TL;DR: Stop running a Jellyfin server. MPV can directly play anything from your NAS, stream YouTube ad-free, handle literally every codec, and is infinitely customizable. It’s like vim for video.
Why I ditched my Jellyfin setup
I used to run Jellyfin on my NAS. Transcoding, web interface, the works. Then I realized… why am I running a whole server stack when MPV can just directly play files from my NAS with zero setup?
What MPV Actually Is
MPV is a command-line video player that plays literally everything. But it’s way more than that - it’s a video engine you can build workflows around.
The Basics That Blow Minds
Direct NAS streaming (zero server needed):
mpv smb://192.168.1.100/media/movies/whatever.mkv
mpv nfs://nas.local/shows/season1/*
No transcoding. No server. No web interface overhead. Just direct file access with perfect quality and zero latency.
YouTube (and 1000+ sites) with ZERO ads:
brew install yt-dlp
mpv "https://youtube.com/watch?v..."
That’s it. Ad-free YouTube in your video player with all your custom keybinds. Works with Twitch, Vimeo, Twitter, Reddit, literally hundreds of sites via yt-dlp.
Play entire directories:
mpv /Volumes/NAS/shows/BreakingBad/Season1/*
Boom. Instant binge session. Space bar skips to next episode. No library scanning, no metadata scraping, just files.
Workflows That Changed My Life
1. The “Watch Anywhere” Setup
Mount your NAS shares in Finder (or /etc/fstab for auto-mount). Now MPV treats your entire media library like local files. Add this to your shell config:
alias play="mpv"
alias tv="mpv /Volumes/NAS/shows/"
alias movies="mpv /Volumes/NAS/movies/"
2. YouTube as Your Streaming Service
alias yt="mpv"
alias ytm="mpv --no-video" # audio only for music
Now:
yt "youtube-url"= instant ad-free playbackytm "youtube-playlist"= whole playlists as audio- Keep your YouTube history/recommendations in browser, watch in MPV
3. Picture-in-Picture for Anything
Add ontop=yes to config, resize window small = instant PiP for any video source while you work. Works with live streams, security cameras, whatever.
4. The “No Plex Shares Needed” Share
Send someone an SMB/NFS share to your media. They install MPV. They can now browse and play your media library like it’s local. No Plex accounts, no streaming limits, no transcoding quality loss.
5. Live Stream Monitoring
mpv http://192.168.1.50:8080/stream.m3u8
Home security cameras, baby monitors, anything streaming HLS/RTMP = instant monitoring with keybind controls.
Customization That Makes Jellyfin Look Basic
My Config (vim-style keybinds + YouTube controls)
Saved as ~/.config/mpv/mpv.conf:
input-default-bindings=no
> add speed 0.1
< add speed -0.1
j seek -10
k cycle pause
l seek 10
LEFT seek -5
RIGHT seek 5
UP add volume 5
DOWN add volume -5
. frame-step
, frame-back-step
m cycle mute
f cycle fullscreen
s cycle sub
a cycle audio
0 seek 0 absolute-percent
1 seek 10 absolute-percent
2 seek 20 absolute-percent
3 seek 30 absolute-percent
4 seek 40 absolute-percent
5 seek 50 absolute-percent
6 seek 60 absolute-percent
7 seek 70 absolute-percent
8 seek 80 absolute-percent
9 seek 90 absolute-percent
[ add speed -0.25
] add speed 0.25
SPACE cycle pause
ESC set fullscreen no
i script-binding stats/display-stats
S screenshot video
profile=gpu-hq
scale=ewa_lanczossharp
cscale=ewa_lanczossharp
hwdec=auto-safe
vo=gpu
screenshot-format=png
screenshot-png-compression=9
screenshot-directory=~/Downloads
cache=yes
demuxer-max-bytes=150M
osd-level=1
osd-duration=2000
save-position-on-quit=yes
keep-open=yes
alang=jpn,jp,eng,en
slang=eng,en
ytdl-format=bestvideo[height<=1080]+bestaudio/best
Profiles for Different Content
[anime]
profile-desc="Anime settings"
deband=yes
[lowpower]
profile-desc="Laptop battery mode"
profile=fast
hwdec=yes
Use with: mpv --profile=anime episode.mkv
Scripts That Make It Insane
MPV supports Lua/JS scripts. Drop them in ~/.config/mpv/scripts/ and they just work.
Must-have scripts:
-
sponsorblock - Auto-skips YouTube sponsors/intros/outros
curl -o ~/.config/mpv/scripts/sponsorblock.lua \ https://raw.githubusercontent.com/po5/mpv_sponsorblock/master/sponsorblock.lua -
quality-menu - Change YouTube quality on the fly
-
autosubsync - Auto-fixes subtitle timing
-
playlistmanager - Visual playlist editor
-
mpv-discordRPC - Show what you’re watching on Discord
Advanced Workflows
Watch Parties (Syncplay)
Install syncplay, point it at MPV, now you and friends watch your NAS content together in perfect sync. No Plex share limits, no quality loss.
Audio Streaming
ytm "youtube-playlist-url"
# or
mpv --no-video /Volumes/NAS/music/*
No GUI needed. Terminal command plays audio, you use keybinds (k=pause, j/l=skip, etc). Or just minimize and use as background music player.
For GUI: IINA (Mac) is literally just MPV with a pretty interface and uses your MPV config.
Frame-by-Frame Analysis
Built-in keybinds (. and , in my config) step forward/back frame-by-frame. Perfect for animation analysis, sports breakdown, debugging video issues.
Automated Workflows
# Watch anything in clipboard
mpv $(pbpaste)
# Random episode
mpv "$(find /Volumes/NAS/shows -name "*.mkv" | shuf -n1)"
# Continue last watched (auto position restore)
mpv /Volumes/NAS/shows/CurrentShow/*
Why This Beats Jellyfin For Me
Pros:
- Zero server maintenance
- No transcoding = perfect quality
- Plays literally any codec without setup
- Way faster (direct file access)
- Keyboard-driven workflow
- Works offline/online seamlessly
- Infinitely scriptable
- Cross-platform (Linux/Mac/Windows)
Cons:
- No pretty web UI (I consider this a pro)
- No user management (just use OS permissions)
- No watch tracking (unless you script it)
- No mobile app (VLC on phone + SMB works though)
Who This Is For
- You’re comfortable with terminal/config files
- You want maximum quality (no transcoding ever)
- You prefer keyboard controls
- You value simplicity over features
- You already have a NAS/file server
- You want YouTube ad-free without browser extensions
Getting Started
# macOS
brew install mpv yt-dlp
# Linux
sudo apt install mpv yt-dlp
# Windows
scoop install mpv yt-dlp
Create config at:
- Mac/Linux:
~/.config/mpv/mpv.conf - Windows:
APPDATA%/mpv/mpv.conf
Mount your NAS shares, point MPV at files. Done.
Resources
EDIT: Holy shit, didn’t expect this response. Common questions:
Q: But I need to share with family who aren’t technical
A: IINA (Mac) or mpv.net (Windows) give them a normal GUI that uses MPV underneath. Or just… teach them? play movie.mkv isn’t rocket science.
Q: What about mobile? A: VLC on phone + SMB share to your NAS. Or just use MPV on desktop/laptop like a civilized person.
Q: No watch history tracking?
A: save-position-on-quit=yes remembers position per file. For tracking across devices, write a simple script or just… remember what you watched?
Q: This sounds like gatekeeping A: It’s literally a config file. If you can set up Jellyfin, you can handle this.
It would be very tedious to type all of that on my TV, even if I could get mpv on it, and my TV/projector had hardware capabilities to decode the media, not to mention the difficulty in keeping my history between different devices or for different people. You’re clearly not understanding the problem Jellyfin solves, it’s like someone saying “why do we need Lemmy when we can write files on our samba shares” (which btw you should definitely not expose to the internet)
what the fuck is this ai slop shit?
Holy shit… This is so incredibly out of touch… I can’t even…
The Basics That Blow Minds
Lol no… yt-dlp is a bit nifty, but everything else here is utterly expected of any media solution… Exactly zero minds were blown here…
No transcoding
Damn that sucks when the destination device isn’t capable of hardware decoding the media file, and too slow to software decode it… (also, you do know that you can just disable transcoding in Plex/Jellyfin, right?)
No server
SMB and NFS are both servers.
Send someone an SMB/NFS share to your media
Jesus, are you directly exposing SMB and NFS to the Internet? NFS is entirely unencrypted, and SMB has super scary vulnerabilities regularly…
Zero server maintenance
I really hope you are patching the OS, to avoid vulnerabilities in SMB and NFS which you are exposing to the Internet…
Plays literally any codec without setup
Sure, provided the device supports hardware decoding the codec or is fast enough to software decode it…
Works offline/online seamlessly
So does both Jellyfin and Plex (plex needs a one liner config change, though, to be fair)
cross-platform
How about TVs? How about Mobile?
Or just… teach them?
play movie.mkvisn’t rocket science.My mom has needed to call me and be guided over the phone 100% of the times that she has needed to scan a document… How do you think teaching her to navigate a file structure in a terminal is going to go?
My daughter still needs us to spell out the cheat codes for her The Sims game… Do you think she’ll remember the terminal commands.
If I forced any of my friends and family to use the command line to play media, they would just watch something else from a streaming service that actually offers some User Experience… Or do something else entirely.
write a simple script or just… remember what you watched?
Dunno… That seems like a hassle when it’s a built in feature in Plex/Jellyfin
It’s literally a config file. If you can set up Jellyfin, you can handle this.
No… It’s a config file per device, and SMB/NFS mounts per device. Now you need to handle syncing that config file, and any other user of the server will need their own config files…
… And what about other features…
- How do you browse metadata for your movies and series? I often like to read a summary about a movie to know a bit about what to expect. I also like being able to search for an actor, and see the cover art.
- How do you group your movies with the extra features for that movie?
- How do you stream your media to your TV?
- How do you easily fetch subtitles for a movie that didn’t come with any subtitles?
- When you are away from home on a heavily bandwidth constrained connection, how do you watch your nice high-quality movies?
Back when I lived alone, attaching my media drive directly to my desktop computer made perfect sense, it was the only screen I owned that I wanted to watch anything on… And I didn’t need to share anything with anyone… And I could easily use mpv or vlc to watch anything I want…
But now that other people are in the mix, and I like the convenience of using whichever screen I’m currently near, a simple network share + mpv falls so far short it isn’t even funny.
If you think this replaces jellyfin you probably have no ability to put yourself in other people’s shoes and your post tells us more about yourself than about the software you wax lyrical about.
So, let me get this straight - you’re saying using command line to play video instead of a gui?
Tell me, how does one do this on a TV? On an iPad? Phone?
Your excitement for command line belies an experience of nothing but GUI, so it’s something of a novelty to use command line.
Dude, get ahold of yourself. I probably wrote more command line stuff before you were born than you’ve ever thought of - I’m not going backwards.
(As a clue, wrote my first Fortran program before PC’s were even a thought at IBM).
Fuck cli except for managing systems. Even then quite often gui is faster by orders of magnitude, mostly to kickoff scripts to do what I need. GUI was a godsend, and Xerox Parc’s efforts created a common GUI language for us, thankfully was embraced. I refuse to go backwards.
And forcibly teach non-technical people to use CLI?
You are exactly the type of person that Saturday Night Live lampooned decades ago.
Kodi is a good player on TV. Phones and tablets have VLC and MPV.
You’re missing the point - he’s elevating cli above all else, which you don’t have on TV or mobile.
Yes, I know there are media clients, I’ve used them all. And that screenshot is hideous - compare it to Jellyfin on mobile, which looks just like Netflix used to.
Besides, he’s not doing anything different than running a “server stack” (which isn’t accurate, he’s still running a server, the device hosting the media services, even if they’re native to the OS).
Xerox Parc didn’t invest millions in the 60’s and 70’s because CLI was so great.
We don’t use CLI on our microwaves, toasters ovens, tv’s clocks, lights, etc, for a reason.
I agree with you on the CLI part. I tried Jellyfin once and it’s basically the same as browsing directories with movies in a file manager, for which you don’t need the whole heavyweight software stack.
I know Jellyfin also has transcoding and probably some even more exotic stuff, but even my phone can play full HD from SMB without transcoding, so I have no use case for these extra features.
Q: But I need to share with family who aren’t technical A: IINA (Mac) or mpv.net (Windows) give them a normal GUI that uses MPV underneath. Or just… teach them? play movie.mkv isn’t rocket science.
LoL . You’re completely out of touch with reality
This really seems like an AI generated article to, in a very complicated way, describe of what was until fairly recently just the status quo.
Until fairly recently, if you had network attached storage you could just play the media off of the network storage. That’s just how it worked. People playing media through the command line is something people have been doing for decades. What happened later was the introduction of services like jellyfin that would streamline the process.
Overall, other than the extremely hyperbolic language promising to completely change your life by letting you do things the way that they were done decades ago, it reads like “you may not like cars, but let me introduce you to an amazing new technology known as walking” presented without any irony.
Q: But I need to share with family who aren’t technical
A: IINA (Mac) or mpv.net (Windows) give them a normal GUI that uses MPV underneath. Or just… teach them?play movie.mkvisn’t rocket science.Spoken like somebody that hasn’t been stuck with family tech support or tech support in general.
Just putting it out there, as a Linux sysadmin for over 400 VMs. Even I don’t want to be cli running my media, that’s why I use jellyfin.
It’s good that people know you can do it, but most won’t as they just want to click a button to get going.
Completely agree… I can see myself doing this years ago when I had nothing better to do. But not doing it for long. And don’t get me started on the convenient subtitles download and sync in Jellyfin!
I’m happy you’re discovering the Linux CLI, but this is pretty ridiculous. mpv, vlc, mplayer, etc. all serve very different uses from jellyfin.
This post should be in the dictionary under Chesterton’s fence.
You wrote this shit with an LLM, didn’t you?
English is not my native language 😄
I set up Plex/Jellyfin specifically to get away from having to manage media manually, it tracks watch states, gets subtitles, transcodes for me when I’m traveling, and does all of that for family too.
MPV is neat but its just a standard media player app like VLC, not really anywhere near the same concept as Jellyfin.
the point of jellyfin and Plex is that it plays everywhere, ie. TV, mobile, remotely; not just on a PC connected to local network. although neat, this is far from a replacement for a media manager/remote streamer
deleted by creator
But your media likely isn’t. Good luck to you when you’re not at home.
wut the fuck. I use Jellyfin because I don’t want to have to do shit by hand. I fucking click the grab button in Jellyseer and then press play. if I wanted harder than that, I wouldn’t bother setting up a media server in the first place.
There is a whole lot to jellyfin that mpv doesnt cover.
I’m glad youre enjoying the setup, but its hardly a replacement for jellyfin in the vast majority of cases.
