On: Mpv – A free, open-source, and cross-platform medi...

[dikei]

mplayer was forked into mplayer2, which in turn was forked into mpv

Though AFAIK, most of the rendering code behind mpv has been entirely rewritten.

[throwaway2037 → dikei]

What was the cause of the fork? An unresolvable internal debate? I am curious to know more about the history.

[dikei → throwaway2037]

I'll refer you to the MPV FAQ for historical context.

https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/wiki/FAQ#how-is-mpv-relate...

There were lots of drama in the media player scene. Even "wm4" the original maintainer, who forked mplayer2 into mpv, is no longer with the project: he deleted his Github account and disappeared.