Is it possible to continue movies from where one leaves in mpv as can be done in vlc?

Question

I don't know how vlc is able to do it; I guess it takes sort of time-stamp of a movie and puts it in cache or somewhere like that. This is the way it works in vlc -

a. You see a media file, say it consists of 1.5 hours, b. At some point, say after 15-30 minutes or whenever you feel, you stopped because you had some other work, a call came or anything which disrupted your viewing.

c. After some time you start the media file again. In vlc in the top-right corner it would give a small button saying continue from where you left off.

d. If you select that button/option, it starts playing the media file from where you last left off.

I have also seen using 2-3 media files in succession and even then it remembers the position.

Is it possible to have similar functionality in mpv? Is there a way this already works, or this would be a feature request I would need to make at mplayer github?

Solution 1

You can run mpv with the --save-position-on-quit option. e.g.

mpv --save-position-on-quit /path/to/video.mkv

Alternatively, if you want mpv to do that by default, you can add that option to its config file. For example:

echo "save-position-on-quit" >> ~/.config/mpv/mpv.conf

Or use your favourite text editor to add the same line. The -- option prefix is not needed in the config file.

If you want this option to be the default for all users on the system rather than just your own user, the config file to edit (as root) is /etc/mpv/mpv.conf if mpv was installed as a package. And probably /usr/local/etc/mpv/mpv.conf if installed by compiling the source.

Solution 2

Use "Q" (Shiftq). You will quit, and the next time you play it, it will start from when you left.

Q

Like q, but store the current playback position. Playing the same file later will resume at the old playback position if possible.

https://mpv.io/manual/master/

Comments

[HappyFace]

github.com/mpv-player/mpv/issues/8128

[Roland Puntaier]

Related: mpv --start=12:34 movie.mp4. There is also --end and --length.

[Riyas2329]

Is there similiar option regarding navigation through playlist? Current version does not continue playback when I navigate to a file in a playlist but starts from the beginning.

[user598527]

@Aleksandr Kravets see github.com/mpv-player/mpv/commit/…