Media Player Codec Pack is a free collection of video and audio codecs, filters and playback tools for Windows. It extends format support in compatible DirectShow-based players, including Windows Media Player, and includes Media Player Classic Home Cinema for opening media files. Its components cover compressed video, standalone music, soundtracks and subtitles, with separate controls for decoding and audio output.
What the pack can play
Media Player Codec Pack handles both the file format and the media stored inside it. An MKV or MP4 file can contain different combinations of video, sound and subtitles; its extension alone does not identify the decoders it needs. LAV Splitter and the included source filters open these containers so the appropriate playback components can process their streams. Coverage includes MOV, AVI, WebM, transport streams and DVD VOB files as well as MKV and MP4.
Video decoding includes H.264, HEVC, AV1, VP9 and MPEG-2, alongside older DivX and Xvid material. Audio support extends from AAC, MP3, FLAC and Opus to Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks. The BASS-based source filter also opens specialist standalone music formats such as Monkey’s Audio, WavPack and OptimFROG, plus tracker music in MOD, XM and IT files.
Subtitle components handle external and embedded text tracks, including SRT and styled SSA/ASS subtitles. Blu-ray index and playlist structures are also recognized, although reading those structures does not decrypt a protected disc.
Hardware acceleration and audio output
Media Player Codec Pack checks processor capabilities, available threads and NVIDIA, AMD/ATI or Intel graphics when preparing decoding settings. These checks let it recommend suitable acceleration modes and thread counts within the selected codec’s limits. Hardware acceleration moves supported video decoding work to the GPU. When the graphics hardware cannot decode a particular format or profile, compatible software decoding remains available, with performance depending on the CPU and media.
Audio configuration accommodates stereo downmixing, surround speaker layouts and digital output. Downmixing combines multichannel sound for stereo playback, while a surround configuration retains channels for a matching speaker setup. Supported Dolby and DTS audio can also pass as a compressed bitstream to compatible receiving equipment, allowing that equipment to decode it. Available output formats depend on the sound device, connection and receiver as well as the player settings.
Media Player Codec Pack brings codec, graphics and sound options together in its Codec Settings interface. Its settings manager can copy configuration between Windows users, and the tray menu provides access to utilities and audio profile switching.
Media Player Codec Pack’s test and tuning tools
Standard and Plus include a video test tool that plays sample files using GPU or CPU decoding. Their audio test tool tests and calibrates multichannel PCM analog output and Dolby Digital sound, helping match playback to the speaker arrangement.
A separate power tuning tool adjusts Windows power options for video and audio playback.
Three free editions
All three Media Player Codec Pack editions are free. Standard supplies playback filters in both 32-bit and 64-bit forms, along with MPC-HC, the configuration utilities and playback tests. It also contains XviD, x264 and Lagarith video encoders for compatible encoding applications.
Lite removes encoder codecs and uses 32-bit decoders while remaining compatible with 64-bit Windows. It retains MPC-HC, codec configuration and the tray menu, but leaves out the larger editions’ video tests, audio calibration and power tuning tools.
Plus adds components including madVR video rendering, AviSynth+ processing and additional audio encoders, and bundles VLC alongside MPC-HC. When foobar2000 is already installed, Plus can supply specialist components for SACD images, DSF and DFF audio, DVD-Audio and HDCD playback. Its foobar2000 additions also include ASIO/DSD and WASAPI output support for compatible audio setups.
