How to View All Command-Line Options in mpv?

This article provides a quick and practical guide on how to discover and list all available command-line options, properties, and configuration settings inside the mpv media player. Because mpv is a highly customizable, command-line-focused application, knowing how to query its built-in help system is essential for fine-tuning your playback experience. By utilizing a few specific terminal commands, you can instantly output comprehensive lists of everything from basic video adjustments to advanced scripting properties.

Accessing the Core Help Menus

The quickest way to see what mpv can do is by using its native help flags directly in your terminal or command prompt. These commands stop mpv from playing a file and instead print documentation directly to your screen.

• Basic Help: To see a brief overview of common commands and syntax, run: mpv --help
• Advanced Options: For a deeper dive into the more technical configuration flags, use: mpv --version (This also displays your current build features and library versions).

Listing Specific Options and Properties

If you need an exhaustive reference list of every single option or internal variable available in your specific build of mpv, you can use the following specialized flags.

Viewing All Command-Line Options

To dump a complete list of every command-line option available, type: mpv --list-options

Viewing Internal Properties

Properties are the variables used in mpv’s input system, scripting (Lua/JavaScript), and on-screen display (OSD). To see all available properties, run: mpv --property-list

Filtering and Searching the Output

Because the full lists are incredibly long, scrolling through them manually can be tedious. You can combine mpv’s help flags with your operating system’s command-line filtering tools to find exactly what you need.

On Linux and macOS (Using grep)

If you are looking for options related to audio, you can pipe the output like this: mpv --list-options | grep audio

On Windows (Using findstr)

If you are using the Windows Command Prompt, use findstr to filter the results: mpv --list-options | findstr audio