Video Output

Configure video output drivers including gpu-next, gpu, and platform-specific backends

Video output drivers are interfaces to different video output facilities. mpv automatically selects the best available driver, but you can override it with --vo.

mpv --vo=<driver> video.mkv

Pass a comma-separated priority list to fall back automatically:

mpv --vo=gpu-next,gpu video.mkv

Run mpv --vo=help to list all compiled-in video output drivers on your system.

Recommended drivers

gpu-next

libplacebo-based renderer. The recommended default. Generally faster and higher quality than gpu.

gpu

General-purpose GPU renderer. Mature, widely supported, with extensive options for scaling and color management.

gpu-next

gpu-next is the default video output driver. It is based on libplacebo and supports nearly the same feature set as --vo=gpu, while being faster and higher quality in most cases. Some features may be intentionally omitted or behave differently.

mpv --vo=gpu-next video.mkv

For a detailed list of differences between gpu-next and gpu, see the GPU-Next vs GPU wiki page.

gpu

gpu is a general-purpose, customizable, GPU-accelerated output driver. It supports extended scaling methods, dithering, color management, custom shaders, HDR, and more.

mpv --vo=gpu video.mkv

gpu abstracts over several graphics APIs and windowing contexts, controlled with --gpu-api and --gpu-context.

Predefined profiles

fast (maximum performance)

mpv --profile=fast video.mkv

Uses bilinear scaling and disables many quality-oriented features. Best for lower-end hardware.

high-quality (best rendering)

mpv --profile=high-quality video.mkv

Uses ewa_lanczossharp upscaling, enables correct downscaling, sigmoid upscaling, antiringing, and debanding.

Inspect a profile’s full settings:

mpv --show-profile=high-quality

GPU API and context

Use --gpu-api to select the graphics API and --gpu-context to select the windowing backend.

# Use Vulkan
mpv --gpu-api=vulkan video.mkv

# Use OpenGL
mpv --gpu-api=opengl video.mkv

# Use D3D11 (Windows)
mpv --gpu-api=d3d11 video.mkv

Available --gpu-context values:

Context	Description
auto	Auto-select (default)
x11	X11/GLX (Linux, deprecated in favor of EGL)
x11egl	X11/EGL
x11vk	X11 Vulkan
wayland	Wayland/EGL
waylandvk	Wayland Vulkan
drm	DRM/EGL (Linux, no desktop needed)
d3d11	Direct3D 11 (Windows)
angle	D3D11 via ANGLE (Windows)
win	Win32/WGL (Windows)
winvk	Win32 Vulkan
macvk	Vulkan on macOS (experimental)

GPU renderer options

These options apply to both --vo=gpu and --vo=gpu-next.

Scaling

--scale (upscaling filter)

Controls the filter used when upscaling video.

# Default: lanczos (good balance of quality and speed)
mpv --scale=lanczos video.mkv

# High quality (used by high-quality profile)
mpv --scale=ewa_lanczossharp video.mkv

# Fast (used by fast profile)
mpv --scale=bilinear video.mkv

Common values: bilinear, lanczos, ewa_lanczos, ewa_lanczossharp, ewa_lanczos4sharpest, mitchell, catmull_rom.

List all available filters: mpv --scale=help

--cscale (chroma upscaling filter)

Filter for upscaling chroma information in subsampled video. Defaults to the value of --scale if unset.

mpv --cscale=ewa_lanczos video.mkv

--dscale (downscaling filter)

Filter applied when downscaling video. Defaults to hermite.

mpv --dscale=mitchell video.mkv

--correct-downscaling

When using convolution filters, extends the filter size during downscaling for higher quality. Enabled by default.

mpv --correct-downscaling video.mkv

--sigmoid-upscaling

Uses a sigmoidal color transform when upscaling to avoid emphasizing ringing artifacts. Enabled by default.

mpv --sigmoid-upscaling video.mkv

Color management

# Load an ICC profile for accurate color output
mpv --icc-profile=/path/to/profile.icc video.mkv

# Auto-detect the system ICC profile
mpv --icc-profile-auto video.mkv

# Enable HDR passthrough / set colorspace hint on the display
mpv --target-colorspace-hint=auto video.mkv

--target-colorspace-hint sets colorspace metadata on the display’s swapchain (useful for HDR passthrough). Supported on Wayland, D3D11, and winvk contexts. auto (default) only sets the hint when display parameters are known; yes always attempts to set it.

Dithering

# Dither to 8-bit output
mpv --dither-depth=8 video.mkv

# Auto-detect target depth (default)
mpv --dither-depth=auto video.mkv

# Disable dithering
mpv --dither-depth=no video.mkv

Explicitly setting --dither-depth to your display’s bit depth is recommended, as bit depth cannot be auto-detected on most platforms.

Other video output drivers

null

Produces no video output. Useful for benchmarking.

mpv --vo=null video.mkv

xv (Linux/X11 only)

Uses the XVideo extension for hardware-accelerated display. Compatible but low-quality, with OSD and subtitle issues. For compatibility with old systems only.

mpv --vo=xv video.mkv

vaapi (Linux only)

Intel VA API video output with hardware decoding support. Low quality with OSD issues. Prefer --vo=gpu --hwdec=vaapi instead.

mpv --vo=vaapi video.mkv

vdpau (Linux/X11 only)

VDPAU display and optional hardware decoding. No reason to use this over --vo=gpu --hwdec=nvdec.

mpv --vo=vdpau video.mkv

drm (Linux, no desktop required)

Direct Rendering Manager output using Kernel Mode Setting. Use when no graphical environment is installed. Does not support hardware acceleration (use the drm backend for --vo=gpu for that).

mpv --vo=drm video.mkv
mpv --vo=drm --drm-connector=HDMI-A-1 video.mkv

dmabuf-wayland (Wayland, experimental)

Wayland output designed for DRM stateless or VA API hardware decoding. Avoids GPU-to-CPU copies. Requires --hwdec=auto-safe for best results.

This driver is experimental and generally lower quality than gpu/gpu-next. Standard --vo=gpu and --vo=gpu-next switch to the appropriate Wayland context automatically.

direct3d (Windows only)

Uses the Direct3D interface. For systems without proper OpenGL drivers and where ANGLE does not perform well.

mpv --vo=direct3d video.mkv

sdl

SDL 2.0+ render output. For systems where no proper graphics drivers are available.

mpv --vo=sdl video.mkv