Media Player Classic
From CCCP
Media Player Classic (MPC) is an open source multimedia player founded by Gabest and part of the guliverkli project. The GUI is based on Microsoft's Windows Media Player 6.4, but has many more features specific for the MPEG-4 generation of video codecs. For instance, it includes built-in DVD playback with real-time zoom, support for softsubs (which can be obtained through an online database if needed), and can play virtually all video and audio codecs through directshow. This player is included in the CCCP.
Contents |
Customising Media Player Classic
Where is feature X in MPC?
Menus
Depends on the value of X... And he who searches shall find. But here's a brief list of what you can do from the different menus:
File
- Open stuff
- Save screenshots (ATTENTION: This won't work with the default settings, more on that below.)
- Get the current file properties
View
- Switch aspect ratios (should't be needed most of the time)
- Toggle visibility of various sub-windows (playlist, statistics, seek buttons etc.)
- Zoom in/out and setting fullscreen mode
- Set pan & scan settings (evil and shouldn't be necessary)
- Open main options window
Play
- Control seeking/playback, including go to time/go to frame
- Increase/decrease playback speed
- Open the configuration dialogs of the filters used (Filters submenu - you can switch audio and subtitle streams here if you want)
- Adjust volume
- Adjust shader settings (create, combine, and apply shaders to video) -- requires VMR9 (renderless), rendering in 3D, and d3dx9_33.dll
- Set close after playback finished or shutdown after playback finished
- Note: The Audio and Subtitle submenus are greyed out here as they only control MPC's internal filters, and CCCP doesn't use those.
- Jump to/skip between chapters
- Switch audio/subtitle tracks
Favorites
- Use/abuse favorites
Help
- Get info on commandline switches
- Show about window
- Visit MPC homepage
- Get help... not. There is no offline help in MPC. Use this FAQ and/or the tooltips instead.
Options
Brief list of what you can do in the options screen (most of the settings are pretty obvious, and you probably shouldn't touch those that aren't):
Player
- Player: Various aesthetic options, such as always on top, one vs. several windows, fullscreen controls etc.
- Formats: File associations (what files will open with MPC when you doubleclick them)
- Keys: Set keyboard and remote-control commands
- Logo: Set which logo the player will use when stopped (purely aesthetical). Submitted MPC Logos
- Web interface: If you don't know what this is, you don't need it.
Playback
- Playback: Various playback options, such as volume, playback n times etc.
- DVD/OGM: Various language preference settings etc. for DVD playback - OGM is handled by the external splitter CCCP installs.
- Output: Technical options about renderers and DirectShow among other things. Do NOT touch these if you don't know exactly why you're doing it.
Filters
- Filters: Choose which internal filters MPC should use. Don't touch these without good reasons, the defaults are set to work for almost all people and all situations.
- Audio Switcher: Settings for MPC's internal audio switcher. All settings here (except enabling the switcher) are better done in ffdshow's audio decoder.
- Audio Decoders: Settings for MPC's internal audio decoders (AC3, DTS and others). Not used with the CCCP defaults, and you shouldn't need to do anything with them.
- MPEG Decoder: Brightness, contrast etc. settings for DVD playback (CCCP doesn't use MPC's internal MPEG decoder, so these settings won't have any effect with the CCCP defaults).
- Overrides: Adjust priorities for loading DirectShow filters (DirectShow Merit). DO NOT TOUCH these settings unless you're either an experienced encoder or a playback pack maker.
Subtitles
- Subtitles: Settings for MPC's internal subtitler, which CCCP doesn't use (we use VSFilter instead). These settings won't have any effect with the CCCP default configuration. You probably never need to touch these.
- Default Style: Appearance options for MPC's internal subtitler. Doesn't have any effect with the default CCCP configuration, use the Play -> Filters -> VSFilter configuration dialogue instead if you want to change how SRT subs look.
- Database: Set URL of an online subtitle database. If you want use online subtitle database, read this guide
Tweaks
- Don't use XP Theming: Disable XP's skinning of MPC. Useful for some people, or those who absolutely need their player to blend in with their UI.
- Use the WM ASF Reader...: As the description suggests, enables faster seeking in ASF files, but also doesn't allow you to seek through incomplete files.
- Jump Distances: Useful for timing subs, set the jump distances of MPC's seeking controls.
How to take screenshots with Media Player Classic
It will likely involve changing settings first. The default CCCP settings use the overlay mixer for output for a number of reasons, but that unfortunately disables screenshots. We didn't do this because we're evil, really - it's better. While it's possible to take screenshots with MPC, we recommend using ffdshow's grab function instead. If you really need to do it in MPC, here's how to do it anyway:
- Start MPC and go into the options dialogue. Choose "Output".
- Under "DirectShow Video", there are a number of alternatives. Note that "Overlay Mixer" is chosen by default. Now, if you're using Windows XP, choose the "VMR7 (windowed)" alternative and press OK. If you're using Windows 2000, then use "VMR9 (windowed)" instead. But BE WARNED: VMR9 is buggier than overlay. Common VMR9 problems include, but are not limited to, the video getting a green tint, or blacks -> greys.
- Now use File -> Save Image... (or Alt+Print screen and pasting into Paint or the picture editor of your choice) to take as many screenshots as you like. Alternatively, you can go into View -> Options... -> Keys and assign it a hotkey.
- When you're finished, go back to View -> Options... -> Output and put the renderer back to "Overlay Mixer" if you like.
See also
External links
