Media Player Classic Home Cinema

3.0 stars

"Good quality, plays many codecs"

April 6, 2013  |   By ok4mi2

Version: Media Player Classic Home Cinema 1.6.6

Pros

It seems to have a smaller footprint than some others which have good features.

Cons

Not sure. It seems pretty good all around basic to low intermediate functioning and free.

Summary

Cannot get any better for the price. Perhaps some of the other free ones do have better adjustments and resolution but keep in mind it is not going to be much better if your graphics don't support it.

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1.0 stars

"Loaded with malware"

February 15, 2013  |   By doczoidberg

Version: Media Player Classic Home Cinema 1.6.5

Pros

None that I cna see.

Cons

WARNING: this media player is loaded with malware. After having used Media Player Classic for several years, I went to CNet to download it once again for my brand new machine, only to get it all infected with a bunch of unavoidable add-ons. I am very annoyed.

Funny how almost all of the positive reviews for this download come from users who just happened to register on the same day their review was posted....

Summary

If you want Media Player Classic, get it somewhere else.

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5.0 stars

"My Favorite Player"

January 9, 2013  |   By SteaknEggs

Version: Media Player Classic Home Cinema 1.6.4

Pros

Although Media Player Classic Home Cinema doesn't receive high praise from CNet, it long remains my favorite video player for a couple reasons. When you position your cursor at the bottom of the video while playing in full screen mode, a timeline appears, allowing you to view how much time is left to play or adjust the volume. Also, it's the only media player I am aware of the has the ability to slow down or speed forward the audio so you can correct out-of-sync audio.. by using the - or + keys.

Cons

noneeeeeeee (10 characters minimum)

Summary

Although Media Player Classic Home Cinema doesn't receive high praise from CNet, it long remains my favorite video player for a couple reasons. When you position your cursor at the bottom of the video while playing in full screen mode, a timeline appears, allowing you to view how much time is left to play or adjust the volume. Also, it's the only media player I am aware of the has the ability to slow down or speed forward the audio so you can correct out-of-sync audio.. by using the - or + keys.

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5.0 stars

"I think MPC-HC is the best."

November 29, 2012  |   By bjdeeler

Version: Media Player Classic Home Cinema 1.6.4

Pros

I like the one mouse click to Pause the program. No need to search the screen for the Pause button.

Cons

Haven't found any yet. However, it will not turn lead into gold.

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3.0 stars

"Works for basics and Blu-Ray, needs improvement."

October 19, 2012  |   By Drake1132

Version: Media Player Classic Home Cinema 1.6.4

Pros

Plays Blu-Ray discs, DVDs, and just about any video file (if proper codecs are installed on system). Is reasonably stable most of the time. Has a number of configuration options for power users. Is friendly to fullscreen apps.

Cons

Does not interface with Windows 7 AutoPlay, so cannot set MPC-HC as default program for disc insertion. Configuration options are not intuitively laid out. Processing effects such as deinterlacing and noise reduction are burried, making them difficult for new users to enable. Processing effects are not configurable. User Interface is out-dated and clunky. Context Menu setup for file types does not work (though folders do).

Summary

I originally picked up this program to play Blu-Ray discs, as the program that came with my laptop never seemed to work. I tried a large number of different programs and MPC-HC is the only one that I could get to work properly and well with Blu-Ray.

Since that time I have also used it for DVDs and video files in general, and it works well for those purposes.

I often like to have movies playing in the background for background noise when running other fullscreen applications, such as games. For that purpose I have found that my usual prefered program, KMP, does not work with such situations when it reaches the end of one video on the playlist (specifically, when it tries to load the next file in the playlist the program will freeze). I decided to try MPC-HC for this purpose to see if it did any better and I was pleased to see that it transitions through the playlists flawlessly even when a fullscreen app is running.

However, despite the fact that the program does a few things quite well, as noted in my list of cons there are some flaws and the program could use improvement in those areas.

With respect to the AutoPlay interfacing, I even tried registry hacking using other AutoPlay handlers as a baseline to work from and was not able to get AutoPlay to work under Windows 7 at all. As a result, the best I can do is to have AutoPlay open a disc in Windows Explorer and use the context menu options from there to launch the disc in MPC-HC.

Configuration options in menus and context menus within the program, as well as within the options interface window could use a complete redesign, as many options are not where one might expect to find them, and related options are often in completely different areas than each other. Additionally, the program does not have the number of power user options available that other programs such as KMP have.

Processing effects, such as deinterlacing, are listed as "shaders" which is technically incorrect for most of the options present in the category, but labeling is a minor issue by comparison to the other problems for such effects. As I mentioned, you cannot configure those options, for example, you cannot choose the method of deinterlacing that is used.

As for the user interface, I believe that the older styling was used deliberately, but I think it was a poor choice. While the basic interface works and is useable, it is not remotely attractive. On the one hand, since you should be looking at the videos you're playing rather than the interface, this isn't really a deal breaker for me, but on the other hand, I like my programs to look good, even if I'm not looking at them. Skinning options would also be welcome, but are not included.

Additionally, I feel that the complaints mentioned by the CNet Editor's Review are spot on and should be taken into consideration by users, with one exception. As mentioned by another user review, the functionality of the stop button is actually pretty standard. The one thing that other players often allow, and that MPC-HC does not, is that you can sometimes choose in other programs for the program to store the stop location and automatically resume on play. This is a nice option to have for those that prefer it, but generally speaking, when you click stop, playback should stop, not pause.

All-in-all, it is a decent program, and for basic use it does what is needed. But the flaws are significant for power users. As a result, while I will continue to use ot for Blu-Ray for the time being, and will continue to use it for video playlists while gaming, I will continue to use KMP for most of my video playback needs, and will continue to search for a better player for everything.

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1.0 stars

"Stay a w a y from this program"

October 17, 2012  |   By SalenroM

Version: Media Player Classic Home Cinema 1.6.4

Pros

It plays video files

Cons

This program is loaded with malware it installed the Dealcaddy virus on my computer which installs without your consent is hard to uninstall and can open backdoors for other type of malware.

Summary

Stay away from this program unless you don't care about the health of your computer!

I learned the hard way

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5.0 stars

"Unfair Review by editor for Best Media Player."

October 12, 2012  |   By raju_thorat

Version: Media Player Classic Home Cinema 1.6.4

Pros

My Laptop has single core 1.7GHz AMD processor and ATI graphics card with core speed 380MHz. Still Window media player is not able to play most of the 1080p videos. Others like VLC also failed. But MPC-HC smoothly plays any kind of videos by utilising GPU smoothly. No need to install other codecs. Whenever I installed K-Lite codec packs antivirus warns. No crash no hang.

Cons

UI should be improved.

Summary

Windows media player in Home Basic version of windows 7 does not have MPEG-2 Decoder. I was unable to play DVD's but I got MPC-HC and works like charm. Everything mentioned by editor is false except "Open with" issue. But if you make MPC-HC default media player then no issues. The stop button behaviour is universal ,mr/mrs editor please mention any popular media player which pauses when you click stop button.

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1.0 stars

"It wasn't broke, so they fixed it!"

August 19, 2012  |   By swanjame

Version: Media Player Classic Home Cinema 1.6.3

Pros

None. It doesn't work right for me. Videos are glitchy on my Windows 7 system. I went back to Media Player Classic, which this "Home Cinema" version supercedes, and it still works fine.

Cons

Playback is unsatisfactory even on the simplest little video. This player needs help.

Summary

Use the old version if you've still got it. The links to download the old version are disabled. I was setting up a new netbook and downloaded the new version from the website; luckily, I still had the old version on my laptop.

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5.0 stars

"Solid, lightweight, no glitches"

August 17, 2012  |   By locogato

Version: Media Player Classic Home Cinema 1.6.3

Pros

Handles as many formats as you can think of, performs smoothly even in less speedy computers, x64 native version available

Cons

none, could not disagree more with this editor

Summary

the judgement by the editor is utterly unfair, and even if the problem reported is verifiable with any DVD, the strength of this software is for media files in the hard drive

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