Free and Open-Source Media Player Alternative

MPV is a multimedia app that lets you play videos in various formats. It is a free and open-source media player that is a fork of mplayer2 and Mplayer. When you are looking for an alternative to your usual video player, this app is worth trying. 

Powerful Features

When you think of a video player, surely VLC player will cross your mind. This app is not only free to use and open-source, but it is also extremely powerful and plays near everything you plays with it. MPV can give you what VLC has to offer. 

MPV is as powerful as VLC but does not pull all of the toggles, levers, and switches in your face by default. Under its austere user interface is a veritable NASA dashboard of command options and advanced configurable capabilities. 

Like VLC, MPV can play almost every media content you chuck on its way. Whether it is internet radio streams, video streams, and videos saved in your device’s media library, you can play it using this software. The app also lets you apply various audio and video filters, adjust the quality, customize framerate, do color management, frame timing, and interpolation. The list of configurable capabilities of MPV literally goes on with 445 options. 

App Usability

MVP is primarily a CLI application, meaning it lacks a traditional interface. Many of its option names and semantics were reworked to make them more intuitive and memorable. Most of the time, you can open the app by double clicking on a video file. 

There is a stock GUI if you launch the app the traditional way. However, this is not the app’s official GUI as the app does not have one. You can wiggle your mouse on the screen to access a small OSD controller with a modest set of options, including pause, skip, toggle, subtitle, and audio tracks. 

MPV is also embeddable. The app has a straightforward C API designed from the ground up to make it usable as a library and easy to integrate into other applications. Furthermore, this app has an OpenGL based video output capable of many features. From video scaling with popular high-quality algorithm and color management to adjusting the frame timing and interpolation, this can do it all. This way, you are sure to have a high-quality video output, every time. 

Time to Switch

There are lots of promising alternative media players available, but not all offer a powerful set of features like most mainstream programs. With MVP you can have a video player with an excellent set of options at no cost at all. The app is also lighter on the system resource usage and keeps out of your way while it does its work. If this is your primary reason for looking at an alternative, then its time to make that switch.