VIDEO OUTPUT DRIVERS ==================== Video output drivers are interfaces to different video output facilities. The syntax is: ``--vo=`` Specify a priority list of video output drivers to be used. If the list has a trailing ``,``, mpv will fall back on drivers not contained in the list. .. note:: See ``--vo=help`` for a list of compiled-in video output drivers. The recommended output driver is ``--vo=gpu``, which is the default. All other drivers are for compatibility or special purposes. If the default does not work, it will fallback to other drivers (in the same order as listed by ``--vo=help``). Available video output drivers are: ``gpu`` General purpose, customizable, GPU-accelerated video output driver. It supports extended scaling methods, dithering, color management, custom shaders, HDR, and more. See `GPU renderer options`_ for options specific to this VO. By default, it tries to use fast and fail-safe settings. Use the ``gpu-hq`` profile to use this driver with defaults set to high quality rendering. The profile can be applied with ``--profile=gpu-hq`` and its contents can be viewed with ``--show-profile=gpu-hq``. This VO abstracts over several possible graphics APIs and windowing contexts, which can be influenced using the ``--gpu-api`` and ``--gpu-context`` options. Hardware decoding over OpenGL-interop is supported to some degree. Note that in this mode, some corner case might not be gracefully handled, and color space conversion and chroma upsampling is generally in the hand of the hardware decoder APIs. ``gpu`` makes use of FBOs by default. Sometimes you can achieve better quality or performance by changing the ``--fbo-format`` option to ``rgb16f``, ``rgb32f`` or ``rgb``. Known problems include Mesa/Intel not accepting ``rgb16``, Mesa sometimes not being compiled with float texture support, and some macOS setups being very slow with ``rgb16`` but fast with ``rgb32f``. If you have problems, you can also try enabling the ``--gpu-dumb-mode=yes`` option. ``gpu-next`` Experimental video renderer based on ``libplacebo``. This supports almost the same set of features as ``--vo=gpu``. See `GPU renderer options`_ for a list. Should generally be faster and higher quality, but some features may still be missing or misbehave. Expect (and report!) bugs. See here for a list of known differences and bugs: https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/wiki/GPU-Next-vs-GPU ``xv`` (X11 only) Uses the XVideo extension to enable hardware-accelerated display. This is the most compatible VO on X, but may be low-quality, and has issues with OSD and subtitle display. .. note:: This driver is for compatibility with old systems. The following global options are supported by this video output: ``--xv-adaptor=`` Select a specific XVideo adapter (check xvinfo results). ``--xv-port=`` Select a specific XVideo port. ``--xv-ck=`` Select the source from which the color key is taken (default: cur). cur The default takes the color key currently set in Xv. use Use but do not set the color key from mpv (use the ``--colorkey`` option to change it). set Same as use but also sets the supplied color key. ``--xv-ck-method=`` Sets the color key drawing method (default: man). none Disables color-keying. man Draw the color key manually (reduces flicker in some cases). bg Set the color key as window background. auto Let Xv draw the color key. ``--xv-colorkey=`` Changes the color key to an RGB value of your choice. ``0x000000`` is black and ``0xffffff`` is white. ``--xv-buffers=`` Number of image buffers to use for the internal ringbuffer (default: 2). Increasing this will use more memory, but might help with the X server not responding quickly enough if video FPS is close to or higher than the display refresh rate. ``x11`` (X11 only) Shared memory video output driver without hardware acceleration that works whenever X11 is present. Since mpv 0.30.0, you may need to use ``--profile=sw-fast`` to get decent performance. .. note:: This is a fallback only, and should not be normally used. ``vdpau`` (X11 only) Uses the VDPAU interface to display and optionally also decode video. Hardware decoding is used with ``--hwdec=vdpau``. Note that there is absolutely no reason to use this, other than compatibility. We strongly recommend that you use ``--vo=gpu`` with ``--hwdec=nvdec`` instead. .. note:: Earlier versions of mpv (and MPlayer, mplayer2) provided sub-options to tune vdpau post-processing, like ``deint``, ``sharpen``, ``denoise``, ``chroma-deint``, ``pullup``, ``hqscaling``. These sub-options are deprecated, and you should use the ``vdpaupp`` video filter instead. The following global options are supported by this video output: ``--vo-vdpau-sharpen=<-1-1>`` (Deprecated. See note about ``vdpaupp``.) For positive values, apply a sharpening algorithm to the video, for negative values a blurring algorithm (default: 0). ``--vo-vdpau-denoise=<0-1>`` (Deprecated. See note about ``vdpaupp``.) Apply a noise reduction algorithm to the video (default: 0; no noise reduction). ``--vo-vdpau-chroma-deint`` (Deprecated. See note about ``vdpaupp``.) Makes temporal deinterlacers operate both on luma and chroma (default). Use no-chroma-deint to solely use luma and speed up advanced deinterlacing. Useful with slow video memory. ``--vo-vdpau-pullup`` (Deprecated. See note about ``vdpaupp``.) Try to apply inverse telecine, needs motion adaptive temporal deinterlacing. ``--vo-vdpau-hqscaling=<0-9>`` (Deprecated. See note about ``vdpaupp``.) 0 Use default VDPAU scaling (default). 1-9 Apply high quality VDPAU scaling (needs capable hardware). ``--vo-vdpau-fps=`` Override autodetected display refresh rate value (the value is needed for framedrop to allow video playback rates higher than display refresh rate, and for vsync-aware frame timing adjustments). Default 0 means use autodetected value. A positive value is interpreted as a refresh rate in Hz and overrides the autodetected value. A negative value disables all timing adjustment and framedrop logic. ``--vo-vdpau-composite-detect`` NVIDIA's current VDPAU implementation behaves somewhat differently under a compositing window manager and does not give accurate frame timing information. With this option enabled, the player tries to detect whether a compositing window manager is active. If one is detected, the player disables timing adjustments as if the user had specified ``fps=-1`` (as they would be based on incorrect input). This means timing is somewhat less accurate than without compositing, but with the composited mode behavior of the NVIDIA driver, there is no hard playback speed limit even without the disabled logic. Enabled by default, use ``--vo-vdpau-composite-detect=no`` to disable. ``--vo-vdpau-queuetime-windowed=`` and ``queuetime-fs=`` Use VDPAU's presentation queue functionality to queue future video frame changes at most this many milliseconds in advance (default: 50). See below for additional information. ``--vo-vdpau-output-surfaces=<2-15>`` Allocate this many output surfaces to display video frames (default: 3). See below for additional information. ``--vo-vdpau-colorkey=<#RRGGBB|#AARRGGBB>`` Set the VDPAU presentation queue background color, which in practice is the colorkey used if VDPAU operates in overlay mode (default: ``#020507``, some shade of black). If the alpha component of this value is 0, the default VDPAU colorkey will be used instead (which is usually green). ``--vo-vdpau-force-yuv`` Never accept RGBA input. This means mpv will insert a filter to convert to a YUV format before the VO. Sometimes useful to force availability of certain YUV-only features, like video equalizer or deinterlacing. Using the VDPAU frame queuing functionality controlled by the queuetime options makes mpv's frame flip timing less sensitive to system CPU load and allows mpv to start decoding the next frame(s) slightly earlier, which can reduce jitter caused by individual slow-to-decode frames. However, the NVIDIA graphics drivers can make other window behavior such as window moves choppy if VDPAU is using the blit queue (mainly happens if you have the composite extension enabled) and this feature is active. If this happens on your system and it bothers you then you can set the queuetime value to 0 to disable this feature. The settings to use in windowed and fullscreen mode are separate because there should be no reason to disable this for fullscreen mode (as the driver issue should not affect the video itself). You can queue more frames ahead by increasing the queuetime values and the ``output_surfaces`` count (to ensure enough surfaces to buffer video for a certain time ahead you need at least as many surfaces as the video has frames during that time, plus two). This could help make video smoother in some cases. The main downsides are increased video RAM requirements for the surfaces and laggier display response to user commands (display changes only become visible some time after they're queued). The graphics driver implementation may also have limits on the length of maximum queuing time or number of queued surfaces that work well or at all. ``direct3d`` (Windows only) Video output driver that uses the Direct3D interface. .. note:: This driver is for compatibility with systems that don't provide proper OpenGL drivers, and where ANGLE does not perform well. The following global options are supported by this video output: ``--vo-direct3d-disable-texture-align`` Normally texture sizes are always aligned to 16. With this option enabled, the video texture will always have exactly the same size as the video itself. Debug options. These might be incorrect, might be removed in the future, might crash, might cause slow downs, etc. Contact the developers if you actually need any of these for performance or proper operation. ``--vo-direct3d-force-power-of-2`` Always force textures to power of 2, even if the device reports non-power-of-2 texture sizes as supported. ``--vo-direct3d-texture-memory=`` Only affects operation with shaders/texturing enabled, and (E)OSD. Possible values: ``default`` (default) Use ``D3DPOOL_DEFAULT``, with a ``D3DPOOL_SYSTEMMEM`` texture for locking. If the driver supports ``D3DDEVCAPS_TEXTURESYSTEMMEMORY``, ``D3DPOOL_SYSTEMMEM`` is used directly. ``default-pool`` Use ``D3DPOOL_DEFAULT``. (Like ``default``, but never use a shadow-texture.) ``default-pool-shadow`` Use ``D3DPOOL_DEFAULT``, with a ``D3DPOOL_SYSTEMMEM`` texture for locking. (Like ``default``, but always force the shadow-texture.) ``managed`` Use ``D3DPOOL_MANAGED``. ``scratch`` Use ``D3DPOOL_SCRATCH``, with a ``D3DPOOL_SYSTEMMEM`` texture for locking. ``--vo-direct3d-swap-discard`` Use ``D3DSWAPEFFECT_DISCARD``, which might be faster. Might be slower too, as it must(?) clear every frame. ``--vo-direct3d-exact-backbuffer`` Always resize the backbuffer to window size. ``sdl`` SDL 2.0+ Render video output driver, depending on system with or without hardware acceleration. Should work on all platforms supported by SDL 2.0. For tuning, refer to your copy of the file ``SDL_hints.h``. .. note:: This driver is for compatibility with systems that don't provide proper graphics drivers. The following global options are supported by this video output: ``--sdl-sw`` Continue even if a software renderer is detected. ``--sdl-switch-mode`` Instruct SDL to switch the monitor video mode when going fullscreen. ``vaapi-wayland`` Experimental Wayland output driver designed for use with VA API hardware decoding. The driver is designed to avoid any GPU to CPU copies, and to perform scaling and color space conversion using fixed-function hardware, if available, rather than GPU shaders. This frees up GPU resources for other tasks. Currently this driver is experimental and only works with the ``--hwdec=vaapi`` driver; OSD is also not supported. Supported compositors : Weston and Sway. ``vaapi`` Intel VA API video output driver with support for hardware decoding. Note that there is absolutely no reason to use this, other than compatibility. This is low quality, and has issues with OSD. We strongly recommend that you use ``--vo=gpu`` with ``--hwdec=vaapi`` instead. The following global options are supported by this video output: ``--vo-vaapi-scaling=`` default Driver default (mpv default as well). fast Fast, but low quality. hq Unspecified driver dependent high-quality scaling, slow. nla ``non-linear anamorphic scaling`` ``--vo-vaapi-deint-mode=`` Select deinterlacing algorithm. Note that by default deinterlacing is initially always off, and needs to be enabled with the ``d`` key (default key binding for ``cycle deinterlace``). This option doesn't apply if libva supports video post processing (vpp). In this case, the default for ``deint-mode`` is ``no``, and enabling deinterlacing via user interaction using the methods mentioned above actually inserts the ``vavpp`` video filter. If vpp is not actually supported with the libva backend in use, you can use this option to forcibly enable VO based deinterlacing. no Don't allow deinterlacing (default for newer libva). first-field Show only first field. bob bob deinterlacing (default for older libva). ``--vo-vaapi-scaled-osd=`` If enabled, then the OSD is rendered at video resolution and scaled to display resolution. By default, this is disabled, and the OSD is rendered at display resolution if the driver supports it. ``null`` Produces no video output. Useful for benchmarking. Usually, it's better to disable video with ``--no-video`` instead. The following global options are supported by this video output: ``--vo-null-fps=`` Simulate display FPS. This artificially limits how many frames the VO accepts per second. ``caca`` Color ASCII art video output driver that works on a text console. .. note:: This driver is a joke. ``tct`` Color Unicode art video output driver that works on a text console. By default depends on support of true color by modern terminals to display the images at full color range, but 256-colors output is also supported (see below). On Windows it requires an ansi terminal such as mintty. Since mpv 0.30.0, you may need to use ``--profile=sw-fast`` to get decent performance. Note: the TCT image output is not synchronized with other terminal output from mpv, which can lead to broken images. The options ``--no-terminal`` or ``--really-quiet`` can help with that. ``--vo-tct-algo=`` Select how to write the pixels to the terminal. half-blocks Uses unicode LOWER HALF BLOCK character to achieve higher vertical resolution. (Default.) plain Uses spaces. Causes vertical resolution to drop twofolds, but in theory works in more places. ``--vo-tct-width=`` ``--vo-tct-height=`` Assume the terminal has the specified character width and/or height. These default to 80x25 if the terminal size cannot be determined. ``--vo-tct-256=`` (default: no) Use 256 colors - for terminals which don't support true color. ``sixel`` Graphical output for the terminal, using sixels. Tested with ``mlterm`` and ``xterm``. Note: the Sixel image output is not synchronized with other terminal output from mpv, which can lead to broken images. The option ``--really-quiet`` can help with that, and is recommended. You may need to use ``--profile=sw-fast`` to get decent performance. Note: at the time of writing, ``xterm`` does not enable sixel by default - launching it as ``xterm -ti 340`` is one way to enable it. Also, ``xterm`` does not display images bigger than 1000x1000 pixels by default. To render and align sixel images correctly, mpv needs to know the terminal size both in cells and in pixels. By default it tries to use values which the terminal reports, however, due to differences between terminals this is an error-prone process which cannot be automated with certainty - some terminals report the size in pixels including the padding - e.g. ``xterm``, while others report the actual usable number of pixels - like ``mlterm``. Additionally, they may behave differently when maximized or in fullscreen, and mpv cannot detect this state using standard methods. Sixel size and alignment options: ``--vo-sixel-cols=``, ``--vo-sixel-rows=`` (default: 0) Specify the terminal size in character cells, otherwise (0) read it from the terminal, or fall back to 80x25. Note that mpv doesn't use the the last row with sixel because this seems to result in scrolling. ``--vo-sixel-width=``, ``--vo-sixel-height=`` (default: 0) Specify the available size in pixels, otherwise (0) read it from the terminal, or fall back to 320x240. Other than excluding the last line, the height is also further rounded down to a multiple of 6 (sixel unit height) to avoid overflowing below the designated size. ``--vo-sixel-left=``, ``--vo-sixel-top=`` (default: 0) Specify the position in character cells where the image starts (1 is the first column or row). If 0 (default) then try to automatically determine it according to the other values and the image aspect ratio and zoom. ``--vo-sixel-pad-x=``, ``--vo-sixel-pad-y=`` (default: -1) Used only when mpv reads the size in pixels from the terminal. Specify the number of padding pixels (on one side) which are included at the size which the terminal reports. If -1 (default) then the number of pixels is rounded down to a multiple of number of cells (per axis), to take into account padding at the report - this only works correctly when the overall padding per axis is smaller than the number of cells. ``--vo-sixel-exit-clear=`` (default: yes) Whether or not to clear the terminal on quit. When set to no - the last sixel image stays on screen after quit, with the cursor following it. Sixel image quality options: ``--vo-sixel-dither=`` Selects the dither algorithm which libsixel should apply. Can be one of the below list as per libsixel's documentation. auto (Default) Let libsixel choose the dithering method. none Don't diffuse atkinson Diffuse with Bill Atkinson's method. fs Diffuse with Floyd-Steinberg method jajuni Diffuse with Jarvis, Judice & Ninke method stucki Diffuse with Stucki's method burkes Diffuse with Burkes' method arithmetic Positionally stable arithmetic dither xor Positionally stable arithmetic xor based dither ``--vo-sixel-fixedpalette=`` (default: yes) Use libsixel's built-in static palette using the XTERM256 profile for dither. Fixed palette uses 256 colors for dithering. Note that using ``no`` (at the time of writing) will slow down ``xterm``. ``--vo-sixel-reqcolors=`` (default: 256) Has no effect with fixed palette. Set up libsixel to use required number of colors for dynamic palette. This value depends on the terminal emulator as well. Xterm supports 256 colors. Can set this to a lower value for faster performance. ``--vo-sixel-threshold=`` (default: -1) Has no effect with fixed palette. Defines the threshold to change the palette - as percentage of the number of colors, e.g. 20 will change the palette when the number of colors changed by 20%. It's a simple measure to reduce the number of palette changes, because it can be slow in some terminals (``xterm``). The default (-1) will choose a palette on every frame and will have better quality. ``image`` Output each frame into an image file in the current directory. Each file takes the frame number padded with leading zeros as name. The following global options are supported by this video output: ``--vo-image-format=`` Select the image file format. jpg JPEG files, extension .jpg. (Default.) jpeg JPEG files, extension .jpeg. png PNG files. webp WebP files. ``--vo-image-png-compression=<0-9>`` PNG compression factor (speed vs. file size tradeoff) (default: 7) ``--vo-image-png-filter=<0-5>`` Filter applied prior to PNG compression (0 = none; 1 = sub; 2 = up; 3 = average; 4 = Paeth; 5 = mixed) (default: 5) ``--vo-image-jpeg-quality=<0-100>`` JPEG quality factor (default: 90) ``--vo-image-jpeg-optimize=<0-100>`` JPEG optimization factor (default: 100) ``--vo-image-webp-lossless=`` Enable writing lossless WebP files (default: no) ``--vo-image-webp-quality=<0-100>`` WebP quality (default: 75) ``--vo-image-webp-compression=<0-6>`` WebP compression factor (default: 4) ``--vo-image-outdir=`` Specify the directory to save the image files to (default: ``./``). ``libmpv`` For use with libmpv direct embedding. As a special case, on macOS it is used like a normal VO within mpv (cocoa-cb). Otherwise useless in any other contexts. (See ````.) This also supports many of the options the ``gpu`` VO has, depending on the backend. ``rpi`` (Raspberry Pi) Native video output on the Raspberry Pi using the MMAL API. This is deprecated. Use ``--vo=gpu`` instead, which is the default and provides the same functionality. The ``rpi`` VO will be removed in mpv 0.23.0. Its functionality was folded into --vo=gpu, which now uses RPI hardware decoding by treating it as a hardware overlay (without applying GL filtering). Also to be changed in 0.23.0: the --fs flag will be reset to "no" by default (like on the other platforms). The following deprecated global options are supported by this video output: ``--rpi-display=`` Select the display number on which the video overlay should be shown (default: 0). ``--rpi-layer=`` Select the dispmanx layer on which the video overlay should be shown (default: -10). Note that mpv will also use the 2 layers above the selected layer, to handle the window background and OSD. Actual video rendering will happen on the layer above the selected layer. ``--rpi-background=`` Whether to render a black background behind the video (default: no). Normally it's better to kill the console framebuffer instead, which gives better performance. ``--rpi-osd=`` Enabled by default. If disabled with ``no``, no OSD layer is created. This also means there will be no subtitles rendered. ``drm`` (Direct Rendering Manager) Video output driver using Kernel Mode Setting / Direct Rendering Manager. Should be used when one doesn't want to install full-blown graphical environment (e.g. no X). Does not support hardware acceleration (if you need this, check the ``drm`` backend for ``gpu`` VO). Since mpv 0.30.0, you may need to use ``--profile=sw-fast`` to get decent performance. The following global options are supported by this video output: ``--drm-connector=[.]`` Select the connector to use (usually this is a monitor.) If ```` is empty or ``auto``, mpv renders the output on the first available connector. Use ``--drm-connector=help`` to get a list of available connectors. The ```` argument can be used to disambiguate multiple graphic cards, but is deprecated in favor of ``--drm-device``. (default: empty) ``--drm-device=`` Select the DRM device file to use. If specified this overrides automatic card selection and any card number specified ``--drm-connector``. (default: empty) ``--drm-mode=`` Mode to use (resolution and frame rate). Possible values: :preferred: Use the preferred mode for the screen on the selected connector. (default) :highest: Use the mode with the highest resolution available on the selected connector. :N: Select mode by index. :WxH[@R]: Specify mode by width, height, and optionally refresh rate. In case several modes match, selects the mode that comes first in the EDID list of modes. Use ``--drm-mode=help`` to get a list of available modes for all active connectors. ``--drm-atomic=`` Toggle use of atomic modesetting. Mostly useful for debugging. :no: Use legacy modesetting. :auto: Use atomic modesetting, falling back to legacy modesetting if not available. (default) Note: Only affects ``gpu-context=drm``. ``vo=drm`` supports legacy modesetting only. ``--drm-draw-plane=`` Select the DRM plane to which video and OSD is drawn to, under normal circumstances. The plane can be specified as ``primary``, which will pick the first applicable primary plane; ``overlay``, which will pick the first applicable overlay plane; or by index. The index is zero based, and related to the CRTC. (default: primary) When using this option with the drmprime-drm hwdec interop, only the OSD is rendered to this plane. ``--drm-drmprime-video-plane=`` Select the DRM plane to use for video with the drmprime-drm hwdec interop (used by e.g. the rkmpp hwdec on RockChip SoCs, and v4l2 hwdec:s on various other SoC:s). The plane is unused otherwise. This option accepts the same values as ``--drm-draw-plane``. (default: overlay) To be able to successfully play 4K video on various SoCs you might need to set ``--drm-draw-plane=overlay --drm-drmprime-video-plane=primary`` and setting ``--drm-draw-surface-size=1920x1080``, to render the OSD at a lower resolution (the video when handled by the hwdec will be on the drmprime-video plane and at full 4K resolution) ``--drm-format=`` Select the DRM format to use (default: xrgb8888). This allows you to choose the bit depth of the DRM mode. xrgb8888 is your usual 24 bit per pixel/8 bits per channel packed RGB format with 8 bits of padding. xrgb2101010 is a packed 30 bits per pixel/10 bits per channel packed RGB format with 2 bits of padding. There are cases when xrgb2101010 will work with the ``drm`` VO, but not with the ``drm`` backend for the ``gpu`` VO. This is because with the ``gpu`` VO, in addition to requiring support in your DRM driver, requires support for xrgb2101010 in your EGL driver ``--drm-draw-surface-size=<[WxH]>`` Sets the size of the surface used on the draw plane. The surface will then be upscaled to the current screen resolution. This option can be useful when used together with the drmprime-drm hwdec interop at high resolutions, as it allows scaling the draw plane (which in this case only handles the OSD) down to a size the GPU can handle. When used without the drmprime-drm hwdec interop this option will just cause the video to get rendered at a different resolution and then scaled to screen size. Note: this option is only available with DRM atomic support. (default: display resolution) ``--drm-vrr-enabled=`` Toggle use of Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), aka Freesync or Adaptive Sync on compatible systems. VRR allows for the display to be refreshed at any rate within a range (usually ~40Hz-60Hz for 60Hz displays). This can help with playback of 24/25/50fps content. Support depends on the use of a compatible monitor, GPU, and a sufficiently new kernel with drivers that support the feature. :no: Do not attempt to enable VRR. (default) :yes: Attempt to enable VRR, whether the capability is reported or not. :auto: Attempt to enable VRR if support is reported. ``mediacodec_embed`` (Android) Renders ``IMGFMT_MEDIACODEC`` frames directly to an ``android.view.Surface``. Requires ``--hwdec=mediacodec`` for hardware decoding, along with ``--vo=mediacodec_embed`` and ``--wid=(intptr_t)(*android.view.Surface)``. Since this video output driver uses native decoding and rendering routines, many of mpv's features (subtitle rendering, OSD/OSC, video filters, etc) are not available with this driver. To use hardware decoding with ``--vo=gpu`` instead, use ``--hwdec=mediacodec-copy`` along with ``--gpu-context=android``. ``wlshm`` (Wayland only) Shared memory video output driver without hardware acceleration that works whenever Wayland is present. Since mpv 0.30.0, you may need to use ``--profile=sw-fast`` to get decent performance. .. note:: This is a fallback only, and should not be normally used.