🎬 MPV Anime Build v4.2

The Resolution-Aware Fidelity Update: Targeted Upscaling Engines, Next-Gen ArtCNN Compute Pipelines, and Custom Telemetry.

An advanced, context-aware MPV configuration featuring AI upscaling, dynamic power management, universal HDR support, and intelligent audio processing.

📱 Android Support Available

The MPV Anime Build is also available for Android (mpvEX / Aniyomi)!

Features: Gesture Controls, Smart Auto-Detection, and Optimized Shaders for mobile.
Download: Switch to the Android Branch to get the mobile-specific files.

🚀 What's New in (v4.0 - v4.2)

✨ Anime4K Ultra Tier (v4.2): Integrated the unified Anime4K-Ultra shaders by Th-Underscore. The quality setting is now a 3-tier system (Fast, HQ, Ultra), bringing superior line thinning, pre-sharpen blur-pulls, and de-aliasing to the pipeline.
🔤 Dynamic UI Labels (v4.2): The UOSC Anime4K Profiles menu now dynamically updates its descriptions based on the active quality tier, mapping specific Th-Underscore files to the correct modes.
🧠 Resolution-Aware Engine Persistence (v4.1): The toggle choice between Anime Fidelity (FSRCNNX) and Performance (Anime4K) is now tracked and remembered independently per resolution tier. Mix and match purist edge refinement for 1080p content while running aggressive upscaling on 720p content completely automatically.
💻 ArtCNN Compute Engine Optimizations (v4.1): Next-gen Ani4Kv2 and AniSD rendering engines now leverage dynamic compute profiles. Fast Quality utilizes general loops, while HQ Quality triggers parallel hardware Compute pipelines (*_CMP.glsl) to maximize your graphics card's hardware capabilities.
📺 Advanced 3-Way HDR Matrix Switch (v4.0): Overhauled the display engine output to route through an explicit 3-way layout loop: Auto, HDR Display (Passthrough), and SDR Display (Tone-Mapping).
🔤 Interactive Subtitle Styling (v4.0): Fine-tune your subtitle fonts, colors, and borders directly from the new Subtitles section in the UOSC Controls Menu.
🔊 Screen-Wide Scroll Volume Engine (v4.0): Adjust sound balances comfortably by using your mouse scroll wheel anywhere across the video output field, syncing natively with the custom smoked glass volume popups.
⌨️ New ArtCNN Control Interfacing (v4.0): Quick-swap layout styles on the fly using standard keyboard overrides (CTRL+7 for Ani4Kv2 and CTRL+8 for AniSD).
⚡ NVIDIA Decoding Priority (v4.0): The Windows core engine now prioritizes nvdec hardware decoding, ensuring maximum performance and lower power draw for RTX/GTX users.

🚀 What's New (v3.0 - v3.2)

🧠 Resolution-Aware Anime4K (v3.2): Anime4K is no longer a single global toggle. The build now remembers your precise Quality ("fast" vs "hq") and Mode (A, B, C, AA, BB, CA) preferences independently for each resolution tier (SD, HD, FHD, 2K, 4K, 8K), seamlessly swapping settings on the fly to match your content.
🎛️ Interactive Denoise Filter (v3.1): A dedicated Denoise (hqdn3d) control suite in the UOSC menu with independent Luma and Chroma adjustments. It features a Smart Hardware Fallback that safely manages your hwdec settings to prevent crashes when engaging CPU-based filters.
🌐 Smart Track Selector (v3.1): Intelligently handles missing metadata, prioritizing "Dialogue" or "Full" subtitle tracks over "Signs/Songs", and cleanly falls back to muxer defaults if your preferred language isn't found.
🎵 Audio-Only Profile (v3.0): Instantly drops GPU load to 0% for music playback. Automatically disables heavy video shaders/scalers while displaying embedded album art and dynamic visualizers.
🎚️ On-the-Fly Equalizer & PIP (v3.0): Fine-tune your audio frequencies directly from the UI, and seamlessly pop the video out into a floating Picture-in-Picture (PIP) window for multitasking.
⚡ 8K Optimized Mode (v3.0): Automatically detects massive 8K resolution files and bypasses heavy upscaling shaders to prevent GPU crashes and ensure buttery-smooth playback.
🌈 Ambient Crop Shader (v3.0): A highly immersive viewing mode that fills black bars with ambient glowing colors. (⚠️ Note for SVP Users: Use SVP's dedicated "Fill black bars" instead).
⚡ Core Performance Optimizations (v3.0): Refined underlying scripts for significantly faster state transitions and lower startup overhead.
🎨 Menu Overhaul (v3.0): The UOSC Glass UI has been completely reorganized with new intuitive submenus for PIP, Ambient, and Equalizer controls.

🧠 Smart Intelligence & Automation

1. Universal Auto-Detection

The build automatically switches profiles (Anime vs Live Action) based on what you are watching.

File/Folder Rules: If the path contains anime, it applies Anime shaders. If it contains live action, drama, real person, or lacks anime tags, it applies Live Action shaders.
3D/Donghua: Automatically recognizes keywords like donghua, 3d_anime, and cartoon.
Streaming Detection: Works flawlessly on Web Streams (Stremio, Debrid, URLs) by automatically scanning audio tracks for Japanese language tags to trigger Anime Mode.

2. Power Guard (Battery Safety)

A smart power manager designed for laptops and portable devices.

Auto-Eco: Unplugging your laptop instantly disables high-end shaders (Anime4K/FSRCNNX) and locks them out, switching to a [Low-End] bilinear profile to save battery.
Auto-Restore: Plugging it back in instantly restores your exact previous High-Quality profile.
Note for SVP Users: Create a "Battery Profile" in SVP 4 Pro to disable frame interpolation when on battery to ensure total efficiency.

3. Adaptive Nvidia VSR (RTX AI Upscaling)

Smart Ratio: Calculates the exact pixel ratio between your video and monitor to maximize quality without wasting GPU power (e.g., scales 720p to 4K at 3.0x, but leaves 1080p on a 1080p screen at 1.0x).
Safety & Bit-Depth: Automatically selects p010 (10-bit) for HDR/Anime to prevent banding.

🎨 The Video Pipeline (Visuals & Shaders)

Anime Mode: Stylized vs. Faithful

You have two distinct engines for watching Anime.

Mode	Engine	Best For	Philosophy
Performance (Default)	Anime4K	720p / Old Anime	"Make it look like 4K." Aggressive upscaling, artifact removal, and "painting" effect. Razor-sharp.
Fidelity (Purist)	FSRCNNX	1080p / Modern Anime	"Show exactly what the artist drew." Preserves original texture, line art, and film grain.

SD Content: Applies FSRCNNX-16 (Anime Enhance) for deep reconstruction.
HD/FHD Content: Applies FSRCNNX-8 (Line Art) for subtle edge refinement.

Live-Action Pipeline

Non-anime content uses a completely separate "Modern TV" adaptive processing path.

SD (< 576p): Choose between NNEDI3 (Clean/Texture) or FSRCNNX (Sharp Mode).
HD (720p-1080p): Choose between NNEDI3 (Geometry) or FSRCNNX (Detail/Sharp).
4K (2160p): Native 1:1 Pixel Mapping with subtle Adaptive Sharpening + Glaze. Bypasses all heavy upscalers.
8K (4320p) [v3.0]: Engages Hardware-Decoded optimized mode. Bypasses all post-processing.

Native Scalers Guide (Manual Overrides)

If you disable shaders (CTRL+g), MPV falls back to these high-end native scalers:

ewa_lanczossharp: Best general upscaler. Sharp but clean.
spline64: Best downscaler (watching 4K on 1080p) and best Chroma scaler.
mitchell: Best for soft, smooth images to hide compression artifacts.

🎵 The Audio & HDR Engine

Professional Audio

Audio-Only Mode [v3.0]: Instantly drops GPU load to 0% for music playback, showing embedded album art and dynamic visualizers.
Spatial Audio: Uses HRTF-based virtual surround to simulate a 7.1 cinema experience on standard stereo headphones.
Night Mode: Applies Dynamic Range Compression (DRC) to lower explosions and boost whispers for late-night viewing.
Passthrough/Bitstream: Send raw TrueHD/DTS-X to your AVR with a single click (A).

True HDR & Dolby Vision

Automatically detects your monitor's capabilities via Windows.

Windows HDR ON: Activates True Passthrough. Sends raw metadata directly to your TV.
Windows HDR OFF: Switches to High-Quality Tone Mapping (Spline/BT.2390) for SDR monitors.
Dolby Vision: Plays correctly on all devices, automatically falling back to the HDR10 Base Layer if your display lacks DV support (fixes purple/green screen errors).
Calibration: Manually set Target Peak Brightness (e.g., 400 nits, 1000 nits) and Tone-Mapping algorithms via the menu.

📺 UI & Smart Features

Glass UI (UOSC): A modern, transparent "Smoked Glass" interface that doesn't block the video.
Smart Skip Intro / Up Next: Interactive, context-aware cards.
- 🟢 Green: Skip OP | 🔵 Blue: Skip ED | 🟣 Magenta: Skip Preview
- Click to skip instantly. Pauses the timer if you pause the video.
Neon Glass Stats Overlay (I): Real-time monitoring of active shaders, Input vs Output resolution, HDR status, and Audio logic.
Master Persistence: The build remembers everything across restarts (Fidelity vs Performance preference, HD upscaler choice, Tone-mapping algorithm, etc.).

🌊 Recommended Streaming Ecosystem

This build is designed to be the "Engine" for high-quality streaming apps.

App	Best For	Why?
Stremio	Movies, TV & Anime	The ultimate hub. Supports 4K HDR, Dolby Vision, and real-time torrent streaming.
Hayase / Shiru	Anime Only	Dedicated Anime clients with Anilist/MAL sync. Tracks progress automatically.

How to Set MPV as External Player:

Stremio: Settings → Player → Enable "Play in external player".
Hayase / Shiru: Settings → Player Settings → Select your mpv.exe.

⌨️ Master Controls & Shortcuts

Shortcut	Function
`K`	Show Profile Info (Displays current Mode, Profile, and Active Shaders)
`I`	Show Tech Stats (Bitrate, Dropped Frames, Logic Status)
`A`	Audio Mode (Toggle between 7.1 Upmix and Passthrough/Bitstream)
`H`	HDR Mode (Manual Override: Force Passthrough vs Tone Mapping)
`V`	Nvidia VSR (Toggle RTX Video Super Resolution - Windows Only)
`Q`	Master Upscaler Toggle (SD/HD Logic Switch: NNEDI3 ↔ FSRCNNX)
`CTRL + q`	SD Only: Toggle Clean ↔ Texture mode (Requires NNEDI3).
`CTRL + k`	Toggle Adaptive Sharpen (ON/OFF).
`CTRL + g`	Master Shader Killswitch. Disables all AI processing for raw playback.
`CTRL + p`	Toggle Power Saving Mode manually.
`y`	Cycle Sub Video Data (None / Aspect / All) - Fixes subtitle scaling issues.

Anime Pipeline Overrides

Shortcut	Mode	Description
`CTRL + l`	AUTO	Detects based on folder path & keywords (Default)
`CTRL + ;`	ON	Force anime shaders for all content
`CTRL + '`	OFF	Disable anime shaders completely
`L`	Anime4K Quality	Toggle Anime4K FAST ↔ HQ
`CTRL + 1-6`	Anime4K Modes	Cycle between Modes A, B, C, AA, BB, CA

💻 System Requirements & Installation

Minimum (1080p Playback)

GPU: NVIDIA GTX 960 / AMD RX 560 or better (2GB+ VRAM)
CPU: Quad-core Intel/AMD CPU
RAM: 8GB

Recommended (4K Upscaling + SVP)

GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3060 / AMD RX 6600 or better (6GB+ VRAM)
CPU: Modern 6-core CPU (Ryzen 5 3600 / Intel i5-10400 or newer)
RAM: 16GB

Installation

Install MPV: Download the latest 64-bit version of MPV (shinchiro builds recommended).
Install SVP 4 Pro (Optional): Ensure SVP is installed if you want motion interpolation.
Copy Files: Extract the contents of this build into your %APPDATA%/mpv/ folder (Windows) or ~/.config/mpv (Linux).
Fonts: Install Source Sans Pro (included) to ensure the Stats overlay renders correctly.