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.
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.
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.
deleted by creator
Great writeup! You are correct that the skeleton is there in a “unix philosophy” manner. Depending on preferences and use cases, it could be perfectly functional.
When I was first getting my media server going I experimented with a more minimal solution like this. Eventually I went with jellyfin and kodi as a client on some devices. I like all the structure. Jellyfin is a bit of a drag to use due to bloat. Kodi is lighter on the client end.
I shared my files via SMB on the local network. First used VLC player to watch on mobile. It’s robust. There is also an android MPV player available if you wish. If you have a lot of media it gets tiresome to navigate throug with either of those. Nova Video Player does some of stuff you’d normally offload to a server like remembering what you’ve already watched. So that was good, but then instead of having the bloat on the server, you have bloat on the phone, which is less convenient. I disagree that consuming media solely via a PC is civilized. It’s tolerable in certain situations.
If you have other people to share with who aren’t inclined this way, it’s kind of a jerk move to force them to accommodate this aesthetic preference. Even if not wanting to run jellyfin there are sleeker media serving solutions available for a middle ground. If it’s just for yourself and other kindred spirits, then no reason not to indulge in the minimalism to whatever degree you find satisfying.
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
I use a very similar setup, and with a custom UI mpv looks even better. Even on mobile I use an app with libmpv backend which plays my NAS media and anything I throw at it. Also, the ability to smoothly scrub video, especially on touchscreens is a very rare treasure among video players but mpv handles it with no struggle…
I guess jellyfin is for those who want a netflix experience with movie posters, descriptions, and lots of QoL
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!
Cons: No pretty web UI (I consider this a pro)
…considered a pro but listed under cons…?
Anyway, you can fix that with Euphonica
You wrote this shit with an LLM, didn’t you?
English is not my native language 😄
Btw, the proper place to mount filesystems is either
/mediaor/mnt. I wouldn’t create a directory called/Volumesin Linux. And pay attention, these are case-sensitive and most (not all) system directories have agreed on using lower-case letters only. And “volume” is kind of a Windows and MacOS-term anyway, I rarely see Linux-people refer to media and filesystems that way.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.
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.
If you want to play files over SMB, you can just open the SMB mount in the file explorer and double click it. On Windows you can mount it as a network drive (like V: for videos) so even non-technical users understand it. I don’t understand how mpv is easier for that use case.
With systems like Jellyfin and Plex, you can (and should!) turn off transcoding when streaming at home. The only times you should enable transcoding are when:
- You’re away from home on a slow internet connection (or your home internet has slow upload speed); or
- You’re streaming to a less powerful device that can’t handle the full bitrate of the video.
Transcoding is very useful, because otherwise you’d need multiple copies of the same movie to handle different environments. Transcoding can dynamically adjust the bitrate based on the connection speed.
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.
mpv is cool and all, but it’s not going to play media on my Apple TV which is using Jellyfin via Infuse.
