How to Stream Videos with MPC-HC

MPC-HC is a fast, lightweight Windows player, but it does not talk to YouTube on its own.

To unlock streaming, you give it a free tool called yt-dlp, which knows how to read more than a thousand video sites. Drop that file into the MPC-HC folder and the player handles the rest.

The whole setup takes about five minutes and you only do it once. Here is the short version, then the steps in detail.

What is yt-dlp, in plain English?

Think of yt-dlp as a translator. YouTube does not hand a video to your player as one neat file - it splits it into separate video and audio streams behind the scenes.

yt-dlp fetches those streams and feeds them to MPC-HC so the video just plays.

It is a small command-line program, but you will not type any commands. MPC-HC runs it quietly in the background. You only need to place the file in the right folder once.

What you'll need

• MPC-HC - the player itself. Download MPC-HC here and install it, or just unzip the portable version.
• yt-dlp.exe - the helper that does the streaming. Grab the latest yt-dlp build, updated almost daily on CODECS.COM.
• ffmpeg.exe - optional but strongly recommended for full-quality video. Download FFmpeg here.

Step 1: Install MPC-HC

Run the MPC-HC installer and follow the prompts, or unzip the portable version to a folder of your choice. Either way, remember where the program lives - you will need that folder in the next step.

Step 2: Drop yt-dlp (and FFmpeg) into the MPC-HC folder

Find your MPC-HC installation folder. If you installed it the normal way, it is usually here:

C:\Program Files\MPC-HC\

Copy yt-dlp.exe into that folder. Then copy ffmpeg.exe into the same place. That is it - no installer, no registry changes. MPC-HC looks in its own folder first, so files placed here are found automatically.

Step 3: Install the missing runtime (if MPC-HC asks)

yt-dlp needs a small Microsoft component called the Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable (x86). Many PCs already have it. If MPC-HC shows an error mentioning this runtime when you try to play a link, install it from Microsoft's official site and you are good to go.

Step 4: Stream a YouTube video

Open MPC-HC. Go to File > Open File/URL, paste a YouTube link (or a link from Dailymotion, Vimeo and many other sites), and press OK.

After a short pause while yt-dlp does its work, the video plays right inside MPC-HC - full player controls, no browser, no ads in the player window.

Step 5: Download a video for offline viewing

While a link is open, go to File > Save a copy, choose where to save it, and type a name. MPC-HC uses yt-dlp to download the video, usually as an .mp4 or .webm file you can replay anytime.

That saved file works in MPC-HC or any player that supports the format. No internet needed once it is on your drive.

Optional: control the download quality

Want to cap quality to save space or bandwidth? Go to View > Options > Advanced and look for the YDLMaxHeight setting. Set it to 720 for 720p, 1080 for 1080p, and so on. The same Advanced screen also lets you point to yt-dlp manually via YDLExePath if you prefer to keep it somewhere other than the MPC-HC folder.

Keep it running smoothly

YouTube changes things often, which sometimes breaks older versions of yt-dlp. If streaming suddenly stops working, the fix is almost always the same: download a fresh yt-dlp.exe and replace the old one. Keeping FFmpeg current helps too.

Prefer a player with a similar setup but a different feel? See our MPC-BE vs MPC-HC comparison to decide which fork suits you. Or if you would rather use a player you already have, here is how to stream videos in VLC.

And that is everything. One helper file turns MPC-HC into a YouTube streamer and downloader - quick to set up, free, and yours to keep.