Provided by: mpv_0.27.2-1ubuntu1_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 for a list of default bindings.
User input.conf files and Lua scripts can define additional key bindings.
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.
[ and ]
Decrease/increase current playback speed by 10%.
{ and }
Halve/double current playback speed.
BACKSPACE
Reset playback speed to normal.
< and >
Go backward/forward in the playlist.
ENTER Go forward in the playlist.
p / 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.
/ and *
Decrease/increase volume.
9 and 0
Decrease/increase volume.
m Mute sound.
_ Cycle through the available video tracks.
# Cycle through the available audio tracks.
f Toggle fullscreen (see also --fs).
ESC Exit fullscreen mode.
T Toggle stay-on-top (see also --ontop).
w and e
Decrease/increase pan-and-scan range.
o (also 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.
x and z
Adjust subtitle delay by +/- 0.1 seconds.
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.
u Switch between applying no style overrides to SSA/ASS subtitles, and overriding them almost
completely with the normal subtitle style. See --sub-ass-override for more info.
V Toggle subtitle VSFilter aspect compatibility mode. See --sub-ass-vsfilter-aspect-compat for more
info.
r and t
Move subtitles up/down.
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).
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.)
d Activate/deactivate deinterlacer.
A Cycle aspect ratio override.
(The following keys are valid only when using a video output that supports the corresponding adjustment,
or the software equalizer (--vf=eq).)
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 OSX)
Resize video window to half its original size.
Alt+1 (and command+1 on OSX)
Resize video window to its original size.
Alt+2 (and command+2 on OSX)
Resize video window to double its original size.
command + f (OSX only)
Toggle fullscreen (see also --fs).
(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.
If you miss some older key bindings, look at etc/restore-old-bindings.conf in the mpv git repository.
Mouse Control
button 3 and button 4
Seek backward/forward 1 minute.
button 5 and button 6
Decrease/increase volume.
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.
Currently, the parser makes no difference whether an option starts with -- or a single -. This might also
change in the future, and --option value might always interpret value as filename in order to reduce
ambiguities.
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
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.
When using the client 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.
For paths passed to suboptions, the situation is further complicated by the need to escape special
characters. To work this around, the path can be additionally wrapped in the fixed-length syntax, e.g.
%n%string_of_length_n (see above).
Some mpv options interpret paths starting with ~. Currently, the prefix ~~/ expands to the mpv
configuration directory (usually ~/.config/mpv/). ~/ expands to the user's home directory. (The trailing
/ is always required.) There are the following paths as well:
┌─────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│Name │ Meaning │
├─────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│~~home/ │ same as ~~/ │
├─────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│~~global/ │ the global config path, if available │
│ │ (not on win32) │
├─────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│~~osxbundle/ │ the OSX bundle resource path (OSX │
│ │ only) │
├─────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│~~desktop/ │ the path to the desktop (win32, OSX) │
└─────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
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, you can set a
,-separated list of filters with --vf, but the option also allows you to append filters with --vf-append.
Options for filenames do not use , as separator, but : (Unix) or ; (Windows).
┌────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│Suffix │ Meaning │
├────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│-add │ Append 1 or more items (may become │
│ │ alias for -append) │
├────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│-append │ Append single item (avoids need for │
│ │ escaping) │
├────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│-clr │ Clear the option │
├────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│-del │ Delete an existing item by integer │
│ │ index │
├────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│-pre │ Prepend 1 or more items │
├────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│-set │ Set a list of items │
└────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
Although some operations allow specifying multiple ,-separated items, using this is strongly discouraged
and deprecated, except for -set.
Without suffix, the action taken is normally -set.
Some options (like --sub-file, --audio-file, --opengl-shader) are aliases for the proper option with
-append action. For example, --sub-file is an alias for --sub-files-append.
Playing DVDs
DVDs can be played with the dvd://[title] syntax. The optional title specifier is a number which selects
between separate video streams on the DVD. If no title is given (dvd://) then the longest title is
selected automatically by the library. This is usually what you want. mpv does not support DVD menus.
DVDs which have been copied on to a hard drive or other mounted filesystem (by e.g. the dvdbackup tool)
are accommodated by specifying the path to the local copy: --dvd-device=PATH. Alternatively, running mpv
PATH should auto-detect a DVD directory tree and play the longest title.
NOTE:
DVD library choices
mpv uses a different default DVD library than MPlayer. MPlayer uses libdvdread by default, and mpv
uses libdvdnav by default. Both libraries are developed in parallel, but libdvdnav is intended to
support more sophisticated DVD features such as menus and multi-angle playback. mpv uses libdvdnav for
files specified as either dvd://... or dvdnav://.... To use libdvdread, which will produce behavior
more like MPlayer, specify dvdread://... instead. Some users have experienced problems when using
libdvdnav, in which playback gets stuck in a DVD menu stream. These problems are reported to go away
when auto-selecting the title (dvd:// rather than dvd://1) or when using libdvdread (e.g.
dvdread://0). There are also outstanding bugs in libdvdnav with seeking backwards and forwards in a
video stream. Specify dvdread://... to fix such problems.
NOTE:
DVD subtitles
DVDs use image-based subtitles. Image subtitles are implemented as a bitmap video stream which can be
superimposed over the main movie. mpv's subtitle styling and positioning options and keyboard
shortcuts generally do not work with image-based subtitles. Exceptions include options like
--stretch-dvd-subs and --stretch-image-subs-to-screen.
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 either.
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. Even suboptions can be specified in this way.
Example configuration file
# Use opengl video output by default.
vo=opengl
# Use quotes for text that can contain spaces:
status-msg="Time: ${time-pos}"
Escaping spaces and special characters
This is done like with command line options. The shell is not involved here, but option values still need
to be quoted as a whole if it contains certain characters like spaces. 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 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.)
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.
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=123400
demuxer-readahead-secs=20
[slow]
profile-desc="some profile name"
# reference a builtin profile
profile=opengl-hq
[fast]
vo=vdpau
# using a profile again extends it
[slow]
framedrop=no
# you can also include other profiles
profile=big-cache
Auto profiles
Some profiles are loaded automatically. The following example demonstrates this:
Auto profile loading
[protocol.dvd]
profile-desc="profile for dvd:// streams"
alang=en
[extension.flv]
profile-desc="profile for .flv files"
vf=flip
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 there are no other auto profiles.
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) (length 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. (vo-drop-frame-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. (drop-frame-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 additional data buffered in
the stream cache in kilobytes. (demuxer-cache-duration and cache-used properties.)
PROTOCOLS
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 in FFmpeg (not in Libav), 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 (enabled by default for mpv CLI) only looks at http 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.
bd://[title][/device] --bluray-device=PATH
Play a Blu-ray disc. Currently, this does not accept ISO files. Instead, you must mount the ISO file
as filesystem, and point --bluray-device to the mounted directory directly.
title can be: longest or first (selects the default playlist); mpls/<number> (selects <number>.mpls
playlist); <number> (select playlist with the same index). You can list the available playlists with
--msg-level=bd=v.
dvd://[title|[starttitle]-endtitle][/device] --dvd-device=PATH
Play a DVD. DVD menus are not supported. If no title is given, the longest title is auto-selected.
dvdnav:// is an old alias for dvd:// and does exactly the same thing.
dvdread://...:
Play a DVD using the old libdvdread code. This is what MPlayer and older mpv versions use for dvd://.
Use is discouraged. It's provided only for compatibility and for transition, and to work around
outstanding dvdnav bugs (see "DVD library choices" above).
tv://[channel][/input_id] --tv-...
Analogue TV via V4L. Also useful for webcams. (Linux only.)
pvr:// --pvr-...
PVR. (Linux only.)
dvb://[cardnumber@]channel --dvbin-...
Digital TV via DVB. (Linux only.)
mf://[filemask|@listfile] --mf-...
Play a series of images as video.
cdda://[device] --cdrom-device=PATH --cdda-...
Play CD.
lavf://...
Access any FFmpeg/Libav 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.
For example, mpv av://lavfi:mandelbrot makes use of the libavfilter wrapper included in libavdevice,
and will use the mandelbrot source filter to generate input data.
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.
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.
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.
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 OSX
• 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. Also, for compatibility with the old pseudo-gui
behavior, 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.
The profiles are currently defined as follows:
[builtin-pseudo-gui]
terminal=no
force-window=yes
idle=once
screenshot-directory=~~desktop/
[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 priority list of audio languages to use. Different container formats employ different
language codes. DVDs use ISO 639-1 two-letter language codes, Matroska, MPEG-TS and NUT use ISO
639-2 three-letter language codes, while OGM uses a free-form identifier. See also --aid.
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,...]>
Specify a priority list of subtitle languages to use. Different container formats employ different
language codes. DVDs use ISO 639-1 two letter language codes, Matroska uses ISO 639-2 three letter
language codes while OGM uses a free-form identifier. See also --sid.
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.
--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 or --no-audio disables audio playback. (The latter variant does not work
with the client API.)
--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 or --no-sub 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 or --no-video 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.
--ff-aid=<ID|auto|no>, --ff-sid=<ID|auto|no>, --ff-vid=<ID|auto|no>
Select audio/subtitle/video streams by the FFmpeg stream index. The FFmpeg stream index is
relatively arbitrary, but useful when interacting with other software using FFmpeg (consider
ffprobe).
Note that with external tracks (added with --sub-files and similar options), there will be streams
with duplicate IDs. In this case, the first stream in order is selected.
--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.
Playback Control
--start=<relative time>
Seek to given time position.
The general format for absolute times is [[hh:]mm:]ss[.ms]. If the time is given with a prefix of
+ or -, the seek is relative from the start or end of the file. (Since mpv 0.14, the start of the
file is always considered 0.)
pp% seeks to percent position pp (0-100).
#c seeks to chapter number c. (Chapters start from 1.)
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=<time>
Stop at given absolute 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.
--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 scaletempo audio filter.
--pause
Start the player in paused state.
--shuffle
Play files in random order.
--chapter=<start[-end]>
Specify which chapter to start playing at. Optionally specify which chapter to end playing at.
See also: --start.
--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. Note that XML playlist
formats are not supported.)
You can play playlists directly and without this option, however, this option disables any
security mechanisms that might be in place. You may also need this option to load plaintext files
as playlist.
WARNING:
The way mpv uses playlist files via --playlist is not safe against maliciously constructed
files. Such files may trigger harmful actions. This has been the case for all mpv and MPlayer
versions, but unfortunately this fact was not well documented earlier, and some people have
even misguidedly recommended use of --playlist with untrusted sources. Do NOT use --playlist
with random internet sources or files you do not trust!
Playlist can contain entries using other protocols, such as local files, or (most severely),
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>
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).
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.
Note that --playlist always loads all entries, so you use that instead if you really have the need
for this functionality.
--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.
--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 both options are set to no, looping is disabled. Otherwise, the start/end of the file is used
if one of the options is set to no.
The loop-points can be adjusted at runtime with the corresponding properties. See also ab-loop
command.
--ordered-chapters, --no-ordered-chapters
Enabled by default. Disable support for Matroska ordered chapters. mpv will not load or search
for video segments from other files, and will also ignore any chapter order specified for the main
file.
--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. Currently, the default behavior is no
for the command line player, but yes for libmpv. 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.
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 files. This prevents loading of both the user-level and
system-wide mpv.conf and input.conf files. Other configuration files are blocked as well, such as
resume playback files.
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 always corresponds to -v, regardless of terminal verbosity levels.
--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 --no-config option takes precedence over this option.
--save-position-on-quit
Always save the current playback position on quit. 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 any other way than quitting. For example, going to the next file in the playlist
will not save the position, and 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.
--watch-later-directory=<path>
The directory in which to store the "watch later" temporary files.
The default is a subdirectory named "watch_later" underneath the config directory (usually
~/.config/mpv/).
--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.
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>
Load a Lua script. You can load multiple scripts by separating them with commas (,).
--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.
--merge-files
Pretend that all files passed to mpv are concatenated into a single, big file. This uses
timeline/EDL support internally.
--no-resume-playback
Do not restore playback position from the watch_later configuration subdirectory (usually
~/.config/mpv/watch_later/). See quit-watch-later input command.
--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.
In some cases, this might not work as expected. For example, --volume will only be reset if it is
explicitly set in the config file or the command line.
The special name all resets as many options as possible.
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.
--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.
--show-profile=<profile>
Show the description and content of a profile.
--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, --no-ytdl
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. (Enabled by
default, except when the client API / libmpv is used.)
If the script can't do anything with an URL, it will do nothing.
The exclude script option accepts 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 ^$()%|,.[]*+-? to match that character.
Examples
• --script-opts=ytdl_hook-exclude='^youtube%.com' will exclude any URL that starts with
http://youtube.com or https://youtube.com.
• --script-opts=ytdl_hook-exclude='%.mkv$|%.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
--ytdl-format=<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:
youtube-dl's default, currently bestvideo+bestaudio/best)
--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).
Example
• --ytdl-raw-options=username=user,password=pass
• --ytdl-raw-options=force-ipv6=
--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.
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, --vf-del 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 --no-audio.
--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 framedropping.
<vo> Drop late frames on video output (default). This still decodes and filters all frames, but
doesn't render them on the VO. It tries to query the display FPS (X11 only, not correct on
multi-monitor systems), or assumes infinite display FPS if that fails. Drops are indicated
in the terminal status line as Dropped: field. 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.
<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. Not recommended. The --vd-lavc-framedrop option controls
what frames to drop.
<decoder+vo>
Enable both modes. Not recommended.
NOTE:
--vo=vdpau has its own code for the vo framedrop mode. Slight differences to other VOs are
possible.
--display-fps=<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=<api>
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.
<api> can be one of the following:
no always use software decoding (default)
auto enable best hw decoder (see below)
yes exactly the same as auto
auto-copy
enable best hw decoder with copy-back (see below)
vdpau requires --vo=vdpau or --vo=opengl (Linux only)
vdpau-copy
copies video back into system RAM (Linux with some GPUs only)
vaapi requires --vo=opengl or --vo=vaapi (Linux only)
vaapi-copy
copies video back into system RAM (Linux with Intel GPUs only)
videotoolbox
requires --vo=opengl (OS X 10.8 and up), or --vo=opengl-cb (iOS 9.0 and up)
videotoolbox-copy
copies video back into system RAM (OS X 10.8 or iOS 9.0 and up)
dxva2 requires --vo=opengl with --opengl-backend=angle or --opengl-backend=dxinterop (Windows
only)
dxva2-copy
copies video back to system RAM (Windows only)
d3d11va
requires --vo=opengl with --opengl-backend=angle (Windows 8+ only)
d3d11va-copy
copies video back to system RAM (Windows 8+ only)
mediacodec
copies video back to system RAM (Android only)
rpi requires --vo=opengl (Raspberry Pi only - default if available)
rpi-copy
copies video back to system RAM (Raspberry Pi only)
cuda requires --vo=opengl (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)
auto tries to automatically enable hardware decoding using the first available method. This still
depends what VO you are using. For example, if you are not using --vo=vdpau or --vo=opengl, vdpau
decoding will never be enabled. Also note that if the first found method doesn't actually work, it
will always fall back to software decoding, instead of trying the next method (might matter on
some Linux systems).
auto-copy selects only modes that copy the video data back to system memory after decoding.
Currently, this selects only one of the following modes: vaapi-copy, dxva2-copy, d3d11va-copy,
mediacodec. If none of these work, hardware decoding is disabled. This mode is always guaranteed
to incur no additional loss compared to software decoding, and will allow CPU processing with
video filters.
The vaapi mode, if used with --vo=opengl, requires Mesa 11 and most likely works with Intel GPUs
only. It also requires the opengl EGL backend (automatically used if available). You can also try
the old GLX backend by forcing it with --opengl-backend=x11, but the vaapi/GLX interop is said to
be slower than vaapi-copy.
The cuda and cuda-copy modes provides deinterlacing in the decoder which is useful as there is no
other deinterlacing mechanism in the opengl output path. 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. cuda should always be preferred unless the opengl vo is not being used
or filters are required.
Most video filters will not work with hardware decoding as they are primarily implemented on the
CPU. Some exceptions are vdpaupp, vdpaurb and vavpp. See VIDEO FILTERS for more details.
The ...-copy modes (e.g. dxva2-copy) allow you to use hardware decoding with any VO, backend or
filter. Because these copy the decoded video back to system RAM, they're likely less efficient
than the direct modes (like e.g. dxva2), and probably not more efficient than software decoding
except for some codecs (e.g. HEVC).
NOTE:
When using this switch, hardware decoding is still only done for some codecs. See
--hwdec-codecs to enable hardware decoding for more codecs.
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.
In some cases, RGB conversion is forced, which means the RGB conversion is performed by
the hardware decoding API, instead of the OpenGL code used by --vo=opengl. 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 is usually safe. If deinterlacing enabled (or the vdpaupp video filter is active
in general), it forces RGB conversion. The latter currently does not treat certain
colorspaces like BT.2020 correctly (which is mostly a mpv-specific restriction). The
vdpauprb video filter retrieves image data without RGB conversion and is safe (but
precludes use of vdpau postprocessing).
vaapi is safe if the vaapi-egl backend is indicated in the logs. If vaapi-glx is
indicated, and the video colorspace is either BT.601 or BT.709, a forced, low-quality
but correct RGB conversion is performed. Otherwise, the result will be totally
incorrect.
d3d11va is usually safe (if used with ANGLE builds that support EGL_KHR_stream path -
otherwise, it converts to RGB), except that 10 bit input (HEVC main 10 profiles) will be
rounded down to 8 bits, which results in reduced quality.
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.
rpi always uses the hardware overlay renderer, even with --vo=opengl.
cuda should be safe, but it has been reported to corrupt the timestamps causing
glitched, flashing frames on some files. It can also sometimes cause massive framedrops
for unknown reasons. Caution is advised.
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.
All other methods, in particular the copy-back methods (like dxva2-copy etc.) should
hopefully be safe, although they can still cause random decoding issues. At the very
least, they shouldn't affect the colors of the image.
In particular, auto-copy will only select "safe" modes (although potentially slower than
other methods), but there's still no guarantee the chosen hardware decoder will actually
work correctly.
In general, it's very strongly advised to avoid hardware decoding unless absolutely
necessary, i.e. if your CPU is insufficient to decode the file in questions. 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.
--opengl-hwdec-interop=<name>
This is useful for the opengl and opengl-cb VOs for creating the hardware decoding OpenGL interop
context, but without actually enabling hardware decoding itself (like --hwdec does).
If set to an empty string (default), the --hwdec option is used.
For opengl, if set, do not create the interop context on demand, but when the VO is created.
For opengl-cb, if set, load the interop context as soon as the OpenGL context is created. Since
opengl-cb has no on-demand loading, this allows enabling hardware decoding at runtime at all,
without having to temporarily set the hwdec option just during OpenGL context initialization with
mpv_opengl_cb_init_gl().
See --opengl-hwdec-interop=help for accepted values. This lists the interop backend, with the
--hwdec alias after it in [...]. Consider all values except the proper interop backend name, auto,
and no as silently deprecated and subject to change. Also, if you use this in application code
(e.g. via libmpv), any value other than auto and no should be avoided, as backends can change.
Currently the option sets a single value. It is possible that the option type changes to a list in
the future.
The old alias --hwdec-preload has different behavior if the option value is no.
--videotoolbox-format=<name>
Set the internal pixel format used by --hwdec=videotoolbox on OSX. The choice of the format can
influence performance considerably. On the other hand, there doesn't appear to be a good way to
detect the best format for the given hardware. nv12, the default, works better on modern hardware,
while uyvy422 appears to be better for old hardware. yuv420p also works. Since mpv 0.25.0, no is
an accepted value, which lets the decoder pick the format on newer FFmpeg versions (will use nv12
on older versions).
--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.
--video-aspect=<ratio|no>
Override video aspect ratio, in case aspect information is incorrect or missing in the file being
played. See also --no-video-aspect.
These values have special meaning:
0 disable aspect ratio handling, pretend the video has square pixels
no same as 0
-1 use the video stream or container aspect (default)
But note that handling of these special values might change in the future.
Examples
• --video-aspect=4:3 or --video-aspect=1.3333
• --video-aspect=16:9 or --video-aspect=1.7777
• --no-video-aspect or --video-aspect=no
--video-aspect-method=<bitstream|container>
This sets the default video aspect determination method (if the aspect is _not_ overridden by the
user with --video-aspect 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.
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 the --no-keepaspect option 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 1280x720 video fullscreen on a 1680x1050 screen with --video-pan-x=-0.1
would move the video 168 pixels to the left (making 128 pixels of the source video invisible).
This option is disabled if the --no-keepaspect option is used.
--video-rotate=<0-359|no>
Rotate the video clockwise, in degrees. Currently supports 90° steps only. 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.)
--video-stereo-mode=<no|mode>
Set the stereo 3D output mode (default: mono). This is done by inserting the stereo3d conversion
filter.
The pseudo-mode no disables automatic conversion completely.
The mode mono is an alias to ml, which refers to the left frame in 2D. This is the default, which
means mpv will try to show 3D movies in 2D, instead of the mangled 3D image not intended for
consumption (such as showing the left and right frame side by side, etc.).
Use --video-stereo-mode=help to list all available modes. Check with the stereo3d filter
documentation to see what the names mean. Note that some names refer to modes not supported by
stereo3d - these modes can appear in files, but can't be handled properly by mpv.
--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 the --no-keepaspect option is used.
--video-align-x=<-1-1>, --video-align-y=<-1-1>
Moves the video rectangle within the black borders, which are usually added to pad the video to
screen if video and screen aspect ratios are different. --video-align-y=-1 would move the video
to the top of the screen (leaving a border only on the bottom), a value of 0 centers it (default),
and a value of 1 would put the video at the bottom of the screen.
If video and screen aspect match perfectly, these options do nothing.
This option is disabled if the --no-keepaspect option is used.
--correct-pts, --no-correct-pts
--no-correct-pts switches mpv to a mode where video timing is determined using a fixed framerate
value (either using the --fps 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 and audio synchronization can be completely broken in this mode.
--fps=<float>
Override video framerate. Useful if the original value is wrong or missing.
NOTE:
Works in --no-correct-pts mode only.
--deinterlace=<yes|no>
Enable or disable interlacing (default: no). Interlaced video shows ugly comb-like artifacts,
which are visible on fast movement. Enabling this typically inserts the yadif video filter in
order to deinterlace the video, or lets the video output apply deinterlacing if supported.
This behaves exactly like the deinterlace input property (usually mapped to d).
Keep in mind that this will conflict with manually inserted deinterlacing filters, unless you take
care. (Since mpv 0.27.0, even the hardware deinterlace filters will conflict. Also since that
version, --deinterlace=auto was removed, which used to mean that the default interlacing option of
possibly inserted video filters was used.)
--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,wmv3,hevc,mpeg2video,vp9. Note that the hardware acceleration
special codecs like h264_vdpau are not relevant anymore, and in fact have been removed from Libav
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.
Example
mpv --hwdec=vdpau --vo=vdpau --hwdec-codecs=h264,mpeg2video
Enable vdpau decoding for h264 and mpeg2 only.
--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-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.
--vd-lavc-dr=<yes|no>
Enable direct rendering (default: no). 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:
• opengl: requires at least OpenGL 4.4.
(In particular, this can't be made work with opengl-cb.)
Using video filters of any kind that write to the image data (or output newly allocated frames)
will silently disable the DR code path.
There are some corner cases that will result in undefined behavior (crashes and other strange
behavior) if this option is enabled. These are pending towards being fixed properly at a later
point.
--vd-lavc-bitexact
Only use bit-exact algorithms in all decoding steps (for codec testing).
--vd-lavc-fast (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, 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.
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 only)
Skips the loop filter (AKA deblocking) during H.264 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.
<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 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.
Audio
--audio-pitch-correction=<yes|no>
If this is enabled (default), playing with a speed different from normal automatically inserts the
scaletempo audio filter. For details, see 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.
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 and coreaudio. Other audio outputs silently
ignore this options. 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, --af-del 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. 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. +
in front of an entry forces the decoder. Both of these should not normally be used, because they
break normal decoder auto-selection! Both of these methods are deprecated.
Examples
--ad=mp3float
Prefer the FFmpeg/Libav 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 "softvol").
--replaygain=<no|track|album>
Adjust volume gain according to the track-gain or album-gain replaygain value stored in the file
metadata (default: no replaygain).
--replaygain-preamp=<db>
Pre-amplification gain in dB to apply to the selected replaygain gain (default: 0).
--replaygain-clip=<yes|no>
Prevent clipping caused by replaygain by automatically lowering the gain (default). Use
--replaygain-clip=no to disable this.
--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.
--balance=<value>
How much left/right channels contribute to the audio. (The implementation of this feature is
rather odd. It doesn't change the volumes of each channel, but instead sets up a pan matrix to mix
the left and right channels.)
Deprecated.
--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|auto>
Set startup audio mute status (default: no).
auto is a deprecated possible value that is equivalent to no.
See also: --volume.
--softvol=<no|yes|auto>
Deprecated/unfunctional. Before mpv 0.18.1, this used to control whether to use the volume
controls of the audio output driver or the internal mpv volume filter.
The current behavior is that softvol is always enabled, i.e. as if this option is set to yes. The
other behaviors are not available anymore, although auto almost matches current behavior in most
cases.
The no behavior is still partially available through the ao-volume and ao-mute properties. But
there are no options to reset these.
--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: yes). 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.
--ad-spdif-dtshd=<yes|no>, --dtshd, --no-dtshd
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
Force a plain stereo downmix. This is a special-case 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.
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-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 silent. It depends
on the source audio.
Technically, this changes the normalize suboption of the lavrresample audio filter, which performs
the downmixing.
If downmix happens outside of mpv for some reason, this has no effect.
--audio-display=<no|attachment>
Setting this option to attachment (default) will display image attachments (e.g. album cover art)
when playing audio files. It will display the first image found, and additional images are
available as video tracks.
Setting this option to no disables display of video entirely when playing audio 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 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 lavrresample 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. (Unlike with yes, you don't have
to worry about corner cases like the first file setting a very low quality output format,
and ruining the playback of higher quality files that follow.)
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, --no-initial-audio-sync
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.
--volume-max=<100.0-1000.0>, --softvol-max=<...>
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.
--softvol-max is a deprecated alias and should not be used.
--audio-file-auto=<no|exact|fuzzy|all>, --no-audio-file-auto
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 media filename.
all Load all audio files in the current and --audio-file-paths directories.
--audio-file-paths=<path1:path2:...>
Equivalent to --sub-file-paths option, but for auto-loaded audio files.
--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 will 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.
--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.
Previously some options working on text subtitles were called --sub-text-*, they are now named
--sub-*, and those specifically for ASS have been renamed from --ass-* to --sub-ass-*. They are now
all in this section.
--sub-demuxer=<[+]name>
Force subtitle demuxer type for --sub-file. Give the demuxer name as printed by
--sub-demuxer=help.
--sub-delay=<sec>
Delays subtitles by <sec> seconds. Can be negative.
--sub-files=<file-list>
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.)
This is a list option. See List Options for details.
--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, 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 --no-sub-ass 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
--no-sub-ass 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-by-window=<yes|no>
Whether to scale subtitles with the window size (default: yes). If this is disabled, changing the
window size won't change the subtitle font size.
Like --sub-scale, this can break ASS subtitles.
--sub-scale-with-window=<yes|no>
Make the subtitle font size relative to the window, instead of the video. This is useful if you
always want the same font size, even if the video doesn't cover the window fully, e.g. because
screen aspect and window aspect mismatch (and the player adds black bars).
Default: yes.
This option is misnamed. The difference to the confusingly similar sounding option
--sub-scale-by-window is that --sub-scale-with-window still scales with the approximate window
size, while the other option disables this scaling.
Affects plain text subtitles only (or ASS if --sub-ass-override is set high enough).
--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, --no-embeddedfonts
Use fonts embedded in Matroska container files and ASS scripts (default: enabled). These fonts can
be used for SSA/ASS subtitle rendering.
--sub-pos=<0-100>
Specify the position of subtitles on the screen. The value is the vertical position of the
subtitle in % of the screen height.
NOTE:
This affects ASS subtitles as well, and may lead to incorrect subtitle rendering. Use with
care, or use --sub-margin-y instead.
--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-force-style=<[Style.]Param=Value[,...]>
Override some style or script info parameters.
Examples
• --sub-ass-force-style=FontName=Arial,Default.Bold=1
• --sub-ass-force-style=PlayResY=768
NOTE:
Using this option may lead to incorrect subtitle rendering.
--sub-ass-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-ass-line-spacing=<value>
Set line spacing value for SSA/ASS renderer.
--sub-ass-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-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=<yes|no|force|scale|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".
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 (default).
force Like yes, but also force all --sub-* options. Can break rendering easily.
scale Like yes, but also apply --sub-scale.
strip Radically strip all ASS tags and styles from the subtitle. This is equivalent to the old
--no-ass / --no-sub-ass options.
--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.
Renamed from --sub-ass-use-margins. To place ASS subtitles in the borders too (like the old option
did), also add --sub-ass-force-margins.
--sub-ass-vsfilter-aspect-compat=<yes|no>
Stretch SSA/ASS subtitles when playing anamorphic videos for compatibility with traditional
VSFilter behavior. This switch has no effect when the video is stored with square pixels.
The renderer historically most commonly used for the SSA/ASS subtitle formats, VSFilter, had
questionable behavior that resulted in subtitles being stretched too if the video was stored in
anamorphic format that required scaling for display. This behavior is usually undesirable and
newer VSFilter versions may behave differently. However, many existing scripts compensate for the
stretching by modifying things in the opposite direction. Thus, if such scripts are displayed
"correctly", they will not appear as intended. This switch enables emulation of the old VSFilter
behavior (undesirable but expected by many existing scripts).
Enabled by default.
--sub-ass-vsfilter-blur-compat=<yes|no>
Scale \blur tags by video resolution instead of script resolution (enabled by default). This is
bug in VSFilter, which according to some, can't be fixed anymore in the name of compatibility.
Note that this uses the actual video resolution for calculating the offset scale factor, not what
the video filter chain or the video output use.
--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 trancoded, while attempting to keep the old subtitles.
--sub-ass, --no-sub-ass
Render ASS subtitles natively (enabled by default).
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 --no-sub-ass 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 --no-sub-ass 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>, --no-sub-auto
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 (default).
fuzzy Load all subs containing media filename.
all Load all subs in the current and --sub-file-paths directories.
--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.
This option changed in mpv 0.23.0. Support for the old syntax was fully removed in mpv 0.24.0.
--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-only
Display only forced subtitles for the DVD subtitle stream selected by e.g. --slang.
--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-paths=<path1:path2:...>
Deprecated, use --sub-file-paths.
--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 list option. See List Options for details.
--sub-visibility, --no-sub-visibility
Can be used to disable display of 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.
--teletext-page=<1-999>
This works for dvb_teletext subtitle streams, and if FFmpeg has been compiled with support for it.
--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 the --no-sub-ass option 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: 55.
--sub-back-color=<color>
See --sub-color. Color used for sub text background.
--sub-blur=<0..20.0>
Gaussian blur factor. 0 means no blur applied (default).
--sub-bold=<yes|no>
Format text on bold.
--sub-italic=<yes|no>
Format text on italic.
--sub-border-color=<color>
See --sub-color. Color used for the sub font border.
NOTE:
ignored when --sub-back-color is specified (or more exactly: when that option is not set to
completely transparent).
--sub-border-size=<size>
Size of the sub font border in scaled pixels (see --sub-font-size for details). A value of 0
disables borders.
Default: 3.
--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. This is similar to web colors. 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: 25.
--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: 22.
--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 --no-sub-ass 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-y). 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-color=<color>
See --sub-color. Color used for sub text shadow.
--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:), upper
case text in parentheses and any text in brackets.
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.
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.
See also --fs-screen.
--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 default is provided mpv will fallback on
using the behavior depending on what the user provided with the screen option.
Note (X11)
This option does works properly only with window managers which understand the EWMH
_NET_WM_FULLSCREEN_MONITORS hint.
Note (OS X)
all does not work on OS X and will behave like current.
See also --screen.
--keep-open=<yes|no|always>
Do not terminate when playing or seeking beyond the end of the file, and there is not 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: 1). 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.
--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 640x480, 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, --no-taskbar-progress
(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.
--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|level>
(OS X only) Sets the level of an ontop window (default: window).
window On top of all other windows.
system On top of system elements like Taskbar, Menubar and Dock.
level A level as integer.
--border, --no-border
Play video with window border and decorations. Since this is on by default, use --no-border to
disable the standard window decorations.
--fit-border, --no-fit-border
(Windows only) Fit the whole window with border and decorations on the screen. Since this is on by
default, use --no-fit-border to make mpv try to only fit client area with video on the screen.
This behavior only applied to window/video with size exceeding size of the screen.
--on-all-workspaces
(X11 only) Show the video window on all virtual desktops.
--geometry=<[W[xH]][+-x+-y]>, --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".
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 (X11)
This option does not work properly with all window managers.
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 without
--no-keepaspect).
50%+10+10
Sets the window to half the screen widths, and positions it 10 pixels below/left of the
top left corner of the screen.
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 the window size is only changed if the window
would be larger than the specified size.
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).
For example, --window-scale=0.5 would show the window at half the video size.
--cursor-autohide=<number|no|always>
Make mouse cursor automatically hide after given number of milliseconds. 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.
--no-fixed-vo, --fixed-vo
--no-fixed-vo enforces closing and reopening the video window for multiple files (one
(un)initialization for each file).
--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 vdpau, opengl, direct3d), this can be slightly faster or slower, depending on GPU drivers
and hardware. For other VOs, this just makes rendering slower.
--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
VOs.
--heartbeat-cmd=<command>
WARNING:
This option is redundant with Lua scripting. Further, it shouldn't be needed for disabling
screensaver anyway, since mpv will call xdg-screensaver when using X11 backend. As a consequence
this option has been deprecated with no direct replacement.
Command that is executed every 30 seconds during playback via system() - i.e. using the shell. The
time between the commands can be customized with the --heartbeat-interval option. The command is not
run while playback is paused.
NOTE:
mpv uses this command without any checking. It is your responsibility to ensure it does not cause
security problems (e.g. make sure to use full paths if "." is in your path like on Windows). It
also only works when playing video (i.e. not with --no-video but works with --vo=null).
This can be "misused" to disable screensavers that do not support the proper X API (see also
--stop-screensaver). If you think this is too complicated, ask the author of the screensaver program
to support the proper X APIs. Note that the --stop-screensaver does not influence the heartbeat code
at all.
Example for xscreensaver
mpv --heartbeat-cmd="xscreensaver-command -deactivate" file
Example for GNOME screensaver
mpv --heartbeat-cmd="gnome-screensaver-command --deactivate" file
--heartbeat-interval=<sec>
Time between --heartbeat-cmd invocations in seconds (default: 30).
NOTE:
This does not affect the normal screensaver operation in any way.
--no-keepaspect, --keepaspect
--no-keepaspect 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.)
--no-keepaspect-window, --keepaspect-window
--keepaspect-window (the default) will lock the window size to the video aspect.
--no-keepaspect-window 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.
Examples
• --monitoraspect=4:3 or --monitoraspect=1.3333
• --monitoraspect=16:9 or --monitoraspect=1.7777
--hidpi-window-scale, --no-hidpi-window-scale
(OS X and X11 only) Scale the window size according to the backing scale factor (default: yes).
On regular HiDPI resolutions the window opens with double the size but appears as having the same
size as on none-HiDPI resolutions. This is the default OS X behavior.
--native-fs, --no-native-fs
(OS X only) Uses the native fullscreen mechanism of the OS (default: yes).
--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.
--stop-screensaver, --no-stop-screensaver
Turns off the screensaver (or screen blanker and similar mechanisms) at startup and turns it on
again on exit (default: yes). The screensaver is always re-enabled when the player is paused.
This is not supported on all video outputs or platforms. Sometimes it is implemented, but does not
work (known to happen with GNOME). You might be able to work around this using --heartbeat-cmd
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 intptr_t. mpv will create its
own window, and set the wid window as parent, like with X11.
On OSX/Cocoa, the ID is interpreted as NSView*. Pass it as value cast to intptr_t. mpv will create
its own sub-view. Because OSX does not support window embedding of foreign processes, this works
only with libmpv, and will crash when used from the command line.
--no-window-dragging
Don't move the window when clicking on it and moving the mouse pointer.
--x11-name
Set the window class 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.
Disc Devices
--cdrom-device=<path>
Specify the CD-ROM device (default: /dev/cdrom).
--dvd-device=<path>
Specify the DVD device or .iso filename (default: /dev/dvd). You can also specify a directory that
contains files previously copied directly from a DVD (with e.g. vobcopy).
Example
mpv dvd:// --dvd-device=/path/to/dvd/
--bluray-device=<path>
(Blu-ray only) Specify the Blu-ray disc location. Must be a directory with Blu-ray structure.
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-bias
Assume that the beginning offset of track 1 as reported in the TOC will be addressed as LBA 0.
Some discs need this for getting track boundaries correctly.
--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>
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.
--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-genpts-mode=<no|lavf>
Mode for deriving missing packet PTS values from packet DTS. lavf enables libavformat's genpts
option. no disables it. This used to be enabled by default, but then it was deemed as not needed
anymore. Enabling this might help with timestamp problems, or make them worse.
--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.
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-mkv-subtitle-preroll=<yes|index|no>, --mkv-subtitle-preroll
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.
--mkv-subtitle-preroll is a deprecated alias.
--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-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-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=<bytes>
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.
--demuxer-max-packets=<packets>
Quite similar --demuxer-max-bytes=<bytes>. Deprecated, because the other option does basically the
same job. Since mpv 0.25.0, the code tries to account for per-packet overhead, which is why this
option becomes rather pointless.
--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 may lead to smoother playback, but on the other hand can add delays to
seeking or track switching.
--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 the --cache-secs option will override this value if a cache is enabled, and the value is
larger.
(This value tends to be fuzzy, because many file formats don't store linear timestamps.)
--prefetch-playlist=<yes|no>
Prefetch next playlist entry while playback of the current entry is ending (default: no). This
merely opens the URL of the next playlist entry as soon as the current URL is fully read.
This does not work with URLs resolved by the youtube-dl wrapper, and it won't.
This does not affect HLS (.m3u8 URLs) - HLS prefetching depends on the demuxer cache settings and
is on by default.
This can give subtly wrong results if per-file options are used, or if options are changed in the
time window between prefetching start and next file played.
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.
Highly experimental.
--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.
Input
--native-keyrepeat
Use system settings for keyrepeat delay and rate, instead of --input-ar-delay and --input-ar-rate.
(Whether this applies depends on the VO backend and how it handles keyboard input. Does not apply
to terminal input.)
--input-ar-delay
Delay in milliseconds before we start to autorepeat a key (0 to disable).
--input-ar-rate
Number of key presses to generate per second on autorepeat.
--input-conf=<filename>
Specify input configuration file other than the default location in the mpv configuration
directory (usually ~/.config/mpv/input.conf).
--no-input-default-bindings
Disable mpv default (built-in) key bindings.
--input-cmdlist
Prints all commands that can be bound to keys.
--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-file=<filename>
Read commands from the given file. Mostly useful with a FIFO. Since mpv 0.7.0 also understands
JSON commands (see JSON IPC), but you can't get replies or events. Use --input-ipc-server for
something bi-directional. On MS Windows, JSON commands are not available.
This can also specify a direct file descriptor with fd://N (UNIX only). In this case, JSON
replies will be written if the FD is writable.
NOTE:
When the given file is a FIFO mpv opens both ends, so you can do several echo "seek 10" >
mp_pipe and the pipe will stay valid.
--input-terminal, --no-input-terminal
--no-input-terminal 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-appleremote=<yes|no>
(OS X only) Enable/disable Apple Remote support. Enabled by default (except for libmpv).
--input-cursor, --no-input-cursor
Permit mpv to receive pointer events reported by the video output driver. Necessary to use the
OSC, or to select the buttons in DVD menus. Support depends on the VO in use.
--input-media-keys=<yes|no>
(OS X and Windows only) Enable/disable media keys support. Enabled by default (except for libmpv).
--input-right-alt-gr, --no-input-right-alt-gr
(Cocoa 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.
(This option was renamed from --input-x11-keyboard.)
OSD
--osc, --no-osc
Whether to load the on-screen-controller (default: yes).
--no-osd-bar, --osd-bar
Disable display of the OSD bar. This will make some things (like seeking) use OSD text messages
instead of the bar.
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-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: 55.
--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 no other message covers it, and the OSD level isn't changed (see
--osd-level). Expands properties; see Property Expansion.
--osd-msg2=<string>
Similar as --osd-msg1, but for OSD level 2. If this is an empty string (default), then the
playback time is shown.
--osd-msg3=<string>
Similar as --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 also used for the show-progress command (by default mapped to P), or in some non-default
cases when seeking.
--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),
or in some non-default cases when seeking. 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-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-back-color=<color>
See --osd-color. Color used for OSD text background.
--osd-blur=<0..20.0>
Gaussian blur factor. 0 means no blur applied (default).
--osd-bold=<yes|no>
Format text on bold.
--osd-italic=<yes|no>
Format text on italic.
--osd-border-color=<color>
See --osd-color. Color used for the OSD font border.
NOTE:
ignored when --osd-back-color is specified (or more exactly: when that option is not set to
completely transparent).
--osd-border-size=<size>
Size of the OSD font border in scaled pixels (see --sub-font-size for details). A value of 0
disables borders.
Default: 3.
--osd-color=<color>
Specify the color used for OSD. 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: 25.
--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: 22.
--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.
--osd-shadow-color=<color>
See --sub-color. Color used for OSD shadow.
--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 --no-osc).
This option is somewhat experimental and could be replaced by another mechanism in the future.
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)
--screenshot-tag-colorspace=<yes|no>
Tag screenshots with the appropriate colorspace.
Note that not all formats are supported.
Default: no.
--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.
--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-directory=<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.
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.
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.
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.
--no-terminal, --terminal
Disable 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.
--no-msg-color
Disable colorful console output on terminals.
--msg-level=<module1=level1,module2=level2,...>
Control verbosity directly for each module. The all module changes the verbosity of all the
modules not explicitly specified on the command line.
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.
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, --no-term-osd-bar
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.
--msg-module
Prepend module name to each console message.
--msg-time
Prepend timing information to each console message.
TV
--tv-...
These options tune various properties of the TV capture module. For watching TV with mpv, use
tv:// or tv://<channel_number> or even tv://<channel_name> (see option tv-channels for
channel_name below) as a media URL. You can also use tv:///<input_id> to start watching a video
from a composite or S-Video input (see option input for details).
--tv-device=<value>
Specify TV device (default: /dev/video0).
--tv-channel=<value>
Set tuner to <value> channel.
--no-tv-audio
no sound
--tv-automute=<0-255> (v4l and v4l2 only)
If signal strength reported by device is less than this value, audio and video will be muted. In
most cases automute=100 will be enough. Default is 0 (automute disabled).
--tv-driver=<value>
See --tv=driver=help for a list of compiled-in TV input drivers. available: dummy, v4l2 (default:
autodetect)
--tv-input=<value>
Specify input (default: 0 (TV), see console output for available inputs).
--tv-freq=<value>
Specify the frequency to set the tuner to (e.g. 511.250). Not compatible with the channels
parameter.
--tv-outfmt=<value>
Specify the output format of the tuner with a preset value supported by the V4L driver (YV12,
UYVY, YUY2, I420) or an arbitrary format given as hex value.
--tv-width=<value>
output window width
--tv-height=<value>
output window height
--tv-fps=<value>
framerate at which to capture video (frames per second)
--tv-buffersize=<value>
maximum size of the capture buffer in megabytes (default: dynamical)
--tv-norm=<value>
See the console output for a list of all available norms.
See also: --tv-normid.
--tv-normid=<value> (v4l2 only)
Sets the TV norm to the given numeric ID. The TV norm depends on the capture card. See the console
output for a list of available TV norms.
--tv-chanlist=<value>
available: argentina, australia, china-bcast, europe-east, europe-west, france, ireland, italy,
japan-bcast, japan-cable, newzealand, russia, southafrica, us-bcast, us-cable, us-cable-hrc
--tv-channels=<chan>-<name>[=<norm>],<chan>-<name>[=<norm>],...
Set names for channels.
NOTE:
If <chan> is an integer greater than 1000, it will be treated as frequency (in kHz) rather than
channel name from frequency table. Use _ for spaces in names (or play with quoting ;-) ). The
channel names will then be written using OSD, and the input commands tv_step_channel,
tv_set_channel and tv_last_channel will be usable for a remote control. Not compatible with the
frequency parameter.
NOTE:
The channel number will then be the position in the 'channels' list, beginning with 1.
Examples
tv://1, tv://TV1, tv_set_channel 1, tv_set_channel TV1
--tv-[brightness|contrast|hue|saturation]=<-100-100>
Set the image equalizer on the card.
--tv-audiorate=<value>
Set input audio sample rate.
--tv-forceaudio
Capture audio even if there are no audio sources reported by v4l.
--tv-alsa
Capture from ALSA.
--tv-amode=<0-3>
Choose an audio mode:
0 mono
1 stereo
2 language 1
3 language 2
--tv-forcechan=<1-2>
By default, the count of recorded audio channels is determined automatically by querying the audio
mode from the TV card. This option allows forcing stereo/mono recording regardless of the amode
option and the values returned by v4l. This can be used for troubleshooting when the TV card is
unable to report the current audio mode.
--tv-adevice=<value>
Set an audio device. <value> should be /dev/xxx for OSS and a hardware ID for ALSA. You must
replace any ':' by a '.' in the hardware ID for ALSA.
--tv-audioid=<value>
Choose an audio output of the capture card, if it has more than one.
--tv-[volume|bass|treble|balance]=<0-100>
These options set parameters of the mixer on the video capture card. They will have no effect, if
your card does not have one. For v4l2 50 maps to the default value of the control, as reported by
the driver.
--tv-gain=<0-100>
Set gain control for video devices (usually webcams) to the desired value and switch off automatic
control. A value of 0 enables automatic control. If this option is omitted, gain control will not
be modified.
--tv-immediatemode=<bool>
A value of 0 means capture and buffer audio and video together. A value of 1 (default) means to do
video capture only and let the audio go through a loopback cable from the TV card to the sound
card.
--tv-mjpeg
Use hardware MJPEG compression (if the card supports it). When using this option, you do not need
to specify the width and height of the output window, because mpv will determine it automatically
from the decimation value (see below).
--tv-decimation=<1|2|4>
choose the size of the picture that will be compressed by hardware MJPEG compression:
1 full size
• 704x576 PAL
• 704x480 NTSC
2 medium size
• 352x288 PAL
• 352x240 NTSC
4 small size
• 176x144 PAL
• 176x120 NTSC
--tv-quality=<0-100>
Choose the quality of the JPEG compression (< 60 recommended for full size).
--tv-scan-autostart
Begin channel scanning immediately after startup (default: disabled).
--tv-scan-period=<0.1-2.0>
Specify delay in seconds before switching to next channel (default: 0.5). Lower values will cause
faster scanning, but can detect inactive TV channels as active.
--tv-scan-threshold=<1-100>
Threshold value for the signal strength (in percent), as reported by the device (default: 50). A
signal strength higher than this value will indicate that the currently scanning channel is
active.
Cache
--cache=<kBytes|yes|no|auto>
Set the size of the cache in kilobytes, disable it with no, or automatically enable it if needed
with auto (default: auto). With auto, the cache will usually be enabled for network streams,
using the size set by --cache-default. With yes, the cache will always be enabled with the size
set by --cache-default (unless the stream cannot be cached, or --cache-default disables caching).
May be useful when playing files from slow media, but can also have negative effects, especially
with file formats that require a lot of seeking, such as MP4.
Note that half the cache size will be used to allow fast seeking back. This is also the reason why
a full cache is usually not reported as 100% full. The cache fill display does not include the
part of the cache reserved for seeking back. The actual maximum percentage will usually be the
ratio between readahead and backbuffer sizes.
--cache-default=<kBytes|no>
Set the size of the cache in kilobytes (default: 75000 KB). Using no will not automatically enable
the cache e.g. when playing from a network stream. Note that using --cache will always override
this option.
--cache-initial=<kBytes>
Playback will start when the cache has been filled up with this many kilobytes of data (default:
0).
--cache-seek-min=<kBytes>
If a seek is to be made to a position within <kBytes> of the cache size from the current position,
mpv will wait for the cache to be filled to this position rather than performing a stream seek
(default: 500).
This matters for small forward seeks. With slow streams (especially HTTP streams) there is a
tradeoff between skipping the data between current position and seek destination, or performing an
actual seek. Depending on the situation, either of these might be slower than the other method.
This option allows control over this.
--cache-backbuffer=<kBytes>
Size of the cache back buffer (default: 75000 KB). This will add to the total cache size, and
reserved the amount for seeking back. The reserved amount will not be used for readahead, and
instead preserves already read data to enable fast seeking back.
--cache-file=<TMP|path>
Create a cache file on the filesystem.
There are two ways of using this:
1. Passing a path (a filename). The file will always be overwritten. When the general cache is
enabled, this file cache will be used to store whatever is read from the source stream.
This will always overwrite the cache file, and you can't use an existing cache file to resume
playback of a stream. (Technically, mpv wouldn't even know which blocks in the file are valid
and which not.)
The resulting file will not necessarily contain all data of the source stream. For example, if
you seek, the parts that were skipped over are never read and consequently are not written to
the cache. The skipped over parts are filled with zeros. This means that the cache file doesn't
necessarily correspond to a full download of the source stream.
Both of these issues could be improved if there is any user interest.
WARNING:
Causes random corruption when used with ordered chapters or with --audio-file.
2. Passing the string TMP. This will not be interpreted as filename. Instead, an invisible
temporary file is created. It depends on your C library where this file is created (usually
/tmp/), and whether filename is visible (the tmpfile() function is used). On some systems,
automatic deletion of the cache file might not be guaranteed.
If you want to use a file cache, this mode is recommended, because it doesn't break ordered
chapters or --audio-file. These modes open multiple cache streams, and using the same file for
them obviously clashes.
See also: --cache-file-size.
--cache-file-size=<kBytes>
Maximum size of the file created with --cache-file. For read accesses above this size, the cache
is simply not used.
Keep in mind that some use-cases, like playing ordered chapters with cache enabled, will actually
create multiple cache files, each of which will use up to this much disk space.
(Default: 1048576, 1 GB.)
--no-cache
Turn off input stream caching. See --cache.
--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.
(Default: 10.)
--cache-pause, --no-cache-pause
Whether the player should automatically pause when the cache runs low, and unpause once more data
is available ("buffering").
Network
--user-agent=<string>
Use <string> as user agent for HTTP streaming.
--cookies, --no-cookies
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.
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
--tls-ca-file=<filename>
Certificate authority database file for use with TLS. (Silently fails with older FFmpeg or Libav
versions.)
--tls-verify
Verify peer certificates when using TLS (e.g. with https://...). (Silently fails with older
FFmpeg or Libav 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. This affects at least HTTP. The special value 0 (default)
uses the FFmpeg/Libav defaults. If a protocol is used which does not support timeouts, this option
is silently ignored.
--rtsp-transport=<lavf|udp|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-card=<1-4>
Specifies using card number 1-4 (default: 1).
--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} (based on
your card type) or channels.conf as a last resort. 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=<1-30>
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
ALSA audio output options
--alsa-device=<device>
Deprecated, use --audio-device (requires alsa/ prefix).
--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).
OpenGL renderer options
The following video options are currently all specific to --vo=opengl and --vo=opengl-cb only, 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 for
compatibility reasons.
spline36
Mid quality and speed. This is the default when using opengl-hq.
lanczos
Lanczos scaling. Provides mid quality and speed. Generally worse than spline36, but it
results in a slightly sharper image which is good for some content types. 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, preconfigured to use an ideal radius and
parameter. If your hardware can run it, this is probably what you should use by default.
mitchell
Mitchell-Netravali. The B and C parameters can be set with --scale-param1 and
--scale-param2. This filter is very good at downscaling (see --dscale).
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 filter is good at temporal interpolation, and also
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.
--dscale=<filter>
Like --scale, but apply these filters on downscaling instead. If this option is unset, the filter
implied by --scale will be applied.
--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 mitchell.
Note that the maximum supported filter radius is currently 3, due to limitations in the number of
video textures that can be loaded simultaneously.
--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. Ignored if the filter is not tunable. Currently, this affects the following
filter parameters:
bcspline
Spline parameters (B and C). Defaults to 0.5 for both.
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>, --scale-wblur=<value>, --cscale-blur=<value>, --cscale-wblur=<value>,
--dscale-blur=<value>, --dscale-wblur=<value>, --tscale-blur=<value>, --tscale-wblur=<value>
Kernel/window 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-cutoff=<value>, --cscale-cutoff=<value>, --dscale-cutoff=<value>
Cut off the filter kernel prematurely once the value range drops below this threshold. Doing so
allows more aggressive pruning of skippable coefficients by disregarding parts of the LUT which
are effectively zeroed out by the window function. Only affects polar (EWA) filters. The default
is 0.001 for each, which is perceptually transparent but provides a 10%-20% speedup, depending on
the exact radius and filter kernel chosen.
--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.
--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.
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-lut-size=<4..10>
Set the size of the lookup texture for scaler kernels (default: 6). The actual size of the texture
is 2^N for an option value of N. So the lookup texture with the default setting uses 64 samples.
All weights are linearly interpolated from those samples, so increasing the size of lookup table
might improve the accuracy of scaler.
--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.
--linear-scaling
Scale in linear light. It should only be used with a --opengl-fbo-format that has at least 16 bit
precision. This option has no effect on HDR content.
--correct-downscaling
When using convolution based filters, extend the filter size when downscaling. Increases quality,
but reduces performance while downscaling.
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.
--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.
Note that this relies on vsync to work, see --opengl-swapinterval for more information. It should
also only be used with an --opengl-fbo-format that has at least 16 bit precision.
--interpolation-threshold=<0..1,-1>
Threshold below which frame ratio interpolation gets disabled (default: 0.0001). 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 almost always enable interpolation if the playback rate is even
slightly different from the display refresh rate. But 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.
--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: no.
no Disable any dithering done by mpv.
auto Automatic selection. If output bit depth cannot be detected, 8 bits per component are
assumed.
8 Dither to 8 bit output.
Note that the depth of the connected video display device cannot be detected. Often, LCD panels
will do dithering on their own, which conflicts with this option and leads to ugly output.
--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|no>
Select dithering algorithm (default: fruit). (Normally, the --dither-depth option controls whether
dithering is enabled.)
--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.
--opengl-debug
Check for OpenGL errors, i.e. call glGetError(). Also, request a debug OpenGL context (which does
nothing with current graphics drivers as of this writing).
--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).
--opengl-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 option will add another file to the internal list of shaders (see List
Options).
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 opengl 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>
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.
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 bw 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_opengl may generate any number of the following textures. Whenever a texture is
rendered and saved by vo_opengl, 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-scaling 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.
--opengl-shader=<file>
CLI/config file only alias for --opengl-shaders-append.
--deband
Enable the debanding algorithm. This greatly reduces the amount of visible banding, blocking and
other quantization artifacts, at the expensive 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=<1..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 64)
--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 48)
--sigmoid-upscaling
When upscaling, use a sigmoidal color transform to avoid emphasizing ringing artifacts. This also
implies --linear-scaling.
--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.
--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.
--opengl-glfinish
Call glFinish() before and after 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-vsync-fences=<N>
Synchronize the CPU to the Nth past frame using the GL_ARB_sync extension. A value of 0 disables
this behavior (default). A value of 1 means it will synchronize to the current frame after
rendering it. Like --glfinish and --waitvsync, this can lower or ruin performance. Its advantage
is that it can span multiple frames, and effectively limit the number of frames the GPU queues
ahead (which also has an influence on vsync).
--opengl-dwmflush=<no|windowed|yes|auto>
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.
Windows only.
--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
--opengl-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-max-frame-latency, --angle-swapchain-length and --angle-flip options
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-max-frame-latency=<1-16>
Sets the maximum number of frames that the system is allowed to queue for rendering with the ANGLE
backend (default: 3). Lower values should make VSync timing more accurate, but a value of 1
requires powerful hardware, since the CPU will not be able to "render ahead" of the GPU.
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 --opengl-dumb-mode).
Windows with ANGLE only.
--angle-swapchain-length=<2-16>
Sets the number of buffers in the D3D11 presentation queue when using the ANGLE backend (default:
6). At least 2 are required, since one is the back buffer that mpv renders to and the other is the
front buffer that is presented by the DWM. Additional buffers can improve performance, because for
example, mpv will not have to wait on the DWM to release the front buffer before rendering a new
frame to it. For this reason, Microsoft recommends at least 4.
Windows with ANGLE only.
--cocoa-force-dedicated-gpu=<yes|no>
Deactivates the automatic graphics switching and forces the dedicated GPU. (default: no)
OS X only.
--opengl-sw
Continue even if a software renderer is detected.
--opengl-backend=<sys>
The value auto (the default) selects the windowing backend. You can also pass help to get a
complete list of compiled in backends (sorted by autoprobe order).
auto auto-select (default)
cocoa Cocoa/OS X
win Win32/WGL
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.
x11 X11/GLX
x11probe
For internal autoprobing, equivalent to x11 otherwise. Don't use directly, it could be
removed without warning as autoprobing is changed.
wayland
Wayland/EGL
drm DRM/EGL (drm-egl is a deprecated alias)
x11egl X11/EGL
mali-fbdev
Direct fbdev/EGL support on some ARM/MALI devices.
vdpauglx
Use vdpau presentation with GLX as backing. Experimental use only. Using this will have no
advantage (other than additional bugs or performance problems), and is for doing
experiments only. Will not be used automatically.
--opengl-es=<mode>
Select whether to use GLES:
yes Try to prefer ES over Desktop GL
force2 Try to request a ES 2.0 context (the driver might ignore this)
no Try to prefer desktop GL over ES
auto Use the default for each backend (default)
--opengl-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, rgba32f. Default: auto, which maps to rgba16 on desktop GL, and rgba16f
or rgb10_a2 on GLES (e.g. ANGLE), unless GL_EXT_texture_norm16 is available.
--opengl-gamma=<0.1..2.0>
Set a gamma value (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.
Recommended values based on the environmental brightness:
1.0 Brightly illuminated (default)
0.9 Slightly dim
0.8 Pitch black room
NOTE: Typical movie content (Blu-ray etc.) already contains a gamma drop of about 0.8, so
specifying it here as well will result in even darker image than intended!
--gamma-auto
Automatically corrects the gamma value depending on ambient lighting conditions (adding a gamma
boost for dark rooms).
With ambient illuminance of 64lux, mpv will pick the 1.0 gamma value (no boost), and slightly
increase the boost up until 0.8 for 16lux.
NOTE: Only implemented on OS X.
--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 (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 (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
gamma2.2
Pure power curve (gamma 2.2)
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.
--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:
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.
(default)
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 --hdr-tone-mapping=reinhard
--tone-mapping-param=0.24.
gamma Fits a logarithmic transfer between the tone curves.
linear Linearly stretches the entire reference gamut to (a linear multiple of) the display.
--tone-mapping-param=<value>
Set tone mapping parameters. 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.
gamma Specifies the exponent of the function. Defaults to 1.8.
linear Specifies the scale factor to use while stretching. Defaults to 1.0.
--hdr-compute-peak
Compute the HDR peak per-frame 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.
--tone-mapping-desaturate=<value>
Apply desaturation for highlights that exceed this level of brightness. The higher the parameter,
the more color information will be preserved. This setting helps prevent unnaturally blown-out
colors for super-highlights, by (smoothly) turning into white instead. This makes images feel more
natural, at the cost of reducing information about out-of-range colors.
The default of 2.0 is somewhat conservative and will mostly just apply to skies or directly sunlit
surfaces. A setting of 0.0 disables this option.
--gamut-warning
If enabled, mpv will mark all clipped/out-of-gamut pixels that exceed a given threshold (currently
hard-coded to 101%). The affected pixels will be inverted to make them stand out. Note: This
option applies after the effects of all of mpv's color space transformation / tone mapping
options, so it's a good idea to combine this with --tone-mapping=clip and use --target-gamut to
set the gamut to simulate. For example, --target-gamut=bt.709 would make mpv highlight all pixels
that exceed the gamut of a standard gamut (sRGB) display. This option also does not work well with
ICC profiles, since the 3DLUTs are always generated against the source color space and have
chromatically-accurate clipping built in.
--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.
--icc-cache-dir=<dirname>
Store and load the 3D LUTs created from the ICC profile in this directory. 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.
NOTE: This is not cleaned automatically, so old, unused cache files may stick around indefinitely.
--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=<r>x<g>x<b>
Size of the 3D LUT generated from the ICC profile in each dimension. Default is 64x64x64. Sizes
may range from 2 to 512.
--icc-contrast=<0-100000>
Specifies an upper limit on the target device's contrast ratio. 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. This only affects
BT.1886 content. The default of 0 means no limit.
--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, --opengl-gamma and --post-shader. 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.
--alpha=<blend-tiles|blend|yes|no>
Decides what to do if the input has an alpha component.
blend-tiles
Blend the frame against a 16x16 gray/white tiles background (default).
blend Blend the frame against the background color (--background, normally black).
yes Try to create a framebuffer with alpha component. This only makes sense if the video
contains alpha information (which is extremely rare). May not be supported on all
platforms. If alpha framebuffers are unavailable, it silently falls back on a normal
framebuffer. Note that if you set the --opengl-fbo-format option to a non-default value, a
format with alpha must be specified, or this won't work. This does not work on X11 with
EGL and Mesa (freedesktop bug 67676).
no Ignore alpha component.
--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.
--background=<color>
Color used to draw parts of the mpv window not covered by video. See --osd-color option how colors
are defined.
--opengl-tex-pad-x, --opengl-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).
--opengl-dumb-mode=<yes|no|auto>
This mode is extremely restricted, and will disable most extended OpenGL 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.
--opengl-shader-cache-dir=<dirname>
Store and load compiled GL shaders in this directory. Normally, shader compilation is very fast,
so this is usually not needed. But some GL implementations (notably ANGLE, the default on Windows)
have relatively slow shader compilation, and can cause startup delays.
NOTE: This is not cleaned automatically, so old, unused cache files may stick around indefinitely.
This option might be silently removed in the future, if ANGLE fixes shader compilation speed.
--cuda-decode-device=<auto|0..>
Choose the GPU device used for decoding when using the cuda hwdec.
By default, the device that is being used to provide OpenGL output will also be used for decoding
(and in the vast majority of cases, only one GPU will be present).
Note that when using the cuda-copy hwdec, a different option must be passed:
--vd-lavc-o=gpu=<0..>.
Miscellaneous
--display-tags=tag1,tags2,...
Set the list of tags that should be displayed on the terminal. 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.
--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 --no-audio 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
--no-audio. 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-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). If the sync
code detects severe A/V desync, or the framerate cannot be detected, the player automatically
reverts to audio mode for some time or permanently.
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-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. See --video-sync-adrop-size. This
mode will cause severe audio artifacts if the real monitor refresh rate is too different
from the reported or forced rate.
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-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 in the --video-sync=display-resample 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.
--video-sync-adrop-size=<value>
For the --video-sync=display-adrop mode. This mode duplicates/drops audio data to keep audio in
sync with video. To avoid audio artifacts on jitter (which would add/remove samples all the time),
this is done in relatively large, fixed units, controlled by this option. The unit is seconds.
--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.)
--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.
--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.
This is a 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 files.
--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 and
--audio-file-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.
--record-file=<file>
Record the current stream to the given target file. The target file will always be overwritten
without asking.
This remuxes the source stream without reencoding, which makes this a highly fragile and
experimental feature. It's entirely possible that this writes files which are broken, not
standards compliant, not playable with all players (including mpv), or incomplete.
The target file format is determined by the file extension of the target filename. It is
recommended to use the same target container as the source container if possible, and preferring
Matroska as fallback.
Seeking during stream recording, or enabling/disabling stream recording during playback, can cut
off data, or produce "holes" in the output file. These are technical restrictions. In particular,
video data or subtitles which were read ahead can produce such holes, which might cause playback
problems with various players (including mpv).
The behavior of this option might changed in the future, such as changing it to a template
(similar to --screenshot-template), being renamed, removed, or anything else, until it is declared
semi-stable.
--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] asplit [ao] [t] ; [t] aphasemeter [vo]' Play audio track 1, and
visualize it as video using the aphasemeter filter.
• --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).
• --lavfi-complex='[aid1] asplit [ao] [t] ; [t] aphasemeter [t2] ; [vid1] [t2] overlay [vo]'
Play audio track 1, and overlay its visualization over video track 1.
• --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.
• null:// --lavfi-complex='life [vo]' Conways' Life Game.
See the FFmpeg libavfilter documentation for details on the available filters.
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.
NOTE:
See --ao=help for a list of compiled-in audio output drivers. The driver --ao=alsa is preferred.
--ao=pulse is preferred on systems where PulseAudio is used. On BSD systems, --ao=oss or --ao=sndio
may work (the latter being experimental).
Available audio output drivers are:
alsa (Linux only)
ALSA audio output driver
See ALSA audio output options for options specific to this AO.
WARNING:
To get multichannel/surround audio, use --audio-channels=auto. The default for this option is
auto-safe, which makes this audio otuput 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. 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
The following global options are supported by this audio output:
--oss-mixer-device
Sets the audio mixer device (default: /dev/mixer).
--oss-mixer-channel
Sets the audio mixer channel (default: pcm). Other valid values include vol, pcm, line. For
a complete list of options look for SOUND_DEVICE_NAMES in /usr/include/linux/soundcard.h.
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 (Mac OS X only)
Native Mac OS X 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 (Mac OS X only)
Native Mac OS X audio output driver using direct device access and exclusive mode (bypasses the
sound server).
openal Experimental OpenAL audio output driver
NOTE:
This driver is not very useful. Playing multi-channel audio with it is slow.
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. Default: 250.
--pulse-latency-hacks=<yes|no>
Enable hacks to workaround PulseAudio timing bugs (default: no). 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 used to
be required to get good behavior on old PulseAudio versions).
If you have stuttering video when using pulse, try to enable this option. (Or try to update
PulseAudio.)
sdl SDL 1.2+ audio output driver. Should work on any platform supported by SDL 1.2, 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.
--sdl-bufcnt=<count>
Sets the number of extra audio buffers in mpv. Usually needs not be changed.
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.
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.
rsound Audio output to an RSound daemon. Use --audio-device=rsound/<hostname> to set the host name (with
<hostname> replaced, without the < >).
NOTE:
Completely useless, unless you intend to run RSound. Not to be confused with RoarAudio, which
is something completely different.
sndio Audio output to the OpenBSD sndio sound system
NOTE:
Experimental. There are known bugs and issues.
(Note: only supports mono, stereo, 4.0, 5.1 and 7.1 channel layouts.)
wasapi Audio output to the Windows Audio Session API.
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.
NOTE:
See --vo=help for a list of compiled-in video output drivers.
The recommended output driver is --vo=opengl, 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).
Available video output drivers are:
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.
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:
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-deint=<-4-4>
(Deprecated. See note about vdpaupp.)
Select deinterlacing mode (default: 0). In older versions (as well as MPlayer/mplayer2) you
could use this option to enable deinterlacing. This doesn't work anymore, and
deinterlacing is enabled with either the d key (by default mapped to the command cycle
deinterlace), or the --deinterlace option. Also, to select the default deint mode, you
should use something like --vf-defaults=vdpaupp:deint-mode=temporal instead of this
sub-option.
0 Pick the vdpaupp video filter default, which corresponds to 3.
1 Show only first field.
2 Bob deinterlacing.
3 Motion-adaptive temporal deinterlacing. May lead to A/V desync with slow video
hardware and/or high resolution.
4 Motion-adaptive temporal deinterlacing with edge-guided spatial interpolation. Needs
fast video hardware.
--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.
NOTE:
Before to 0.21.0, direct3d_shaders and direct3d were different, with direct3d not using shader
by default. Now both use shaders by default, and direct3d_shaders is a deprecated alias. Use
the --vo-direct3d-prefer-stretchrect or the --vo-direct3d-disable-shaders options to get the
old behavior of direct3d.
The following global options are supported by this video output:
--vo-direct3d-prefer-stretchrect
Use IDirect3DDevice9::StretchRect over other methods if possible.
--vo-direct3d-disable-stretchrect
Never render the video using IDirect3DDevice9::StretchRect.
--vo-direct3d-disable-textures
Never render the video using D3D texture rendering. Rendering with textures + shader will
still be allowed. Add disable-shaders to completely disable video rendering with textures.
--vo-direct3d-disable-shaders
Never use shaders when rendering video.
--vo-direct3d-only-8bit
Never render YUV video with more than 8 bits per component. Using this flag will force
software conversion to 8-bit.
--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.
opengl OpenGL video output driver. It supports extended scaling methods, dithering and color management.
See OpenGL renderer options for options specific to this VO.
By default, it tries to use fast and fail-safe settings. Use the opengl-hq profile to use this
driver with defaults set to high quality rendering. (This profile is also the replacement for
--vo=opengl-hq.) The profile can be applied with --profile=opengl-hq and its contents can be
viewed with --show-profile=opengl-hq.
Requires at least OpenGL 2.1.
Some features are available with OpenGL 3 capable graphics drivers only (or if the necessary
extensions are available).
OpenGL ES 2.0 and 3.0 are supported as well.
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.
opengl makes use of FBOs by default. Sometimes you can achieve better quality or performance by
changing the --opengl-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 OS X setups being very slow with rgb16 but fast with rgb32f. If you have problems, you can
also try enabling the --opengl-dumb-mode=yes option.
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, or
which support GLES only.
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.
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.
NOTE:
This driver is for compatibility with crappy systems. You can use vaapi hardware decoding with
--vo=opengl too.
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-deint-mode=<mode>
Select deinterlacing algorithm. Note that by default deinterlacing is initially always off,
and needs to be enabled with the d key (default key binding for cycle deinterlace).
This option doesn't apply if libva supports video post processing (vpp). In this case, the
default for deint-mode is no, and enabling deinterlacing via user interaction using the
methods mentioned above actually inserts the vavpp video filter. If vpp is not actually
supported with the libva backend in use, you can use this option to forcibly enable VO
based deinterlacing.
no Don't allow deinterlacing (default for newer libva).
first-field
Show only first field.
bob bob deinterlacing (default for older libva).
--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 --no-video 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.
NOTE:
This driver is a joke.
tct Color Unicode art video output driver that works on a text console. Depends on support of true
color by modern terminals to display the images at full color range. On Windows it requires an
ansi terminal such as mintty.
--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-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.
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.
--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-outdir=<dirname>
Specify the directory to save the image files to (default: ./).
wayland (Wayland only)
Wayland shared memory video output as fallback for opengl.
NOTE:
This driver is for compatibility with systems that don't provide working OpenGL drivers.
The following global options are supported by this video output:
--vo-wayland-alpha
Use a buffer format that supports videos and images with alpha information
--vo-wayland-rgb565
Use RGB565 as buffer format. This format is implemented on most platforms, especially on
embedded where it is far more efficient then RGB8888.
--vo-wayland-triple-buffering
Use 3 buffers instead of 2. This can lead to more fluid playback, but uses more memory.
opengl-cb
For use with libmpv direct OpenGL embedding; useless in any other contexts. (See
<mpv/opengl_cb.h>.)
This also supports many of the options the opengl VO has.
rpi (Raspberry Pi)
Native video output on the Raspberry Pi using the MMAL API.
This is deprecated. Use --vo=opengl instead, which is the default and provides the same
functionality. The rpi VO will be removed in mpv 0.23.0. Its functionality was folded into
--vo=opengl, which now uses RPI hardware decoding by treating it as a hardware overlay (without
applying GL filtering). Also to be changed in 0.23.0: the --fs flag will be reset to "no" by
default (like on the other platforms).
The following deprecated global options are supported by this video output:
--rpi-display=<number>
Select the display number on which the video overlay should be shown (default: 0).
--rpi-layer=<number>
Select the dispmanx layer on which the video overlay should be shown (default: -10). Note
that mpv will also use the 2 layers above the selected layer, to handle the window
background and OSD. Actual video rendering will happen on the layer above the selected
layer.
--rpi-background=<yes|no>
Whether to render a black background behind the video (default: no). Normally it's better
to kill the console framebuffer instead, which gives better performance.
--rpi-osd=<yes|no>
Enabled by default. If disabled with no, no OSD layer is created. This also means there
will be no subtitles rendered.
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 opengl VO).
The following global options are supported by this video output:
--drm-connector=[<gpu_number>.]<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 list
of available connectors. When using multiple graphic cards, use the <gpu_number> argument
to disambiguate. (default: empty)
--drm-mode=<number>
Mode ID to use (resolution, bit depth and frame rate). (default: 0)
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 for the syntax.
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-defaults, --af-add, --af-pre, --af-del, --af-clr, and
possibly others work.
Available filters are:
lavrresample[=option1:option2:...]
This filter uses libavresample (or libswresample, depending on the build) to change sample rate,
sample format, or channel layout of the audio stream. This filter is automatically enabled if the
audio output does not support the audio configuration of the file being played.
It supports only the following sample formats: u8, s16, s32, float.
filter-size=<length>
Length of the filter with respect to the lower sampling rate. (default: 16)
phase-shift=<count>
Log2 of the number of polyphase entries. (..., 10->1024, 11->2048, 12->4096, ...) (default:
10->1024)
cutoff=<cutoff>
Cutoff frequency (0.0-1.0), default set depending upon filter length.
linear If set then filters will be linearly interpolated between polyphase entries. (default: no)
no-detach
Do not detach if input and output audio format/rate/channels match. (If you just want to
set defaults for this filter that will be used even by automatically inserted lavrresample
instances, you should prefer setting them with --af-defaults=lavrresample:....)
normalize=<yes|no|auto>
Whether to normalize when remixing channel layouts (default: auto). auto uses the value
set by --audio-normalize-downmix.
o=<string>
Set AVOptions on the SwrContext or AVAudioResampleContext. These should be documented by
FFmpeg or Libav.
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.
equalizer=g1:g2:g3:...:g10
10 octave band graphic equalizer, implemented using 10 IIR band-pass filters. This means that it
works regardless of what type of audio is being played back. The center frequencies for the 10
bands are:
┌────┬────────────┐
│No. │ frequency │
├────┼────────────┤
│0 │ 31.25 Hz │
└────┴────────────┘
│1 │ 62.50 Hz │
├────┼────────────┤
│2 │ 125.00 Hz │
├────┼────────────┤
│3 │ 250.00 Hz │
├────┼────────────┤
│4 │ 500.00 Hz │
├────┼────────────┤
│5 │ 1.00 kHz │
├────┼────────────┤
│6 │ 2.00 kHz │
├────┼────────────┤
│7 │ 4.00 kHz │
├────┼────────────┤
│8 │ 8.00 kHz │
├────┼────────────┤
│9 │ 16.00 kHz │
└────┴────────────┘
If the sample rate of the sound being played is lower than the center frequency for a frequency
band, then that band will be disabled. A known bug with this filter is that the characteristics
for the uppermost band are not completely symmetric if the sample rate is close to the center
frequency of that band. This problem can be worked around by upsampling the sound using a
resampling filter before it reaches this filter.
<g1>:<g2>:<g3>:...:<g10>
floating point numbers representing the gain in dB for each frequency band (-12-12)
Example
mpv --af=equalizer=11:11:10:5:0:-12:0:5:12:12 media.avi
Would amplify the sound in the upper and lower frequency region while canceling it
almost completely around 1 kHz.
channels=nch[:routes]
Can be used for adding, removing, routing and copying audio channels. If only <nch> is given, the
default routing is used. It works as follows: If the number of output channels is greater than the
number of input channels, empty channels are inserted (except when mixing from mono to stereo;
then the mono channel is duplicated). If the number of output channels is less than the number of
input channels, the exceeding channels are truncated.
<nch> number of output channels (1-8)
<routes>
List of , separated routes, in the form from1-to1,from2-to2,.... Each pair defines where
to route each channel. There can be at most 8 routes. Without this argument, the default
routing is used. Since , is also used to separate filters, you must quote this argument
with [...] or similar.
Examples
mpv --af=channels=4:[0-1,1-0,2-2,3-3] media.avi
Would change the number of channels to 4 and set up 4 routes that swap channel 0 and
channel 1 and leave channel 2 and 3 intact. Observe that if media containing two
channels were played back, channels 2 and 3 would contain silence but 0 and 1 would
still be swapped.
mpv --af=channels=6:[0-0,0-1,0-2,0-3] media.avi
Would change the number of channels to 6 and set up 4 routes that copy channel 0 to
channels 0 to 3. Channel 4 and 5 will contain silence.
NOTE:
You should probably not use this filter. If you want to change the output channel layout, try
the format filter, which can make mpv automatically up- and downmix standard channel layouts.
format=format:srate:channels:out-format: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-format>
<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.
volume[=<volumedb>[:...]]
Implements software volume control. Use this filter with caution since it can reduce the signal to
noise ratio of the sound. In most cases it is best to use the Master volume control of your sound
card or the volume knob on your amplifier.
WARNING: This filter is deprecated. Use the top-level options like --volume and --replaygain...
instead.
NOTE: This filter is not reentrant and can therefore only be enabled once for every audio stream.
<volumedb>
Sets the desired gain in dB for all channels in the stream from -200 dB to +60 dB, where
-200 dB mutes the sound completely and +60 dB equals a gain of 1000 (default: 0).
replaygain-track
Adjust volume gain according to the track-gain replaygain value stored in the file
metadata.
replaygain-album
Like replaygain-track, but using the album-gain value instead.
replaygain-preamp
Pre-amplification gain in dB to apply to the selected replaygain gain (default: 0).
replaygain-clip=yes|no
Prevent clipping caused by replaygain by automatically lowering the gain (default). Use
replaygain-clip=no to disable this.
replaygain-fallback
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.
softclip
Turns soft clipping on. Soft-clipping can make the sound more smooth if very high volume
levels are used. Enable this option if the dynamic range of the loudspeakers is very low.
WARNING: This feature creates distortion and should be considered a last resort.
s16 Force S16 sample format if set. Lower quality, but might be faster in some situations.
detach Remove the filter if the volume is not changed at audio filter config time. Useful with
replaygain: if the current file has no replaygain tags, then the filter will be removed if
this option is enabled. (If --softvol=yes is used and the player volume controls are used
during playback, a different volume filter will be inserted.)
Example
mpv --af=volume=10.1 media.avi
Would amplify the sound by 10.1 dB and hard-clip if the sound level is too high.
pan=n:[<matrix>]
Mixes channels arbitrarily. Basically a combination of the volume and the channels filter that can
be used to down-mix many channels to only a few, e.g. stereo to mono, or vary the "width" of the
center speaker in a surround sound system. This filter is hard to use, and will require some
tinkering before the desired result is obtained. The number of options for this filter depends on
the number of output channels. An example how to downmix a six-channel file to two channels with
this filter can be found in the examples section near the end.
<n> Number of output channels (1-8).
<matrix>
A list of values [L00,L01,L02,...,L10,L11,L12,...,Ln0,Ln1,Ln2,...], where each element Lij
means how much of input channel i is mixed into output channel j (range 0-1). So in
principle you first have n numbers saying what to do with the first input channel, then n
numbers that act on the second input channel etc. If you do not specify any numbers for
some input channels, 0 is assumed. Note that the values are separated by ,, which is
already used by the option parser to separate filters. This is why you must quote the value
list with [...] or similar.
Examples
mpv --af=pan=1:[0.5,0.5] media.avi
Would downmix from stereo to mono.
mpv --af=pan=3:[1,0,0.5,0,1,0.5] media.avi
Would give 3 channel output leaving channels 0 and 1 intact, and mix channels 0 and 1
into output channel 2 (which could be sent to a subwoofer for example).
NOTE:
If you just want to force remixing to a certain output channel layout, it is easier to use the
format filter. For example, mpv '--af=format=channels=5.1' '--audio-channels=5.1' would always
force remixing audio to 5.1 and output it like this.
This filter supports the following af-command commands:
set-matrix
Set the <matrix> argument dynamically. This can be used to change the mixing matrix at
runtime, without reinitializing the entire filter chain.
scaletempo[=option1:option2:...]
Scales audio tempo without altering pitch, optionally synced to playback speed (default).
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=<percent>
Percentage 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.
rubberband
High quality pitch correction with librubberband. This can be used in place of scaletempo, 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>
Sets the pitch scaling factor. Frequencies are multiplied by this value.
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:
http://breakfastquay.com/rubberband/code-doc/classRubberBand_1_1RubberBandStretcher.html (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.
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.
VIDEO FILTERS
Video filters allow you to modify the video stream and its properties. The 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 enabled 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.
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.
You can also set defaults for each filter. The defaults are applied before the normal filter parameters.
--vf-defaults=<filter1[=parameter1:parameter2:...],filter2,...>
Set defaults for each filter.
NOTE:
To get a full list of available video filters, see --vf=help and http://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-add=<filter1[,filter2,...]>
Appends the filters given as arguments to the filter list.
--vf-pre=<filter1[,filter2,...]>
Prepends the filters given as arguments to the filter list.
--vf-del=<index1[,index2,...]>
Deletes the filters at the given indexes. Index numbers start at 0, negative numbers address the
end of the list (-1 is the last).
--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.
--vf=<filter=named_parameter1=value1[:named_parameter2=value2:...]>
Sets a named parameter to the given value. Use on and off or yes and no to set flag parameters.
Available mpv-only filters are:
crop[=w:h:x:y]
Crops the given part of the image and discards the rest. Useful to remove black bands from
widescreen videos.
<w>,<h>
Cropped width and height, defaults to original width and height.
<x>,<y>
Position of the cropped picture, defaults to center.
expand[=w:h:x:y:aspect:round]
Expands (not scales) video resolution to the given value and places the unscaled original at
coordinates x, y.
<w>,<h>
Expanded width,height (default: original width,height). Negative values for w and h are
treated as offsets to the original size.
Example
expand=0:-50:0:0
Adds a 50 pixel border to the bottom of the picture.
<x>,<y>
position of original image on the expanded image (default: center)
<aspect>
Expands to fit an aspect instead of a resolution (default: 0).
Example
expand=800::::4/3
Expands to 800x600, unless the source is higher resolution, in which case it
expands to fill a 4/3 aspect.
<round>
Rounds up to make both width and height divisible by <r> (default: 1).
flip Flips the image upside down.
mirror Mirrors the image on the Y axis.
rotate[=0|90|180|270]
Rotates the image by a multiple of 90 degrees clock-wise.
scale[=w:h:param:param2:chr-drop:noup:arnd
Scales the image with the software scaler (slow) and performs a YUV<->RGB color space conversion
(see also --sws).
All parameters are optional.
<w>:<h>
scaled width/height (default: original width/height)
0 scaled d_width/d_height
-1 original width/height
-2 Calculate w/h using the other dimension and the prescaled aspect ratio.
-3 Calculate w/h using the other dimension and the original aspect ratio.
-(n+8) Like -n above, but rounding the dimension to the closest multiple of 16.
<param>[:<param2>] (see also --sws)
Set some scaling parameters depending on the type of scaler selected with --sws:
--sws=2 (bicubic): B (blurring) and C (ringing)
0.00:0.60 default
0.00:0.75 VirtualDub's "precise bicubic"
0.00:0.50 Catmull-Rom spline
0.33:0.33 Mitchell-Netravali spline
1.00:0.00 cubic B-spline
--sws=7 (Gaussian): sharpness (0 (soft) - 100 (sharp))
--sws=9 (Lanczos): filter length (1-10)
<chr-drop>
chroma skipping
0 Use all available input lines for chroma (default).
1 Use only every 2. input line for chroma.
2 Use only every 4. input line for chroma.
3 Use only every 8. input line for chroma.
<noup> Disallow upscaling past the original dimensions.
0 Allow upscaling (default).
1 Disallow upscaling if one dimension exceeds its original value.
2 Disallow upscaling if both dimensions exceed their original values.
<arnd> Accurate rounding for the vertical scaler, which may be faster or slower than the default
rounding.
no Disable accurate rounding (default).
yes Enable accurate rounding.
dsize[=w:h:aspect-method:r:aspect]
Changes the intended display aspect at an arbitrary point in the filter chain. Aspect can be given
as a fraction (4/3) or floating point number (1.33). Note that this filter does not do any scaling
itself; it just affects what later scalers (software or hardware) will do when auto-scaling to the
correct aspect.
<w>,<h>
New aspect ratio given by a display width and height. Unlike older mpv versions or MPlayer,
this does not set the display size.
Can also be these special values:
0 original display width and height
-1 original video width and height (default)
-2 Calculate w/h using the other dimension and the original display aspect ratio.
-3 Calculate w/h using the other dimension and the original video aspect ratio.
Example
dsize=800:-2
Specifies a display resolution of 800x600 for a 4/3 aspect video, or 800x450 for
a 16/9 aspect video.
<aspect-method>
Modifies width and height according to original aspect ratios.
-1 Ignore original aspect ratio (default).
0 Keep display aspect ratio by using <w> and <h> as maximum resolution.
1 Keep display aspect ratio by using <w> and <h> as minimum resolution.
2 Keep video aspect ratio by using <w> and <h> as maximum resolution.
3 Keep video aspect ratio by using <w> and <h> as minimum resolution.
Example
dsize=800:600:0
Specifies a display resolution of at most 800x600, or smaller, in order to keep
aspect.
<r> Rounds up to make both width and height divisible by <r> (default: 1).
<aspect>
Force an aspect ratio.
format=fmt=<value>:colormatrix=<value>:...
Restricts the color space for the next filter without doing any conversion. Use together with the
scale filter for a real conversion.
NOTE:
For a list of available formats, see format=fmt=help.
<fmt> Format name, e.g. rgb15, bgr24, 420p, etc. (default: don't change).
<outfmt>
Format name that should be substituted for the output. If they do not have the same bytes
per pixel and chroma subsampling, it will fail.
<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 opengl 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 BT.601 (SD)
bt.709 ITU-R BT.709 (HD)
bt.2020-ncl
ITU-R BT.2020 non-constant luminance system
bt.2020-cl
ITU-R BT.2020 constant luminance system
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
opengl 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)
gamma2.2
Pure power curve (gamma 2.2)
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)
<stereo-in>
Set the stereo mode the video is assumed to be encoded in. Takes the same values as the
--video-stereo-mode option.
<stereo-out>
Set the stereo mode the video should be displayed as. Takes the same values as the
--video-stereo-mode option.
<rotate>
Set the rotation the video is assumed to be encoded with in degrees. The special value -1
uses the input format.
<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).
<spherical-type>
Type of the spherical projection:
auto As indicated by the file (default)
none Normal video
equirect
Equirectangular
unknown
Unknown projection
<spherical-yaw>, <spherical-pitch>, <spherical-roll>
Reference angle in degree, if spherical video is used.
noformat[=fmt]
Restricts the color space for the next filter without doing any conversion. Unlike the format
filter, this will allow any color space except the one you specify.
NOTE:
For a list of available formats, see noformat=fmt=help.
<fmt> Format name, e.g. rgb15, bgr24, 420p, etc. (default: 420p).
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.
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 http://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.
pullup[=jl:jr:jt:jb:sb:mp]
Pulldown reversal (inverse telecine) filter, capable of handling mixed hard-telecine, 24000/1001
fps progressive, and 30000/1001 fps progressive content. The pullup filter makes use of future
context in making its decisions. It is stateless in the sense that it does not lock onto a pattern
to follow, but it instead looks forward to the following fields in order to identify matches and
rebuild progressive frames.
jl, jr, jt, and jb
These options set the amount of "junk" to ignore at the left, right, top, and bottom of the
image, respectively. Left/right are in units of 8 pixels, while top/bottom are in units of
2 lines. The default is 8 pixels on each side.
sb (strict breaks)
Setting this option to 1 will reduce the chances of pullup generating an occasional
mismatched frame, but it may also cause an excessive number of frames to be dropped during
high motion sequences. Conversely, setting it to -1 will make pullup match fields more
easily. This may help process video with slight blurring between the fields, but may also
cause interlaced frames in the output.
mp (metric plane)
This option may be set to u or v to use a chroma plane instead of the luma plane for doing
pullup's computations. This may improve accuracy on very clean source material, but more
likely will decrease accuracy, especially if there is chroma noise (rainbow effect) or any
grayscale video. The main purpose of setting mp to a chroma plane is to reduce CPU load and
make pullup usable in realtime on slow machines.
yadif=[mode:interlaced-only]
Yet another deinterlacing filter
<mode>
frame Output 1 frame for each frame.
field Output 1 frame for each field (default).
frame-nospatial
Like frame but skips spatial interlacing check.
field-nospatial
Like field but skips spatial interlacing check.
<interlaced-only>
no Deinterlace all frames.
yes Only deinterlace frames marked as interlaced (default).
This filter is automatically inserted when using the d key (or any other key that toggles the
deinterlace property or when using the --deinterlace switch), assuming the video output does not
have native deinterlacing support.
If you just want to set the default mode, put this filter and its options into --vf-defaults
instead, and enable deinterlacing with d or --deinterlace.
Also, note that the d key is stupid enough to insert a deinterlacer twice when inserting yadif
with --vf, so using the above methods is recommended.
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.
stereo3d[=in:out]
Stereo3d converts between different stereoscopic image formats.
<in> Stereoscopic image format of input. Possible values:
sbsl or side_by_side_left_first
side by side parallel (left eye left, right eye right)
sbsr or side_by_side_right_first
side by side crosseye (right eye left, left eye right)
abl or above_below_left_first
above-below (left eye above, right eye below)
abr or above_below_right_first
above-below (right eye above, left eye below)
ab2l or above_below_half_height_left_first
above-below with half height resolution (left eye above, right eye below)
ab2r or above_below_half_height_right_first
above-below with half height resolution (right eye above, left eye below)
<out> Stereoscopic image format of output. Possible values are all the input formats as well as:
arcg or anaglyph_red_cyan_gray
anaglyph red/cyan gray (red filter on left eye, cyan filter on right eye)
arch or anaglyph_red_cyan_half_color
anaglyph red/cyan half colored (red filter on left eye, cyan filter on right eye)
arcc or anaglyph_red_cyan_color
anaglyph red/cyan color (red filter on left eye, cyan filter on right eye)
arcd or anaglyph_red_cyan_dubois
anaglyph red/cyan color optimized with the least-squares projection of Dubois (red
filter on left eye, cyan filter on right eye)
agmg or anaglyph_green_magenta_gray
anaglyph green/magenta gray (green filter on left eye, magenta filter on right eye)
agmh or anaglyph_green_magenta_half_color
anaglyph green/magenta half colored (green filter on left eye, magenta filter on
right eye)
agmc or anaglyph_green_magenta_color
anaglyph green/magenta colored (green filter on left eye, magenta filter on right
eye)
aybg or anaglyph_yellow_blue_gray
anaglyph yellow/blue gray (yellow filter on left eye, blue filter on right eye)
aybh or anaglyph_yellow_blue_half_color
anaglyph yellow/blue half colored (yellow filter on left eye, blue filter on right
eye)
aybc or anaglyph_yellow_blue_color
anaglyph yellow/blue colored (yellow filter on left eye, blue filter on right eye)
irl or interleave_rows_left_first
Interleaved rows (left eye has top row, right eye starts on next row)
irr or interleave_rows_right_first
Interleaved rows (right eye has top row, left eye starts on next row)
ml or mono_left
mono output (left eye only)
mr or mono_right
mono output (right eye only)
gradfun[=strength[:radius|:size=<size>]]
Fix the banding artifacts that are sometimes introduced into nearly flat regions by truncation to
8-bit color depth. Interpolates the gradients that should go where the bands are, and dithers
them.
<strength>
Maximum amount by which the filter will change any one pixel. Also the threshold for
detecting nearly flat regions (default: 1.5).
<radius>
Neighborhood to fit the gradient to. Larger radius makes for smoother gradients, but also
prevents the filter from modifying pixels near detailed regions (default: disabled).
<size> size of the filter in percent of the image diagonal size. This is used to calculate the
final radius size (default: 1).
vapoursynth=file:buffered-frames:concurrent-frames
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.
If you just want to play video generated by a VapourSynth (i.e. using a native VapourSynth video
source), it's better to use vspipe and a FIFO to feed the video to mpv. The same applies if the
filter script requires random frame access (see buffered-frames parameter).
This filter is experimental. If it turns out that it works well and is used, it will be ported to
libavfilter. Otherwise, it will be just removed.
file Filename of the script source. Currently, this is always a python script. 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 audio being stopped.) The script is also expected to pass through
timestamps using the _DurationNum and _DurationDen frame properties.
Example:
import vapoursynth as vs
core = vs.get_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 reverse
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 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.
(Normally, VapourSynth source filters must provide random access, but mpv was made for
playback, and does not provide frame-exact random access. The way this video filter works
is a compromise to make simple filters work anyway.)
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.
By default, this uses the special value auto, which sets the option to the number of
detected logical CPU cores.
The following variables are defined by mpv:
video_in
The mpv video source as vapoursynth clip. Note that this has no length set, which confuses
many filters. Using Trim on the clip with a high dummy length can turn it into a finite
clip.
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 might not be useful. Note that the --fps
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.
vapoursynth-lazy
The same as vapoursynth, but doesn't load Python scripts. Instead, a custom backend using Lua and
the raw VapourSynth API is used. The syntax is completely different, and absolutely no convenience
features are provided. There's no type checking either, and you can trigger crashes.
Example:
video_out = invoke("morpho", "Open", {clip = video_in})
The special variable video_in is the mpv video source, while the special variable video_out is
used to read video from. The 1st argument is the plugin (queried with getPluginByNs), the 2nd is
the filter name, and the 3rd argument is a table with the arguments. Positional arguments are not
supported. The types must match exactly. Since Lua is terrible and can't distinguish integers and
floats, integer arguments must be prefixed with i_, in which case the prefix is removed and the
argument is cast to an integer. Should the argument's name start with i_, you're out of luck.
Clips (VSNodeRef) are passed as light userdata, so trying to pass any other userdata type will
result in hard crashes.
vavpp VA-AP-API video post processing. Works with --vo=vaapi and --vo=opengl 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.
first-field
Show only first field.
bob bob deinterlacing (default).
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.
yes Only deinterlace frames marked as interlaced (default).
reversal-bug=<yes|no>
no Use the API as it was interpreted by older Mesa drivers. While this interpretation
was more obvious and inuitive, 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=opengl 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 opengl 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 (default), only deinterlace frames marked as interlaced.
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. Currently requires D3D11 hardware decoding for use.
deint=<yes|no>
Whether deinterlacing is enabled (default: no).
interlaced-only=<yes|no>
If yes (default), only deinterlace frames marked as interlaced.
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.
buffer=<num>
Buffer <num> frames in the filter chain. This filter is probably pretty useless, except for
debugging. (Note that this won't help to smooth out latencies with decoding, because the filter
will never output a frame if the buffer isn't full, except on EOF.)
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). This can be a comma separated list of possible formats to try. 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.
Options are managed in lists. There are a few commands to manage the options list.
--ofopts-add=<options1[,options2,...]>
Appends the options given as arguments to the options list.
--ofopts-pre=<options1[,options2,...]>
Prepends the options given as arguments to the options list.
--ofopts-del=<index1[,index2,...]>
Deletes the options at the given indexes. Index numbers start at 0, negative numbers
address the end of the list (-1 is the last).
--ofopts-clr
Completely empties the options list.
--ofps=<float value>
Specifies the output format time base (default: 24000). Low values like 25 limit video fps by
dropping frames.
--oautofps
Sets the output format time base to the guessed frame rate of the input video (simulates MEncoder
behavior, useful for AVI; may cause frame drops). Note that not all codecs and not all formats
support VFR encoding, and some which do have bugs when a target bitrate is specified - use --ofps
or --oautofps to force CFR encoding in these cases.
--omaxfps=<float value>
Specifies the minimum distance of adjacent frames (default: 0, which means unset). Content of
lower frame rate is not readjusted to this frame rate; content of higher frame rate is decimated
to this frame rate.
--oharddup
If set, the frame rate given by --ofps is attained not by skipping time codes, but by duplicating
frames (constant frame rate mode).
--oneverdrop
If set, frames are never dropped. Instead, time codes of video are readjusted to always increase.
This may cause AV desync, though; to work around this, use a high-fps time base using --ofps and
absolutely avoid --oautofps.
--oac=<codec>
Specifies the output audio codec. This can be a comma separated list of possible codecs to try.
See --oac=help for a full list of supported codecs.
--oaoffset=<value>
Shifts audio data by the given time (in seconds) by adding/removing samples at the start.
--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.
Options are managed in lists. There are a few commands to manage the options list.
--oacopts-add=<options1[,options2,...]>
Appends the options given as arguments to the options list.
--oacopts-pre=<options1[,options2,...]>
Prepends the options given as arguments to the options list.
--oacopts-del=<index1[,index2,...]>
Deletes the options at the given indexes. Index numbers start at 0, negative numbers
address the end of the list (-1 is the last).
--oacopts-clr
Completely empties the options list.
--oafirst
Force the audio stream to become the first stream in the output. By default, the order is
unspecified.
--ovc=<codec>
Specifies the output video codec. This can be a comma separated list of possible codecs to try.
See --ovc=help for a full list of supported codecs.
--ovoffset=<value>
Shifts video data by the given time (in seconds) by shifting the pts values.
--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.
Options are managed in lists. There are a few commands to manage the options list.
--ovcopts-add=<options1[,options2,...]>
Appends the options given as arguments to the options list.
--ovcopts-pre=<options1[,options2,...]>
Prepends the options given as arguments to the options list.
--ovcopts-del=<index1[,index2,...]>
Deletes the options at the given indexes. Index numbers start at 0, negative numbers
address the end of the list (-1 is the last).
--ovcopts-clr
Completely empties the options list.
--ovfirst
Force the video stream to become the first stream in the output. By default, the order is
unspecified.
--ocopyts
Copies input pts to the output video (not supported by some output container formats, e.g. AVI).
Discontinuities are still fixed. By default, audio pts are set to playback time and video pts are
synchronized to match audio pts, as some output formats do not support anything else.
--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!
--no-ometadata
Turns off copying of metadata from input files to output files when encoding (which is enabled by
default).
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.)
General Input Command Syntax
[Shift+][Ctrl+][Alt+][Meta+]<key> [{<section>}] [<prefixes>] <command> (<argument>)* [; <command>]
Note that by default, the right Alt key can be used to create special characters, and thus does not
register as a modifier. The option --no-input-right-alt-gr changes this behavior.
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.
Arguments are separated by whitespace. This applies even to string arguments. For this reason, string
arguments should be quoted with ". Inside quotes, C-style escaping can be used.
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.
List of Input Commands
ignore Use this to "block" keys that should be unbound, and do nothing. Useful for disabling default
bindings, without disabling all bindings with --no-input-default-bindings.
seek <seconds> [relative|absolute|absolute-percent|relative-percent|exact|keyframes]
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 seeks, and 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.
revert-seek [mode]
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.
Using it without any arguments gives you the default behavior.
frame-step
Play one frame, then pause. Does nothing with audio-only playback.
frame-back-step
Go back by one frame, then pause. Note that this can 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 backstepping silently behave incorrectly in corner cases. Using --hr-seek-framedrop=no
should help, although it might make precise seeking slower.
This does not work with audio-only playback.
set <property> <value>
Set the given property to the given value.
add <property> [<value>]
Add the given value to the property. On overflow or underflow, clamp the property to the maximum.
If <value> is omitted, assume 1.
cycle <property> [up|down]
Cycle the given property. up and down 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.
multiply <property> <factor>
Multiplies the value of a property with the numeric factor.
screenshot [subtitles|video|window|single|each-frame]
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, and if no support is available, this will
act like video.
<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.
Setting the async flag will make encoding and writing the actual image file asynchronous in most
cases. (each-frame mode ignores this flag currently.) Requesting async screenshots too early or
too often could lead to the same filenames being chosen, and overwriting each others in undefined
order.
screenshot-to-file <filename> [subtitles|video|window]
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.
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.
The async flag has an effect on this command (see screenshot command).
playlist-next [weak|force]
Go to the next entry on the playlist.
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 [weak|force]
Go to the previous entry on the playlist.
weak (default)
If the first file on the playlist is currently played, do nothing.
force Terminate playback if the first file is being played.
loadfile <file> [replace|append|append-play [options]]
Load the given file and play it.
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.)
The third 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,... Not all options can be changed this way. Some
options require a restart of the player.
loadlist <playlist> [replace|append]
Load the given playlist file (like --playlist).
playlist-clear
Clear the playlist, except the currently played file.
playlist-remove current|<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.
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. Note that there is a static
limit of (as of this writing) 9 arguments (this limit could be raised on demand).
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.
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.
sub-add <file> [<flags> [<title> [<lang>]]]
Load the given subtitle file. It is selected as current subtitle after loading.
The flags args is one of the following values:
<select>
Select the subtitle immediately.
<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.)
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>
Change subtitle timing such, that the subtitle event after the next <skip> subtitle events is
displayed. <skip> can be negative to step backwards.
sub-seek <skip>
Seek to the next (skip set to 1) or the previous (skip set to -1) subtitle. This is similar to
sub-step, except that it seeks video and audio instead of adjusting the subtitle delay.
For embedded subtitles (like with Matroska), this works only with subtitle events that have
already been displayed, or are within a short prefetch range.
print-text <string>
Print text to stdout. The string can contain properties (see Property Expansion).
show-text <string> [<duration>|- [<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.
<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).
expand-text <string>
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).
show-progress
Show the progress bar, the elapsed time and the total duration of the file on the OSD.
write-watch-later-config
Write the resume config file that the quit-watch-later command writes, but continue playback
normally.
stop 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.
mouse <x> <y> [<button> [single|double]]
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 <key_name>
Send a key event through mpv's input handler, triggering whatever behavior is configured to that
key. key_name uses the input.conf naming scheme for keys and modifiers. Useful for the client API:
key events can be sent to libmpv to handle internally.
keydown <key_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 [<key_name>]
Set the KEYUP flag, stopping any repeated behavior that had been triggered. key_name is optional.
If key_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 key_name.
audio-add <file> [<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.
rescan-external-files [<mode>]
Rescan external files according to the current --sub-auto and --audio-file-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.
Input Commands that are Possibly Subject to Change
af set|add|toggle|del|clr filter1=params,filter2,...
Change audio filter chain. See vf command.
vf set|add|toggle|del|clr filter1=params,filter2,...
Change video filter chain.
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
yes, remove the filter. If no, 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.
del Remove the given filters from the video chain. Unlike in the other cases, the second
parameter is a comma separated list of filter names or integer indexes. 0 would denote the
first filter. Negative indexes start from the last filter, and -1 denotes the last filter.
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 flip turn video upside-down on the a key
• b vf set "" remove all video filters on b
• c vf toggle lavfi=gradfun toggle debanding on c
Example how to toggle disabled filters at runtime
• Add something vf-add=@deband:!lavfi=[gradfun] to mpv.conf. The @deband: is the label, and
deband is 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 the
filter parameters.
• Add a vf toggle @deband to input.conf. This toggles the "disabled" flag for the filter
identified with deband.
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 maintains an internal counter which value to pick next, and
which is initially 0. It is reset to 0 once the last value is reached.
The internal counter is associated using the property name and the value list. If multiple
commands (bound to different keys) use the same name and value list, they will share the internal
counter.
The special argument !reverse can be used to cycle the value list in reverse. Compared with a
command that just lists the value in reverse, this command will actually share the internal
counter with the forward-cycling key binding (as long as the rest of the arguments are the same).
Note that there is a static limit of (as of this writing) 10 arguments (this limit could be raised
on demand).
enable-section <section> [flags]
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 <section>
Disable the named input section. Undoes enable-section.
define-section <section> <contents> [default|force]
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.
overlay-add <id> <x> <y> <file> <offset> <fmt> <w> <h> <stride>
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.
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.)
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 commend
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.
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).
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().
script-binding <name>
Invoke a script-provided key binding. This can be used to remap key bindings provided by external
Lua scripts.
The argument is the name of the binding.
It can optionally be prefixed with the name of the script, using / as separator, e.g.
script-binding scriptname/bindingname.
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:
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).
The key state consists of 2 letters:
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).
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.
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.
screenshot-raw [subtitles|video|window]
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 bgr0 by default. This format is organized as B8G8R8X8 (where B is the
LSB). The contents of the padding X are undefined. 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.
vf-command <label> <cmd> <args>
Send a command to the filter with the given <label>. Use all to send it to all filters at once.
The command and argument string is filter specific. Currently, this only works with the lavfi
filter - see the libavfilter documentation for which commands a filter supports.
Note that the <label> is a mpv filter label, not a libavfilter filter name.
af-command <label> <cmd> <args>
Same as vf-command, but for audio filters.
apply-profile <name>
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.
There is no such thing as "unapplying" a profile - applying a profile merely sets all option
values listed within the profile.
load-script <path>
Load a script, similar to the --script option.
Undocumented commands: tv-last-channel (TV/DVB only), ao-reload (experimental/internal).
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.
There are two special commands involved. Also, the client must listen for client messages
(MPV_EVENT_CLIENT_MESSAGE in the C API).
hook-add <hook-name> <id> <priority>
Subscribe to the hook identified by the first argument (basically, the name of event). The id
argument is an arbitrary integer chosen by the user. priority is used to sort all hook handlers
globally across all clients. Each client can register multiple hook handlers (even for the same
hook-name). Once the hook is registered, it cannot be unregistered.
When a specific event happens, all registered handlers are run serially. This uses a protocol
every client has to follow explicitly. When a hook handler is run, a client message
(MPV_EVENT_CLIENT_MESSAGE) is sent to the client which registered the hook. This message has the
following arguments:
1. the string hook_run
2. the id argument the hook was registered with as string (this can be used to correctly handle
multiple hooks registered by the same client, as long as the id argument is unique in the
client)
3. something undefined, used by the hook mechanism to track hook execution (currently, it's the
hook-name, but this might change without warning)
Upon receiving this message, the client can handle the event. While doing this, the player core
will still react to requests, but playback will typically be stopped.
When the client is done, it must continue the core's hook execution by running the hook-ack
command.
hook-ack <string>
Run the next hook in the global chain of hooks. The argument is the 3rd argument of the client
message that starts hook execution for the current client.
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.
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.
on_unload
Run before closing a file, and before actually uninitializing everything. It's not possible to
resume playback in this state.
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.
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.
All of the osd prefixes are still overridden by the global --osd-level settings.
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.)
The property name is annotated with RW to indicate whether the property is generally writable.
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.
Property list
NOTE:
Most options can be set as runtime via properties as well. Just remove the leading -- from the option
name. These are not documented. Only properties which do not exist as option with the same name, or
which have very different behavior from the options are documented below.
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
Return 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 ordered
chapters and such, the size of the currently played segment is returned.)
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.)
path Full path of the currently played file. Usually this is exactly the same string you pass on the
mpv command line or the loadfile command, even if it's a relative path. If you expect an absolute
path, you will have to determine it yourself, for example by using the working-directory property.
media-title
If the currently played file has a title tag, use that.
Otherwise, if the media type is DVD, return the volume ID of DVD.
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. It looks like this
can be different from path only when using e.g. ordered chapters.)
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.)
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.
drop-frame-count is a deprecated alias.
frame-drop-count
Frames dropped by VO (when using --framedrop=vo).
vo-drop-frame-count is a deprecated alias.
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.
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.
audio-pts (R)
Current audio playback position in current file in seconds. Unlike time-pos, this updates more
often than once per frame. For audio-only files, it is mostly equivalent to time-pos, while for
video-only files this property is not available.
playtime-remaining
time-remaining scaled by the current speed.
playback-time (RW)
Position in current file in seconds. Unlike time-pos, the time is clamped to the range of the
file. (Inaccurate file durations etc. could make it go out of range. Useful on attempts to seek
outside of the file, as the seek target time is considered the current position during seeking.)
chapter (RW)
Current chapter number. The number of the first chapter is 0.
edition (RW)
Current MKV edition number. Setting this property to a different value will restart playback. The
number of the first edition is 0.
disc-titles
Number of BD/DVD titles.
This has a number of sub-properties. Replace N with the 0-based edition index.
disc-titles/count
Number of titles.
disc-titles/id
Title ID as integer. Currently, this is the same as the title index.
disc-titles/length
Length in seconds. Can be unavailable in a number of cases (currently it works for
libdvdnav only).
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
"length" MPV_FORMAT_DOUBLE
disc-title-list
List of BD/DVD titles.
disc-title (RW)
Current BD/DVD title number. Writing works only for dvdnav:// and bd:// (and aliases for these).
chapters
Number of chapters.
editions
Number of MKV editions.
edition-list
List of editions, current entry marked. Currently, the raw property value is useless.
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. Use this to set the edition property. Currently, this is the same
as the edition index.
edition-list/N/default
yes if this is the default edition, no otherwise.
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
angle (RW)
Current DVD angle.
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.
idle-active
Return yes if no file is loaded, but the player is staying around because of the --idle option.
(Renamed from idle.)
core-idle
Return yes if the playback core is paused, otherwise no. This can be different pause in special
situations, such as when the player pauses itself due to low network cache.
This also returns yes if playback is restarting or if nothing is playing at all. In other words,
it's only no if there's actually video playing. (Behavior since mpv 0.7.0.)
cache Network cache fill state (0-100.0).
cache-size (RW)
Network cache size in KB. This is similar to --cache. This allows setting the cache size at
runtime. Currently, it's not possible to enable or disable the cache at runtime using this
property, just to resize an existing cache.
This does not include the backbuffer size (changed after mpv 0.10.0).
Note that this tries to keep the cache contents as far as possible. To make this easier, the cache
resizing code will allocate the new cache while the old cache is still allocated.
Don't use this when playing DVD or Blu-ray.
cache-free (R)
Total free cache size in KB.
cache-used (R)
Total used cache size in KB.
cache-speed (R)
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).
cache-idle (R)
Returns yes if the cache is idle, which means the cache is filled as much as possible, and is
currently not reading more data.
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
Returns yes if the demuxer is idle, which means the demuxer cache is filled to the requested
amount, and is currently not reading more data.
demuxer-via-network
Returns yes if 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 (R)
Returns the start time reported by the demuxer in fractional seconds.
paused-for-cache
Returns yes when playback is paused because of waiting for the cache.
cache-buffering-state
Return the percentage (0-100) of the cache fill status until the player will unpause (related to
paused-for-cache).
eof-reached
Returns yes if end of playback was reached, no otherwise. 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
Returns yes if the player is currently seeking, or otherwise trying to restart playback. (It's
possible that it returns yes while a file is loaded, or when switching ordered chapter segments.
This is because the same underlying code is used for seeking and resyncing.)
mixer-active
Return yes if the audio mixer is active, no otherwise.
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 depends on the
API. For example, on ALSA this usually changes system-wide audio, while with PulseAudio this
controls per-application volume.
ao-mute (RW)
Similar to ao-volume, but controls the mute state. May be unimplemented even if ao-volume works.
audio-codec
Audio codec selected for decoding.
audio-codec-name
Audio codec.
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 (R)
Redirects to video-params/colormatrix. This parameter (as well as similar ones) can be overridden
with the format video filter.
colormatrix-input-range (R)
See colormatrix.
colormatrix-primaries (R)
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
Return the current hardware decoding in use. If decoding is active, return one of the values used
by the hwdec option/property. no 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 opengl), this might be never
known in advance, but only when the decoder attempted to create the hw decoder successfully.
(Using --opengl-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.
This is somewhat similar to the --opengl-hwdec-interop option, but it returns the actually loaded
backend, not the value of this option.
video-format
Video format as string.
video-codec
Video codec selected for decoding.
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/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/plane-depth
Bit depth for each color component as integer. This is only exposed for planar or
single-component formats, and is unavailable for other 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/aspect
Display aspect ratio as float.
video-params/par
Pixel aspect ratio.
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
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 --video-stereo-mode option.)
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
"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
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-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.
Sub-properties:
video-frame-info/picture-type video-frame-info/interlaced video-frame-info/tff
video-frame-info/repeat
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.
window-scale (RW)
Window size multiplier. Setting this will resize the video window to the values contained in
dwidth and dheight multiplied with the value set with this property. Setting 1 will resize to
original video size (or to be exact, the size the video filters output). 2 will set the double
size, 0.5 halves the size.
window-minimized
Return whether the video window is minimized or not.
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.)
display-fps (RW)
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
Only available if display-sync mode (as selected by --video-sync) is active. Returns the actual
rate at which display refreshes seem to occur, measured by system time.
vsync-jitter
Estimated deviation factor of the vsync duration.
video-aspect (RW)
Video aspect, see --video-aspect.
If video is active, this reports the effective aspect value, instead of the value of the
--video-aspect option.
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 size, which can be different from the window size in some cases.
osd-par
Last known OSD display pixel aspect (can be 0).
program (W)
Switch TS program (write-only).
dvb-channel (W)
Pair of integers: card,channel of current DVB stream. Can be switched to switch to another
channel on the same card.
dvb-channel-name (RW)
Name of current DVB program. On write, a channel-switch to the named channel on the same card is
performed. Can also be used for channel switching.
sub-text
Return the current subtitle text. Formatting is stripped. If a subtitle is selected, but no text
is currently visible, or the subtitle is not text-based (i.e. DVD/BD subtitles), an empty string
is returned.
This property is experimental and might be removed in the future.
tv-brightness, tv-contrast, tv-saturation, tv-hue (RW)
TV stuff.
playlist-pos (RW)
Current position on playlist. The first entry is on position 0. Writing to the property will
restart playback at the written entry.
playlist-pos-1 (RW)
Same as playlist-pos, but 1-based.
playlist-count
Number of total playlist entries.
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/current, playlist/N/playing
yes if this entry is currently playing (or being loaded). Unavailable or no otherwise.
When changing files, current and playing can be different, because the currently playing
file hasn't been unloaded yet; in this case, current refers to the new selection. (Since
mpv 0.7.0.)
playlist/N/title
Name of the Nth entry. Only available if the playlist file contains such fields, and only
if mpv's parser supports it for the given playlist format.
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)
track-list
List of audio/video/sub tracks, current entry marked. Currently, the raw property value is
useless.
This has a number of sub-properties. Replace N with the 0-based track index.
track-list/count
Total number of tracks.
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.
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/albumart
yes if this is a video track that consists of a single picture, no or unavailable
otherwise. This is used for video tracks that are really attached pictures in audio files.
track-list/N/default
yes if the track has the default flag set in the file, no otherwise.
track-list/N/forced
yes if the track has the forced flag set in the file, no otherwise.
track-list/N/codec
The codec name used by this track, for example h264. Unavailable in some rare cases.
track-list/N/external
yes if the track is an external file, no 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 if the track is currently decoded, no otherwise.
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-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-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/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.
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
"albumart" MPV_FORMAT_FLAG
"default" MPV_FORMAT_FLAG
"forced" MPV_FORMAT_FLAG
"selected" MPV_FORMAT_FLAG
"external" MPV_FORMAT_FLAG
"external-filename" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"codec" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"ff-index" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"decoder-desc" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"demux-w" MPV_FORMAT_INT64
"demux-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
"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
chapter-list
List of chapters, current entry marked. Currently, the raw property value is useless.
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
Return whether it's generally possible to seek in the current file.
partially-seekable
Return yes if 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 true, seekable will also return true.
playback-abort
Return 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.
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-status-msg='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.
A list of tags can be found here: http://docs.aegisub.org/latest/ASS_Tags/
vo-configured
Return 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 is usually always returns yes.
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.
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.
packet-video-bitrate, packet-audio-bitrate, packet-sub-bitrate
Old and deprecated properties for video-bitrate, audio-bitrate, sub-bitrate. They behave exactly
the same, but return a value in kilobits. Also, they don't have any OSD formatting, though the
same can be achieved with e.g. ${=video-bitrate}.
These properties shouldn't be used anymore.
audio-device-list
Return 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-ao
Current audio output driver (name as used with --ao).
audio-out-detected-device
Return the audio device selected by the AO driver (only implemented for some drivers: currently
only coreaudio).
working-directory
Return the working directory of the mpv process. Can be useful for JSON IPC users, because the
command line player usually works with relative paths.
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.
family Decoder driver. Usually lavc for libavcodec.
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)
"family" MPV_FORMAT_STRING
"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).
mpv-version
Return 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
Return the configuration arguments which were passed to the build system (typically the way ./waf
configure ... was invoked).
ffmpeg-version
Return 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 applies to Libav as well
(the property is still named the same.) This property is unavailable if mpv is linked against
older FFmpeg and Libav versions.
options/<name> (RW)
Read-only access to 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>
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
feature.
option-info/<name>/name
Returns the name of the option.
option-info/<name>/type
Return 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
Return yes if the option was set from the mpv command line, no otherwise. 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
Return yes if 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>/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
Return the list of top-level properties.
profile-list
Return 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.
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, you can set existing tracks only. (The option allows setting any track
ID, and which tracks to enable is chosen at loading time.)
Option changes at runtime are affected by this as well.
video-aspect
While video is active, always returns the effective aspect ratio. Setting a special value (like
no, values <= 0) will make the property set this as option, and return whatever actual aspect was
derived from the option setting.
display-fps
If a VO is created, this will return either the actual display FPS, or an invalid value, instead
of the option value.
vf, af If you set the properties during playback, and the filter chain fails to reinitialize, the new
value will be rejected. Setting the option or setting the property outside of playback will always
succeed/fail in the same way. Also, there are no vf-add etc. properties, but you can use the vf/af
group of commands to achieve the same.
Option changes at runtime are affected by this as well.
edition
While a file is loaded, the property will always return the effective edition, and setting the
auto value will show somewhat strange behavior (the property eventually switching to whatever is
the default edition).
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.
window-scale
Might verify the set value when setting while a window is created.
audio-file, sub-file, external-file
These options/properties are actually lists of filenames. To make the command-line interface
easier, each --audio-file=... option appends the full string to the internal list. However, when
used as properties, every time you set the property as a string the internal list will be replaced
with a single entry containing the string you set. , or other separators are never used. You have
to use MPV_FORMAT_NODE_ARRAY (or corresponding API, e.g. mp.set_property_native() with a table in
Lua) to set multiple entries.
Strictly speaking, option access via API (e.g. mpv_set_option_string()) has the same problem, and
it's only a difference between CLI/API.
playlist-pos, chapter
These properties behave different from the deprecated options with the same names.
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
Within input.conf, property expansion can be inhibited by putting the raw prefix in front of commands.
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.
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)
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
+---------+----------+------------------------------------------+----------+
| pl prev | pl next | title | cache |
+------+--+---+------+---------+-----------+------+-------+-----+-----+----+
| play | skip | skip | time | seekbar | time | audio | sub | vol | fs |
| | back | frwd | elapsed | | left | | | | |
+------+------+------+---------+-----------+------+-------+-----+-----+----+
pl prev
┌──────────────┬────────────────────────────────┐
│left-click │ play previous file in playlist │
├──────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
│right-click │ show playlist │
├──────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
│shift+L-click │ show playlist │
└──────────────┴────────────────────────────────┘
pl next
┌──────────────┬────────────────────────────┐
│left-click │ play next file in playlist │
├──────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│right-click │ show playlist │
├──────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│shift+L-click │ show playlist │
└──────────────┴────────────────────────────┘
title
Displays current media-title, filename, or custom title
┌────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│left-click │ show playlist position and length and │
│ │ full title │
├────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│right-click │ show filename │
└────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
cache
Shows current cache fill status
play
┌───────────┬───────────────────┐
│left-click │ toggle play/pause │
└───────────┴───────────────────┘
skip back
┌──────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│left-click │ go to beginning of chapter / previous │
│ │ chapter │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│right-click │ show chapters │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│shift+L-click │ show chapters │
└──────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
skip frwd
┌──────────────┬────────────────────┐
│left-click │ go to next chapter │
├──────────────┼────────────────────┤
│right-click │ show chapters │
├──────────────┼────────────────────┤
│shift+L-click │ show chapters │
└──────────────┴────────────────────┘
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 │
└───────────┴──────────────────┘
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 │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│right-click │ cycle audio/sub tracks backwards │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│shift+L-click │ show available audio/sub tracks │
└──────────────┴──────────────────────────────────┘
vol
┌────────────┬────────────────┐
│left-click │ toggle mute │
├────────────┼────────────────┤
│mouse wheel │ volume up/down │
└────────────┴────────────────┘
fs
┌───────────┬───────────────────┐
│left-click │ toggle fullscreen │
└───────────┴───────────────────┘
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
The OSC offers limited configuration through a config file lua-settings/osc.conf placed in mpv's user dir
and through the --script-opts command-line option. Options provided through the command-line will
override those from the config file.
Config Syntax
The config file must exactly follow the following syntax:
# this is a comment
optionA=value1
optionB=value2
# can only be used at the beginning of a line and there may be no spaces around the = or anywhere else.
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 and topbar. Default
pre-0.21.0 was 'box'.
seekbarstyle
Default: bar
Sets the style of the seekbar, slider (diamond marker), knob (circle marker with guide), or bar
(fill). Default pre-0.21.0 was 'slider'.
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
scalewindowed
Default: 1.0
Scale factor of the OSC when windowed.
scalefullscreen
Default: 1.0
Scale factor of the OSC when fullscreen
scaleforcedwindow
Default: 2.0
Scale factor of the OSC when rendered on a forced (dummy) window
vidscale
Default: yes
Scale the OSC with the video no tries to keep the OSC size constant as much as the window size
allows
valign Default: 0.8
Vertical alignment, -1 (top) to 1 (bottom)
halign Default: 0.0
Horizontal alignment, -1 (left) to 1 (right)
barmargin
Default: 0
Margin from bottom (bottombar) or top (topbar), 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 out in ms, 0 = no fade
title Default: ${media-title}
String that supports property expansion that will be displayed as OSC title. ASS tags are
escaped, and newlines and trailing slashes are stripped.
tooltipborder
Default: 1
Size of the tooltip outline when using bottombar or topbar layouts
timetotal
Default: no
Show total time instead of time remaining
timems Default: no
Display timecodes with milliseconds
visibility
Default: auto (auto hide/show on mouse move)
Also supports never and always
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.
Script Commands
The OSC script listens to certain script commands. These commands can bound in input.conf, or sent by
other scripts.
osc-message
Show a message on screen using the OSC. First argument is the message, second the duration in
seconds.
osc-visibility
Controls visibility mode never / auto (on mouse move) / always and also cycle to cycle between the
modes
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-playlist, osc-chapterlist, osc-tracklist
Shows a limited view of the respective type of list using the OSC. First argument is duration in
seconds.
LUA SCRIPTING
mpv can load Lua scripts. Scripts passed to the --script option, or found in the scripts subdirectory of
the mpv configuration directory (usually ~/.config/mpv/scripts/) will be loaded on program start. mpv
also appends the scripts subdirectory to the end of Lua's path so you can import scripts from there too.
Since it's added to the end, don't name scripts you want to import the same as Lua libraries because they
will be overshadowed by them.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.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).
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.
The last argument is used for optional flags. This is a table, which can have the following
entries:
repeatable
If set to true, enables key repeat for this specific binding.
complex
If set to true, then fn is called on both key up and down events (as well as key repeat,
if enabled), with the first argument being a table. This table has an event entry, which
is set to one of the strings down, repeat, up or press (the latter if key up/down can't
be tracked). It further has an is_mouse entry, which tells whether the event was caused
by a mouse button.
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.)
In some cases the function is not called even if the property changes. Whether this can happen
depends on the property.
If the type is none or nil, sporadic property change events are possible. This means the change
function fn can be called even if the property doesn't actually change.
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)
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.
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)
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 method, and you have to call them using : instead of . (Refer to
http://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.
Example
The script /path/to/fooscript.lua becomes fooscript.
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.suspend()
This function has been deprecated in mpv 0.21.0 and does nothing starting with mpv 0.23.0 (no
replacement).
mp.resume()
This function has been deprecated in mpv 0.21.0 and does nothing starting with mpv 0.23.0 (no
replacement).
mp.resume_all()
This function has been deprecated in mpv 0.21.0 and does nothing starting with mpv 0.23.0 (no
replacement).
mp.get_wakeup_pipe()
Calls mpv_get_wakeup_pipe() and returns the read end of the wakeup pipe. (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.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. The user's settings will determine which of these messages will be visible. Normally, all
messages are visible, except v and debug.
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(...)
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])
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().
Example implementation:
require 'mp.options'
local options = {
optionA = "defaultvalueA",
optionB = -0.5,
optionC = true,
}
read_options(options, "myscript")
print(options.optionA)
The config file will be stored in lua-settings/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.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.
The parameter t is a table. The function reads the following entries:
args Array of strings. The first array entry is the executable. This can be either an
absolute path, or a filename with no path components, in which case the PATH environment
variable is used to resolve the executable. The other array elements are passed as
command line arguments.
cancellable
Optional. If set to true (default), then if the user stops playback or goes to the next
file while the process is running, the process will be killed.
max_size
Optional. The maximum size in bytes of the data that can be captured from stdout.
(Default: 16 MB.)
The function returns a table as result with the following entries:
status The raw exit status of the process. It will be negative on error.
stdout Captured output stream as string, limited to max_size.
error nil on success. 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 cancellable being set to true.
killed_by_us
Set to true if the process has been killed by mpv as a result of cancellable being set
to true.
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.
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.
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)
List of events
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).
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 reason field, which takes 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.)
file-loaded
Happens after a file was loaded and begins playback.
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
Start of playback after seek or after file was loaded.
idle Idle mode is entered. This happens when playback ended, and the player was started with --idle or
--force-window. This mode is implicitly ended when the start-file or shutdown events happen.
tick Called after a video frame was displayed. This is a hack, and you should avoid using it. Use
timers instead and maybe watch pausing/unpausing events to avoid wasting CPU when the player is
paused.
shutdown
Sent when the player quits, and the script should terminate. Normally handled automatically. See
Details on the script initialization and lifecycle.
log-message
Receives messages enabled with mp.enable_messages. The message data is contained in the table
passed as first parameter to the event handler. The table 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.
get-property-reply
Undocumented (not useful for Lua scripts).
set-property-reply
Undocumented (not useful for Lua scripts).
command-reply
Undocumented (not useful for Lua scripts).
client-message
Undocumented (used internally).
video-reconfig
Happens on video output or filter reconfig.
audio-reconfig
Happens on audio output or filter reconfig.
The following events also happen, but are deprecated: tracks-changed, track-switched, pause, unpause,
metadata-update, chapter-change. Use mp.observe_property() instead.
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 is the function that will be called during execution of the hook.
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 at the modules
mp, mp.utils and mp.msg are available to JavaScript with identical APIs - including running commands,
getting/setting properties, registering events/key-bindings/property-changes/hooks, etc.
Differences from Lua
No need to load modules. mp, mp.utils and mp.msg are preloaded, and you can use e.g. var cwd =
mp.utils.getcwd(); without prior setup. mp.options is currently not implemented, but mp.get_opt(...) is.
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 - http://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)
mp.register_idle(fn) JS: id = setTimeout(fn)
mp.unregister_idle(fn) JS: clearTimeout(id)
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.suspend() JS: none (deprecated).
mp.resume() JS: none (deprecated).
mp.resume_all() JS: none (deprecated).
mp.get_next_timeout() see event loop below.
mp.dispatch_events([allow_wait]) see event loop below.
mp.options module is not implemented currently for JS.
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). Otherwise, where the Lua APIs return nil on error, JS
returns undefined.
mp.command(string) (LE)
mp.commandv(arg1, arg2, ...) (LE)
mp.command_native(table [,def]) (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.osd_message(text [,duration])
mp.get_wakeup_pipe()
mp.enable_messages(level)
mp.register_script_message(name, fn)
mp.unregister_script_message(name)
mp.msg.log(level, ...)
mp.msg.fatal(...)
mp.msg.error(...)
mp.msg.warn(...)
mp.msg.info(...)
mp.msg.verbose(...)
mp.msg.debug(...)
mp.utils.getcwd() (LE)
mp.utils.readdir(path [, filter]) (LE)
mp.utils.split_path(path)
mp.utils.join_path(p1, p2)
mp.utils.subprocess(t)
mp.utils.subprocess_detached(t)
mp.add_hook(type, priority, fn)
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)
Expands (mpv) meta paths like ~/x, ~~/y, ~~desktop/z etc. read_file, write_file and require
already use this internaly.
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").
Note: read_file and write_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.
exit() (global)
Make the script exit at the end of the current event loop iteration. Note: please reomve added
key bindings before calling exit().
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.
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)
instead of Lua's mp.register_idle(fn).
CommonJS modules and require(id)
CommonJS Modules are a standard system where scripts can export common functions for use by other
scripts. A module is a script which adds properties (functions, etc) to its invisible exports object,
which another script can access by loading it with require(module-id) - which returns that exports
object.
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 is relative (to the script which require'd it) if it starts with ./ or ../. 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
searched at scripts/modules.js/ in mpv config dirs - in normal config search order. E.g. require("x") is
searched as file x.js at those dirs, and id foo/x is searched as file foo/x.js.
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.
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;
}
} 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.
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. 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.)
Protocol
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 intrepret the request_id in any way; it is solely
for the use of the requester.
For example, this request:
{ "command": ["get_property", "time-pos"], "request_id": 100 }
Would generate this response:
{ "error": "success", "data": 1.468135, "request_id": 100 }
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.
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
Like set_property, but the argument value must be passed as string.
Example:
{ "command": ["set_property_string", "pause", "yes"] }
{ "error": "success" }
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 escape sequences.
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 files client-api-changes.rst and interface-changes.rst in the DOCS sub directoryon the git
repository, which document API and user interface changes (the latter usually documents breaking
changes only, rather than additions).
• 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 libmpv/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/libmpv/client.h
• http://mpv.io/manual/master/#options
• http://mpv.io/manual/master/#list-of-input-commands
• http://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.
Currently, they must be explicitly enabled at build time with --enable-cplugins. They are available on
Linux/BSD platforms only.
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 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
uses are not symbols from a libmpv binary, but symbols from the mpv host binary.
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.
XDG_CONFIG_DIRS
If set, XDG-style system configuration directories are used. Otherwise, the UNIX convention
(PREFIX/etc/mpv/) is used.
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.
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/Libav:
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.
FILES
For Windows-specifics, see FILES ON WINDOWS section.
/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/).
~/.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/
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 above) to include
additional fonts, which is more memory-efficient.
~/.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, and sub-directories and files with no .lua extension are ignored.
The --load-scripts=no option disables loading these files.
~/.config/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.
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/lua-settings/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.
Note that the environment variables $XDG_CONFIG_HOME and $MPV_HOME can override the standard directory
~/.config/mpv/.
Also, the old config location at ~/.mpv/ is still read, and if the XDG variant does not exist, will still
be preferred.
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 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 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.
COPYRIGHT
GPLv2+
MPV(1)