MPC-BE icon
MPC-BE icon

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...

MPC-BE screenshot 1

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  • Windows
187likes
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Comments and Reviews

   
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
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.

Top Negative Comment
Taburetkin
0

While the player can probably handle every media format out there, its user interface feels like it's stuck 20 years in the past. Basic image adjustment controls are hidden away in deeply nested menus and take several clicks to reach. I can achieve better picture quality in the default Windows 11 media player just by adjusting the brightness and contrast than I can with this one.

Noah Sean
0

My issue with MPC-BE is that the developer intentionally ignores MKV flags. I remember seeing his post about this at some point.

This is a problem when you're dealing with MKV files with many audio/subtitle tracks.

MKV flags exist for a reason, they can define which audio/subtitle tracks are the default for a specific MKV file. They should not be ignored!

That's why I still stick with MPC-HC.

wbell539
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
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
Replying to @Pavlin Lazarov

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
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
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.

Review from a new or low-activity account — shown here, but not counted in the app rating.
7 of 17 comments

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Official Links

Install from the command line

  • winget install -e --id MPC-BE.MPC-BE

Be careful what you paste into a terminal. Check what a command installs before running it.

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.

MPC-BE information

AlternativeTo Categories

Video & Movies, Audio & Music

GitHub repository

  •  4,551 Stars
  •  205 Forks
  •  1 Open Issues
  •   Updated  
View on GitHub

Our users have written 17 comments and reviews about MPC-BE, and it has gotten 187 likes

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