MPV – A Cross-Platform CLI-Based VLC Alternative

MPV Video Player is a free, open-source and cross-platform media player with tons of features including support for frame timing, MKV chapters and subtitles. It boats a responsive video player application with minimal design-based layout that is easily customizable with themes.

It is seen by many to be a good alternative media player app to the mighty VLC since it can take almost as many media formats as VLC without requiring as many resources. This is, of course, a no-brainer, given that MPV is essentially a CLI application. It does have a default stock Graphical User Interface just in case you would prefer to run things that way.

MPV is easy to use. Hover your mouse over its player to activate a small OSD controller to perform the typical control functions including the options to play & pause, seek, toggle subtitles, and switch audio tracks. Its hardware is sped up by FFmpeg so be rest assured to get excellent playback performance.

MPV Player for Linux
MPV Player for Linux

Features in MPV Player

  • Free, cross-platform, and open-source
  • Play web radio and video streams
  • Several audio and video filters with support for live effects
  • Edit and improve audio quality
  • Customizable with themes
  • Support for MKV chapter, VDPAU and VAAPI
  • Supports DXVA2 on Windows and VDA and VideoToolbox video on macOS
  • Support for subtitles
  • Manipulate video frame rate
  • Supports frame timing and interpolation
  • GPU accelerated to offer hardware speeds

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So, folks, do you prefer MPV to VLC, or do you think VLC will probably remain your favorite forever? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Divine Okoi is a cybersecurity postgrad with a passion for the open-source community. With 700+ articles covering different topics in IT, you can always trust him to inform you about the coolest tech.

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1 thought on “MPV – A Cross-Platform CLI-Based VLC Alternative”

  1. MPV is the best player dude, now i don’t even use Youtube, with mpv i can simply do “mpv VID_URL” and voilá, max quality videos on native video player.

    Reply

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