mpvlib Android

MpvRx / mpvlibAndroid — An Android video player library built on mpv with full yt-dlp, Python 3.13, and libcurl support baked in.

What is This?

This library brings the full power of mpv to Android — play any video, stream YouTube links, run Python scripts, download with curl, generate thumbnails, and more. All through a simple Kotlin API.

Features

🎥 Core Video Playback

• Full mpv engine on Android — play virtually any media file
• 200+ formats supported (mp4, mkv, avi, mov, webm, flac, mp3, gif, etc.)
• 15+ network protocols: http, https, rtmp, rtmps, rtp, rtsp, mms, tcp, udp, and more
• Android Surface rendering with hardware acceleration

▶️ yt-dlp Support

• YouTube, Twitch, and 1000+ sites supported out of the box
• yt-dlp v2026.03.17 bundled and ready
• Just pass a YouTube URL — yt-dlp handles the rest

🐍 Python 3.13 Runtime

• Full Python 3.13.12 runtime compiled for Android
• Bundled per-architecture (arm64, arm32, x86, x86_64)
• Includes stdlib with common modules (ssl, bz2, ctypes, lzma, hashlib, uuid)
• Used by yt-dlp internally, also available for your own scripts

🌐 libcurl (HTTP Networking)

• Built with MbedTLS for secure connections
• Optimized for minimal size — only the protocols actually needed
• Powers network streaming and downloads

🖼️ Thumbnail Generation

• Two engines: mpv-based and direct FFmpeg
• Hardware-accelerated with MediaCodec
• Sync, async, and batch modes
• ~50-100ms per thumbnail

📜 Scripting

• Lua 5.2.4 — mpv scripts work as-is
• JavaScript via MuJS 1.3.9
• Python 3.13 — for custom logic and automation

🔒 Security

• SSL/TLS via both MbedTLS and OpenSSL
• CA certificate bundle included
• Secure streaming by default

🎨 Video Output

• Vulkan rendering via libplacebo + shaderc
• GPU shader cache support
• Subtitle rendering with libass + HarfBuzz + FriBidi
• AV1 decoding via dav1d

⚡ Modern Android API

• Kotlin-friendly with StateFlow / Flow support
• Observe any mpv property reactively
• Typed property delegates (Int, Long, Float, Double, Boolean, String, Node)

Requirements

• Android 7.0+ (API 24+)
• Android Studio
• JDK 17+

Quick Start

Installation

1. Download the AAR from releases
2. Place it in app/libs/
3. Add to your build.gradle:

dependencies {
    implementation(files("libs/mpvlib.aar"))
}

Basic Usage

import is.xyz.mpv.MPVLib

MPVLib.create(context)
MPVLib.init()

// Play anything — local file, YouTube URL, stream
MPVLib.command("loadfile", "https://youtube.com/watch?v=...")
MPVLib.command("loadfile", "/sdcard/video.mp4")

// Controls
MPVLib.setPropertyBoolean("pause", true)
MPVLib.setPropertyBoolean("pause", false)

// Thumbnail
FastThumbnails.initialize(context)
FastThumbnails.generate("video.mp4", positionSec = 30.0, width = 320)

Building from Source

Prerequisites

sudo apt install openjdk-17-jdk ninja-build cmake autoconf automake \
    libtool-bin pkg-config meson python3 python3-pip wget
pip install meson jinja2 jsonschema

Commands

./buildscripts/download.sh    # Download SDK, NDK, and dependencies
./buildscripts/buildall.sh    # Build everything (all 4 ABIs)
./buildscripts/docker-build.sh # Or build with Docker

Output: app/build/outputs/aar/app-release.aar

Supported ABIs

• arm64-v8a (64-bit ARM)
• armeabi-v7a (32-bit ARM)
• x86_64 (64-bit x86)
• x86 (32-bit x86)

Key Classes

Class	Purpose
MPVLib	Main API — init, play, pause, seek, properties, events
BaseMPVView	Drop-in video surface for XML layouts
FastThumbnails	Generate thumbnails sync/async/batch
Utils	File helpers, metadata, storage, version info
MPVNode	Handle complex mpv data types

What's Inside

Component	Version
yt-dlp	2026.03.17
Python	3.13.12
libcurl	8.20.0
Lua	5.2.4
MuJS (JavaScript)	1.3.9
MbedTLS	3.6.5
OpenSSL	3.5.5
FFmpeg	n8.1
HarfBuzz	14.2.0
FreeType	2.14.3
dav1d	latest
libplacebo	latest
Android NDK	r28c
Min API	24 (Android 7.0)

License

MIT License — See LICENSE.

Credits

• mpv
• Original authors: Ilya Zhuravlev and sfan5