This is a string list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

.. admonition:: Examples

    - ``mpv dvd://1 --alang=hu,en`` chooses the Hungarian language track
      on a DVD and falls back on English if Hungarian is not available.
    - ``mpv --alang=jpn example.mkv`` plays a Matroska file with Japanese
      audio.

This is a string list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

.. admonition:: Examples

    - ``mpv dvd://1 --slang=hu,en`` chooses the Hungarian subtitle track on
      a DVD and falls back on English if Hungarian is not available.
    - ``mpv --slang=jpn example.mkv`` plays a Matroska file with Japanese
      subtitles.
    - ``mpv --slang=pt-BR example.mkv`` plays a Matroska file with Brazilian
      Portuguese subtitles if available, and otherwise any Portuguese subtitles.

This is a string list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

``--audio`` is an alias for ``--aid``.

``--aid=no`` or ``--audio=no`` disables audio playback.

.. note::

    The track selection options (``--aid`` but also ``--sid`` and the
    others) sometimes expose behavior that may appear strange. Also, the
    behavior tends to change around with each mpv release.

    The track selection properties will return the option value outside of
    playback (as expected), but during playback, the effective track
    selection is returned. For example, with ``--aid=auto``, the ``aid``
    property will suddenly return ``2`` after playback initialization
    (assuming the file has at least 2 audio tracks, and the second is the
    default).

    At mpv 0.32.0 (and some releases before), if you passed a track value
    for which a corresponding track didn't exist (e.g. ``--aid=2`` and there
    was only 1 audio track), the ``aid`` property returned ``no``. However if
    another audio track was added during playback, and you tried to set the
    ``aid`` property to ``2``, nothing happened, because the ``aid`` option
    still had the value ``2``, and writing the same value has no effect.

    With mpv 0.33.0, the behavior was changed. Now track selection options
    are reset to ``auto`` at playback initialization, if the option tried
    to select a track that does not exist. The same is done if the
    track exists, but fails to initialize. The consequence is that unlike
    before mpv 0.33.0, the user's track selection parameters are clobbered
    in certain situations.

    Also since mpv 0.33.0, trying to select a track by number will strictly
    select this track. Before this change, trying to select a track which
    did not exist would fall back to track default selection at playback
    initialization. The new behavior is more consistent.

    Setting a track selection property at runtime, and then playing a new
    file might reset the track selection to defaults, if the fingerprint
    of the track list of the new file is different.

    Be aware of tricky combinations of all of the above: for example,
    ``mpv --aid=2 file_with_2_audio_tracks.mkv file_with_1_audio_track.mkv``
    would first play the correct track, and the second file without audio.
    If you then go back to the first file, its first audio track will be played,
    and the second file is played with audio. If you do the same thing again
    but instead of using ``--aid=2`` you run ``set aid 2`` while the file is
    playing, then changing to the second file will play its audio track.
    This is because runtime selection enables the fingerprint heuristic.

    Most likely this is not the end.

``--sub`` is an alias for ``--sid``.

``--sid=no`` or ``--sub=no`` disables subtitle decoding.

``--video`` is an alias for ``--vid``.

``--vid=no`` or ``--video=no`` disables video playback.

If video is disabled, mpv will try to download the audio only if media is
streamed with youtube-dl, because it saves bandwidth. This is done by
setting the ytdl_format to "bestaudio/best" in the ytdl_hook.lua script.

This is useful with ``--lavfi-complex``: you can start playback in this
mode, and then set select tracks at runtime by setting the filter graph.
Note that if ``--lavfi-complex`` is set before playback is started, the
referenced tracks are always selected.

The general format for times is ``[+|-][[hh:]mm:]ss[.ms]``. If the time is
prefixed with ``-``, the time is considered relative from the end of the
file (as signaled by the demuxer/the file). A ``+`` is usually ignored (but
see below).

The following alternative time specifications are recognized:

``pp%`` seeks to percent position pp (0-100).

``#c`` seeks to chapter number c. (Chapters start from 1.)

``none`` resets any previously set option (useful for libmpv).

If ``--rebase-start-time=no`` is given, then prefixing times with ``+``
makes the time relative to the start of the file. A timestamp without
prefix is considered an absolute time, i.e. should seek to a frame with a
timestamp as the file contains it. As a bug, but also a hidden feature,
putting 1 or more spaces before the ``+`` or ``-`` always interprets the
time as absolute, which can be used to seek to negative timestamps (useful
for debugging at most).

.. admonition:: Examples

    ``--start=+56``, ``--start=00:56``
        Seeks to the start time + 56 seconds.
    ``--start=-56``, ``--start=-00:56``
        Seeks to the end time - 56 seconds.
    ``--start=01:10:00``
        Seeks to 1 hour 10 min.
    ``--start=50%``
        Seeks to the middle of the file.
    ``--start=30 --end=40``
        Seeks to 30 seconds, plays 10 seconds, and exits.
    ``--start=-3:20 --length=10``
        Seeks to 3 minutes and 20 seconds before the end of the file, plays
        10 seconds, and exits.
    ``--start='#2' --end='#4'``
        Plays chapters 2 and 3, and exits.

If both ``--end`` and ``--length`` are provided, playback will stop when it
reaches either of the two endpoints.

Obscurity note: this does not work correctly if ``--rebase-start-time=no``,
and the specified time is not an "absolute" time, as defined in the
``--start`` option description.

If ``--audio-pitch-correction`` (on by default) is used, playing with a
speed higher than normal automatically inserts the ``scaletempo2`` audio
filter.

Since pitch change is achieved by combining pitch-preserving speed change and
resampling, the range of pitch change is effectively limited by the
``min-speed`` and ``max-speed`` parameters of ``scaletempo2``: for example,
a ``min-speed`` of 0.25 limits the highest pitch factor to 4 (1/0.25).

In a standard 12-tone scale system, octaves are separated by a factor of 2
whereas semitones are represented by a factor of 2^(1/12). This means
pitches can easily be shifted up or down with a simple multiplier.

.. admonition:: Examples

    ``--pitch=2``
        Shifts the pitch up a full octave.
    ``--pitch=0.5``
        Shifts the pitch down an octave.
    ``--pitch=1.498307`` (2^(7/12))
        Shifts the pitch up a perfect fifth.
    ``--pitch=0.667420`` (2^(-7/12))
        Shifts the pitch down a perfect fifth.
    ``--pitch=1.059463`` (2^(1/12))
        Shifts the pitch up a semitone.
    ``--pitch=0.943874`` (2^(-1/12))
        Shifts the pitch down a semitone.

The value ``no`` is a deprecated alias for ``auto``.

This option forces ``--demuxer=playlist`` to interpret the playlist file.
Some playlist formats, notably CUE and optical disc formats, need to use
different demuxers and will not work with this option. They still can be
played directly, without using this option.

You can play playlists directly, without this option. Before mpv version
0.31.0, this option disabled any security mechanisms that might be in
place, but since 0.31.0 it uses the same security mechanisms as playing a
playlist file directly. If you trust the playlist file, you can disable
any security checks with ``--load-unsafe-playlists``. Because playlists
can load other playlist entries, consider applying this option only to the
playlist itself and not its entries, using something along these lines:

    ``mpv --{ --playlist=filename --load-unsafe-playlists --}``

.. warning::

    The way older versions of mpv played playlist files via ``--playlist``
    was not safe against maliciously constructed files. Such files may
    trigger harmful actions. This has been the case for all versions of
    mpv prior to 0.31.0, and all MPlayer versions, but unfortunately this
    fact was not well documented earlier, and some people have even
    misguidedly recommended the use of ``--playlist`` with untrusted
    sources. Do NOT use ``--playlist`` with random internet sources or
    files you do not trust if you are not sure your mpv is at least 0.31.0.

    In particular, playlists can contain entries using protocols other than
    local files, such as special protocols like ``avdevice://`` (which are
    inherently unsafe).

:no:       Never use precise seeks.
:absolute: Use precise seeks if the seek is to an absolute position in the
           file, such as a chapter seek, but not for relative seeks like
           the default behavior of arrow keys.
:default:  Like ``absolute``, but enable hr-seeks in audio-only cases. The
           exact behavior is implementation specific and may change with
           new releases (default).
:yes:      Use precise seeks whenever possible.
:always:   Same as ``yes`` (for compatibility).

Default: ``yes``

:default:   use an index if the file has one, or build it if missing
:recreate:  don't read or use the file's index

.. note::

    This option only works if the underlying media supports seeking
    (i.e. not with stdin, pipe, etc).

In addition, if a playlist is loaded while this is set, the added playlist
entries are not marked as originating from network or potentially unsafe
location. (Instead, the behavior is as if the playlist entries were provided
directly to mpv command line or ``loadfile`` command.)

On older FFmpeg versions, this will not work in some cases. Some FFmpeg
demuxers might not respect this option.

This option does not prevent opening of paired subtitle files and such. Use
``--autoload-files=no`` to prevent this.

This option does not always work if you open non-files (for example using
``dvd://directory`` would open a whole bunch of files in the given
directory). Prefixing the filename with ``./`` if it doesn't start with
a ``/`` will avoid this.

The ``force`` mode is like ``inf``, but does not skip playlist entries
which have been marked as failing. This means the player might waste CPU
time trying to loop a file that doesn't exist. But it might be useful for
playing webradios under very bad network conditions.

The difference to ``--loop-playlist`` is that this doesn't loop the playlist,
just the file itself. If the playlist contains only a single file, the
difference between the two option is that this option performs a seek on
loop, instead of reloading the file.

.. note::

    ``--loop-file`` counts the number of times it causes the player to
    seek to the beginning of the file, not the number of full playthroughs. This
    means ``--loop-file=1`` will end up playing the file twice. Contrast with
    ``--loop-playlist``, which counts the number of full playthroughs.

``--loop`` is an alias for this option.

If ``a`` is after ``b``, the behavior is as if the points were given in
the right order, and the player will seek to ``b`` after crossing through
``a``. This is different from old behavior, where looping was disabled (and
as a bug, looped back to ``a`` on the end of the file).

If either options are set to ``no`` (or unset), looping is disabled. This
is different from old behavior, where an unset ``a`` implied the start of
the file, and an unset ``b`` the end of the file.

The loop-points can be adjusted at runtime with the corresponding
properties. See also ``ab-loop`` command.

Useful for loading ordered chapter files that are not located on the local
filesystem, or if the referenced files are in different directories.

Note: a playlist can be as simple as a text file containing filenames
separated by newlines.

This accepts a media file (like mkv) or even a pseudo-format like ffmetadata
and uses its chapters to replace the current file's chapters. This doesn't
work with OGM or XML chapters directly.

.. note::

    Without ``--hr-seek``, skipping will snap to keyframes.

``+`` and ``-`` are aliases for ``forward`` and ``backward``.

The rest of this option description pertains to the ``backward`` mode.

.. note::

    Backward playback is extremely fragile. It may not always work, is much
    slower than forward playback, and breaks certain other features. How
    well it works depends mainly on the file being played. Generally, it
    will show good results (or results at all) only if the stars align.

mpv, as well as most media formats, were designed for forward playback
only. Backward playback is bolted on top of mpv, and tries to make a medium
effort to make backward playback work. Depending on your use-case, another
tool may work much better.

Backward playback is not exactly a 1st class feature. Implementation
tradeoffs were made, that are bad for backward playback, but in turn do not
cause disadvantages for normal playback. Various possible optimizations are
not implemented in order to keep the complexity down. Normally, a media
player is highly pipelined (future data is prepared in separate threads, so
it is available in realtime when the next stage needs it), but backward
playback will essentially stall the pipeline at various random points.

For example, for intra-only codecs are trivially backward playable, and
tools built around them may make efficient use of them (consider video
editors or camera viewers). mpv won't be efficient in this case, because it
uses its generic backward playback algorithm, that on top of it is not very
optimized.

If you just want to quickly go backward through the video and just show
"keyframes", just use forward playback, and hold down the left cursor key
(which on CLI with default config sends many small relative seek commands).

The implementation consists of mostly 3 parts:

- Backward demuxing. This relies on the demuxer cache, so the demuxer cache
  should (or must, didn't test it) be enabled, and its size will affect
  performance. If the cache is too small or too large, quadratic runtime
  behavior may result.

- Backward decoding. The decoder library used (libavcodec) does not support
  this. It is emulated by feeding bits of data in forward, putting the
  result in a queue, returning the queue data to the VO in reverse, and
  then starting over at an earlier position. This can require buffering an
  extreme amount of decoded data, and also completely breaks pipelining.

- Backward output. This is relatively simple, because the decoder returns
  the frames in the needed order. However, this may cause various problems
  because filters see audio and video going backward.

Known problems:

- It's fragile. If anything doesn't work, random behavior may occur.
  In simple cases, the player will just play nonsense and artifacts.
  In other cases, it may get stuck or heat the CPU. (Exceeding memory usage
  significantly beyond the user-set limits would be a bug, though.)

- Performance and resource usage isn't good. In part this is inherent to
  backward playback of normal media formats, and in parts due to
  implementation choices and tradeoffs.

- This is extremely reliant on good demuxer behavior. Although backward
  demuxing requires no special demuxer support, it is required that the
  demuxer performs seeks reliably, fulfills some specific requirements
  about packet metadata, and has deterministic behavior.

- Starting playback exactly from the end may or may not work, depending on
  seeking behavior and file duration detection.

- Some container formats, audio, and video codecs are not supported due to
  their behavior. There is no list, and the player usually does not detect
  them. Certain live streams (including TV captures) may exhibit problems
  in particular, as well as some lossy audio codecs. h264 intra-refresh is
  known not to work due to problems with libavcodec. WAV and some other raw
  audio formats tend to have problems - there are hacks for dealing with
  them, which may or may not work.

- Backward demuxing of subtitles is not supported. Subtitle display still
  works for some external text subtitle formats. (These are fully read into
  memory, and only backward display is needed.) Text subtitles that are
  cached in the subtitle renderer also have a chance to be displayed
  correctly.

- Some features dealing with playback of broken or hard to deal with files
  will not work fully (such as timestamp correction).

- If demuxer low level seeks (i.e. seeking the actual demuxer instead of
  just within the demuxer cache) are performed by backward playback, the
  created seek ranges may not join, because not enough overlap is achieved.

- Trying to use this with hardware video decoding will probably exhaust all
  your GPU memory and then crash a thing or two. Or it will fail because
  ``--hwdec-extra-frames`` will certainly be set too low.

- Stream recording is broken. ``--stream-record`` may keep working if you
  backward play within a cached region only.

- Relative seeks may behave weird. Small seeks backward (towards smaller
  time, i.e. ``seek -1``) may not really seek properly, and audio will
  remain muted for a while. Using hr-seek is recommended, which should have
  none of these problems.

- Some things are just weird. For example, while seek commands manipulate
  playback time in the expected way (provided they work correctly), the
  framestep commands are transposed. Backstepping will perform very
  expensive work to step forward by 1 frame.

Tuning:

- Remove all ``--vf``/``--af`` filters you have set. Disable hardware
  decoding. Disable functions like SPDIF passthrough.

- Increasing ``--video-reversal-buffer`` might help if reversal queue
  overflow is reported, which may happen in high bitrate video, or video
  with large GOP. Hardware decoding mostly ignores this, and you need to
  increase ``--hwdec-extra-frames`` instead (until you get playback without
  logged errors).

- The demuxer cache is essential for backward demuxing. Make sure to set
  ``--cache=yes``. The cache size might matter. If it's too small, a queue
  overflow will be logged, and backward playback cannot continue, or it
  performs too many low level seeks. If it's too large, implementation
  tradeoffs may cause general performance issues. Use
  ``--demuxer-max-bytes`` to potentially increase the amount of packets the
  demuxer layer can queue for reverse demuxing (basically it's the
  ``--video-reversal-buffer`` equivalent for the demuxer layer).

- Setting ``--vd-queue-enable=yes`` can help a lot to make playback smooth
  (once it works).

- ``--demuxer-backward-playback-step`` also factors into how many seeks may
  be performed, and whether backward demuxing could break due to queue
  overflow. If it's set too high, the backstep operation needs to search
  through more packets all the time, even if the cache is large enough.

- Setting ``--demuxer-cache-wait`` may be useful to cache the entire file
  into the demuxer cache. Set ``--demuxer-max-bytes`` to a large size to
  make sure it can read the entire cache; ``--demuxer-max-back-bytes``
  should also be set to a large size to prevent it from trimming the cache.

- If audio artifacts are audible, even though the AO does not underrun,
  increasing ``--audio-backward-overlap`` might help in some cases.

Use this option if you get reversal queue overflow errors during backward
playback. Increase the size until the warning disappears. Usually, the video
buffer will overflow first, especially if it's high resolution video.

This does not work correctly if video hardware decoding is used. The video
frame size will not include the referenced GPU and driver memory. Some
hardware decoders may also be limited by ``--hwdec-extra-frames``.

How large the queue size needs to be depends entirely on the way the media
was encoded. Audio typically requires a very small buffer, while video can
require excessively large buffers.

(Technically, this allows the last frame to exceed the limit. Also, this
does not account for other buffered frames, such as inside the decoder or
the video output.)

This does not affect demuxer cache behavior at all.

See ``--list-options`` for defaults and value range. ``<bytesize>`` options
accept suffixes such as ``KiB`` and ``MiB``.

The solution is to feed a previous packet to the decoder each time, and then
discard the output. This option controls how many packets to feed. The
``auto`` choice is currently hardcoded to 0 for video, and uses 1 for lossy
audio, 0 for lossless audio. For some specific lossy audio codecs, this is
set to 2.

``--video-backward-overlap`` can potentially handle intra-refresh video,
depending on the exact conditions. You may have to use the
``--vd-lavc-show-all`` option as well.

It probably never makes sense to set ``--video-backward-batch``. But in
theory, it could help with intra-only video codecs by reducing backstep
operations.

Setting this to a very low value or 0 may make the player think seeking is
broken, or may make it perform multiple seeks.

Setting this to a high value may lead to quadratic runtime behavior.

You can also pass a string to this option, which will list all top-level
options which contain the string in the name, e.g. ``--h=scale`` for all
options that contain the word ``scale``. The special string ``*`` lists
all top-level options.

.. note::

    Files explicitly requested by command line options, like
    ``--include`` or ``--use-filedir-conf``, will still be loaded.

See also: ``--config-dir``.

A special case is the macOS bundle, it will create a log file at
``~/Library/Logs/mpv.log`` by default.

Note that the cache and state paths (``~~/cache``, ``~~/state``) are not
considered "configuration" and keep their auto-detection logic.

Note that the ``--no-config`` option takes precedence over this option.

This option is useful for debugging only.

``once`` will only idle at start and let the player close once the
first playlist has finished playing back.

``--scripts`` is a path list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

Each use of the ``--script-opt`` option will add another option to the
internal list, while ``--script-opts`` takes a list of options at once,
and overwrites the internal list with it. The latter is a key/value list
option. See `List Options`_ for details.

Default: Do not reset anything.

This can be changed with this option. It accepts a list of options, and
mpv will reset the value of these options on playback start to the initial
value. The initial value is either the default value, or as set by the
config file or command line.

The special name ``all`` resets as many options as possible.

This is a string list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

.. admonition:: Examples

    - ``--reset-on-next-file=pause``
      Reset pause mode when switching to the next file.
    - ``--reset-on-next-file=fullscreen,speed``
      Reset fullscreen and playback speed settings if they were changed
      during playback.
    - ``--reset-on-next-file=all``
      Try to reset all settings that were changed during playback.

.. warning::

    May be dangerous if playing from untrusted media.

If the script can't do anything with an URL, it will do nothing.

This accepts a set of options, which can be passed to it with the
``--script-opts`` option (using ``ytdl_hook-`` as prefix):

``try_ytdl_first=<yes|no>``
    If 'yes' will try parsing the URL with youtube-dl first, instead of the
    default where it's only after mpv failed to open it. This mostly depends
    on whether most of your URLs need youtube-dl parsing.

``exclude=<URL1|URL2|...``
    A ``|``-separated list of URL patterns which mpv should not use with
    youtube-dl. The patterns are matched after the ``http(s)://`` part of
    the URL.

    ``^`` matches the beginning of the URL, ``$`` matches its end, and you
    should use ``%`` before any of the characters ``^$()%|,.[]*+-?`` to
    match that character.

    URLs are converted to lower case before matching.

    .. admonition:: Examples

        - ``--script-opts=ytdl_hook-exclude='^youtube%.com'``
          will exclude any URL that starts with ``http://youtube.com`` or
          ``https://youtube.com``.
        - ``--script-opts=ytdl_hook-exclude='%.mkv$|%.mp4$'``
          will exclude any URL that ends with ``.mkv`` or ``.mp4``.

    See more lua patterns here: https://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/manual.html#5.4.1

``include=<URL1|URL2|...``
    A ``|``-separated list of URL patterns which mpv should try to parse with
    youtube-dl first when ``try_ytdl_first`` is ``no``. The patterns are
    matched in the same way as ``exclude``.

    Default: ``^%w+%.youtube%.com/|^youtube%.com/|^youtu%.be/|^%w+%.twitch%.tv/|^twitch%.tv/``

``all_formats=<yes|no>``
    If 'yes' will attempt to add all formats found reported by youtube-dl
    (default: no). Each format is added as a separate track. In addition,
    they are delay-loaded, and actually opened only when a track is selected
    (this should keep load times as low as without this option).

    It adds average bitrate metadata, if available, which means you can use
    ``--hls-bitrate`` to decide which track to select. (HLS used to be the
    only format whose alternative quality streams were exposed in a similar
    way, thus the option name.)

    Tracks which represent formats that were selected by youtube-dl as
    default will have the default flag set. This means mpv should generally
    still select formats chosen with ``--ytdl-format`` by default.

    Although this mechanism makes it possible to switch streams at runtime,
    it's not suitable for this purpose for various technical reasons. (It's
    slow, which can't be really fixed.) In general, this option is not
    useful, and was only added to show that it's possible.

    There are two cases that must be considered when doing quality/bandwidth
    selection:

        1. Completely separate audio and video streams (DASH-like). Each of
           these streams contain either only audio or video, so you can
           mix and combine audio/video bandwidths without restriction. This
           intuitively matches best with the concept of selecting quality
           by track (what ``all_formats`` is supposed to do).

        2. Separate sets of muxed audio and video streams. Each version of
           the media contains both an audio and video stream, and they are
           interleaved. In order not to waste bandwidth, you should only
           select one of these versions (if, for example, you select an
           audio stream, then video will be downloaded, even if you selected
           video from a different stream).

           mpv will still represent them as separate tracks, but will set
           the title of each track to ``muxed-N``, where ``N`` is replaced
           with the youtube-dl format ID of the originating stream.

    Some sites will mix 1. and 2., but we assume that they do so for
    compatibility reasons, and there is no reason to use them at all.

``force_all_formats=<yes|no>``
    If set to 'yes', and ``all_formats`` is also set to 'yes', this will
    try to represent all youtube-dl reported formats as tracks, even if
    mpv would normally use the direct URL reported by it (default: yes).

    It appears this normally makes a difference if youtube-dl works on a
    master HLS playlist.

    If this is set to 'no', this specific kind of stream is treated like
    ``all_formats`` is set to 'no', and the stream selection as done by
    youtube-dl (via ``--ytdl-format``) is used.

``thumbnails=<all|best|none>``
    Add thumbnails as video tracks (default: none).

    Thumbnails get downloaded when they are added as tracks, so 'all' can
    have a noticeable impact on how long it takes to open the video when
    there are a lot of thumbnails.

``use_manifests=<yes|no>``
    Make mpv use the master manifest URL for formats like HLS and DASH,
    if available, allowing for video/audio selection in runtime (default:
    no). It's disabled ("no") by default for performance reasons.

``ytdl_path=youtube-dl``
    Configure paths to youtube-dl's executable or a compatible fork's. The
    paths should be separated by : on Unix and ; on Windows. mpv looks in
    order for the configured paths in PATH and in mpv's config directory.
    The defaults are "yt-dlp", "yt-dlp_x86" and "youtube-dl". On Windows
    the suffix extension is not necessary, but only ".exe" is acceptable.

.. admonition:: Why do the option names mix ``_`` and ``-``?

    I have no idea.

An empty value or ``ytdl`` does not pass a ``--format`` option to youtube-dl
at all, and thus uses its default format selection behavior.

There is no sanity checking so it's possible to break things (i.e.
passing invalid parameters to youtube-dl).

A proxy URL can be passed for youtube-dl to use it in parsing the website.
This is useful for geo-restricted URLs. After youtube-dl parsing, some
URLs also require a proxy for playback, so this can pass that proxy
information to mpv. Take note that SOCKS proxies aren't supported and
https URLs also bypass the proxy. This is a limitation in FFmpeg.

This is a key/value list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

.. admonition:: Example

    - ``--ytdl-raw-options=username=user,password=pass``
    - ``--ytdl-raw-options=force-ipv6=``
    - ``--ytdl-raw-options=proxy=[http://127.0.0.1:3128]``
    - ``--ytdl-raw-options-append=proxy=http://127.0.0.1:3128``

This behavior is disabled by default, but is always available when quitting
the player with Shift+Q.

See `RESUMING PLAYBACK`_.

``--watch-later-directory`` is an alias for ``--watch-later-dir``.

If this option is unset, the files will be stored in a subdirectory
named "watch_later" underneath the local state directory
(usually ``~/.local/state/mpv/``).

When removing options, existing watch later data won't be modified and will
still be applied fully, but new watch later data won't contain these
options.

See ``--help=watch-later-options`` for the list of the properties that are
restored by default.

This is a string list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

.. admonition:: Examples

    - ``--watch-later-options-remove=sid``
      The subtitle track selection will not be restored.
    - ``--watch-later-options-remove=volume``
      ``--watch-later-options-remove=mute``
      The volume and mute state won't be saved to watch later files.
    - ``--watch-later-options=start``
      No option will be saved to watch later files, except the playback
      position.

.. warning::

    This option may expose privacy-sensitive information and is thus
    disabled by default.

.. warning::

    This option may expose privacy-sensitive information and is thus
    disabled by default.

This file contains one JSON object per line. Its ``time`` field is the UNIX
timestamp when the file was opened, its ``path`` field is the normalized
path, and its ``title`` field is the title when it was available.

.. note::

    See ``--vd=help`` for a full list of available decoders.

The argument selects the drop methods, and can be one of the following:

<no>
    Disable any frame dropping. Not recommended, for testing only.
<vo>
    Drop late frames on video output (default). This still decodes and
    filters all frames, but doesn't render them on the VO. Drops are
    indicated in the terminal status line as ``Dropped:`` field.

    In audio sync. mode, this drops frames that are outdated at the time of
    display. If the decoder is too slow, in theory all frames would have to
    be dropped (because all frames are too late) - to avoid this, frame
    dropping stops  if the effective framerate is below 10 FPS.

    In display-sync. modes (see ``--video-sync``), this affects only how
    A/V drops or repeats frames. If this mode is disabled, A/V desync will
    in theory not affect video scheduling anymore (much like the
    ``display-resample-desync`` mode). However, even if disabled, frames
    will still be skipped (i.e. dropped) according to the ratio between
    video and display frequencies.

    This is the recommended mode, and the default.
<decoder>
    Old, decoder-based framedrop mode. (This is the same as ``--framedrop=yes``
    in mpv 0.5.x and before.) This tells the decoder to skip frames (unless
    they are needed to decode future frames). May help with slow systems,
    but can produce unwatchable choppy output, or even freeze the display
    completely.

    This uses a heuristic which may not make sense, and in  general cannot
    achieve good results, because the decoder's frame dropping cannot be
    controlled in a predictable manner. Not recommended.

    Even if you want to use this, prefer ``decoder+vo`` for better results.

    The ``--vd-lavc-framedrop`` option controls what frames to drop.
<decoder+vo>
    Enable both modes. Not recommended. Better than just ``decoder`` mode.

.. note::

    ``--vo=vdpau`` has its own code for the ``vo`` framedrop mode. Slight
    differences to other VOs are possible.

This does:

- Use the demuxer reported FPS for frame dropping. This avoids the
  player needing to decode 1 frame in advance, lowering total latency in
  effect. This also means that if the demuxer reported FPS is wrong, or
  the video filter chain changes FPS (e.g. deinterlacing), then it could
  drop too many or not enough frames.
- Disable waiting for the first video frame. Normally the player waits for
  the first video frame to be fully rendered before starting playback
  properly. Some VOs will lazily initialize stuff when rendering the first
  frame, so if this is not done, there is some likeliness that the VO has
  to drop some frames if rendering the first frame takes longer than needed.

Set this option only if you have reason to believe the automatically
determined value is wrong.

Hardware decoding is not enabled by default, to keep the out-of-the-box
configuration as reliable as possible. However, when using modern hardware,
hardware video decoding should work correctly, offering reduced CPU usage,
and possibly lower power consumption. On older systems, it may be necessary
to use hardware decoding due to insufficient CPU resources; and even on
modern systems, sufficiently complex content (eg: 4K60 AV1) may require it.

This is a string list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

.. note::

    Use the ``Ctrl+h`` shortcut to toggle hardware decoding at runtime. It
    toggles this option between ``auto`` and ``no``.

    If you decide you want to use hardware decoding by default, the general
    recommendation is to try out decoding with the command line option, and
    prove to yourself that it works as desired for the content you care
    about. After that, you can add it to your config file.

    When testing, you should start by using ``hwdec=auto`` as it will
    limit itself to choosing from hwdecs that are actively supported by the
    development team. If that doesn't result in working hardware decoding,
    you can try ``hwdec=auto-unsafe`` to have it attempt to load every
    possible hwdec, but if ``auto`` didn't work, you will probably need
    to know exactly which hwdec matches your hardware and read up on that
    entry below.

    If ``auto`` produced the desired results, we recommend just
    sticking with that and only setting a specific hwdec in your config
    file if it is really necessary.

    If you use the Ubuntu package, keep in mind that their
    ``/etc/mpv/mpv.conf`` contains ``hwdec=vaapi``, which is less than
    ideal as it may not be the right choice for your system, and it may end
    up using an inefficient wrapper library under the covers. We recommend
    removing this line or deleting the file altogether.

.. note::

    Even if enabled, hardware decoding is still only white-listed for some
    codecs. See ``--hwdec-codecs`` to enable hardware decoding in more cases.

.. admonition:: Which method to choose?

    - If you only want to enable hardware decoding at runtime, don't set the
      parameter, or put ``hwdec=no`` into your ``mpv.conf`` (relevant on
      distros which force-enable it by default, such as on Ubuntu). Use the
      ``Ctrl+h`` default binding to enable it at runtime.
    - If you're not sure, but want hardware decoding always enabled by
      default, put ``hwdec=yes`` into your ``mpv.conf``, and acknowledge that
      this may cause problems.
    - If you want to test available hardware decoding methods, pass
      ``--hwdec=auto --hwdec-codecs=all`` and look at the terminal output.
    - If you're a developer, or want to perform elaborate tests, you may
      need any of the other possible option values.

This option accepts a comma delimited list of ``api`` types, along with certain
special values:

:no:          always use software decoding (default)
:auto:        enable any whitelisted hw decoder (see below)
:auto-unsafe: forcibly enable any hw decoder found (see below)
:yes:         exactly the same as ``auto``
:auto-safe:   exactly the same as ``auto``

.. note::

    Special values can be mixed with api names. eg: ``vaapi,auto`` will try
    and use the ``vaapi`` hwdec, and if that fails, will run through the
    normal ``auto`` logic.

Actively supported hwdecs:

:d3d11va:   requires ``--vo=gpu`` or ``--vo=gpu-next`` with ``--gpu-context=d3d11`` or
            ``--gpu-context=angle`` (Windows 8+ only)
:d3d11va-copy: copies video back to system RAM (Windows 8+ only)
:videotoolbox: requires ``--vo=gpu`` or ``--vo=gpu-next`` (macOS only),
               or ``--vo=libmpv`` (iOS 9.0 and up)
:videotoolbox-copy: copies video back into system RAM (macOS 10.15 or iOS 9.0 and up)
:vaapi:     requires ``--vo=gpu``, ``--vo=gpu-next``, ``--vo=vaapi`` or ``--vo=dmabuf-wayland`` (Linux only)
:vaapi-copy: copies video back into system RAM (Linux with some GPUs or Windows)
:nvdec:     requires ``--vo=gpu`` or ``--vo=gpu-next`` (Any platform CUDA is available)
:nvdec-copy: copies video back to system RAM (Any platform CUDA is available)
:drm:       requires ``--vo=gpu`` or ``--vo=gpu-next`` (Linux only)
:drm-copy:   copies video back to system RAM (Linux only)
:vulkan:    requires ``--vo=gpu-next`` (Any platform with Vulkan Video Decoding)
:vulkan-copy: copies video back to system RAM (Any platform with Vulkan Video Decoding)

Other hwdecs (only use if you know you have to):

:dxva2:     requires ``--vo=gpu`` with ``--gpu-context=d3d11``,
            ``--gpu-context=angle`` or ``--gpu-context=dxinterop``
            (Windows only)
:dxva2-copy: copies video back to system RAM (Windows only)
:vdpau:     requires ``--vo=gpu`` with ``--gpu-context=x11``, or
            ``--vo=vdpau`` (Linux only)
:vdpau-copy: copies video back into system RAM (Linux with some GPUs only)
:mediacodec: requires ``--vo=gpu --gpu-context=android``
             or ``--vo=mediacodec_embed`` (Android only)
:mediacodec-copy: copies video back to system RAM (Android only)
:cuda:      requires ``--vo=gpu`` (Any platform CUDA is available)
:cuda-copy: copies video back to system RAM (Any platform CUDA is available)
:crystalhd: copies video back to system RAM (Any platform supported by hardware)
:rkmpp:     requires ``--vo=gpu`` (some RockChip devices only)


``auto`` tries to automatically enable hardware decoding using the
first available method, but allows only whitelisted methods that are
considered "safe". This is supposed to be a reasonable way to enable
hardware decoding by default in a config file (even though you shouldn't
do that anyway; prefer runtime enabling with ``Ctrl+h``). Unlike
``auto-unsafe``, this will not try to enable unknown or known-to-be-bad
methods. In addition, this may disable hardware decoding in other situations
when it's known to cause problems, but currently this mechanism is quite
primitive. (As an example for something that still causes problems: certain
combinations of HEVC and Intel chips on Windows tend to cause mpv to crash,
most likely due to driver bugs.)

``auto-unsafe`` is similar to ``auto``, but without the whitelist.
In general, you should never need to use this beyond debugging or
development use. Any known unsafe hwdec you want to test can simply be
appended to the list option such as ``--hwdec=auto,unsafe-hwdec``.
This still depends what VO you are using. See the list above, for which
``--vo`` and ``gpu-context`` is required for a given hwdec. It will go down
the list of available hwdecs until one is successfully initialised. If all
of them fail, it will fallback to software decoding.

``auto-copy`` selects only modes that copy the video data back to system
memory after decoding. This selects modes like ``vaapi-copy`` (and so on),
but it only allows whitelisted methods that are considered "safe". If none
of these work, hardware decoding is disabled. This mode is usually guaranteed
to incur no additional quality loss compared to software decoding (assuming
modern codecs and an error free video stream), and will allow CPU processing
with video filters. This mode works with all video filters and VOs.

``auto-copy-safe`` is an alias for ``auto-copy``

``auto-copy-unsafe`` is the same as ``auto-copy`` except that it goes through
all methods and not just the whitelisted ones that are considered "safe".

Because these copy the decoded video back to system RAM, they're often less
efficient than the direct modes, and may not help too much over software
decoding if you are short on CPU resources.

.. note::

   Most non-copy methods only work with the OpenGL GPU backend. Currently,
   only the ``vaapi``, ``nvdec``, ``cuda`` and ``vulkan`` methods work with
   Vulkan.

The ``vaapi`` mode, if used with ``--vo=gpu`` or ``--vo=gpu-next`` most
likely works with Intel and AMD GPUs only. It requires the opengl EGL
backend if the GPU does not support drm modifiers.

``nvdec`` and ``nvdec-copy`` are the newest, and recommended method to do
hardware decoding on Nvidia GPUs.

``cuda`` and ``cuda-copy`` are an older implementation of hardware decoding
on Nvidia GPUs that uses Nvidia's bitstream parsers rather than FFmpeg's.
This can lead to feature deficiencies, such as incorrect playback of HDR
content, and ``nvdec``/``nvdec-copy`` should always be preferred unless you
specifically need Nvidia's deinterlacing algorithms. To use this
deinterlacing you must pass the option:
``vd-lavc-o=deint=[weave|bob|adaptive]``.
Pass ``weave`` (or leave the option unset) to not attempt any
deinterlacing.

.. admonition:: Quality reduction with hardware decoding

    In theory, hardware decoding does not reduce video quality (at least
    for the codecs h264 and HEVC). However, due to restrictions in video
    output APIs, as well as bugs in the actual hardware decoders, there can
    be some loss, or even blatantly incorrect results. This has largely
    ceased to be a problem with modern hardware, but there is a lot of
    hardware out there, so caveat emptor. Known problems are discussed
    below, but the list cannot be considered exhaustive, as even hwdecs that
    work well on certain hardware generations may be problematic on other
    ones.

    In some cases, RGB conversion is forced, which means the RGB conversion
    is performed by the hardware decoding API, instead of the shaders
    used by ``--vo=gpu``. This means certain colorspaces may not display
    correctly, and certain filtering (such as debanding) cannot be applied
    in an ideal way. This will also usually force the use of low quality
    chroma scalers instead of the one specified by ``--cscale``. In other
    cases, hardware decoding can also reduce the bit depth of the decoded
    image, which can introduce banding or precision loss for 10-bit files.

    ``vdpau`` always does RGB conversion in hardware, which does not
    support newer colorspaces like BT.2020 correctly. However, ``vdpau``
    doesn't support 10 bit or HDR encodings, so these limitations are
    unlikely to be relevant.

    ``dxva2`` is not safe. It appears to always use BT.601 for forced RGB
    conversion, but actual behavior depends on the GPU drivers. Some drivers
    appear to convert to limited range RGB, which gives a faded appearance.
    In addition to driver-specific behavior, global system settings might
    affect this additionally. This can give incorrect results even with
    completely ordinary video sources.

    ``mediacodec`` is not safe. It forces RGB conversion (not with ``-copy``)
    and how well it handles non-standard colorspaces is not known.
    In the rare cases where 10-bit is supported the bit depth of the output
    will be reduced to 8.

    ``cuda`` should usually be safe, but depending on how a file/stream
    has been mixed, it has been reported to corrupt the timestamps causing
    glitched, flashing frames. It can also sometimes cause massive
    framedrops for unknown reasons. Caution is advised, and ``nvdec``
    should always be preferred.

    ``crystalhd`` is not safe. It always converts to 4:2:2 YUV, which
    may be lossy, depending on how chroma sub-sampling is done during
    conversion. It also discards the top left pixel of each frame for
    some reason.

    If you run into any weird decoding issues, frame glitches or
    discoloration, and you have ``--hwdec`` turned on, the first thing you
    should try is disabling it.

This is useful for the ``gpu`` and ``libmpv`` VOs for selecting which
hwdec interop context to use exactly. Effectively it also can be used
to block loading of certain backends.

If set to ``auto`` (default), the behavior depends on the VO: for ``gpu``,
it does nothing, and the interop context is loaded on demand (when the
decoder probes for ``--hwdec`` support). For ``libmpv``, which has
has no on-demand loading, this is equivalent to ``all``.

The empty string is equivalent to ``auto``.

If set to ``all``, it attempts to load all interop contexts at GL context
creation time.

Other than that, a specific backend can be set, and the list of them can
be queried with ``help`` (mpv CLI only).

Runtime changes to this are ignored (the current option value is used
whenever the renderer is created).

This value is used only for hardware decoding APIs which require
preallocating surfaces (known examples include ``d3d11va`` and ``vaapi``).
For other APIs, frames are allocated as needed. The details depend on the
libavcodec implementations of the hardware decoders.

The required number of surfaces depends on dynamic runtime situations. The
default is a fixed value that is thought to be sufficient for most uses. But
in certain situations, it may not be enough.

Some implementations might support multiple formats. In particular,
videotoolbox is known to require ``uyvy422`` for good performance on some
older hardware. d3d11va can always use ``yuv420p``, which uses an opaque
format, with likely no advantages.

For the OpenGL GPU backend, the default device used for decoding is the one
being used to provide ``gpu`` output (and in the vast majority of cases,
only one GPU will be present).

For the ``copy`` hwdecs, the default device will be the first device
enumerated by the CUDA libraries - however that is done.

For the Vulkan GPU backend, decoding must always happen on the display
device, and this option has no effect.

On Windows this takes adapter name as an input. Will pick the default adapter
if unset. Alternatives are listed when the name "help" is given.

This option has no effect if ``--video-unscaled`` option is used.

The difference between ``--panscan`` and ``--video-zoom`` is that
``--panscan`` can only zoom in until either the video width or height fills
the window, while ``--video-zoom`` can zoom in or out arbitrary amounts, and
also works with ``--video-unscaled``.

These values have special meaning:

:no: use the method of the ``--video-aspect-method`` option (default)
:0:  disable aspect ratio handling, pretend the video has square pixels
     (deprecated, use
     ``--video-aspect-override=no --video-aspect-method=ignore`` instead)
:-1: strictly prefer the container aspect ratio (deprecated, use
     ``--video-aspect-override=no --video-aspect-method=container`` instead)

But note that handling of these special values might change in the future.

.. admonition:: Examples

    - ``--video-aspect-override=4:3``  or ``--video-aspect-override=1.3333``
    - ``--video-aspect-override=16:9`` or ``--video-aspect-override=1.7777``
    - ``--no-video-aspect-override`` or ``--video-aspect-override=no``

:container: Strictly prefer the container aspect ratio. This is apparently
            the default behavior with VLC, at least with Matroska. Note that
            if the container has no aspect ratio set, the behavior is the
            same as with bitstream.
:bitstream: Strictly prefer the bitstream aspect ratio, unless the bitstream
            aspect ratio is not set. This is apparently the default behavior
            with XBMC/kodi, at least with Matroska.
:ignore:    Disable aspect ratio handling, pretend the video has square
            pixels.

The current default for mpv is ``container``.

Normally you should not set this. Try the various choices if you encounter
video that has the wrong aspect ratio in mpv, but seems to be correct in
other players.

Note that the scaler algorithm may still be used, even if the video isn't
scaled. For example, this can influence chroma conversion. The video will
also still be scaled in one dimension if the source uses non-square pixels
(e.g. anamorphic widescreen DVDs).

This option is disabled if ``--keepaspect=no`` is used.

For example, displaying a video fullscreen on a 1920x1080 screen with
``--video-pan-x=-0.1`` would move the video 192 pixels to the left and
``--video-pan-y=-0.1`` would move the video 108 pixels up.

This option is disabled if ``--keepaspect=no`` is used.

When using hardware decoding without copy-back, only 90° steps work, while
software decoding and hardware decoding methods that copy the video back to
system memory support all values between 0 and 359.

This option is disabled if ``--keepaspect=no`` is used.

This value is multiplied with the value derived from ``--video-zoom`` and
the normal video aspect ratio. This option is disabled if
``--keepaspect=no`` is used.

When the video is smaller than the window and ``--video-recenter`` is
disabled, these move the video rectangle within the black borders, which are
usually added to pad the video to the window if video and window aspect
ratios are different. ``--video-align-y=-1`` would move the video to the top
of the window (leaving a border only on the bottom), ``0`` would center it,
and ``1`` would put the video at the bottom of the window.

If video and screen aspect match perfectly, these options do nothing.

Unlike ``--video-pan-x`` and ``--video-pan-y``, these don't go beyond the
video's or window's boundaries or make the displayed rectangle drift off
after zooming.

This option is disabled if ``--keepaspect=no`` is used.

After zooming in until the video is bigger than the window, panning with
`--video-align-x` and/or `--video-align-y`, and zooming out until the video
is smaller than the window, this is useful to recenter the video in the
window.

Default: no.

The video is "boxed" by these margins. The window size is not changed. In
particular it does not enlarge the window, and the margins will cause the
video to be downscaled by default. This may or may not change in the future.

The margins are applied after 90° video rotation, but before any other video
transformations.

This option is disabled if ``--keepaspect=no`` is used.

Subtitles still may use the margins, depending on ``--sub-use-margins`` and
similar options.

These options were created for the OSC. Some odd decisions, such as making
the margin values a ratio (instead of pixels), were made for the sake of
the OSC. It's possible that these options may be replaced by ones that are
more generally useful. The behavior of these options may change to fit
OSC requirements better, too.

.. note::

    Works in ``--correct-pts=no`` mode only.

When using ``auto``, mpv will insert a deinterlacing filter if ffmpeg
detects that the video frame is interlaced. Be aware that there can be false
positives in certain cases, such as when files are encoded as interlaced
despite the video not actually being so. This is why ``auto`` is not the
default value.

Keep in mind that using this filter **will** conflict with any manually
inserted deinterlacing filters, and that this will make video look worse if
it's not actually interlaced.

``auto`` will automatically try to detect the field order of the video,
``tff`` forces top field first while ``bff`` forces bottom field first.

``--frames=0`` loads the file, but immediately quits before initializing
playback. (Might be useful for scripts which just want to determine some
file properties.)

For audio-only playback, any value greater than 0 will quit playback
immediately after initialization. The value 0 works as with video.

Not all VOs support this option. Some will silently ignore it.

Available color ranges are:

:auto:      automatic selection (equals to full range) (default)
:limited:   limited range (16-235 per component), studio levels
:full:      full range (0-255 per component), PC levels

.. note::

    It is advisable to use your graphics driver's color range option
    instead, if available.

You can get the list of allowed codecs with ``mpv --vd=help``. Remove the
prefix, e.g. instead of ``lavc:h264`` use ``h264``.

By default, this is set to ``h264,vc1,hevc,vp8,vp9,av1,prores,prores_raw,ffv1,dpx``. Note that
the hardware acceleration special codecs like ``h264_vdpau`` are not
relevant anymore, and in fact have been removed from FFmpeg in this form.

This is usually only needed with broken GPUs, where a codec is reported
as supported, but decoding causes more problems than it solves.

.. note::

    On some broken drivers (e.g. NVIDIA on Linux), probing for codecs which
    the GPU does not support can unnecessarily slow down video playback
    initialization. To alleviate this, explicitly specify a list which
    only includes the codecs supported on the setup.

.. admonition:: Example

    ``mpv --hwdec=vdpau --hwdec-codecs=h264,mpeg2video``
        Enable vdpau decoding for h264 and mpeg2 only.

If this is set to 0, the number of threads will be automatically determined
by the number of CPU cores available.

Setting this to a higher number might break the playback start fallback: if
a fallback happens, parts of the file will be skipped, approximately by to
the number of packets that could not be decoded. Values below an unspecified
count will not have this problem, because mpv retains the packets.

By default, it's set to ``auto``, so if the VO supports film grain
application, then it will be treated as ``gpu``. If the VO does not
support this, then it will be treated as ``cpu``, regardless of the setting.
Currently, only ``gpu-next`` supports film grain application.

    - ``gpu``: requires at least OpenGL 4.4 or Vulkan.
    - ``libmpv``: The libmpv render API has optional support.

The ``auto`` option will try to guess whether DR can improve performance
on your particular hardware. Currently this enables it on AMD or NVIDIA
if using OpenGL or unconditionally if using Vulkan.

Using video filters of any kind that write to the image data (or output
newly allocated frames) will silently disable the DR code path.

Some options which used to be direct options can be set with this
mechanism, like ``bug``, ``gray``, ``idct``, ``ec``, ``vismv``,
``skip_top`` (was ``st``), ``skip_bottom`` (was ``sb``), ``debug``.

This is a key/value list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

.. admonition:: Example

    ``--vd-lavc-o=debug=pict``

``<skipvalue>`` can be one of the following:

:none:    Never skip.
:default: Skip useless processing steps (e.g. 0 size packets in AVI).
:nonref:  Skip frames that are not referenced (i.e. not used for
          decoding other frames, the error cannot "build up").
:bidir:   Skip B-Frames.
:nonkey:  Skip all frames except keyframes.
:all:     Skip all frames.

::

    [af_insert]
    profile-cond=speed ~= 1
    profile-restore=copy
    af-add=scaletempo2=search-interval=50 # Insert filter and params here.

Filters set this way replace the ``scaletempo2`` default, instead of
overlapping with it. If there are multiple audio filters inserted that can do
pitch correction, then only the last one in the filter chain is used.
For details on the specifics of each available filter, see the audio filter
section.

You can list audio devices with ``--audio-device=help``. This outputs the
device name in quotes, followed by a description. The device name is what
you have to pass to the ``--audio-device`` option. The list of audio devices
can be retrieved by API by using the ``audio-device-list`` property.

While the option normally takes one of the strings as indicated by the
methods above, you can also force the device for most AOs by building it
manually. For example ``name/foobar`` forces the AO ``name`` to use the
device ``foobar``. However, the ``--ao`` option will strictly force a
specific AO. To avoid confusion, don't use ``--ao`` and ``--audio-device``
together.

.. admonition:: Example for ALSA

    MPlayer and mplayer2 required you to replace any ',' with '.' and
    any ':' with '=' in the ALSA device name. For example, to use the
    device named ``dmix:default``, you had to do:

        ``-ao alsa:device=dmix=default``

    In mpv you could instead use:

        ``--audio-device=alsa/dmix:default``

This only works for some audio outputs, such as ``wasapi``, ``coreaudio``,
``pipewire`` and ``audiounit``. Other audio outputs silently ignore this option.
They either have no concept of exclusive mode, or the mpv side of the
implementation is missing.

Possible codecs are ``ac3``, ``dts``, ``dts-hd``, ``eac3``, ``truehd``.
Multiple codecs can be specified by separating them with ``,``. ``dts``
refers to low bitrate DTS core, while ``dts-hd`` refers to DTS MA (receiver
and OS support varies). If both ``dts`` and ``dts-hd`` are specified, it
behaves equivalent to specifying ``dts-hd`` only.

In earlier mpv versions you could use ``--ad`` to force the spdif wrapper.
This does not work anymore.

.. warning::

    There is not much reason to use this. HDMI supports uncompressed
    multichannel PCM, and mpv supports lossless DTS-HD decoding via
    FFmpeg's new DCA decoder (based on libdcadec).

``-`` at the end of the list suppresses fallback on other available
decoders not on the ``--ad`` list. This should not normally be used,
because they break normal decoder auto-selection! The ``-`` mode is
deprecated.

.. admonition:: Examples

    ``--ad=mp3float``
        Prefer the FFmpeg ``mp3float`` decoder over all other MP3
        decoders.

    ``--ad=help``
        List all available decoders.

.. warning::

    Enabling compressed audio passthrough (AC3 and DTS via SPDIF/HDMI) with
    this option is not possible. Use ``--audio-spdif`` instead.

Since mpv 0.18.1, this always controls the internal mixer (aka software
volume).

See also: ``--volume``.

The standard mandates that DRC is enabled by default, but mpv (and some
other players) ignore this for the sake of better audio quality.

This is a key/value list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

.. warning::

    This and enabling passthrough via ``--ad`` are deprecated in favor of
    using ``--audio-spdif=dts-hd``.

- ``--audio-channels=auto-safe``
    Use the system's preferred channel layout. If there is none (such
    as when accessing a hardware device instead of the system mixer),
    force stereo. Some audio outputs might simply accept any layout and
    do downmixing on their own.

    This is the default.
- ``--audio-channels=auto``
    Send the audio device whatever it accepts, preferring the audio's
    original channel layout. Can cause issues with HDMI (see the warning
    below).
- ``--audio-channels=layout1,layout2,...``
    List of ``,``-separated channel layouts which should be allowed.
    Technically, this only adjusts the filter chain output to the best
    matching layout in the list, and passes the result to the audio API.
    It's possible that the audio API will select a different channel
    layout.

    Using this mode is recommended for direct hardware output, especially
    over HDMI (see HDMI warning below).
- ``--audio-channels=<stereo|mono>``
    Force a downmix to stereo or mono. These are special-cases of the
    previous item. (See paragraphs below for implications.)

If a list of layouts is given, each item can be either an explicit channel
layout name (like ``5.1``), or a channel number. Channel numbers refer to
default layouts, e.g. 2 channels refer to stereo, 6 refers to 5.1.

See ``--audio-channels=help`` output for defined default layouts. This also
lists speaker names, which can be used to express arbitrary channel
layouts (e.g. ``fl-fr-lfe`` is 2.1).

If the list of channel layouts has only 1 item, the decoder is asked to
produce according output. This sometimes triggers decoder-downmix, which
might be different from the normal mpv downmix. (Only some decoders support
remixing audio, like AC-3, AAC or DTS. You can use ``--ad-lavc-downmix=no``
to make the decoder always output its native layout.) One consequence is
that ``--audio-channels=stereo`` triggers decoder downmix, while ``auto``
or ``auto-safe`` never will, even if they end up selecting stereo. This
happens because the decision whether to use decoder downmix happens long
before the audio device is opened.

If the channel layout of the media file (i.e. the decoder) and the AO's
channel layout don't match, mpv will attempt to insert a conversion filter.
You may need to change the channel layout of the system mixer to achieve
your desired output as mpv does not have control over it. Another
work-around for this on some AOs is to use ``--audio-exclusive=yes`` to
circumvent the system mixer entirely.

.. warning::

    Using ``auto`` can cause issues when using audio over HDMI. The OS will
    typically report all channel layouts that _can_ go over HDMI, even if
    the receiver does not support them. If a receiver gets an unsupported
    channel layout, random things can happen, such as dropping the
    additional channels, or adding noise.

    You are recommended to set an explicit whitelist of the layouts you
    want. For example, most A/V receivers connected via HDMI and that can
    do 7.1 would  be served by: ``--audio-channels=7.1,5.1,stereo``

:no:             Disable display of video entirely when playing audio
                 files.
:embedded-first: Display embedded images and external cover art, giving
                 priority to embedded images (default).
:external-first: Display embedded images and external cover art, giving
                 priority to external files.

This option has no influence on files with normal video tracks.

This is a path list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

:no:    Disable gapless audio.
:yes:   The audio device is opened using parameters chosen for the first
        file played and is then kept open for gapless playback. This
        means that if the first file for example has a low sample rate, then
        the following files may get resampled to the same low sample rate,
        resulting in reduced sound quality. If you play files with different
        parameters, consider using options such as ``--audio-samplerate``
        and ``--audio-format`` to explicitly select what the shared output
        format will be.
:weak:  Normally, the audio device is kept open (using the format it was
        first initialized with). If the audio format the decoder output
        changes, the audio device is closed and reopened. This means that
        you will normally get gapless audio with files that were encoded
        using the same settings, but might not be gapless in other cases.
        The exact conditions under which the audio device is kept open is
        an implementation detail, and can change from version to version.
        Currently, the device is kept even if the sample format changes,
        but the sample formats are convertible.
        If video is still going on when there is still audio, trying to use
        gapless is also explicitly given up.

.. note::

    This feature is implemented in a simple manner and relies on audio
    output device buffering to continue playback while moving from one file
    to another. If playback of the new file starts slowly, for example
    because it is played from a remote network location or because you have
    specified cache settings that require time for the initial cache fill,
    then the buffered audio may run out before playback of the new file
    can start.

:no:    Don't automatically load external audio files (default).
:exact: Load the media filename with audio file extension.
:fuzzy: Load all audio files containing the media filename.
:all:   Load all audio files in the current and ``--audio-file-paths``
        directories.

This is a string list option. See `List Options`_ for details.
Use ``--help=audio-exts`` to see default extensions.

This is a path list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

Default: no.

Making this larger may make soft-volume and other filters react slower,
introduce additional issues on playback speed change, and block the
player on audio format changes. A smaller buffer might lead to audio
dropouts.

This option should be used for testing only. If a non-default value helps
significantly, the mpv developers should be contacted.

Default: 0.2 (200 ms).

Not all AOs support this.

.. warning::

    This modifies certain subtle player behavior, like A/V-sync and underrun
    handling. Enabling this option is strongly discouraged.

Changing styling and position does not work with all subtitles. Image-based
subtitles (DVD, Bluray/PGS, DVB) cannot changed for fundamental reasons.
Subtitles in ASS format are normally not changed intentionally, but
overriding them can be controlled with ``--sub-ass-override``.

This is a key/value list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

If you use ``--sub-file`` only once, this subtitle file is displayed by
default.

If ``--sub-file`` is used multiple times, the subtitle to use can be
switched at runtime by cycling subtitle tracks. It's possible to show
two subtitles at once: use ``--sid`` to select the first subtitle index,
and ``--secondary-sid`` to select the second index. (The index is printed
on the terminal output after the ``--sid=`` in the list of streams.)

``--sub-files`` is a path list option (see `List Options`_  for details), and
can take multiple file names separated by ``:`` (Unix) or ``;`` (Windows),
while  ``--sub-file`` takes a single filename, but can be used multiple
times to add multiple files. Technically, ``--sub-file`` is a CLI/config
file only alias for  ``--sub-files-append``.

There are some caveats associated with this feature. For example, bitmap
subtitles will always be rendered in their usual position, so selecting a
bitmap subtitle as secondary subtitle will result in overlapping subtitles.
Secondary subtitles are never shown on the terminal if video is disabled.

.. note::

    Styling and interpretation of any formatting tags is disabled for the
    secondary subtitle. Internally, the same mechanism as ``--sub-ass=no``
    is used to strip the styling.

.. note::

    If the main subtitle stream contains formatting tags which display the
    subtitle at the top of the screen, it will overlap with the secondary
    subtitle. To prevent this, you could use ``--sub-ass=no`` to disable
    styling in the main subtitle stream.

.. note::

    This affects ASS subtitles as well, and may lead to incorrect subtitle
    rendering. Use with care, or use ``--sub-font-size`` instead.

Affects plain text subtitles only (or ASS if ``--sub-ass-override`` is set
high enough).

Affects plain text subtitles only (or ASS if ``--sub-ass-override`` is set
high enough).

.. note::

    By default, the subtitle font size is scaled with the window size.
    To make the font size constant, set only ``--sub-scale-by-window`` to no.
    To make the font size scale with video size instead, set only
    ``--sub-scale-with-window`` to no.
    It's not meaningful to set both options to no.

Default: no.

.. warning::

    Text subtitles (as opposed to image subtitles) may be cut off if the
    value of the option is above 100. This is a libass restriction.

    This affects ASS subtitles as well, and may lead to incorrect subtitle
    rendering in addition to the problem above.

    Using ``--sub-margin-y`` can achieve this in a better way.

.. admonition:: Example

    ``--sub-speed=25/23.976`` plays frame based subtitles which have been
    loaded assuming a framerate of 23.976 at 25 FPS.

This is a string list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

.. admonition:: Examples

    - ``--sub-ass-style-overrides=FontName=Arial,Default.Bold=1``
    - ``--sub-ass-style-overrides=PlayResY=768``

.. note::

    Using this option may lead to incorrect subtitle rendering.

:none:       no hinting (default)
:light:      FreeType autohinter, light mode
:normal:     FreeType autohinter, normal mode
:native:     font native hinter

.. warning::

    Enabling hinting can lead to mispositioned text (in situations it's
    supposed to match up video background), or reduce the smoothness
    of animations with some badly authored ASS scripts. It is recommended
    to not use this option, unless really needed.

:simple:   uses Fribidi only, fast, doesn't render some languages correctly
:complex:  uses HarfBuzz, slower, wider language support

``complex`` is the default. If libass hasn't been compiled against HarfBuzz,
libass silently reverts to ``simple``.

:-1:        disables automatic pruning (default).
:seconds:   specify how many seconds after an event is no longer displayed
            should the pruning occur. ``0`` prunes events as soon as they're
            off screen.

.. note::

    This breaks sub-seek and subtitle rendering when changing play-direction
    from forward to backward during runtime for events that were already
    "seen" and need to be rendered again, if those events got pruned.

Default: 0.

Default: 0.

.. note::

    Using this option may lead to incorrect subtitle rendering.

:no:    Render subtitles as specified by the subtitle scripts, without
        overrides.
:yes:   Apply all the ``--sub-ass-*`` style override options. Changing the
        default for any of these options can lead to incorrect subtitle
        rendering.
:scale: Like ``yes``, but also apply ``--sub-scale`` (default).
:force: Like ``yes``, but also force all ``--sub-*`` options. Can break
        rendering easily. Certain options aren't overridden if they can
        potentially be too destructive.
:strip: Radically strip all ASS tags and styles from the subtitle. This
        is equivalent to the old ``--no-ass`` / ``--no-sub-ass`` options.

This also controls some bitmap subtitle overrides, as well as HTML tags in
formats like SRT, despite the name of the option.

Default: strip.

Default: no.

Default: yes.

:none:  Don't forward any video stream information.
:aspect-ratio: Only forward aspect ratio; fallbacks are used for other properties.
               This makes behavior consistent across different video resolutions.
:all:   Forward all available information, notably including storage resolution.

For certain kinds of broken ASS files which got repurposed across
several video resolutions without either setting ``LayoutRes`` headers
or adjusting affected effects, it may be desirable to withhold storage resolution
information from libass to ensure consistent rendering across resolutions.
Among others this affects 3D rotations and blurs.
When encountering such files, try setting ``aspect-ratio``.

Even more broken files on anamorphic video might also exhibit stretching
unless aspect ratio information is also faked, in this case you can try
using ``none``. This has never an effect on non-anamorphic video.

Default: ``all``

This has no effect if ``sub-ass-use-video-data`` is set to ``none``.

This affects plaintext (non-ASS) subtitles only. Default: no.

:basic: Handle only BT.601->BT.709 mangling, if the subtitles seem to
        indicate that this is required (default).
:full:  Handle the full ``YCbCr Matrix`` header with all video color spaces
        supported by libass and mpv. This might lead to bad breakages in
        corner cases and is not strictly needed for compatibility
        (hopefully), which is why this is not default.
:force-601: Force BT.601->BT.709 mangling, regardless of subtitle headers
        or video color space.
:no:    Disable color mangling completely. All colors are RGB.

Choosing anything other than ``no`` will make the subtitle color depend on
the video color space, and it's for example in theory not possible to reuse
a subtitle script with another video file. The ``--sub-ass-override``
option doesn't affect how this option is interpreted.

Many studios tend to use bitmap fonts designed for square pixels when
authoring DVDs, causing the fonts to look stretched on playback on DVD
players. This option fixes them, however at the price of possibly
misaligning some subtitles (e.g. sign translations).

Disabled by default.

This option does not display subtitles correctly. Use with care.

Disabled by default.

This also affects image subtitle brightness in HDR tone mapping with
``--blend-subtitles=<yes|video>``.

This also affects text subtitle brightness in HDR tone mapping with
``--blend-subtitles=<yes|video>``.

.. note::

    This has been deprecated by ``--sub-ass-override=strip``. You also
    may need ``--embeddedfonts=no`` to get the same behavior. Also,
    using ``--sub-ass-override=style`` should give better results
    without breaking subtitles too much.

If ``--sub-ass=no`` is specified, all tags and style declarations are
stripped and ignored on display. The subtitle renderer uses the font style
as specified by the ``--sub-`` options instead.

.. note::

    Using ``--sub-ass=no`` may lead to incorrect or completely broken
    rendering of ASS/SSA subtitles. It can sometimes be useful to forcibly
    override the styling of ASS subtitles, but should be avoided in general.

:no:    Don't automatically load external subtitle files.
:exact: Load the media filename with subtitle file extension and possibly
        language suffixes (default).
:fuzzy: Load all subs containing the media filename.
:all:   Load all subs in the current and ``--sub-file-paths`` directories.

This is a string list option. See `List Options`_ for details.
Use ``--help=sub-auto-exts`` to see default extensions.

The default value for this option is ``auto``, which enables autodetection.

The following steps are taken to determine the final codepage, in order:

- if the specific codepage has a ``+``, use that codepage
- if the data looks like UTF-8, assume it is UTF-8
- if ``--sub-codepage`` is set to a specific codepage, use that
- run uchardet, and if successful, use that
- otherwise, use ``UTF-8-BROKEN``

.. admonition:: Examples

    - ``--sub-codepage=latin2`` Use Latin 2 if input is not UTF-8.
    - ``--sub-codepage=+cp1250`` Always force recoding to cp1250.

The pseudo codepage ``UTF-8-BROKEN`` is used internally. If it's set,
subtitles are interpreted as UTF-8 with "Latin 1" as fallback for bytes
which are not valid UTF-8 sequences. iconv is never involved in this mode.

.. note::

    This works for text subtitle files only. Other types of subtitles (in
    particular subtitles in mkv files) are always assumed to be UTF-8.

.. note::

    Only applies to text subtitles.

See also: ``--sub-fix-timing-threshold`` and ``--sub-fix-timing-keep``.

.. note::

    ``<rate>`` > video fps speeds the subtitles up for frame-based
    subtitle files and slows them down for time-based ones.

See also: ``--sub-speed``.

.. note::

    Never applied to text subtitles.

.. note::

    Never applied to text subtitles.

.. admonition:: Example

    Assuming that ``/path/to/video/video.avi`` is played and
    ``--sub-file-paths=sub:subtitles`` is specified, mpv
    searches for subtitle files in these directories:

    - ``/path/to/video/``
    - ``/path/to/video/sub/``
    - ``/path/to/video/subtitles/``
    -  the ``sub`` configuration subdirectory (usually ``~/.config/mpv/sub/``)

This is a path list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

This works for ``dvb_teletext`` subtitle streams, and if FFmpeg has been
compiled with support for it.

Values ``1-999`` are for individual pages. Special value ``0`` (default)
matches all subtitle pages. Special value ``-1`` matches all pages.

Note that page ``100`` is the default start page of actual teletext. It is
also the former default value of this option.

See the ``libzvbi-teletext`` section in FFmpeg documentation for details.

Default: 0

Default: disabled

.. admonition:: Examples

    - ``--sub-font='Bitstream Vera Sans'``
    - ``--sub-font='Comic Sans MS'``

.. note::

    The ``--sub-font`` option (and many other style related ``--sub-``
    options) are ignored when ASS-subtitles are rendered, unless
    ``--sub-ass=no`` is specified.

    This used to support fontconfig patterns. Starting with libass 0.13.0,
    this stopped working.

Default: 38

``--sub-border-color`` is an alias for ``--sub-outline-color``.

``--sub-shadow-color`` is an alias for ``--sub-back-color``.

``--sub-border-size`` is an alias for ``--sub-outline-size``.

Default: 1.65

- ``outline-and-shadow``: draw outline and shadow.
  The size of the outline is determined by ``--sub-outline-size``,
  and the offset of the shadow is determined by ``--sub-shadow-offset``.
  The outline is colored by ``--sub-outline-color``,
  and the shadow is colored by ``--sub-back-color``.
  This corresponds to ``BorderStyle=1`` in the ASS spec.
- ``opaque-box``: draw outline and shadow as opaque boxes that tightly wrap each lines of text.
  The margin of the outline opaque box is determined by ``--sub-outline-size``,
  and the offset of the shadow opaque box is determined by ``--sub-shadow-offset``.
  The outline opaque box is colored by ``--sub-outline-color``,
  and the shadow opaque box is colored by ``--sub-back-color``.
  Despite its name, the opaque box can be semi-transparent.
  This corresponds to ``BorderStyle=3`` in the ASS spec.
- ``background-box``: draw a background box that bounds all lines of text.
  The background box is colored by ``--sub-back-color``,
  and the margin of the background box is determined by ``--sub-shadow-offset``.
  The behavior of the outline is the same as the ``outline-and-shadow`` style.
  This corresponds to ``BorderStyle=4``, which is a libass-specific extension.

Default: ``outline-and-shadow``.

Predefined profiles are available to enable optimized ``background-box`` style
for OSD and subtitles.

.. admonition:: Profiles

    - ``--profile=sub-box`` applies the ``background-box`` style to subtitles
    - ``--profile=osd-box`` applies the ``background-box`` style to the OSD,
      including stats and console
    - ``--profile=box`` applies the ``background-box`` style to both subtitles and OSD

The color is specified in the form ``r/g/b``, where each color component
is specified as number in the range 0.0 to 1.0. It's also possible to
specify the transparency by using ``r/g/b/a``, where the alpha value 0
means fully transparent, and 1.0 means opaque. If the alpha component is
not given, the color is 100% opaque.

Passing a single number to the option sets the sub to gray, and the form
``gray/a`` lets you specify alpha additionally.

.. admonition:: Examples

    - ``--sub-color=1.0/0.0/0.0`` set sub to opaque red
    - ``--sub-color=1.0/0.0/0.0/0.75`` set sub to opaque red with 75% alpha
    - ``--sub-color=0.5/0.75`` set sub to 50% gray with 75% alpha

Alternatively, the color can be specified as a RGB hex triplet in the form
``#RRGGBB``, where each 2-digit group expresses a color value in the
range 0 (``00``) to 255 (``FF``). For example, ``#FF0000`` is red.
Alpha is given with ``#AARRGGBB``.

.. admonition:: Examples

    - ``--sub-color='#FF0000'`` set sub to opaque red
    - ``--sub-color='#C0808080'`` set sub to 50% gray with 75% alpha

This option specifies the distance of the sub to the left, as well as at
which distance from the right border long sub text will be broken.

Default: 19

This option specifies the vertical margins of unstyled text subtitles.
If you just want to raise the vertical subtitle position, use ``--sub-pos``.

Default: 34

This is intended for dynamic margin adjustments at runtime (e.g. by
scripts like the OSC to avoid subtitle/UI overlap). For persistent
settings, use ``--sub-margin-y`` instead.

Default: 0

Never applied to ASS subtitles, except in ``--sub-ass=no`` mode. Likewise,
this does not apply to image subtitles.

Default: 0.

Default: 0.

It removes speaker labels (like MAN:) and any text enclosed within symbols like
parentheses or brackets as specified by the ``--sub-filter-sdh-enclosures`` option.
Note that parenthesis (full width parenthesis and the normal variant) are a special
case and only upper case text is removed. For more filtering, you can use the
``--sub-filter-sdh-harder`` option.

Default: ``no``.

Default: ``no``.

Default: ``(),[],（）``

List items are matched in order. If a regular expression matches, the
process is stopped, and the subtitle line is discarded. The text matched
against is, by default, the ``Text`` field of ASS events (if the
subtitle format is different, it is always converted). This may include
formatting tags. Matching is case-insensitive, but how this is done depends
on the libc, and most likely works in ASCII only. It does not work on
bitmap/image subtitles. Unavailable on inferior OSes (requires POSIX regex
support).

.. admonition:: Example

    ``--sub-filter-regex-append=opensubtitles\.org`` filters some ads.

Technically, using a list for matching is redundant, since you could just
use a single combined regular expression. But it helps with diagnosis,
ease of use, and temporarily disabling or enabling individual filters.

.. warning::

    This is experimental. The semantics most likely will change, and if you
    use this, you should be prepared to update the option later. Ideas
    include replacing the regexes with a very primitive and small subset of
    sed, or some method to control case-sensitivity.

If the video stream contains no closed captions, or if no video is being
decoded, the CC track will remain empty and will not show any text.

The ``none`` font provider effectively disables system fonts. It will still
attempt to use embedded fonts (unless ``--embeddedfonts=no`` is set; this is
the same behavior as with all other font providers), ``subfont.ttf`` if
provided, and fonts in  the ``fonts`` sub-directory if provided. (The
fallback is more strict than that of other font providers, and if a font
name does not match, it may prefer not to render any text that uses the
missing font.)

If this option is not specified, ``~~/fonts`` will be used by default.

Properties are expanded. (See `Property Expansion`_.)

.. warning::

    There is a danger of this causing significant CPU usage, depending on
    the properties used. Changing the window title is often a slow
    operation, and if the title changes every frame, playback can be ruined.

.. admonition:: Note (X11)

    This option does not work properly with all window managers. In these
    cases, you can try to use ``--geometry`` to position the window
    explicitly. It's also possible that the window manager provides native
    features to control which screens application windows should use.

.. admonition:: Note (Wayland)

    This option does not actually work on wayland since window placement is
    not allowed. However setting this option does influence mpv's initial
    guess at finding an output which may be useful for options like
    ``--geometry`` or ``--autofit`` which depend on the monitor resolution.

See also ``--fs-screen``.

.. admonition:: Note (X11)

    This option works properly only with window managers which
    understand the EWMH ``_NET_WM_FULLSCREEN_MONITORS`` hint.

.. admonition:: Note (macOS)

    ``all`` does not work on macOS and will behave like ``current``.

See also ``--screen``.

Normally, this will act like ``set pause yes`` on EOF, unless the
``--keep-open-pause=no`` option is set.

The following arguments can be given:

:no:        If the current file ends, go to the next file or terminate.
            (Default.)
:yes:       Don't terminate if the current file is the last playlist entry.
            Equivalent to ``--keep-open`` without arguments.
:always:    Like ``yes``, but also applies to files before the last playlist
            entry. This means playback will never automatically advance to
            the next file.

.. note::

    This option is not respected when using ``--frames``. Explicitly
    skipping to the next file if the binding uses ``force`` will terminate
    playback as well.

    Also, if errors or unusual circumstances happen, the player can quit
    anyway.

Since mpv 0.6.0, this doesn't pause if there is a next file in the playlist,
or the playlist is looped. Approximately, this will pause when the player
would normally exit, but in practice there are corner cases in which this
is not the case (e.g. ``mpv --keep-open file.mkv /dev/null`` will play
file.mkv normally, then fail to open ``/dev/null``, then exit). (In
mpv 0.8.0, ``always`` was introduced, which restores the old behavior.)

Unlike ``--keep-open``, the player is not paused, but simply continues
playback until the time has elapsed. (It should not use any resources
during "playback".)

This affects image files, which are defined as having only 1 video frame
and no audio. The player may recognize certain non-images as images, for
example if ``--length`` is used to reduce the length to 1 frame, or if
you seek to the last frame.

The effective duration is now `--speed` aware, which was not the case in
older mpv versions before v0.41.0.

This option does not affect the framerate used for ``mf://`` or
``--merge-files``. For that, use ``--mf-fps`` instead.

When viewing images, the playback time is not tracked on the command line
output, and the image frame is not duplicated when encoding. To force the
player into "dumb mode" and actually count out seconds, or to duplicate the
image when encoding, you need to use ``--demuxer=lavf
--demuxer-lavf-o=loop=1``, and use ``--length`` or ``--frames`` to stop
after a particular time.

.. warning::

    The window is created only after initialization (to make sure default
    window placement still works if the video size is different from the
    ``--force-window`` default window size). This can be a problem if
    initialization doesn't work perfectly, such as when opening URLs with
    bad network connection, or opening broken video files. The ``immediate``
    mode can be used to create the window always on program start, but this
    may cause other issues.

Enabled by default.

On Windows, if combined with fullscreen mode, this causes mpv to be
treated as exclusive fullscreen window that bypasses the Desktop Window
Manager.

:window:  On top of all other windows.
:system:  On top of system elements like Taskbar, Menubar and Dock.
:desktop: On top of the Desktop behind windows and Desktop icons.
:level:   A level as integer.

:never: Never focus the window on open or new file load events.
:open:  Focus the window on creation, eg when a vo is initialised.
:all:   Focus the window on open and new file load event.

:default: Let the system decide whether or not to round window corners
:donotround: Never round window corners
:round: Round the corners if appropriate
:roundsmall: Round the corners if appropriate, with a small radius

If an external window is specified using the ``--wid`` option, this
option is ignored.

The coordinates are relative to the screen given with ``--screen`` for the
video output drivers that fully support ``--screen``.

.. note::

    Generally only supported by GUI VOs. Ignored for encoding.

.. admonition:: Note (macOS)

    On macOS, the origin of the screen coordinate system is located on the
    bottom-left corner. For instance, ``0:0`` will place the window at the
    bottom-left of the screen.

.. admonition:: Note (X11)

    This option does not work properly with all window managers.

.. admonition:: Note (Wayland)

    Wayland does not allow a client to position itself so this option will
    only affect the window size.

.. admonition:: Examples

    ``50:40``
        Places the window at x=50, y=40.
    ``50%:50%``
        Places the window in the middle of the screen.
    ``100%:100%``
        Places the window at the bottom right corner of the screen.
    ``50%``
        Sets the window width to half the screen width. Window height is set
        so that the window has the video aspect ratio.
    ``50%x50%``
        Forces the window width and height to half the screen width and
        height. Will show black borders to compensate for the video aspect
        ratio (with most VOs and with ``--keepaspect=yes``).
    ``50%+10+10/2``
        Sets the window to half the screen widths, and positions it 10
        pixels below/left of the top left corner of the screen, on the
        second workspace.

See also ``--autofit`` and ``--autofit-larger`` for fitting the window into
a given size without changing aspect ratio.

This option never changes the aspect ratio of the window. If the aspect
ratio mismatches, the window's size is reduced until it fits into the
specified size.

Window position is not taken into account, nor is it modified by this
option (the window manager still may place the window differently depending
on size). Use ``--geometry`` to change the window position. Its effects
are applied after this option.

See ``--geometry`` for details how this is handled with multi-monitor
setups.

Use ``--autofit-larger`` instead if you just want to limit the maximum size
of the window, rather than always forcing a window size.

Use ``--geometry`` if you want to force both window width and height to a
specific size.

.. note::

    Generally only supported by GUI VOs. Ignored for encoding.

.. admonition:: Examples

    ``70%``
        Make the window width 70% of the screen size, keeping aspect ratio.
    ``1000``
        Set the window width to 1000 pixels, keeping aspect ratio.
    ``70%x60%``
        Make the window as large as possible, without being wider than 70%
        of the screen width, or higher than 60% of the screen height.

.. admonition:: Example

    ``90%x80%``
        If the video is larger than 90% of the screen width or 80% of the
        screen height, make the window smaller until either its width is 90%
        of the screen, or its height is 80% of the screen.

.. admonition:: Example

    ``500x500``
        Make the window at least 500 pixels wide and 500 pixels high
        (depending on the video aspect ratio, the width or height will be
        larger than 500 in order to keep the aspect ratio the same).

For example, ``--window-scale=0.5`` would show the window at half the
video size.

Whether this option and ``--window-maximized`` work on program start or
at runtime, and whether they're (at runtime) updated to reflect the actual
window state, heavily depends on the VO and the windowing system. Some VOs
simply do not implement them or parts of them, while other VOs may be
restricted by the windowing systems (especially Wayland).

See also ``--monitorpixelaspect`` and ``--video-aspect-override``.

.. admonition:: Examples

    - ``--monitoraspect=4:3``  or ``--monitoraspect=1.3333``
    - ``--monitoraspect=16:9`` or ``--monitoraspect=1.7777``

Before mpv 0.33.0, the X11 backend ran ``xdg-screensaver reset`` in 10 second
intervals when not paused in order to support screensaver inhibition in some
environments. This functionality was removed in 0.33.0, but it is possible to
call the ``xdg-screensaver`` command line program from a user script instead.

An ID of value ``-1`` is interpreted specially, and mpv will detach from
the currently attached window to its own window.

On X11, the ID is interpreted as a ``Window`` on X11. Unlike
MPlayer/mplayer2, mpv always creates its own window, and sets the wid
window as parent. The window will always be resized to cover the parent
window fully. The value ``0`` is interpreted specially, and mpv will
draw directly on the root window.

On win32, the ID is interpreted as ``HWND``. Pass it as value cast to
``uint32_t`` (all Windows handles are 32-bit), this is important as mpv will
not accept negative values. mpv will create its own window and set the
wid window as parent, like with X11. The value ``0`` is interpreted
specially, and mpv will draw on top of the desktop wallpaper and below
desktop icons.

On Android, the ID is interpreted as ``android.view.Surface``. Pass it as a
value cast to ``intptr_t``. Use with ``--vo=mediacodec_embed`` and
``--hwdec=mediacodec`` for direct rendering using MediaCodec, or with
``--vo=gpu --gpu-context=android`` (with or without ``--hwdec=mediacodec``).

.. note::

    On win32, if desktop wallpaper transition occurs (e.g. setting desktop
    slideshow of multiple images in Windows settings) and an ID value ``0``
    is used, Windows may sometimes destroy the window mpv is attached to.
    mpv will simply treat this as a quit signal in this case.

    To prevent this from happening, set a static desktop wallpaper,
    such as single image or pure color.

This may or may not help with broken window managers. This provides some
functionality that was implemented by the now removed ``--fstype`` option.
Actually, it is not known to the developers to which degree this option
was needed, so feedback is welcome.

Specifically, ``yes`` will force use of NetWM fullscreen support, even if
not advertised by the WM. This can be useful for WMs that are broken on
purpose, like XMonad. (XMonad supposedly doesn't advertise fullscreen
support, because Flash uses it. Apparently, applications which want to
use fullscreen anyway are supposed to either ignore the NetWM support hints,
or provide a workaround. Shame on XMonad for deliberately breaking X
protocols (as if X isn't bad enough already).

By default, NetWM support is autodetected (``auto``).

This option might be removed in the future.

``fs-only`` asks the window manager to disable the compositor only in
fullscreen mode.

``no`` sets ``_NET_WM_BYPASS_COMPOSITOR`` to 0, which is the default value
as declared by the EWMH specification, i.e. no change is done.

``never`` asks the window manager to never disable the compositor.

mpv asks X11 for present events which it then may use for more accurate
frame presentation. This only has an effect if ``--video-sync=display-...``
is being used.

The auto option enumerates XRandr providers for autodetection. If amd, radeon,
intel, or nouveau (the standard x86 Mesa drivers) is found presentation
feedback is enabled. Other drivers are not assumed to work, so they are not
enabled automatically.

``yes`` or ``no`` can still be passed regardless to enable/disable this
mechanism in case there is good/bad behavior with whatever your combination
of hardware/drivers/etc. happens to be.

.. admonition:: Example

    ``mpv dvd:// --dvd-device=/path/to/dvd/``

.. admonition:: Example

    ``mpv bd:// --bluray-device=/path/to/bd/``

:0: disable checking (default)
:1: overlap checking only
:2: full data correction and verification

.. note::

    You need write access to the DVD device to change the speed.

The ``auto`` choice (the default) tries to skip this for a few know-safe
whitelisted formats, while calling it for everything else.

The ``nostreams`` choice only calls it if and only if the file seems to
contain no streams after opening (helpful in cases when calling the function
is needed to detect streams at all, such as with FLV files).

This is default in order to reduce latency when opening HTTP streams.

Note, a patch to make the *o=* unneeded and pass all unknown options
through the AVOption system is welcome. A full list of AVOptions can
be found in the FFmpeg manual. Note that some options may conflict
with mpv options.

This is a key/value list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

.. admonition:: Example

    ``--demuxer-lavf-o=fflags=+ignidx``

The ``auto`` mode enables this for OGG audio stream. This covers the common
and annoying case of OGG web radio streams. Some of these will reset
timestamps to 0 every time a new song begins. This breaks the mpv seekable
cache, which can't deal with timestamp resets. Note that FFmpeg/libavformat's
seeking API can't deal with this either; it's likely that if this option
breaks this even more, while if it's disabled, you can at least seek within
the first song in the stream. Well, you won't get anything useful either
way if the seek is outside of mpv's cache.

This affects in particular the ``--timeout`` option and anything passed
with ``--demuxer-lavf-o``.

If this option is deemed unnecessary at some point in the future, it will
be removed without notice.

Enabling this option makes the demuxer start reading data a bit before the
seek target, so that subtitles appear correctly. Note that this makes
seeking slower, and is not guaranteed to always work. It only works if the
subtitle is close enough to the seek target.

Works with the internal Matroska demuxer only. Always enabled for absolute
and hr-seeks, and this option changes behavior with relative or imprecise
seeks only.

You can use the ``--demuxer-mkv-subtitle-preroll-secs`` option to specify
how much data the demuxer should pre-read at most in order to find subtitle
packets that may overlap. Setting this to 0 will effectively disable this
preroll mechanism. Setting a very large value can make seeking very slow,
and an extremely large value would completely reread the entire file from
start to seek target on every seek - seeking can become slower towards the
end of the file. The details are messy, and the value is actually rounded
down to the cluster with the previous video keyframe.

Some files, especially files muxed with newer mkvmerge versions, have
information embedded that can be used to determine what subtitle packets
overlap with a seek target. In these cases, mpv will reduce the amount
of data read to a minimum. (Although it will still read *all* data between
the cluster that contains the first wanted subtitle packet, and the seek
target.) If the ``index`` choice (which is the default) is specified, then
prerolling will be done only if this information is actually available. If
this method is used, the maximum amount of data to skip can be additionally
controlled by ``--demuxer-mkv-subtitle-preroll-secs-index`` (it still uses
the value of the option without ``-index`` if that is higher).

See also ``--hr-seek-demuxer-offset`` option. This option can achieve a
similar effect, but only if hr-seek is active. It works with any demuxer,
but makes seeking much slower, as it has to decode audio and video data
instead of just skipping over it.

The ``yes`` mode merely uses the index and reads a small number of blocks
from the end of the file. The ``full`` mode actually traverses the entire
file and can make a reliable estimate even without an index present (such
as partial files).

Most files containing cropping metadata require this mode to display correctly.

If this option is enabled, crop metadata will be applied before calculating
the video's aspect ratio, ensuring it is cropped accordingly. If this option
is disabled, the image will be cropped first and then stretched to match
DisplayWidth and DisplayHeight.

According to the Matroska specification, the Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAR) should
be calculated after cropping. However, the majority of files do not adhere
to this rule, as it would cause incompatibility with crop-unaware players.
Additionally, MKVToolNix does not automatically adjust DisplayWidth and
DisplayHeight when cropping metadata is applied, leading to most of files
created with it also failing to conform to the specification.

See for more details:
https://github.com/ietf-wg-cellar/matroska-specification/pull/947
https://gitlab.com/mbunkus/mkvtoolnix/-/issues/2389
https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/pull/13446

.. admonition:: Example

    Play a raw YUV sample::

        mpv sample-720x576.yuv --demuxer=rawvideo \
        --demuxer-rawvideo-w=720 --demuxer-rawvideo-h=576

Set these limits higher if you get a packet queue overflow warning, and
you think normal playback would be possible with a larger packet queue.

See ``--list-options`` for defaults and value range. ``<bytesize>`` options
accept suffixes such as ``KiB`` and ``MiB``.

Unlike the forward cache, there is no control how many seconds are actually
cached - it will simply use as much memory this option allows. Setting this
option to 0 will strictly disable any back buffer, but this will lead to
the situation that the forward seek range starts after the current playback
position (as it removes past packets that are seek points).

If the end of the file is reached, the remaining unused forward buffer space
is "donated" to the backbuffer (unless the backbuffer size is set to 0, or
``--demuxer-donate-buffer`` is set to ``no``).
This still limits the total cache usage to the sum of the forward and
backward cache, and effectively makes better use of the total allowed memory
budget. (The opposite does not happen: free backward buffer is never
"donated" to the forward buffer.)

Keep in mind that other buffers in the player (like decoders) will cause the
demuxer to cache "future" frames in the back buffer, which can skew the
impression about how much data the backbuffer contains.

See ``--list-options`` for defaults and value range.

Note that if the end of the file is reached, the buffered data stays the
same, even if you seek back within the cache. This is because the back
buffer is only reduced when new data is read.

If enabled, short seek offsets will not trigger a low level demuxer seek
(which means for example that slow network round trips or FFmpeg seek bugs
can be avoided). If a seek cannot happen within the cached range, a low
level seek will be triggered. Seeking outside of the cache will start a new
cached range, but can discard the old cache range if the demuxer exhibits
certain unsupported behavior.

The special value ``auto`` means ``yes`` in the same situation as
``--cache-secs`` is used (i.e. when the stream appears to be a network
stream or the stream cache is enabled).

Disabling this option is not recommended. Use it for debugging only.

This timeout is usually only applied when loading has finished properly. If
loading is aborted by the user, or in some corner cases like removing
external tracks sourced from network during playback, forceful closing is
always used.

Note that enabling the cache (such as ``--cache=yes``, or if the input
is considered a network stream, and ``--cache=auto`` is used), this option
is mostly ignored. (``--cache-secs`` will override this. Technically, the
maximum of both options is used.)

The main purpose of this option is to limit the readhead for local playback,
since a large readahead value is not overly useful in this case.

(This value tends to be fuzzy, because many file formats don't store linear
timestamps.)

For example, with a value of 10 seconds specified, the demuxer will buffer
ahead up to the demuxer limit and won't start buffering ahead again until
there is only 10 seconds of content left in the cache.

This can provide significant power savings and reduce load by making the
demuxer only buffer ahead in chunks at a time rather than buffering ahead
nonstop to keep the cache filled.

If you want to save power and reduce load, configure this to a small number
that's much lower than ``--cache-secs`` or ``--demuxer-readahead-secs``.
If it takes a long time to buffer anything at all for a given stream (like
when reading from a very slow disk is involved), then the hysteresis value
should be larger to compensate.

The default value is 0 seconds, which disables the caching hysteresis. A
value of 10 seconds probably works well for most usecases.

This does **not** work with URLs resolved by the ``youtube-dl`` wrapper,
and it won't.

This does not affect HLS streams (``.m3u8`` URLs). Such stream by itself is
internally a playlist of data segments, but is treated as a single media
item by mpv. HLS prefetching depends on the demuxer cache settings and is
on by default.

This can occasionally make wrong prefetching decisions. For example, it
can't predict whether you go backwards in the playlist, and assumes you
won't edit the playlist.

Opening is still slow, because for unknown, idiotic, and unnecessary reasons
libarchive opens all volumes anyway when playing the main file, even though
mpv iterated no archive entries yet.

This is a string list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

:no:     Load a single file (default).
:filter: Create a playlist from the parent directory with files matching
         ``--directory-filter-types``.
:same:   Create a playlist from the parent directory with files matching the
         same category as the currently loaded file. One of the
         ``*-exts`` is selected based on the input file
         and only files with matching extensions are added to the playlist.
         If the input file itself is not matched to any extension list,
         the playlist is not autogenerated.

Note that this option has no effect on other platforms: either native touch
is not supported by mpv, or the platform does not give an option to receive
emulated mouse inputs (so native touch is always enabled, e.g. Wayland).

This is a string list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

.. admonition:: Example

    ``--input-commands="playlist-play-index 1,set ao-volume 40"``
        sets the playlist index to 1 and the ao-volume to 40

On Linux and Unix, the given path is a regular filesystem path. On Windows,
named pipes are used, so the path refers to the pipe namespace
(``\\.\pipe\<name>``). If the ``\\.\pipe\`` prefix is missing, mpv will add
it automatically before creating the pipe, so
``--input-ipc-server=/tmp/mpv-socket`` and
``--input-ipc-server=\\.\pipe\tmp\mpv-socket`` are equivalent for IPC on
Windows.

See `JSON IPC`_ for details.

The player quits when the connection is closed.

This is somewhat similar to the removed ``--input-file`` option, except it
supports only integer FDs, and cannot open actual paths.

.. admonition:: Example

    ``--input-ipc-client=fd://123``

.. note::

    To use this option on Windows, the fd must refer to a wrapped
    (created by ``_open_osfhandle``) named pipe server handle with a client
    already connected. The named pipe must be created duplex with overlapped
    IO and inheritable handles. The program communicates with mpv through
    the client handle.

.. warning::

    Writing to the ``input-ipc-server`` option at runtime will start another
    instance of an IPC client handler for the ``input-ipc-client`` option,
    because initialization is bundled, and this thing is stupid. This is a
    bug. Writing to ``input-ipc-client`` at runtime will start another IPC
    client handler for the new value, without stopping the old one, even if
    the FD value is the same (but the string is different e.g. due to
    whitespace). This is not a bug.

Default: yes (except for libmpv). macOS and Windows only, because elsewhere
mpv doesn't have a choice - the system decides whether to send media keys
to mpv. For instance, on X11 or Wayland, system-wide media keys are not
implemented. Whether media keys work when the mpv window is focused is
implementation-defined.

This preprocessing can be beneficial for preventing accidentally seeking
while changing the volume by scrolling on a touchpad with the default
keybind. Due to the deadzone mechanism used, disabling the preprocessing
allows for diagonal scrolling (such as panning) and potentially reduces
input latency.

Note that disabling the preprocessing does not affect any filtering done
by the OS/driver before these events are delivered to mpv, if any.

On X11, a sub-window with input enabled grabs all keyboard input as long
as it is 1. a child of a focused window, and 2. the mouse is inside of
the sub-window. It can steal away all keyboard input from the
application embedding the mpv window, and on the other hand, the mpv
window will receive no input if the mouse is outside of the mpv window,
even though mpv has focus. Modern toolkits work around this weird X11
behavior, but naively embedding foreign windows breaks it.

The only way to handle this reasonably is using the XEmbed protocol, which
was designed to solve these problems. GTK provides ``GtkSocket``, which
supports XEmbed. Qt doesn't seem to provide anything working in newer
versions.

If the embedder supports XEmbed, input should work with default settings
and with this option disabled. Note that ``input-default-bindings`` is
disabled by default in libmpv as well - it should be enabled if you want
the mpv default key bindings.

Wayland only.

Wayland and Windows only. This option is not applicable to terminal input.

.. note::

    Enabling IME can cause problems with key bindings, because mpv cannot
    detect any key presses when they go into the IME pre-edit area.
    It is recommended to enable IME on demand only for the duration
    while text input is expected.

    The builtin console and input selector enable IME for the duration
    of accepting text input.

You can configure this on a per-command basis in input.conf using ``osd-``
prefixes, see ``Input Command Prefixes``. If you want to disable the OSD
completely, use ``--osd-level=0``.

You can configure this on a per-command basis in input.conf using ``osd-``
prefixes, see ``Input Command Prefixes``.

.. admonition:: Examples

    - ``--osd-font='Bitstream Vera Sans'``
    - ``--osd-font='Comic Sans MS'``

Default: 30

This is used for the ``show-progress`` command (by default mapped to ``P``),
and when seeking if enabled with ``--osd-on-seek`` or by ``osd-`` prefixes
in input.conf (see ``Input Command Prefixes``).

``--osd-status-msg`` is a legacy equivalent (but with a minor difference).

This option has been replaced with ``--osd-msg3``. The only difference is
that this option implicitly includes ``${osd-sym-cc}``. This option is
ignored if ``--osd-msg3`` is not empty.

See `Property Expansion`_.

Default: ``title``.

``--osd-bar-border-size`` is an alias for ``--osd-bar-outline-size``.

Default: 0.5.

Default: 1.3.

Default: 1.6.

:none:     Don't draw markers.
:triangle: Draw markers as triangles (default).
:line:     Draw markers as lines.

``--osd-border-color`` is an alias for ``--osd-outline-color``.

``--osd-shadow-color`` is an alias for ``--osd-back-color``.

``--osd-border-size`` is an alias for ``--osd-outline-size``.

Default: 1.65

:0: OSD completely disabled (subtitles only)
:1: enabled (shows up only on user interaction)
:2: enabled + current time visible by default
:3: enabled + ``--osd-status-msg`` (current time and status by default)

This option specifies the distance of the OSD to the left, as well as at
which distance from the right border long OSD text will be broken.

Default: 16

This option specifies the vertical margins of the OSD.

Default: 16

This is intended for dynamic margin adjustments at runtime (e.g. by
scripts like the OSC to avoid OSD/UI overlap). For persistent settings,
use ``--osd-margin-y`` instead.

Default: 0

.. note::

    For scripts which draw user interface elements, it is recommended to
    respect the value of this option when deciding whether the elements
    are scaled with window size or not.

Default: 0.

Default: 0.

It does not affect subtitles or overlays created by scripts (in particular,
the OSC needs to be disabled with ``--osc=no``).

This option is somewhat experimental and could be replaced by another
mechanism in the future.

Default: 0.

Default: 0.

Available choices:

:png:       PNG
:jpg:       JPEG (default)
:jpeg:      JPEG (alias for jpg)
:webp:      WebP
:jxl:       JPEG XL
:avif:      AVIF

Note that not all formats support this. When it is unsupported, or when
this option is disabled, screenshots will be converted to sRGB before
being written.

The template can start with a relative or absolute path, in order to
specify a directory location where screenshots should be saved.

If the final screenshot filename points to an already existing file, the
file will not be overwritten. The screenshot will either not be saved, or if
the template contains ``%n``, saved using different, newly generated
filename.

Allowed format specifiers:

``%[#][0X]n``
    A sequence number, padded with zeros to length X (default: 04). E.g.
    passing the format ``%04n`` will yield ``0012`` on the 12th screenshot.
    The number is incremented every time a screenshot is taken or if the
    file already exists. The length ``X`` must be in the range 0-9. With
    the optional # sign, mpv will use the lowest available number. For
    example, if you take three screenshots--0001, 0002, 0003--and delete
    the first two, the next two screenshots will not be 0004 and 0005, but
    0001 and 0002 again.
``%f``
    Filename of the currently played video.
``%F``
    Same as ``%f``, but strip the file extension, including the dot.
``%x``
    Directory path of the currently played video. If the video is not on
    the filesystem (but e.g. ``http://``), this expand to an empty string.
``%X{fallback}``
    Same as ``%x``, but if the video file is not on the filesystem, return
    the fallback string inside the ``{...}``.
``%p``
    Current playback time, in the same format as used in the OSD. The
    result is a string of the form "HH:MM:SS". For example, if the video is
    at the time position 5 minutes and 34 seconds, ``%p`` will be replaced
    with "00:05:34".
``%P``
    Similar to ``%p``, but extended with the playback time in milliseconds.
    It is formatted as "HH:MM:SS.mmm", with "mmm" being the millisecond
    part of the playback time.

    .. note::

        This is a simple way for getting unique per-frame timestamps. (Frame
        numbers would be more intuitive, but are not easily implementable
        because container formats usually use time stamps for identifying
        frames.)
``%wX``
    Specify the current playback time using the format string ``X``.
    ``%p`` is like ``%wH:%wM:%wS``, and ``%P`` is like ``%wH:%wM:%wS.%wT``.

    Valid format specifiers:
        ``%wH``
            hour (padded with 0 to two digits)
        ``%wh``
            hour (not padded)
        ``%wM``
            minutes (00-59)
        ``%wm``
            total minutes (includes hours, unlike ``%wM``)
        ``%wS``
            seconds (00-59)
        ``%ws``
            total seconds (includes hours and minutes)
        ``%wf``
            like ``%ws``, but as float
        ``%wT``
            milliseconds (000-999)

``%tX``
    Specify the current local date/time using the format ``X``. This format
    specifier uses the UNIX ``strftime()`` function internally, and inserts
    the result of passing "%X" to ``strftime``. For example, ``%tm`` will
    insert the number of the current month as number. You have to use
    multiple ``%tX`` specifiers to build a full date/time string.
``%{prop[:fallback text]}``
    Insert the value of the input property 'prop'. E.g. ``%{filename}`` is
    the same as ``%f``. If the property does not exist or is not available,
    an error text is inserted, unless a fallback is specified.
``%%``
    Replaced with the ``%`` character itself.

``--screenshot-directory`` is an alias for ``--screenshot-dir``.

If the directory does not exist, it is created on the first screenshot. If
it is not a directory, an error is generated when trying to write a
screenshot.

This option is not set by default, and thus will write screenshots to the
directory from which mpv was started. In pseudo-gui mode
(see `PSEUDO GUI MODE`_), this is set to the desktop.

Default: ``libaom-av1``

Default: ``usage=allintra,crf=0,cpu-used=8``

Note: the default is only guaranteed to work with the libaom-av1 encoder.
Above options may not be valid and or optimal for other encoders.

This is a key/value list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

.. admonition:: Example

    "``--screenshot-avif-opts=crf=23,aq-mode=complexity``"
        sets the crf to 23 and quantization (aq-mode) to complexity based.

If set to no, the screenshot will be rendered by the current VO (only vo_gpu
or vo_gpu_next currently). The advantage is that this will (probably) always
show up as in the video window, because the same code is used for rendering.
But since the renderer needs to be reinitialized, this can be slow and
interrupt playback.

If set to yes, the software scaler is used to convert the video to RGB (or
whatever the target screenshot requires). In this case, conversion will
run in a separate thread and will probably not interrupt playback. The
software renderer may lack some capabilities, such as HDR rendering.
If ``window`` mode is used, the image will also be scaled in software
which may not accurately reflect the actual visible result.

To get a list of available scalers, run ``--sws-scaler=help``.

Default: ``bicubic``.

VOs like ``drm`` and ``x11`` will benefit a lot from using ``--sws-fast``.
You may need to set other options, like ``--sws-scaler``. The builtin
``sws-fast`` profile sets this option and some others to gain performance
for reduced quality. Also see ``--sws-allow-zimg``.

If zimg is used, the other ``--sws-`` options are ignored, and the
``--zimg-`` options are used instead.

If the internal component using the swscale wrapper hooks up logging
correctly, a verbose priority log message will indicate whether zimg is
being used.

Most things which need software conversion can make use of this.

.. note::

    Do note that zimg *may* be slower than libswscale. Usually,
    it's faster on x86 platforms, but slower on ARM (due to lack of ARM
    specific optimizations). The mpv zimg wrapper uses unoptimized repacking
    for some formats, for which zimg cannot be blamed.

``lanczos``
    ``--zimg-scaler-param-a`` is the number of taps.

``bicubic``
    a and b are the bicubic b and c parameters.

Note that some zimg git versions had bugs that will corrupt the output if
threads are used.

If downmix happens outside of mpv for some reason, or in the decoder
(decoder downmixing), or in the audio output (system mixer), this has no
effect.

For testing/debugging only. Can be removed or changed any time.

This is a key/value list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

See also: ``--really-quiet`` and ``--msg-level``.

Unlike ``--really-quiet``, this disables input and terminal initialization
as well.

Run mpv with ``--msg-level=all=trace`` to see all messages mpv outputs. You
can use the module names printed in the output (prefixed to each line in
``[...]``) to limit the output to interesting modules.

This also affects ``--log-file``, and in certain cases libmpv API logging.

.. note::

    Some messages are printed before the command line is parsed and are
    therefore not affected by ``--msg-level``. To control these messages,
    you have to use the ``MPV_VERBOSE`` environment variable; see
    `ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES`_ for details.

Available levels:

    :no:        complete silence
    :fatal:     fatal messages only
    :error:     error messages
    :warn:      warning messages
    :info:      informational messages
    :status:    status messages (default)
    :v:         verbose messages
    :debug:     debug messages
    :trace:     very noisy debug messages

.. admonition:: Example

    ::

        mpv --msg-level=ao/sndio=no

    Completely silences the output of ao_sndio, which uses the log
    prefix ``[ao/sndio]``.

    ::

        mpv --msg-level=all=warn,ao/alsa=error

    Only show warnings or worse, and let the ao_alsa output show errors
    only.

:auto:      use terminal OSD if no video output active
:no:        disable terminal OSD
:force:     use terminal OSD even if video output active

The ``auto`` mode also enables terminal OSD if ``--video-osd=no`` was set.

Default: ``[-+-]``.

See `Property Expansion`_.

Expands properties. See `Property Expansion`_.

If enabled, use up to ``--cache-secs`` for the cache size (but still limited
to ``--demuxer-max-bytes``), and make the cached data seekable (if possible).
If disabled, ``--cache-pause`` and related are implicitly disabled.

The ``auto`` choice enables this depending on whether the stream is thought
to involve network accesses or other slow media (this is an imperfect
heuristic).

Before mpv 0.30.0, this used to accept a number, which specified the size
of the cache in kilobytes. Use e.g. ``--cache --demuxer-max-bytes=123k``
instead.

The cache file is append-only. Even if the player appears to prune data, the
file space freed by it is not reused. The cache file is deleted when
playback is closed.

Note that packet metadata is still kept in memory. ``--demuxer-max-bytes``
and related options are applied to metadata *only*. The size of this
metadata  varies, but 50 MB per hour of media is typical. The cache
statistics will report this metadats size, instead of the size of the cache
file. If the metadata hits the size limits, the metadata is pruned (but not
the cache file).

When the media is closed, the cache file is deleted. A cache file is
generally worthless after the media is closed, and it's hard to retrieve
any media data from it (it's not supported by design).

If the option is enabled at runtime, the cache file is created, but old data
will remain in the memory cache. If the option is disabled at runtime, old
data remains in the disk cache, and the cache file is not closed until the
media is closed. If the option is disabled and enabled again, it will
continue to use the cache file that was opened first.

Currently, this is used for ``--cache-on-disk`` only.

Another thing that can happen is that the network prefetching is so CPU
demanding (due to demuxing in the background) that playback drops frames
at first. In these cases, it helps enabling this option, and setting
``--cache-secs`` and ``--cache-pause-wait`` to roughly the same value.

This option also triggers when playback is restarted after seeking.

``immediate``
    Unlink cache file after they were created. The cache files won't be
    visible anymore, even though they're in use. This ensures they are
    guaranteed to be removed from disk when the player terminates, even if
    it crashes.

``whendone``
    Delete cache files after they are closed.

``no``
    Don't delete cache files. They will consume disk space without having a
    use.

Currently, this is used for ``--cache-on-disk`` only.

Half of the buffer is always used for guaranteed seek back, which is
important for unseekable input.

There are known cases where this can help performance to set a large buffer:

    1. mp4 files. libavformat may trigger many small seeks in both
       directions, depending on how the file was muxed.

    2. Certain network filesystems, which do not have a cache, and where
       small reads can be inefficient.

In other cases, setting this to a large value can reduce performance.

Usually, read accesses are at half the buffer size, but it may happen that
accesses are done alternating with smaller and larger sizes (this is due to
the internal ring buffer wrap-around).

See ``--list-options`` for defaults and value range. ``<bytesize>`` options
accept suffixes such as ``KiB`` and ``MiB``.

This is probably quite pointless. libavcodec already has multithreaded
decoding (enabled by default), which makes this largely unnecessary. It
might help in some corner cases with high bandwidth video that is slow to
decode (in these cases libavcodec would block the playback logic, while
using a decoding thread would distribute the decoding time evenly without
affecting the playback logic). In other situations, it will simply make
seeking slower and use significantly more memory.

The queue size is restricted by the other ``--vd-queue-...`` options. The
final queue size is the minimum as indicated by the option with the lowest
limit. Each decoder/track has its own queue that may use the full configured
queue size.

Most queue options can be changed at runtime. ``--vd-queue-enable`` itself
(and the audio equivalent) update only if decoding is completely
reinitialized. However, setting ``--vd-queue-max-samples=1`` should almost
lead to the same behavior as ``--vd-queue-enable=no``, so that value can
be used for effectively runtime enabling/disabling the queue.

This should not be used with hardware decoding. It is possible to enable
this for audio, but it makes even less sense.

See ``--list-options`` for defaults and value range. ``<bytesize>`` options
accept suffixes such as ``KiB`` and ``MiB``.

See ``--list-options`` for defaults and value range.

See ``--list-options`` for defaults and value range.

This is a string list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

.. admonition:: Example

    ::

        mpv --http-header-fields='Field1: value1','Field2: value2' \
        http://localhost:1234

    Will generate HTTP request::

        GET / HTTP/1.0
        Host: localhost:1234
        User-Agent: MPlayer
        Icy-MetaData: 1
        Field1: value1
        Field2: value2
        Connection: close

.. warning::

    This breaks the RTSP protocol, because of inconsistent FFmpeg API
    regarding its internal timeout option. Not only does the RTSP timeout
    option accept different units (seconds instead of microseconds, causing
    mpv to pass it huge values), it will also overflow FFmpeg internal
    calculations. The worst is that merely setting the option will put RTSP
    into listening mode, which breaks any client uses. At time of this
    writing, the fix was not made effective yet. For this reason, this
    option is ignored (or should be ignored) on RTSP URLs. You can still
    set the timeout option directly with ``--demuxer-lavf-o``.

:no:        Don't do anything special. Typically, this will simply pick the
            first audio/video streams it can find.
:min:       Pick the streams with the lowest bitrate.
:max:       Same, but highest bitrate. (Default.)

Additionally, if the option is a number, the stream with the highest rate
equal or below the option value is selected.

The bitrate as used is sent by the server, and there's no guarantee it's
actually meaningful.

Default: ``no``

An example ``input.conf`` could contain:
``H cycle dvbin-channel-switch-offset up``, ``K cycle dvbin-channel-switch-offset down``

``bilinear``
    Bilinear hardware texture filtering (fastest, very low quality). This is
    the default when using the ``fast`` profile.

``lanczos``
    Lanczos scaling. Provides good balance between quality and performance.
    This is the default for ``scale``. The number of taps can be controlled
    with ``scale-radius``, but is best left unchanged.

    (This filter is an alias for ``sinc``-windowed ``sinc``)

``ewa_lanczos``
    Elliptic weighted average Lanczos scaling. Also known as Jinc.
    Relatively slow, but very good quality. The radius can be controlled
    with ``scale-radius``. Increasing the radius makes the filter sharper
    but adds more ringing.

    (This filter is an alias for ``jinc``-windowed ``jinc``)

``ewa_lanczossharp``
    A slightly sharpened version of ``ewa_lanczos``. This is the default
    when using the ``high-quality`` profile. Blur value determined by method
    originally developed by Nicolas Robidoux for Image Magick, see:
    https://www.imagemagick.org/discourse-server/viewtopic.php?p=89068#p89068

``ewa_lanczos4sharpest``
    Very sharp scaler, but also slightly slower than ``ewa_lanczossharp``.
    Prone to ringing, so it's recommended to combine this with an
    anti-ringing shader. On ``--vo=gpu-next``, setting this filter enables
    built-in anti-ringing, so no extra action needs to be taken.

    For more details, see:
    https://www.imagemagick.org/discourse-server/viewtopic.php?p=128587#p128587

``mitchell``
    Mitchell-Netravali. Piecewise cubic filter with a support of radius 2.0.
    Provides a balanced compromise of all scaling artifacts. This filter has
    both ``B`` and ``C`` set to ``1/3``. The ``B`` and ``C`` parameters can
    be controlled with ``--scale-param1`` and ``--scale-param2``.

``hermite``
    Hermite spline. Similar to ``bicubic`` but with ``B`` set to ``0.0``.
    This filter has the special property of having a support of radius 1.0,
    making it very fast in comparison, but prone to blocking. This is the
    default for ``--dscale``.

``catmull_rom``
    Catmull-Rom spline. Similar to ``mitchell``, but with ``B`` and ``C``
    set to ``0.0`` and ``0.5`` respectively. This filter is sharper than
    ``mitchell``, but prone to ringing.

``oversample``
    A version of nearest neighbour that (naively) oversamples pixels, so
    that pixels overlapping edges get linearly interpolated instead of
    rounded. This essentially removes the small imperfections and judder
    artifacts caused by nearest-neighbour interpolation, in exchange for
    adding some blur. This can also be used for frame mixing, where it
    is commonly known as "smoothmotion" (see ``--tscale``).

``linear``
    A ``--tscale`` filter.

There are some more filters, but most are not as useful. For a complete
list, pass ``help`` as value, e.g.::

    mpv --scale=help

Common ``--tscale`` choices include ``oversample``, ``linear``,
``catmull_rom``, ``mitchell``, ``gaussian``, or ``bicubic``. These are
listed in increasing order of smoothness/blurriness, with ``bicubic``
being the smoothest/blurriest and ``oversample`` being the sharpest/least
smooth.

bicubic
    Spline parameters (``B`` and ``C``). Defaults to B=1 and C=0.

gaussian
    Scale parameter (``t``). Increasing this makes the result blurrier.
    Defaults to 1.

oversample
    Minimum distance to an edge before interpolation is used. Setting this
    to 0 will always interpolate edges, whereas setting it to 0.5 will
    never interpolate, thus behaving as if the regular nearest neighbour
    algorithm was used. Defaults to 0.0.

Note that depending on filter implementation details and video scaling
ratio, the radius that actually being used might be different (most likely
being increased a bit).

The default is 0.0. The ``high-quality`` profile sets this to 0.6, which is
a fairly conservative value and should subtly enhance image quality.

Note that this doesn't affect the special filters ``bilinear`` and
``bicubic_fast``, nor does it affect any polar (EWA) scalers with vo_gpu.

On ``--vo=gpu-next``, this also affects polar (EWA) scalers. Certain
filter aliases may also implicitly enable antiringing, regardless of this
setting (see ``--scale``).

.. note::

    When downscaling with separable (orthogonal) filters, setting
    ``--dscale-antiring`` to a value other than 0.0 (default) will reduce
    scaler quality and produce aliasing artifacts. On ``--vo=gpu-next``,
    ``--dscale-antiring`` is disabled for separable (orthogonal) filters.

kaiser
    Window parameter (alpha). Defaults to 6.33.
blackman
    Window parameter (alpha). Defaults to 0.16.
gaussian
    Scale parameter (t). Increasing this makes the window wider. Defaults
    to 1.

This will perform slightly sub-optimally for anamorphic video (but still
better than without it) since it will extend the size to match only the
milder of the scale factors between the axes.

Note: this option is ignored when using bilinear downscaling with ``--vo=gpu``.

For more information about sigmoidization, see:
https://imagemagick.org/Usage/resize/#resize_sigmoidal

.. warning:: This requires setting the ``--video-sync`` option to one
             of the ``display-`` modes, or it will be silently disabled.
             This was not required before mpv 0.14.0.

This essentially attempts to interpolate the missing frames by convoluting
the video along the temporal axis. The filter used can be controlled using
the ``--tscale`` setting.

The default is intended to enable interpolation in scenarios where
retiming with the ``--video-sync=display-*`` cannot adjust the speed of
the video sufficiently for smooth playback. For example if a video is
60.00 FPS and your display refresh rate is 59.94 Hz, interpolation will
never be activated, since the mismatch is within 1% of the refresh
rate. The default also handles the scenario when mpv cannot determine the
container FPS, such as during certain live streams, and may dynamically
toggle interpolation on and off. In this scenario, the default would be to
not use interpolation but rather to allow ``--video-sync=display-*`` to
retime the video to match display refresh rate. See
``--video-sync-max-video-change`` for more information about how mpv
will retime video.

Also note that if you use e.g. ``--video-sync=display-vdrop``, small
deviations in the rate can disable interpolation and introduce a
discontinuity every other minute.

Set this to ``-1`` to disable this logic.

no
    Disable any dithering done by mpv.
auto
    Automatic selection.
    On ``--vo=gpu``: detected depth or 8 bpc otherwise
    On ``--vo=gpu-next``: detected depth
8
    Dither to 8 bit output.

Note that the on-the-wire bit depth cannot be detected except when using
``gpu-api=d3d11``. Explicitly setting the value to your display's bit depth
is recommended, as dithering performed by some LCD panels can be of low
quality.

Used in ``--dither=fruit`` mode only.

The ``error-diffusion`` option requires compute shader support. It also
requires large amount of shared memory to run, the size of which depends on
both the kernel (see ``--error-diffusion`` option below) and the height of
video window. It will fallback to ``fruit`` dithering if there is no enough
shared memory to run the shader.

``simple``
    Propagate error to only two adjacent pixels. Fastest but low quality.

``sierra-lite``
    Fast with reasonable quality. This is the default.

``floyd-steinberg``
    Most notable error diffusion kernel.

``atkinson``
    Looks different from other kernels because only fraction of errors will
    be propagated during dithering. A typical use case of this kernel is
    saving dithered screenshot (in window mode). This kernel produces
    slightly smaller file, with still reasonable dithering quality.

There are other kernels (use ``--error-diffusion=help`` to list) but most of
them are much slower and demanding even larger amount of shared memory.
Among these kernels, ``burkes`` achieves a good balance between performance
and quality, and probably is the one you want to try first.

Note that this depends on proper OpenGL vsync support. On some platforms
and drivers, this only works reliably when in fullscreen mode. It may also
require driver-specific hacks if using multiple monitors, to ensure mpv
syncs to the right one. Compositing window managers can also lead to bad
results, as can missing or incorrect display FPS information (see
``--display-fps-override``).

All formats are not available.
A fatal error is caused if an unavailable format is selected.

.. note::

    There is no reliable API to query desktop bit depth in EGL.
    You can manually set this option
    according to the bit depth of your display.
    This option also affects the auto-detection of ``--dither-depth``.

auto
    Use the preferred swapchain mode for the vulkan context. (Default)
fifo
    Non-tearing, vsync blocked. Similar to "VSync on".
fifo-relaxed
    Tearing, vsync blocked. Late frames will tear instead of stuttering.
mailbox
    Non-tearing, not vsync blocked. Similar to "triple buffering".
immediate
    Tearing, not vsync blocked. Similar to "VSync off".

flip-model needs presentation needs to be disabled for background
transparency to work.

Checks for matches based on the start of the string, case
insensitive. Thus, if the description of the adapter starts with
the vendor name, that can be utilized as the selection parameter.

Hardware decoders utilizing the D3D11 rendering abstraction's helper
functionality to receive a device, such as D3D11VA or DXVA2's DXGI
mode, will be affected by this choice.

.. note::

    Desktop bit depth querying is only available from an API available
    from Windows 10. Thus on older systems it will only automatically
    utilize the rgba8 output format.

.. note::

    For ``--vo=gpu-next``, this is used as a best-effort hint and
    libplacebo has the last say on which format is utilized.

.. note::

    For ``--vo=gpu-next``, ``rgba16f`` enables scRGB output. Alternatively,
    ``--target-trc=scrgb`` can be used to request scRGB output.

Values other than "srgb" and "pq" have had issues in testing, so they
are mostly available for manual testing.

.. note::

    Swap chain color space configuration is only available from an API
    available from Windows 10. Thus on older systems it will not work.

Currently only relevant for ``--gpu-api=d3d11``.

auto
    Use the first available compiler. (Default)
shaderc
    Use libshaderc, which is an API wrapper around glslang. This is
    generally the most preferred, if available.

.. note::

    This option is deprecated, since there is only one usable value.
    It may be removed in the future.

Each use of the ``--glsl-shader`` option will add another file to the
internal list of shaders, while ``--glsl-shaders`` takes a list of files,
and overwrites the internal list with it. The latter is a path list option
(see `List Options`_ for details).

.. warning::

    The syntax is not stable yet and may change any time.

The general syntax of a user shader looks like this::

    //!METADATA ARGS...
    //!METADATA ARGS...

    vec4 hook() {
       ...
       return something;
    }

    //!METADATA ARGS...
    //!METADATA ARGS...

    ...

Each section of metadata, along with the non-metadata lines after it,
defines a single block. There are currently two types of blocks, HOOKs and
TEXTUREs.

A ``TEXTURE`` block can set the following options:

TEXTURE <name> (required)
    The name of this texture. Hooks can then bind the texture under this
    name using BIND. This must be the first option of the texture block.

SIZE <width> [<height>] [<depth>] (required)
    The dimensions of the texture. The height and depth are optional. The
    type of texture (1D, 2D or 3D) depends on the number of components
    specified.

FORMAT <name> (required)
    The texture format for the samples. Supported texture formats are listed
    in debug logging when the ``gpu`` VO is initialized (look for
    ``Texture formats:``). Usually, this follows OpenGL naming conventions.
    For example, ``rgb16`` provides 3 channels with normalized 16 bit
    components. One oddity are float formats: for example, ``rgba16f`` has
    16 bit internal precision, but the texture data is provided as 32 bit
    floats, and the driver converts the data on texture upload.

    Although format names follow a common naming convention, not all of them
    are available on all hardware, drivers, GL versions, and so on.

FILTER <LINEAR|NEAREST>
    The min/magnification filter used when sampling from this texture.

BORDER <CLAMP|REPEAT|MIRROR>
    The border wrapping mode used when sampling from this texture.

Following the metadata is a string of bytes in hexadecimal notation that
define the raw texture data, corresponding to the format specified by
`FORMAT`, on a single line with no extra whitespace.

A ``HOOK`` block can set the following options:

HOOK <name> (required)
    The texture which to hook into. May occur multiple times within a
    metadata block, up to a predetermined limit. See below for a list of
    hookable textures.

DESC <title>
    User-friendly description of the pass. This is the name used when
    representing this shader in the list of passes for property
    `vo-passes`.

BIND <name>
    Loads a texture (either coming from mpv or from a ``TEXTURE`` block)
    and makes it available to the pass. When binding textures from mpv,
    this will also set up macros to facilitate accessing it properly. See
    below for a list. By default, no textures are bound. The special name
    HOOKED can be used to refer to the texture that triggered this pass.

SAVE <name>
    Gives the name of the texture to save the result of this pass into. By
    default, this is set to the special name HOOKED which has the effect of
    overwriting the hooked texture.

WIDTH <szexpr>, HEIGHT <szexpr>
    Specifies the size of the resulting texture for this pass. ``szexpr``
    refers to an expression in RPN (reverse polish notation), using the
    operators + - * / > < !, floating point literals, and references to
    sizes of existing texture (such as MAIN.width or CHROMA.height),
    OUTPUT, or NATIVE_CROPPED (size of an input texture cropped after
    pan-and-scan, video-align-x/y, video-pan-x/y, etc. and possibly
    prescaled). By default, these are set to HOOKED.w and HOOKED.h,
    espectively.

WHEN <szexpr>
    Specifies a condition that needs to be true (non-zero) for the shader
    stage to be evaluated. If it fails, it will silently be omitted. (Note
    that a shader stage like this which has a dependency on an optional
    hook point can still cause that hook point to be saved, which has some
    minor overhead)

OFFSET <ox oy | ALIGN>
    Indicates a pixel shift (offset) introduced by this pass. These pixel
    offsets will be accumulated and corrected during the next scaling pass
    (``cscale`` or ``scale``). The default values are 0 0 which correspond
    to no shift. Note that offsets are ignored when not overwriting the
    hooked texture.

    A special value of ``ALIGN`` will attempt to fix existing offset of
    HOOKED by align it with reference. It requires HOOKED to be resizable
    (see below). It works transparently with fragment shader. For compute
    shader, the predefined ``texmap`` macro is required to handle coordinate
    mapping.

COMPONENTS <n>
    Specifies how many components of this pass's output are relevant and
    should be stored in the texture, up to 4 (rgba). By default, this value
    is equal to the number of components in HOOKED.

COMPUTE <bw> <bh> [<tw> <th>]
    Specifies that this shader should be treated as a compute shader, with
    the block size bw and bh. The compute shader will be dispatched with
    however many blocks are necessary to completely tile over the output.
    Within each block, there will be tw*th threads, forming a single work
    group. In other words: tw and th specify the work group size, which can
    be different from the block size. So for example, a compute shader with
    bw, bh = 32 and tw, th = 8 running on a 500x500 texture would dispatch
    16x16 blocks (rounded up), each with 8x8 threads.

    Compute shaders in mpv are treated a bit different from fragment
    shaders. Instead of defining a ``vec4 hook`` that produces an output
    sample, you directly define ``void hook`` which writes to a fixed
    writeonly image unit named ``out_image`` (this is bound by mpv) using
    `imageStore`. To help translate texture coordinates in the absence of
    vertices, mpv provides a special function ``NAME_map(id)`` to map from
    the texel space of the output image to the texture coordinates for all
    bound textures. In particular, ``NAME_pos`` is equivalent to
    ``NAME_map(gl_GlobalInvocationID)``, although using this only really
    makes sense if (tw,th) == (bw,bh).

Each bound mpv texture (via ``BIND``) will make available the following
definitions to that shader pass, where NAME is the name of the bound
texture:

vec4 NAME_tex(vec2 pos)
    The sampling function to use to access the texture at a certain spot
    (in texture coordinate space, range [0,1]). This takes care of any
    necessary normalization conversions.
vec4 NAME_texOff(vec2 offset)
    Sample the texture at a certain offset in pixels. This works like
    NAME_tex but additionally takes care of necessary rotations, so that
    sampling at e.g. vec2(-1,0) is always one pixel to the left.
vec2 NAME_pos
    The local texture coordinate of that texture, range [0,1].
vec2 NAME_size
    The (rotated) size in pixels of the texture.
mat2 NAME_rot
    The rotation matrix associated with this texture. (Rotates pixel space
    to texture coordinates)
vec2 NAME_pt
    The (unrotated) size of a single pixel, range [0,1].
float NAME_mul
    The coefficient that needs to be multiplied into the texture contents
    in order to normalize it to the range [0,1].
sampler NAME_raw
    The raw bound texture itself. The use of this should be avoided unless
    absolutely necessary.

Normally, users should use either NAME_tex or NAME_texOff to read from the
texture. For some shaders however , it can be better for performance to do
custom sampling from NAME_raw, in which case care needs to be taken to
respect NAME_mul and NAME_rot.

In addition to these parameters, the following uniforms are also globally
available:

float random
    A random number in the range [0-1], different per frame.
int frame
    A simple count of frames rendered, increases by one per frame and never
    resets (regardless of seeks).
vec2 input_size
    The size in pixels of the input image (possibly cropped and prescaled).
vec2 target_size
    The size in pixels of the visible part of the scaled (and possibly
    cropped) image.
vec2 tex_offset
    Texture offset introduced by user shaders or options like panscan, video-align-x/y, video-pan-x/y.

Internally, vo_gpu may generate any number of the following textures.
Whenever a texture is rendered and saved by vo_gpu, all of the passes
that have hooked into it will run, in the order they were added by the
user. This is a list of the legal hook points:

RGB, LUMA, CHROMA, ALPHA, XYZ (resizable)
    Source planes (raw). Which of these fire depends on the image format of
    the source.

CHROMA_SCALED, ALPHA_SCALED (fixed)
    Source planes (upscaled). These only fire on subsampled content.

NATIVE (resizable)
    The combined image, in the source colorspace, before conversion to RGB.

MAINPRESUB (resizable)
    The image, after conversion to RGB, but before
    ``--blend-subtitles=video`` is applied.

    .. note::
        With ``--vo=gpu``, ``MAIN`` and ``MAINPRESUB`` are separate shader
        stages, this allows rendering overlays directly onto the pre-scaled
        video stage. ``--vo=gpu-next`` does not support this feature,
        and as such, the ``MAINPRESUB`` shader stage does not exist.
        It is still valid to refer to this name in shaders, but it is
        handled identically to ``MAIN``.

MAIN (resizable)
    The main image, after conversion to RGB but before upscaling.

LINEAR (fixed)
    Linear light image, before scaling. This only fires when
    ``--linear-upscaling``, ``--linear-downscaling`` or
    ``--sigmoid-upscaling`` is in effect.

SIGMOID (fixed)
    Sigmoidized light, before scaling. This only fires when
    ``--sigmoid-upscaling`` is in effect.

PREKERNEL (fixed)
    The image immediately before the scaler kernel runs.

POSTKERNEL (fixed)
    The image immediately after the scaler kernel runs.

SCALED (fixed)
    The final upscaled image, before color management.

OUTPUT (fixed)
    The final output image, after color management but before dithering and
    drawing to screen.

Only the textures labelled with ``resizable`` may be transformed by the
pass. When overwriting a texture marked ``fixed``, the WIDTH, HEIGHT and
OFFSET must be left at their default values.

Some parameters are filled automatically if the shader requests them.
Currently following parameters are available:

``PTS``
    PTS of the current frame in seconds.

``chroma_offset_x``
    chroma offset to the reference plane in x direction.

``chroma_offset_y``
    chroma offset to the reference plane in y direction.

``min_luma``
    Minimum luminance value (in cd/m²).

``max_luma``
    Maximum luminance value (in cd/m²).

``max_cll``
    Maximum Content Light Level (in cd/m²).

``max_fall``
    Maximum Frame Average Light Level (in cd/m²).

``scene_max_r``
    Maximum scene light level of the red channel (in cd/m²).

``scene_max_g``
    Maximum scene light level of the green channel (in cd/m²).

``scene_max_b``
    Maximum scene light level of the blue channel (in cd/m²).

``scene_avg``
    Average scene light level (in cd/m²).

``max_pq_y``
    Maximum PQ luminance (in PQ, 0-1).

``avg_pq_y``
    Average PQ luminance (in PQ, 0-1).

If you increase the ``--deband-iterations``, you should probably decrease
this to compensate.

X11/GLX only.

The value ``auto`` will try to determine whether the compositor is active,
and calls ``DwmFlush`` only if it seems to be.

This may help to get more consistent frame intervals, especially with
high-fps clips - which might also reduce dropped frames. Typically, a value
of ``windowed`` should be enough, since full screen may bypass the DWM.

Windows with ANGLE only.

Windows with ANGLE only.

If set to ``yes``, the ``--angle-flip`` option will have no effect.

Windows with ANGLE only.

If set to ``no``, the ``--angle-swapchain-length`` option will have no
effect.

Windows with ANGLE only.

Windows with ANGLE only.

macOS only.

macOS and cocoa-cb only.

macOS and cocoa-cb only.

``<csp>`` can be one of the following:

:auto:               Sets the color space to the icc profile of the
                     screen (default).
:display-p3:         DCI P3 primaries, a D65 white point and the sRGB
                     transfer function.
:display-p3-hlg:     DCI P3 primaries, a D65 white point and the Hybrid
                     Log-Gamma (HLG) transfer function.
:display-p3-pq:      DCI P3 primaries, a D65 white point and the Perceptual
                     Quantizer (PQ) transfer function.
:display-p3-linear:  DCI P3 primaries, a D65 white point and linear transfer function.
:dci-p3:             DCI P3 color space.
:bt.2020:            ITU BT.2020 color space.
:bt.2020-linear:     ITU BT.2020 color space and linear transfer function.
:bt.2100-hlg:        ITU BT.2100 and the Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) transfer function.
:bt.2100-pq:         ITU BT.2100 and the Perceptual Quantizer (PQ) transfer function.
:bt.709:             ITU BT.709 color space.
:srgb:               sRGB colorimetry and non-linear transfer function.
:srgb-linear:        Same as sRGB but linear transfer function.
:rgb-linear:         RGB and linear transfer function.
:adobe:              Adobe RGB (1998) color space.

macOS and cocoa-cb only.

``<appearance>`` can be one of the following:

:auto:                     Detects the system settings and sets the title
                           bar appearance appropriately.
:aqua:                     The standard macOS Light appearance.
:darkAqua:                 The standard macOS Dark appearance.
:vibrantLight:             Light vibrancy appearance.
:vibrantDark:              Dark vibrancy appearance.
:aquaHighContrast:         Light Accessibility appearance.
:darkAquaHighContrast:     Dark Accessibility appearance.
:vibrantLightHighContrast: Light vibrancy Accessibility appearance.
:vibrantDarkHighContrast:  Dark vibrancy Accessibility appearance.

``<material>`` can be one of the following:

:titlebar:              The standard macOS title bar material.
:selection:             The standard macOS selection material.
:menu:                  The standard macOS menu material.
:popover:               The standard macOS popover material.
:sidebar:               The standard macOS sidebar material.
:headerView:            The standard macOS header view material.
:sheet:                 The standard macOS sheet material.
:windowBackground:      The standard macOS window background material.
:hudWindow:             The standard macOS hudWindow material.
:fullScreen:            The standard macOS full screen material.
:toolTip:               The standard macOS tool tip material.
:contentBackground:     The standard macOS content background material.
:underWindowBackground: The standard macOS under window background material.
:underPageBackground:   The standard macOS under page background material.
                        (deprecated in macOS 10.14+)
:dark:                  The standard macOS dark material.
                        (deprecated in macOS 10.14+)
:light:                 The standard macOS light material.
:mediumLight:           The standard macOS mediumLight material.
                        (deprecated in macOS 10.14+)
:ultraDark:             The standard macOS ultraDark material.
                        (deprecated in macOS 10.14+)

macOS only.

macOS only.

``<timer>`` can be one of the following:

:callback: Syncs to the CVDisplayLink callback
:precise:  Syncs to the time of the next vertical display refresh reported by the
           CVDisplayLink callback provided information
:system:   No manual syncing, depend on the layer mechanic and the next drawable
:feedback: Same as precise but uses the presentation feedback core mechanism

Default value in following order:

:/usr/local/bin:     homebrew (Intel) install path
:/usr/local/sbin:    homebrew (Intel) install path
:/opt/local/bin:     MacPorts install path
:/opt/local/sbin:    MacPorts install path
:/opt/homebrew/bin:  homebrew (ARM) install path
:/opt/homebrew/sbin: homebrew (ARM) install path

Android with ``--gpu-context=android`` only.

Windows with ``--gpu-context=d3d11`` and  ``--d3d11-output-mode=composition`` only.

Note that the default GPU context is subject to change, and must not be relied upon.
If a certain GPU context needs to be used, it must be explicitly specified.

auto
    auto-select (default). Note that this context must be used alone and
    does not participate in the priority list.
win
    Win32/WGL
winvk
    VK_KHR_win32_surface
angle
    Direct3D11 through the OpenGL ES translation layer ANGLE. This supports
    almost everything the ``win`` backend does (if the ANGLE build is new
    enough).
dxinterop (experimental)
    Win32, using WGL for rendering and Direct3D 9Ex for presentation. Works
    on Nvidia and AMD. Newer Intel chips with the latest drivers may also
    work.
d3d11
    Win32, with native Direct3D 11 rendering.
x11
    X11/GLX (deprecated/legacy, EGL is preferred these days)
x11vk
    VK_KHR_xlib_surface
wayland
    Wayland/EGL
waylandvk
    VK_KHR_wayland_surface
drm
    DRM/EGL
displayvk
    VK_KHR_display. This backend is roughly the Vulkan equivalent of
    DRM/EGL, allowing for direct rendering via Vulkan without a display
    manager.
x11egl
    X11/EGL
android
    Android/EGL. Requires ``--wid`` be set to an ``android.view.Surface``.
macvk
    Vulkan on macOS with a metal surface through a translation layer (experimental)

This is an object settings list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

auto
    Use any available API (default). Note that the default GPU API used for this
    value is subject to change, and must not be relied upon. If a certain GPU API
    needs to be used, it must be explicitly specified.
opengl
    Allow only OpenGL (requires OpenGL 2.1+ or GLES 2.0+)
vulkan
    Allow only Vulkan (requires a valid/working ``--spirv-compiler``)
d3d11
    Allow only ``--gpu-context=d3d11``

This is an object settings list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

auto
    Allow all types of OpenGL (default)
yes
    Only allow GLES
no
    Only allow desktop/core GL

Default: ``auto``, which first attempts to utilize 16bit float
(rgba16f, rgba16hf), and falls back to rgba16 if those are not available.
Finally, attempts to utilize rgb10_a2 or rgba8 if all of the previous formats
are not available.

This option is deprecated and may be removed in the future.

NOTE: Only implemented on macOS and ``--vo=gpu``.

auto
    Chooses the interpretation of the LUT automatically from tagged
    metadata, and otherwise falls back to ``native``. (Default)
native
    Applied to the raw image contents in its native colorspace, before
    decoding to RGB. For example, for a HDR10 image, this would be fed
    PQ-encoded YCbCr values in the range 0.0 - 1.0.
normalized
    Applied to the normalized RGB image contents, after decoding from
    its native color encoding, but before linearization.
conversion
    Fully replaces the color decoding. A LUT of this type should ingest the
    image's native colorspace and output normalized non-linear RGB.

.. note::
    Auto detected target colorspace metadata is not guaranteed to be always
    best choice. It depends on your compositor, driver, and display
    capabilities. However in most cases ``auto`` mode should work fine.

target
    Uses metadata based on the target display's actual capabilities. This
    mode adapts the source content to the target display before output.
    Note: HDR primaries are not overridden by the ``--target-prim`` option
    this only affects the enclosing container for the colorspace.
    ``--target-gamut`` can be used to limit the output gamut if needed.

source
    Uses the source content's metadata. This is the traditional
    "HDR passthrough" mode (SDR too), where it is assumed that the compositor
    and display will handle the colorspace directly and perform any necessary
    mappings.

source-dynamic
    The same as ``source``, but uses dynamic per-scene metadata instead of
    static HDR10. This is experimental and depends on the display's ability
    to react to metadata changes. Note that this does not send full HDR10+
    or Dolby Vision metadata, but uses that information to produce HDR10
    with per-scene luminance values.

Default is ``target``. If target display parameters are not available, this
will fall back to ``source``. Note that this is done on individual properties
basis, i.e. it will merge source params into target for unknown properties,
though not the other way around.

``--target-*`` options override the metadata in both modes.

.. note::
    The ICC profile always takes precedence over any metadata.

.. note::
    It is highly recommended to use ``--target-colorspace-hint=<auto|yes>``
    to ensure the output colorspace is set correctly. This is crucial for
    all non-sRGB content, even SDR, to allow the compositor, driver, and
    display to properly interpret the signal.

    Unfortunately, it's not as easy as it sounds. While mpv performs
    high-quality color processing, we cannot guarantee what will happen
    after the signal leaves mpv. Therefore, you may need to adjust additional
    settings to ensure proper output. A one-size-fits-all default is not
    feasible.

    Now with the backstory out of the way:

    For HDR output the default of ``target`` should work fine, it will
    automatically infer the best target HDR parameters and surface format.
    For compatibility, displays are assumed to be in HDR mode, unless it's
    reported otherwise. (you can override this with ``--target-trc``).
    This way the HDR metadata is set and hopefully the compositor will
    handle the rest. If the input is SDR, it will be converted to PQ with
    primaries set to source values.

    For SDR output, for targets where mpv cannot determine whether the target
    is HDR or SDR, you can use ``source`` mode. Metadata set will match the
    input colorspace. In case of HDR input, it will be passthrough as-is.
    Alternatively, you can use ``target`` mode and set ``--target-trc`` to
    a SDR transfer function. This way any input will be converted to SDR.

    Use the stats display to verify the input and output colorspace settings.

    TL;DR: Use ``--target-colorspace-hint=auto`` and adjust ``--target-*``
    parameters to match your target display capabilities, until it looks best
    for you. Use `Conditional auto profiles`_ for specific adjustments. Avoid
    using ``--target-colorspace-hint=no`` unless it's sRGB content, but even
    then it's better to set the colorspace metadata.

.. note::
    Additional chatter about the "HDR passthrough" mode: There is a belief
    that this mode should send the source HDR signal as-is to the display,
    and the display will magically handle it, no matter what. This is not
    always true. In some cases it is better to send the HDR signal
    tone-mapped to the target display's capabilities, and the best way to do
    this is within mpv itself.

    This is generally handled by either the compositor or the GPU driver.
    You can probably find HDR "calibration" options somewhere in your system.

    You can choose which metadata to send to the display and manually tweak
    it using the ``--target-*`` options. You can also try
    ``--inverse-tone-mapping`` if you want to make everything appear more
    HDR-like.

    Your mileage may vary, this highly depends on the target display, there
    is no single answer, but try experimenting, you may be surprised.

auto
    Disable any adaptation, except for atypical color spaces. Specifically,
    wide/unusual gamuts get automatically adapted to BT.709, while standard
    gamut (i.e. BT.601 and BT.709) content is not touched. (default)
bt.470m
    ITU-R BT.470 M
bt.601-525
    ITU-R BT.601 (525-line SD systems, eg. NTSC), SMPTE 170M/240M
bt.601-625
    ITU-R BT.601 (625-line SD systems, eg. PAL/SECAM), ITU-R BT.470 B/G
bt.709
    ITU-R BT.709 (HD), IEC 61966-2-4 (sRGB), SMPTE RP177 Annex B
bt.2020
    ITU-R BT.2020 (UHD)
apple
    Apple RGB
adobe
    Adobe RGB (1998)
prophoto
    ProPhoto RGB (ROMM)
cie1931
    CIE 1931 RGB (not to be confused with CIE XYZ)
dci-p3
    DCI-P3 (Digital Cinema Colorspace), SMPTE RP431-2
display-p3
    DCI-P3 with a D65 white point
v-gamut
    Panasonic V-Gamut (VARICAM) primaries
s-gamut
    Sony S-Gamut (S-Log) primaries

auto
    Disable any adaptation, except for atypical transfers. Specifically,
    HDR or linear light source material gets automatically converted to
    gamma 2.2, while SDR content is not touched. (default)
bt.1886
    ITU-R BT.1886 curve (assuming infinite contrast)
srgb
    IEC 61966-2-4 (sRGB)
linear
    Linear light output
gamma1.8
    Pure power curve (gamma 1.8), also used for Apple RGB
gamma2.0
    Pure power curve (gamma 2.0)
gamma2.2
    Pure power curve (gamma 2.2)
gamma2.4
    Pure power curve (gamma 2.4)
gamma2.6
    Pure power curve (gamma 2.6)
gamma2.8
    Pure power curve (gamma 2.8), also used for BT.470-BG
prophoto
    ProPhoto RGB (ROMM)
pq
    ITU-R BT.2100 PQ (Perceptual quantizer) curve, aka SMPTE ST2084
hlg
    ITU-R BT.2100 HLG (Hybrid Log-gamma) curve, aka ARIB STD-B67
v-log
    Panasonic V-Log (VARICAM) curve
s-log1
    Sony S-Log1 curve
s-log2
    Sony S-Log2 curve
scrgb
    scRGB, extended linear light transfer. Supports both HDR
    and wide color gamut content. The output gamut defaults to BT.709
    unless display primaries are reported by the system. You can also use
    ``--target-gamut`` to manually specify a wider gamut.
    (``--vo=gpu-next`` only)

.. note::

    When using HDR output formats, mpv will encode to the specified
    curve but it will not set any HDMI flags or other signalling that might
    be required for the target device to correctly display the HDR signal.
    The user should independently guarantee this before using these signal
    formats for display.

In ``auto`` mode (the default), the chosen peak is an appropriate value
based on the TRC in use. For SDR curves, it uses 203. For HDR curves, it
uses 203 * the transfer function's nominal peak. If available, it will use
the target display's peak brightness as reported by the display.

.. note::

    When using an SDR transfer function, this is normally not needed, and
    setting it may lead to very unexpected results. The one time it *is*
    useful is if you want to calibrate a HDR display using traditional
    transfer functions and calibration equipment. In such cases, you can
    set your HDR display to a high brightness such as 800 cd/m^2, and then
    calibrate it to a standard curve like gamma2.8. Setting this value to
    800 would then instruct mpv to essentially treat it as an HDR display
    with the given peak. This may be a good alternative in environments
    where PQ or HLG input to the display is not possible, and makes it
    possible to use HDR displays with mpv regardless of operating system
    support for HDMI HDR metadata.

    In such a configuration, we highly recommend setting ``--tone-mapping``
    to ``mobius`` or even ``clip``.

.. note::

    If the selected gamut is wider, it will be limited to ``--target-prim``.
    Additionally, if ``--target-colorspace-hint`` is specified, the signaled
    gamut will be limited to the supported gamut of the swapchain. Which may
    differ from the requested ``--target-prim``.

.. note::

    This option overrides the ``--target-peak`` if is set and the target
    transfer function is SDR. This way you can control SDR output separately
    from HDR output.

On the target side, "sRGB" is also ambiguous, some displays are factory
calibrated to a pure power 2.2 gamma, while others may use the sRGB
piecewise curve. Both of which are typically configured as "sRGB" in the
swapchain configuration. Similar inconsistencies exist across compositor
implementations of color management, as different platforms handle this in
different ways. See also ``--treat-srgb-as-power22``.
Additionally, ``bt.1886`` requires display contrast ratio to be known for
correct rendering, which is often unavailable. Use``--target-contrast`` to
specify it.

This option controls whether SDR content should have its gamma adjusted.
It only applies to the "sRGB" swapchain target configuration, since that is
the most common and ambiguous case. If set to ``no``, content tagged as
``sRGB``, ``gamma2.2`` or ``bt.1886`` will be rendered as-is. If set to
``yes``, it will be converted based on the available metadata.

``auto`` (default) behaves like ``no``, except when ``--target-trc`` is
explicitly set, in which case it behaves like ``yes``.

Generally it's recommended to enable this option, if you can ensure that
both source and target metadata is correct.

(Only for ``--vo=gpu-next``)

``auto`` behaves like ``both``, with possible platform-specific adjustments
to ensure a consistent appearance. Depending on the platform, the sRGB EOTF
used by the system compositor may differ.

The default is ``auto``. (Only for ``--vo=gpu-next``)

auto
    Maps to ``bt.2390`` when using ``--vo=gpu``, and to ``spline`` with
    ``--vo=gpu-next``. (Default)
clip
    Hard-clip any out-of-range values. Use this when you care about
    perfect color accuracy for in-range values at the cost of completely
    distorting out-of-range values. Not generally recommended.
mobius
    Generalization of Reinhard to a Möbius transform with linear section.
    Smoothly maps out-of-range values while retaining contrast and colors
    for in-range material as much as possible. Use this when you care about
    color accuracy more than detail preservation. This is somewhere in
    between ``clip`` and ``reinhard``, depending on the value of
    ``--tone-mapping-param``.
reinhard
    Reinhard tone mapping algorithm. Very simple continuous curve.
    Preserves overall image brightness but uses nonlinear contrast, which
    results in flattening of details and degradation in color accuracy.
hable
    Similar to ``reinhard`` but preserves both dark and bright details
    better (slightly sigmoidal), at the cost of slightly darkening /
    desaturating everything. Developed by John Hable for use in video
    games. Use this when you care about detail preservation more than
    color/brightness accuracy. This is roughly equivalent to
    ``--tone-mapping=reinhard --tone-mapping-param=0.24``. If possible,
    you should also enable ``--hdr-compute-peak`` for the best results.
bt.2390
    Perceptual tone mapping curve (EETF) specified in ITU-R Report BT.2390.
gamma
    Fits a logarithmic transfer between the tone curves.
linear
    Linearly stretches the entire reference gamut to (a linear multiple of)
    the display.
spline
    Perceptually linear single-pivot polynomial. (``--vo=gpu-next`` only)
bt.2446a
    HDR<->SDR mapping specified in ITU-R Report BT.2446, method A. This is
    the recommended curve for well-mastered content. (``--vo=gpu-next``
    only)
st2094-40
    Dynamic HDR10+ tone-mapping method specified in SMPTE ST2094-40 Annex
    B. In the absence of metadata, falls back to a fixed spline matched to
    the input/output average brightness characteristics. (``--vo=gpu-next``
    only)
st2094-10
    Dynamic tone-mapping method specified in SMPTE ST2094-10 Annex B.2.
    Conceptually simpler than ST2094-40, and generally produces worse
    results.

clip
    Specifies an extra linear coefficient to multiply into the signal
    before clipping. Defaults to 1.0.
mobius
    Specifies the transition point from linear to mobius transform. Every
    value below this point is guaranteed to be mapped 1:1. The higher the
    value, the more accurate the result will be, at the cost of losing
    bright details. Defaults to 0.3, which due to the steep initial slope
    still preserves in-range colors fairly accurately.
reinhard
    Specifies the local contrast coefficient at the display peak. Defaults
    to 0.5, which means that in-gamut values will be about half as bright
    as when clipping.
bt.2390
    Specifies the offset for the knee point. Defaults to 1.0, which is
    higher than the value from the original ITU-R specification (0.5).
    (``--vo=gpu-next`` only)
gamma
    Specifies the exponent of the function. Defaults to 1.8.
linear
    Specifies the scale factor to use while stretching. Defaults to 1.0.
spline
    Specifies the knee point (in PQ space). Defaults to 0.30.
st2094-10
    Specifies the contrast (slope) at the knee point. Defaults to 1.0.

auto
    Choose the best mode automatically. (Default)
clip
    Hard-clip to the gamut (per-channel). Very low quality, but free.
perceptual
    Performs a perceptually balanced gamut mapping using a soft knee
    function to roll-off clipped regions, and a hue shifting function to
    preserve saturation. (``--vo=gpu-next`` only)
relative
    Performs relative colorimetric clipping, while maintaining an
    exponential relationship between brightness and chromaticity.
    (``--vo=gpu-next`` only)
saturation
    Performs simple RGB->RGB saturation mapping. The input R/G/B channels
    are mapped directly onto the output R/G/B channels. Will never clip,
    but will distort all hues and/or result in a faded look.
    (``--vo=gpu-next`` only)
absolute
    Performs absolute colorimetric clipping. Like ``relative``, but does
    not adapt the white point. (``--vo=gpu-next`` only)
desaturate
    Performs constant-luminance colorimetric clipping, desaturing colors
    towards white until they're in-range.
darken
    Uniformly darkens the input slightly to prevent clipping on blown-out
    highlights, then clamps colorimetrically to the input gamut boundary,
    biased slightly to preserve chromaticity over luminance.
    (``--vo=gpu-next`` only)
warn
    Performs no gamut mapping, but simply highlights out-of-gamut pixels.
linear
    Linearly/uniformly desaturates the image in order to bring the entire
    image into the target gamut. (``--vo=gpu-next`` only)

NOTE: On Windows, the default profile must be an ICC profile. WCS profiles
are not supported.

Applications using libmpv with the render API need to provide the ICC
profile via ``MPV_RENDER_PARAM_ICC_PROFILE``.

On `--vo=gpu-next`, files that have not been accessed in the last 24 hours
may be cleared if the cache limit (1.5 GiB) is exceeded.

On ``--vo=gpu``, this is not cleaned automatically, so old, unused cache
files may stick around indefinitely.

0
    perceptual
1
    relative colorimetric (default)
2
    saturation
3
    absolute colorimetric

NOTE: Setting this option to anything other than ``auto`` is **strongly**
discouraged, except for testing.

auto
    Chooses the interpretation of the LUT automatically from tagged
    metadata, and otherwise falls back to ``native``. (Default)
native
    Applied to raw image contents in its native RGB colorspace (non-linear
    light), before conversion to the output color space.
normalized
    Applied to the normalized RGB image contents, in linear light, before
    conversion to the output color space.
conversion
    Fully replaces the conversion from the image color space to the output
    color space. If such a LUT is present, it has the highest priority, and
    overrides any ICC profiles, as well as options related to tone mapping
    and output colorimetry (``--target-prim``, ``--target-trc`` etc.).

The downside of enabling this is that it restricts subtitles to the visible
portion of the video, so you can't have subtitles exist in the black
margins below a video (for example).

If ``video`` is selected, the behavior is similar to ``yes``, but subs are
drawn at the video's native resolution, and scaled along with the video.

.. note:: ``--vo=gpu-next`` with ``--blend-subtitles=video`` will
          correctly follow ``--video-rotate`` if rotated in 90-degree steps.

.. warning:: With ``--vo=gpu-next``, the ``--blend-subtitles=video`` mode
             blends the subtitles after scaling the video, similar to
             ``--blend-subtitles=yes``. The difference is that the subtitles
             are rendered at the video's native resolution and then scaled
             separately to blend with the video. This is useful for
             performance reasons, as it allows subtitles to be rendered at a
             lower resolution, but it does not have the same effect as
             hardsubbing, which would require blending before scaling. This
             may change in the future.

.. warning:: This changes the way subtitle colors are handled. Normally,
             subtitle colors are assumed to be in sRGB and color managed as
             such. Enabling this makes them treated as being in the video's
             color space instead. This is good if you want things like
             softsubbed ASS signs to match the video colors, but may cause
             SRT subtitles or similar to look slightly off.

color
    Blend the frame against the background color (``--background-color``,
    normally black).
tiles
    Blend the frame against a checkerboard pattern with colors specified
    in the ``--background-tile-color-0`` and ``--background-tile-color-1``
    options and tile size specified in the ``--background-tile-size`` option
    (default).
none
    Do not blend the frame and leave the alpha as is.

Background transparency on d3d11 requires ``--d3d11-flip=no``.

Before mpv 0.38.0, this option used to accept a color value specifying the
background color. This is now done by the ``--background-color`` option.
Use that instead.

On macOS this is always deactivated because it only causes performance
problems and other regressions.

It is intended for hardware that does not support FBOs (including GLES,
which supports it insufficiently), or to get some more performance out of
bad or old hardware.

This mode is forced automatically if needed, and this option is mostly
useful for debugging. The default of ``auto`` will enable it automatically
if nothing uses features which require FBOs.

This option might be silently removed in the future.

On `--vo=gpu-next`, files that have not been accessed in the last 24 hours
may be cleared if the cache limit (128 MiB) is exceeded.

On ``--vo=gpu``, this is not cleaned automatically, so old, unused cache
files may stick around indefinitely.

https://libplacebo.org/options/

This option is interesting for client API users using the render API
because you can stop it from limiting your FPS
(see ``mpv_render_context_render()`` documentation).

This applies only to audio timing modes (e.g. ``--video-sync=audio``). In
other modes (``--video-sync=display-...``), video timing relies on vsync
blocking, and this option is not used.

If you use this option, you usually want to set it to ``display-resample``
to enable a timing mode that tries to not skip or repeat frames when for
example playing 24fps video on a 24Hz screen.

The modes starting with ``display-`` try to output video frames completely
synchronously to the display, using the detected display vertical refresh
rate as a hint how fast frames will be displayed on average. These modes
change video speed slightly to match the display. See ``--video-sync-...``
options for fine tuning. The robustness of this mode is further reduced by
making a some idealized assumptions, which may not always apply in reality.
Behavior can depend on the VO and the system's video and audio drivers.
Media files must use constant framerate. Section-wise VFR might work as well
with some container formats (but not e.g. mkv).

Under some circumstances, the player automatically reverts to ``audio`` mode
for some time or permanently. This can happen on very low framerate video,
or if the framerate cannot be detected.

Also in display-sync modes it can happen that interruptions to video
playback (such as toggling fullscreen mode, or simply resizing the window)
will skip the video frames that should have been displayed, while ``audio``
mode will display them after the renderer has resumed (typically resulting
in a short A/V desync and the video "catching up").

Before mpv 0.30.0, there was a fallback to ``audio`` mode on severe A/V
desync. This was changed for the sake of not sporadically stopping. Now,
``display-desync`` does what it promises and may desync with audio by an
arbitrary amount, until it is manually fixed with a seek.

These modes also require a vsync blocked presentation mode. For OpenGL, this
translates to ``--opengl-swapinterval=1``. For Vulkan, it translates to
``--vulkan-swap-mode=fifo`` (or ``fifo-relaxed``).

The modes with ``desync`` in their names do not attempt to keep audio/video
in sync. They will slowly (or quickly) desync, until e.g. the next seek
happens. These modes are meant for testing, not serious use.

:audio:             Time video frames to audio. This is the most robust
                    mode, because the player doesn't have to assume anything
                    about how the display behaves. The disadvantage is that
                    it can lead to occasional frame drops or repeats. If
                    audio is disabled, this uses the system clock. This is
                    the default mode.
:display-resample:  Resample audio to match the video. This mode will also
                    try to adjust audio speed to compensate for other drift.
                    (This means it will play the audio at a different speed
                    every once in a while to reduce the A/V difference.)
:display-resample-vdrop:  Resample audio to match the video. Drop video
                    frames to compensate for drift.
:display-resample-desync: Like the previous mode, but no A/V compensation.
:display-tempo:     Same as ``display-resample``, but apply audio speed
                    changes to audio filters instead of resampling to avoid
                    the change in pitch. Beware that some audio filters
                    don't do well with a speed close to 1. It is recommend
                    to use a conditional profile to automatically switch to
                    ``display-resample`` when speed gets too close to 1 for
                    your filter setup. Use (speed * video_speed_correction)
                    to get the actual playback speed in the condition.
                    See `Conditional auto profiles`_ for details.
:display-vdrop:     Drop or repeat video frames to compensate desyncing
                    video. (Although it should have the same effects as
                    ``audio``, the implementation is very different.)
:display-adrop:     Drop or repeat audio data to compensate desyncing
                    video. This mode will cause severe audio artifacts if
                    the real monitor refresh rate is too different from
                    the reported or forced rate. Since mpv 0.33.0, this
                    acts on entire audio frames, instead of single samples.
:display-desync:    Sync video to display, and let audio play on its own.
:desync:            Sync video according to system clock, and let audio play
                    on its own.

For example, if this is set to 1, the video FPS is forced to an integer
multiple of the display FPS, as long as the speed change does not exceed
the value set by ``--video-sync-max-video-change``.

See ``--interpolation-threshold`` for how this option affects
interpolation.

The default settings are not loose enough to speed up 23.976 fps video to
25 fps. We consider the pitch change too extreme to allow this behavior
by default. Set this option to a value of ``5`` to enable it.

Note that ``--video-sync=display-tempo`` avoids this pitch change.

Also note that in the ``--video-sync=display-resample`` or
``--video-sync=display-tempo`` mode, audio speed will additionally be
changed by a small amount if necessary for A/V sync. See
``--video-sync-max-audio-change``.

The default includes a common list of tags, call mpv with ``--list-options``
to see it.

This is a string list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

This is a key/value list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

:auto: Default Windows behavior
:none: The backdrop will be black or white depending on the system's theme settings.
:mica: Enables the Mica style, which is the default on Windows 11.
:acrylic: Enables the Acrylic style (frosted glass look).
:mica-alt: Same as Mica, except reversed.

:default: Default Windows behavior
:excludefromcapture: mpv's window will be completely excluded from capture by external applications or screen recording software.
:monitor: Blacks out the mpv window

Possible values of ``<prio>``:
idle|belownormal|normal|abovenormal|high|realtime

.. warning:: Using realtime priority can cause system lockup.

Windows may display "Unknown app" or show a missing mpv icon in the media
control panel. To fully support it, you need to register mpv using the
``--register`` command.

Default: yes (except for libmpv)

Unlike ``--sub-files`` and ``--audio-files``, this includes all tracks, and
does not cause default stream selection over the "proper" file. This makes
it slightly less intrusive. (In mpv 0.28.0 and before, this was not quite
strictly enforced.)

This is a path list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

(The difference to loading a file with ``--external-files`` is that video
tracks will be marked as being pictures, which affects the auto-selection
method. If the passed file is a video, only the first frame will be decoded
and displayed. Enabling the cover art track during playback may show a
random frame if the source file is a video. Normally you're not supposed to
pass videos to this option, so this paragraph describes the behavior
coincidentally resulting from implementation details.)

This is a path list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

:no:    Don't automatically load cover art.
:exact: Load the media filename with an image file extension (default).
:fuzzy: Load all cover art containing the media filename.
:all:   Load all images in the current directory.

See ``--cover-art-files`` for details about what constitutes cover art.

See ``--audio-display`` how to control display of cover art (this can be
used to disable cover art that is part of the file).

This is a string list option. See `List Options`_ for details.
Use ``--help=image-exts`` to see default extensions.

Default: ``AlbumArt,Album,cover,front,AlbumArtSmall,Folder,.folder,thumb``

This is a string list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

This is a string list option. See `List Options`_ for details.
Use ``--help=video-exts`` to see default extensions.

This is a string list option. See `List Options`_ for details. Use
``--help=archive-exts`` to see the default extensions.

This is a string list option. See `List Options`_ for details. Use
``--help=playlist-exts`` to see the default extensions.

If set to ``no``, then do not automatically load external files as specified
by ``--sub-auto``, ``--audio-file-auto`` and ``--cover-art-auto``. If
external files are forcibly added (like with ``--sub-files``), they will
not be auto-selected.

This does not affect playlist expansion, redirection, or other loading of
referenced files like with ordered chapters.

Switching streams or seeking during recording might result in recording
being stopped and/or broken files. Use with care.

Seeking outside of the demuxer cache will result in "skips" in the output
file, but seeking within  the demuxer cache should not affect recording. One
exception is when you seek back far enough to exceed the forward buffering
size, in which case the cache stops actively reading. This will return in
dropped data if it's a live stream.

If this is set at runtime, the old file is closed, and the new file is
opened. Note that this will write only data that is appended at the end of
the cache, and the already cached data cannot be written. You can try the
``dump-cache`` command as an alternative.

External files (``--audio-file`` etc.) are ignored by this, it works on the
"main" file only. Using this with files using ordered chapters or EDL files
will also not work correctly in general.

There are some glitches with this because it uses FFmpeg's libavformat for
writing the output file. For example, it's typical that it will only work if
the output format is the same as the input format. This is the case even if
it works with the ``ffmpeg`` tool. One reason for this is that ``ffmpeg``
and its libraries contain certain hacks and workarounds for these issues,
that are unavailable to outside users.

Currently, the filter graph labels are used to select the participating
input tracks and audio/video output. The following rules apply:

- A label of the form ``aidN`` selects audio track N as input (e.g.
  ``aid1``).
- A label of the form ``vidN`` selects video track N as input.
- A label named ``ao`` will be connected to the audio output.
- A label named ``vo`` will be connected to the video output.

Each label can be used only once. If you want to use e.g. an audio stream
for multiple filters, you need to use the ``asplit`` filter. Multiple
video or audio outputs are not possible, but you can use filters to merge
them into one.

It's not possible to change the tracks connected to the filter at runtime,
unless you explicitly change the ``lavfi-complex`` property and set new
track assignments. When the graph is changed, the track selection is changed
according to the used labels as well.

Other tracks, as long as they're not connected to the filter, and the
corresponding output is not connected to the filter, can still be freely
changed with the normal methods.

Note that the normal filter chains (``--af``, ``--vf``) are applied between
the complex graphs (e.g. ``ao`` label) and the actual output.

.. admonition:: Examples

    - ``--lavfi-complex='[aid1] [aid2] amix [ao]'``
      Play audio track 1 and 2 at the same time.
    - ``--lavfi-complex='[vid1] [vid2] vstack [vo]'``
      Stack video track 1 and 2 and play them at the same time. Note that
      both tracks need to have the same width, or filter initialization
      will fail (you can add ``scale`` filters before the ``vstack`` filter
      to fix the size).
      To load a video track from another file, you can use
      ``--external-file=other.mkv``.
    - ``--lavfi-complex='[vid1] [vid2] [vid3] hstack=inputs=3 [vo]'``
      Use the inputs option to stack more than 2 tracks.
    - ``--lavfi-complex='[aid1] asplit [t1] [ao] ; [t1] showvolume [t2] ; [vid1] [t2] overlay [vo]'``
      Play audio track 1, and overlay the measured volume for each speaker
      over video track 1.

See the FFmpeg libavfilter documentation for details on the available
filters.

See ``--sub-codepage`` option on how codepages are specified and further
details regarding autodetection and codepage conversion. (The underlying
code is the same.)

Conversion is not applied to metadata that is updated at runtime.

If the list is not empty, it enables native clipboard support for the
specified backends. This allows reading and writing to the ``clipboard``
property to get and set clipboard contents.

Native clipboard support is enabled by default. To disable this, remove
all backends in this list with ``--clipboard-backends-clr``.

Note that the default clipboard backends are subject to change,
and must not be relied upon.

The following clipboard backends are implemented:

``win32``
    Windows backend.

``mac``
    macOS backend.

``x11``
    X11 backend. This backend is only available if the X server
    supports the ``Xfixes`` extension.

``wayland``
    Wayland backend. This backend is only available if the compositor
    supports the ``ext-data-control-v1`` protocol.

``vo``
    VO backend. Requires an active VO window, and support differs across
    platforms. Currently, this is used as a fallback for Wayland
    compositors without support for the ``ext-data-control-v1``
    protocol, or if the ``wayland`` backend is disabled.

This is an object settings list option. See `List Options`_ for details.

On Wayland, this option only has effect on the ``wayland`` backend, and
not for the ``vo`` backend. See ``current-clipboard-backend`` property for
more details.

Depending on the Wayland compositor, using X11 backend may result in mpv
unable to acquire clipboard data from native Wayland clients. Disabling the
X11 backend when Wayland backend is unavailable makes mpv fallback to the
VO backend which allows clipboard to work properly.

Registers mpv as a media player on Windows. This includes adding registry
entries to associate mpv with media files and protocols, as well as enabling
autoplay handlers for Blu-ray, DVD, and CD-Audio.

Note that the registration is done in-place, so the current mpv.exe path will
be used. If you move mpv after registering it, you can re-run this command to
update the registry entries. You can also ``--unregister`` at any time and
using any mpv binary that supports this command, it doesn't have to be
specifically the one that was used to register it.

When using this option, mpv will exit after completing the process.
To see a detailed list of operations, run mpv with the ``-v`` option.

The list of the file extensions to register, can be controlled with the
``--video-exts``, ``--audio-exts``, ``--image-exts``, ``--playlist-exts``
and ``--archive-exts`` options.

By default, mpv will be registered for the current user. To register it for
all users, run mpv as an administrator with this option. However, this is
not recommended, as registering it per user is generally preferable.

You can unregister mpv from the Windows Settings or by running mpv with the
``--unregister`` option.

When registering with ``--register``, this option allows you to specify the
path(s) to prepend so that mpv can find the necessary DLLs. The specified
string will be prepended to the runtime PATH whenever mpv is executed.

This is useful for setting up paths to external libraries required by mpv
without adding them to the global PATH environment variable.

The format of the string follows the same structure as the PATH environment
variable, a semicolon-separated list of paths.

.. note::

    This sets the ``App Paths`` for mpv in the Windows registry, which
    Windows Shell uses to locate the executable and its dependencies. As a
    result, mpv can be launched seamlessly in most cases, but not in every
    scenario. Notably, running mpv from the command line does not use
    `ShellExecute` under the hood, it uses `CreateProcess`, which does not
    handle the ``App Paths`` registry key.

    To work around this, you can create a small wrapper PowerShell script that
    runs ``Start-Process <mpv path>`` and all will work as expected.

Unregisters mpv as a media player on Windows, undoing all changes made by
the ``--register`` option. This will not remove mpv binary itself.

You can use any mpv binary that supports this command, to unregister, doesn't
have to be specifically the one that was used to register it.

Windows Settings Application entry is tied to the mpv.exe path. If you
remove the binary, it will not work. However, you can still unregister it
using this command, register it in a new location, or restore mpv to its
original location.

If mpv was previously registered for all users, run this command as an
administrator to remove it for all users.