mpv
Free, open-source command-line media player with high-quality GPU video output and scripting.
- Pricing
- Open source
- Platforms
- Windows, macOS, Linux, Android
- Categories
- Games & entertainment, Video
About mpv
mpv is a free, open-source, cross-platform media player designed for the command line. It plays a wide range of media formats, codecs and subtitle types, with an OpenGL, Vulkan and D3D11 video output offering high-quality scaling, colour management, frame timing, interpolation and HDR. It can use hardware decoding on most platforms, has a minimal on-screen controller instead of a full GUI, supports user scripts for extending behaviour, and exposes a C API so it can be embedded in other applications (IINA, for example, is built on it). Official CI builds are offered for Windows and macOS, with community builds and packages for Linux, BSDs, Android and others.
Good for
Technical users and videophiles who want precise control over playback quality, keyboard-driven use and scripting, or a player library to embed.
Watch out for
There is no conventional GUI. Most binary packages are unofficial third-party builds, the first-party CI builds are mainly for testing, and the project warns that distro packages are often outdated.
Pricing notes
As of October 2026 mpv is free with no paid tier.
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