MPC-BE icon
MPC-BE icon

MPC-BE

 177 likes

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 preview tooltip when...

MPC-BE screenshot 1

License model

  • FreeOpen Source

Application types

Country of Origin

  • RU flagRussia

Platforms

  • Windows
4.5 / 5 Avg rating (15)
177likes
15comments
0news articles

Features

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Properties

  1.  Lightweight
  2.  Customizable
  3.  Support for Themes

Features

  1.  Dark Mode
  2.  Thumbnails
  3.  Ad-free
  4.  Integrated Youtube support
  5.  Works Offline
  6.  Portable
  7.  No registration required
  8.  Support for 4K
  9.  Lossless Audio
  10.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions

MPC-BE News & Activities

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MPC-BE information

  • Developed by

    RU flag Alexander Vodiannikov
  • Licensing

    Open Source (GPL-3.0) and Free product.
  • Written in

  • Rating

    Average rating of 4.5 (15 ratings)
  • Alternatives

    111 alternatives listed
  • Supported Languages

    • English
    • Russian

AlternativeTo Categories

Video & MoviesAudio & Music

GitHub repository

  •  2,975 Stars
  •  110 Forks
  •  0 Open Issues
  •   Updated Jun 18, 2025 
View on GitHub

Our users have written 15 comments and reviews about MPC-BE, and it has gotten 177 likes

MPC-BE was added to AlternativeTo by realnabarl on Jan 19, 2013 and this page was last updated Apr 30, 2025. MPC-BE is sometimes referred to as Media Player Classic BE, MPCBE, MPC BE, MPC.

Comments and Reviews

   
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Comment summary: MPC-BE is highly praised for its similarity to MPC-HC, receiving feature updates and appealing appearance. Users find it lightweight, customizable, and a great alternative to VLC, though a Linux version is desired. Comments note areas for improvement, particularly in music playback, where looping and shuffle options are less effective. Despite some minor concerns regarding network usage performance and initial loading times, it is considered an outstanding media player.
Top Positive Comment
pino76
Dec 18, 2017
6

I don't think there is a better media player than this. I used to use the MPC-HC but because I didn't like the appearance, (yes, it's super ugly), MPC-BE was a perfect solution.

wbell539
Jul 10, 2024
1

Works extremely well. Now that I have more experience of it I have found that it often takes appreciable time with 'opening' displayed. During this time the video itself is being displayed but the windows as a whole is unmovable and otherwise inoperable.

Pavlin Lazarov
Apr 22, 2024
0

It's a good alternative to VLC but the only thing that you can't do is set as default video player which for me is not good.

23C5DA
May 4, 2024

You can associate it with video/audio/playlist file during installation. It's also very easy to set it as default video player from OS.

jethro_tull
Jan 4, 2024
1

A great successor to MPC, very similar to the MPC-HC. However, MPC-HC is only receiving security and bug fixes, MPC-BE is receiving feature updates.

Guest
Jan 11, 2022
1

It's a continuation of MPC-HC, which having been on the net since the mid 90s, is let me tell you, the best media player ever made. VLC is trash by comparison and always has been.

Netkuszkusz
Sep 16, 2021
3

It's still in development, but I rediscovered MPC-HC which is too under development, and being an integral part of K-Lite Codec Pack. It's a very nice, compact package to set up MPC-HC with madVR.

umitseyhan
Aug 31, 2021
0

There is nothing it can't play, lightweight, customizable, visually appealing, can be portable, practical to use. Still waiting for a Linux version tho.

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7 of 15 comments

What is MPC-BE?

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 preview tooltip when hovering the mouse cursor over the seek bar, as known from video platforms such as YouTube and Dailymotion, though many of these features, including the video preview on seekbar, were added to MPC-HC at a later date.

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.

Official Links