Media Player Classic

Media Player Classic - Home Cinema

Media Player Classic - Home Cinema version 1.7.0 running on Windows 8.1
Developer(s) Gabest, Doom9 forum users
Initial release May 29, 2003
Stable release 1.7.8[1] / January 25, 2015
Preview release 1.7.8.162 / April 16, 2015
Written in C++
Platform IA-32 and x86-64
Size 10.7 MB
Available in 31 languages[2]
License GNU General Public License
Website mpc-hc.org

Media Player Classic (MPC) is a compact media player for 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows. MPC mimics the look and feel of the old, lightweight Windows Media Player 6.4, but provides most options and features available in modern media players. It and its forks are standard media players in the K-Lite Codec Pack and the Combined Community Codec Pack.

This project is now principally maintained by the community at the Doom9 forum. The active forks are Media Player Classic Home Cinema (MPC-HC) and the Black Edition (MPC-BE).

Development

Media Player Classic was created and maintained by a programmer named "Gabest" who also created PCSX2 graphics plugin GSDX. It was developed as a closed-source application, but later relicensed as free software under the terms of the GNU General Public License. MPC is hosted under the guliverkli project at SourceForge.net. The project itself is something of an umbrella 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 of Media Player Classic is not dead but that he was unable to work on it.[3] The community at the Doom9 forum has since continued the project in two main veins. The version known as Media Player Classic 6.4.9.1 was meant for fixing bugs and updating outdated libraries; its branch's development is inactive.[4][5] The other version, called Media Player Classic - Home Cinema, is meant for adding new features, as well as fixing bugs and updating libraries.[6]

MPC-HC updates the original player and adds many useful functionalities including the option to remove tearing, additional video decoders (in particular H.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2 with DirectX Video Acceleration support), Enhanced Video Renderer support, and multiple bug fixes. There is also a 64 bit-version of Media 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 implemented color management support, an uncommon feature in video players at the time.[7] Windows 8 support was introduced in version 1.6.5.[8] Beginning with version 1.6.6 the stable releases are signed.[9]

Apart from stable releases as published on SourceForge, nightly builds are also publicly available.[10][11] MPC-HC is also distributed in the PortableApps format.[12] MPC-HC 1.7.8 released in 2015 was built with the MediaInfoLib 0.7.71.

Black Edition

MPC-BE is a MPC and MPC-HC based fork by mostly Russian developers.[13][14] Version 1.4.3 was released in January, 2015.[15]

Features

Media Player Classic is capable of VCD, SVCD, and DVD playback without installation of additional software or codecs. MPC has built-in codecs for MPEG-2 video with support for subtitles and codecs for LPCM, MP2, 3GP, AC3, and DTS audio. MPC also contains an improved MPEG splitter that supports playback of VCDs and SVCDs using its VCD/SVCD/XCD Reader. On October 30, 2005, Gabest added *.mp4 and MPEG-4 Timed Text support.[16] An AAC decoding filter had once been present in MPC.

DirectShow

Media Player Classic is primarily based on the DirectShow architecture and therefore automatically uses installed DirectShow decoding filters. For instance, after the open source DirectShow decoding filter ffdshow has been installed, fast and high quality decoding and postprocessing of the MPEG-4 ASP, H.264, and Flash Video formats is available in MPC. MPC-HC can play videos in these formats directly without ffdshow.

MPC provides DXVA support for newer Intel, NVIDIA and ATI video cards when using an H.264 or VC-1 codec. This provides hardware-acceleration for playback.

In addition to DirectShow, MPC can also use the QuickTime, RealPlayer, and SHOUTcast codecs and filters (if installed on the computer) to play their native files.[17] MPC can use an INI file in its application folder.[18]

Japanese MPC 6.4.8.3 audio playback on Wine

Matroska and Ogg containers

Media Player Classic supports native playback of OGM and Matroska container formats. In 2006 OGM audio playback was limited by a lack of support for the CoreVorbis DirectShow filter, which mainly affected files.[19]

TV tuners

MPC supports playback and recording of television if a supported TV tuner is installed.

See also

References

  1. ↑ MPC-HC v1.7.8 is released – Release announcement on official website
  2. ↑ "About MPC-HC". MPC-HC project on SourceForge. Retrieved 2013-01-21.
  3. ↑ "SourceForge's discussion about project status". Retrieved 2011-04-06.
  4. ↑ "Doom9's topic on Media Player Classic patched build". Retrieved 2007-11-11.
  5. ↑ "Patched MPC 6.4.9.1". Sourceforge project Guliverkli2. 2011-04-10. Retrieved 2013-01-23.
  6. ↑ "Doom9's topic on Media Player Classic Home Cinema". Retrieved 2007-11-11.
  7. ↑ Attila Tamás Áfra (2010-09-20). "ICC color management in Media Player Classic Home Cinema" (blog). Retrieved 2014-02-09.
  8. ↑ "Changelog v1.6.5". MPC-HC wiki. 2012-12-16. Retrieved 2013-01-21.
  9. ↑ XhmikosR (2013-02-25). "Binaries are signed". MPC-HC.org. Retrieved 2014-02-09.
  10. ↑ "Media Player Classic - Home Cinema". XhmikosR's Preview Builds.
  11. ↑ "Media Player Classic - Home Cinema". free-codecs.com. 2013-03-29. Retrieved 2013-04-01.
  12. ↑ "MPC-HC Portable 1.6.5 Released". PortableApps. 2013-01-24. Retrieved 2013-02-11.
  13. ↑ "Media Player Classic - BE Win32/x64". Doom9. Archived from the original on 2013-04-01. Retrieved 2013-04-01.
  14. ↑ "Media Player Classic - BE". free-codecs.com. 2013-01-20. Retrieved 2013-01-21.
  15. ↑ "MPC-BE Read Me". SourceForge project mpcbe. 2015-01-17. Retrieved 2015-02-25.
  16. ↑ Doom9 - Media Player Classic supports Matroska v2, *.mp4, *.mov, and MPEG-4 Timed Text
  17. ↑ "Installing Media Player Classic - A step by step guide". Gizmos Freeware Reviews. 2012-06-15. Retrieved 2013-01-23.
  18. ↑ "Media Player Classic v6.4.9.1". The Portable Freeware Collection. 2012-08-20. Retrieved 2013-01-23.
  19. ↑ "Directshow Filters for Ogg Vorbis, Speex, Theora and FLAC". illiminable.com. 2006-02-24. Retrieved 2007-12-29.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Media Player Classic.