Media Player Classic
Shares rank 25 of 30 music players by recommenders
A long-running free Windows video player that people have used for years without issues, often alongside codec packs.
7 people recommended Media Player Classic in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and none criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
Summary written by Claude from 5 comments.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- mixed feelings
- 1
- warn against or regret it
- 0
The record
Recommended in 2 of 12 months
In 3 different threads.
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
- Recommended in 3 threadsNeeds 5 or more, not met.
- The biggest thread supplies 43% of its recommendersNeeds half or less, met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 5 of the 8 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Reliable for years without issues
“I'm still using the Media Player Classic Home Cinema to this day.”
Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “Yt-dlp: External JavaScript runtime now required for full YouTube support” “I used Media Player Classic without any issues for years.”
Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “VLC's Jean-Baptiste Kempf Receives the European SFS Award 2025” Classic Windows-focused video player
“Agreed, Media player classic is the Winamp of video.”
Comment from 20 Jun 2026 in “Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs” “MPC is better if you're on Windows.”
Comment from 20 Jun 2026 in “Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs”
Other music players people recommend
The four most recommended other music players, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Mixed | Criticize | Approval | Months | Had for | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VLC media player | 139 | 31 | 79 | 64% | 12 | — | — |
| mpv media player | 68 | 11 | 11 | 86% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Infuse video player | 61 | 14 | 9 | 87% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Winamp | 53 | 6 | 6 | 90% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Media Player ClassicThis page | 7 | 1 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
Also compared with Kodi, foobar2000, iTunes and Plexamp.
What people said
5 of the 8 opinions about it, picked in proportion to the three counts, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Agreed, Media player classic is the Winamp of video.”
“MPC is better if you're on Windows.”
“I'm still using the Media Player Classic Home Cinema to this day.”
“once you had MPC + CCCP installed, you could finally view those glorious aXXo-branded 700MB files”
“I used Media Player Classic without any issues for years.”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 3 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.