mplayer3

mplayer3 is a lightweight compatibility layer that preserves the old-school MPlayer command-line interface while using mpv as its playback engine.

It lets you keep your old habits without giving up modern performance, codec support, and hardware acceleration.

Released under GNU GPL.

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✨ Features

• ✅ Classic mplayer CLI syntax (-fs, -ss, -vo, etc.)
• ✅ Automatic translation to mpv arguments
• ✅ Full support for native mpv arguments (--vo=gpu, etc.)
• ✅ Zero performance overhead
• ✅ Works with existing scripts and workflows
• ✅ Clean fallback: unknown arguments are passed through to mpv

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🚀 Installation

Requirements

• Python 3
• mpv installed and available in PATH

Install

chmod +x mplayer3
sudo python3 install_mplayer3.py

This will:

• Install mplayer3 to /usr/local/bin
• Create ~/.config/mpv/mpv.conf (or safely append to an existing config)
• Create ~/.config/mpv/input.conf (if not already present)

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📖 Examples

mplayer3 video.mkv
mplayer3 -fs video.mkv
mplayer3 -ss 60 -endpos 120 video.mkv
mplayer3 --vo=gpu video.mkv

You can freely mix:

• MPlayer-style arguments (-fs, -ss)
• MPV-style arguments (--hwdec=auto)

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🔁 Compatibility

mplayer3 translates common MPlayer arguments into mpv equivalents:

-fs        →  --fullscreen
-ss        →  --start
-endpos    →  --end
-volume    →  --volume
-sub       →  --sub-file
-playlist  →  --playlist

Unknown arguments are automatically passed through:

-someargument → --someargument

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🧠 Philosophy

mplayer3 is:

• Not a fork
• Not a reimplementation
• Not a replacement for mpv

It is a compatibility layer:

mplayer in spirit, mpv in performance

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⚙️ Configuration

mplayer3 uses standard mpv configuration:

~/.config/mpv/mpv.conf
~/.config/mpv/input.conf

The installer adds a small compatibility block (OSD, volume behavior, etc.), respecting existing user config strings by safely appending only missing settings and avoiding duplicates.

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💡 Basic Usage

mplayer3 -fs -ss 90 movie.mkv

Starts playback fullscreen at 1:30 — just like classic mplayer.

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👤 Author & Maintainer

• Chris McGimpsey-Jones (2026–Present)

🙏 Credits & Legacy

• The MPlayer project (2000–Present)
• The mplayer2 project (2010–2015)
• The mpv project (2012–Present)

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🧩 Status

Version 1.2 (Stable)

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📜 License

mplayer3 is released under the:

GNU General Public License v2 or later (GPL-2.0-or-later)
https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html

This ensures compatibility with both:

• MPlayer (GPL v2+)
• mpv (GPL v2+)