However, after compiling it and measuring it on an older machine (a Lenovo T430 running Arch) against the out-of-the-box vlc install, I can see no advantage in memory footprint or cpu usage, they are about the same. (I compared mvp running in terminal against vlc running with ncurses interface module)
Since mpv doesn't offer an ncurses interface, and is still in development, I will, for now, stick with vlc.
However, the scripting options definitely seem great, as I said i will keep it on my radar.
Maybe you compiled yours with all the bells&whistles which aren't needed for sufficient local playback?
Furthermore I didn't cover (re-)streaming to chromecasts, TVs, or such. Don't have it, don't want it.
This has next to zero impact on its performance, as the ncurses player talks exactly to the parts of libVLC it has to.
>Instantly. Sometimes on even older systems than yours. With probably less RAM. Say 8GB, with something booted from USB, running 'live', so only 7GB, no SWAP.
The system I tested this on has 4GiB of RAM. And I have used `VLC -I ncurses` from live systems-on-a-stick as well. It runs before my finger leaves the ENTER key, same as mpv.
> Maybe you compiled yours with all the bells&whistles which aren't needed for sufficient local playback?
I'd be happy to repeat the measurement with different settings.
I have the choice of many many many text editors and IDEs to manage my source code.
What do I use? vim. In a terminal(-emulator).
Why? Because I like my editor to be ready the moment my finger leaves the ENTER key, I like direct interoperability with the terminal, I like that I can hack together even the most absurd things in .vimrc, and I like that I have the same editor with the same settings on all servers I take care of, even when I connect to them via ssh.
I also use vlc for playing audio and video. Are there players that have a more edge UX? Sure. Do they come with builtin-full support for almost all formats, have a tiny memory footprint, can be used to convert stuff, don't spy on me and can be controlled via a terminal (hello ncurses mode!)? Nope.