Media Control Panel

Media Control Panel

Media Control Panel is a free, open-source media center software for Windows. It allows you to play videos, music, and view photos from your computer. It has plugin support and customizable skins.
Media Control Panel image
media music video photos player opensource

Media Control Panel: Free Media Center Software for Windows

A free, open-source media center software for Windows, allowing you to play videos, music, and view photos from your computer with plugin support and customizable skins.

What is Media Control Panel?

Media Control Panel (MCP) is a free, open-source media center application for Windows. It provides an intuitive interface for managing and playing your digital media library on a computer connected to a TV or home theater system.

Key features of MCP include:

  • Plays videos, music, and photos from local hard drives or network locations
  • Supports most common media formats out of the box
  • Plugin architecture allows extending functionality through 3rd-party plugins
  • Completely customizable interface via skins
  • Myriad of configuration options for fine-tuning
  • Active development community providing updates and fixes

MCP aims to be a full-featured media center while maintaining a small footprint and being easy to set up and use. The open-source nature allows enthusiasts to contribute features and improvements over time. It works well for those looking to set up a basic home theater PC without needing proprietary software or costly licensing.

Media Control Panel Features

Features

  1. Play videos, music, and photos
  2. Plugin support
  3. Customizable skins
  4. Remote control support
  5. Live TV support with DVR capabilities (with plugins)
  6. Online media streaming
  7. Media library management and metadata scraping
  8. Audio, video and image codecs support
  9. Support for external devices

Pricing

  • Free
  • Open Source

Pros

Free and open source

Highly customizable

Large collection of plugins

Great community support

Supports many media formats

Intuitive and easy to use

Cons

Can be resource intensive

Setup can be complicated for beginners

Some plugins and skins cost money

No official support offered


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