path: root/DOCS/man/mpv.rst

mpv
###

##############
a media player
##############

:Copyright: GPLv2+
:Manual section: 1
:Manual group: multimedia

.. contents:: Table of Contents

SYNOPSIS
========

| **mpv** [options] [file|URL|PLAYLIST|-]
| **mpv** [options] files

DESCRIPTION
===========

**mpv** is a media player based on MPlayer and mplayer2. It supports a wide variety of video
file formats, audio and video codecs, and subtitle types. Special input URL
types are available to read input from a variety of sources other than disk
files. Depending on platform, a variety of different video and audio output
methods are supported.

Usage examples to get you started quickly can be found at the end of this man
page.


INTERACTIVE CONTROL
===================

mpv has a fully configurable, command-driven control layer which allows you
to control mpv using keyboard, mouse, or remote control (there is no
LIRC support - configure remotes as input devices instead).

See the ``--input-`` options for ways to customize it.

The following listings are not necessarily complete. See ``etc/input.conf`` for
a list of default bindings. User ``input.conf`` files and Lua scripts can
define additional key bindings.

Keyboard Control
----------------

LEFT and RIGHT
    Seek backward/forward 5 seconds. Shift+arrow does a 1 second exact seek
    (see ``--hr-seek``).

UP and DOWN
    Seek forward/backward 1 minute. Shift+arrow does a 5 second exact seek (see
    ``--hr-seek``).

Ctrl+LEFT and Ctrl+RIGHT
    Seek to the previous/next subtitle. Subject to some restrictions and
    might not always work; see ``sub-seek`` command.

Ctrl+Shift+Left and Ctrl+Shift+Right
    Adjust subtitle delay so that the next or previous subtitle is displayed
    now. This is especially useful to sync subtitles to audio.

[ and ]
    Decrease/increase current playback speed by 10%.

{ and }
    Halve/double current playback speed.

BACKSPACE
    Reset playback speed to normal.

Shift+BACKSPACE
    Undo the last seek. This works only if the playlist entry was not changed.
    Hitting it a second time will go back to the original position.
    See ``revert-seek`` command for details.

Shift+Ctrl+BACKSPACE
    Mark the current position. This will then be used by ``Shift+BACKSPACE``
    as revert position (once you seek back, the marker will be reset). You can
    use this to seek around in the file and then return to the exact position
    where you left off.

< and >
    Go backward/forward in the playlist.

ENTER
    Go forward in the playlist.

p / SPACE
    Pause (pressing again unpauses).

\.
    Step forward. Pressing once will pause, every consecutive press will
    play one frame and then go into pause mode again.

,
    Step backward. Pressing once will pause, every consecutive press will
    play one frame in reverse and then go into pause mode again.

q
    Stop playing and quit.

Q
    Like ``q``, but store the current playback position. Playing the same file
    later will resume at the old playback position if possible.

/ and *
    Decrease/increase volume.

9 and 0
    Decrease/increase volume.

m
    Mute sound.

\_
    Cycle through the available video tracks.

\#
    Cycle through the available audio tracks.

f
    Toggle fullscreen (see also ``--fs``).

ESC
    Exit fullscreen mode.

T
    Toggle stay-on-top (see also ``--ontop``).

w and W
    Decrease/increase pan-and-scan range. The ``e`` key does the same as
    ``W`` currently, but use is discouraged.

o (also P)
    Show progression bar, elapsed time and total duration on the OSD.

O
    Toggle OSD states between normal and playback time/duration.

v
    Toggle subtitle visibility.

j and J
    Cycle through the available subtitles.

z and Z
    Adjust subtitle delay by +/- 0.1 seconds. The ``x`` key does the same as
    ``Z`` currently, but use is discouraged.

l
    Set/clear A-B loop points. See ``ab-loop`` command for details.

L
    Toggle infinite looping.

Ctrl + and Ctrl -
    Adjust audio delay (A/V sync) by +/- 0.1 seconds.

u
    Switch between applying no style overrides to SSA/ASS subtitles, and
    overriding them almost completely with the normal subtitle style. See
    ``--sub-ass-override`` for more info.

V
    Toggle subtitle VSFilter aspect compatibility mode. See
    ``--sub-ass-vsfilter-aspect-compat`` for more info.

r and R
    Move subtitles up/down. The ``t`` key does the same as ``R`` currently, but
    use is discouraged.

s
    Take a screenshot.

S
    Take a screenshot, without subtitles. (Whether this works depends on VO
    driver support.)

Ctrl s
    Take a screenshot, as the window shows it (with subtitles, OSD, and scaled
    video).

PGUP and PGDWN
    Seek to the beginning of the previous/next chapter. In most cases,
    "previous" will actually go to the beginning of the current chapter; see
    ``--chapter-seek-threshold``.

Shift+PGUP and Shift+PGDWN
    Seek backward or forward by 10 minutes. (This used to be mapped to
    PGUP/PGDWN without Shift.)

d
    Activate/deactivate deinterlacer.

A
    Cycle aspect ratio override.

Ctrl h
    Toggle hardware video decoding on/off.

Alt+LEFT, Alt+RIGHT, Alt+UP, Alt+DOWN
    Move the video rectangle (panning).

Alt + and Alt -
    Combining ``Alt`` with the ``+`` or ``-`` keys changes video zoom.

Alt+BACKSPACE
    Reset the pan/zoom settings.

F8
    Show the playlist and the current position in it (useful only if a UI window
    is used, broken on the terminal).

F9
    Show the list of audio and subtitle streams (useful only if a UI window  is
    used, broken on the terminal).

i and I
    Show/toggle an overlay displaying statistics about the currently playing
    file such as codec, framerate, number of dropped frames and so on. See
    `STATS`_ for more information.

(The following keys are valid only when using a video output that supports the
corresponding adjustment.)

1 and 2
    Adjust contrast.

3 and 4
    Adjust brightness.

5 and 6
    Adjust gamma.

7 and 8
    Adjust saturation.

Alt+0 (and command+0 on OSX)
    Resize video window to half its original size.

Alt+1 (and command+1 on OSX)
    Resize video window to its original size.

Alt+2 (and command+2 on OSX)
    Resize video window to double its original size.

command + f (OSX only)
    Toggle fullscreen (see also ``--fs``).

(The following keys are valid if you have a keyboard with multimedia keys.)

PAUSE
    Pause.

STOP
    Stop playing and quit.

PREVIOUS and NEXT
    Seek backward/forward 1 minute.


If you miss some older key bindings, look at ``etc/restore-old-bindings.conf``
in the mpv git repository.

Mouse Control
-------------

Left double click
    Toggle fullscreen on/off.

Right click
    Toggle pause on/off.

Forward/Back button
    Skip to next/previous entry in playlist.

Wheel up/down
    Seek forward/backward 10 seconds.

Wheel left/right
    Decrease/increase volume.


USAGE
=====

Command line arguments starting with ``-`` are interpreted as options,
everything else as filenames or URLs. All options except *flag* options (or
choice options which include ``yes``) require a parameter in the form
``--option=value``.

One exception is the lone ``-`` (without anything else), which means media data
will be read from stdin. Also, ``--`` (without anything else) will make the
player interpret all following arguments as filenames, even if they start with
``-``. (To play a file named ``-``, you need to use ``./-``.)

Every *flag* option has a *no-flag* counterpart, e.g. the opposite of the
``--fs`` option is ``--no-fs``. ``--fs=yes`` is same as ``--fs``, ``--fs=no``
is the same as ``--no-fs``.

If an option is marked as *(XXX only)*, it will only work in combination with
the *XXX* option or if *XXX* is compiled in.

Legacy option syntax
--------------------

The ``--option=value`` syntax is not strictly enforced, and the alternative
legacy syntax ``-option value`` and ``--option value`` will also work. This is
mostly  for compatibility with MPlayer. Using these should be avoided. Their
semantics can change any time in the future.

For example, the alternative syntax will consider an argument following the
option a filename. ``mpv -fs no`` will attempt to play a file named ``no``,
because ``--fs`` is a flag option that requires no parameter. If an option
changes and its parameter becomes optional, then a command line using the
alternative syntax will break.

Currently, the parser makes no difference whether an option starts with ``--``
or a single ``-``. This might also change in the future, and ``--option value``
might always interpret ``value`` as filename in order to reduce ambiguities.

Escaping spaces and other special characters
--------------------------------------------

Keep in mind that the shell will partially parse and mangle the arguments you
pass to mpv. For example, you might need to quote or escape options and
filenames:

    ``mpv "filename with spaces.mkv" --title="window title"``

It gets more complicated if the suboption parser is involved. The suboption
parser puts several options into a single string, and passes them to a
component at once, instead of using multiple options on the level of the
command line.

The suboption parser can quote strings with ``"`` and ``[...]``.
Additionally, there is a special form of quoting with ``%n%`` described below.

For example, assume the hypothetical ``foo`` filter can take multiple options:

    ``mpv test.mkv --vf=foo:option1=value1:option2:option3=value3,bar``

This passes ``option1`` and ``option3`` to the ``foo`` filter, with ``option2``
as flag (implicitly ``option2=yes``), and adds a ``bar`` filter after that. If
an option contains spaces or characters like ``,`` or ``:``, you need to quote
them:

    ``mpv '--vf=foo:option1="option value with spaces",bar'``

Shells may actually strip some quotes from the string passed to the commandline,
so the example quotes the string twice, ensuring that mpv receives the ``"``
quotes.

The ``[...]`` form of quotes wraps everything between ``[`` and ``]``. It's
useful with shells that don't interpret these characters in the middle of
an argument (like bash). These quotes are balanced (since mpv 0.9.0): the ``[``
and ``]`` nest, and the quote terminates on the last ``]`` that has no matching
``[`` within the string. (For example, ``[a[b]c]`` results in ``a[b]c``.)

The fixed-length quoting syntax is intended for use with external
scripts and programs.

It is started with ``%`` and has the following format::

    %n%string_of_length_n

.. admonition:: Examples

    ``mpv '--vf=foo:option1=%11%quoted text' test.avi``

    Or in a script:

    ``mpv --vf=foo:option1=%`expr length "$NAME"`%"$NAME" test.avi``

Suboptions passed to the client API are also subject to escaping. Using
``mpv_set_option_string()`` is exactly like passing ``--name=data`` to the
command line (but without shell processing of the string). Some options
support passing values in a more structured way instead of flat strings, and
can avoid the suboption parsing mess. For example, ``--vf`` supports
``MPV_FORMAT_NODE``, which lets you pass suboptions as a nested data structure
of maps and arrays.

Paths
-----

Some care must be taken when passing arbitrary paths and filenames to mpv. For
example, paths starting with ``-`` will be interpreted as options. Likewise,
if a path contains the sequence ``://``, the string before that might be
interpreted as protocol prefix, even though ``://`` can be part of a legal
UNIX path. To avoid problems with arbitrary paths, you should be sure that
absolute paths passed to mpv start with ``/``, and prefix relative paths with
``./``.

Using the ``file://`` pseudo-protocol is discouraged, because it involves
strange URL unescaping rules.

The name ``-`` itself is interpreted as stdin, and will cause mpv to disable
console controls. (Which makes it suitable for playing data piped to stdin.)

The special argument ``--`` can be used to stop mpv from interpreting the
following arguments as options.

When using the client API, you should strictly avoid using ``mpv_command_string``
for invoking the ``loadfile`` command, and instead prefer e.g. ``mpv_command``
to avoid the need for filename escaping.

For paths passed to suboptions, the situation is further complicated by the
need to escape special characters. To work this around, the path can be
additionally wrapped in the fixed-length syntax, e.g. ``%n%string_of_length_n``
(see above).

Some mpv options interpret paths starting with ``~``. Currently, the prefix
``~~/`` expands to the mpv configuration directory (usually ``~/.config/mpv/``).
``~/`` expands to the user's home directory. (The trailing ``/`` is always
required.) There are the following paths as well:

================ ===============================================================
Name             Meaning
================ ===============================================================
``~~home/``      same as ``~~/``
``~~global/``    the global config path, if available (not on win32)
``~~osxbundle/`` the OSX bundle resource path (OSX only)
``~~desktop/``   the path to the desktop (win32, OSX)
================ ===============================================================


Per-File Options
----------------

When playing multiple files, any option given on the command line usually
affects all files. Example::

    mpv --a file1.mkv --b file2.mkv --c

=============== ===========================
File            Active options
=============== ===========================
file1.mkv       ``--a --b --c``
file2.mkv       ``--a --b --c``
=============== ===========================

(This is different from MPlayer and mplayer2.)

Also, if any option is changed at runtime (via input commands), they are not
reset when a new file is played.

Sometimes, it is useful to change options per-file. This can be achieved by
adding the special per-file markers ``--{`` and ``--}``. (Note that you must
escape these on some shells.) Example::

    mpv --a file1.mkv --b --\{ --c file2.mkv --d file3.mkv --e --\} file4.mkv --f

=============== ===========================
File            Active options
=============== ===========================
file1.mkv       ``--a --b --f``
file2.mkv       ``--a --b --f --c --d --e``
file3.mkv       ``--a --b --f --c --d --e``
file4.mkv       ``--a --b --f``
=============== ===========================

Additionally, any file-local option changed at runtime is reset when the current
file stops playing. If option ``--c`` is changed during playback of
``file2.mkv``, it is reset when advancing to ``file3.mkv``. This only affects
file-local options. The option ``--a`` is never reset here.


List Options
------------

Some options which store lists of option values can have action suffixes. For
example, you can set a ``,``-separated list of filters with ``--vf``, but the
option also allows you to append filters with ``--vf-append``.

Options for filenames do not use ``,`` as separator, but ``:`` (Unix) or ``;``
(Windows).

============= ===============================================
Suffix        Meaning
============= ===============================================
-add          Append 1 or more items (may become alias for -append)
-append       Append single item (avoids need for escaping)
-clr          Clear the option
-del          Delete an existing item by integer index
-pre          Prepend 1 or more items
-set          Set a list of items
-toggle       Append an item, or remove if if it already exists
============= ===============================================

Although some operations allow specifying multiple ``,``-separated items, using
this is strongly discouraged and deprecated, except for ``-set``.

Without suffix, the action taken is normally ``-set``.

Some options (like ``--sub-file``, ``--audio-file``, ``--glsl-shader``) are
aliases for the proper option with ``-append`` action. For example,
``--sub-file`` is an alias for ``--sub-files-append``.

Some options only support a subset of the above.

Options of this type can be changed at runtime using the ``change-list``
command, which takes the suffix as separate operation parameter.

CONFIGURATION FILES
===================

Location and Syntax
-------------------

You can put all of the options in configuration files which will be read every
time mpv is run. The system-wide configuration file 'mpv.conf' is in your
configuration directory (e.g. ``/etc/mpv`` or ``/usr/local/etc/mpv``), the
user-specific one is ``~/.config/mpv/mpv.conf``. For details and platform
specifics (in particular Windows paths) see the `FILES`_ section.

User-specific options override system-wide options and options given on the
command line override either. The syntax of the configuration files is
``option=value``. Everything after a *#* is considered a comment. Options
that work without values can be enabled by setting them to *yes* and disabled by
setting them to *no*. Even suboptions can be specified in this way.

.. admonition:: Example configuration file

    ::

        # Use GPU-accelerated video output by default.
        vo=gpu
        # Use quotes for text that can contain spaces:
        status-msg="Time: ${time-pos}"

Escaping spaces and special characters
--------------------------------------

This is done like with command line options. The shell is not involved here,
but option values still need to be quoted as a whole if it contains certain
characters like spaces. A config entry can be quoted with ``"``,
as well as with the fixed-length syntax (``%n%``) mentioned before. This is like
passing the exact contents of the quoted string as command line option. C-style
escapes are currently _not_ interpreted on this level, although some options do
this manually. (This is a mess and should probably be changed at some point.)

Putting Command Line Options into the Configuration File
--------------------------------------------------------

Almost all command line options can be put into the configuration file. Here
is a small g