In my opinion, MPV is even better. I mean, it is faster and has better codec support. On the other hand, VLC has a better user interface with a lot of preferences. As for Showtime, oh boy, it’s a clear beauty!
For now I’m staying with MPV, because ffmpeg > gstreamer.
To be fair, I don’t know any benchmark for this comparison. But I just tried a relatively big file with both of them. Opening part is not really noticeable, but fast-forwarding is much better and slicker in mpv. In VLC it looks like it’s jumping between scenes, in mpv you actually see the motion of it’s getting fast-forward.
Yeah, with mpv you can even hold the jump 10/60 sec forward/backward button pressed and the frames just fly in the screen. Vlc seeking is really slow in comparison.
How come they don’t just use VLC?
In my opinion, MPV is even better. I mean, it is faster and has better codec support. On the other hand, VLC has a better user interface with a lot of preferences. As for Showtime, oh boy, it’s a clear beauty!
For now I’m staying with MPV, because ffmpeg > gstreamer.
I love VLC. I also love mpv.
I like to think that VLC is for window users for them to get a taste of what it’s like to use Linux.
Lol, what? Do people really care about the ‘speed’ of their video player in 2025?
You can still use older hardware in 2025. So, yes.
Yeah, but is the speed difference between the two really noticeable?
Yes it’s quite noticeable, especially with the bigger file size. mpv is really light.
Are there any benchmarks to support this?
To be fair, I don’t know any benchmark for this comparison. But I just tried a relatively big file with both of them. Opening part is not really noticeable, but fast-forwarding is much better and slicker in mpv. In VLC it looks like it’s jumping between scenes, in mpv you actually see the motion of it’s getting fast-forward.
Yeah, with mpv you can even hold the jump 10/60 sec forward/backward button pressed and the frames just fly in the screen. Vlc seeking is really slow in comparison.
My laptop from 2014 significantly loads .ts video faster on MPV than VLC.
VLC even stuck on video seeking for a few seconds.
Playing high quality 4k videos on old hardware, it seems to make a noticeable difference.
it literally has a lower CPU consumption, even when using hardware decoding. and even when playback is paused.
lower CPU consumption means more free resources for other programs, and lower power usage, which is more battery life.
it also seeks much smoother, I mean quicker with less delay
Doesn’t feel gnomey enough.
it can be skinned
VLC the media player is using Qt. Unless you talk about libvlc, But why bother when Gstreamer itself is good.