I've been using mpc with madvr for years, and the upscaling setting for stuff that isn't 4k.
I've been using mpv for all kinds of content and have only had good experiences with it. Only the control scheme takes some getting used to as you do everything with keybinds instead of a clickable interface.
I've been using Haruna which is a version of mpv with a clickable interface. I don't know why but mpv would sometimes lock my system, which Haruna doesn't do also.
The keybinds are a + once you learn what you need. So quick to do stuff.
Only issue I've had with mpv is that everything is darker. I've recently gone back to VLC.
1 and 2 Adjust contrast.
3 and 4 Adjust brightness.
5 and 6 Adjust gamma.
7 and 8 Adjust saturation.
You could try these keybinds if you want to
https://mpv.io/manual/stable/
VLC is actually known to have problems with colors so you are probably just used to them being wrong.
There is a notice on this wiki that contains some comparisons: https://thewiki.moe/guides/playback/
I'm sure you can find some more in-depth explanations but I will just copy/paste a quote I have seen from reddit.
- uses wrong matrix for RGB conversion (results in wrong colors)
- uses point upscaling for chroma planes
- introduces strong banding
- wrong chroma location (MPEG-1 for everything)
- Old subtitle renderer that in more Typesetting heavy situation will say fuck you
- all the other bugs (including some that haven't been fixed in years) make it equally unsuitable media player.
MX player on Android with custom codecs, the OS alternatives are just not there when it comes to quality of life features
The put.io Google/Android TV app is pretty decent, as long as you don't have to reencode content.
