drmike: Having said that, we also go ahead and provide the specific link to where to get VLC. The software has a problem with lovely folks repackaging it with malware, buying Google Adsense keywords and having their links show up as the "official download" when folks search for it.
Yes, this is sad and I'm aware of that.
It's one of the reasons why I asked (in an earlier post above) about this suggested by @Ganni1987 "portableapps" thing as I do not really trust anything VLC-related from sites other than www.videolan.org.
paintedindigo: I've never used it as a daily driver, but I've tried it several times. It feels bloated to me, and I think the interface is distractingly ugly. MPV's interface is extremely minimalist (possibly to a fault, if you rely on UI to modify settings - you have to edit the config file for most things). (...) I think that's the main difference between the two
Well, for the most time I will see no interface at all. :D
wizisi2k: VLC has more of a GUI and can playback everything without a problem. MPV has almost NO gui but can playback anything assuming you have the filters installed AND displays HDR video like it was SDR on a non-HDR display (aka 4k stuff will display with the full color range). Audio changing, subs, etc are a right-click to bring up menu then select the option you want in MPV
So if I got used to VLC already and if UI is the main difference between these two then I think I should install VLC again.