Media Player Classic is getting worse every release for several months or so

Hi there,

First of all, I'd like to thank you guys for MPC development. I know it's free and I know your are doing a lot of work. Now to the not-so-pleasant things.

I'm using MPC for the last ten years or so but now this is the first time I'm discovering so many issues, bugs and UI lacks.

For instance, there is a problem with serialization of the settings. Suddenly some of them somehow were reset (a checked checkbox for 'Thumbnal preview' was unchecked and so on). The others were not. Even worse, some of them look untouched ('Remember file position', for instance, it is checked) but behaves as ones that were reset (file position is not being remembered).

Well, I'm kinda backup dude, of course I had exported all my settings to an external file before it started. So, I opened the 'Options' dialog, the section with the 'Export' and 'Export keys' button... Ehm, where the 'Import' button's gone? Why do I need making backups if I cannot use them?

Mouse focus is lost after I do something in the Playlist, I cannot use mouse wheel for changing volume after that.

Though I made MPC a singleton ('The same window for all files'), when I choose 'Open in MPC' in Explorer, a bunch of windows are open. Shell integration is about totally useless for me now.

Every time I update, I see something new is broken and doesn't work anymore. It is so for the latest several months or so. Is it possible to keep the program more stable as it was before? Thank you!

Middle-mousebutton-click on the seekbar disables the preview. Maybe that happened.

Export settings creates a .reg file. To import such a registry key backup, you simply double-click on that file. For best results you should reset the settings before importing a backup.
You can also backup/restore with the Codec Tweak Tool, which takes care of everything for you.

File history is limited to last 50 files (you can increase in advanced options).

Playlist is a different window that the main one. Clicking on an item in the playlist to play it should transfer focus to main window.

The Explorer problem is a flaw in Windows. That opens multiple instances. MPC-HC tries to redirect those actions to the first instance, but apparently that goes wrong sometimes in your case.
Three correct way to add files:
1) Use "Add to MPC-HC playlist"
2) Drag&drop your selection onto MPC-HC. Hold Ctrl to append to playlist, without Ctrl it replaces current playlist.
3) Use the MPC-HC entry in the explorer "Send To" submenu. That sends the selection to one instance.

None of your issues are related to recent changes.

You can also try MPC-BE. Development of MPC-HC has stopped years ago, which means that there's an increasing chance of bugs appearing because of changes in codecs with every new release. To avoid this, the player should also be in active development, so it can be kept in tune with the newer and ever-changing codecs.

No no no. MPC-HC did NOT stop development. In fact, it still has very active development. You have been living under a rock and are very much misinformed!

>Middle-mousebutton-click on the seekbar disables the preview. Maybe that happened.

Definitely not, but... lolwut? Middle-mousebutton-click on the seekbar disables the preview? Do you have a UI/UX guy in your team at all? Why the hell someone may need frequently/constantly switching it on/off? What is the use-case for that? Is the feature file-dependent and a user wants it on for a clip and doesn't for another? I'm pretty sure it is not. Online video players—Youtube and others—implemented the preview feature a long time ago and got us used to the idea it should work this way so just make it enabled for new users and keep the checkbox for old-timers. No need for shortcuts here. It's just like the china keyboard with a huge 'power off' button right above the arrows, placed there JUST IN CASE. Not so much harmful, though, but basically the same idea.

>Export settings creates a .reg file.

Are you sure you are the MPC developer? It creates 'mpc-hc-settings.ini' file, not .reg. And there is an option named 'Store settings in .ini file' (it is checked and disabled—I don't know why, isn't it a UI flow on its own?). The format of the file is not .reg, regedit doesn't support it ('The specified file is not a registry script').

>To import such a registry key backup, you simply double-click on that file. For best results you should reset the settings before importing a backup.
You can also backup/restore with the Codec Tweak Tool, which takes care of everything for you.

I made the backup file 'mpc-hc-settings.ini' from the player and want to restore it from the player. BTW, again to UI/UX, how do you think, is a user supposed to know that 'Codec Tweak Tool' tweaks the player as well? I even didn't realize until you wrote.

>File history is limited to last 50 files (you can increase in advanced options).

So? The player remembers file position during a session and looses it after restart. How is it related to '50 files' limit? And it started months ago.

>Playlist is a different window that the main one. Clicking on an item in the playlist to play it should transfer focus to main window.

You redesigned the behavior. And did it recently. It worked like a charm but now it doesn't. Both windows are yours, of the same process, you even don't need ugly hacks like LL_MOUSE_HOOK to keep the client area mouse-wheel awared. And, once again, it WORKED (maybe you used to translate the wheel messages from the playlist to the main window), and you broke the feature. The good feature.

>The Explorer problem is a flaw in Windows.

Oh, really? It's the same PC I used for years. It's the same Windows 7 I used for years. It's the same 'no updates for you' MS policy for years, so it the same f...ing Explorer I used for years. Looong years when it worked. And it's a new version of MPC. Of course 'The Explorer problem is a flaw in Windows' (no).

I'm a Windows UI/WinAPI/WinShell developer myself and I know there is a lot of issues in Win development. Sometimes you have to workaround them, so you can say: 'Oh, it's a flaw in Windows, no can do'. But the previous versions somehow already workarounded the problem, why don't you find the build that broke it and type 'git blame'?

>None of your issues are related to recent changes.

All of them are.

Plus now my fine-tuned font settings for subtitles are gone as well.

>In fact, it still has very active development

I SEE, why there are so many issues then.

Again, I know, how hard is to actively develop UI projects (a video player is all about UI after all, codecs do the math) not breaking anything. It's because one cannot cover UI with unit-tests. It's OK, though you could be more careful. But active development in the wrong direction (where 'Middle-mousebutton-click on the seekbar disables the preview') and issue-denial (you even didn't ask me for steps-to-repro) is not OK. Frankly speaking, I think the project is doomed from now.

MPC-BE was frozen a long ago as far as I know — so no f...g surprises every two weeks. It seems better for me now. Well, even VLC—one of the ugliest applications in the world—seems better for me now.

If the "Store settings in .ini file" is greyed out it means the player does not have write access to the file, which is the whole reason why you have problems with settings. It can't save them!!!
The program files folder is a protected folder, so write access is disabled for all normal non-elevated processes. You need to modify the file access permissions so that the "Users" group has modify permissions. The option in the installer to use INI file should do that for you. But better is to just use the Registry for storing the settings. That is faster as well.

Mouse scrollwheel in playlist controls vertical scrolling (in long list).

The explorer issue is real and you are totally wrong. Create a file association for calc.exe and open a selection of files. New instance for each file.
MPC-HC has special code to re-direct file open actions of new instances to the first instance. That works totally fine for me and others. So in practice your problem should not occur. Maybe it fails because of your INI problem.

Long story short. Stop using INI and your problems will vanish...