string.
video-params/colormatrix
The colormatrix in use as string. (Exact values subject to change.)
video-params/colorlevels
The colorlevels as string. (Exact values subject to change.)
video-params/primaries
The primaries in use as string. (Exact values subject to change.)
video-params/gamma
The gamma function in use as string. (Exact values subject to change.)
video-params/sig-peak (deprecated)
The video file's tagged signal peak as float.
video-params/light
The light type in use as a string. (Exact values subject to change.)
video-params/chroma-location
Chroma location as string. (Exact values subject to change.)
video-params/rotate
Intended display rotation in degrees (clockwise).
video-params/stereo-in
Source file stereo 3D mode. (See the format video filter's stereo-in option.)
video-params/alpha
Alpha type. If the format has no alpha channel, this will be unavailable (but in future
releases, it could change to no). If alpha is present, this is set to straight or premul.
video-params/min-luma
Minimum luminance, as reported by HDR10 metadata (in cd/m²)
video-params/max-luma
Maximum luminance, as reported by HDR10 metadata (in cd/m²)
video-params/max-cll
Maximum content light level, as reported by HDR10 metadata (in cd/m²)
video-params/max-fall
Maximum frame average light level, as reported by HDR10 metadata (in cd/m²)
video-params/scene-max-r
MaxRGB of a scene for R component, as reported by HDR10+ metadata (in cd/m²)
video-params/scene-max-g
MaxRGB of a scene for G component, as reported by HDR10+ metadata (in cd/m²)
video-params/scene-max-b
MaxRGB of a scene for B component, as reported by HDR10+ metadata (in cd/m²)
video-params/max-pq-y
Maximum PQ luminance of a frame, as reported by peak detection (in PQ, 0-1)
video-params/avg-pq-y
Average PQ luminance of a frame, as reported by peak detection (in PQ, 0-1)
When querying the property with the client API using MPV_FORMAT_NODE, or with Lua
mp.get_property_native, this will return a mpv_node with the following contents:
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP
"pixelformat" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"hw-pixelformat" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"w" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"h" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"dw" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"dh" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"aspect" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"par" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"colormatrix" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"colorlevels" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"primaries" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"gamma" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"sig-peak" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"light" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"chroma-location" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"rotate" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"stereo-in" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"average-bpp" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"alpha" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"min-luma" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"max-luma" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"max-cll" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"max-fall" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"scene-max-r" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"scene-max-g" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"scene-max-b" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"max-pq-y" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"avg-pq-y" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
dwidth, dheight
Video display size. This is the video size after filters and aspect scaling have been applied. The
actual video window size can still be different from this, e.g. if the user resized the video
window manually.
These have the same values as video-out-params/dw and video-out-params/dh.
video-dec-params
Exactly like video-params, but no overrides applied.
video-out-params
Same as video-params, but after video filters have been applied. If there are no video filters in
use, this will contain the same values as video-params. Note that this is still not necessarily
what the video window uses, since the user can change the window size, and all real VOs do their
own scaling independently from the filter chain.
Has the same sub-properties as video-params.
video-target-params
Same as video-params, but with the target properties that VO outputs to.
Has the same sub-properties as video-params.
video-frame-info
Approximate information of the current frame. Note that if any of these are used on OSD, the
information might be off by a few frames due to OSD redrawing and frame display being somewhat
disconnected, and you might have to pause and force a redraw.
This has a number of sub-properties:
video-frame-info/picture-type
The type of the picture. It can be "I" (intra), "P" (predicted), "B" (bi-dir predicted) or
unavailable.
video-frame-info/interlaced
Whether the content of the frame is interlaced.
video-frame-info/tff
If the content is interlaced, whether the top field is displayed first.
video-frame-info/repeat
Whether the frame must be delayed when decoding.
video-frame-info/gop-timecode
String with the GOP timecode encoded in the frame.
video-frame-info/smpte-timecode
String with the SMPTE timecode encoded in the frame.
video-frame-info/estimated-smpte-timecode
Estimated timecode based on the current playback position and frame count.
container-fps
Container FPS. This can easily contain bogus values. For videos that use modern container formats
or video codecs, this will often be incorrect.
(Renamed from fps.)
estimated-vf-fps
Estimated/measured FPS of the video filter chain output. (If no filters are used, this corresponds
to decoder output.) This uses the average of the 10 past frame durations to calculate the FPS. It
will be inaccurate if frame-dropping is involved (such as when framedrop is explicitly enabled, or
after precise seeking). Files with imprecise timestamps (such as Matroska) might lead to unstable
results.
current-window-scale (RW)
The window-scale value calculated from the current window size. This has the same value as
window-scale if the window size was not changed since setting the option, and the window size was
not restricted in other ways. If the window is fullscreened, this will return the scale value
calculated from the last non-fullscreen size of the window. The property is unavailable if no
video is active.
It is also possible to write to this property. This has the same behavior as writing window-scale.
Note that writing to current-window-scale will not affect the value of window-scale.
focused
Whether the window has focus. Might not be supported by all VOs.
ambient-light
Ambient lighting condition in lux. (macOS only)
display-names
Names of the displays that the mpv window covers. On X11, these are the xrandr names (LVDS1,
HDMI1, DP1, VGA1, etc.). On Windows, these are the GDI names (\.DISPLAY1, \.DISPLAY2, etc.) and
the first display in the list will be the one that Windows considers associated with the window
(as determined by the MonitorFromWindow API.) On macOS these are the Display Product Names as used
in the System Information with a serial number in parentheses and only one display name is
returned since a window can only be on one screen. On Wayland, these are the wl_output names if
protocol version >= 4 is used (LVDS-1, HDMI-A-1, X11-1, etc.), or the wl_output model reported by
the geometry event if protocol version < 4 is used.
display-fps
The refresh rate of the current display. Currently, this is the lowest FPS of any display covered
by the video, as retrieved by the underlying system APIs (e.g. xrandr on X11). It is not the
measured FPS. It's not necessarily available on all platforms. Note that any of the listed facts
may change any time without a warning.
estimated-display-fps
The actual rate at which display refreshes seem to occur, measured by system time. Only available
if display-sync mode (as selected by --video-sync) is active.
vsync-jitter
Estimated deviation factor of the vsync duration.
display-width, display-height
The current display's horizontal and vertical resolution in pixels. Whether or not these values
update as the mpv window changes displays depends on the windowing backend. It may not be
available on all platforms.
display-hidpi-scale
The HiDPI scale factor as reported by the windowing backend. If no VO is active, or if the VO does
not report a value, this property is unavailable. It may be saner to report an absolute DPI,
however, this is the way HiDPI support is implemented on most OS APIs. See also
--hidpi-window-scale.
osd-width, osd-height
Last known OSD width (can be 0). This is needed if you want to use the overlay-add command. It
gives you the actual OSD/window size (not including decorations drawn by the OS window manager).
Alias to osd-dimensions/w and osd-dimensions/h.
osd-par
Last known OSD display pixel aspect (can be 0).
Alias to osd-dimensions/osd-par.
osd-dimensions
Last known OSD dimensions.
Has the following sub-properties (which can be read as MPV_FORMAT_NODE or Lua table with
mp.get_property_native):
osd-dimensions/w
Size of the VO window in OSD render units (usually pixels, but may be scaled pixels with
VOs like xv).
osd-dimensions/h
Size of the VO window in OSD render units,
osd-dimensions/par
Pixel aspect ratio of the OSD (usually 1).
osd-dimensions/aspect
Display aspect ratio of the VO window. (Computing from the properties above.)
osd-dimensions/mt, osd-dimensions/mb, osd-dimensions/ml, osd-dimensions/mr
OSD to video margins (top, bottom, left, right). This describes the area into which the
video is rendered.
Any of these properties may be unavailable or set to dummy values if the VO window is not created
or visible.
term-size
The current terminal size.
This has two sub-properties.
term-size/w
width of the terminal in cells
term-size/h
height of the terminal in cells
This property is not observable. Reacting to size changes requires polling.
window-id
Read-only - mpv's window id. May not always be available, i.e due to window not being opened yet
or not being supported by the VO.
mouse-pos
Read-only - last known mouse position, normalized to OSD dimensions.
Has the following sub-properties (which can be read as MPV_FORMAT_NODE or Lua table with
mp.get_property_native):
mouse-pos/x, mouse-pos/y
Last known coordinates of the mouse pointer.
mouse-pos/hover
Boolean - whether the mouse pointer hovers the video window. The coordinates should be
ignored when this value is false, because the video backends update them only when the
pointer hovers the window.
touch-pos
Read-only - last known touch point positions, normalized to OSD dimensions.
This has a number of sub-properties. Replace N with the 0-based touch point index. Whenever a new
finger touches the screen, a new touch point is added to the list of touch points with the
smallest unused N available.
touch-pos/count
Number of active touch points.
touch-pos/N/x, touch-pos/N/y
Position of the Nth touch point.
touch-pos/N/id
Unique identifier of the touch point. This can be used to identify individual touch points
when their indexes change.
When querying the property with the client API using MPV_FORMAT_NODE, or with Lua
mp.get_property_native, this will return a mpv_node with the following contents:
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_ARRAY
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP (for each touch point)
"x" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"y" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"id" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
sub-ass-extradata
The current ASS subtitle track's extradata. There is no formatting done. The extradata is
returned as a string as-is. This property is not available for non-ASS subtitle tracks.
sub-text
The current subtitle text regardless of sub visibility. Formatting is stripped. If the subtitle is
not text-based (i.e. DVD/BD subtitles), an empty string is returned.
This has sub-properties for different formats:
sub-text/ass
Like sub-text, but return the text in ASS format. Text subtitles in other formats are
converted. For native ASS subtitles, events that do not contain any text (but vector
drawings etc.) are not filtered out. If multiple events match with the current playback
time, they are concatenated with line breaks. Contains only the "Text" part of the events.
This property is not enough to render ASS subtitles correctly, because ASS header and
per-event metadata are not returned. Use /ass-full for that.
sub-text/ass-full
Like sub-text-ass, but return the full event with all fields, formatted as lines in a .ass
text file. Use with sub-ass-extradata for style information.
sub-text-ass (deprecated)
Deprecated alias for sub-text/ass.
secondary-sub-text
Same as sub-text (with the same sub-properties), but for the secondary subtitles.
sub-start
The current subtitle start time (in seconds). If there's multiple current subtitles, returns the
first start time. If no current subtitle is present null is returned instead.
This has a sub-property:
sub-start/full
sub-start with milliseconds.
secondary-sub-start
Same as sub-start, but for the secondary subtitles.
sub-end
The current subtitle end time (in seconds). If there's multiple current subtitles, return the last
end time. If no current subtitle is present, or if it's present but has unknown or incorrect
duration, null is returned instead.
This has a sub-property:
sub-end/full
sub-end with milliseconds.
secondary-sub-end
Same as sub-end, but for the secondary subtitles.
playlist-pos (RW)
Current position on playlist. The first entry is on position 0. Writing to this property may start
playback at the new position.
In some cases, this is not necessarily the currently playing file. See explanation of current and
playing flags in playlist.
If there the playlist is empty, or if it's non-empty, but no entry is "current", this property
returns -1. Likewise, writing -1 will put the player into idle mode (or exit playback if idle mode
is not enabled). If an out of range index is written to the property, this behaves as if writing
-1. (Before mpv 0.33.0, instead of returning -1, this property was unavailable if no playlist
entry was current.)
Writing the current value back to the property will have no effect. Use playlist-play-index to
restart the playback of the current entry if desired.
playlist-pos-1 (RW)
Same as playlist-pos, but 1-based.
playlist-current-pos (RW)
Index of the "current" item on playlist. This usually, but not necessarily, the currently playing
item (see playlist-playing-pos). Depending on the exact internal state of the player, it may refer
to the playlist item to play next, or the playlist item used to determine what to play next.
For reading, this is exactly the same as playlist-pos.
For writing, this only sets the position of the "current" item, without stopping playback of the
current file (or starting playback, if this is done in idle mode). Use -1 to remove the current
flag.
This property is only vaguely useful. If set during playback, it will typically cause the playlist
entry after it to be played next. Another possibly odd observable state is that if playlist-next
is run during playback, this property is set to the playlist entry to play next (unlike the
previous case). There is an internal flag that decides whether the current playlist entry or the
next one should be played, and this flag is currently inaccessible for API users. (Whether this
behavior will kept is possibly subject to change.)
playlist-playing-pos
Index of the "playing" item on playlist. A playlist item is "playing" if it's being loaded,
actually playing, or being unloaded. This property is set during the MPV_EVENT_START_FILE
(start-file) and the MPV_EVENT_START_END (end-file) events. Outside of that, it returns -1. If the
playlist entry was somehow removed during playback, but playback hasn't stopped yet, or is in
progress of being stopped, it also returns -1. (This can happen at least during state
transitions.)
In the "playing" state, this is usually the same as playlist-pos, except during state changes, or
if playlist-current-pos was written explicitly.
playlist-count
Number of total playlist entries.
playlist-path
The original path of the playlist for the current entry before mpv expanded the entries.
Unavailable if the file was not originally associated with a playlist in some way.
playlist
Playlist, current entry marked. Currently, the raw property value is useless.
This has a number of sub-properties. Replace N with the 0-based playlist entry index.
playlist/count
Number of playlist entries (same as playlist-count).
playlist/N/filename
Filename of the Nth entry.
playlist/N/playing
yes/true if the playlist-playing-pos property points to this entry, no/false or unavailable
otherwise.
playlist/N/current
yes/true if the playlist-current-pos property points to this entry, no/false or unavailable
otherwise.
playlist/N/title
Name of the Nth entry. Available if the playlist file contains such fields and mpv's parser
supports it for the given playlist format, or if the playlist entry has been opened before
and a media-title other than filename has been acquired.
playlist/N/id
Unique ID for this entry. This is an automatically assigned integer ID that is unique for
the entire life time of the current mpv core instance. Other commands, events, etc. use
this as playlist_entry_id fields.
playlist/N/playlist-path
The original path of the playlist for this entry before mpv expanded it. Unavailable if the
file was not originally associated with a playlist in some way.
When querying the property with the client API using MPV_FORMAT_NODE, or with Lua
mp.get_property_native, this will return a mpv_node with the following contents:
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_ARRAY
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP (for each playlist entry)
"filename" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"current" MPV_FORMAT_FLAG (might be missing; since mpv 0.7.0)
"playing" MPV_FORMAT_FLAG (same)
"title" MPV_FORMAT_STRING (optional)
"id" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
track-list
List of audio/video/sub tracks, current entry marked.
This has a number of sub-properties. Replace N with the 0-based track index.
track-list/count
Total number of tracks.
track-list/video
The list of video tracks. This is only usable for printing and its value can't be
retrieved.
track-list/audio
The list of audio tracks. This is only usable for printing and its value can't be
retrieved.
track-list/sub
The list of sub tracks. This is only usable for printing and its value can't be retrieved.
track-list/N/id
The ID as it's used for --sid/--aid/--vid. This is unique within tracks of the same type
(sub/audio/video), but otherwise not.
track-list/N/type
String describing the media type. One of audio, video, sub.
track-list/N/src-id
Track ID as used in the source file. Not always available. (It is missing if the format has
no native ID, if the track is a pseudo-track that does not exist in this way in the actual
file, or if the format is handled by libavformat, and the format was not whitelisted as
having track IDs.)
track-list/N/title
Track title as it is stored in the file. Not always available.
track-list/N/lang
Track language as identified by the file. Not always available.
track-list/N/image
yes/true if this is a video track that consists of a single picture, no/false or
unavailable otherwise. The heuristic used to determine if a stream is an image doesn't
attempt to detect images in codecs normally used for videos. Otherwise, it is reliable.
track-list/N/albumart
yes/true if this is an image embedded in an audio file or external cover art, no/false or
unavailable otherwise.
track-list/N/default
yes/true if the track has the default flag set in the file, no/false or unavailable
otherwise.
track-list/N/forced
yes/true if the track has the forced flag set in the file, no/false or unavailable
otherwise.
track-list/N/dependent
yes/true if the track has the dependent flag set in the file, no/false or unavailable
otherwise.
track-list/N/visual-impaired
yes/true if the track has the visual impaired flag set in the file, no/false or unavailable
otherwise.
track-list/N/hearing-impaired
yes/true if the track has the hearing impaired flag set in the file, no/false or
unavailable otherwise.
track-list/N/hls-bitrate
The bitrate of the HLS stream, if available.
track-list/N/program-id
The program ID of the HLS stream, if available.
track-list/N/codec
The codec name used by this track, for example h264. Unavailable in some rare cases.
track-list/N/codec-desc
The codec descriptive name used by this track.
track-list/N/codec-profile
The codec profile used by this track. Available only if the track has been already decoded.
track-list/N/external
yes/true if the track is an external file, no/false or unavailable otherwise. This is set
for separate subtitle files.
track-list/N/external-filename
The filename if the track is from an external file, unavailable otherwise.
track-list/N/selected
yes/true if the track is currently decoded, no/false or unavailable otherwise.
track-list/N/main-selection
It indicates the selection order of tracks for the same type. If a track is not selected,
or is selected by the --lavfi-complex, it is not available. For subtitle tracks, 0
represents the sid, and 1 represents the secondary-sid.
track-list/N/ff-index
The stream index as usually used by the FFmpeg utilities. Note that this can be potentially
wrong if a demuxer other than libavformat (--demuxer=lavf) is used. For mkv files, the
index will usually match even if the default (builtin) demuxer is used, but there is no
hard guarantee.
track-list/N/decoder
If this track is being decoded, the short decoder name,
track-list/N/decoder-desc
If this track is being decoded, the human-readable decoder name,
track-list/N/demux-w, track-list/N/demux-h
Video size hint as indicated by the container. (Not always accurate.)
track-list/N/demux-crop-x, track-list/N/demux-crop-y
Crop offset of the source video frame.
track-list/N/demux-crop-w, track-list/N/demux-crop-h
Video size after cropping.
track-list/N/demux-channel-count
Number of audio channels as indicated by the container. (Not always accurate - in
particular, the track could be decoded as a different number of channels.)
track-list/N/demux-channels
Channel layout as indicated by the container. (Not always accurate.)
track-list/N/demux-samplerate
Audio sample rate as indicated by the container. (Not always accurate.)
track-list/N/demux-fps
Video FPS as indicated by the container. (Not always accurate.)
track-list/N/demux-bitrate
Audio average bitrate, in bits per second. (Not always accurate.)
track-list/N/demux-rotation
Video clockwise rotation metadata, in degrees.
track-list/N/demux-par
Pixel aspect ratio.
track-list/N/format-name
Short name for format from ffmpeg. If the track is audio, this will be the name of the
sample format. If the track is video, this will be the name of the pixel format.
track-list/N/audio-channels (deprecated)
Deprecated alias for track-list/N/demux-channel-count.
track-list/N/replaygain-track-peak, track-list/N/replaygain-track-gain
Per-track replaygain values. Only available for audio tracks with corresponding information
stored in the source file.
track-list/N/replaygain-album-peak, track-list/N/replaygain-album-gain
Per-album replaygain values. If the file has per-track but no per-album information, the
per-album values will be copied from the per-track values currently. It's possible that
future mpv versions will make these properties unavailable instead in this case.
track-list/N/dolby-vision-profile, track-list/N/dolby-vision-level
Dolby Vision profile and level. May not be available if the container does not provide this
information.
track-list/N/metadata,
Works like the metadata property, but it accesses metadata that is set per track/stream
instead of global values for the entire file.
When querying the property with the client API using MPV_FORMAT_NODE, or with Lua
mp.get_property_native, this will return a mpv_node with the following contents:
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_ARRAY
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP (for each track)
"id" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"type" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"src-id" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"title" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"lang" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"image" MPV_FORMAT_FLAG
"albumart" MPV_FORMAT_FLAG
"default" MPV_FORMAT_FLAG
"forced" MPV_FORMAT_FLAG
"dependent" MPV_FORMAT_FLAG
"visual-impaired" MPV_FORMAT_FLAG
"hearing-impaired" MPV_FORMAT_FLAG
"hls-bitrate" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"program-id" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"selected" MPV_FORMAT_FLAG
"main-selection" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"external" MPV_FORMAT_FLAG
"external-filename" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"codec" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"codec-desc" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"codec-profile" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"ff-index" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"decoder" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"decoder-desc" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"demux-w" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"demux-h" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"demux-crop-x" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"demux-crop-y" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"demux-crop-w" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"demux-crop-h" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"demux-channel-count" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"demux-channels" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"demux-samplerate" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"demux-fps" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"demux-bitrate" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"demux-rotation" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"demux-par" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"format-name" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"audio-channels" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"replaygain-track-peak" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"replaygain-track-gain" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"replaygain-album-peak" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"replaygain-album-gain" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
"dolby-vision-profile" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"dolby-vision-level" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"metadata" MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP
(key and string value for each metadata entry)
current-tracks/...
This gives access to currently selected tracks. It redirects to the correct entry in track-list.
The following sub-entries are defined: video, audio, sub, sub2
For example, current-tracks/audio/lang returns the current audio track's language field (the same
value as track-list/N/lang).
If tracks of the requested type are selected via --lavfi-complex, the first one is returned.
chapter-list (RW)
List of chapters, current entry marked.
This has a number of sub-properties. Replace N with the 0-based chapter index.
chapter-list/count
Number of chapters.
chapter-list/N/title
Chapter title as stored in the file. Not always available.
chapter-list/N/time
Chapter start time in seconds as float.
When querying the property with the client API using MPV_FORMAT_NODE, or with Lua
mp.get_property_native, this will return a mpv_node with the following contents:
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_ARRAY
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP (for each chapter)
"title" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"time" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
af, vf (RW)
See --vf/--af and the vf/af command.
When querying the property with the client API using MPV_FORMAT_NODE, or with Lua
mp.get_property_native, this will return a mpv_node with the following contents:
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_ARRAY
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP (for each filter entry)
"name" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"label" MPV_FORMAT_STRING [optional]
"enabled" MPV_FORMAT_FLAG [optional]
"params" MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP [optional]
"key" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"value" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
It's also possible to write the property using this format.
seekable
Whether it's generally possible to seek in the current file.
partially-seekable
Whether the current file is considered seekable, but only because the cache is active. This means
small relative seeks may be fine, but larger seeks may fail anyway. Whether a seek will succeed or
not is generally not known in advance.
If this property returns yes/true, so will seekable.
playback-abort
Whether playback is stopped or is to be stopped. (Useful in obscure situations like during on_load
hook processing, when the user can stop playback, but the script has to explicitly end
processing.)
cursor-autohide (RW)
See --cursor-autohide. Setting this to a new value will always update the cursor, and reset the
internal timer.
term-clip-cc
Inserts the symbol to force line truncation to the current terminal width. This can be used for
show-text and other OSD messages. It must be the first character in the line. It takes effect
until the end of the line.
osd-sym-cc
Inserts the current OSD symbol as opaque OSD control code (cc). This makes sense only with the
show-text command or options which set OSD messages. The control code is implementation specific
and is useless for anything else.
osd-ass-cc
${osd-ass-cc/0} disables escaping ASS sequences of text in OSD, ${osd-ass-cc/1} enables it again.
By default, ASS sequences are escaped to avoid accidental formatting, and this property can
disable this behavior. Note that the properties return an opaque OSD control code, which only
makes sense for the show-text command or options which set OSD messages.
Example
• --osd-msg3='This is ${osd-ass-cc/0}{\\b1}bold text'
• show-text "This is ${osd-ass-cc/0}{\\b1}bold text"
Any ASS override tags as understood by libass can be used.
Note that you need to escape the \ character, because the string is processed for C escape
sequences before passing it to the OSD code. See Flat command syntax for details.
A list of tags can be found here:
<https://aegisub.org/docs/latest/ass_tags/>
vo-configured
Whether the VO is configured right now. Usually this corresponds to whether the video window is
visible. If the --force-window option is used, this usually always returns yes/true.
vo-passes
Contains introspection about the VO's active render passes and their execution times. Not
implemented by all VOs.
This is further subdivided into two frame types, vo-passes/fresh for fresh frames (which have to
be uploaded, scaled, etc.) and vo-passes/redraw for redrawn frames (which only have to be
re-painted). The number of passes for any given subtype can change from frame to frame, and
should not be relied upon.
Each frame type has a number of further sub-properties. Replace TYPE with the frame type, N with
the 0-based pass index, and M with the 0-based sample index.
vo-passes/TYPE/count
Number of passes.
vo-passes/TYPE/N/desc
Human-friendy description of the pass.
vo-passes/TYPE/N/last
Last measured execution time, in nanoseconds.
vo-passes/TYPE/N/avg
Average execution time of this pass, in nanoseconds. The exact timeframe varies, but it
should generally be a handful of seconds.
vo-passes/TYPE/N/peak
The peak execution time (highest value) within this averaging range, in nanoseconds.
vo-passes/TYPE/N/count
The number of samples for this pass.
vo-passes/TYPE/N/samples/M
The raw execution time of a specific sample for this pass, in nanoseconds.
When querying the property with the client API using MPV_FORMAT_NODE, or with Lua
mp.get_property_native, this will return a mpv_node with the following contents:
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP
"TYPE" MPV_FORMAT_NODE_ARRAY
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP
"desc" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"last" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"avg" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"peak" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"count" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"samples" MPV_FORMAT_NODE_ARRAY
MP_FORMAT_INT64
Note that directly accessing this structure via subkeys is not supported, the only access is
through aforementioned MPV_FORMAT_NODE.
perf-info
Further performance data. Querying this property triggers internal collection of some data, and
may slow down the player. Each query will reset some internal state. Property change notification
doesn't and won't work. All of this may change in the future, so don't use this. The builtin
stats script is supposed to be the only user; since it's bundled and built with the source code,
it can use knowledge of mpv internal to render the information properly. See stats script
description for some details.
video-bitrate, audio-bitrate, sub-bitrate
Bitrate values calculated on the packet level. This works by dividing the bit size of all packets
between two keyframes by their presentation timestamp distance. (This uses the timestamps are
stored in the file, so e.g. playback speed does not influence the returned values.) In particular,
the video bitrate will update only per keyframe, and show the "past" bitrate. To make the property
more UI friendly, updates to these properties are throttled in a certain way.
The unit is bits per second. OSD formatting turns these values in kilobits (or megabits, if
appropriate), which can be prevented by using the raw property value, e.g. with ${=video-bitrate}.
Note that the accuracy of these properties is influenced by a few factors. If the underlying
demuxer rewrites the packets on demuxing (done for some file formats), the bitrate might be
slightly off. If timestamps are bad or jittery (like in Matroska), even constant bitrate streams
might show fluctuating bitrate.
How exactly these values are calculated might change in the future.
In earlier versions of mpv, these properties returned a static (but bad) guess using a completely
different method.
audio-device-list
The list of discovered audio devices. This is mostly for use with the client API, and reflects
what --audio-device=help with the command line player returns.
When querying the property with the client API using MPV_FORMAT_NODE, or with Lua
mp.get_property_native, this will return a mpv_node with the following contents:
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_ARRAY
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP (for each device entry)
"name" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"description" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
The name is what is to be passed to the --audio-device option (and often a rather cryptic audio
API-specific ID), while description is human readable free form text. The description is set to
the device name (minus mpv-specific <driver>/ prefix) if no description is available or the
description would have been an empty string.
The special entry with the name set to auto selects the default audio output driver and the
default device.
The property can be watched with the property observation mechanism in the client API and in Lua
scripts. (Technically, change notification is enabled the first time this property is read.)
audio-device (RW)
Set the audio device. This directly reads/writes the --audio-device option, but on write accesses,
the audio output will be scheduled for reloading.
Writing this property while no audio output is active will not automatically enable audio. (This
is also true in the case when audio was disabled due to reinitialization failure after a previous
write access to audio-device.)
This property also doesn't tell you which audio device is actually in use.
How these details are handled may change in the future.
current-vo
Current video output driver (name as used with --vo).
current-gpu-context
Current GPU context of video output driver (name as used with --gpu-context). Valid for --vo=gpu
and --vo=gpu-next.
current-ao
Current audio output driver (name as used with --ao).
user-data (RW)
This is a recursive key/value map of arbitrary nodes shared between clients for general use (i.e.
scripts, IPC clients, host applications, etc). The player itself does not use any data in it
(although some builtin scripts may). The property is not preserved across player restarts.
Sub-paths can be accessed directly; e.g. user-data/my-script/state/a can be read, written, or
observed.
The top-level object itself cannot be written directly; write to sub-paths instead.
Converting this property or its sub-properties to strings will give a JSON representation. If
converting a leaf-level object (i.e. not a map or array) and not using raw mode, the underlying
content will be given (e.g. strings will be printed directly, rather than quoted and
JSON-escaped).
The following sub-paths are reserved for internal uses or have special semantics: user-data/osc,
user-data/mpv. Unless noted otherwise, the semantics of any properties under these sub-paths can
change at any time and may not be relied upon, and writing to these properties may prevent builtin
scripts from working properly.
Currently, the following properties have defined special semantics:
user-data/osc/margins
This property is written by an OSC implementation to indicate the margins that it occupies.
Its sub-properties l, r, t, and b should all be set to the left, right, top, and bottom
margins respectively. Values are between 0.0 and 1.0, normalized to window width/height.
user-data/mpv/ytdl
Data shared by the builtin ytdl hook script.
user-data/mpv/ytdl/path
Path to the ytdl executable, if found, or an empty string otherwise. The property
is not set until the script attempts to find the ytdl executable, i.e. until an URL
is being loaded by the script.
user-data/mpv/ytdl/json-subprocess-result
Result of executing ytdl to retrieve the JSON data of the URL being loaded. The
format is the same as subprocess's result, capturing stdout and stderr.
user-data/mpv/console/open
Whether the console is open.
menu-data (RW)
This property stores the raw menu definition. See Context Menu section for details.
type Menu item type. Can be: separator, submenu, or empty.
title Menu item title. Required if type is not separator.
cmd Command to execute when the menu item is clicked.
shortcut
Menu item shortcut key which appears to the right of the menu item. A shortcut key does
not have to be functional; it's just a visual hint.
state Menu item state. Can be: checked, disabled, hidden, or empty.
submenu
Submenu items, which is required if type is submenu.
When querying the property with the client API using MPV_FORMAT_NODE, or with Lua
mp.get_property_native, this will return a mpv_node with the following contents:
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_ARRAY
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP (menu item)
"type" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"title" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"cmd" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"shortcut" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"state" MPV_FORMAT_NODE_ARRAY[MPV_FORMAT_STRING]
"submenu" MPV_FORMAT_NODE_ARRAY[menu item]
Writing to this property with the client API using MPV_FORMAT_NODE or with Lua
mp.set_property_native will trigger an immediate update of the menu if mpv video output is
currently active. You may observe the current-vo property to check if this is the case.
working-directory
The working directory of the mpv process. Can be useful for JSON IPC users, because the command
line player usually works with relative paths.
current-watch-later-dir
The directory in which watch later config files are stored. This returns --watch-later-dir, or the
default directory if --watch-later-dir has not been modified, with tilde placeholders expanded.
protocol-list
List of protocol prefixes potentially recognized by the player. They are returned without trailing
:// suffix (which is still always required). In some cases, the protocol will not actually be
supported (consider https if ffmpeg is not compiled with TLS support).
decoder-list
List of decoders supported. This lists decoders which can be passed to --vd and --ad.
codec Canonical codec name, which identifies the format the decoder can handle.
driver The name of the decoder itself. Often, this is the same as codec. Sometimes it can be
different. It is used to distinguish multiple decoders for the same codec.
description
Human readable description of the decoder and codec.
When querying the property with the client API using MPV_FORMAT_NODE, or with Lua
mp.get_property_native, this will return a mpv_node with the following contents:
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_ARRAY
MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP (for each decoder entry)
"codec" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"driver" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"description" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
encoder-list
List of libavcodec encoders. This has the same format as decoder-list. The encoder names (driver
entries) can be passed to --ovc and --oac (without the lavc: prefix required by --vd and --ad).
demuxer-lavf-list
List of available libavformat demuxers' names. This can be used to check for support for a
specific format or use with --demuxer-lavf-format.
input-key-list
List of Key names, same as output by --input-keylist.
mpv-version
The mpv version/copyright string. Depending on how the binary was built, it might contain either a
release version, or just a git hash.
mpv-configuration
The configuration arguments that were passed to the build system. If the meson version used to
compile mpv is older than 1.1.0, then a hardcoded string of a few, arbitrary options is displayed
instead.
ffmpeg-version
The contents of the av_version_info() API call. This is a string which identifies the build in
some way, either through a release version number, or a git hash. This property is unavailable if
mpv is linked against older FFmpeg versions.
libass-version
The value of ass_library_version(). This is an integer, encoded in a somewhat weird form
(apparently "hex BCD"), indicating the release version of the libass library linked to mpv.
platform
Returns a string describing what target platform mpv was built for. The value of this is dependent
on what the underlying build system detects. Some of the most common values are: windows, darwin
(macos or ios), linux, android, and freebsd. Note that this is not a complete listing.
options/<name> (RW)
The value of option --<name>. Most options can be changed at runtime by writing to this property.
Note that many options require reloading the file for changes to take effect. If there is an
equivalent property, prefer setting the property instead.
There shouldn't be any reason to access options/<name> instead of <name>, except in situations in
which the properties have different behavior or conflicting semantics.
file-local-options/<name> (RW)
Similar to options/<name>, but when setting an option through this property, the option is reset
to its old value once the current file has stopped playing. Trying to write an option while no
file is playing (or is being loaded) results in an error.
(Note that if an option is marked as file-local, even options/ will access the local value, and
the old value, which will be restored on end of playback, cannot be read or written until end of
playback.)
option-info/<name>
Additional per-option information.
This has a number of sub-properties. Replace <name> with the name of a top-level option. No
guarantee of stability is given to any of these sub-properties - they may change radically in the
future.
option-info/<name>/name
The name of the option.
option-info/<name>/type
The name of the option type, like String or Integer. For many complex types, this isn't
very accurate.
option-info/<name>/set-from-commandline
Whether the option was set from the mpv command line. What this is set to if the option is
e.g. changed at runtime is left undefined (meaning it could change in the future).
option-info/<name>/set-locally
Whether the option was set per-file. This is the case with automatically loaded profiles,
file-dir configs, and other cases. It means the option value will be restored to the value
before playback start when playback ends.
option-info/<name>/expects-file
Whether the option takes file paths as arguments.
option-info/<name>/default-value
The default value of the option. May not always be available.
option-info/<name>/min, option-info/<name>/max
Integer minimum and maximum values allowed for the option. Only available if the options
are numeric, and the minimum/maximum has been set internally. It's also possible that only
one of these is set.
option-info/<name>/choices
If the option is a choice option, the possible choices. Choices that are integers may or
may not be included (they can be implied by min and max). Note that options which behave
like choice options, but are not actual choice options internally, may not have this info
available.
property-list
The list of top-level properties.
profile-list
The list of profiles and their contents. This is highly implementation-specific, and may change
any time. Currently, it returns an array of options for each profile. Each option has a name and a
value, with the value currently always being a string. Note that the options array is not a map,
as order matters and duplicate entries are possible. Recursive profiles are not expanded, and show
up as special profile options.
The profile-restore field is currently missing if it holds the default value (either because it
was not set, or set explicitly to default), but in the future it might hold the value default.
command-list
The list of input commands. This returns an array of maps, where each map node represents a
command. This map currently only has a single entry: name for the name of the command. (This
property is supposed to be a replacement for --input-cmdlist. The option dumps some more
information, but it's a valid feature request to extend this property if needed.)
input-bindings
The list of current input key bindings. This returns an array of maps, where each map node
represents a binding for a single key/command. This map has the following entries:
key The key name. This is normalized and may look slightly different from how it was specified
in the source (e.g. in input.conf).
cmd The command mapped to the key. (Currently, this is exactly the same string as specified in
the source, other than stripping whitespace and comments. It's possible that it will be
normalized in the future.)
is_weak
If set to true, any existing and active user bindings will take priority.
owner If this entry exists, the name of the script (or similar) which added this binding.
section
Name of the section this binding is part of. This is a rarely used mechanism. This entry
may be removed or change meaning in the future.
priority
A number. Bindings with a higher value are preferred over bindings with a lower value. If
the value is negative, this binding is inactive and will not be triggered by input. Note
that mpv does not use this value internally, and matching of bindings may work slightly
differently in some cases. In addition, this value is dynamic and can change around at
runtime.
comment
If available, the comment following the command on the same line. (For example, the
input.conf entry f cycle bla # toggle bla would result in an entry with comment = "toggle
bla", cmd = "cycle bla".)
This property is read-only, and change notification is not supported.
clipboard
The clipboard contents, only works when native clipboard (--clipboard-enable) is supported on the
platform. Depending on the platform, some sub-properties, writing to properties, or change
notifications are not currently functional.
This has a number of sub-properties:
clipboard/text (RW)
The text content in the clipboard (Windows, Wayland and macOS only). Writing to this
property sets the text clipboard content (Windows only).
clipboard/text-primary
The text content in the primary selection (Wayland only).
NOTE:
On Wayland with the vo clipboard backend, the clipboard content is only updated when the
compositor sends a selection data offer (typically when VO window is focused). The wayland
backend typically does not have this limitation. See current-clipboard-backend property for
more details.
current-clipboard-backend
A string containing the currently active clipboard backend. See --clipboard-backends option for
the list of available backends.
clock The current local time in hour:minutes format.
Inconsistencies between options and properties
You can access (almost) all options as properties, though there are some caveats with some properties
(due to historical reasons):
vid, aid, sid
While playback is active, these return the actually active tracks. For example, if you set aid=5,
and the currently played file contains no audio track with ID 5, the aid property will return no.
Before mpv 0.31.0, you could set existing tracks at runtime only.
display-fps
This inconsistent behavior is deprecated. Post-deprecation, the reported value and the option
value are cleanly separated (override-display-fps for the option value).
vf, af If you set the properties during playback, and the filter chain fails to reinitialize, the option
will be set, but the runtime filter chain does not change. On the other hand, the next video to be
played will fail, because the initial filter chain cannot be created.
This behavior changed in mpv 0.31.0. Before this, the new value was rejected iff a video (for vf)
or an audio (for af) track was active. If playback was not active, the behavior was the same as
the current one.
playlist
The property is read-only and returns the current internal playlist. The option is for loading
playlist during command line parsing. For client API uses, you should use the loadlist command
instead.
profile, include
These are write-only, and will perform actions as they are written to, exactly as if they were
used on the mpv CLI commandline. Their only use is when using libmpv before mpv_initialize(),
which in turn is probably only useful in encoding mode. Normal libmpv users should use other
mechanisms, such as the apply-profile command, and the mpv_load_config_file API function. Avoid
these properties.
Property Expansion
All string arguments to input commands as well as certain options (like --term-playing-msg) are subject
to property expansion. Note that property expansion does not work in places where e.g. numeric parameters
are expected. (For example, the add command does not do property expansion. The set command is an
exception and not a general rule.)
Example for input.conf
i show-text "Filename: ${filename}"
shows the filename of the current file when pressing the i key
Whether property expansion is enabled by default depends on which API is used (see Flat command syntax,
Commands specified as arrays and Named arguments), but it can always be enabled with the
expand-properties prefix or disabled with the raw prefix, as described in Input Command Prefixes.
The following expansions are supported:
${NAME}
Expands to the value of the property NAME. If retrieving the property fails, expand to an error
string. (Use ${NAME:} with a trailing : to expand to an empty string instead.) If NAME is
prefixed with =, expand to the raw value of the property (see section below).
${NAME:STR}
Expands to the value of the property NAME, or STR if the property cannot be retrieved. STR is
expanded recursively.
${?NAME:STR}
Expands to STR (recursively) if the property NAME is available.
${!NAME:STR}
Expands to STR (recursively) if the property NAME cannot be retrieved.
${?NAME==VALUE:STR}
Expands to STR (recursively) if the property NAME expands to a string equal to VALUE. You can
prefix NAME with = in order to compare the raw value of a property (see section below). If the
property is unavailable, or other errors happen when retrieving it, the value is never considered
equal. Note that VALUE can't contain any of the characters : or }. Also, it is possible that
escaping with " or % might be added in the future, should the need arise.
${!NAME==VALUE:STR}
Same as with the ? variant, but STR is expanded if the value is not equal. (Using the same
semantics as with ?.)
$$ Expands to $.
$} Expands to }. (To produce this character inside recursive expansion.)
$> Disable property expansion and special handling of $ for the rest of the string.
In places where property expansion is allowed, C-style escapes are often accepted as well. Example:
• \n becomes a newline character
• \\ expands to \
Raw and Formatted Properties
Normally, properties are formatted as human-readable text, meant to be displayed on OSD or on the
terminal. It is possible to retrieve an unformatted (raw) value from a property by prefixing its name
with =. These raw values can be parsed by other programs and follow the same conventions as the options
associated with the properties. Additionally, there is a > prefix to format human-readable text, with
fixed precision for floating-point values. This is useful for printing values where a constant width is
important.
Examples
• ${time-pos} expands to 00:14:23 (if playback position is at 14 minutes 23 seconds)
• ${=time-pos} expands to 863.4 (same time, plus 400 milliseconds - milliseconds are normally not
shown in the formatted case)
• ${avsync} expands to +0.003
• ${>avsync} expands to +0.0030
• ${=avsync} expands to 0.003028
Sometimes, the difference in amount of information carried by raw and formatted property values can be
rather big. In some cases, raw values have more information, like higher precision than seconds with
time-pos. Sometimes it is the other way around, e.g. aid shows track title and language in the formatted
case, but only the track number if it is raw.
ON SCREEN CONTROLLER
The On Screen Controller (short: OSC) is a minimal GUI integrated with mpv to offer basic
mouse-controllability. It is intended to make interaction easier for new users and to enable precise and
direct seeking.
The OSC is enabled by default if mpv was compiled with Lua support. It can be disabled entirely using the
--osc=no option.
Using the OSC
By default, the OSC will show up whenever the mouse is moved inside the player window and will hide if
the mouse is not moved outside the OSC for 0.5 seconds or if the mouse leaves the window.
The Interface
+------+---------+---------+-----------------------------------------------+
| menu | pl prev | pl next | title cache |
+------+------+------+---------+-----------+------+-------+-----+-----+----+
| play | skip | skip | time | seekbar | time | audio | sub | vol | fs |
| | back | frwd | elapsed | | left | | | | |
+------+------+------+---------+-----------+------+-------+-----+-----+----+
menu
┌────────────┬───────────────┐
│ left-click │ open the menu │
└────────────┴───────────────┘
pl prev
┌───────────────┬────────────────────────────────┐
│ left-click │ play previous file in playlist │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
│ shift+L-click │ show the playlist │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
│ middle-click │ show the playlist │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
│ right-click │ open the playlist menu │
└───────────────┴────────────────────────────────┘
pl next
┌───────────────┬────────────────────────────┐
│ left-click │ play next file in playlist │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ shift+L-click │ show the playlist │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ middle-click │ show the playlist │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ right-click │ open the playlist menu │
└───────────────┴────────────────────────────┘
title
Displays the current playlist position and media-title, filename or custom
title, or the target chapter name while hovering the seekbar.
┌───────────────┬──────────────────────────┐
│ left-click │ show file and track info │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ shift+L-click │ show the path │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ middle-click │ show the path │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ right-click │ open the history menu │
└───────────────┴──────────────────────────┘
cache
Shows current cache fill status
play
┌───────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ left-click │ toggle play/pause │
├───────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ shift+L-click │ toggle infinite looping of the │
│ │ playlist │
├───────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ middle-click │ toggle infinite looping of the │
│ │ playlist │
├───────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ right-click │ toggle infinite looping of the │
│ │ current file │
└───────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
skip back
┌───────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ left-click │ go to beginning of chapter / previous │
│ │ chapter │
├───────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ shift+L-click │ show chapters │
├───────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ middle-click │ show chapters │
├───────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ right-click │ open the chapter menu │
└───────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
skip frwd
┌───────────────┬───────────────────────┐
│ left-click │ go to next chapter │
├───────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ shift+L-click │ show chapters │
├───────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ middle-click │ show chapters │
├───────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ right-click │ open the chapter menu │
└───────────────┴───────────────────────┘
time elapsed
Shows current playback position timestamp
┌────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ left-click │ toggle displaying timecodes with │
│ │ milliseconds │
└────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
seekbar
Indicates current playback position and position of chapters
┌─────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ left-click │ seek to position │
├─────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│ right-click │ seek to the nearest chapter │
├─────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│ mouse wheel │ seek forward/backward │
└─────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
time left
Shows remaining playback time timestamp
┌────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ left-click │ toggle between total and remaining │
│ │ time │
└────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
audio and sub
Displays selected track and amount of available tracks
┌───────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ left-click │ cycle audio/sub tracks forward │
├───────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ shift+L-click │ cycle audio/sub tracks backwards │
├───────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ middle-click │ cycle audio/sub tracks backwards │
├───────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ right-click │ open the audio/sub track menu │
├───────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ mouse wheel │ cycle audio/sub tracks │
│ │ forward/backwards │
└───────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
vol
┌─────────────┬────────────────────────────┐
│ left-click │ toggle mute │
├─────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ right-click │ open the audio device menu │
├─────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ mouse wheel │ volume up/down │
└─────────────┴────────────────────────────┘
fs
┌─────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ left-click │ toggle fullscreen │
├─────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ right-click │ toggle whether the window is │
│ │ maximized │
└─────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
Since mpv 0.40.0, it is possible to configure the commands to run with mouse actions on some interface
elements, and the default behaviors of several elements were changed. If you miss some older behaviors,
look at etc/restore-osc-bindings.conf in the mpv git repository.
Key Bindings
These key bindings are active by default if nothing else is already bound to these keys. In case of
collision, the function needs to be bound to a different key. See the Script Commands section.
┌─────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ del │ Cycles visibility between never / │
│ │ auto (mouse-move) / always │
└─────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
Configuration
This script can be customized through a config file script-opts/osc.conf placed in mpv's user directory
and through the --script-opts command-line option. The configuration syntax is described in mp.options
functions.
Command-line Syntax
To avoid collisions with other scripts, all options need to be prefixed with osc-.
Example:
--script-opts=osc-optionA=value1,osc-optionB=value2
Configurable Options
layout Default: bottombar
The layout for the OSC. Currently available are: box, slimbox, bottombar, topbar, slimbottombar
and slimtopbar. Default pre-0.21.0 was 'box'.
seekbarstyle
Default: bar
Sets the style of the playback position marker and overall shape of the seekbar: bar, diamond or
knob.
seekbarhandlesize
Default: 0.6
Size ratio of the seek handle if seekbarstyle is set to diamond or knob. This is relative to the
full height of the seekbar.
seekbarkeyframes
Default: yes
Controls the mode used to seek when dragging the seekbar. If set to yes, default seeking mode is
used (usually keyframes, but player defaults and heuristics can change it to exact). If set to no,
exact seeking on mouse drags will be used instead. Keyframes are preferred, but exact seeks may be
useful in cases where keyframes cannot be found. Note that using exact seeks can potentially make
mouse dragging much slower.
seekrangestyle
Default: inverted
Display seekable ranges on the seekbar. bar shows them on the full height of the bar, line as a
thick line and inverted as a thin line that is inverted over playback position markers. none will
hide them. Additionally, slider will show a permanent handle inside the seekbar with cached ranges
marked inside. Note that these will look differently based on the seekbarstyle option. Also,
slider does not work with seekbarstyle set to bar.
seekrangeseparate
Default: yes
Controls whether to show line-style seekable ranges on top of the seekbar or separately if
seekbarstyle is set to bar.
seekrangealpha
Default: 20
Alpha of the seekable ranges, 0 (opaque) to 255 (fully transparent).
scrollcontrols
Default: yes
By default, going up or down with the mouse wheel can trigger certain actions (such as seeking) if
the mouse is hovering an OSC element. Set to no to disable any special mouse wheel behavior.
deadzonesize
Default: 0.5
Size of the deadzone. The deadzone is an area that makes the mouse act like leaving the window.
Movement there won't make the OSC show up and it will hide immediately if the mouse enters it. The
deadzone starts at the window border opposite to the OSC and the size controls how much of the
window it will span. Values between 0.0 and 1.0, where 0 means the OSC will always popup with
mouse movement in the window, and 1 means the OSC will only show up when the mouse hovers it.
Default pre-0.21.0 was 0.
minmousemove
Default: 0
Minimum amount of pixels the mouse has to move between ticks to make the OSC show up. Default
pre-0.21.0 was 3.
showwindowed
Default: yes
Enable the OSC when windowed
showfullscreen
Default: yes
Enable the OSC when fullscreen
idlescreen
Default: yes
Show the mpv logo and message when idle
scalewindowed
Default: 1.0
Scale factor of the OSC when windowed.
scalefullscreen
Default: 1.0
Scale factor of the OSC when fullscreen
vidscale
Default: auto
Scale the OSC with the video. no tries to keep the OSC size constant as much as the window size
allows. auto scales the OSC with the OSD, which is scaled with the window or kept at a constant
size, depending on the --osd-scale-by-window option.
valign Default: 0.8
Vertical alignment in box and slimbox layouts, -1 (top) to 1 (bottom).
halign Default: 0.0
Horizontal alignment in box and slimbox layouts, -1 (left) to 1 (right).
barmargin
Default: 0
Margin from bottom (bottombar, slimbottombar) or top (topbar, slimtopbar), in pixels.
boxalpha
Default: 80
Alpha of the background box, 0 (opaque) to 255 (fully transparent)
hidetimeout
Default: 500
Duration in ms until the OSC hides if no mouse movement, must not be negative
fadeduration
Default: 200
Duration of fade effects in ms, 0 = no fade.
fadein Default: no
Enable fade-in.
title Default: ${!playlist-count==1:[${playlist-pos-1}/${playlist-count}] }${media-title}
String that supports property expansion that will be displayed as OSC title. ASS tags are escaped
and newlines are converted to spaces.
tooltipborder
Default: 1
Size of the tooltip outline when using bottombar or topbar layouts
timetotal
Default: no
Show total time instead of time remaining
remaining_playtime
Default: yes
Whether the time-remaining display takes speed into account. yes - how much playback time remains
at the current speed. no - how much video-time remains.
timems Default: no
Display timecodes with milliseconds
tcspace
Default: 100 (allowed: 50-200)
Adjust space reserved for timecodes (current time and time remaining) in the bottombar and topbar
layouts. The timecode width depends on the font, and with some fonts the spacing near the
timecodes becomes too small. Use values above 100 to increase that spacing, or below 100 to
decrease it.
visibility
Default: auto (auto hide/show on mouse move)
Also supports never and always
visibility_modes
Default: never_auto_always
The list of visibility modes to cycle through when calling the osc-visibility cycle script
message. Modes are separated by _.
boxmaxchars
Default: 80
Max chars for the osc title at the box layout. mpv does not measure the text width on screen and
so it needs to limit it by number of chars. The default is conservative to allow wide fonts to be
used without overflow. However, with many common fonts a bigger number can be used. YMMV.
boxvideo
Default: no
Whether to overlay the osc over the video (no), or to box the video within the areas not covered
by the osc (yes). If this option is set, the osc may overwrite the --video-margin-ratio-* options,
even if the user has set them. (It will not overwrite them if all of them are set to default
values.) Additionally, visibility must be set to always. Otherwise, this option does nothing.
Currently, this is supported for the bottombar, slimbottombar, topbar and slimtopbar layouts only.
The other layouts do not change if this option is set. Separately, if window controls are present
(see below), they will be affected regardless of which osc layout is in use.
The border is static and appears even if the OSC is configured to appear only on mouse
interaction. If the OSC is invisible, the border is simply filled with the background color (black
by default).
This currently still makes the OSC overlap with subtitles (if the --sub-use-margins option is set
to yes, the default). This may be fixed later.
This does not work correctly with video outputs like --vo=xv, which render OSD into the unscaled
video.
windowcontrols
Default: auto (Show window controls if there is no window border)
Whether to show window management controls over the video, and if so, which side of the window to
place them. This may be desirable when the window has no decorations, either because they have
been explicitly disabled (border=no) or because the current platform doesn't support them (eg:
gnome-shell with wayland).
The set of window controls is fixed, offering minimize, maximize, and quit. Not all platforms
implement minimize and maximize, but quit will always work.
windowcontrols_alignment
Default: right
If window controls are shown, indicates which side should they be aligned to.
Supports left and right which will place the controls on those respective sides.
windowcontrols_title
Default: ${media-title}
String that supports property expansion that will be displayed as the windowcontrols title. ASS
tags are escaped, and newlines and trailing slashes are stripped.
greenandgrumpy
Default: no
Set to yes to reduce festivity (i.e. disable santa hat in December.)
livemarkers
Default: yes
Update chapter markers positions on duration changes, e.g. live streams. The updates are
unoptimized - consider disabling it on very low-end systems.
chapter_fmt
Default: Chapter: %s
Template for the chapter-name display when hovering the seekbar. Use no to disable chapter
display on hover. Otherwise it's a lua string.format template and %s is replaced with the actual
name.
unicodeminus
Default: no
Use a Unicode minus sign instead of an ASCII hyphen when displaying the remaining playback time.
background_color
Default: #000000
Sets the background color of the OSC.
timecode_color
Default: #FFFFFF
Sets the color of the timecode and seekbar, of the OSC.
title_color
Default: #FFFFFF
Sets the color of the video title. Formatted as #RRGGBB.
time_pos_color
Default: #FFFFFF
Sets the color of the timecode at hover position in the seekbar.
time_pos_outline_color
Default: #FFFFFF
Sets the color of the timecode's outline at hover position in the seekbar. Also affects the
timecode in the slimbox layout.
buttons_color
Default: #FFFFFF
Sets the colors of the big buttons.
top_buttons_color
Default: #FFFFFF
Sets the colors of the top buttons.
small_buttonsL_color
Default: #FFFFFF
Sets the colors of the small buttons on the left in the box layout.
small_buttonsR_color
Default: #FFFFFF
Sets the colors of the small buttons on the right in the box layout.
held_element_color
Default: #999999
Sets the colors of the elements that are being pressed or held down.
tick_delay
Default: 1/60
Sets the minimum interval between OSC redraws in seconds. This can be decreased on fast systems to
make OSC rendering smoother.
Ignored if tick_delay_follow_display_fps is set to yes and the VO supports the display-fps
property.
tick_delay_follow_display_fps
Default: no
Use display fps to calculate the interval between OSC redraws.
The following options configure what commands are run when the buttons are clicked. mbtn_mid commands are
also triggered with shift+mbtn_left.
menu_mbtn_left_command=script-binding select/menu; script-message-to osc osc-hide
menu_mbtn_mid_command=
menu_mbtn_right_command=
playlist_prev_mbtn_left_command=playlist-prev; show-text ${playlist} 3000
playlist_prev_mbtn_mid_command=show-text ${playlist} 3000
playlist_prev_mbtn_right_command=script-binding select/select-playlist; script-message-to osc osc-hide
playlist_next_mbtn_left_command=playlist-next; show-text ${playlist} 3000
playlist_next_mbtn_mid_command=show-text ${playlist} 3000
playlist_next_mbtn_right_command=script-binding select/select-playlist; script-message-to osc osc-hide
title_mbtn_left_command=script-binding stats/display-page-5
title_mbtn_mid_command=show-text ${path}
title_mbtn_right_command=script-binding select/select-watch-history; script-message-to osc osc-hide
play_pause_mbtn_left_command=cycle pause
play_pause_mbtn_mid_command=cycle-values loop-playlist inf no
play_pause_mbtn_right_command=cycle-values loop-file inf no
chapter_prev_mbtn_left_command=osd-msg add chapter -1
chapter_prev_mbtn_mid_command=show-text ${chapter-list} 3000
chapter_prev_mbtn_right_command=script-binding select/select-chapter; script-message-to osc osc-hide
chapter_next_mbtn_left_command=osd-msg add chapter 1
chapter_next_mbtn_mid_command=show-text ${chapter-list} 3000
chapter_next_mbtn_right_command=script-binding select/select-chapter; script-message-to osc osc-hide
audio_track_mbtn_left_command=cycle audio
audio_track_mbtn_mid_command=cycle audio down
audio_track_mbtn_right_command=script-binding select/select-aid; script-message-to osc osc-hide
audio_track_wheel_down_command=cycle audio
audio_track_wheel_up_command=cycle audio down
sub_track_mbtn_left_command=cycle sub
sub_track_mbtn_mid_command=cycle sub down
sub_track_mbtn_right_command=script-binding select/select-sid; script-message-to osc osc-hide
sub_track_wheel_down_command=cycle sub
sub_track_wheel_up_command=cycle sub down
volume_mbtn_left_command=no-osd cycle mute
volume_mbtn_mid_command=
volume_mbtn_right_command=script-binding select/select-audio-device; script-message-to osc osc-hide
volume_wheel_down_command=add volume -5
volume_wheel_up_command=add volume 5
fullscreen_mbtn_left_command="cycle fullscreen"
fullscreen_mbtn_mid_command=
fullscreen_mbtn_right_command="cycle window-maximized"
Custom Buttons
Additional script-opts are available to define custom buttons in bottombar and topbar layouts.
Example to add loop and shuffle buttons
custom_button_1_content=🔁 custom_button_1_mbtn_left_command=cycle-values loop-file inf no
custom_button_1_mbtn_right_command=cycle-values loop-playlist inf no
custom_button_2_content=🔀 custom_button_2_mbtn_left_command=playlist-shuffle
custom_button_3_content=⏱ custom_button_3_mbtn_left_command=add speed 1
custom_button_3_mbtn_right_command=set speed 1 custom_button_3_wheel_up_command=add speed 0.25
custom_button_3_wheel_down_command=add speed -0.25
Script Commands
The OSC script listens to certain script commands. These commands can bound in input.conf, or sent by
other scripts.
osc-visibility
Controls visibility mode never / auto (on mouse move) / always and also cycle to cycle between the
modes. If a second argument is passed (any value), then the output on the OSD will be silenced.
osc-show
Triggers the OSC to show up, just as if user moved mouse.
osc-hide
Hide the OSC when visibility is auto.
Example
You could put this into input.conf to hide the OSC with the a key and to set auto mode (the default) with
b:
a script-message osc-visibility never
b script-message osc-visibility auto
osc-idlescreen
Controls the visibility of the mpv logo on idle. Valid arguments are yes, no, and cycle to toggle
between yes and no. If a second argument is passed (any value), then the output on the OSD will be
silenced.
STATS
This builtin script displays information and statistics for the currently played file. It is enabled by
default if mpv was compiled with Lua support. It can be disabled entirely using the
--load-stats-overlay=no option.
Usage
The following key bindings are active by default unless something else is already bound to them:
┌───┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ i │ Show stats for a fixed duration │
├───┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ I │ Toggle stats (shown until toggled │
│ │ again) │
├───┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ? │ Toggle displaying the key bindings │
└───┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
While the stats are visible on screen the following key bindings are active, regardless of existing
bindings. They allow you to switch between pages of stats:
┌───┬───────────────────────────────┐
│ 1 │ Show usual stats │
├───┼───────────────────────────────┤
│ 2 │ Show frame timings (scroll) │
├───┼───────────────────────────────┤
│ 3 │ Input cache stats │
├───┼───────────────────────────────┤
│ 4 │ Active key bindings (scroll) │
├───┼───────────────────────────────┤
│ 5 │ Selected Tracks Info (scroll) │
├───┼───────────────────────────────┤
│ 0 │ Internal stuff (scroll) │
└───┴───────────────────────────────┘
If stats were displayed by toggling, these key bindings are also active:
┌─────┬─────────────────┐
│ ESC │ Close the stats │
└─────┴─────────────────┘
On pages which support scroll, these key bindings are also active:
┌──────┬──────────────────────┐
│ UP │ Scroll one line up │
├──────┼──────────────────────┤
│ DOWN │ Scroll one line down │
└──────┴──────────────────────┘
On page 4, these key bindings are also active:
┌───┬─────────────────────┐
│ / │ Search key bindings │
└───┴─────────────────────┘
Configuration
This script can be customized through a config file script-opts/stats.conf placed in mpv's user directory
and through the --script-opts command-line option. The configuration syntax is described in mp.options
functions.
Configurable Options
key_page_1
Default: 1
key_page_2
Default: 2
key_page_3
Default: 3
key_page_4
Default: 4
key_page_5
Default: 5
key_page_0
Default: 0
key_exit
Default: ESC
Key bindings for page switching while stats are displayed.
key_scroll_up
Default: UP
key_scroll_down
Default: DOWN
key_scroll_search
Default: /
scroll_lines
Default: 1
Scroll key bindings and number of lines to scroll on pages which support it.
duration
Default: 4
How long the stats are shown in seconds (oneshot).
redraw_delay
Default: 1
How long it takes to refresh the displayed stats in seconds (toggling).
persistent_overlay
Default: no
When no, other scripts printing text to the screen can overwrite the displayed stats. When yes,
displayed stats are persistently shown for the respective duration. This can result in overlapping
text when multiple scripts decide to print text at the same time.
file_tag_max_length
Default: 128
Only show file tags shorter than this length, in bytes.
file_tag_max_count
Default: 16
Only show the first specified amount of file tags.
term_clip
Default: yes
Whether to clip lines to the terminal width.
plot_perfdata
Default: yes
Show graphs for performance data (page 2).
plot_vsync_ratio
Default: yes
plot_vsync_jitter
Default: yes
Show graphs for vsync and jitter values (page 1). Only when toggled.
plot_tonemapping_lut
Default: no
Enable tone-mapping LUT visualization automatically. Only when toggled.
flush_graph_data
Default: yes
Clear data buffers used for drawing graphs when toggling.
font Default: same as osd-font
Font name. Should support as many font weights as possible for optimal visual experience.
font_mono
Default: monospace
Font name for parts where monospaced characters are necessary to align text. Currently, monospaced
digits are sufficient.
font_size
Default: 20
Font size used to render text.
font_color
Default: same as osd-color
Color of the text.
border_size
Default: 1.65
Size of border drawn around the font.
border_color
Default: same as osd-border-color
Color of the text border.
shadow_x_offset
Default: same as --osd-shadow-offset
The horizontal distance from the text to position the shadow at.
shadow_y_offset
Default: same as --osd-shadow-offset
The vertical distance from the text to position the shadow at.
shadow_color
Default: same as osd-shadow-color
Color of the text shadow.
alpha Default: 11
Transparency of text when font_color is specified, of text borders when border_color is specified,
and of text shadows when shadow_color is specified.
plot_bg_border_color
Default: 0000FF
Border color used for drawing graphs.
plot_bg_border_width
Default: 1.25
Border width used for drawing graphs.
plot_bg_color
Default: 262626
Background color used for drawing graphs.
plot_color
Default: FFFFFF
Color used for drawing graphs.
vidscale
Default: auto
Scale the text and graphs with the video. no tries to keep the sizes constant. auto scales the
text and graphs with the OSD, which is scaled with the window or kept at a constant size,
depending on the --osd-scale-by-window option.
Note: colors are given as hexadecimal values and use ASS tag order: BBGGRR (blue green red).
Different key bindings
Additional keys can be configured in input.conf to display the stats:
e script-binding stats/display-stats
E script-binding stats/display-stats-toggle
And to display a certain page directly:
i script-binding stats/display-page-1
h script-binding stats/display-page-4-toggle
Active key bindings page
Lists the active key bindings and the commands they're bound to, excluding the interactive keys of the
stats script itself. See also --input-test for more detailed view of each binding.
The keys are grouped automatically using a simple analysis of the command string, and one should not
expect documentation-level grouping accuracy, however, it should still be reasonably useful.
Using --idle --script-opt=stats-bindlist=yes will print the list to the terminal and quit immediately.
Long lines are clipped to the terminal width unless this is disabled with
--script-opt=stats-term_clip=no. Escape sequences can be disabled by adding - before yes, i.e.
--script-opt=stats-bindlist=-yes.
Like with --input-test, the list includes bindings from input.conf and from user scripts. Use --no-config
to list only built-in bindings.
Internal stuff page
Most entries shown on this page have rather vague meaning. Likely none of this is useful for you. Don't
attempt to use it. Forget its existence.
Selecting this for the first time will start collecting some internal performance data. That means
performance will be slightly lower than normal for the rest of the time the player is running (even if
the stats page is closed). Note that the stats page itself uses a lot of CPU and even GPU resources, and
may have a heavy impact on performance.
The displayed information is accumulated over the redraw delay (shown as poll-time field).
This adds entries for each Lua script. If there are too many scripts running, parts of the list will
simply be out of the screen, but it can be scrolled.
If the underlying platform does not support pthread per thread times, the displayed times will be 0 or
something random (I suspect that at time of this writing, only Linux provides the correct via pthread
APIs for per thread times).
Most entries are added lazily and only during data collection, which is why entries may pop up randomly
after some time. It's also why the memory usage entries for scripts that have been inactive since the
start of data collection are missing.
Memory usage is approximate and does not reflect internal fragmentation.
JS scripts memory reporting is disabled by default because collecting the data at the JS side has an
overhead and will increase memory usage. It can be enabled by setting the --js-memory-report option
before starting mpv.
If entries have /time and /cpu variants, the former gives the real time (monotonic clock), while the
latter the thread CPU time (only if the corresponding pthread API works and is supported).
CONSOLE
This script provides the ability to process the user's textual input to other scripts through the
mp.input API. It can be displayed on both the video window and the terminal. It can be disabled entirely
using the --load-console=no option.
Console can either process free-form text or select from a predefined list of items.
Free-form text mode keybindings
ESC and Ctrl+[
Hide the console.
ENTER, Ctrl+j and Ctrl+m
Select the first completion if one wasn't already manually selected, and run the typed command.
Shift+ENTER
Type a literal newline character.
LEFT and Ctrl+b
Move the cursor to the previous character.
RIGHT and Ctrl+f
Move the cursor to the next character.
Ctrl+LEFT and Alt+b
Move the cursor to the beginning of the current word, or if between words, to the beginning of the
previous word.
Ctrl+RIGHT and Alt+f
Move the cursor to the end of the current word, or if between words, to the end of the next word.
HOME and Ctrl+a
Move the cursor to the start of the current line.
END and Ctrl+e
Move the cursor to the end of the current line.
BACKSPACE and Ctrl+h
Delete the previous character.
Ctrl+d Hide the console if the current line is empty, otherwise delete the next character.
Ctrl+BACKSPACE and Ctrl+w
Delete text from the cursor to the beginning of the current word, or if between words, to the
beginning of the previous word.
Ctrl+DEL and Alt+d
Delete text from the cursor to the end of the current word, or if between words, to the end of the
next word.
Ctrl+u Delete text from the cursor to the beginning of the current line.
Ctrl+k Delete text from the cursor to the end of the current line.
Ctrl+c Clear the current line.
UP and Ctrl+p
Move back in the command history.
DOWN and Ctrl+n
Move forward in the command history.
PGUP Go to the first command in the history.
PGDN Stop navigating the command history.
Ctrl+r Search the command history. See SELECT for the key bindings in this mode.
INSERT Toggle insert mode.
Ctrl+v Paste text (uses the clipboard on X11 and Wayland).
Shift+INSERT
Paste text (uses the primary selection on X11 and Wayland).
TAB and Ctrl+i
Cycle through completions.
Shift+TAB
Cycle through the completions backwards.
Ctrl+l Clear all log messages from the console.
MBTN_MID
Paste text (uses the primary selection on X11 and Wayland).
WHEEL_UP
Move back in the command history.
WHEEL_DOWN
Move forward in the command history.
Known issues
• Non-ASCII keyboard input has restrictions
• The cursor keys move between Unicode code-points, not grapheme clusters
Configuration
This script can be customized through a config file script-opts/console.conf placed in mpv's user
directory and through the --script-opts command-line option. The configuration syntax is described in
mp.options functions.
Configurable Options
font The font name.
When necessary to align completions in a grid, a monospace font depending on the platform is the
default. When there are no completions, --osd-font is the default.
font_size
Default: 24
The font size. This will be multiplied by display-hidpi-scale when the console is not scaled with
the window.
border_size
Default: 1.65
The font border size.
background_alpha
Default: 80
The transparency of the menu's background. Ranges from 0 (opaque) to 255 (fully transparent).
padding
Default: 10
The padding of the menu.
menu_outline_size
Default: 0
The size of the menu's border.
menu_outline_color
Default: #FFFFFF
The color of the menu's border.
corner_radius
Default: 8
The radius of the menu's corners.
margin_x
Default: same as --osd-margin-x
The margin from the left of the window.
margin_y
Default: same as --osd-margin-y
The margin from the bottom of the window.
scale_with_window
Default: auto
Whether to scale the console with the window height. Can be yes, no, or auto, which follows the
value of --osd-scale-by-window.
selected_color
Default: #222222
The color of the selected item.
selected_back_color
Default: #FFFFFF
The background color of the selected item.
match_color
Default: #0088FF
The color of characters that match the searched string.
case_sensitive
Default: no on Windows, yes on other platforms.
Whether autocompletion is case sensitive. Only works with ASCII characters.
history_dedup
Default: true
Remove duplicate entries in history as to only keep the latest one.
font_hw_ratio
Default: auto
The ratio of font height to font width. Adjusts grid width of completions. Values in the range
1.8..2.5 make sense for common monospace fonts.
COMMANDS
This script allows running and completing input commands in the console interactively, and also adds
mpv's log to the console's log.
Keybindings
` Open the console to enter commands.
Commands
script-binding commands/open
Open the console to enter commands.
script-message-to commands type <text> [<cursor_pos>]
Show the console and pre-fill it with the provided text, optionally specifying the initial cursor
position as a positive integer starting from 1. The console is automatically closed after running
the command.
Examples for input.conf
% script-message-to commands type "seek absolute-percent" 6
Enter a percent position to seek to.
Ctrl+o script-message-to console type "loadfile ''" 11
Enter a file or URL to play, with autocompletion of paths in the filesystem.
Configuration
This script can be customized through a config file script-opts/commands.conf placed in mpv's user
directory and through the --script-opts command-line option. The configuration syntax is described in
mp.options functions.
Configurable Options
persist_history
Default: no
Whether to save the command history to a file and load it.
history_path
Default: ~~state/command_history.txt
The file path for persist_history (see PATHS).
SELECT
console can present a list of items to browse and select from with the mp.input.select API. select.lua is
a builtin client of this API providing script bindings that gather and format the data to be selected in
the console and do operations on the selected item. It can be disabled using the --load-select=no option.
Key bindings
When using mp.input.select, typing printable characters does a fuzzy search of the presented items, and
key bindings listed in CONSOLE are extended with the following:
ENTER, Ctrl+j and Ctrl+m
Confirm the selection of the highlighted item.
UP and Ctrl+p
Select the item above, or the last one when the first item is selected.
DOWN and Ctrl+n
Select the item below, or the first one when the last item is selected.
PGUP and Ctrl+b
Scroll up one page.
PGDN and Ctrl+f
Scroll down one page.
MBTN_LEFT
Confirm the selection of the highlighted item, or close the console if clicking outside of the
menu rectangle.
WHEEL_UP
Scroll up.
WHEEL_DOWN
Scroll down.
Script bindings
By default select.lua's script bindings are bound to key sequences starting with g listed in Keyboard
Control. The names of the script bindings listed below can be used to bind them to different keys.
Example to rebind playlist selection in input.conf
Ctrl+p script-binding select/select-playlist
Available script bindings are:
select-playlist
Select a playlist entry. --osd-playlist-entry determines how playlist entries are formatted.
select-sid
Select a subtitle track, or disable the current one.
select-secondary-sid
Select a secondary subtitle track, or disable the current one.
select-aid
Select an audio track, or disable the current one.
select-vid
Select a video track, or disable the current one.
select-track
Select a track of any type, or disable a selected track.
select-chapter
Select a chapter.
select-edition
Select an MKV edition or DVD/Blu-ray title.
select-subtitle-line
Select a subtitle line to seek to. This doesn't work with image subtitles.
This currently requires ffmpeg in PATH, or in the same folder as mpv on Windows.
select-audio-device
Select an audio device.
select-watch-history
Select a file from the watch history. Requires --save-watch-history.
If you don't already use --autocreate-playlist, it is recommended to enable it with this script
binding to populate the playlist with the other files in the entry's directory.
Example for input.conf to play files adjacent to the history entry
g-h script-binding select/select-watch-history; no-osd set autocreate-playlist filter
select-watch-later
Select a file from watch later config files (see RESUMING PLAYBACK) to resume playing. Requires
--write-filename-in-watch-later-config. This doesn't work with
--ignore-path-in-watch-later-config.
If you don't already use --autocreate-playlist, it is recommended to enable it with this script
binding to populate the playlist with the other files in the entry's directory.
Example for input.conf to play files adjacent to the watch later entry
g-w script-binding select/select-watch-later; no-osd set autocreate-playlist filter
select-binding
List the defined input bindings. You can also select one to run the associated command.
show-properties
List the names and values of all properties. You can also select one to print its value on the
OSD, which is useful for long values that get clipped.
menu Show a menu with miscellaneous entries.
Configuration
This script can be customized through a config file script-opts/select.conf placed in mpv's user
directory and through the --script-opts command-line option. The configuration syntax is described in
mp.options functions.
Configurable options
history_date_format
Default: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S
The format of dates of history entries. This is passed to Lua's os.date, which uses the same
formats as strftime(3).
hide_history_duplicates
Default: yes
Whether to show only the last of history entries with the same path.
POSITIONING
This script provides script bindings to pan videos and images. It can be disabled using the
--load-positioning=no option.
Script bindings
pan-x <amount>
Adjust --video-align-x relatively to the OSD width, rather than relatively to the video width like
the option. This is useful to pan large images consistently.
amount is a number such that an amount of 1 scrolls as much as the OSD width.
pan-y <amount>
Adjust --video-align-y relatively to the OSD height, rather than relatively to the video height
like the option.
amount is a number such that an amount of 1 scrolls as much as the OSD height.
drag-to-pan
Pan the video while holding a mouse button, keeping the clicked part of the video under the
cursor.
align-to-cursor
Pan through the whole video while holding a mouse button, or after clicking once if
toggle_align_to_cursor is yes.
cursor-centric-zoom <amount>
Increase --video-zoom by amount while keeping the part of the video hovered by the cursor under
it, or the average position of touch points if known.
Configuration
This script can be customized through a config file script-opts/positioning.conf placed in mpv's user
directory and through the --script-opts command-line option. The configuration syntax is described in
mp.options functions.
Configurable Options
toggle_align_to_cursor
Default: no
Whether align-to-cursor requires holding down a mouse button to pan. If no, dragging pans. If yes,
clicking the first time makes pan follow the cursor, and clicking a second time disables this.
suppress_osd
Default: no
Whether to not print the new value of --video-zoom when using cursor-centric-zoom.
LUA SCRIPTING
mpv can load Lua scripts. (See Script location.)
mpv provides the built-in module mp, which contains functions to send commands to the mpv core and to
retrieve information about playback state, user settings, file information, and so on.
These scripts can be used to control mpv in a similar way to slave mode. Technically, the Lua code uses
the client API internally.
Example
A script which leaves fullscreen mode when the player is paused:
function on_pause_change(name, value)
if value == true then
mp.set_property("fullscreen", "no")
end
end
mp.observe_property("pause", "bool", on_pause_change)
Script location
Scripts can be passed to the --script option, and are automatically loaded from the scripts subdirectory
of the mpv configuration directory (usually ~/.config/mpv/scripts/).
A script can be a single file. The file extension is used to select the scripting backend to use for it.
For Lua, it is .lua. If the extension is not recognized, an error is printed. (If an error happens, the
extension is either mistyped, or the backend was not compiled into your mpv binary.)
mpv internally loads the script's name by stripping the .lua extension and replacing all nonalphanumeric
characters with _. E.g., my-tools.lua becomes my_tools. If there are several scripts with the same name,
it is made unique by appending a number. This is the name returned by mp.get_script_name().
Entries with .disable extension are always ignored.
If a script is a directory (either if a directory is passed to --script, or any sub-directories in the
script directory, such as for example ~/.config/mpv/scripts/something/), then the directory represents a
single script. The player will try to load a file named main.x, where x is replaced with the file
extension. For example, if main.lua exists, it is loaded with the Lua scripting backend.
You must not put any other files or directories that start with main. into the script's top level
directory. If the script directory contains for example both main.lua and main.js, only one of them will
be loaded (and which one depends on mpv internals that may change any time). Likewise, if there is for
example main.foo, your script will break as soon as mpv adds a backend that uses the .foo file extension.
mpv also appends the top level directory of the script to the start of Lua's package path so you can
import scripts from there too. Be aware that this will shadow Lua libraries that use the same package
path. (Single file scripts do not include mpv specific directories in the Lua package path. This was
silently changed in mpv 0.32.0.)
Using a script directory is the recommended way to package a script that consists of multiple source
files, or requires other files (you can use mp.get_script_directory() to get the location and e.g. load
data files).
Making a script a git repository, basically a repository which contains a main.lua file in the root
directory, makes scripts easily updateable (without the dangers of auto-updates). Another suggestion is
to use git submodules to share common files or libraries.
Details on the script initialization and lifecycle
Your script will be loaded by the player at program start from the scripts configuration subdirectory, or
from a path specified with the --script option. Some scripts are loaded internally (like --osc). Each
script runs in its own thread. Your script is first run "as is", and once that is done, the event loop is
entered. This event loop will dispatch events received by mpv and call your own event handlers which you
have registered with mp.register_event, or timers added with mp.add_timeout or similar. Note that since
the script starts execution concurrently with player initialization, some properties may not be populated
with meaningful values until the relevant subsystems have initialized. Rather than retrieving these
properties at the top of scripts, you should use mp.observe_property or read them within event handlers.
When the player quits, all scripts will be asked to terminate. This happens via a shutdown event, which
by default will make the event loop return. If your script got into an endless loop, mpv will probably
behave fine during playback, but it won't terminate when quitting, because it's waiting on your script.
Internally, the C code will call the Lua function mp_event_loop after loading a Lua script. This function
is normally defined by the default prelude loaded before your script (see player/lua/defaults.lua in the
mpv sources). The event loop will wait for events and dispatch events registered with mp.register_event.
It will also handle timers added with mp.add_timeout and similar (by waiting with a timeout).
Since mpv 0.6.0, the player will wait until the script is fully loaded before continuing normal
operation. The player considers a script as fully loaded as soon as it starts waiting for mpv events (or
it exits). In practice this means the player will more or less hang until the script returns from the
main chunk (and mp_event_loop is called), or the script calls mp_event_loop or mp.dispatch_events
directly. This is done to make it possible for a script to fully setup event handlers etc. before
playback actually starts. In older mpv versions, this happened asynchronously. With mpv 0.29.0, this
changes slightly, and it merely waits for scripts to be loaded in this manner before starting playback as
part of the player initialization phase. Scripts run though initialization in parallel. This might change
again.
mp functions
The mp module is preloaded, although it can be loaded manually with require 'mp'. It provides the core
client API.
mp.command(string)
Run the given command. This is similar to the commands used in input.conf. See List of Input
Commands.
By default, this will show something on the OSD (depending on the command), as if it was used in
input.conf. See Input Command Prefixes how to influence OSD usage per command.
Returns true on success, or nil, error on error.
mp.commandv(arg1, arg2, ...)
Similar to mp.command, but pass each command argument as separate parameter. This has the
advantage that you don't have to care about quoting and escaping in some cases.
Example:
mp.command("loadfile " .. filename .. " append")
mp.commandv("loadfile", filename, "append")
These two commands are equivalent, except that the first version breaks if the filename contains
spaces or certain special characters.
Note that properties are not expanded. You can use either mp.command, the expand-properties
prefix, or the mp.get_property family of functions.
Unlike mp.command, this will not use OSD by default either (except for some OSD-specific
commands).
mp.command_native(table [,def])
Similar to mp.commandv, but pass the argument list as table. This has the advantage that in at
least some cases, arguments can be passed as native types. It also allows you to use named
argument.
If the table is an array, each array item is like an argument in mp.commandv() (but can be a
native type instead of a string).
If the table contains string keys, it's interpreted as command with named arguments. This requires
at least an entry with the key name to be present, which must be a string, and contains the
command name. The special entry _flags is optional, and if present, must be an array of Input
Command Prefixes to apply. All other entries are interpreted as arguments.
Returns a result table on success (usually empty), or def, error on error. def is the second
parameter provided to the function, and is nil if it's missing.
mp.command_native_async(table [,fn])
Like mp.command_native(), but the command is ran asynchronously (as far as possible), and upon
completion, fn is called. fn has three arguments: fn(success, result, error):
success
Always a Boolean and is true if the command was successful, otherwise false.
result The result value (can be nil) in case of success, nil otherwise (as returned by
mp.command_native()).
error The error string in case of an error, nil otherwise.
Returns a table with undefined contents, which can be used as argument for mp.abort_async_command.
If starting the command failed for some reason, nil, error is returned, and fn is called
indicating failure, using the same error value.
fn is always called asynchronously, even if the command failed to start.
mp.abort_async_command(t)
Abort a mp.command_native_async call. The argument is the return value of that command (which
starts asynchronous execution of the command). Whether this works and how long it takes depends
on the command and the situation. The abort call itself is asynchronous. Does not return anything.
mp.del_property(name)
Delete the given property. See mp.get_property and Properties for more information about
properties. Most properties cannot be deleted.
Returns true on success, or nil, error on error.
mp.get_property(name [,def])
Return the value of the given property as string. These are the same properties as used in
input.conf. See Properties for a list of properties. The returned string is formatted similar to
${=name} (see Property Expansion).
Returns the string on success, or def, error on error. def is the second parameter provided to the
function, and is nil if it's missing.
mp.get_property_osd(name [,def])
Similar to mp.get_property, but return the property value formatted for OSD. This is the same
string as printed with ${name} when used in input.conf.
Returns the string on success, or def, error on error. def is the second parameter provided to the
function, and is an empty string if it's missing. Unlike get_property(), assigning the return
value to a variable will always result in a string.
mp.get_property_bool(name [,def])
Similar to mp.get_property, but return the property value as Boolean.
Returns a Boolean on success, or def, error on error.
mp.get_property_number(name [,def])
Similar to mp.get_property, but return the property value as number.
Note that while Lua does not distinguish between integers and floats, mpv internals do. This
function simply request a double float from mpv, and mpv will usually convert integer property
values to float.
Returns a number on success, or def, error on error.
mp.get_property_native(name [,def])
Similar to mp.get_property, but return the property value using the best Lua type for the
property. Most time, this will return a string, Boolean, or number. Some properties (for example
chapter-list) are returned as tables.
Returns a value on success, or def, error on error. Note that nil might be a possible, valid value
too in some corner cases.
mp.set_property(name, value)
Set the given property to the given string value. See mp.get_property and Properties for more
information about properties.
Returns true on success, or nil, error on error.
mp.set_property_bool(name, value)
Similar to mp.set_property, but set the given property to the given Boolean value.
mp.set_property_number(name, value)
Similar to mp.set_property, but set the given property to the given numeric value.
Note that while Lua does not distinguish between integers and floats, mpv internals do. This
function will test whether the number can be represented as integer, and if so, it will pass an
integer value to mpv, otherwise a double float.
mp.set_property_native(name, value)
Similar to mp.set_property, but set the given property using its native type.
Since there are several data types which cannot represented natively in Lua, this might not always
work as expected. For example, while the Lua wrapper can do some guesswork to decide whether a Lua
table is an array or a map, this would fail with empty tables. Also, there are not many properties
for which it makes sense to use this, instead of set_property, set_property_bool,
set_property_number. For these reasons, this function should probably be avoided for now, except
for properties that use tables natively.
mp.get_time()
Return the current mpv internal time in seconds as a number. This is basically the system time,
with an arbitrary offset.
mp.add_key_binding(key, name|fn [,fn [,flags]])
Register callback to be run on a key binding. The binding will be mapped to the given key, which
is a string describing the physical key. This uses the same key names as in input.conf, and also
allows combinations (e.g. ctrl+a). If the key is empty or nil, no physical key is registered, but
the user still can create own bindings (see below).
After calling this function, key presses will cause the function fn to be called (unless the user
remapped the key with another binding). However, if the key binding is canceled , the function
will not be called, unless complex flag is set to true, where the function will be called with the
canceled entry set to true.
For example, a canceled key binding can happen in the following situations:
• If key A is pressed while key B is being held down, key B is logically released ("canceled" by
key A), which stops the current autorepeat action key B has.
• If key A is pressed while a mouse button is being held down, the mouse button is logically
released, but the mouse button's action will not be called, unless complex flag is set to true.
The name argument should be a short symbolic string. It allows the user to remap the key binding
via input.conf using the script-message command, and the name of the key binding (see below for an
example). The name should be unique across other bindings in the same script - if not, the
previous binding with the same name will be overwritten. You can omit the name, in which case a
random name is generated internally. (Omitting works as follows: either pass nil for name, or pass
the fn argument in place of the name. The latter is not recommended and is handled for
compatibility only.)
The flags argument is used for optional parameters. This is a table, which can have the following
entries:
repeatable
If set to true, enables key repeat for this specific binding. This option only makes
sense when complex is not set to true.
scalable
If set to true, enables key scaling for this specific binding. This option only makes
sense when complex is set to true. Note that this has no effect if the key binding is
invoked by script-binding command, where the scalability of the command takes
precedence.
complex
If set to true, then fn is called on key down, repeat and up events, with the first
argument being a table. This table has the following entries (and may contain
undocumented ones):
event Set to one of the strings down, repeat, up or press (the latter if key
up/down/repeat can't be tracked), which indicates the key's logical state.
is_mouse
Boolean: Whether the event was caused by a mouse button.
canceled
Boolean: Whether the event was canceled. Not all types of cancellations set
this flag.
key_name
The name of they key that triggered this, or nil if invoked artificially. If
the key name is unknown, it's an empty string.
key_text
Text if triggered by a text key, otherwise nil. See description of
script-binding command for details (this field is equivalent to the 5th
argument).
scale The scale of the key, such as the ones produced by WHEEL_* keys. The scale is
1 if the key is nonscalable.
arg User-provided string in the arg argument in the script-binding command if the
key binding is invoked by that command.
Internally, key bindings are dispatched via the script-message-to or script-binding input commands
and mp.register_script_message.
Trying to map multiple commands to a key will essentially prefer a random binding, while the other
bindings are not called. It is guaranteed that user defined bindings in the central input.conf are
preferred over bindings added with this function (but see mp.add_forced_key_binding).
Example:
function something_handler()
print("the key was pressed")
end
mp.add_key_binding("x", "something", something_handler)
This will print the message the key was pressed when x was pressed.
The user can remap these key bindings. Then the user has to put the following into their
input.conf to remap the command to the y key:
y script-binding something
This will print the message when the key y is pressed. (x will still work, unless the user remaps
it.)
You can also explicitly send a message to a named script only. Assume the above script was using
the filename fooscript.lua:
y script-binding fooscript/something
mp.add_forced_key_binding(...)
This works almost the same as mp.add_key_binding, but registers the key binding in a way that will
overwrite the user's custom bindings in their input.conf. (mp.add_key_binding overwrites default
key bindings only, but not those by the user's input.conf.)
mp.remove_key_binding(name)
Remove a key binding added with mp.add_key_binding or mp.add_forced_key_binding. Use the same name
as you used when adding the bindings. It's not possible to remove bindings for which you omitted
the name.
mp.register_event(name, fn)
Call a specific function when an event happens. The event name is a string, and the function fn is
a Lua function value.
Some events have associated data. This is put into a Lua table and passed as argument to fn. The
Lua table by default contains a name field, which is a string containing the event name. If the
event has an error associated, the error field is set to a string describing the error, on success
it's not set.
If multiple functions are registered for the same event, they are run in registration order, which
the first registered function running before all the other ones.
Returns true if such an event exists, false otherwise.
See Events and List of events for details.
mp.unregister_event(fn)
Undo mp.register_event(..., fn). This removes all event handlers that are equal to the fn
parameter. This uses normal Lua == comparison, so be careful when dealing with closures.
mp.observe_property(name, type, fn)
Watch a property for changes. If the property name is changed, then the function fn(name) will be
called. type can be nil, or be set to one of none, native, bool, string, or number. none is the
same as nil. For all other values, the new value of the property will be passed as second argument
to fn, using mp.get_property_<type> to retrieve it. This means if type is for example string, fn
is roughly called as in fn(name, mp.get_property_string(name)).
If possible, change events are coalesced. If a property is changed a bunch of times in a row, only
the last change triggers the change function. (The exact behavior depends on timing and other
things.)
If a property is unavailable, or on error, the value argument to fn is nil. (The
observe_property() call always succeeds, even if a property does not exist.)
In some cases the function is not called even if the property changes. This depends on the
property, and it's a valid feature request to ask for better update handling of a specific
property.
If the type is none or nil, the change function fn will be called sporadically even if the
property doesn't actually change. You should therefore avoid using these types.
You always get an initial change notification. This is meant to initialize the user's state to the
current value of the property.
mp.unobserve_property(fn)
Undo mp.observe_property(..., fn). This removes all property handlers that are equal to the fn
parameter. This uses normal Lua == comparison, so be careful when dealing with closures.
mp.add_timeout(seconds, fn [, disabled])
Call the given function fn when the given number of seconds has elapsed. Note that the number of
seconds can be fractional. For now, the timer's resolution may be as low as 50 ms, although this
will be improved in the future.
If the disabled argument is set to true or a truthy value, the timer will wait to be manually
started with a call to its resume() method.
This is a one-shot timer: it will be removed when it's fired.
Returns a timer object. See mp.add_periodic_timer for details.
mp.add_periodic_timer(seconds, fn [, disabled])
Call the given function periodically. This is like mp.add_timeout, but the timer is re-added after
the function fn is run.
Returns a timer object. The timer object provides the following methods:
stop() Disable the timer. Does nothing if the timer is already disabled. This will
remember the current elapsed time when stopping, so that resume() essentially
unpauses the timer.
kill() Disable the timer. Resets the elapsed time. resume() will restart the timer.
resume()
Restart the timer. If the timer was disabled with stop(), this will resume at the
time it was stopped. If the timer was disabled with kill(), or if it's a previously
fired one-shot timer (added with add_timeout()), this starts the timer from the
beginning, using the initially configured timeout.
is_enabled()
Whether the timer is currently enabled or was previously disabled (e.g. by stop() or
kill()).
timeout (RW)
This field contains the current timeout period. This value is not updated as time
progresses. It's only used to calculate when the timer should fire next when the
timer expires.
If you write this, you can call t:kill() ; t:resume() to reset the current timeout
to the new one. (t:stop() won't use the new timeout.)
oneshot (RW)
Whether the timer is periodic (false) or fires just once (true). This value is used
when the timer expires (but before the timer callback function fn is run).
Note that these are methods, and you have to call them using : instead of . (Refer to
<https://www.lua.org/manual/5.2/manual.html#3.4.9> .)
Example:
seconds = 0
timer = mp.add_periodic_timer(1, function()
print("called every second")
-- stop it after 10 seconds
seconds = seconds + 1
if seconds >= 10 then
timer:kill()
end
end)
mp.get_opt(key)
Return a setting from the --script-opts option. It's up to the user and the script how this
mechanism is used. Currently, all scripts can access this equally, so you should be careful about
collisions.
mp.get_script_name()
Return the name of the current script. The name is usually made of the filename of the script,
with directory and file extension removed. If there are several scripts which would have the same
name, it's made unique by appending a number. Any nonalphanumeric characters are replaced with _.
Example
The script /path/to/foo-script.lua becomes foo_script.
mp.get_script_directory()
Return the directory if this is a script packaged as directory (see Script location for a
description). Return nothing if this is a single file script.
mp.osd_message(text [,duration])
Show an OSD message on the screen. duration is in seconds, and is optional (uses --osd-duration by
default).
Advanced mp functions
These also live in the mp module, but are documented separately as they are useful only in special
situations.
mp.get_wakeup_pipe()
Calls mpv_get_wakeup_pipe() and returns the read end of the wakeup pipe. This is deprecated, but
still works. (See client.h for details.)
mp.get_next_timeout()
Return the relative time in seconds when the next timer (mp.add_timeout and similar) expires. If
there is no timer, return nil.
mp.dispatch_events([allow_wait])
This can be used to run custom event loops. If you want to have direct control what the Lua script
does (instead of being called by the default event loop), you can set the global variable
mp_event_loop to your own function running the event loop. From your event loop, you should call
mp.dispatch_events() to dequeue and dispatch mpv events.
If the allow_wait parameter is set to true, the function will block until the next event is
received or the next timer expires. Otherwise (and this is the default behavior), it returns as
soon as the event loop is emptied. It's strongly recommended to use mp.get_next_timeout() and
mp.get_wakeup_pipe() if you're interested in properly working notification of new events and
working timers.
mp.register_idle(fn)
Register an event loop idle handler. Idle handlers are called before the script goes to sleep
after handling all new events. This can be used for example to delay processing of property change
events: if you're observing multiple properties at once, you might not want to act on each
property change, but only when all change notifications have been received.
mp.unregister_idle(fn)
Undo mp.register_idle(fn). This removes all idle handlers that are equal to the fn parameter. This
uses normal Lua == comparison, so be careful when dealing with closures.
mp.enable_messages(level)
Set the minimum log level of which mpv message output to receive. These messages are normally
printed to the terminal. By calling this function, you can set the minimum log level of messages
which should be received with the log-message event. See the description of this event for
details. The level is a string, see msg.log for allowed log levels.
mp.register_script_message(name, fn)
This is a helper to dispatch script-message or script-message-to invocations to Lua functions. fn
is called if script-message or script-message-to (with this script as destination) is run with
name as first parameter. The other parameters are passed to fn. If a message with the given name
is already registered, it's overwritten.
Used by mp.add_key_binding, so be careful about name collisions.
mp.unregister_script_message(name)
Undo a previous registration with mp.register_script_message. Does nothing if the name wasn't
registered.
mp.create_osd_overlay(format)
Create an OSD overlay. This is a very thin wrapper around the osd-overlay command. The function
returns a table, which mostly contains fields that will be passed to osd-overlay. The format
parameter is used to initialize the format field. The data field contains the text to be used as
overlay. For details, see the osd-overlay command.
In addition, it provides the following methods:
update()
Commit the OSD overlay to the screen, or in other words, run the osd-overlay command with
the current fields of the overlay table. Returns the result of the osd-overlay command
itself.
remove()
Remove the overlay from the screen. A update() call will add it again.
Example:
ov = mp.create_osd_overlay("ass-events")
ov.data = "{\\an5}{\\b1}hello world!"
ov:update()
The advantage of using this wrapper (as opposed to running osd-overlay directly) is that the id
field is allocated automatically.
mp.get_osd_size()
Returns a tuple of osd_width, osd_height, osd_par. The first two give the size of the OSD in
pixels (for video outputs like --vo=xv, this may be "scaled" pixels). The third is the display
pixel aspect ratio.
May return invalid/nonsense values if OSD is not initialized yet.
exit() (global)
Make the script exit at the end of the current event loop iteration. This does not terminate mpv
itself or other scripts.
This can be polyfilled to support mpv versions older than 0.40 with:
if not _G.exit then
function exit()
mp.keep_running = false
end
end
mp.msg functions
This module allows outputting messages to the terminal, and can be loaded with require 'mp.msg'.
msg.log(level, ...)
The level parameter is the message priority. It's a string and one of fatal, error, warn, info, v,
debug, trace. The user's settings will determine which of these messages will be visible.
Normally, all messages are visible, except v, debug and trace.
The parameters after that are all converted to strings. Spaces are inserted to separate multiple
parameters.
You don't need to add newlines.
msg.fatal(...), msg.error(...), msg.warn(...), msg.info(...), msg.verbose(...), msg.debug(...),
msg.trace(...)
All of these are shortcuts and equivalent to the corresponding msg.log(level, ...) call.
mp.options functions
mpv comes with a built-in module to manage options from config-files and the command-line. All you have
to do is to supply a table with default options to the read_options function. The function will overwrite
the default values with values found in the config-file and the command-line (in that order).
options.read_options(table [, identifier [, on_update]])
A table with key-value pairs. The type of the default values is important for converting the
values read from the config file or command-line back. Do not use nil as a default value!
The identifier is used to identify the config-file and the command-line options. These needs to
unique to avoid collisions with other scripts. Defaults to mp.get_script_name() if the parameter
is nil or missing.
The on_update parameter enables run-time updates of all matching option values via the script-opts
option/property. If any of the matching options changes, the values in the table (which was
originally passed to the function) are changed, and on_update(list) is called. list is a table
where each updated option has a list[option_name] = true entry. There is no initial on_update()
call. This never re-reads the config file. script-opts is always applied on the original config
file, ignoring previous script-opts values (for example, if an option is removed from script-opts
at runtime, the option will have the value in the config file). table entries are only written for
option values whose values effectively change (this is important if the script changes table
entries independently).
Example implementation:
local options = {
optionA = "defaultvalueA",
optionB = -0.5,
optionC = true,
}
require "mp.options".read_options(options, "myscript")
print(options.optionA)
The config file will be stored in script-opts/identifier.conf in mpv's user folder. Comment lines can be
started with # and stray spaces are not removed. Boolean values will be represented with yes/no.
Example config:
# comment
optionA=Hello World
optionB=9999
optionC=no
Command-line options are read from the --script-opts parameter. To avoid collisions, all keys have to be
prefixed with identifier-.
Example command-line:
--script-opts=myscript-optionA=TEST,myscript-optionB=0,myscript-optionC=yes
mp.utils functions
This built-in module provides generic helper functions for Lua, and have strictly speaking nothing to do
with mpv or video/audio playback. They are provided for convenience. Most compensate for Lua's scarce
standard library.
Be warned that any of these functions might disappear any time. They are not strictly part of the
guaranteed API.
utils.getcwd()
Returns the directory that mpv was launched from. On error, nil, error is returned.
utils.readdir(path [, filter])
Enumerate all entries at the given path on the filesystem, and return them as array. Each entry is
a directory entry (without the path). The list is unsorted (in whatever order the operating
system returns it).
If the filter argument is given, it must be one of the following strings:
files List regular files only. This excludes directories, special files (like UNIX device
files or FIFOs), and dead symlinks. It includes UNIX symlinks to regular files.
dirs List directories only, or symlinks to directories. . and .. are not included.
normal Include the results of both files and dirs. (This is the default.)
all List all entries, even device files, dead symlinks, FIFOs, and the . and .. entries.
On error, nil, error is returned.
utils.file_info(path)
Stats the given path for information and returns a table with the following entries:
mode protection bits (on Windows, always 755 (octal) for directories and 644 (octal) for
files)
size size in bytes
atime time of last access
mtime time of last modification
ctime time of last metadata change
is_file
Whether path is a regular file (boolean)
is_dir Whether path is a directory (boolean)
mode and size are integers. Timestamps (atime, mtime and ctime) are integer seconds since the
Unix epoch (Unix time). The booleans is_file and is_dir are provided as a convenience; they can
be and are derived from mode.
On error (e.g. path does not exist), nil, error is returned.
utils.split_path(path)
Split a path into directory component and filename component, and return them. The first return
value is always the directory. The second return value is the trailing part of the path, the
directory entry.
utils.join_path(p1, p2)
Return the concatenation of the 2 paths. Tries to be clever. For example, if p2 is an absolute
path, p2 is returned without change.
utils.subprocess(t)
Runs an external process and waits until it exits. Returns process status and the captured output.
This is a legacy wrapper around calling the subprocess command with mp.command_native. It does the
following things:
• copy the table t
• rename cancellable field to playback_only
• rename max_size to capture_size
• set capture_stdout field to true if unset
• set name field to subprocess
• call mp.command_native(copied_t)
• if the command failed, create a dummy result table
• copy error_string to error field if the string is non-empty
• return the result table
It is recommended to use mp.command_native or mp.command_native_async directly, instead of calling
this legacy wrapper. It is for compatibility only.
See the subprocess documentation for semantics and further parameters.
utils.subprocess_detached(t)
Runs an external process and detaches it from mpv's control.
The parameter t is a table. The function reads the following entries:
args Array of strings of the same semantics as the args used in the subprocess function.
The function returns nil.
This is a legacy wrapper around calling the run command with mp.commandv and other functions.
utils.getpid()
Returns the process ID of the running mpv process. This can be used to identify the calling mpv
when launching (detached) subprocesses.
utils.get_env_list()
Returns the C environment as a list of strings. (Do not confuse this with the Lua "environment",
which is an unrelated concept.)
utils.parse_json(str [, trail])
Parses the given string argument as JSON, and returns it as a Lua table. On error, returns nil,
error. (Currently, error is just a string reading error, because there is no fine-grained error
reporting of any kind.)
The returned value uses similar conventions as mp.get_property_native() to distinguish empty
objects and arrays.
If the trail parameter is true (or any value equal to true), then trailing non-whitespace text is
tolerated by the function, and the trailing text is returned as 3rd return value. (The 3rd return
value is always there, but with trail set, no error is raised.)
utils.format_json(v)
Format the given Lua table (or value) as a JSON string and return it. On error, returns nil,
error. (Errors usually only happen on value types incompatible with JSON.)
The argument value uses similar conventions as mp.set_property_native() to distinguish empty
objects and arrays.
utils.to_string(v)
Turn the given value into a string. Formats tables and their contents. This doesn't do anything
special; it is only needed because Lua is terrible.
mp.input functions
This module lets scripts get textual input from the user using the console REPL.
input.get(table)
Show the console to let the user enter text.
The following entries of table are read:
prompt The string to be displayed before the input field.
submit A callback invoked when the user presses Enter. The first argument is the text in the
console.
keep_open
Whether to keep the console open on submit. Defaults to false.
opened A callback invoked when the console is shown. This can be used to present a list of options
with input.set_log().
edited A callback invoked when the text changes. The first argument is the text in the console.
complete
A callback invoked when the user edits the text or moves the cursor. The first argument is
the text before the cursor. The callback should return a table of the string candidate
completion values and the 1-based cursor position from which the completion starts. console
will show the completions that fuzzily match the text between this position and the cursor
and allow selecting them.
The third and optional return value is a string that will be appended to the input line
without displaying it in the completions.
autoselect_completion
Whether to automatically select the first completion on submit if one wasn't already
manually selected. Defaults to false.
closed A callback invoked when the console is hidden, either because input.terminate() was invoked
from the other callbacks, or because the user closed it with a key binding. The first
argument is the text in the console, and the second argument is the cursor position.
default_text
A string to pre-fill the input field with.
cursor_position
The initial cursor position, starting from 1.
history_path
If specified, the path to save and load the history of the entered lines.
id An identifier that determines which input history and log buffer to use among the ones
stored for input.get() calls. Defaults to the calling script name with prompt appended.
input.terminate()
Close the console.
input.log(message, style, terminal_style)
Add a line to the log buffer. style can contain additional ASS tags to apply to message, and
terminal_style can contain escape sequences that are used when the console is displayed in the
terminal.
input.log_error(message)
Helper to add a line to the log buffer with the same color as the one used for commands that
error. Useful when the user submits invalid input.
input.set_log(log)
Replace the entire log buffer.
log is a table of strings, or tables with text, style and terminal_style keys.
Example:
input.set_log({
"regular text",
{
text = "error text",
style = "{\\c&H7a77f2&}",
terminal_style = "\027[31m",
}
})
input.select(table)
Specify a list of items that are presented to the user for selection.
The following entries of table are read:
prompt The string to be displayed before the input field.
items The table of the entries to choose from.
default_item
The 1-based integer index of the preselected item.
submit The callback invoked when the user presses Enter. The first argument is the 1-based index
of the selected item.
keep_open
Whether to keep the console open on submit. Defaults to false.
Example:
input.select({
items = {
"First playlist entry",
"Second playlist entry",
},
submit = function (id)
mp.commandv("playlist-play-index", id - 1)
end,
})
Events
Events are notifications from player core to scripts. You can register an event handler with
mp.register_event.
Note that all scripts (and other parts of the player) receive events equally, and there's no such thing
as blocking other scripts from receiving events.
Example:
function my_fn(event)
print("start of playback!")
end
mp.register_event("file-loaded", my_fn)
For the existing event types, see List of events.
Extras
This documents experimental features, or features that are "too special" to guarantee a stable interface.
mp.add_hook(type, priority, fn)
Add a hook callback for type (a string identifying a certain kind of hook). These hooks allow the
player to call script functions and wait for their result (normally, the Lua scripting interface
is asynchronous from the point of view of the player core). priority is an arbitrary integer that
allows ordering among hooks of the same kind. Using the value 50 is recommended as neutral default
value.
fn(hook) is the function that will be called during execution of the hook. The parameter passed to
it (hook) is a Lua object that can control further aspects about the currently invoked hook. It
provides the following methods:
defer()
Returning from the hook function should not automatically continue the hook. Instead,
the API user wants to call hook:cont() on its own at a later point in time (before or
after the function has returned).
cont() Continue the hook. Doesn't need to be called unless defer() was called.
See Hooks for currently existing hooks and what they do - only the hook list is interesting;
handling hook execution is done by the Lua script function automatically.
JAVASCRIPT
JavaScript support in mpv is near identical to its Lua support. Use this section as reference on
differences and availability of APIs, but otherwise you should refer to the Lua documentation for API
details and general scripting in mpv.
Example
JavaScript code which leaves fullscreen mode when the player is paused:
function on_pause_change(name, value) {
if (value == true)
mp.set_property("fullscreen", "no");
}
mp.observe_property("pause", "bool", on_pause_change);
Similarities with Lua
mpv tries to load a script file as JavaScript if it has a .js extension, but otherwise, the documented
Lua options, script directories, loading, etc apply to JavaScript files too.
Script initialization and lifecycle is the same as with Lua, and most of the Lua functions in the modules
mp, mp.utils, mp.msg, mp.options and mp.input are available to JavaScript with identical APIs - including
running commands, getting/setting properties, registering events/key-bindings/hooks, etc.
Differences from Lua
No need to load modules. mp, mp.utils, mp.msg, mp.options and mp.input are preloaded, and you can use
e.g. var cwd = mp.utils.getcwd(); without prior setup.
Errors are slightly different. Where the Lua APIs return nil for error, the JavaScript ones return
undefined. Where Lua returns something, error JavaScript returns only something - and makes error
available via mp.last_error(). Note that only some of the functions have this additional error value -
typically the same ones which have it in Lua.
Standard APIs are preferred. For instance setTimeout and JSON.stringify are available, but mp.add_timeout
and mp.utils.format_json are not.
No standard library. This means that interaction with anything outside of mpv is limited to the available
APIs, typically via mp.utils. However, some file functions were added, and CommonJS require is available
too - where the loaded modules have the same privileges as normal scripts.
Language features - ECMAScript 5
The scripting backend which mpv currently uses is MuJS - a compatible minimal ES5 interpreter. As such,
String.substring is implemented for instance, while the common but non-standard String.substr is not.
Please consult the MuJS pages on language features and platform support - <https://mujs.com> .
Unsupported Lua APIs and their JS alternatives
mp.add_timeout(seconds, fn) JS: id = setTimeout(fn, ms)
mp.add_periodic_timer(seconds, fn) JS: id = setInterval(fn, ms)
utils.parse_json(str [, trail]) JS: JSON.parse(str)
utils.format_json(v) JS: JSON.stringify(v)
utils.to_string(v) see dump below.
mp.get_next_timeout() see event loop below.
mp.dispatch_events([allow_wait]) see event loop below.
Scripting APIs - identical to Lua
(LE) - Last-Error, indicates that mp.last_error() can be used after the call to test for success (empty
string) or failure (non empty reason string). Where the Lua APIs use nil to indicate error, JS APIs use
undefined.
mp.command(string) (LE)
mp.commandv(arg1, arg2, ...) (LE)
mp.command_native(table [,def]) (LE)
id = mp.command_native_async(table [,fn]) (LE) Notes: id is true-thy on success, error is empty string on
success.
mp.abort_async_command(id)
mp.del_property(name) (LE)
mp.get_property(name [,def]) (LE)
mp.get_property_osd(name [,def]) (LE)
mp.get_property_bool(name [,def]) (LE)
mp.get_property_number(name [,def]) (LE)
mp.get_property_native(name [,def]) (LE)
mp.set_property(name, value) (LE)
mp.set_property_bool(name, value) (LE)
mp.set_property_number(name, value) (LE)
mp.set_property_native(name, value) (LE)
mp.get_time()
mp.add_key_binding(key, name|fn [,fn [,flags]])
mp.add_forced_key_binding(...)
mp.remove_key_binding(name)
mp.register_event(name, fn)
mp.unregister_event(fn)
mp.observe_property(name, type, fn)
mp.unobserve_property(fn)
mp.get_opt(key)
mp.get_script_name()
mp.get_script_directory()
mp.osd_message(text [,duration])
mp.get_wakeup_pipe()
mp.register_idle(fn)
mp.unregister_idle(fn)
mp.enable_messages(level)
mp.register_script_message(name, fn)
mp.unregister_script_message(name)
mp.create_osd_overlay(format)
mp.get_osd_size() (returned object has properties: width, height, aspect)
mp.msg.log(level, ...)
mp.msg.fatal(...)
mp.msg.error(...)
mp.msg.warn(...)
mp.msg.info(...)
mp.msg.verbose(...)
mp.msg.debug(...)
mp.msg.trace(...)
mp.utils.getcwd() (LE)
mp.utils.readdir(path [, filter]) (LE)
mp.utils.file_info(path) (LE) Note: like lua - this does NOT expand meta-paths like ~~/foo (other JS file
functions do expand meta paths).
mp.utils.split_path(path)
mp.utils.join_path(p1, p2)
mp.utils.subprocess(t)
mp.utils.subprocess_detached(t)
mp.utils.get_env_list()
mp.utils.getpid() (LE)
mp.add_hook(type, priority, fn(hook))
mp.options.read_options(obj [, identifier [, on_update]]) (types: string/boolean/number)
mp.input.get(obj)
mp.input.select(obj)
mp.input.terminate()
mp.input.log(message, style)
mp.input.log_error(message)
mp.input.set_log(log)
exit() (global)
Additional utilities
mp.last_error()
If used after an API call which updates last error, returns an empty string if the API call
succeeded, or a non-empty error reason string otherwise.
Error.stack (string)
When using try { ... } catch(e) { ... }, then e.stack is the stack trace of the error - if it was
created using the Error(...) constructor.
print (global)
A convenient alias to mp.msg.info.
dump (global)
Like print but also expands objects and arrays recursively.
mp.utils.getenv(name)
Returns the value of the host environment variable name, or undefined if the variable is not
defined.
mp.utils.get_user_path(path)
Trivial wrapper of the expand-path mpv command, returns a string. read_file, write_file,
append_file and require already expand the path internally and accept mpv meta-paths like
~~desktop/foo.
mp.utils.read_file(fname [,max])
Returns the content of file fname as string. If max is provided and not negative, limit the read
to max bytes.
mp.utils.write_file(fname, str)
(Over)write file fname with text content str. fname must be prefixed with file:// as simple
protection against accidental arguments switch, e.g. mp.utils.write_file("file://~/abc.txt",
"hello world").
mp.utils.append_file(fname, str)
Same as mp.utils.write_file if the file fname does not exist. If it does exist then append instead
of overwrite.
Note: read_file, write_file and append_file throw on errors, allow text content only.
mp.get_time_ms()
Same as mp.get_time() but in ms instead of seconds.
mp.get_script_file()
Returns the file name of the current script.
mp.utils.compile_js(fname, content_str)
Compiles the JS code content_str as file name fname (without loading anything from the
filesystem), and returns it as a function. Very similar to a Function constructor, but shows at
stack traces as fname.
mp.module_paths
Global modules search paths array for the require function (see below).
Timers (global)
The standard HTML/node.js timers are available:
id = setTimeout(fn [,duration [,arg1 [,arg2...]]])
id = setTimeout(code_string [,duration])
clearTimeout(id)
id = setInterval(fn [,duration [,arg1 [,arg2...]]])
id = setInterval(code_string [,duration])
clearInterval(id)
setTimeout and setInterval return id, and later call fn (or execute code_string) after duration ms.
Interval also repeat every duration.
duration has a minimum and default value of 0, code_string is a plain string which is evaluated as JS
code, and [,arg1 [,arg2..]] are used as arguments (if provided) when calling back fn.
The clear...(id) functions cancel timer id, and are irreversible.
Note: timers always call back asynchronously, e.g. setTimeout(fn) will never call fn before returning. fn
will be called either at the end of this event loop iteration or at a later event loop iteration. This is
true also for intervals - which also never call back twice at the same event loop iteration.
Additionally, timers are processed after the event queue is empty, so it's valid to use setTimeout(fn) as
a one-time idle observer.
CommonJS modules and require(id)
CommonJS Modules are a standard system where scripts can export common functions for use by other
scripts. Specifically, a module is a script which adds properties (functions, etc) to its pre-existing
exports object, which another script can access with require(module-id). This runs the module and returns
its exports object. Further calls to require for the same module will return its cached exports object
without running the module again.
Modules and require are supported, standard compliant, and generally similar to node.js. However, most
node.js modules won't run due to missing modules such as fs, process, etc, but some node.js modules with
minimal dependencies do work. In general, this is for mpv modules and not a node.js replacement.
A .js file extension is always added to id, e.g. require("./foo") will load the file ./foo.js and return
its exports object.
An id which starts with ./ or ../ is relative to the script or module which require it. Otherwise it's
considered a top-level id (CommonJS term).
Top-level id is evaluated as absolute filesystem path if possible, e.g. /x/y or ~/x. Otherwise it's
considered a global module id and searched according to mp.module_paths in normal array order, e.g.
require("x") tries to load x.js at one of the array paths, and id foo/x tries to load x.js inside dir foo
at one of the paths.
The mp.module_paths array is empty by default except for scripts which are loaded as a directory where it
contains one item - <directory>/modules/ . The array may be updated from a script (or using custom init
- see below) which will affect future calls to require for global module id's which are not already
loaded/cached.
No global variable, but a module's this at its top lexical scope is the global object - also in strict
mode. If you have a module which needs global as the global object, you could do this.global = this;
before require.
Functions and variables declared at a module don't pollute the global object.
Custom initialization
After mpv initializes the JavaScript environment for a script but before it loads the script - it tries
to run the file init.js at the root of the mpv configuration directory. Code at this file can update the
environment further for all scripts. E.g. if it contains mp.module_paths.push("/foo") then require at all
scripts will search global module id's also at /foo (do NOT do mp.module_paths = ["/foo"]; because this
will remove existing paths - like <script-dir>/modules for scripts which load from a directory).
The custom-init file is ignored if mpv is invoked with --no-config.
Before mpv 0.34, the file name was .init.js (with dot) at the same dir.
The event loop
The event loop poll/dispatch mpv events as long as the queue is not empty, then processes the timers,
then waits for the next event, and repeats this forever.
You could put this code at your script to replace the built-in event loop, and also print every event
which mpv sends to your script:
function mp_event_loop() {
var wait = 0;
do {
var e = mp.wait_event(wait);
dump(e); // there could be a lot of prints...
if (e.event != "none") {
mp.dispatch_event(e);
wait = 0;
} else {
wait = mp.process_timers() / 1000;
if (wait != 0) {
mp.notify_idle_observers();
wait = mp.peek_timers_wait() / 1000;
}
}
} while (mp.keep_running);
}
mp_event_loop is a name which mpv tries to call after the script loads. The internal implementation is
similar to this (without dump though..).
e = mp.wait_event(wait) returns when the next mpv event arrives, or after wait seconds if positive and no
mpv events arrived. wait value of 0 returns immediately (with e.event == "none" if the queue is empty).
mp.dispatch_event(e) calls back the handlers registered for e.event, if there are such (event handlers,
property observers, script messages, etc).
mp.process_timers() calls back the already-added, non-canceled due timers, and returns the duration in ms
till the next due timer (possibly 0), or -1 if there are no pending timers. Must not be called
recursively.
mp.notify_idle_observers() calls back the idle observers, which we do when we're about to sleep (wait !=
0), but the observers may add timers or take non-negligible duration to complete, so we re-calculate wait
afterwards.
mp.peek_timers_wait() returns the same values as mp.process_timers() but without doing anything. Invalid
result if called from a timer callback.
Note: exit() is also registered for the shutdown event, and its implementation is a simple
mp.keep_running = false.
JSON IPC
mpv can be controlled by external programs using the JSON-based IPC protocol. It can be enabled by
specifying the path to a unix socket or a named pipe using the option --input-ipc-server, or the file
descriptor number of a unix socket or a named pipe using --input-ipc-client. Clients can connect to this
socket and send commands to the player or receive events from it.
WARNING:
This is not intended to be a secure network protocol. It is explicitly insecure: there is no
authentication, no encryption, and the commands themselves are insecure too. For example, the run
command is exposed, which can run arbitrary system commands. The use-case is controlling the player
locally. This is not different from the MPlayer slave protocol.
Socat example
You can use the socat tool to send commands (and receive replies) from the shell. Assuming mpv was
started with:
mpv file.mkv --input-ipc-server=/tmp/mpvsocket
Then you can control it using socat:
> echo '{ "command": ["get_property", "playback-time"] }' | socat - /tmp/mpvsocket
{"data":190.482000,"error":"success"}
In this case, socat copies data between stdin/stdout and the mpv socket connection.
See the --idle option how to make mpv start without exiting immediately or playing a file.
It's also possible to send input.conf style text-only commands:
> echo 'show-text ${playback-time}' | socat - /tmp/mpvsocket
But you won't get a reply over the socket. (This particular command shows the playback time on the
player's OSD.)
Command Prompt example
Unfortunately, it's not as easy to test the IPC protocol on Windows, since Windows ports of socat (in
Cygwin and MSYS2) don't understand named pipes. In the absence of a simple tool to send and receive from
bidirectional pipes, the echo command can be used to send commands, but not receive replies from the
command prompt.
Assuming mpv was started with:
mpv file.mkv --input-ipc-server=\\.\pipe\mpvsocket
You can send commands from a command prompt:
echo show-text ${playback-time} >\\.\pipe\mpvsocket
To be able to simultaneously read and write from the IPC pipe, like on Linux, it's necessary to write an
external program that uses overlapped file I/O (or some wrapper like .NET's NamedPipeClientStream.)
You can open the pipe in PuTTY as "serial" device. This is not very comfortable, but gives a way to test
interactively without having to write code.
Protocol
The protocol uses UTF-8-only JSON as defined by RFC-8259. Unlike standard JSON, "u" escape sequences are
not allowed to construct surrogate pairs. To avoid getting conflicts, encode all text characters
including and above codepoint U+0020 as UTF-8. mpv might output broken UTF-8 in corner cases (see "UTF-8"
section below).
Clients can execute commands on the player by sending JSON messages of the following form:
{ "command": ["command_name", "param1", "param2", ...] }
where command_name is the name of the command to be executed, followed by a list of parameters.
Parameters must be formatted as native JSON values (integers, strings, booleans, ...). Every message must
be terminated with \n. Additionally, \n must not appear anywhere inside the message. In practice this
means that messages should be minified before being sent to mpv.
mpv will then send back a reply indicating whether the command was run correctly, and an additional field
holding the command-specific return data (it can also be null).
{ "error": "success", "data": null }
mpv will also send events to clients with JSON messages of the following form:
{ "event": "event_name" }
where event_name is the name of the event. Additional event-specific fields can also be present. See List
of events for a list of all supported events.
Because events can occur at any time, it may be difficult at times to determine which response goes with
which command. Commands may optionally include a request_id which, if provided in the command request,
will be copied verbatim into the response. mpv does not interpret the request_id in any way; it is solely
for the use of the requester. The only requirement is that the request_id field must be an integer (a
number without fractional parts in the range -2^63..2^63-1). Using other types is deprecated and will
currently show a warning. In the future, this will raise an error.
For example, this request:
{ "command": ["get_property", "time-pos"], "request_id": 100 }
Would generate this response:
{ "error": "success", "data": 1.468135, "request_id": 100 }
If you don't specify a request_id, command replies will set it to 0.
All commands, replies, and events are separated from each other with a line break character (\n).
If the first character (after skipping whitespace) is not {, the command will be interpreted as non-JSON
text command, as they are used in input.conf (or mpv_command_string() in the client API). Additionally,
lines starting with # and empty lines are ignored.
Currently, embedded 0 bytes terminate the current line, but you should not rely on this.
Data flow
Currently, the mpv-side IPC implementation does not service the socket while a command is executed and
the reply is written. It is for example not possible that other events, that happened during the
execution of the command, are written to the socket before the reply is written.
This might change in the future. The only guarantee is that replies to IPC messages are sent in sequence.
Also, since socket I/O is inherently asynchronous, it is possible that you read unrelated event messages
from the socket, before you read the reply to the previous command you sent. In this case, these events
were queued by the mpv side before it read and started processing your command message.
If the mpv-side IPC implementation switches away from blocking writes and blocking command execution, it
may attempt to send events at any time.
You can also use asynchronous commands, which can return in any order, and which do not block IPC
protocol interaction at all while the command is executed in the background.
Asynchronous commands
Command can be run asynchronously. This behaves exactly as with normal command execution, except that
execution is not blocking. Other commands can be sent while it's executing, and command completion can be
arbitrarily reordered.
The async field controls this. If present, it must be a boolean. If missing, false is assumed.
For example, this initiates an asynchronous command:
{ "command": ["screenshot"], "request_id": 123, "async": true }
And this is the completion:
{"request_id":123,"error":"success","data":null}
By design, you will not get a confirmation that the command was started. If a command is long running,
sending the message will not lead to any reply until much later when the command finishes.
Some commands execute synchronously, but these will behave like asynchronous commands that finished
execution immediately.
Cancellation of asynchronous commands is available in the libmpv API, but has not yet been implemented in
the IPC protocol.
Commands with named arguments
If the command field is a JSON object, named arguments are expected. This is described in the C API
mpv_command_node() documentation (the MPV_FORMAT_NODE_MAP case). In some cases, this may make commands
more readable, while some obscure commands basically require using named arguments.
Currently, only "proper" commands (as listed by List of Input Commands) support named arguments.
Commands
In addition to the commands described in List of Input Commands, a few extra commands can also be used as
part of the protocol:
client_name
Return the name of the client as string. This is the string ipc-N with N being an integer number.
get_time_us
Return the current mpv internal time in microseconds as a number. This is basically the system
time, with an arbitrary offset.
get_property
Return the value of the given property. The value will be sent in the data field of the replay
message.
Example:
{ "command": ["get_property", "volume"] }
{ "data": 50.0, "error": "success" }
get_property_string
Like get_property, but the resulting data will always be a string.
Example:
{ "command": ["get_property_string", "volume"] }
{ "data": "50.000000", "error": "success" }
set_property
Set the given property to the given value. See Properties for more information about properties.
Example:
{ "command": ["set_property", "pause", true] }
{ "error": "success" }
set_property_string
Alias for set_property. Both commands accept native values and strings.
observe_property
Watch a property for changes. If the given property is changed, then an event of type
property-change will be generated
Example:
{ "command": ["observe_property", 1, "volume"] }
{ "error": "success" }
{ "event": "property-change", "id": 1, "data": 52.0, "name": "volume" }
WARNING:
If the connection is closed, the IPC client is destroyed internally, and the observed
properties are unregistered. This happens for example when sending commands to a socket with
separate socat invocations. This can make it seem like property observation does not work. You
must keep the IPC connection open to make it work.
observe_property_string
Like observe_property, but the resulting data will always be a string.
Example:
{ "command": ["observe_property_string", 1, "volume"] }
{ "error": "success" }
{ "event": "property-change", "id": 1, "data": "52.000000", "name": "volume" }
unobserve_property
Undo observe_property or observe_property_string. This requires the numeric id passed to the
observed command as argument.
Example:
{ "command": ["unobserve_property", 1] }
{ "error": "success" }
request_log_messages
Enable output of mpv log messages. They will be received as events. The parameter to this command
is the log-level (see mpv_request_log_messages C API function).
Log message output is meant for humans only (mostly for debugging). Attempting to retrieve
information by parsing these messages will just lead to breakages with future mpv releases.
Instead, make a feature request, and ask for a proper event that returns the information you need.
enable_event, disable_event
Enables or disables the named event. Mirrors the mpv_request_event C API function. If the string
all is used instead of an event name, all events are enabled or disabled.
By default, most events are enabled, and there is not much use for this command.
get_version
Returns the client API version the C API of the remote mpv instance provides.
See also: DOCS/client-api-changes.rst.
UTF-8
Normally, all strings are in UTF-8. Sometimes it can happen that strings are in some broken encoding
(often happens with file tags and such, and filenames on many Unixes are not required to be in UTF-8
either). This means that mpv sometimes sends invalid JSON. If that is a problem for the client
application's parser, it should filter the raw data for invalid UTF-8 sequences and perform the desired
replacement, before feeding the data to its JSON parser.
mpv will not attempt to construct invalid UTF-8 with broken "u" escape sequences. This includes surrogate
pairs.
JSON extensions
The following non-standard extensions are supported:
• a list or object item can have a trailing ","
• object syntax accepts "=" in addition of ":"
• object keys can be unquoted, if they start with a character in "A-Za-z_" and contain only characters
in "A-Za-z0-9_"
• byte escapes with "xAB" are allowed (with AB being a 2 digit hex number)
Example:
{ objkey = "value\x0A" }
Is equivalent to:
{ "objkey": "value\n" }
Alternative ways of starting clients
You can create an anonymous IPC connection without having to set --input-ipc-server. This is achieved
through a mpv pseudo scripting backend that starts processes.
You can put .run file extension in the mpv scripts directory in its config directory (see the FILES
section for details), or load them through other means (see Script location). These scripts are simply
executed with the OS native mechanism (as if you ran them in the shell). They must have a proper shebang
and have the executable bit set.
When executed, a socket (the IPC connection) is passed to them through file descriptor inheritance. The
file descriptor is indicated as the special command line argument --mpv-ipc-fd=N, where N is the numeric
file descriptor.
The rest is the same as with a normal --input-ipc-server IPC connection. mpv does not attempt to observe
or other interact with the started script process.
This does not work in Windows yet.
CHANGELOG
There is no real changelog, but you can look at the following things:
• The release changelog, which should contain most user-visible changes, including new features and bug
fixes:
<https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/releases>
• The git log, which is the "real" changelog
• The file <https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/DOCS/interface-changes.rst> documents changes
to the command and user interface, such as options and properties.
• C API changes are listed in
<https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/DOCS/client-api-changes.rst>
• The file mplayer-changes.rst in the DOCS sub directory on the git repository, which used to be in place
of this section. It documents some changes that happened since mplayer2 forked off MPlayer. (Not
updated anymore.)
EMBEDDING INTO OTHER PROGRAMS (LIBMPV)
mpv can be embedded into other programs as video/audio playback backend. The recommended way to do so is
using libmpv. See include/mpv/client.h in the mpv source code repository. This provides a C API. Bindings
for other languages might be available (see wiki).
Since libmpv merely allows access to underlying mechanisms that can control mpv, further documentation is
spread over a few places:
•
<https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/include/mpv/client.h>
•
<https://mpv.io/manual/master/#options>
•
<https://mpv.io/manual/master/#list-of-input-commands>
•
<https://mpv.io/manual/master/#properties>
•
<https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv-examples/tree/master/libmpv>
C PLUGINS
You can write C plugins for mpv. These use the libmpv API, although they do not use the libmpv library
itself.
They are enabled by default if compiler supports linking with the -rdynamic flag on Linux/BSD platforms.
On Windows the are always enabled.
C plugins location
C plugins are put into the mpv scripts directory in its config directory (see the FILES section for
details). They must have a .so or .dll file extension. They can also be explicitly loaded with the
--script option.
API
A C plugin must export the following function:
int mpv_open_cplugin(mpv_handle *handle)
The plugin function will be called on loading time. This function does not return as long as your plugin
is loaded (it runs in its own thread). The handle will be deallocated as soon as the plugin function
returns.
The return value is interpreted as error status. A value of 0 is interpreted as success, while -1 signals
an error. In the latter case, the player prints an uninformative error message that loading failed.
Return values other than 0 and -1 are reserved, and trigger undefined behavior.
Within the plugin function, you can call libmpv API functions. The handle is created by
mpv_create_client() (or actually an internal equivalent), and belongs to you. You can call
mpv_wait_event() to wait for things happening, and so on.
Note that the player might block until your plugin calls mpv_wait_event() for the first time. This gives
you a chance to install initial hooks etc. before playback begins.
The details are quite similar to Lua scripts.
Linkage to libmpv
The current implementation requires that your plugins are not linked against libmpv. What your plugins
use are not symbols from a libmpv binary, but symbols from the mpv host binary.
On Windows to make symbols from the host binary available, you have to define MPV_CPLUGIN_DYNAMIC_SYM
when compiling cplugin. This will load symbols dynamically, before calling mpv_open_cplugin().
Examples
See:
•
<https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv-examples/tree/master/cplugins>
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
There are a number of environment variables that can be used to control the behavior of mpv.
HOME, XDG_CONFIG_HOME
Used to determine mpv config directory. If XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not set, $HOME/.config/mpv is used.
$HOME/.mpv is always added to the list of config search paths with a lower priority.
MPV_HOME
Directory where mpv looks for user settings. Overrides HOME, and mpv will try to load the config
file as $MPV_HOME/mpv.conf.
MPV_VERBOSE (see also -v and --msg-level)
Set the initial verbosity level across all message modules (default: 0). This is an integer, and
the resulting verbosity corresponds to the number of --v options passed to the command line.
MPV_LEAK_REPORT
If set to 1, enable internal talloc leak reporting. If set to another value, disable leak
reporting.
LADSPA_PATH
Specifies the search path for LADSPA plugins. If it is unset, fully qualified path names must be
used.
DISPLAY
Standard X11 display name to use.
FFmpeg:
This library accesses various environment variables. However, they are not centrally documented,
and documenting them is not our job. Therefore, this list is incomplete.
Notable environment variables:
http_proxy
URL to proxy for http:// and https:// URLs.
no_proxy
List of domain patterns for which no proxy should be used. List entries are separated by
,. Patterns can include *.
libdvdcss:
DVDCSS_CACHE
Specify a directory in which to store title key values. This will speed up descrambling of
DVDs which are in the cache. The DVDCSS_CACHE directory is created if it does not exist,
and a subdirectory is created named after the DVD's title or manufacturing date. If
DVDCSS_CACHE is not set or is empty, libdvdcss will use the default value which is
${HOME}/.dvdcss/ under Unix and the roaming application data directory (%APPDATA%) under
Windows. The special value "off" disables caching.
DVDCSS_METHOD
Sets the authentication and decryption method that libdvdcss will use to read scrambled
discs. Can be one of title, key or disc.
key is the default method. libdvdcss will use a set of calculated player keys to try to
get the disc key. This can fail if the drive does not recognize any of the player
keys.
disc is a fallback method when key has failed. Instead of using player keys, libdvdcss
will crack the disc key using a brute force algorithm. This process is CPU intensive
and requires 64 MB of memory to store temporary data.
title is the fallback when all other methods have failed. It does not rely on a key
exchange with the DVD drive, but rather uses a crypto attack to guess the title key.
On rare cases this may fail because there is not enough encrypted data on the disc
to perform a statistical attack, but on the other hand it is the only way to decrypt
a DVD stored on a hard disc, or a DVD with the wrong region on an RPC2 drive.
DVDCSS_RAW_DEVICE
Specify the raw device to use. Exact usage will depend on your operating system, the Linux
utility to set up raw devices is raw(8) for instance. Please note that on most operating
systems, using a raw device requires highly aligned buffers: Linux requires a 2048 bytes
alignment (which is the size of a DVD sector).
DVDCSS_VERBOSE
Sets the libdvdcss verbosity level.
0 Outputs no messages at all.
1 Outputs error messages to stderr.
2 Outputs error messages and debug messages to stderr.
DVDREAD_NOKEYS
Skip retrieving all keys on startup. Currently disabled.
HOME FIXME: Document this.
EXIT CODES
Normally mpv returns 0 as exit code after finishing playback successfully. If errors happen, the
following exit codes can be returned:
1 Error initializing mpv. This is also returned if unknown options are passed to mpv.
2 The file passed to mpv couldn't be played. This is somewhat fuzzy: currently, playback of a
file is considered to be successful if initialization was mostly successful, even if playback
fails immediately after initialization.
3 There were some files that could be played, and some files which couldn't (using the definition
of success from above).
4 Quit due to a signal, Ctrl+c in a VO window (by default), or from the default quit key bindings
in encoding mode.
Note that quitting the player manually will always lead to exit code 0, overriding the exit code that
would be returned normally. Also, the quit input command can take an exit code: in this case, that exit
code is returned.
OPTICAL DRIVES
Depending on the OS, mpv will choose a different disc device by default. This applies for all optical
disc playback (CDDA, DVD, and BD).
┌─────────┬───────────────┐
│ OS │ Default Drive │
├─────────┼───────────────┤
│ Linux │ /dev/sr0 │
├─────────┼───────────────┤
│ Windows │ D: │
├─────────┼───────────────┤
│ macOS │ /dev/disk1 │
├─────────┼───────────────┤
│ FreeBSD │ /dev/cd0 │
├─────────┼───────────────┤
│ OpenBSD │ /dev/rcd0c │
└─────────┴───────────────┘
FILES
Note that this section assumes Linux/BSD. On other platforms the paths may be different. For
Windows-specifics, see FILES ON WINDOWS section.
All configuration files should be encoded in UTF-8.
/usr/local/etc/mpv/mpv.conf
mpv system-wide settings (depends on --prefix passed to configure - mpv in default configuration
will use /usr/local/etc/mpv/ as config directory, while most Linux distributions will set it to
/etc/mpv/).
~/.cache/mpv
The standard cache directory. Certain options within mpv may cause it to write cache files to
disk. This can be overridden by environment variables, in ascending order:
1 If $XDG_CACHE_HOME is set, then the derived cache directory will be $XDG_CACHE_HOME/mpv.
2 If $MPV_HOME is set, then the derived cache directory will be $MPV_HOME.
If the directory does not exist, mpv will try to create it automatically.
~/.config/mpv
The standard configuration directory. This can be overridden by environment variables, in
ascending order:
1 If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set, then the derived configuration directory will be
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mpv.
2 If $MPV_HOME is set, then the derived configuration directory will be $MPV_HOME.
If this directory, nor the original configuration directory (see below) do not exist, mpv tries to
create this directory automatically.
~/.mpv/
The original (pre 0.5.0) configuration directory. It will continue to be read if present. If this
directory is present and the standard configuration directory is not present, then cache files and
watch later config files will also be written to this directory.
If both this directory and the standard configuration directory are present, configuration will be
read from both with the standard configuration directory content taking precedence. However, you
should fully migrate to the standard directory and a warning will be shown in this situation.
~/.config/mpv/mpv.conf
mpv user settings (see CONFIGURATION FILES section)
~/.config/mpv/input.conf
key bindings (see INPUT.CONF section)
~/.config/mpv/fonts.conf
Fontconfig fonts.conf that is customized for mpv. You should include system fonts.conf in this
file or mpv would not know about fonts that you already have in the system.
Only available when libass is built with fontconfig.
~/.config/mpv/subfont.ttf
fallback subtitle font
~/.config/mpv/fonts/
Default location for --sub-fonts-dir (see Subtitles) and --osd-fonts-dir (see OSD).
~/.config/mpv/scripts/
All files in this directory are loaded as if they were passed to the --script option. They are
loaded in alphabetical order.
The --load-scripts=no option disables loading these files.
See Script location for details.
~/.local/state/mpv/watch_later/
Contains temporary config files needed for resuming playback of files with the watch later
feature. See for example the Q key binding, or the quit-watch-later input command.
This can be overridden by environment variables, in ascending order:
1 If $XDG_STATE_HOME is set, then the derived watch later directory will be
$XDG_STATE_HOME/mpv/watch_later.
2 If $MPV_HOME is set, then the derived watch later directory will be $MPV_HOME/watch_later.
Each file is a small config file which is loaded if the corresponding media file is loaded. It
contains the playback position and some (not necessarily all) settings that were changed during
playback. The filenames are hashed from the full paths of the media files. It's in general not
possible to extract the media filename from this hash. However, you can set the
--write-filename-in-watch-later-config option, and the player will add the media filename to the
contents of the resume config file.
~/.config/mpv/script-opts/osc.conf
This is loaded by the OSC script. See the ON SCREEN CONTROLLER docs for details.
Other files in this directory are specific to the corresponding scripts as well, and the mpv core
doesn't touch them.
FILES ON WINDOWS
On win32 (if compiled with MinGW, but not Cygwin), the default config file locations are different. They
are generally located under %APPDATA%/mpv/. For example, the path to mpv.conf is %APPDATA%/mpv/mpv.conf,
which maps to a system and user-specific path, for example
C:\users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\mpv\mpv.conf
You can find the exact path by running echo %APPDATA%\mpv\mpv.conf in cmd.exe.
Other config files (such as input.conf) are in the same directory. See the FILES section above.
The cache directory is located at %LOCALAPPDATA%/mpv/cache.
The watch_later directory is located at %LOCALAPPDATA%/mpv/watch_later.
The environment variable $MPV_HOME completely overrides these, like on UNIX.
If a directory named portable_config next to the mpv.exe exists, all config will be loaded from this
directory only. Watch later config files and cache files are written to this directory as well. (This
exists on Windows only and is redundant with $MPV_HOME. However, since Windows is very scripting
unfriendly, a wrapper script just setting $MPV_HOME, like you could do it on other systems, won't work.
portable_config is provided for convenience to get around this restriction.)
Config files located in the same directory as mpv.exe are loaded with lower priority. Some config files
are loaded only once, which means that e.g. of 2 input.conf files located in two config directories, only
the one from the directory with higher priority will be loaded.
A third config directory with the lowest priority is the directory named mpv in the same directory as
mpv.exe. This used to be the directory with the highest priority, but is now discouraged to use and might
be removed in the future.
Note that mpv likes to mix / and \ path separators for simplicity. kernel32.dll accepts this, but
cmd.exe does not.
FILES ON MACOS
On macOS the watch later directory is located at ~/.config/mpv/watch_later/ and the cache directory is
set to ~/Library/Caches/io.mpv/. These directories can't be overwritten by environment variables.
Everything else is the same as FILES.
COPYRIGHT
GPLv2+
MPV(1)