Mpv – A free, open-source, and cross-platform media player

The best media player available on linux. The worst GUI (none) out of the box. Bearable after tinkering a bit with configs.

> The best media player available on linux

Strong clam, this ...

PS. For the controversy: Please note I am not disputing the claim - particularly when many claim this is the best player on any platform, not just Linux.-

> Strong clam, this ...

What's better?

mplayer

Isn't mpv a more modern and maintained mplayer fork? Mplayer was my go-to for many many years, starting in the early 2000s, but I switched at one point and can't remember why. What do you prefer about mplayer?

> The worst GUI (none) out of the box.

That's funny, for me that's exactly the best GUI out of the box. I actually did some tinkering to reduce the GUI parts even more, and added more keyboard shortcuts.

I use SMPlayer as a front end for mpv (you can select mplayer or mpv as backend). Not sure if that is common or even a good idea. But I am generally happy with it.

I used played for 20+ years but moved to mpv recently as I ran into a couple of things player won’t work with.

Struggling to see the benefit of mplayer over mpv today.

try celluloid https://github.com/celluloid-player/celluloid

If I recall correctly, for a brief time mplayer disappeared from Debian. At the time I evaluated various alternatives and mpv was one of them, but I switched back to mplayer as soon as it made its way back to the distribution. For me, mplayer is the standard media player. I guess I just don't see any reason to switch to mpv or to any other player.

It does have a GUI in the form of video overlays. For me it's perfect. By default it just shows the video which is both necessary and sufficient.

mpv is an active mplayer fork.

I see no reason to cling to mplayer/mplayer2, mpv has pushed things forward from there.

mplayer is what I used to use ages ago, can't think of a single thing I miss that it did which mpv doesn't. Like you, I was introduced to mpv through the debian disappearance, and it's been fine. Forks can be necessary to keep development active; it's one of the core features of FOSS.

mplayer has DVD menu support, mpv doesn't. I use Kodi if I need to navigate DVD menus these days, which is rare but it happens...

That's funny. SMPlayer was my preferred MPlayer front end before I switched to MPV years ago. And I've never really felt like I needed more GUI for MPV.