--- a/player/playloop.c	2026-07-10 11:13:19.095396094 +0000
+++ b/player/playloop.c	2026-07-10 11:13:38.244527156 +0000
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 #include "common/playlist.h"
 #include "common/stats.h"
 #include "demux/demux.h"
+#include "demux/packet_pool.h"
 #include "filters/f_decoder_wrapper.h"
 #include "filters/filter_internal.h"
 #include "input/input.h"
@@ -1343,6 +1344,24 @@
             handle_force_window(mpctx, true);
             mp_wakeup_core(mpctx);
             mp_notify(mpctx, MPV_EVENT_IDLE, NULL);
+            // yauiclient/NextPVR: backport of upstream mpv commit
+            // 4a815734e3d183dc63fecc08b8f9f8c396c53647
+            // ("player/playloop: clear demux packet pool on idle"),
+            // not yet present in v0.41.0. The packet pool is a global,
+            // process-wide cache of demux_packet structs kept populated
+            // across file switches specifically to avoid reallocation
+            // cost when quickly loading a new file - by design, it is
+            // NOT cleared on ordinary stop/uninit_demuxer. Confirmed via
+            // extensive investigation that this pool genuinely holds
+            // real, substantial memory (thousands of packets at a time
+            // during playback) that has no other release point once
+            // idle. This clears it specifically when going idle (no
+            // file queued, not actively switching), which should not
+            // affect the fast-reload-same-session optimization this
+            // pool exists for, since that path never reaches idle_loop
+            // in the first place. Upstream fixes:
+            // https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/issues/17525
+            demux_packet_pool_clear(demux_packet_pool_get(mpctx->global));
             need_reinit = false;
         }
         mp_idle(mpctx);