mpv isn't new to me, but after 15+ years of using (s)mplayer and/or VLC to play videos I have finally given them the boot in favour of mpv, for three main reasons.
* Depending on the version of Linux you're using, the phase of the moon etc you may or may not get hardware video acceleration under VLC or mplayer without installing an alternate version or compiling it yourself. mpv supports the main Linux video hardware acceleration standards by default.
* I've been having issues with playback under VLC and (s)mplayer under both Ubuntu and Arch the last year or so. mpv has been and is running great.
* mpv offers more playback and picture controls
mpv is based upon mplayer but it's cleaned up most mplayer's rough edges to make it the ultimate video playback program. I would like to see a few extra keyboard shortcuts added to the default. The mpv IRC channel told me it wasn't happening so I kinda side-stepped them by adding my config to the Arch wiki mpv page instead. The Arch wiki is one of the best, most referenced sources of Linux info on the net and this little addition forms my latest contribution to it.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mpv
In praise of mpv
Moderators: MattKingUSA, khz