mpv vs VLC media player

mpv is a free, open-source command-line media player for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android. It plays a wide range of media formats, audio and video codecs, and subtitle types, including Matroska (MKV) and MP4, with network playback and 4K playback support. Its interface is deliberately limited: there is no full graphical interface, only a small on-screen controller for basic playback. Video output is based on OpenGL, Vulkan, and D3D11, with scaling, color management, frame timing, interpolation, and HDR features. mpv can use hardware decoding APIs on its supported platforms, and decoding can be switched on while the player is running. Scripts and user-created scripts can extend its behavior; developers can also use its C API to embed it in other applications. The project is actively developed. The default license is GPLv2 or later, with LGPLv2.1 or later available for builds configured with -Dgpl=false. Only the latest stable release receives security updates.

VLC media player is a free media player for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android. It plays multimedia files, DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs and streams, with sources including files, discs, webcams and connected devices. Supported formats include MPEG-1/2, MPEG-4, H.264, DivX, XviD, WMV, MKV, MP4, MOV, AVI, WebM, MP3, AAC and FLAC. It supports subtitles, network playback, hardware acceleration and 4K playback, and most codecs work without a separate codec pack. VLC also supports skins, extensions and skin creation through VLC Skin Editor. Additional downloads are listed for Apple TV, Windows variants, several GNU/Linux distributions and systems including Chrome OS, FreeBSD and Solaris. VideoLAN is a non-profit project, and its source code can be obtained directly. The free plan states that VLC has no spyware, ads or user tracking; no other free-tier limits are listed.