Broad compatibility, simply explained
Containers such as MKV and MP4 hold media streams; video and audio codecs describe how those streams are compressed. MPC-FFmpeg uses FFmpeg libraries to handle a wide range of combinations. Formats are grouped by type to keep the reference easy to scan.
Compatibility note: Thousands of encoding settings and file variations exist, so compatibility cannot be absolute. Entries reflect FFmpeg capabilities and have not all been individually tested in this MPC-FFmpeg build.
Container compatibility
| Type | Formats and extensions |
|---|---|
| Common video | Matroska (.mkv, .mka), MP4 (.mp4, .m4v), AVI (.avi), QuickTime (.mov, .qt), WebM (.webm) |
| MPEG, DVD and broadcast | MPEG Program Stream (.mpg, .mpeg, .vob), MPEG Transport Stream (.ts, .m2t, .mts, .m2ts), MPEG Elementary Streams (.m1v, .m2v) |
| Windows and internet video | ASF (.asf, .wmv, .wma), Flash Video (.flv, .f4v), Ogg (.ogg, .ogv, .oga), 3GP / 3G2 (.3gp, .3g2) |
| Professional and archive | MXF (.mxf), Material Exchange Format OP1a variants, DV (.dv), NUT (.nut), GXF (.gxf), LXF (.lxf) |
| Legacy internet media | RealMedia (.rm, .rmvb, .ra), Nullsoft Streaming Video (.nsv), NuppelVideo (.nuv), Vivo (.viv), RoQ (.roq) |
| Legacy QuickTime and animation | QuickTime legacy movies (.mov), FLIC (.fli, .flc), Autodesk Animator FLIC, Animated PNG (.apng), animated GIF (.gif) |
| Game and preloader media | Bink (.bik), Smacker (.smk), Sega FILM / CPK (.cpk), Electronic Arts multimedia (.str, .cdata variants), Westwood VQA (.vqa), Interplay MVE (.mve) |
| Additional game formats | Bethesda VID (.vid), id Software RoQ (.roq), THP (.thp), Nintendo GameCube / Wii THP, PlayStation STR (.str), Duck TrueMotion media |
| Audio-only files and containers | WAV (.wav), Wave64 (.w64), AIFF (.aif, .aiff), CAF (.caf), AU (.au), Sun/NeXT audio (.snd), M4A (.m4a) |
| Compressed audio files | MP3 (.mp3), AAC / ADTS (.aac, .adts), FLAC (.flac), WavPack (.wv), Monkey’s Audio (.ape), Musepack (.mpc), Opus (.opus), Ogg Vorbis (.ogg) |
| Other audio and transport | AC-3 (.ac3), E-AC-3 (.eac3), DTS (.dts), AMR (.amr), GSM (.gsm), True Audio (.tta), TAK (.tak), APEv2-tagged audio files |
Video compression compatibility
| Type | Compression formats |
|---|---|
| Modern mainstream | H.264 / AVC, H.265 / HEVC, AV1, VP8, VP9 |
| MPEG family | MPEG-1 Video, MPEG-2 Video, MPEG-4 Part 2, MPEG-4 ASP, H.261, H.263, H.263+, H.263i |
| DivX, Xvid and early digital video | DivX 3 (MS MPEG-4 v3), DivX 4/5/6, Xvid, MSMPEG4 v1/v2/v3, 3ivx, FLV1 / Sorenson Spark |
| Windows video | VC-1, WMV1, WMV2, WMV3, Microsoft Video 1 (MS-CRAM), MS RLE, MS Screen 1/2, Windows Media Screen |
| Web and open video | Theora, Dirac, Snow, VP3, VP5, VP6, VP6F, VP7 |
| Professional acquisition and editing | Apple ProRes, Avid DNxHD / DNxHR, DV / DVCPRO, DVCPRO HD, Digital Betacam, Motion JPEG, Motion JPEG 2000 |
| Lossless and archival video | FFV1, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, Lagarith, Ut Video, MagicYUV, raw uncompressed video, lossless JPEG |
| High-bit-depth and specialist | JPEG 2000, CineForm HD, v210 (10-bit 4:2:2), packed RGB / YUV variants, 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 raw formats |
| Classic QuickTime and AVI | Cinepak, Indeo 2/3/4/5, Sorenson Video 1, Sorenson Video 3 (SVQ3), RPZA / QuickTime Video, Animation (RLE), QTRLE |
| Early computer and screen capture | TechSmith Screen Capture (TSCC / TSCC2), CamStudio, ZMBV, VMware Screen Codec, Autodesk RLE, Microsoft RLE |
| Game and preloader video | Bink Video, Smacker Video, Westwood VQA, Electronic Arts TGQ/TQI, Interplay Video, id RoQ, Duck TrueMotion 1/2 |
| Additional legacy game codecs | Bethesda VID, FLIC, Sega Cinepak, THP video, Sierra VMD, Ultimotion, VMD Video, Escape 124 |
Audio compression compatibility
The currently documented MPC-FFmpeg player uses stereo output; decoding a multichannel source does not necessarily mean multichannel speaker output.
| Type | Compression formats |
|---|---|
| Everyday music and streaming | MP1, MP2, MP3, AAC / HE-AAC, Opus, Vorbis, WMA Standard / Pro |
| Cinema and multichannel soundtracks | AC-3 / Dolby Digital, E-AC-3 / Dolby Digital Plus, DTS / DCA, DTS-HD core-compatible streams, Dolby TrueHD, MLP |
| Lossless music | FLAC, ALAC / Apple Lossless, WavPack, Monkey’s Audio (APE), TTA / True Audio, TAK |
| Uncompressed and professional | PCM integer (8/16/24/32-bit), floating-point PCM, linear PCM in WAV/AIFF/MOV, Broadcast WAV, DVD PCM, G.711 A-law / μ-law |
| Windows and legacy compressed audio | WMA Lossless, WMA Voice, ADPCM IMA WAV, Microsoft ADPCM, Creative ADPCM, Yamaha ADPCM, Dialogic OKI ADPCM |
| Telephony and speech | AMR-NB, AMR-WB, GSM, GSM-MS, Speex, G.722, G.723.1, G.726, G.729 |
| Early music codecs | Musepack (MPC), ATRAC3, ATRAC3+, ATRAC1, QDesign Music, QCELP, RealAudio Cook, RealAudio 14.4 / 28.8 |
| Game and console audio | Nintendo DSP ADPCM, PlayStation ADPCM, Xbox ADPCM, Bink Audio, Smacker Audio, Electronic Arts ADPCM, Westwood audio |
| Additional and archival audio | Shorten (SHN), WavPack hybrid, Nellymoser, RealAudio family, various historical speech codecs |
| Other PCM and modulation | DPCM variants, 4-bit ADPCM variants, signed / unsigned PCM, little-/big-endian PCM, planar PCM variants |
What about broken, incomplete or unusual files?
MPC-FFmpeg's software-oriented alternative backend may succeed with malformed headers, incomplete recordings, unusual streams or old game/preloader multimedia when enough usable data remains. That is a playback attempt, not file repair.
Broken indexes, corrupted blocks and missing metadata have different effects. For example, an AVI with a damaged index may still contain readable frames; an MP4 missing indispensable moov metadata may require specialist repair. Neither FFmpeg support nor this index guarantees success on an individual damaged file.
When hardware video decoding is the problem, MPC-FFmpeg may provide a more conservative software path, but this can substantially increase CPU usage and video output still relies on the system display stack.
For normal MPC-HC playback with automatic or right-click fallback, see CW-PlayBridge.
Technical reference
This overview draws on FFmpeg container documentation and FFmpeg codec documentation. Playback depends on the libraries and capabilities included with the installed MPC-FFmpeg release.
See also MPC-FFmpeg player overview, the site-wide formats guide and playback troubleshooting.