VLC.

I am using OpenSUSE Leap with SMPlayer 15.11.0. I don't have any mpv files though. If you were to upload one less than 10mb, i'd be happy to test it for you.

mpv is a program, not a file type. mpv is a forked version of mplayer that shed a lot of the extra stuff in mplayer that many users simply didn't need, but mplayer refused to remove. They are pretty similar, however, not the same, so it isn't always a perfect drop-in replacement for mplayer.

That is why I asked how well it worked as the backend for smplayer instead of using mplayer as the backend.

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Comes down to what distro you're using.

On Debian (deb-multimedia), it doesn't work as a frontend for mpv yet, too old a version of smplayer even in sid.

On Fedora, I've successfully watched mp4, flv, wmv files with no issues using smplayer w/ mpv backend. Probably other file types, but those are the ones I know I specifically tested.

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Cool. On Slackware, it's easy for me to run the latest version of both smplayer and mpv, so I may have to give mpv a compile to see how it does...

Does smplayer not count as video player because it's 'just' a front-end? I'm using smplayer like 95 of the time..

VLC

That's correct. The real workhorse is either mplayer or mpv (smplayer supports both), so that's what this poll covers.

VLC, going to have to check out this mpv thing.

ffplay is what i use to quick-view a picture. No unneeded GUI - just the image, ESC to quit. Perfect.

Voted VLC and VLC is going to win hands down, why are we kidding ourselves..it's a member's choice award, not an expert member's choice award.

I like MPlayer. I can play several different kinds of video files on it. I even had an .avi file that would play on MPlayer, but not on VLC when I checked a few years ago.

you dudes & duderinas really have to check out mpv again.
if your distro supports a recent version (say, 0.8 or larger).
it plays everything you throw at it even youtube videos (just like mplayer and vlc).
but,

unlike mplayer, it has a rudimentary GUI that is really enough for daily use.

unlike vlc, it is truly lightweight and not dependent on any toolkit.
(vlc has often proven a tad heavy on my dated hardware)

it's mplayer mark 2, really (and yes, i know there's mplayer2, but that's a half-hearted attempt compared to mpv).
cruft removed, all improved...

on linux, it is the media player (yeah i know, i'm a fanboi).
and it's only 3 letters.

and of course there's nothing wrong with using a frontend like smplayer.

Yes, i also think of VLC as unnecessarily heavy-weighted. And it can't play certain problematic videos any more reliably than mpv or even good ole' mplayer. And yes, i also like smplayer as frontend. I already made the switch to mpv via smplayer, and i can't see any reason for looking back.

The one thing that VLC is really good at, is playing all kinds of DVDs with their weird IFO files & stuff. But then - i usually convert DVDs to .mkv first..

I voted for VLC just for it's consistency.
I typically just use whatever the default player is on whatever distro I happen to be using unless or until I run into an issue, which I then just load VLC and it's never failed me yet, as best I recall.