MPV - versitile fast lean player.

[Abarbarian]

mpv (media player).wikipedia.

mpv is free and open-source media player software based on MPlayer, mplayer2 and FFmpeg. It runs on several operating systems, including the Unix-like operating systems (Linux, BSD-based, macOS) and the non-Unix Microsoft Windows, along with having an Android port called mpv-android.[6] It is cross-platform, running on ARM, PowerPC, x86/IA-32, x86-64, and MIPS architecture.

mpv was forked in 2012 from mplayer2, which was forked in 2010 from MPlayer.[7] The motive for the fork was to encourage developer activity by removing unmaintainable code and dropping support for very old systems. As a result, the project had a large influx of contributions.

Like the original MPlayer, mpv is still primarily a command-line application although it has a more advanced user interface than MPlayer that can use not only the keyboard but also the mouse for mpv’s on screen controller (OSC). However, this OSC is still not a full-featured GUI, and there are a number of front-ends available, which use GUI widgets for Qt, GTK, or some other widget toolkit to give mpv a more complete graphical interface.

This is a very neat player and you should not be put of by the fact that it is mainly a cli program. As you can easily use it without the cli by simply choosing it to be the default program for .mp4 etc files, which is the way I use it.
Also there are over fifteen GUI players that are based on mpv.

mpv - Arch Wiki

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/List_of_applications/Multimedia#mpv-based

My video needs extend to playing a video and …Er, that’s it. A video payer that opens a video as quickly as possible and keeps out of my way is of more use to me. And mpv does that perfectly.

Another few pluses (for me, at least) is smooth seek-bar scrubbing, MKV chapter support, subtitle support, and (once again for emphasis) its super speedy start-up times.

The quotes above taken from the article below sum up why I prefer mpv to vlc for daily use.

Why I Swapped VLC for MPV

Today I came across some MPV super usefup to me extras that I did not know about, they are MPV User-Scripts.

User Scripts

Here is a list of scripts that users of mpv have published, adding functionality that is not part of the core mpv player. Most of these scripts are unofficial 3rd party scripts. Anyone can add their own script by editing this wiki.

I have used three of the scripts and find them very useful.

history-bookmark.lua

I watch Anime and TV series but like to download the entire series before I watch. Also I may just watch a couple of episodes and then not return to watching for a few days or even weeks. Sometimes I have several series on the go as I like to watch stuff to suit my mood. As you can imagine this makes tracking which episode I need to watch next a tad tricky.
The above script helps find the correct episode to watch easily.

autoload.lua

A neat script. Down at the bottom ;left in mpv you have a two little arrows for last/next item. On my mpv they have always been greyed out and done nothing. With this script they are showing active and the call up last/next item. I addition they show a playlist on screen for a very short time of the items in the folder you are playing items from. This works with series which are named the same with episode numbering and also with a folder containing random named files. I have some folders with movies and odd shorts so it is handy to see what I have directly in mpv rather than going to the folder itself all the time.

autocrop.lua

I watch a lot of older stuff and it is mainly in 4:3 aspect which is ok for nostalgia but the black lines at the side of the screen bug me as I have a widescreen monitor. Now not all 4:3 stuff looks good if filling the screen but quite a lot of the anime I watch looks just fine to me when it is changed from 4:3 to filling the screen which is what this script does.
I have not tried it out with those stupid cinema screen films that have empty black spaces at the top and bottom of the screen. I hope it works with them as they really do make me see red

There is another script that is dedicated to changing 4:3 to fill your screen but I have not tried it out yet. As you can see there are many scripts for all sorts of things in the User-Script library and if you are able it seems pretty easy to add your own scripts too.
Don't you just love the versatility of penguins.

Enjoy.

 

[Ian]

I'm also a VLC user, but never heard of MPV before - looks pretty capable too, but with a little less frontend. Thanks for the heads up

 

[Abarbarian]

I'm also a VLC user, but never heard of MPV before - looks pretty capable too, but with a little less frontend. Thanks for the heads up

I like the simple way it looks when you open it, an I know you could probably get a similar look in VLC. Also the way you can pause by right clicking and +/- volume with the mouse wheel plus other aspects suits me.

Here is my .config file which is pretty simple too and gives me good results.

vo=gpu
profile=gpu-hq
hwdec=auto
hwdec-codecs=all
scale=ewa_lanczossharp
cscale=ewa_lanczossharp
video-sync=display-resample
interpolation
tscale=oversample
keepaspect=no
stop-screensaver = "yes"
save-position-on-quit
ao=pulse
sub-bold=yes
audio-device=alsa/iec958:CARD=PCH,DEV=0'

I was under the impression that mpv was mean and lean so it would use less resources. I was wrong it uses around 2 to 3 % more cpu on average and around 0.2 % more memory.

Strangely though the installed size of vlc is over ten times bigger than mpv. Yet it uses less resources when running.

I can afford the extra few cpu cycles used and will continue to use mpv as my favourite player.

 

[Abarbarian]

A Week With Plan 9

No not the movie the Operating system from Bell Labs.

There are several Plan 9 distributions available. The most well-known is 9Front. I settled on Richard Miller’s Raspberry Pi port. While he saw 9Front as a fork, I’d consider significant novel innovation versus a filling the base userland with cruft as a key distinction between fork and distribution. Semantics aside, Richard Miller’s port features wifi support and other Pi-specific features. Miller’s distribution is also the original Plan 9 4th Edition with minor changes. I’ll let him explain:

Plan 9 is as filled with unpolished brilliance as Mozart’s Requiem. It’s the Sagrada Familia of Operating Systems. It’s creators left long ago but people keep building on the scaffolds. If nothing else, it’s a collection of fantastic ideas never intended for mass consumption. This is The Holy Mountain of Operating Systems.

Richard Miller’s Plan 9 Pi distribution is a great way to give a drawer-dwelling Raspberry Pi or two a new lease of life. Even if you go no further than a wet weekend afternoon figuring it out, it’s more than you’d have done with it otherwise.

Follow the White Rabbit. Turn on, Drawterm in and hop out.