Minimalist Media Player

THE POLLS ARE OPEN! HAVE YOUR SAY: https://github.com/BazzaCuda/MinimalistMediaPlayerX/discussions

VERSION 2 RELEASED: Fast, lossless audio/video editing

• https://github.com/BazzaCuda/MinimalistMediaPlayerX/wiki/Lossless-Audio-Video-editing

Now also displays all IMAGES in the current playlist folder (.jpg, .jpeg, .bmp, .png, .webp, animated .gif, .avif). If you set an image display duration, a slideshow of consecutive image files will be shown.

• https://github.com/BazzaCuda/MinimalistMediaPlayerX/releases

NEW: Now supports .AVIF image files which will be included automatically in the playlist and the slideshow.

TIP: You can crop an image by using zoom ([I]n/[O]ut) and pan (Ctrl-left, ctrl-right, ctrl-up, ctrl-down) until the video window shows only the part of the image you want, then [F5] screenshot it. The screenshot will include any changes you've made to the Brightness, Contrast, Gamma, Saturation or Rotation of the original image.

TIP: You can edit (Ctrl-[E]) an entire audio or video file using just [I] and [O] to set [I]n and [O]ut points. E.g. Use the TAB key to fast forward through a video: when you get to the next section you want to include, press [I]; when you get to the next section that you want to exclude, press [O]. When you're done, click Export. It really doesn't get much easier than that!!

Minimalist Media Player

A powerful and very effective media player built on MPV's API, libMPV-2.dll, which is, in turn, based on the famous FFMPEG.

Minimalist Media Player provides a minimalist keyboard- and mouse-operated user interface. Minimal on-screen clutter allows videos to be viewed without distractions. There are no window borders and no window title bar/caption, and keyboard options allow you to also have no progress bar and no audio/video timestamp, if that's what you want.

Also, the window resizes to fit the video perfectly, eliminating ugly black borders/bands around the video, particularly above and below. All of this provides an immersive viewing experience even when played in window mode rather than full-screen. Despite all this, Minimalist Media Playerprovides a wealth of functions via the keyboard and mouse for manipulating the user-interface and the media files themselves.

This is a complete rewrite of (and supercedes) https://github.com/BazzaCuda/MinimalistMediaPlayer (which is based on Windows Media Player). As such, this [here] incarnation of Minimalist Media Player provides far superior media file handling and playback functionality such as zoom, pan, step frame (forwards and backwards!), rotation, brightness control, etc.

Key Features

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• Automatically matches the aspect ratio of the window to the aspect ratio of the video so it fits the window perfectly, but still allows you to zoom and pan. This is something the MPV player itself doesn't do - you can only have one or the other. So no ugly borders. Ever. Unless they're hard-baked into the video, of course.

• Opening a media file from Windows Explorer (etc.) will automatically fill the playlist with all media files in the same folder. The playlist is sorted in "natural order" to match the order your files are [usually] listed in your file manager, taking numeric digits in filenames into account.

• You can "fast forward" through an entire media file by holding down the TAB key. Or backwards by holding down CTRL-TAB. Thanks to MPV, the audio is maintained at the correct pitch.

• If a corresponding subtitle file exists for the media file (.srt file, for example), or if the media file contains subtitles, the subtitles will be shown automatically. [F7] will cycle through all the subtitle tracks in the media file.

• Full-resolution screenshots can be saved for individual frames and for a displayed image.

• All the keyboard and mouse functions are listed in a handy help panel which can be shown or hidden by pressing F1 or Ctrl-H. The full functionality of Minimalist Media Player can be used while this panel is showing so you can try things out.

• Minimalist Media Player provides handy keyboard access to brightness, contrast, gamma and saturation. Handy tip: quite often, if you want to brighten the picture, increasing the gamma setting (and sometimes the contrast) gives better results than going straight to the brightness control.

• You can quickly bookmark the current position of a media file and restart from that point at a later time.

• You can quickly resize the video by holding down the [G] key to enlarge it. Or quickly reduce it by holding down Ctrl-[G].

• Minimalist Media Player provides full zoom and pan functions as well as video rotation.

• MPV playback can be configured via the normal mpv.conf file. As always with this file, some experimentation will be required to get the effect you require.

• N.B. Many keys can be held down for rapid repitition.

Keyboard Controls

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Although there are a lot of keyboard controls, the alphabetic letters have been applied intuitively. The action description will therefore help to associate the action with the letter.

Control	Action
F1	toggle the [H]elp panel listing all the keyboard and mouse functions
Ctrl-H	toggle the [H]elp panel listing all the keyboard and mouse functions
ALT-SPACEBAR	activate the system menu to get to the About Box and the Keyboard help panel
ESCape	exit Fullscreen mode, or exit the app if not in fullscreen mode
SPACEBAR	pause/resume playback of audio/video. pause/resume slideshow of images
BACKSPACE	reset zoom, pan, rotation, speed, brightness, contrast, gamma, saturation and captions/progress bar brightness to normal
Numlock and mouse	with NumLock on, run your mouse along the progress bar to quickly "scrub" backwards and forwards through the video
Ctrl and mouse	alternatively, hold a Ctrl key down to temporarily "scrub" along the progress bar with the mouse
Right Arrow	pauses the video and steps forwards one frame. Can be held down for rapid continuous stepping
Left Arrow	pauses the video and steps backwards one frame. Can be held down for rapid continuous stepping
Up Arrow	increase the volume. Can be held down for rapid increase
Down Arrow	decrease the volume. Can be held down for rapid decrease
Ctrl-Up Arrow	pan up. Can be held down for continuous panning (Ctrl-Shift for double speed)
Ctrl-Down Arrow	pan down. Can be held down for continuous panning (Ctrl-Shift for double speed)
Ctrl-Left Arrow	pan left. Can be held down for continuous panning (Ctrl-Shift for double speed)
Ctrl-Right Arrow	pan right. Can be held down for continuous panning (Ctrl-Shift for double speed)
Left button down	drag the media window around the screen, but not when Playlist panel is open
Ctrl+Left button down	drag the media window around the screen, even when the Playlist panel is open
Pg Up	rotate video left/anti-clockwise (you must have first rotated right at least once)
Pg Dn	rotate video right/clockwise (you must do this at least once before you can rotate left)
INSERT	copy media file name (without the extension) to the clipboard. e.g. for saving the file after F12
Vol+ media key	increase the volume. Can be held down for rapid increase
Vol- media key	decrease the volume. Can be held down for rapid decrease
Vol-mute media key	mute/unmute sound
Numpad +	increase playback speed. Can be held down for rapid increase
/	increase playback speed. Can be held down for rapid increase
Numpad -	decrease playback speed. Can be held down for rapid decrease
\	decrease playback speed. Can be held down for rapid decrease
#	briefly reshow the media caption (the filename and its position/number in the playlist)
8	decrease brightness. Can be held down for rapid decrease
9	increase brightness. Can be held down for rapid increase
2	reset brightness to normal
0	reset contrast to normal
- (Hyphen)	decrease contrast. Can be held down for rapid decrease
=	increase contrast. Can be held down for rapid increase
{	decrease saturation setting. Can be held down for rapid decrease
}	increase saturation setting. Can be held down for rapid increase
[	decrease gamma setting. Can be held down for rapid decrease
]	increase gamma setting. Can be held down for rapid increase
;	reset saturation to normal
' (single quote)	reset gamma to normal

Alphabetic and Numeric Controls

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Control	Action
A or HOME	play the first media file in the playlist (Z/END plays last)
Ctrl-A	show [A]bout Box. Checks for updates if autoUpdates=yes is in .conf
B	[B]lackout/restore progress [B]ar
Ctrl-B	Make the progress [B]ar [B]righter/more prominent
Ctrl-Shift-B	Make the progress [B]ar darker/less prominent
C	show/hide on-screen [C]aptions (toggle media file timestamp, hide media metadata)
Ctrl-C	show/hide all on-screen [C]aptions (media file timestamp and media metadata)
DEL	[D]elete current media file (after user confirmation) - deletion functions can be disabled by deleting rot.exe
Ctrl-DEL	[D]elete all files in the current media file's folder (after user confirmation) - subfolders are not affected - deletion functions can be disabled by deleting rot.exe
E	[E]ars - mute/unmute sound
Ctrl-E	toggle the media timeline [E]diting tools for lossless editing
F	show/cancel [F]ullScreen mode
G	[G]reater window size. Can be held down for rapid increase
Ctrl-G	reduce, i.e. un[G]reater, the window size. Can be held down for rapid decrease
H	position the window [H]orizontally (and Vertically) in the center of the screen
Ctrl-H	toggle the [H]elp panel listing all the keyboard and mouse functions
I	zoom [I]n. Can be held down for rapid zooming
J	[J]ust waiting to be assigned an action
K	mark this media file as [K]eep (renames with a leading underscore to bring to top of folder)
L	re[L]oad the playlist with all supported media files from the current folder. Useful when you have knowingly changed the folder contents while the app is running. Saves having to restart the app to access the new folder contents
M	Maximize the video to the largest allowable by the screen whilst maintaining the correct aspect ratio. Very occasionally, the window might be positioned so that the bottom edge is behind the Windows taskbar. This corrects that
N	mi[N]imize window to the Windows taskbar
O	zoom [O]ut. Can be held down for rapid zooming
P	show/hide the [P]laylist
Q	play the previous media file in the [Q]ueue/playlist
R	[R]ename the current media file
Ctrl-R	toggle infinite [R]epeat of the current media file
S	re[S]tart the current media file from the beginning, aka [S]tartover
Ctrl-S	toggle subtitles on/off
T	Tab through the media file. See below in Category section
U	[U]nzoom, i.e. re-fit the video to the window
V	synchronize all [V]ideo windows
W or Numpad ENTER	[W]atch the next video in the list (or play the next audio)
X	e[X]it the application
Y	[Y]et to be assigned an action
Z or END	play the last media file in the playlist (A/HOME plays the first)
1	reset the playback speed to normal, i.e. [1]00%
2	reset Brightness to normal
3	reset Panning to normal
4	reset Rotation to normal/not rotated
5	bookmark the current media file timestamp to the configuration file
6	retrieve a bookmarked media file timestamp from the configuration file and continue playback from that point
7	delete any previously saved/bookmarked media file timestamp for the current media file
8	decrease brightness. Can be held down for rapid decrease
9	increase brightness. Can be held down for rapid increase
0	reset contrast to normal
- (Hyphen)	decrease contrast. Can be held down for rapid decrease
=	increase contrast. Can be held down for rapid increase
Ctrl-9	Auto-arrange up to 4 (or more) simultaneous videos
Ctrl-0	close all running instances of MMP

Full List of Controls By Category

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Control	Action
Brightness
8	decrease brightness. Can be held down for rapid decrease
9	increase brightness. Can be held down for rapid increase
2	reset brightness to normal
Contrast
- (Hyphen)	decrease contrast. Can be held down for rapid decrease
=	increase contrast. Can be held down for rapid increase
0	reset contrast to normal
Editing (Ctrl-E)
C	[C]ut the segment under the cursor into two segments
Ctrl-C	same as above but mark the left-hand segment as e[X]cluded (same as [I])
I	[I]n point: split segment at cursor and mark left-hand segment as e[X]cluded, i.e. deleted
O	[O]ut point: split segment at cursor and mark right-hand segment as e[X]cluded, i.e. deleted
L	[L]engthen the selected segment by one second
S	[S]horten the selected segment by one second
M	[M]erge the selected segment with the segment to its right
N	[N]erge the selected segment with the segment to its left
R	[R]estore the selected e[X]cluded segment
X	e[X]clude the selected segment from the final edit
File Control
INSERT	copy media file name (without the extension) to the clipboard. e.g. for saving the project file after F12
DEL	[D]elete current media file (after confirmation)
Ctrl-DEL	[D]elete all files in the current media file's folder (after user confirmation) - subfolders are not affected - deletion functions can be disabled by deleting rot.exe
K	mark this media file as [K]eep (renames with a leading underscore to bring to top of folder)
R	[R]ename the current media file
Freeze Frame
Right Arrow	pauses the video and steps forwards one frame. Can be held down for rapid continuous stepping.
Left Arrow	pauses the video and steps backwards one frame. Can be held down for rapid continuous stepping.
Gamma
[	decrease gamma. Can be held down for rapid decrease
]	increase gamma. Can be held down for rapid increase
' (single quote)	reset gamma
Mouse
Left click the window and hold	the window can be dragged/repositioned
Left double-click the window	toggle fullscreen mode
Right single-click the window	pause/resume playback of audio/video. pause/resume slideshow of images
with Numlock on	move mouse along the progress bar to "scrub" backwards and forwards through the media file
CTRL	hold ctrl key down and move mouse along the progress bar. Same as above
Wheel up	volume up
Wheel down	volume down
On-Screen Display
#	briefly reshow the media caption (the filename and its position/number in the playlist)
B	[B]lackout/restore progress [B]ar
Ctrl-B	Make the progress [B]ar [B]righter/more prominent. Hold for rapid increase. Your preference gets saved to the configuration file
Ctrl-Shift-B	Make the progress [Bar] darker. Hold for rapid decrease. Your preference gets saved to the configuration file
C	show/Hide on-screen [C]aptions (media info) and media file timestamp
Ctrl-C	show/Hide all on-screen captions, media file timestamp and media metadata
Ctrl-S	toggle subtitles on/off
Panning
Ctrl-Up Arrow	pan up. Can be held down for continuous panning (Ctrl-Shift for double speed)
Ctrl-Down Arrow	pan down. Can be held down for continuous panning (Ctrl-Shift for double speed)
Ctrl-Left Arrow	pan left. Can be held down for continuous panning (Ctrl-Shift for double speed)
Ctrl-Right Arrow	pan right. Can be held down for continuous panning (Ctrl-Shift for double speed)
3	reset panning to normal
Playback
SPACEBAR	pause/resume playback of audio/video. pause/resume slideshow of images
Right single-click the window	pause/resume playback of audio/video. pause/resume slideshow of images
Ctrl-R	toggle infinite [R]epeat of the current media file
S	re[S]tart the current media file from the beginning, aka [S]tartover
F8	skip to the previous chapter, if there is one
F9	skip to the next chapter, if there is one
Right Arrow	pauses the video and steps forwards one frame. Can be held down for rapid continuous stepping.
Left Arrow	pauses the video and steps backwards one frame. Can be held down for rapid continuous stepping.
Playlist
A	play the first media file in the playlist (Z/END plays last)
HOME	play the first media file in the playlist (Z/END plays last)
Z	play the last media file in the playlist (A/HOME plays the first)
END	play the last media file in the playlist (A/HOME plays the first)
W	[W]atch the next video in the list (or play the next audio)
Numpad ENTER	[W]atch the next video in the list (or play the next audio)
Q	play the previous media file in the [Q]ueue/playlist
L	re[L]oad the playlist with all supported media files from the current folder. Useful when you have knowingly changed the folder contents while the app is running. Saves having to restart the app to access the new folder contents
Rotating
Pg Up	rotate video left/anti-clockwise (you must have first rotated right at least once)
Pg Dn	rotate video right/clockwise (you must do this at least once before you can rotate left)
4	reset rotation to normal/not rotated
Saturation
{	decrease saturation. Can be held down for rapid decrease
}	increase saturation. Can be held down for rapid increase
;	reset saturation to normal
Screenshots
F5	save a screenshot of the current frame or the currently displayed image
Speed
Numpad -	decrease playback speed. Can be held down for rapid decrease
\	decrease playback speed. Can be held down for rapid decrease
Numpad +	increase playback speed. Can be held down for rapid increase
/	increase playback speed. Can be held down for rapid increase
1	reset the playback speed to normal, i.e. [1]00%
Subtitles
Ctrl-S	toggle subtitles on/off
F7	cycle through all subtitle tracks in the media file
Tabbing
T	[T]ab through the media file a 100th (default) of its duration. Can be held down for rapid tabbing
Ctrl-T	[T]ab back through the media file a 100th (default) of its duration. Can be held down for rapid tabbing
TAB	tab forwards 1 second. Can be tapped repeatedly or held down to do a "fast forward" through the media file
Ctrl-TAB	tab backwards 1 second. Can be tapped repeatedly or held down to do a "fast reverse" through the media file
Caps Lock-T	tab forwards 200th of media duration. Can be tapped repeatedly or held down for "fast forward"
Caps Lock Ctrl-T	tab backwards 200th of media duration. Can be tapped repeatedly or held down for "fast reverse"
Shift-T	tab forwards 50th of media duration
Ctrl-Shift-T	tab backwards 50th of media duration
Left Alt key	tab forwards 200th of media duration. Intended to be held down for "fast forward"
Ctrl-Left Alt key	tab backwards 200th of media duration. Intended to be held down for "fast reverse"
Volume / Sound
Up Arrow	increase the volume. Can be held down for rapid increase
Down Arrow	decrease the volume. Can be held down for rapid decrease
Vol+ media key	increase the volume. Can be held down for rapid increase
Vol- media key	decrease the volume. Can be held down for rapid decrease
Vol-mute media key	mute/unmute sound
E	[E]ars - mute/unmute sound
F6	cycle through all audio tracks in the media file
Window Control
ESCape	exit Fullscreen mode, or exit the app if not in fullscreen mode
F	show/cancel [F]ullScreen mode
G	[G]reater window size. Can be held down for rapid increase
Ctrl-G	reduce, i.e. un[G]reater, the window size. Can be held down for rapid decrease
H	position the window [H]orizontally (and Vertically) in the center of the screen
M	Maximize the video to the largest allowable by the screen whilst maintaining the correct aspect ratio. Very occasionally, the window might be positioned so that the bottom edge is behind the Windows taskbar. This corrects that
N	mi[N]imize window to the Windows taskbar
V	synchronize all [V]ideo windows
Ctrl-9	Auto-arrange up to 4 (or more) simultaneous videos
Ctrl-0	close all running instances of MMP
Left button down	drag the media window around the screen, but not when Playlist panel is open
Ctrl+Left button down	drag the media window around the screen, even when the Playlist panel is open
Zoom
I	zoom [I]n. Can be held down for rapid zooming in
O	zoom [O]ut. Can be held down for rapid zooming out
U	[U]nzoom, i.e. re-fit the video to the window
Additional
F5	save a screenshot of the current frame or the currently displayed image
F6	cycle through all audio tracks in the media file
F7	cycle through all subtitle tracks in the media file
F8	skip to the previous chapter, if there is one
F9	skip to the next chapter, if there is one
F10	open media file in PotPlayer (assumes default installation folder) - can be overridden in .conf
F11	open media file in LossLessCut (assumes default installation folder) - can be overridden in .conf
F12	open media file in ShotCut editor (assumes default installation folder) - can be overridden in .conf
Ctrl-A	show [A]bout Box. Checks for updates if autoUpdates=yes is in .conf
Ctrl-E	toggle the media timeline [E]diting tools for lossless editing
Ctrl-H	show [H]elp panel of all keyboard and mouse controls
Ctrl-R	toggle infinite [R]epeat of the current media file
INSERT	copy media file name (without the extension) to the clipboard. e.g. for saving the project file after F12
BACKSPACE	reset zoom, pan, rotation, speed, brightness, contrast, gamma, saturation and captions/progress bar brightness to normal
SPACEBAR	pause/resume playback of audio/video. pause/resume slideshow of images

Media File Formats

Minimalist Media Player uses MPV/FFMPEG for its media playback and manipulation functions and will therefore play the overwhelming majority of media files (audio/video/image).

Dependencies

1. Minimalist Media Player requires libmpv-2.dll to be in the same folder as the executable. If you have an mpv.conf file in the same folder, MPV will take it into account when initializing, for example to specify your audio output preferences.

2. Each release comes with a program called "rot.exe". When deleting a file or the contents of a folder from within Minimalist Media Player, it is actually rot.exe that carries out the deletion. This allows the deletion to be done in a separate process which results (in my experience) in less chances of Windows complaining that the file is in use (by MPV); although, having said that, MPV seems to be much better behaved in that regard than Windows Media Player on which the previous incarnation of Minimalist Media Player was based. If you wish, you can checkout rot.exe's many features by running it from the command line. Many of you will recognize it, I'm sure ;) If you want to completely disable the ability to delete files, simply delete rot.exe. Although Minimalist Media Player will still ask for confirmation, nothing will happen.

3. Massive credit and thanks are due to Edward Guo for his excellent port of the MPV API (libmpv) to Delphi, https://github.com/nbuyer/libmpvdelphi.

4. The VCL component in MarkdownHelpViewer (https://github.com/EtheaDev/MarkdownHelpViewer) allowed the original RTF help file to be replaced with much more convenient and flexible .md markdown resources.

5. Acknowledgement is due to the author of Perpetual Notes v4.05 (https://www.enselsoftware.com/product/PerpetualNotes.html) for being the only RTF editor I could find on the entire internet that could actually [,accurately] read back in what it had written out! (And I tested some big players during my search!)