A modern Windows media player that combines the power of mpv with a native WinUI experience
HC Player was created for users who want the playback quality and flexibility of mpv, without giving up a polished, native and easy-to-use Windows interface.
Instead of simply wrapping mpv in another generic frontend, HC Player integrates advanced playback features directly into a modern Windows experience.
HC Player is built with Win32 and WinUI, with native light/dark themes, Windows media controls, taskbar integration, file associations and a Fluent-style interface designed specifically for modern Windows.
Under the interface is a full multimedia stack based on:
- libmpv
- FFmpeg
- libplacebo / gpu-next
- D3D11
- WASAPI
This provides high-quality video rendering, hardware-accelerated decoding and extensive format support.
HC Player exposes advanced playback features without requiring the user to manually edit configuration files:
- HDR playback and tone mapping
- Hardware decoding
- High-quality scaling
- Dithering and debanding
- Video interpolation
- Custom GLSL shaders
- Anime4K shader support
- Advanced color and presentation controls
HC Player includes its own Picture-in-Picture mode, integrated directly into the player interface, with compact playback controls and seamless return to the main window.
- Primary and secondary subtitles
- Independent timing and positioning
- ASS subtitle support
- Custom subtitle fonts
- Subtitle styling controls
- External subtitle loading
- WASAPI output
- Windows audio-device selection
- Optional exclusive mode
- Audio-track switching
- External audio tracks
- Audio delay controls
- Preferred audio languages
HC Player integrates MediaInfo for detailed technical information about the current media.
It can also automatically identify and display media characteristics such as:
- Dolby Vision
- Dolby Atmos
- Dolby Audio
- DTS / DTS:X
- HDR10+
- HDR
- YouTube
- HLS / Live media
Badge artwork can also be customized by the user.
HC Player includes a complete playback queue with drag-and-drop, shuffle and direct item navigation, along with chapters, frame stepping, A–B looping, playback-speed controls, resume playback and configurable screenshots.
Power users can import:
mpv.conf- GLSL shaders
- subtitle fonts
- playback profiles
- yt-dlp
- Deno
while normal users can control the most important features directly from the native Settings interface.
yt-dlp and Deno are optional integrations and are not bundled with the HC Player installer.
HC Player integrates advanced playback controls directly into a native Windows interface.
Native menus in light and dark themes
Detailed technical information is available directly inside the player through MediaInfo.
Advanced mpv features can be configured through HC Player's native Settings interface.
HC Player is distributed as a native x64 Windows application through the official installer.
The installer provides:
- Native Windows integration
- Custom file-type icons and associations
- Start Menu integration
- Optional Desktop shortcut
- Clean installation and uninstall behavior
- Required Windows runtime components
Portable distribution is not included in the HC Player 1.0 public release.
- Português (Brasil)
- English (United States)
- Windows 11
- Windows 10 version 1809 or later
- x64 processor
HC Player is free and open-source software licensed under the GNU GPL-3.0-or-later.
Third-party components remain under their respective licenses.
See LICENSE, THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md and SOURCE-MANIFEST.md for details.
Source and compliance materials for each public release are available alongside the installer in the corresponding GitHub Release.
HC Player — native Windows design, serious mpv playback.