mpv For Mac

mpv is a lightweight media player based on mplayer2, a project that itself is based on the original MPlayer. The current design has suffered many modifications, meant to modernize the player and introduce additional features.

mpv is a bare-bones application that can play a wide array of video formats and offers multiple features that should interest videophiles.

At its heart, mpv still relies on a simple design, as it does not have a graphical user interface, but provides high-quality video output and uses the FFmpeg hwaccel APIs to offer support for VDPAU, DXVA2, VAAPI, VDA and VideoToolbox video decode acceleration.

However, the mpv player does include a small on-screen controller that is activated by mouse movement and it is designed to allow you to start or pause the video, to jump forward or backward, and to enable or to disable audio tracks and subtitles.

Many other functions are available, but they can only be controlled with keyboard shortcuts. These include modifying the audio volume, altering brightness, contrast, saturation and gamma, taking screenshots, changing subtitle position, fixing any sync issues, creating loops or adjusting playback speed.

Unfortunately, while all these functions are, indeed, very useful, there is no simple way to access them without resorting to hot-keys that have to be memorized.

On the whole, mpv is a decent player that provides high-quality video output, GPU video decoding via the FFmpeg hwaccel APIs and numerous advanced functions for controlling playback and image quality.

However, an intuitive graphical user interface is seriously needed for it to become a reliable alternative to more popular players. At present, mpv is rather difficult to use on macOS, but it is under active development, which means that improvements are bound to arrive soon enough.