How to Disable Borders and Decorations in mpv?

This article provides a quick guide on how to remove the window border and decorations in the mpv media player to achieve a clean, borderless look. You will learn the temporary keyboard shortcut to toggle this view, the command-line argument for one-time use, and how to permanently apply the setting by modifying your mpv configuration file.

The Temporary Fix: Keyboard Shortcut

If you just want to hide the window borders for your current viewing session, mpv has a built-in keyboard shortcut to toggle decorations on the fly.

• Press Cycle Windows Border Key: Shift + b (or uppercase B)

Pressing this combination will instantly cycle the window border on and off. Note that this change is temporary and will revert to the default style once you close the player.

The One-Time Fix: Command-Line Flag

If you launch mpv from a terminal or use it in scripts, you can pass a specific flag to start the player without any borders.

Run the following command in your terminal: mpv --no-border video.mp4

Replacing video.mp4 with the path to your actual media file will launch that specific video in a completely borderless window.

The Permanent Fix: Editing the Config File

To ensure mpv always opens in borderless mode without needing to type a command or press a shortcut every time, you can add the setting to your configuration file.

1. Locate your mpv.conf file based on your operating system:

• Windows: C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\mpv\mpv.conf (or inside the portable_config folder in your mpv directory)
• Linux/macOS: ~/.config/mpv/mpv.conf

2. Open the mpv.conf file in any standard text editor.
3. Add the following line to the file: border=no
4. Save and close the file.

Once this line is added, mpv will automatically hide the window borders and title decorations every time you open a video.