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. 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 The version known as Media Player Classic 6.4.9.1 was meant for fixing bugs and updating outdated libraries; its branch's development is inactive.
Home Cinema
A fork, called Media Player Classic - Home Cinema , adds new features, as well as fixes bugs and updates libraries. MPC-HC updates the original player and adds many useful functionalities including the option to remove tearing, additional video decoders, 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. Windows 8 support was introduced in version 1.6.5. Beginning with version 1.6.6 the stable releases are signed. Apart from stable releases as published, nightly builds are also publicly available. MPC-HC is also distributed in the PortableApps format. MPC-HC 1.7.8 released in 2015 was built with the MediaInfoLib 0.7.71. MPC-HC 1.7.1 added support for HEVC format. MPC-HC 1.7.13 now requires SSE2 supporting CPU and no longer runs on Intel Pentium III or AMD Athlon XP. MPC-HC 1.7.13 is the final version and the program has been officially discontinued as of July 16, 2017, due to a shortage of active developers with C/C++ experience. Its source code on GitHub was last updated on August 27, 2017, a month and a half after the official final version.. Unofficial versions from the same developer responsible for MPC 6.4.9.1 started appearing in January 2018. These builds contain small fixes/improvements, updated internal codecs, AV1 support, "youtube-dl" integration, and updates to some other external components; support for Windows XP was also dropped in these builds. Binary releases are available, as well as source code.
Black Edition
Media Player Classic - Black Edition 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 Seekbar Previews. Player development began in February 2011. Developers used a modification of MPC-HC made by a programmer nicknamed "bobdynlan". The first version was released on September 12, 2012. Starting with version 1.5.0, MPC-BE no longer supports Windows XP. MPC-BE version 1.5.1 and newer require SSE2 supporting CPU and no longer run on IntelPentium III or AMD Athlon XP. MPC-BE stable release version 1.5.4.4969, was released December 27, 2019, and nightly builds are also available.
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. An AAC decoding filter had once been present in MPC. MPC-HC is also one of the first to support Dolby Atmos audio natively. MPC can use an INI file in its application folder, making it a portable application.
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 ATIvideo cards when using an H.264 or VC-1codec. This provides hardware-acceleration for playback. In addition to DirectShow, MPC can also use the QuickTime, RealPlayer, and SHOUTcast codecs and filters to play their native files..
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.
TV tuners
MPC supports playback and recording of television if a supported TV tuner is installed.
