MPV, the popular free open-source Linux media player, released version 0.39.0 last week. Here are the new features and Ubuntu PPA for Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04 users.
The new MPV 0.39.0 introduced Video Super Resolution scaling support with Intel and NVIDIA RTX GPUs. It’s a technology that can use your GPU to upscale low resolution video to higher resolutions. For AMD GPUs, the feature will be integrated into the FFmpeg library.
According to the official release note, the feature is implemented through the d3d11va filter, meaning that it’s Windows only. To enable it, either use vf set d3d11vpp=scale=nvidia:scale-target in your mpv.conf file or see the official documentation for the command line options.
Celluloid, free open-source GTK4 GUI front-end for MPV, released new 0.27 version hours ago.
Celluloid, formerly GNOME MPV, is a media player interacts with mpv via the client API, allowing access to mpv’s powerful playback capabilities, while providing a modern user interface that looks native in Ubuntu, Fedora Workstation, and other Linux with GNOME Desktop.
The new 0.27 release introduced floating header-bar in the windowed mode. It can be enabled, along with floating controls, either in “Preference” dialog or by running gsettings command. They only appear when moving mouse cursor over the video, so user can watch video without distraction.
Floating header-bar & controls only appear on mouse hover
MPV, the popular free open-source media player, announced new 0.38.0 release few days ago!
The release improved --deinterlace with auto value, and --deinterlace-field-parity to automatically turn on deinterlacing. It can improve the overall clarity, sharpness of the video, by converting interlaced video (commonly found in analog television, VHS, Laserdisc, digital television (HDTV)) into a progressive form.
Without using config file, users can now press and hold Ctrl key then use mouse wheel scrolling to zoom in or zoom out the video playback.
Celluloid, formerly GNOME MPV, released version 0.26 yesterday.
Celluloid is a free open-source video player uses mpv as backend, and is default in Linux Mint 21 Cinnamon. Since v0.24, it’s been ported to GTK4 and Libadwaita that looks native in modern GNOME desktop environment.
In the new 0.26 release, the ‘About‘ and ‘Preferences‘ dialog are also ported to LibAdwaita to follow GNOME’s step. Which, is adaptive to fit different screen sizes.
The ‘Toggle Playlist‘ option has been removed from the ‘≡’ menu. Instead, it added a new button in bottom right to show/hide the playlist. Though, it has wrong tooltip shows ‘Toggle Fullscreen’.
Remove media keys support, since it already uses MPRIS.
Remove support for X11 window embedding, since it doesn’t work with GTK4.
Fix header bar auto-hiding even when a menu is open.
Mark “Extra mpv options” for translation
Remove --mpv-options
Remove ‘vo‘ from the list of default options.
Take screenshots in .PNG file format instead of the previous .jpg.
Remove the old GSettings schema file (io.github.GnomeMpv.gschema.xml).
Export the Position property
Sync translations from Weblate
How to install Celluloid 0.26 in Ubuntu
The video player has an official Ubuntu PPA. Due to updated LibAdwaita library requirement, the new 0.26 release is available in the PPA for Ubuntu 23.04 and Ubuntu 23.10. While 22.04 stuck at v0.24.
1. Firstly, press Ctrl + Alt + T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run the command below to add the official PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xuzhen666/gnome-mpv
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue
2. Then either use “Software Updater” (or Update Manager) to update the player if stock version was installed.
Or, run the command below to install/upgrade the app:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install celluloid
For Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 22.04 users who want to try the latest 0.26 release, just search for and install the Snap package from Ubuntu Software. Though, it runs in sandbox.
Uninstall:
To uninstall the celluloid video player, just run the command below in terminal:
MPV media player has reached version 0.39.0. Here’s how to install it for those sticking to the classic .deb package format.
MPV does not provide official packages for Ubuntu Linux. It’s however easy to install the latest version via different sources.
Linux Mint 21/22 can directly search for and install MPV Flatpak package from software manager. And, Ubuntu can install the Snap package from Ubuntu Software. Though, both of them run in sandbox.
For those sticking to the classic .deb package, I’ve upload MPV 0.39.0 into this unofficial PPA. It supports Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, and Ubuntu 23.10, Ubuntu 20.04 on both x86_64 and arm64/armhf CPU architecture types.
Install MPV 0.39.0 via Ubuntu PPA
NOTE: Ubuntu 22.04 has FFmpeg 4.4.2, but mpv now requires at least v6.1. So, the PPA package for 22.04 now has FFmpeg (7.0) built in bundle. Please leave comment below if there’s any issue due to this change.
1. Add the PPA
Firstly, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open a terminal window. When it opens, paste the command below and hit run:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/mpv
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
2. Update package cache
Since Ubuntu 20.04, it automatically updates the package cache while adding PPA. Though, Linux Mint user needs to do it manually.
To do so, run command in terminal:
sudo apt update
3. Install MPV 0.39.0
Finally, install mpv media player v0.38.0 by running command:
sudo apt install mpv
To verify, run mpv --version command in terminal.
Known Issues
Drag and drop files into mpv app window does not work, due to Wayland. Though, you may right-click on media file to open with mpv.
For hardware video acceleration, first make sure your graphics driver support it, then edit ‘/etc/mpv/mpv.conf‘ file and add hwdec=auto. And, enable classic header bar via gpu-context=x11egl.
Uninstall:
You can choose to purge the PPA repository, which will also downgrade mpv to the stock version in system repository. To do so, open terminal and run command:
By releasing v0.24, Celluloid (formerly Gnome MPV) is now a LibAwaita app. Meaning it works good on any screen sizes, including mobile or tablet devices.
Celluloid is a graphical front-end for MPV, defaults in Linux Mint. As MPV is a command line video player, Celluloid adds graphical controls and options to make the player easy to use.
Now, the app has ported to GTK4 plus LibAwaita. Which makes it look modern and stylish, and works good on small screen sizes.
MPV was just OK when it was in Ubuntu 20.04. But in Ubuntu 22.04, it lacks window border due to switch to Wayland (though there are workarounds). And, the UI looks outdated as more and more apps ported to GTK4.
If you’re going to make a switch, then Celluloid is really a good choice, especially for Gnome desktop Linux, such as Ubuntu, Fedora Workstation.
How to Install latest Celluloid in Ubuntu 22.04 / 22.10
1. Firstly, press Ctrl + Alt + T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run the command below to add the official PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xuzhen666/gnome-mpv
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue
2. Then either use “Software Updater” (or Update Manager) to update the player if stock version was installed.
Or, run the command below to install/upgrade the app:
Celluloid, formerly Gnome MPV, released version 0.20 a few hours ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 20.04 via PPA.
Celluloid is a simple GTK+ frontend for mpv media player. The latest 0.20 release features:
Make it possible to activate context menu when the playlist is empty.
Prevent constant resizing of the seek bar due to timestamp label resizing as its value changes.
Only show a single error dialog when a large number of errors occurs in rapid succession.
Add menu item for opening folders.
Adjust position of UI elements of modal dialogs in non-CSD mode to be more consistent with CSD mode.
Add support for loading external video tracks.
Make playlist shuffle toggleable.
Make arrow key bindings work with arrow keys on numpad.
How to Install Celluloid 0.20 in Ubuntu 20.04:
Celluloid media player is available to install via Flatpak package in Flathub repository.
For those prefer apt repository, the formerly Gnome MPV PPA has made the new release packages for Ubuntu 20.04, Linux Mint 20.
1.) Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or by searching for ‘terminal’ from application menu. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xuzhen666/gnome-mpv
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.
2.) Then install the media player via command:
sudo apt install celluloid
For Ubuntu derivatives, you may need to run sudo apt update to refresh package cache first.
Uninstall Celluloid:
To remove the media player, open terminal and run command:
SMPlayer, complete front-end for MPlayer and mpv, released version 20.6.0 a day ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.10, and Ubuntu 20.04.
SMPlayer 20.6.0 is a small release contains following changes:
The internal YouTube code has been removed. Now SMPlayer uses an external application to get the video URLs.
The shuffle option in the playlist does shuffle the items of the playlist.
How to Install the latest SMPlayer via PPA in Ubuntu:
The official SMPlayer PPA contains the latest packages for all current Ubuntu releases, as well as Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 14.04.
1. Search for and launch “terminal” from ‘Show Applications’ menu. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rvm/smplayer
Type user password (no asterisk feedback while typing) when it asks and hit Enter.
2. Then upgrade SMPlayer using Software Updater (or Update Manager):
or run commands in terminal to install (or upgrade) the media player:
MPV media player released version 0.32.0 today with some new features and various bug-fixes.
MPV 0.32.0 features RAR5 support and initial implementation of bash completion. Other changes include:
add support for forcing the dedicated GPU for rendering
add pinch to resize window gesture
support minimizing/maximizing using osc window controls
add a playlist-unshuffle command
add osd-dimensions property
new PLAYONLY and PAUSEONLY keycodes
various fixes for wayland
usability improvements for osc window controls
To install the latest MPV 0.32.0 in Ubuntu, besides building from the source, you may keep an eye on the Doug McMahon’s PPA, which will built the new release packages for Ubuntu 18.04, Linux Mint 19.x.
Just open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run following command to add the PPA. And new MPV packages will be available in Software Updater after the maintainer updating the PPA.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mc3man/mpv-tests
Type user password (Ctrl+Alt+T) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.
To remove the PPA, either open Software & Updates and remove the repository line from ‘Other Software’ tab,
Allow configurable swapchain color space for native HDR output
Add mechanisms for better logging as preperation for console.lua
Introduce a pseudo key name that grabs all text input
Add grab zone for resizing window with mouse
Implement pseudo client side decorations via OSC
Add video filter using vo_gpu’s renderer
Added console.lua: interactive REPL for input commands
Display Santa hat for idle logo in December
Add option to autoselect known good hwdec implementations
Peplace old event tap for media key support with MediaPlayer
Remove Apple Remote support
Many fixes and minor enhancements
How to Install MPV 0.31 in Ubuntu:
Although it’s not available at the moment of writing, you can add the Doug McMahon’s PPA in Ubuntu 18.04, and receive MPV package updates once published via Software Updater.
1.) Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or by searching for ‘terminal’ from application menu. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mc3man/mpv-tests
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter.
2.) If a previous version of MPV was installed, launch Software Updater and you’ll see new MPV package available to upgrade.
Or run command one by one in terminal to install (upgrade) MPV:
sudo apt install mpv
Uninstall:
To downgrade MPV to the stock version in Ubuntu main repositories, run command to purge the PPA:
