diff --git a/DOCS/interface-changes/tls-verify-default.txt b/DOCS/interface-changes/tls-verify-default.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..86251d555075e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/DOCS/interface-changes/tls-verify-default.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+change `--tls-verify` default to `yes`
diff --git a/DOCS/man/options.rst b/DOCS/man/options.rst
index e2cf9f0714c76..e0dc6e4ba3942 100644
--- a/DOCS/man/options.rst
+++ b/DOCS/man/options.rst
@@ -5666,9 +5666,16 @@ Network
     Certificate authority database file for use with TLS. (Silently fails with
     older FFmpeg versions.)
 
-``--tls-verify``
-    Verify peer certificates when using TLS (e.g. with ``https://...``).
-    (Silently fails with older FFmpeg versions.)
+``--tls-verify=<yes|no>``
+    Verify peer certificates when using TLS (e.g. with ``https://...``)
+    (default: yes*). Disabling this option allows man-in-the-middle attacks
+    to silently substitute the content of an HTTPS stream and is only
+    recommended as a per-stream override when verification fails for a
+    known-good reason (e.g. an outdated CA bundle, a corporate proxy, a
+    development server with a self-signed certificate).
+
+    This is disabled by default, if mpv is built without libcurl and
+    libavformat is older than 63.0.100.
 
 ``--tls-cert-file``
     A file containing a certificate to use in the handshake with the
diff --git a/stream/network.c b/stream/network.c
index b2c7ce90f0fe7..95a0735ba3952 100644
--- a/stream/network.c
+++ b/stream/network.c
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@
 
 #include <float.h>
 
+#include <libavformat/version.h>
+
 #include "network.h"
 #include "options/m_option.h"
 
@@ -41,5 +43,8 @@ const struct m_sub_options mp_network_conf = {
     .defaults = &(const struct mp_network_opts){
         .useragent = "libmpv",
         .timeout = 60,
+#if HAVE_LIBCURL || LIBAVFORMAT_VERSION_MAJOR >= 63
+        .tls_verify = true,
+#endif
     },
 };
diff --git a/stream/stream_curl.c b/stream/stream_curl.c
index f0e8dcedb634a..b466e271cef06 100644
--- a/stream/stream_curl.c
+++ b/stream/stream_curl.c
@@ -599,6 +599,20 @@ static void start_request(struct priv *p)
     curl_multi_add_handle(p->ctx->multi, p->curl);
 }
 
+static void log_curl_error(struct priv *p, const char *what, CURLcode code)
+{
+    MP_ERR(p, "%s: %s\n", what, curl_easy_strerror(code));
+    if (code == CURLE_PEER_FAILED_VERIFICATION ||
+        code == CURLE_SSL_CACERT_BADFILE)
+    {
+        MP_ERR(p,
+            "TLS certificate verification failed.\n"
+            "This usually means an outdated CA bundle, a self-signed "
+            "certificate,\nor a MITM proxy on your network. To bypass at "
+            "your own risk, pass\n--tls-verify=no.\n");
+    }
+}
+
 static void on_done(struct priv *p, CURLcode code)
 {
     bool aborted = atomic_load_explicit(&p->aborted, memory_order_relaxed);
@@ -606,7 +620,7 @@ static void on_done(struct priv *p, CURLcode code)
     if (!p->probed) {
         // Connection died before any headers arrived.
         if (code != CURLE_OK && !aborted)
-            MP_ERR(p, "error: %s\n", curl_easy_strerror(code));
+            log_curl_error(p, "error", code);
         mp_mutex_lock(&p->mtx);
         p->probed = true;
         mp_cond_broadcast(&p->cond);
@@ -650,7 +664,7 @@ static void on_done(struct priv *p, CURLcode code)
     }
 
     if (!aborted)
-        MP_ERR(p, "transfer failed: %s\n", curl_easy_strerror(code));
+        log_curl_error(p, "transfer failed", code);
 
     mp_mutex_lock(&p->mtx);
     p->stream_error = true;
@@ -722,6 +736,7 @@ static void setup_curl(struct priv *p)
     if (p->net_opts->http_proxy && p->net_opts->http_proxy[0])
         curl_easy_setopt(c, CURLOPT_PROXY, p->net_opts->http_proxy);
 
+    curl_easy_setopt(c, CURLOPT_SSL_OPTIONS, (long)CURLSSLOPT_NATIVE_CA);
     curl_easy_setopt(c, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, p->net_opts->tls_verify ? 1L : 0L);
     curl_easy_setopt(c, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, p->net_opts->tls_verify ? 2L : 0L);
     if (p->net_opts->tls_ca_file) {