mpv/DOCS/man/en/changes.rst

CHANGES FROM OTHER VERSIONS OF MPLAYER
======================================

**mpv** is based on mplayer2, which in turn is based on the original
MPlayer (also called mplayer, mplayer-svn, mplayer1). Many changes
have been made. Some changes are incompatible, or completely change how the
player behaves.

General Changes for MPlayer to mplayer2
---------------------------------------

* Removal of the internal GUI, MEncoder, OSD menu
* Better pause handling (do not unpause on a command)
* Better MKV support (such as ordered chapters)
* vo_vdpau improvements
* Precise seeking support
* No embedded copy of ffmpeg and other libraries
* Native OpenGL backend for OSX
* General OSX improvements
* Improvements in audio/video sync handling
* Cleaned up terminal output
* Gapless audio support (``--gapless-audio``)
* Improved responsiveness on user input
* Support for modifier keys (alt, shift, ctrl) in input.conf
* OSS4 volume control
* More correct color reproduction (color matrix generation)
* Use libass for subtitle rendering by default (better quality)
* Generally preferring ffmpeg/libav over internal demuxers and decoders
* Improvements when playing multiple files (``--fixed-vo``)
* Screenshot improvements (instant screenshots without 1-frame delay, allow
  taking screenshots even with hardware decoding)
* Improved support for PulseAudio
* General code cleanups
* Many more changes

General Changes for mplayer2 to mpv
-----------------------------------

* Switch back to GPLv2+.
* Removal of lots of unneeded code to encourage developer activity (less
  obscure scary zombie code that kills any desire for hacking the codebase)
* Removal of dust and dead bodies (code-wise), such as kernel drivers for
  decades old hardware
* Removal of support for dead platforms
* Generally improved MS Windows support (dealing with unicode filenames,
  improved ``--vo=direct3d``, improved window handling)
* Better OSD rendering (using libass). This has full unicode support, and
  languages like Arabic should be better supported.
* Cleaned up terminal output (nicer status line, less useless noise)
* Support for playing URLs of popular streaming sites directly
  (e.g. ``mpv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...``)
* Improved OpenGL output (``--vo=opengl-hq``)
* Make ``--softvol`` default (**mpv** is not a mixer control panel)
* Improved support for .cue files
* Screenshot improvements (can save screenshots as JPG or PNG, configurable
  filenames, support for taking screenshots with or without subtitles - the
  ``screenshot`` video filter is not needed anymore, and should not be put
  into the mpv config file)
* Removal of teletext support
* Removal of most builtin demuxers, using libavformat instead
* Removal of builtin network support, using libavformat instead (also,
  support https via libavformat)
* Replace image VOs (``--vo=jpeg`` etc.) with ``--vo=image``
* Do not lose settings when playing a new file in the same player instance
* New location for config files, new name for the binary.
* Slave mode compatibility broken (see below)
* Encoding functionality (replacement for mencoder, see ``DOCS/encoding.rst``)
* Remove ``--vo=gif89a``, ``--vo=md5sum``, ``--vo=yuv4mpeg``, as encoding can
  handle these use cases. For yuv4mpeg, for example, use:
  ``mpv input.mkv -o output.y4m --no-audio --oautofps --oneverdrop``.
* Image subtitles (DVDs etc.) are rendered in color and use more correct
  positioning (color can be disabled with ``--sub-gray``)
* Wayland support
* Support for precise scrolling which scales the parameter of commands. If the
  input doesn't support precise scrolling the scale factor stays 1.
* OSX: Cocoa event loop is independent from mplayer's event loop, so user
  actions like accessing menus and live resizing do not block the playback.
* OSX: Apple Remote support.
* OSX: Media Keys support.
* Windows: Added WASAPI audio output.
* New OSD bar with chapter marks and not positioned in the middle of the video
  (though this can be customized with the ``--osd-bar-align-y`` option).
* Allow customizing whether a key binding for seeking shows the video time, the
  OSD bar, or nothing (see section `Input Command Prefixes`_).
* Display list of chapters and audio/subtitle tracks on OSD (see section
  `Properties`_).
* ``--keep-open`` option to stop the player from closing the window and
  exiting after playback ends.
* Re-enable screensaver while the player is paused.
* Matroska edition switching at runtime.
* Support for libavfilter (for video->video and audio->audio). This allows
  using most of FFmpeg's filters, which improve greatly on the old MPlayer
  filters in features, performance, and correctness.
* Improved downmixing and output of surround audio. Instead of using hardcoded
  pan filters to do remixing, use libavresample. Channel maps are used to
  identify the channel layout, so e.g. ``3.0`` and ``2.1`` audio can be
  distinguished.
* Allow resuming playback at a later point with ``Shift+q``, also see
  ``quit_watch_later`` input command.
* Support mapping multiple commands to one key.
* Allow changing/adjusting video filters at runtime. (This is also used to make
  the ``D`` key insert vf_yadif if deinterlacing is not supported otherwise.)
* Native VAAPI support
* OSX: VDA support using libavcodec hwaccel API insted of FFmpeg's decoder. Up
  to 2-2.5x reduction in CPU usage.
* Make hardware decoding in general work with the ``opengl`` video output.
* General bug fixes and removal of long-standing issues
* General code cleanups (including refactoring or rewrites of many parts)
* Many more changes

Detailed Listing of User-visible Changes
----------------------------------------

This listing is about changed command line switches, slave commands, and similar
things. Completely removed features are not listed.

Command Line Switches
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* There is a new command line syntax, which is generally preferred over the old
  syntax. ``-optname optvalue`` becomes ``--optname=optvalue``.

  The old syntax will not be removed in the near future. However, the new
  syntax is mentioned in all documentation and so on, so it is a good thing to
  know about this change.

  (The new syntax was introduced in mplayer2.)
* In general, negating switches like ``-noopt`` now have to be written as
  ``-no-opt``, or better ``--no-opt``.
* Per-file options are not the default anymore. You can explicitly specify
  file-local options. See ``Usage`` section.
* Table of renamed/replaced switches:

    =========================== ========================================
    Old                         New
    =========================== ========================================
    ``-no<opt>``                ``--no-<opt>`` (add a dash)
    ``-nosound``                ``--no-audio``
    ``-use-filename-title``     ``--title='${filename}'``
    ``-loop 0``                 ``--loop=inf``
    ``-hardframedrop``          ``--framedrop=hard``
    ``-osdlevel``               ``--osd-level``
    ``-delay``                  ``--audio-delay``
    ``-subdelay``               ``--sub-delay``
    ``-subpos``                 ``--sub-pos``
    ``-forcedsubsonly``         ``--sub-forced-only``
    ``-benchmark``              ``--untimed`` (no stats)
    ``-xineramascreen``         ``--screen`` (different values)
    ``-ss``                     ``--start``
    ``-endpos``                 ``--length``
    ``-cursor-autohide-delay``  ``--cursor-autohide``
    ``-sub-fuzziness``          ``--autosub-match``
    ``-subfont``                ``--sub-text-font``
    ``-font``                   ``--osd-font``
    ``-subfont-*``              ``--sub-text-*``, ``--osd-*``
    ``-subfont-text-scale``     ``--sub-scale``
    ``-spugauss``               ``--sub-gauss``
    ``-vobsub``                 ``--sub`` (pass the .idx file)
    ``-ass-bottom-margin``      ``--vf=sub=bottom:top``
    ``-vc ffh264vdpau`` (etc.)  ``--hwdec=vdpau``
    ``-ac spdifac3``            ``--ad=spdif:ac3`` (see ``--ad=help``)
    ``-afm hwac3``              ``--ad=spdif:ac3,spdif:dts``
    ``-x W``, ``-y H``          ``--geometry=WxH`` + ``--no-keepaspect``
    ``-xy W``                   ``--autofit=W``
    ``-a52drc level``           ``--ad-lavc-ac3drc=level``
    ``-dumpstream``             ``--stream-dump=<filename>``
    ``-capture``                ``--stream-capture=<filename>``
    ``-stop-xscreensaver``      ``--stop-screensaver``
    ``-subfile``                ``--sub``
    ``-lavdopts ...``           ``--vd-lavc-...``
    ``-lavfdopts``              ``--demuxer-lavf-...``
    ``-rawaudio ...``           ``--demuxer-rawaudio-...``
    ``-rawvideo ...``           ``--demuxer-rawvideo-...``
    ``-mixer``                  AO suboptions (``alsa``, ``oss``)
    ``-mixer-channel``          AO suboptions (``alsa``, ``oss``)
    ``-ao alsa:device=hw=0.3``  ``--ao=alsa:device=[hw:0,3]``
    ``-af volnorm``             ``--af=drc`` (renamed)
    ``-zoom``                   Inverse available as ``--video-unscaled``
    ``-panscanrange``           ``--video-zoom``, ``--video-pan-x/y``
    ``-pp ...``                 ``'--vf=pp=[...]'``
    ``-pphelp``                 ``--vf=pp:help``
    ``-channels``               ``--channels`` (changed semantics)
    ``dvdnav://``               ``dvdnav://menu``
    ``dvd://1``                 ``dvd://0`` (0-based offset)
    =========================== ========================================

.. note::

    ``-opt val`` becomes ``--opt=val``.

.. note::

    Quite some video filters, video outputs, audio filters, audio outputs, had
    changes in their option parsing. These aren't mentioned in the table above.

    Also, some video and audio filters have been removed, and you have to use
    libavfilter (using ``--vf=lavfi=[...]`` or ``--af=lavfi=[...]``) to get
    them back.

input.conf and Slave Commands
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Table of renamed input commands:

    This lists only commands that are not always gracefully handled by the
    internal legacy translation layer. If an input.conf contains any legacy
    commands, a warning will be printed when starting the player. The warnings
    also show the replacement commands.

    Properties containing ``_`` to separate words use ``-`` instead.

    +--------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
    | Old                            | New                                    |
    +================================+========================================+
    | ``pt_step 1 [0|1]``            | ``playlist_next [weak|force]``         |
    |                                | (translation layer cannot deal with    |
    |                                | whitespace)                            |
    +--------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
    | ``pt_step -1 [0|1]``           | ``playlist_prev [weak|force] (same)``  |
    +--------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
    | ``switch_ratio [<ratio>]``     | ``set aspect <ratio>``                 |
    |                                |                                        |
    |                                | ``set aspect 0`` (to reset aspect)     |
    +--------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
    | ``step_property_osd <prop>``   | ``cycle <prop> <step>`` (wraps),       |
    | ``<step> <dir>``               | ``add <prop> <step>`` (clamps).        |
    |                                | ``<dir>`` parameter unsupported. Use   |
    |                                | a negative ``<step>`` instead.         |
    +--------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
    | ``step_property <prop>``       | Prefix ``cycle`` or ``add`` with       |
    | ``<step> <dir>``               | ``no-osd``: ``no-osd cycle <prop>``    |
    |                                | ``<step>``                             |
    +--------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
    | ``osd_show_property_text``     | ``show_text <text>``                   |
    | ``<text>``                     | The property expansion format string   |
    |                                | syntax slightly changed.               |
    +--------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
    | ``osd_show_text``              | Now does the same as                   |
    |                                | ``osd_show_property_text``. Use the    |
    |                                | ``raw`` prefix to disable property     |
    |                                | expansion.                             |
    +--------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
    | ``show_tracks``                | ``show_text ${track-list}``            |
    +--------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
    | ``show_chapters``              | ``show_text ${chapter-list}``          |
    +--------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
    | ``af_switch``, ``af_add``, ... | ``af set|add|...``                     |
    +--------------------------------+----------------------------------------+

Other
~~~~~

* The playtree has been removed. **mpv**'s internal playlist is a simple and
  flat list now. This simplifies the code and makes **mpv** usage less
  confusing.
* Slave mode is broken. This mode is entirely insane in the ``old`` versions of
  MPlayer. A proper slave mode application needed tons of code and hacks to get
  it right. The main problem is that slave mode is a bad and incomplete
  interface, and to get around that, applications parsed output messages
  intended for users. It is hard to know which messages exactly are parsed by
  slave mode applications. This makes it virtually impossible to improve
  terminal output intended for users without possibly breaking something.

  This is absolutely insane, and **mpv** will not try to keep slave mode
  compatible. If you are a developer of a slave mode application, contact us,
  and a new and better protocol can be developed.

Policy for Removed Features
---------------------------

Features are a good thing, because they make users happy. As such, it is
attempted to preserve useful features as far as possible. But if a feature is
likely to be not used by many, and causes problems otherwise, it will be
removed. Developers should not be burdened with fixing or cleaning up code that
has no actual use.

It is always possible to add back removed features. File a feature request if a
feature you relied on has been removed, and you want it back. Though it might be
rejected in the worst case, it is much more likely that it will be either added
back, or that a better solution will be implemented.

Why this Fork?
--------------

* MPlayer wants to maintain old code, even if it is very bad code. It seems
  mplayer2 was forked because MPlayer developers refused to get rid of all the
  cruft. The mplayer2 and MPlayer codebases also deviated enough to make a
  reunification unlikely.
* mplayer2 development is slow, and it is hard to get in changes. Details
  withheld as to not turn this into a rant.
* MPlayer rarely merged from mplayer2, and mplayer2 practically stopped
  merging from MPlayer (not even code cleanups or new features are merged)
* **mpv** intends to continuously merge from mplayer-svn and mplayer2, while
  speeding up development. There is willingness for significant changes, even
  if this means breaking compatibility.