Track selection behavior has evolved across mpv releases. Since 0.33.0, selecting a track by number strictly selects that track; if it doesn’t exist, the option resets to
auto rather than falling back to defaults.Language preferences
Use IETF language tags (e.g.en, eng, pt-BR, jpn) to express a prioritized list. mpv selects the first match; a track matching more subtags wins over one matching fewer.
Prioritized list of audio languages. Equivalent ISO 639-1 (two-letter) and ISO 639-2 (three-letter) codes are treated the same.This is a string list option — use
--alang-append to add languages without replacing the list.Prioritized list of subtitle languages. Same matching logic as
--alang.Prioritized list of video track languages. Same as
--alang and --slang but for video tracks.Track ID selection
Select the audio track by numeric ID.
auto selects the default track; no disables audio.--audio is an alias for --aid.Select the subtitle track by numeric ID.
auto selects the default; no disables subtitles.--sub is an alias for --sid.Select the video track by numeric ID.
auto selects the default; no disables video.--video is an alias for --vid.When video is disabled while streaming with yt-dlp/youtube-dl, mpv sets the format to
bestaudio/best to save bandwidth.Subtitle auto-selection rules
These options control how mpv picks subtitle tracks automatically when--slang is not set or produces no match.
Controls whether forced-only subtitle tracks are preferred.
auto— use forced tracks when the subtitle language matches the audio languageyes— only show forced subtitle tracksno— treat forced and non-forced tracks equally
When autoselecting subtitles, whether to select a track whose language matches the audio track’s language.
yes— select a matching subtitle track even if it matches the audio languageno— never autoselect subtitles matching the audio languageforced— only autoselect forced subtitle tracks when audio and subtitle language match
When no
--slang is set, autoselect subtitles that match the OS language, if the audio stream is in a different language. Ignored when --slang is set.When no subtitle track matches your preferred languages, whether to fall back to a full (non-forced) track in any language.
yes— always fall back to any trackdefault— only fall back to tracks flagged as defaultno— do not fall back; show no subtitles
Controls behavior of forced subtitle tracks in the fallback selection.
yes— prefer forced tracks if language matches audio and preferred languagesalways— only use forced tracks, never fall back to regular tracksno— never select forced subtitle tracks automatically
Audio cover art display
Whether to show cover art when playing audio files, and which source takes priority.
no— disable video display entirely for audio-only filesembedded-first— show embedded cover art before external image filesexternal-first— prefer external cover art files (e.g.cover.jpgin the same directory)
Matroska edition selection
For Matroska files with multiple editions (chapter sets), select the edition by zero-based index.
auto picks the edition flagged as default, or the first edition if none is flagged.Auto-selection control
Enable or disable automatic track selection based on
--aid, --alang, and similar options. When disabled, no tracks are selected and playback waits (similar to a paused state) rather than exiting if no tracks are selected.Useful with --lavfi-complex for setting up filter graphs that select tracks at runtime.