Not sure if it's an issue per se, but shouldn't mpv bail out harder if an invalid --vo is passed?

[dancingmirrors]

I noticed that mpv --vo=invalid continues anyway, albeit with no video. Shouldn't it just bail out in this case?

[guidocella]

That aborts for me.

mpv --no-config --vo=invalid --idle --force-window
[vo] Video output invalid not found!
Error opening/initializing the VO window.
Exiting... (Quit)

[dancingmirrors]

Interesting, it doesn't for me:

xxx@debian:~/src/mpv$ ./build/mpv --version
mpv v0.40.0-dev-gdbd7a905b Copyright © 2000-2025 mpv/MPlayer/mplayer2 projects
 built on Dec  8 2025 06:45:18
libplacebo version: v7.358.0 (v7.351.0-102-g9c4853bc-dirty)
FFmpeg version: N-122034-gb3089568c4
FFmpeg library versions:
   libavcodec      62.22.101
   libavdevice     62.2.100
   libavfilter     11.10.101
   libavformat     62.6.103
   libavutil       60.19.101
   libswresample   6.2.100
   libswscale      9.3.100
xxx@debian:~/src/mpv$ ./build/mpv --no-config --vo=invalid ~/Videos/
Playing: /home/xxx/Videos/test.mp4
 ● Video  --vid=1  (h264 1920x1080 30 fps) [default]
 ● Audio  --aid=1  (aac 2ch 44100 Hz 140 kbps) [default]
[vo] Video output invalid not found!
Error opening/initializing the selected video_out (--vo) device.
Video: no video
AO: [pipewire] 44100Hz stereo 2ch floatp

[guidocella]

Oh if you're playing files with audio it indeed plays the audio alone. It may be better to exit since --gpu-api=invalid does exit.