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Changes from 2.7.4 to 2.8.0:
Updates:
- Updated LAV Filters to version 0.82-5-g77c25
- Updated MPC Video Renderer to version 0.10.7.2560
Changes/additions:
- Settings of SaneAR/VMR-9/EVR-CP/EVR-Sync have been moved and can now be accessed through the button behind the renderer on the Output settings page.
- Cleaned up the Output settings page and updated the tooltips of the video renderers.
- It is now possible to provide default settings through HKLM, which are read whenever creating fresh settings profile in HKCU section of Registry.
- When storing settings in INI file, the history is now split off in a separate file. When the application folder is not writable, the history file is placed in
%appdata%\MPC-HC. Also added an advanced option to always use appdata folder. - Please note that the Registry is still the preferred location for storing the settings. That has better performance than INI file. Settings backup is as easy as pressing a button here: Options > Miscellaneous > Export
- Added an advanced option
HistoryExcludeFilterto exclude certain content from getting added to recent file history. It is a simple semi-colon separated list of substrings that is matched against the full path or URL. - There also is a
HistoryExcludeFilterPrivatesetting with exact same purpose, which is not exposed through the user interface. - Added advanced option to automatically prune history entries older than X days. Defaults to 365, and can be disabled by setting to 0.
- Added a new
Show Historyentry to recent file menu. This opens a dialog for managing history entries. Allows you to search. Manually remove entries. Clean invalid entries. Clean old entries. Reset position, etc. - When opening a selection of files from Explorer, they are now added to playlist in correct alphabetical order.
- Added "sort by date" option in playlist context menu. Note that all sort actions apply once to current list and do not have effect on future playlist changes.
- Added advanced option to sort files by date when skipping to next/previous file in folder.
- Color controls have been moved from options dialog into a new popup dialog. Accessible through the Play menu or hotkey.
- Advanced settings have now been re-ordered and grouped into categories.
- Improved performance when using libass for rendering subtitles.
- Added stack trace to internal (fallback) exception handler.
Fixes:
- Fixed an issue where subtitle styles changes were not dynamically applied during segment change in segmented Matroska files with ordered chapters.
- Fixed an issue where seekbar preview could show wrong edition with playing a Matroska file with multiple video editions.
- Fixed an issue where video preview was up-side-down in web interface when renderer provided a topdown bitmap.
- Fixed an issue with EVR-CP that caused still images to not render immediately.
- Improved long path support in a few file dialogs, such as "Load subtitles".
- A few other fixes and small improvements.
A big thanks to my fellow developer Adipose for doing a lot of great work this summer.
Full changelog
Full list of all changes since start of this project.
OpenSubtitles download error 406
Subtitle downloads from OpenSubtitles may fail depending on time of day. This is due to our daily download quota being exceeded. Current amount of donations is barely enough to pay for the existing quota. So it is unlikely that quota can be increased and situation will get worse over time.
If you create an OpenSubtitles account and configure it in MPC-HC settings then you may be able to bypass the quota.
Options > Subtitles > Misc > Right-click on OpenSubtitles.com > Setup > Fill in username/password
Overview of features
A lot of people seem to be unaware of some of the awesome features that have been added to MPC-HC in the past years. Here is a list of useful options and features that everyone should know about:
- Play HDR video
This requires using either MPC Video Renderer (MPCVR) or madVR.
These renderers can be selected here:
Options > Playback > Output
With other video renderers, the colors will be wrong!
MPCVR is included and is the recommended and default renderer for modern systems. MadVR needs to be installed separately. MPCVR also supports Dolby Vision. MadVR does not.
For optimal performance you should change the hardware decoder to D3D11 in LAV Video Decoder settings when using MPCVR on Windows 10/11, because this renderer uses DirectX11. - The installer of MPC-HC is very basic (and that will not change).
I therefore recommend using K-Lite Codec Pack. That includes MPC-HC and other essential components. It has a very advanced installation that can automatically create file associations, and helps you with easy configuration of important MPC-HC settings, such as preferred subtitle language(s). It also does automatic configuration of renderer and hardware decoding, for best performance and HDR support.
The Standard version should be sufficient for most people. Use Full version of you like to use MadVR. - Modern GUI Theme (Dark or Light) or the old classic theme
Options > Player > User Interface
It is also possible to change the height of the seekbar and size of the toolbar buttons.
Plus there are options to show audio/video details in the statusbar, such as codec and resolution. - Customizable toolbar buttons
You can add/remove/re-order the player buttons.
There are also several different toolbar designs to choose from. - Video preview on the seekbar
Options > Player > User Interface > Hover type - Ability to search for subtitles
Press D for manual search.
Or enable automatic search in: Options > Subtitles > Misc - Adjust playback speed
Menu > Play > Playback rate
The buttons in the player that control playback rate take a 2x step by default. This can be customized to smaller values (like 10%):
Options > Playback > Speed step
If you have 1000 IQ you can even do smart stuff like setting playback rate change to mouse right-click + scrollwheel:
Options > Player > Mouse
Adjusting playback speed works best with MPC Audio Renderer or SaneAR. These audio renderers have automatic pitch correction, while DirectSound does not.
Options > Playback > Output > Audio Renderer - MPC-HC can remember recently played files and also their playback position, so you can resume playback from when you left
Options > Player > History - You can quickly seek through a video with Ctrl + Mouse Scrollwheel.
- You can jump to next/previous file in a folder by pressing PageUp/PageDown.
- You can right-click on the framestep button to step backwards. Some other buttons also have right-click actions, such as closing file by right-clicking stop.
- You can perform automatic actions at end of file. For example to go to next file or close player.
Options > Playback > After Playback (permanent setting)
Menu > Play > After Playback (for current file only) - A-B repeat
You can loop a segment of a video. Press [ and ] to set start and stop markers. - You can rotate/flip/mirror/stretch/zoom the video
Menu > View > Pan&Scan
This is also easily done with hotkeys (see below). - There are lots of keyboard hotkeys and mouse actions to control the player. They can be customized as well.
Options > Player > Keys
Tip: there is a search box above the table. - You can hide GUI elements even in windowed mode
Options > User Interface > Hide Windowed Controls
That hides most GUI elements during playback. To show them simply move your mouse to bottom of window.
You can even hide everything except the video by pressing1(restore normal view with3). - You can seek inside the playlist by simply typing text (when playlist window has the mouse focus).
- MPC-HC also supports Blu-ray playback.
Only limitation is that you need to use a decrypting tool.
And it also does not support Blu-ray menus, but you can use the navigate menu in the player to select the content to play. - You can stream videos directly from Youtube and many other video websites
Put yt-dlp.exe in the MPC-HC installation folder.
Then you can open website URLs in the player: Menu > File > Open File/URL
You can even download those videos: Menu > File > Save a copy
Tip: to be able to download in best quality with yt-dlp, it is recommended to also put ffmpeg.exe in the MPC-HC folder.
Several YDL configuration options are found here: Options > Advanced
This includes an option to specify the location of yt-dlp.exe in case you don't want to put it in MPC-HC folder.
Note 1: You also need to install Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)
Note 2: For optimal Youtube support you may also need to put deno.exe in same folder as yt-dlp.
Note 3: yt-dlp nightly build (very latest version made daily)
Note 4: yt-dlp windows7 compatible build - Besides all these (new) features, there have also been many bugfixes and internal improvements in the player in the past years that give better performance and stability. It also has updated internal codecs. Support was added for CUE sheets, WebVTT subtitles, etc.
- You should really take a few minutes to look through all the options pages if you are a new user or if you are upgrading from a very old version. Don't forget the advanced options page.