Last Updated on November 30, 2021
In Operation
Let’s take a look at mpz’s user interface.
As the image above shows, mpz uses a 3 column user interface. Above the 3 columns are the usual playback buttons, track slider, volume slider, and a down arrow icon which is a menu that gives the option of letting mpz reside in your tray, minimize to the tray, and access a playback log. The log shows the times tracks were played, the total time played, as well as the session time. The log can be saved to CSV format; not something I’ll use.
The first column of the user interface shows a file structure for a library folder. You can define multiple library folders. It makes a lot of sense that mpz doesn’t index tracks into a library, primarily because I’ve already organized my huge CD collection into a logical structure. The second column displays playlists (with the option of renaming and deleting playlists). The final column shows the tracks contained in a playlist. While you can remove tracks from a playlist, it’s not currently possible to reorder tracks or playlists.
Below the 3 columns is a drop down that lets you define multiple library folders, together with the ability to filter libraries, playlists, and tracks. There’s the option for playback to follow the cursor, together with shuffle play, and playlist ordering.
Features of mpv:
- Partial support for CUE sheets. A cue sheet, or cue file, is a metadata file which describes how the tracks of a CD are laid out.
- Supports MPRIS for remote control. The Media Player Remote Interfacing Specification is a standard D-Bus interface which aims to provide a common programmatic API for controlling media players.
- Internet radio in m3u and pls playlists formats.
- Supported formats: MP3, FLAC, OGG, M4A, MP4, WAV, WMA, AAC, APE, CUE, DSF, and OPUS.
In my book, any music player must have gapless playback. Gapless playback is the uninterrupted playback of consecutive audio tracks, such that relative time distances in the original audio source are preserved over track boundaries on playback. It’s essential if you listen to classical, electronic music, concept albums, and progressive rock. There’s a few Linux music players that don’t offer gapless playback. And sadly mpz doesn’t yet offer this functionality. But the developer seems open to adding gapless playback if there’s demand from the user base.
I know some music lovers will miss things like integration with internet services such as Last.fm and Listenbrainz scrobbling, importing network tracks from koel or Airsonic, and context searches on sites like Bandcamp and Genius. But remember that mpz is designed as a music player for locally stored music.
Next page: Page 3 – Memory Usage
Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction / Installation
Page 2 – In Operation
Page 3 – Memory Usage
Page 4 – Summary