| Media Player Classic | |
|---|---|
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| Original author | Gabest |
| Developer | MPC Community Forum |
| Initial release | May 30, 2003; 22 years ago (2003-05-30) |
| Final release | |
| Preview release | |
| Repository | Original: https://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/ Fork by clsid: https://github.com/clsid2/mpc-hc |
| Written in | C++ |
| Operating system | Windows,ReactOS |
| Size | Orig. 6.4.9.0: 2.2MB (Zip) Fork 6.4.9.1: 2.1 MB (Zip) |
| Available in | 11 languages[4] |
List of languages English, Russian, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Ukrainian | |
| License | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| Website | Original MPC on Doom9 MPC 6.4.9.1 on Doom9 MPC 2.0.0 on Doom9 |
Media Player Classic (MPC) and its derivatives are a family offree and open-sourcemedia players for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of theMicrosoft Windows operating system. Focusing on compactness and customizability, Media Player Classic mimics the simplistic look and feel ofWindows Media Player 6.4, but provide most options and features available in modern media players. The original MPC stopped development in 2006 after which it wasforked into two new projects:Media Player Classic - Home Cinema (MPC-HC) andMedia Player Classic - Black Edition (MPC-BE), which are now principally maintained by the community at theDoom9 forum.
The active forkMedia Player Classic - Home Cinema (MPC-HC) is maintaned by "clsid2" (same developer known asclsid responsible forMPC 6.4.9.1), andMedia Player Classic - Black Edition (MPC-BE) by "aleksoid". Variations of the original MPC and its forks are standard media players in theK-Lite Codec Pack and theCombined Community Codec Pack.
The original Media Player Classic was created and maintained by a programmer named "Gabest"[5] who also createdPCSX2 graphicsplugin GSDX. It was developed as a closed-source application, but laterrelicensed asfree software under the terms of theGPL-2.0-or-later license. MPC is hosted under theguliverkli project atSourceForge platform. The project itself is something of anumbrella organization for works by Gabest.
Media Player Classic development stalled in May 2006. Gabest, the main developer of the original version, stated in March 2007 that development ofMedia Player Classic is not dead but that he was unable to work on it.[6] MPC 6.4.9.0, released March 20, 2006, is the final official version.
In August 2007, an unofficially patched and updated build became available fromDoom9 member "clsid", hosted under theguliverkli2 project atSourceForge platform. Known asMedia Player Classic 6.4.9.1, it was meant for fixing bugs and updating outdated libraries, but its development has been inactive since 2011. MPC 6.4.9.1 Revision 107, released February 14, 2010, is the final release version.[7][8] The community at the Doom9 forum has since further continued the project with MPC-HC.
| Media Player Classic - Home Cinema | |
|---|---|
 Media Player Classic - Home Cinema version 2.5.3 onWindows 10 | |
| Developer | MPC-HC Community Forum |
| Initial release | September 2007; 18 years ago (2007-09) |
| Stable release | 2.5.6 / December 4, 2025; 11 days ago (2025-12-04) |
| Preview release | 2.5.5.30 / November 27, 2025; 18 days ago (2025-11-27) |
| Repository | Original: https://github.com/mpc-hc/mpc-hc Fork by clsid2: https://github.com/clsid2/mpc-hc/ |
| Size | Fork x64: 21.9MB (Exe) Fork x86: 20.3 MB (Exe) |
| Available in | 42 languages[9] |
List of languages Arabic, Armenian, Basque, Belarusian, Bengali, Bosnian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, English (British), Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Malay, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Spanish, Tatar, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese | |
| License | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Website | MPC-HC official website (inactive) MPC-HC on Doom9 (active fork by clsid) |
A fork, called Media Player Classic - Home Cinema (MPC-HC), adds new features, as well as fixes bugs and updates libraries.[10] It also updated the license toGPL-3.0-or-later.
MPC-HC updates the original player and adds many useful functionalities including the option to removetearing, additional video decoders (in particular H.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2 withDirectX Video Acceleration support),Enhanced Video Renderer support, and multiple bug fixes. There is also a 64 bit-version ofMedia Player Classic - Home Cinema for the various Windows x64 platforms. MPC-HC requires at least Windows XP Service Pack 3.
As of version 1.4.2499.0, MPC-HC implementedcolor management support, an uncommon feature that nearly all video players on Microsoft Windows lack.[11] Windows 8 support was introduced in version 1.6.5.[12] Beginning with version 1.6.6 the stable releases are signed.[13]
Apart from stable releases as published, nightly builds are also publicly available.[14][15] MPC-HC is also distributed in thePortableApps format.[16] MPC-HC 1.7.1 adds support forH.265/HEVC codec. MPC-HC 1.7.8 released in 2015 was built with theMediaInfoLib 0.7.71.
MPC-HC 1.7.13 is the final version of the program that was officially discontinued as of July 16, 2017 due to a shortage of active developers with C/C++ experience.[17] Its source code on GitHub was last updated on August 27, 2017, a month and a half after the official final version.[18] It requires CPUs withSSE2 support and no longer runs on IntelPentium III or AMDAthlon XP.
Updated builds of MPC-HC, a fork from the same developer (known as clsid2 onGitHub/SourceForge) responsible for MPC 6.4.9.1, started appearing in January 2018. This fork contains updated internalcodecs (LAV Filters[19]),AV1 support,youtube-dl integration, a new dark theme, video preview on seekbar, support for MPC Video Renderer, A-B Repeat, subtitle performance improvements;[20][21] support for Windows XP was dropped in these builds.[20] Binary releases are available,[22] as well as source code.[23]
| Media Player Classic - Black Edition | |
|---|---|
 A screenshot of MPC-BE v.1.8.7, onWindows 10. | |
| Developer | Alexander Vodiannikov |
| Initial release | September 12, 2012; 13 years ago (2012-09-12) |
| Stable release | |
| Preview release | |
| Repository | https://sourceforge.net/projects/mpcbe/ https://github.com/Aleksoid1978/MPC-BE |
| Size | x86: 16.6MB (Zip) x86-64: 18.1 MB (Zip) |
| Available in | 25 languages |
List of languages Russian, Basque, Belarusian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Slovak, Swedish, Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian | |
| License | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Website | mpcbe |
Media Player Classic - Black Edition (MPC-BE) is a fork of MPC and MPC-HC. It moved away from MPC's aim to mimic the look and feel of Windows Media Player with updated player controls and provides additional features on top of MPC-HC such as a video previewtooltip whenhovering the mouse cursor over the seek bar, as known from video platforms such asYouTube andDailymotion, though many of these features, including the video preview on seekbar, were added to MPC-HC at a later date.[26][27]
MPC-BE, however, doesn't include LAV filters by default, making it less efficient than MPC-HC for decoding. This is most noticeable with higher resolution files, newer codecs, or on lower end hardware.[28]
Player development began in February 2011. Developers used a modification of MPC-HC made by a programmer nicknamed "bobdynlan". The first version (1.0.1.0) was released on September 12, 2012.[29]
Starting with version 1.5.0, released in December 2016, MPC-BE no longer supportsWindows XP.[30] Support for Windows Vista ended at version 1.6.7, released May 2023.[31][32] MPC-BE version 1.5.1 and newer requireSSE2 supporting CPU and no longer run on IntelPentium III or AMDAthlon XP.[32]
Nightly builds are also available.[25][26]
MPC-BE onSourceForge links toMPC-BE onGitHub.[33]
Media Player Classic is capable ofVCD,SVCD, andDVD playback without installation of additional software orcodecs. MPC has built-in codecs forMPEG-2 video with support for subtitles and codecs forLPCM,MP2,3GP,AC3, andDTS audio; along with native playback of theMatroskacontainer format. MPC also contains an improvedMPEG splitter that supports playback of VCDs and SVCDs using its VCD/SVCD/XCD Reader. On October 30, 2005, Gabest addedMP4 andMPEG-4 Timed Text support.[34]Adobe Flash movies (SWF) can be played and frames jumped to.[35]
Supported media formats within the latest builds of MPC-HC and MPC-BE have been considerably expanded compared to the original MPC, as these builds are bundled with iterations oflibavcodec and libavformat. MPC-HC version 1.7.0 and newer utilize LAV filters,[36] while MPC-BE usesFFmpeg directly.[37] Consequently, they support all formats from those libraries. MPC-HC is also one of the firstmedia players to supportDolby Atmos audio natively.
MPC can use anINI file in its application folder,[38] making it aportable application.
Media Player Classic is primarily based on theDirectShow architecture and therefore automatically uses installed DirectShow decoding filters. For instance, after the open source DirectShow decoding filterffdshow has been installed, fast and high quality decoding and postprocessing of theMPEG-4 ASP,H.264, andFlash Video formats is available in the original MPC.MPC-HC andMPC-BE, however, can play videos in these formats directly withoutffdshow.
MPC-HC and MPC-BE also provideDXVA support for compatibleIntel,Nvidia, andATI/AMD video cards when using a compatiblecodec. This provides hardware-acceleration for playback.
In addition to DirectShow, MPC can also use theQuickTime,RealPlayer, andSHOUTcast codecs and filters (if installed on the computer) to play their native files.[39] Though some of these files may play without the external codecs or filters installed. Alternatively,QuickTime Alternative andReal Alternative can be used in place of their player installations for expanded support of their respective file formats.
MPC supports playback and recording oftelevision if a supportedTV tuner is installed.
MPC-HC
MPC-BE
guliverkli
