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Martin Vallevand edited this page Mar 15, 2026 · 1 revision

Licenses

The binaries distributed in the runtime and SDK zips are built entirely from open source components. All components are licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), which permits use in both open source and proprietary applications provided the LGPL terms are met (primarily: dynamic linking, attribution, and the ability to relink against modified versions of the LGPL libraries).

No GPL-only components are included. Specifically:

  • FFmpeg is built without --enable-gpl — the resulting libraries are LGPLv2.1+
  • libmpv is built without -Dgpl=true and without -Dcplayer=true — libmpv-2.dll is LGPLv2.1+
  • libplacebo is LGPLv2.1+

Components

libmpv / mpv
License LGPLv2.1 or later
Source https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv
License text https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/LICENSE.LGPL

mpv as a whole defaults to GPLv2+, but libmpv can be built under LGPLv2.1+ by excluding GPL-only files. This build uses -Dcplayer=false and does not enable any GPL-only components. The LGPL build excludes files such as ao_jack.c, ao_oss.c, and various X11/VDPAU backends — none of which are relevant to a Windows build.

FFmpeg

Distributed DLLs: avcodec-NN.dll, avformat-NN.dll, avutil-NN.dll, avfilter-NN.dll, swresample-N.dll, swscale-N.dll
License LGPLv2.1 or later
Source https://ffmpeg.org / https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg
License text https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg/blob/master/LICENSE.md

FFmpeg's core libraries (libavcodec, libavformat, libavutil, libavfilter, libswresample, libswscale) are LGPLv2.1+. This build uses no --enable-gpl flag and no external codec libraries (no libx264, libx265, etc.) — only FFmpeg's built-in decoders. TLS/HTTPS is provided by Windows SChannel (Secur32.dll) — no OpenSSL is linked.

Per the FFmpeg legal page, LGPL compliance requires attribution in your application's documentation or about box, for example:

This software uses libraries from the FFmpeg project, licensed under the LGPLv2.1. Source code is available at https://ffmpeg.org.

libplacebo

Distributed DLL: libplacebo-NNN.dll (v0.40.0 and v0.41.0 runtime zips only; statically linked into libmpv-2.dll for v0.37.0–v0.39.0)
License LGPLv2.1 or later
Source https://code.videolan.org/videolan/libplacebo
License text https://github.com/haasn/libplacebo/blob/master/LICENSE

libplacebo is the GPU rendering library extracted from mpv's rendering pipeline. It provides HDR tone mapping, color space conversion, and shader-based image processing.

Build configuration summary

This table confirms the absence of GPL-triggering components in these builds:

Component Configure flag Status
FFmpeg GPL parts --enable-gpl Not used — LGPLv2.1+
FFmpeg encoders --disable-encoders Disabled
FFmpeg avdevice --disable-avdevice Disabled
OpenSSL --enable-nonfree Not used — SChannel used instead
libx264 / libx265 not present Not linked
mpv GPL files -Dgpl=true Not used — LGPLv2.1+
mpv CLI player -Dcplayer=true Not used — library only

LGPL compliance checklist for application distributors

If you distribute an application that links against these binaries, LGPL compliance requires:

  • Dynamic linking — link against the DLLs, do not statically incorporate them (already satisfied by this SDK's shared DLL approach)
  • Attribution — credit mpv, FFmpeg, and libplacebo in your application's about box, documentation, or EULA
  • Relinking — users must be able to relink your application against modified versions of the LGPL libraries; distributing the libmpv.dll.a / libmpv.lib import libs and the DLLs satisfies this in practice
  • License notice — include a copy of or link to the LGPLv2.1 license text with your distribution
  • No reverse engineering prohibition — your EULA must not prohibit reverse engineering of the LGPL components

Source code

In accordance with the LGPL, source code for the exact versions built here can be obtained from the upstream repositories using the version tags listed on the Home page. No patches that affect the public API or ABI are applied — only build system fixes for the MSYS2/MinGW64 environment. The build script itself (build-libmpv-mingw64.sh) documents all applied patches inline.

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