That's funny, for me that's exactly the best GUI out of the box. I actually did some tinkering to reduce the GUI parts even more, and added more keyboard shortcuts.
I use SMPlayer as a front end for mpv (you can select mplayer or mpv as backend). Not sure if that is common or even a good idea. But I am generally happy with it.
That's funny. SMPlayer was my preferred MPlayer front end before I switched to MPV years ago. And I've never really felt like I needed more GUI for MPV.
PS. For the controversy: Please note I am not disputing the claim - particularly when many claim this is the best player on any platform, not just Linux.-
Isn't mpv a more modern and maintained mplayer fork? Mplayer was my go-to for many many years, starting in the early 2000s, but I switched at one point and can't remember why. What do you prefer about mplayer?
If I recall correctly, for a brief time mplayer disappeared from Debian. At the time I evaluated various alternatives and mpv was one of them, but I switched back to mplayer as soon as it made its way back to the distribution. For me, mplayer is the standard media player. I guess I just don't see any reason to switch to mpv or to any other player.
I see no reason to cling to mplayer/mplayer2, mpv has pushed things forward from there.
mplayer is what I used to use ages ago, can't think of a single thing I miss that it did which mpv doesn't. Like you, I was introduced to mpv through the debian disappearance, and it's been fine. Forks can be necessary to keep development active; it's one of the core features of FOSS.
