Is the main reason people recommend MPV because its lightweight?

[._. Bankes]

Just wondering whether this is the main reason for why its recommended. 

[Catar]

4 minutes ago, DurianBoi said:

Just wondering whether this is the main reason for why its recommended. 

Nah.

 

Pros for mpv:

• Video output looks great right out of the box. No messing with filters, no grabbing codec packs or audio/subtitle filters. Main package and done. You can still configure it a bit if you like, especially if you want fancier upscaling/HDR stuff/etc, but 99% of videos will look good.
• Cross platform. MPV runs on all major platforms and uses the same config files to do so. You can move your config anywhere and each platform will understand it and be (fairly) consistent about it.
• Heavily customizable. You can mess with the MPV GUI to a pretty ludicrous degree if you want, even make it look almost identical to other players if you put the effort in.
• it's lightweight =P
• It's modern and still getting updates, while the other favorite (MPC-HC) has an uncertain future (officially announced stopping updates, other people announced updates, very unclear now).
• It handles livestreams really well. I currently use MPV as my primary viewer for Twitch, for example.

Cons:

• configuring the thing is a learning curve.
• the default setup has a terrible UI (read: none).
• Lots of other unintuitive things.

 

MPC-HC is still solid as long as you've got the right filters, but if you have no clue what you're doing, I recommend picking up the stickied "MPV Easy Mode" from @Moodkiller. It's a nice starter package.

 

 

(addendum: i probably forgot some things here that someone's gonna come correct me on. my primary video player is not MPC or MPV, it's actually Kodi =P)

[Moodkiller]

Yeah, pretty much what Catar said, the only other thing is that it's completely open source and so are the plugins. So you can usually get the exact functionality you are after and customisation. The video filters are still all there (and some) for those who really want it, just without the pretty GUI interface.

 

And to touch on one of Catars other Pro points, MPV is always updated.

[Ka44tsUU]

and on top of all that, you don't have to use mpv as a frontend, it's already being used in a few projects as a selectable backend so you can get a similar look and feel with projects like SMPlayer and all the pros of mpv. It's a really amazing project.

[Decrytum]

I really ought to bookmark this page and show it anytime someone prompts me to use VLC or some other miscellaneous player.

[gskumar]

I have got a extremely old potato and when I run a x265 10 bit 1080p at heavy scene image just blurs in vlc.Where as i mpv player it played smoothly with no issues.I would like to point out that mpv player cannot play 60fps videos (atleast at default settings) but vlc did.

[Lord Drakath]

I am curious how that compares to VLC.  It has been my main player for the longest time and I haven't had issues with it.

[Koby]

5 hours ago, Lord Drakath said:

I am curious how that compares to VLC.  It has been my main player for the longest time and I haven't had issues with it.

Generally speaking VLC is one of the worst tbh and has generally been universally recommended in the anime scene to avoid it ever since it's creation. There's been various reasons through the years, many of which affect the quality of playback, many of which have been fixed with updates, but even in the latest version of VLC it has issues with certain aegis subtitles (.ASS) such as with the [LostYears] High School DxD Hero release where dozens of VLC users complained about subtitles "blinking" due to a bug with VLC, when they played fine in every other player tested.

 

As for mpv, low end PCs can usually play files fine on mpv that otherwise stutter or drop frames on other players.