Ever find yourself wondering whether you should use VLC media player or Media Player Classic? Going forward, the answer is easy – because the MPC-HC project has officially carked it.
Media Player Classic, of course, will continue to operate on your computer as long as you have it installed. But the project itself has come to a close, as was announced by the developers on the MPC-HC website.
“For quite a few months now, or even years, the number of active developers has been decreasing and has inevitably reached zero,” the post reads. “This, unfortunately, means that the project is officially dead and this release would be the last one.”
Media Player Classic has long been one of the preferred free video players for users on the internet, particularly among anime fans as it comes bundled certain packages of the K-Lite Codec Pack. MPC was also beloved for its snappy interface, wide file support, and more recently, the ease with which it played H.265 files. Of course, VLC is supported up and down the internet as well. VLC was also the go-to solution for media streams (before Twitch, at least) and it’s also quite versatile for those who need support on other operating systems.
Regardless of people’s preferred media client, it’s sad to see the MPC-HC project come to an end. It’s astonishing to see a project go through 11 years of development only to come to an end, although it is still a superb piece of software that works pretty much flawlessly – at least for those on Windows. But as the H.265 codec becomes more popular and newer codecs and containers come into the fray, along with 360 and VR video, Media Player Classic will fade into the distance.
There’s a chance that the MPC project will continue, should a developer step up to help out. But failing that, the Media Player Classic project is over. You can download the final (in all likelihood, anyway) version of MPC-HC on the official website.
Comments
21 responses to “Media Player Classic Is Dead”
I used to be VLC all the way, but PotPlayer is where it’s at now. So much better at playing smooth 4k media. VLC chokes like someone trying to deep throat a hoagie, but PotPlayer is flawless every time!
I’ll give it a shot. MPC-HC has been my go to for years so transitioning to something new is going to be painful.
Same, been a loyal & happy MPC-HC user for years. Tried VLC and thought it was woeful when it came to picture enhancement, MPC had much more freedom & with some solid tinkering you can get it to run anything from 480p to 4k in prestine filter & shader enhanced glory. It will definitely be missed. I also read online that their is MPC-Black Edition which uses the same fork as MPC-HC so I’m going to make the jump to that eventually since it will be an easier transition. There is no way I’m using VLC as my default PC video player. The VLC app on my android tablet is excellent for streaming 1080p movies from my PC using Universal Media Server, even files with soft coded subtitles. So I’ll give VLC that much lol
Here’s a link for you just for convenience sake.
https://potplayer.daum.net/
Just make sure if it asks you to install a codec pack during install, to do it. It’s only a small one (not like one of those packs with 1000 different ones.) It’s the only codecs I’ve ever installed, and never been unable to play a single thing yet! Check out the hardware acceleration options too! So smooooooooth!!
I swear by PotPlayer! Been using it for god knows how long now.
I was hugely sceptical when I first looked at it, but man.. what a gem!
The main reason I initially installed it, was because you can tell it to use CUDA, so all gets done on the graphics card, which when dealing with 4k media with a high bit rate, is a blessing, since the work gets done soooooooo much faster!
I’ve tried a variety of players over the years (WMP, Real, DivX, MPC, Pot, Gom, VLC and probably others that last only a few minutes because they sucked) and wound up with VLC. I’ve never seen it choke on a movie that wasn’t damaged in someway. And even with a damaged file it still managed to play, just a bit slow and jerky.
Used MPC (and the KLite codec pack) years ago when I realised WMP couldn’t manage to play a bunch of stuff. But as VLC matured I just used it since it’s been so reliable.
Do you play many 4k movies though? That’s the only time I’ve found it actually chokes in the way I mentioned. Regular 1080p movies 90% of the time were perfect (if they would play.) Initially I didn’t have many 1080p movies that simply wouldn’t play in VLC, but as time went by, I began to find more and more. But the main reason I switched was cos of the poor 4k performance.
Yeah I do play 4k. Not all the time since not everything is available in 4k but fairly regularly. Runs fine on my desktop but not my old laptop. But then my laptop sucks, even modern CPU only powered graphics is better than it. And my laptop is only 1280×800 or thereabouts so 4k is wasted on it 😛
That said, I have a GTX1070 in the desktop plus a good CPU and plenty of RAM. I haven’t noticed a difference playing the videos from HDD or SSD though the initial load is faster from the SSD. Seeking would probably be faster too I imagine, though I normally watch a show/movie all the way through without seeking so I’d have to test.
I only have like a GT210 in my media pc, which certainly wouldn’t have helped, but more often than not, those same files would still perform miserably on my desktop (which at he time had a 4GB GTX960). VLC would still show me huge grey patches and little squares of the picture in random spots, or would play like 2 seconds of the video, then the image would freeze, but the sound kept playing.
Installing potplayer allowed me to offload the workload to CUDA on my GPU’s though, and it just runs everything flawlessly! I didn’t expect it to work as well as it does, especially given how old the GT210 is, but given it does work so well, means I don’t have to fork out for a new GPU for that machine for a while yet 🙂
I think my other reply to this vanished into the ether (damn login problems)…
I’m surprised the GT210 actually copes at all. Kudos to Potplayer for managing smooth playback at all.
My previous GPU was a GTX970 and I reckon I probably started watching 4k just before moving from that to the GTX1070, so that may explain why I’ve never had problems with my main PC using VLC.
I was as surprised as well! I didn’t think it would cope well at all, but obviously the CUDA coding is just super quick. Even still, that card only has a measly 16 CUDA cores on it, but seems like it’s plenty to cope with that workload. And to think my current card (1080ti) has 3584 on it! lol
Just for clarity sake, those movies that were causing VLC to choke, same file played flawlessly in PotPlayer. I’m guessing the high bitrate was just too much for VLC to cope with.
VLC performance of the good old days is back in v3. v3 addresses all the issues like dismal 4k playback and also introduces 360 video support etc. While I too found solace in the arms of PotPlayer I think VLC is back, to reign as the champion supreme.
nooooooooo!
I hate VLC, interface feels too clunky and foreign (entirely user preference) and it seems to hate the majority of my media library too
CCCP/MPC FTW
Seriously, try PotPlayer. I haven’t thrown a single file at it that it couldn’t play yet! Last time I installed it fresh, it did ask if I wanted to install a codec pack during the install, and I did install it. Never had a single issue with it since.
Like you, VLC would often have issues with some of my media. Most of it seemed to be ok, but every now and then, I’d find it wouldn’t play the audio or video of a file, and 9/10 4k movies it either wouldn’t play, or played in chunks with glitches all over the place.
Check out MPC-BE (Media Player Classic Black Edition). As far as I know, it’s still being developed. It already contains more bugfixes than the original MPC.
Aw. I always preferred MPC.
“Ever find yourself wondering whether you should use VLC media player or Media Player Classic?”
No. The answer is always VLC.
Maybe this announcement will scare a few devs out of the woodwork?
I’ve been using KMPlayer for over half a decade now and though the last 6 months or so have seen a decline for me, it has always been great and easily the best looking player around with a great interface, heavy on the resources though. I’ve always had MPC as backup however in the case of a difficult file.
Try switching to PotPlayer, made by the same guy who made KMP after it got bought (the similarities when I was first shopping were striking). To my knowledge, the guy is still with Duam and developing for PotPlayer.
I did, in fact do that lol. Major problems with KMP last 6 months even through a new windows install/upgrade, all kinds of performance and stability issues. I installed PotPlayer and loved it instantly, even the majority of the keyboard shortcuts are the same, with none of the issues :O
Is it open source though? some people might be interested in forking it.