diff --git a/player/playloop.c b/player/playloop.c
index a1cdb0028d..7edd498606 100644
--- a/player/playloop.c
+++ b/player/playloop.c
@@ -1011,8 +1011,7 @@ void run_playloop(struct MPContext *mpctx)
             MP_TRACE(mpctx, "frametime=%5.3f\n", frame_time);
             if (mpctx->d_video->vfilter && mpctx->d_video->vfilter->initialized < 0)
             {
-                MP_FATAL(mpctx, "\nFATAL: Could not initialize video filters "
-                         "(-vf) or video output (-vo).\n");
+                MP_FATAL(mpctx, "Could not initialize video chain.\n");
                 int uninit = INITIALIZED_VCODEC;
                 if (!opts->force_vo)
                     uninit |= INITIALIZED_VO;
diff --git a/video/decode/dec_video.c b/video/decode/dec_video.c
index cb541e6207..7ade93b577 100644
--- a/video/decode/dec_video.c
+++ b/video/decode/dec_video.c
@@ -432,7 +432,7 @@ int video_reconfig_filters(struct dec_video *d_video,
                p.w, p.h, p.d_w, p.d_h, p.imgfmt);
 
     if (vf_reconfig(d_video->vfilter, &p) < 0) {
-        MP_WARN(d_video, "FATAL: Cannot initialize video driver.\n");
+        MP_FATAL(d_video, "Cannot initialize video filters.\n");
         return -1;
     }