Play with MPV (Enhanced)
This is a powerful UserScript that integrates website videos with the MPV media player. It combines the best features of two original scripts and adds new functionalities for a seamless experience, allowing you to play web videos in your native player with customized settings.
Prerequisites & Installation
For this UserScript to work, you need three key components installed on your system.
Note: This userscript is not compatible with Greasemonkey v4.0+. Please use a manager like Violentmonkey or Tampermonkey.
1. Dependencies

For Windows Users: It is highly recommended to use shinchiro's mpv builds. These builds conveniently include both mpv
and yt-dlp
. After installing, remember to run updater.bat
to get the latest versions.
2. UserScript
Install the "Play with MPV (Enhanced)" UserScript in Violentmonkey or Tampermonkey.
Core Features
- Floating "Play" Button: A convenient button appears on supported video pages to instantly open the current video in MPV.
- Direct Thumbnail Clicking: Click directly on video thumbnails on supported sites (like YouTube) to open them in MPV, bypassing the site's player.
- Universal Context Menu: On any website not explicitly supported, you can
Shift + Right-Click
any link to open it with MPV.
- Centralized Settings Panel: A single, easy-to-use panel to configure your MPV preferences (quality, profile, codec, etc.) for all playback methods.
Origin & Evolution
This script is a synergistic merger of two excellent original scripts, enhancing their features and creating a unified, more powerful tool.
Original Scripts
"Play with MPV" by Akatsuki Rui
- Functionality: Provided a floating "Play" button on video pages and a robust settings panel (
GM_config
) to customize MPV launch options. This formed the foundation for our script's configuration and on-page button.
"Click on video thumbnail to play in MPV" by nSinister
- Functionality: Introduced the intuitive feature of clicking directly on video thumbnails to launch them in MPV. It had hardcoded settings.
What's New in This "Enhanced" Version?
This version isn't just a simple combination; it's a complete refactor that improves upon the originals:
- Unified Functionality: The thumbnail-clicking feature now respects the settings you choose in the configuration panel.
- Persistent Settings Button: The settings icon is now accessible on all pages of the supported sites.
- Universal Fallback Context Menu: Use
Shift + Right-Click
on a link on any site to get a "Play with MPV" option.
- Smarter Page Detection: Uses
MutationObserver
to reliably detect new content.
How to Use
Basic Usage
1. The Floating Button
- On a page with a video (e.g., a YouTube watch page), the MPV play icon will appear in the bottom-left corner.
- Clicking it will immediately open the current page's video in MPV.
2. Clicking Thumbnails
- On supported sites like YouTube, Vimeo, etc., simply click on any video thumbnail.
- Instead of navigating to the video page, the script will intercept the click and open the video directly in MPV.
3. The Fallback Context Menu
- This works on any site not listed in the main configuration (e.g., news sites, educational platforms, etc.).
- Find a link to a video.
- Hold down the
Shift
key and right-click the link.
- A custom context menu will appear with the option "Play with MPV". Click it.
- A normal right-click (without
Shift
) will show the browser's default context menu.
Advanced Configuration
You can access the settings panel to customize the script's behavior.
- Access: On any of the supported sites (YouTube, Twitch, etc.), hover your mouse over the bottom-left corner of the screen. A settings gear icon will appear. Click it.
Here are the available options:
Try to Pass Cookies:
- For advanced users to view member-only videos. Since userscripts cannot access
HttpOnly
cookies, you must export them manually using an extension like Get cookies.txt LOCALLY (Chromium) or cookies.txt (Firefox).
- The exported cookies file must be named after the domain (e.g.,
www.youtube.com.txt
) and placed in the correct directory:
- Linux:
$HOME/.config/mpv-handler/cookies/
- Windows:
(mpv-hander.exe parent folder)\cookies\
MPV Profile:
Video Quality:
Video Codec:
Run With Console:
- yes: Runs mpv-handler with a console window to view output and errors.
- no: Runs mpv-handler silently in the background.
GitHub & Credits
This project stands on the shoulders of giants.