How to Adjust Video Brightness in mpv?

Adjusting the video playback settings in mpv is a straightforward process that can be done in real-time using keyboard shortcuts. This guide provides a quick reference for the precise keys needed to modify brightness, contrast, saturation, and gamma during playback, as well as how to set these adjustments permanently in your configuration file.

Real-Time Keyboard Shortcuts

While a video is playing in mpv, you can use the following default hotkeys to tweak your picture settings on the fly. Each keypress adjusts the value by a small increment, and mpv will display the current percentage on screen.

Tip: If you want to completely reset all video adjustments back to their default values (0), press the Shift + Q combination (or just q depending on your version, though q usually quits the player—specifically, the shortcut to reset video equalizer settings is typically unassigned by default, but you can cycle or close the player and restart to reset). To reset individual properties instantly without restarting, you can map a custom key in your configuration.

Making Adjustments Permanent

If you find yourself constantly adjusting the settings for every video, you can set new default values in your mpv.conf file. This file is typically located in ~/.config/mpv/ on Linux/macOS or %APPDATA%\mpv\ on Windows.

Add the following lines to the configuration file, replacing the numbers with your preferred default percentages (values range from -100 to 100):

brightness=5
contrast=2
saturation=10
gamma=-5

Customizing Your Hotkeys

If you prefer different keyboard shortcuts for these adjustments, you can remap them in your input.conf file (located in the same directory as mpv.conf). For example, to use the arrow keys for brightness and contrast, you could add:

UP add brightness 1
DOWN add brightness -1
RIGHT add contrast 1
LEFT add contrast -1