MPV

mpv

CLI Application

Initial release	7 August 2023
Latest release	0.40.0; 11 June 2025
Operating System	Linux, macOS, Windows
Language(s)	C
External links
Website	mpv.io
GitHub	mpv-player/mpv
Bug tracker	GitHub Issues
Documentation	mpv Manual

mpv is an open-source command line media player.

Installation

With nix-shell

nix-shell -p mpv

With NixOS

environment.systemPackages = [
  pkgs.mpv
];

With Home Manager

home.packages = [ 
  pkgs.mpv 
];

Configuration

With Home Manager

Basic

programs.mpv.enable = true;

Advanced

programs.mpv = {
  enable = true;

  package = (
    pkgs.mpv-unwrapped.wrapper {
      scripts = with pkgs.mpvScripts; [
        uosc
        sponsorblock
      ];

      mpv = pkgs.mpv-unwrapped.override {
        waylandSupport = true;
      };
    }
  );

  config = {
    profile = "high-quality";
    ytdl-format = "bestvideo+bestaudio";
    cache-default = 4000000;
  };
};

Tips and Tricks

Where to get scripts

To find more scripts run this in a terminal:

nix search nixpkgs mpvScripts

The scripts are also defined in the following Nixpkgs directory.

Enabling additional features: where to find override options and using umpv

The package override options are defined in the following Nixpkgs directory. This includes a commonly used first party script called umpv which allows additional files to be appended to the playlist of an open instance. In the nix derivation of mpv, the umpv script is bundled into the program and can be ran from the command line with `umpv foo.ogg`. Note that umpv can only be ran with the name of the file being opened and cannot be ran with additional arguments or flags.

For example, here is an overlay showing how to enable JACK audio support:

nixpkgs.overlays = [
  (final: prev: {
    mpv = prev.mpv.override {
      mpv = prev.mpv-unwrapped.override {
        jackaudioSupport = true;
      };
    };
  })
];

or alternatively, you can define the package inline:

(pkgs.mpv.override { mpv = pkgs.mpv-unwrapped.override { jackaudioSupport = true; }; })

Also note that commands cannot be passed to mpv using socat when mpv is ran using the umpv python wrapper. For example, if you try to pause umpv with echo '{"command": ["cycle", "pause"]}' | socat - /tmp/mpvsocket, it will result in an error similar to the following:

2025/05/07 22:49:15 socat[115919] E GOPEN: /tmp/mpvsocket: Connection refused

Troubleshooting

Error, unknown format

If you get the following sort of error, note that MPV currently uses the small ffmpeg version (ffmpeg_5) instead of the full version (ffmpeg_5-full).

$ mpv --log-file=foo.log av://v4l2:/dev/video5
[lavf] Unknown lavf format v4l2
Failed to recognize file format.

Exiting... (Errors when loading file)

To address this problem, you can use the following package configuration for ffmpeg.

programs.mpv = {
  enable = true;

  package = (
    pkgs.mpv-unwrapped.wrapper {
      mpv = pkgs.mpv-unwrapped.override {
        ffmpeg = pkgs.ffmpeg-full;
      };
    }
  );
};

References

1. https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/wiki
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mpv_(media_player)
3. https://search.nixos.org/packages?query=mpv
4. https://home-manager-options.extranix.com/?query=mpv