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mpv
###
##############
a media player
##############
:Copyright: GPLv2+
:Manual section: 1
:Manual group: multimedia
.. contents:: Table of Contents
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.
Ctrl+Shift+Left and Ctrl+Shift+Right
Adjust subtitle delay so that the next or previous subtitle is displayed
now. This is especially useful to sync subtitles to audio.
[ and ]
Decrease/increase current playback speed by 10%.
{ and }
Halve/double current playback speed.
BACKSPACE
Reset playback speed to normal.
Shift+BACKSPACE
Undo the last seek. This works only if the playlist entry was not changed.
Hitting it a second time will go back to the original position.
See ``revert-seek`` command for details.
Shift+Ctrl+BACKSPACE
Mark the current position. This will then be used by ``Shift+BACKSPACE``
as revert position (once you seek back, the marker will be reset). You can
use this to seek around in the file and then return to the exact position
where you left off.
< and >
Go backward/forward in the playlist.
ENTER
Go forward in the playlist.
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 W
Decrease/increase pan-and-scan range. The ``e`` key does the same as
``W`` currently, but use is discouraged.
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.
z and Z
Adjust subtitle delay by +/- 0.1 seconds. The ``x`` key does the same as
``Z`` currently, but use is discouraged.
l
Set/clear A-B loop points. See ``ab-loop`` command for details.
L
Toggle infinite looping.
Ctrl + and Ctrl -
Adjust audio delay (A/V sync) by +/- 0.1 seconds.
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 R
Move subtitles up/down. The ``t`` key does the same as ``R`` currently, but
use is discouraged.
s
Take a screenshot.
S
Take a screenshot, without subtitles. (Whether this works depends on VO
driver support.)
Ctrl s
Take a screenshot, as the window shows it (with subtitles, OSD, and scaled
video).
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.
Ctrl h
Toggle hardware video decoding on/off.
Alt+LEFT, Alt+RIGHT, Alt+UP, Alt+DOWN
Move the video rectangle (panning).
Alt + and Alt -
Combining ``Alt`` with the ``+`` or ``-`` keys changes video zoom.
Alt+BACKSPACE
Reset the pan/zoom settings.
F8
Show the playlist and the current position in it (useful only if a UI window
is used, broken on the terminal).
F9
Show the list of audio and subtitle streams (useful only if a UI window is
used, broken on the terminal).
i and I
Show/toggle an overlay displaying statistics about the currently playing
file such as codec, framerate, number of dropped frames and so on. See
`STATS`_ for more information.
del
Cycles visibility between never / auto (mouse-move) / always
\`
Show the console. (ESC closes it again. See `CONSOLE`_.)
(The following keys are valid only when using a video output that supports the
corresponding adjustment.)
1 and 2
Adjust contrast.
3 and 4
Adjust brightness.
5 and 6
Adjust gamma.
7 and 8
Adjust saturation.
Alt+0 (and command+0 on 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
-------------
Left double click
Toggle fullscreen on/off.
Right click
Toggle pause on/off.
Forward/Back button
Skip to next/previous entry in playlist.
Wheel up/down
Seek forward/backward 10 seconds.
Wheel left/right
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.
Until mpv 0.31.0, there was no difference whether an option started with ``--``
or a single ``-``. Newer mpv releases strictly expect that you pass the option
value after a ``=``. For example, before ``mpv --log-file f.txt`` would write
a log to ``f.txt``, but now this command line fails, as ``--log-file`` expects
an option value, and ``f.txt`` is simply considered a normal file to be played
(as in ``mpv f.txt``).
The future plan is that ``-option value`` will not work anymore, and options
with a single ``-`` behave the same as ``--`` options.
Escaping spaces and other special characters
--------------------------------------------
Keep in mind that the shell will partially parse and mangle the arguments you
pass to mpv. For example, you might need to quote or escape options and
filenames:
``mpv "filename with spaces.mkv" --title="window title"``
It gets more complicated if the suboption parser is involved. The suboption
parser puts several options into a single string, and passes them to a
component at once, instead of using multiple options on the level of the
command line.
The suboption parser can quote strings with ``"`` and ``[...]``.
Additionally, there is a special form of quoting with ``%n%`` described below.
For example, assume the hypothetical ``foo`` filter can take multiple options:
``mpv test.mkv --vf=foo:option1=value1:option2:option3=value3,bar``
This passes ``option1`` and ``option3`` to the ``foo`` filter, with ``option2``
as flag (implicitly ``option2=yes``), and adds a ``bar`` filter after that. If
an option contains spaces or characters like ``,`` or ``:``, you need to quote
them:
``mpv '--vf=foo:option1="option value with spaces",bar'``
Shells may actually strip some quotes from the string passed to the commandline,
so the example quotes the string twice, ensuring that mpv receives the ``"``
quotes.
The ``[...]`` form of quotes wraps everything between ``[`` and ``]``. It's
useful with shells that don't interpret these characters in the middle of
an argument (like bash). These quotes are balanced (since mpv 0.9.0): the ``[``
and ``]`` nest, and the quote terminates on the last ``]`` that has no matching
``[`` within the string. (For example, ``[a[b]c]`` results in ``a[b]c``.)
The fixed-length quoting syntax is intended for use with external
scripts and programs.
It is started with ``%`` and has the following format::
%n%string_of_length_n
.. admonition:: 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 ``~/.mpv/``).
``~/`` expands to the user's home directory. (The trailing ``/`` is always
required.) The following paths are currently recognized:
================ ===============================================================
Name Meaning
================ ===============================================================
``~~/`` mpv config dir (for example ``~/.mpv/``)
``~/`` user home directory root (similar to shell, ``$HOME``)
``~~home/`` same as ``~~/``
``~~global/`` the global config path, if available (not on win32)
``~~osxbundle/`` the OSX bundle resource path (OSX only)
``~~desktop/`` the path to the desktop (win32, OSX)
``~~exe_dir`` win32 only: the path to the directory containing the exe (for
config file purposes; ``$MPV_HOME`` overrides it)
``~~old_home`` do not use
================ ===============================================================
Per-File Options
----------------
When playing multiple files, any option given on the command line usually
affects all files. Example::
mpv --a file1.mkv --b file2.mkv --c
=============== ===========================
File Active options
=============== ===========================
file1.mkv ``--a --b --c``
file2.mkv ``--a --b --c``
=============== ===========================
(This is different from MPlayer and mplayer2.)
Also, if any option is changed at runtime (via input commands), they are not
reset when a new file is played.
Sometimes, it is useful to change options per-file. This can be achieved by
adding the special per-file markers ``--{`` and ``--}``. (Note that you must
escape these on some shells.) Example::
mpv --a file1.mkv --b --\{ --c file2.mkv --d file3.mkv --e --\} file4.mkv --f
=============== ===========================
File Active options
=============== ===========================
file1.mkv ``--a --b --f``
file2.mkv ``--a --b --f --c --d --e``
file3.mkv ``--a --b --f --c --d --e``
file4.mkv ``--a --b --f``
=============== ===========================
Additionally, any file-local option changed at runtime is reset when the current
file stops playing. If option ``--c`` is changed during playback of
``file2.mkv``, it is reset when advancing to ``file3.mkv``. This only affects
file-local options. The option ``--a`` is never reset here.
List Options
------------
Some options which store lists of option values can have action suffixes. For
example, the ``--display-tags`` option takes a ``,``-separated list of tags, but
the option also allows you to append a single tag with ``--display-tags-append``,
and the tag name can for example contain a literal ``,`` without the need for
escaping.
String list and path list options
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
String lists are separated by ``,``. The strings are not parsed or interpreted
by the option system itself. However, most
Path or file list options use ``:`` (Unix) or ``;`` (Windows) as separator,
instead of ``,``.
They support the following operations:
============= ===============================================
Suffix Meaning
============= ===============================================
-set Set a list of items (using the list separator, interprets escapes)
-append Append single item (does not interpret escapes)
-add Append 1 or more items (same syntax as -set)
-pre Prepend 1 or more items (same syntax as -set)
-clr Clear the option (remove all items)
-remove Delete item if present (does not interpret escapes)
-del Delete 1 or more items by integer index (deprecated)
-toggle Append an item, or remove if if it already exists (no escapes)
============= ===============================================
``-append`` is meant as a simple way to append a single item without having
to escape the argument (you may still need to escape on the shell level).
Key/value list options
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A key/value list is a list of key/value string pairs. In programming languages,
this type of data structure is often called a map or a dictionary. The order
normally does not matter, although in some cases the order might matter.
They support the following operations:
============= ===============================================
Suffix Meaning
============= ===============================================
-set Set a list of items (using ``,`` as separator)
-append Append a single item (escapes for the key, no escapes for the value)
-add Append 1 or more items (same syntax as -set)
-remove Delete item by key if present (does not interpret escapes)
============= ===============================================
Keys are unique within the list. If an already present key is set, the existing
key is removed before the new value is appended.
Filter options
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is a very complex option type for the ``--af`` and ``--vf`` options only.
They often require complicated escaping. See `VIDEO FILTERS`_ for details. They
support the following operations:
============= ===============================================
Suffix Meaning
============= ===============================================
-set Set a list of filters (using ``,`` as separator)
-append Append single filter
-add Append 1 or more filters (same syntax as -set)
-pre Prepend 1 or more filters (same syntax as -set)
-clr Clear the option (remove all filters)
-remove Delete filter if present
-del Delete 1 or more filters by integer index or filter label (deprecated)
-toggle Append a filter, or remove if if it already exists
-help Pseudo operation that prints a help text to the terminal
============= ===============================================
General
~~~~~~~
Without suffix, the operation used is normally ``-set``.
Although some operations allow specifying multiple items, using this is strongly
discouraged and deprecated, except for ``-set``. There is a chance that
operations like ``-add`` and ``-pre`` will work like ``-append`` and accept a
single, unescaped item only (so the ``,`` separator will not be interpreted and
is passed on as part of the value).
Some options (like ``--sub-file``, ``--audio-file``, ``--glsl-shader``) are
aliases for the proper option with ``-append`` action. For example,
``--sub-file`` is an alias for ``--sub-files-append``.
Options of this type can be changed at runtime using the ``change-list``
command, which takes the suffix (without the ``-``) as separate operation
parameter.
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 ``~/.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.
.. admonition:: Example configuration file
::
# Use GPU-accelerated video output by default.
vo=gpu
# Use quotes for text that can contain spaces:
term-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
``~/.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 ``~/.mpv``. In addition, the
``--use-filedir-conf`` option enables directory-specific configuration files.
For this, mpv first tries to load a mpv.conf from the same directory
as the file played and then tries to load any file-specific configuration.
Profiles
--------
To ease working with different configurations, profiles can be defined in the
configuration files. A profile starts with its name in square brackets,
e.g. ``[my-profile]``. All following options will be part of the profile. A
description (shown by ``--profile=help``) can be defined with the
``profile-desc`` option. To end the profile, start another one or use the
profile name ``default`` to continue with normal options.
You can list profiles with ``--profile=help``, and show the contents of a
profile with ``--show-profile=<name>`` (replace ``<name>`` with the profile
name). You can apply profiles on start with the ``--profile=<name>`` option,
or at runtime with the ``apply-profile <name>`` command.
.. admonition:: Example mpv config file with profiles
::
# normal top-level option
fullscreen=yes
# a profile that can be enabled with --profile=big-cache
[big-cache]
cache=yes
demuxer-max-bytes=123400KiB
demuxer-readahead-secs=20
[slow]
profile-desc="some profile name"
# reference a builtin profile
profile=gpu-hq
[fast]
vo=vdpau
# using a profile again extends it
[slow]
framedrop=no
# you can also include other profiles
profile=big-cache
Conditional auto profiles
-------------------------
Profiles which have the ``profile-cond`` option set are applied automatically
if the associated condition matches (unless auto profiles are disabled). The
option takes a string, which is interpreted as Lua condition. If evaluating the
expression returns true, the profile is applied, if it returns false, it is
ignored. This Lua code execution is not sandboxed.
Any variables in condition expressions can reference properties. If an
identifier is not already by defined by Lua or mpv, it is interpreted as
property. For example, ``pause`` would return the current pause status. If the
variable name contains any ``_`` characters, they are turned into ``-``. For
example, ``playback_time`` would return the property ``playback-time``.
A more robust way to access properties is using ``p.property_name`` or
``get("property-name", default_value)``. The automatic variable to property
magic will break if a new identifier with the same name is introduced (for
example, if a function named ``pause()`` were added, ``pause`` would return a
function value instead of the value of the ``pause`` property).
Note that if a property is not available, it will return ``nil``, which can
cause errors if used in expressions. These are logged in verbose mode, and the
expression is considered to be false.
Whenever a property referenced by a profile condition changes, the condition
is re-evaluated. If the return value of the condition changes from false or
error to true, the profile is applied.
Note that profiles cannot be "unapplied", so you may have to define inverse
profiles with inverse conditions do undo a profile.
.. admonition:: Example
Make only HD video look funny:
::
[something]
profile-desc=HD video sucks
profile-cond=width >= 1280
hue=-50
If you want the profile to be reverted if the condition goes to false again,
you need to do this by manually creating an inverse profile:
::
[something]
profile-desc=Flip video when entering fullscreen
profile-cond=fullscreen
vf=vflip
[something2]
profile-desc=Inverse of [something]
profile-cond=not fullscreen
vf=
This sets the video filter chain to ``vflip`` when entering fullscreen. The
first profile does not cause the filter to be removed when leaving
fullscreen. A second profile has to be defined, which is explicitly applied
on leaving fullscreen, and which explicitly clears the filter list. (This
would also clear the filter list at program start when starting the player
in windowed mode.)
.. warning::
Every time an involved property changes, the condition is evaluated again.
If your condition uses ``p.playback_time`` for example, the condition is
re-evaluated approximately on every video frame. This is probably slow.
This feature is managed by an internal Lua script. Conditions are executed as
Lua code within this script. Its environment contains at least the following
things:
``(function environment table)``
Every Lua function has an environment table. This is used for identifier
access. There is no named Lua symbol for it; it is implicit.
The environment does "magic" accesses to mpv properties. If an identifier
is not already defined in ``_G``, it retrieves the mpv property of the same
name. Any occurrences of ``_`` in the name are replaced with ``-`` before
reading the property. The returned value is as retrieved by
``mp.get_property_native(name)``. Internally, a cache of property values,
updated by observing the property is used instead, so properties that are
not observable will be stuck at the initial value forever.
If you want to access properties, that actually contain ``_`` in the name,
use ``get()`` (which does not perform transliteration).
Internally, the environment table has a ``__index`` meta method set, which
performs the access logic.
``p``
A "magic" table similar to the environment table. Unlike the latter, this
does not prefer accessing variables defined in ``_G`` - it always accesses
properties.
``get(name [, def])``
Read a property and return its value. If the property value is ``nil`` (e.g.
if the property does not exist), ``def`` is returned.
This is superficially similar to ``mp.get_property_native(name)``. An
important difference is that this accesses the property cache, and enables
the change detection logic (which is essential to the dynamic runtime
behavior of auto profiles). Also, it does not return an error value as
second return value.
The "magic" tables mentioned above use this function as backend. It does not
perform the ``_`` transliteration.
In addition, the same environment as in a blank mpv Lua script is present. For
example, ``math`` is defined and gives access to the Lua standard math library.
.. warning::
This feature is subject to change indefinitely. You might be forced to
adjust your profiles on mpv updates.
Legacy auto profiles
--------------------
Some profiles are loaded automatically using a legacy mechanism. The following
example demonstrates this:
.. admonition:: Auto profile loading
::
[extension.mkv]
profile-desc="profile for .mkv files"
vf=vflip
The profile name follows the schema ``type.name``, where type can be
``protocol`` for the input/output protocol in use (see ``--list-protocols``),
and ``extension`` for the extension of the path of the currently played file
(*not* the file format).
This feature is very limited, and is considered soft-deprecated. Use conditional
auto profiles.
Using mpv from other programs or scripts
========================================
There are three choices for using mpv from other programs or scripts:
1. Calling it as UNIX process. If you do this, *do not parse terminal output*.
The terminal output is intended for humans, and may change any time. In
addition, terminal behavior itself may change any time. Compatibility
cannot be guaranteed.
Your code should work even if you pass ``--no-terminal``. Do not attempt
to simulate user input by sending terminal control codes to mpv's stdin.
If you need interactive control, using ``--input-ipc-server`` is
recommended. This gives you access to the `JSON IPC`_ over unix domain
sockets (or named pipes on Windows).
Depending on what you do, passing ``--no-config`` or ``--config-dir`` may
be a good idea to avoid conflicts with the normal mpv user configuration
intended for CLI playback.
Using ``--input-ipc-server`` is also suitable for purposes like remote
control (however, the IPC protocol itself is not "secure" and not
intended to be so).
2. Using libmpv. This is generally recommended when mpv is used as playback
backend for a completely different application. The provided C API is
very close to CLI mechanisms and the scripting API.
Note that even though libmpv has different defaults, it can be configured
to work exactly like the CLI player (except command line parsing is
unavailable).
See `EMBEDDING INTO OTHER PROGRAMS (LIBMPV)`_.
3. As a user script (`LUA SCRIPTING`_, `JAVASCRIPT`_, `C PLUGINS`_). This is
recommended when the goal is to "enhance" the CLI player. Scripts get
access to the entire client API of mpv.
This is the standard way to create third-party extensions for the player.
All these access the client API, which is the sum of the various mechanisms
provided by the player core, as documented here: `OPTIONS`_,
`List of Input Commands`_, `Properties`_, `List of events`_ (also see C API),
`Hooks`_.
TAKING SCREENSHOTS
==================
Screenshots of the currently played file can be taken using the 'screenshot'
input mode command, which is by default bound to the ``s`` key. Files named
``mpv-shotNNNN.jpg`` will be saved in the working directory, using the first
available number - no files will be overwritten. In pseudo-GUI mode, the
screenshot will be saved somewhere else. See `PSEUDO GUI MODE`_.
A screenshot will usually contain the unscaled video contents at the end of the
video filter chain and subtitles. By default, ``S`` takes screenshots without
subtitles, while ``s`` includes subtitles.
Unlike with MPlayer, the ``screenshot`` video filter is not required. This
filter was never required in mpv, and has been removed.
TERMINAL STATUS LINE
====================
During playback, mpv shows the playback status on the terminal. It looks like
something like this:
``AV: 00:03:12 / 00:24:25 (13%) A-V: -0.000``
The status line can be overridden with the ``--term-status-msg`` option.
The following is a list of things that can show up in the status line. Input
properties, that can be used to get the same information manually, are also
listed.
- ``AV:`` or ``V:`` (video only) or ``A:`` (audio only)
- The current time position in ``HH:MM:SS`` format (``playback-time`` property)
- The total file duration (absent if unknown) (``duration`` property)
- Playback speed, e.g. `` x2.0``. Only visible if the speed is not normal. This
is the user-requested speed, and not the actual speed (usually they should
be the same, unless playback is too slow). (``speed`` property.)
- Playback percentage, e.g. ``(13%)``. How much of the file has been played.
Normally calculated out of playback position and duration, but can fallback
to other methods (like byte position) if these are not available.
(``percent-pos`` property.)
- The audio/video sync as ``A-V: 0.000``. This is the difference between
audio and video time. Normally it should be 0 or close to 0. If it's growing,
it might indicate a playback problem. (``avsync`` property.)
- Total A/V sync change, e.g. ``ct: -0.417``. Normally invisible. Can show up
if there is audio "missing", or not enough frames can be dropped. Usually
this will indicate a problem. (``total-avsync-change`` property.)
- Encoding state in ``{...}``, only shown in encoding mode.
- Display sync state. If display sync is active (``display-sync-active``
property), this shows ``DS: 2.500/13``, where the first number is average
number of vsyncs per video frame (e.g. 2.5 when playing 24Hz videos on 60Hz
screens), which might jitter if the ratio doesn't round off, or there are
mistimed frames (``vsync-ratio``), and the second number of estimated number
of vsyncs which took too long (``vo-delayed-frame-count`` property). The
latter is a heuristic, as it's generally not possible to determine this with
certainty.
- Dropped frames, e.g. ``Dropped: 4``. Shows up only if the count is not 0. Can
grow if the video framerate is higher than that of the display, or if video
rendering is too slow. May also be incremented on "hiccups" and when the video
frame couldn't be displayed on time. (``frame-drop-count`` property.)
If the decoder drops frames, the number of decoder-dropped frames is appended
to the display as well, e.g.: ``Dropped: 4/34``. This happens only if
decoder frame dropping is enabled with the ``--framedrop`` options.
(``decoder-frame-drop-count`` property.)
- Cache state, e.g. ``Cache: 2s/134KB``. Visible if the stream cache is enabled.
The first value shows the amount of video buffered in the demuxer in seconds,
the second value shows the estimated size of the buffered amount in kilobytes.
(``demuxer-cache-duration`` and ``demuxer-cache-state`` properties.)
LOW LATENCY PLAYBACK
====================
mpv is optimized for normal video playback, meaning it actually tries to buffer
as much data as it seems to make sense. This will increase latency. Reducing
latency is possible only by specifically disabling features which increase
latency.
The builtin ``low-latency`` profile tries to apply some of the options which can
reduce latency. You can use ``--profile=low-latency`` to apply all of them. You
can list the contents with ``--show-profile=low-latency`` (some of the options
are quite obscure, and may change every mpv release).
Be aware that some of the options can reduce playback quality.
Most latency is actually caused by inconvenient timing behavior. You can disable
this with ``--untimed``, but it will likely break, unless the stream has no
audio, and the input feeds data to the player at a constant rate.
Another common problem is with MJPEG streams. These do not signal the correct
framerate. Using ``--untimed`` or ``--no-correct-pts --fps=60`` might help.
For livestreams, data can build up due to pausing the stream, due to slightly
lower playback rate, or "buffering" pauses. If the demuxer cache is enabled,
these can be skipped manually. The experimental ``drop-buffers`` command can
be used to discard any buffered data, though it's very disruptive.
In some cases, manually tuning TCP buffer sizes and such can help to reduce
latency.
Additional options that can be tried:
- ``--opengl-glfinish=yes``, can reduce buffering in the graphics driver
- ``--opengl-swapinterval=0``, same
- ``--vo=xv``, same
- without audio ``--framedrop=no --speed=1.01`` may help for live sources
(results can be mixed)
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 only looks at http(s) URLs. Prefixing
an URL with ``ytdl://`` forces it to be always processed by the script. This
can also be used to invoke special youtube-dl functionality like playing a
video by ID or invoking search.
Keep in mind that you can't pass youtube-dl command line options by this,
and you have to use ``--ytdl-raw-options`` instead.
``-``
Play data from stdin.
``smb://PATH``
Play a path from Samba share. (Requires FFmpeg support.)
``bd://[title][/device]`` ``--bluray-device=PATH``
Play a Blu-ray disc. Since libbluray 1.0.1, you can read from ISO files
by passing them to ``--bluray-device``.
``title`` can be: ``longest`` or ``first`` (selects the default
playlist); ``mpls/<number>`` (selects <number>.mpls playlist);
``<number>`` (select playlist with the same index). mpv will list
the available playlists on loading.
``bluray://`` is an alias.
``dvd://[title][/device]`` ``--dvd-device=PATH``
Play a DVD. DVD menus are not supported. If no title is given, the longest
title is auto-selected. Without ``--dvd-device``, it will probably try
to open an actual optical drive, if available and implemented for the OS.
``dvdnav://`` is an old alias for ``dvd://`` and does exactly the same
thing.
``dvb://[cardnumber@]channel`` ``--dvbin-...``
Digital TV via DVB. (Linux only.)
``mf://[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.
.. admonition:: Example
::
mpv av://v4l2:/dev/video0 --profile=low-latency --untimed
This plays video from the first v4l input with nearly the lowest latency
possible. It's a good replacement for the removed ``tv://`` input.
Using ``--untimed`` is a hack to output a captured frame immediately,
instead of respecting the input framerate. (There may be better ways to
handle this in the future.)
``avdevice://`` is an alias.
``file://PATH``
A local path as URL. Might be useful in some special use-cases. Note that
``PATH`` itself should start with a third ``/`` to make the path an
absolute path.
``appending://PATH``
Play a local file, but assume it's being appended to. This is useful for
example for files that are currently being downloaded to disk. This will
block playback, and stop playback only if no new data was appended after
a timeout of about 2 seconds.
Using this is still a bit of a bad idea, because there is no way to detect
if a file is actually being appended, or if it's still written. If you're
trying to play the output of some program, consider using a pipe
(``something | mpv -``). If it really has to be a file on disk, use tail to
make it wait forever, e.g. ``tail -f -c +0 file.mkv | mpv -``.
``fd://123``
Read data from the given file descriptor (for example 123). This is similar
to piping data to stdin via ``-``, but can use an arbitrary file descriptor.
mpv may modify some file descriptor properties when the stream layer "opens"
it.
``fdclose://123``
Like ``fd://``, but the file descriptor is closed after use. When using this
you need to ensure that the same fd URL will only be used once.
``edl://[edl specification as in edl-mpv.rst]``
Stitch together parts of multiple files and play them.
``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,
which is the main difference to using ``--profile=builtin-pseudo-gui``.
The profile is currently defined as follows:
::
[builtin-pseudo-gui]
terminal=no
force-window=yes
idle=once
screenshot-directory=~~desktop/
The ``pseudo-gui`` profile exists for compatibility. The options in the
``pseudo-gui`` profile are applied unconditionally. In addition, the profile
makes sure to enable the pseudo-GUI mode, so that ``--profile=pseudo-gui``
works like in older mpv releases:
::
[pseudo-gui]
player-operation-mode=pseudo-gui
.. warning::
Currently, you can extend the ``pseudo-gui`` profile in the config file the
normal way. This is deprecated. In future mpv releases, the behavior might
change, and not apply your additional settings, and/or use a different
profile name.
Linux desktop issues
====================
This subsection describes common problems on the Linux desktop. None of these
problems exist on systems like Windows or OSX.
Disabling Screensaver
---------------------
By default, mpv tries to disable the OS screensaver during playback (only if
a VO using the OS GUI API is active). ``--stop-screensaver=no`` disables this.
A common problem is that Linux desktop environments ignore the standard
screensaver APIs on which mpv relies. In particular, mpv uses the Screen Saver
extension (XSS) on X11, and the idle-inhibit on Wayland.
GNOME is one of the worst offenders, and ignores even the now widely supported
idle-inhibit protocol. (This is either due to a combination of malice and
incompetence, but since implementing this protocol would only take a few lines
of code, it is most likely the former. You will also notice how GNOME advocates
react offended whenever their sabotage is pointed out, which indicates either
hypocrisy, or even worse ignorance.)
Such incompatible desktop environments (i.e. which ignore standards) typically
require using a DBus API. This is ridiculous in several ways. The immediate
practical problem is that it would require adding a quite unwieldy dependency
for a DBus library, somehow integrating its mainloop into mpv, and other
generally unacceptable things.
However, since mpv does not officially support GNOME, this is not much of a
problem. If you are one of those miserable users who want to use mpv on GNOME,
report a bug on the GNOME issue tracker:
https://gitlab.gnome.org/groups/GNOME/-/issues
Alternatively, you may be able to write a Lua script that calls the
``xdg-screensaver`` command line program. (By the way, this a command line
program is an utterly horrible kludge that tries to identify your DE, and then
tries to send the correct DBus command via a DBus CLI tool.) If you find the
idea of having to write a script just so your screensaver doesn't kick in
ridiculous, do not use GNOME, or use GNOME video software instead of mpv (good
luck).
Before mpv 0.33.0, the X11 backend ran ``xdg-screensaver reset`` in 10 second
intervals when not paused. This hack was removed in 0.33.0.
.. include:: options.rst
.. include:: ao.rst
.. include:: vo.rst
.. include:: af.rst
.. include:: vf.rst
.. include:: encode.rst
.. include:: input.rst
.. include:: osc.rst
.. include:: stats.rst
.. include:: console.rst
.. include:: lua.rst
.. include:: javascript.rst
.. include:: ipc.rst
.. include:: changes.rst
.. include:: libmpv.rst
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. But note that if the directory as according
to XDG does not exist, ``$HOME/.config/mpv`` is created and used. See
`FILES`_.
``MPV_HOME``
Directory where mpv looks for user settings. Overrides ``HOME``, and mpv
will try to load the config file as ``$MPV_HOME/mpv.conf``.
``MPV_VERBOSE`` (see also ``-v`` and ``--msg-level``)
Set the initial verbosity level across all message modules (default: 0).
This is an integer, and the resulting verbosity corresponds to the number
of ``--v`` options passed to the command line.
``MPV_LEAK_REPORT``
If set to ``1``, enable internal talloc leak reporting. If set to another
value, disable leak reporting. If unset, use the default, which normally is
``0``. If mpv was built with ``--enable-ta-leak-report``, the default is
``1``. If leak reporting was disabled at compile time (``NDEBUG`` in
custom ``CFLAGS``), this environment variable is ignored.
``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.
``/usr/local/etc/mpv/mpv.conf``
mpv system-wide settings (depends on ``--prefix`` passed to configure - mpv
in default configuration will use ``/usr/local/etc/mpv/`` as config
directory, while most Linux distributions will set it to ``/etc/mpv/``).
Ignored if ``$MPV_HOME`` is set.
``~/.mpv/``
Standard configuration files directory. The path is derived from the
``$HOME`` environment variable (if unset, something stupid happens).
If the ``$MPV_HOME`` environment variable is set, it is used as sole config
dir, and the other paths are not used.
If the directory does not exist (and no alternative config dirs exist), mpv
tries to create it and use it.
``~/.config/mpv/``
Alternative configuration directory following the KDE/GNOME desktop
environment specific convention. If the standard directory ``~/.mpv/`` does
not exist, but this path does, it is used instead.
.
If ``$XDG_CONFIG_HOME`` is set, it is used as prefix instead of
``~/.config``.
Note that if both this path and ``~/.mpv/`` exists, ``~/.mpv/`` will be
preferred, but it will still add the XDG path as secondary search path
(why the hell it does that is unknown).
``~/.mpv/mpv.conf``
mpv user settings (see `CONFIGURATION FILES`_ section)
``~/.mpv/input.conf``
key bindings (see `INPUT.CONF`_ section)
``~/.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.
``~/.mpv/subfont.ttf``
fallback subtitle font
``~/.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.
``~/.mpv/scripts/``
All files in this directory are loaded as if they were passed to the
``--script`` option. They are loaded in alphabetical order.
The ``--load-scripts=no`` option disables loading these files.
See `Script location`_ for details.
``~/.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.
``~/.mpv/script-opts/osc.conf``
This is loaded by the OSC script. See the `ON SCREEN CONTROLLER`_ docs
for details.
Other files in this directory are specific to the corresponding scripts
as well, and the mpv core doesn't touch them.
FILES ON WINDOWS
================
On win32 (if compiled with MinGW, but not Cygwin), the default config file
locations are different. They are generally located under ``%APPDATA%/mpv/``.
For example, the path to mpv.conf is ``%APPDATA%/mpv/mpv.conf``, which maps to
a system and user-specific path, for example
``C:\users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\mpv\mpv.conf``
You can find the exact path by running ``echo %APPDATA%\mpv\mpv.conf`` in cmd.exe.
Other config files (such as ``input.conf``) are in the same directory. See the
`FILES`_ section above.
The 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.
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