Setup guide for MPC-HC + madVR

Note: This guide is outdated and won’t be updated anymore.
It is recommended to install the Kawaii Codec Pack which does everything automatically. Make sure to follow the directions on their page.

This method will result in significantly more image quality and performance than using CCCP (or anything ffdshow-based, really), so if you’re struggling to play back Hi10P anime, or even regular 1080p, consider trying this. MadVR is updated constantly and uses a very new version of libav for decoding, giving it much more speed than the ridiculously outdated ffdshow-tryouts project, as well as the even more ridiculously CCCP codec pack that is based on it.

Step Zero: Prerequisites

  1. Uninstall ALL instances of MPC-HC, CCCP, ffdshow, madVR, Haali, K-lite, CoreAVC etc. you might have on your system.
    This is a clean guide that requires no other prerequisites to function, and ideally should have none installed either.

Step One: Downloading and Installation

  1. Download and install the latest version of MPC-HC (you want the .exe version for an installer)
    Note: Get the 32-bit version ONLY! The 64-bit version is incompatible with madVR and will not function at all.
  2. Install the LAV Filters. These are necessary for decoding video and audio. Take care while installing to deselect the LAV Splitter:
  3. Obtain and install the latest version of Haali’s Media Splitter
  4. Note: You can skip this step if your PC isn’t very powerful!
    Download the latest version of madVR and extract it anywhere you like. Run install.bat inside the folder. DO NOT DELETE THE FOLDER AFTERWARDS, madVR lives inside it and does not copy itself anywhere else. Move it somewhere sensible before installing, for example C:\Program Files\madVR.
    Note: Make sure you’re logged in as an Administrator when running this! Do not right click and “run as admin”, log in as admin and run it normally!

Step Two: Configuration

  1. Open up MPC-HC’s options menu. Under “Internal Filters”, disable everything. You can leave some of the ones on the left active, but make sure you’ve disabled all of the ones not selected here:
  2. Under Playback, enable “Auto-load subtitles”
  3. Under Subtitles, make sure “Allow animation when buffering” is enabled, and “Maximum texture resolution” is set to “Desktop”:
  4. Under Output, choose “madVR” as renderer.
    Note: If you skipped madVR, or you’re experiencing lagging, frame drops or poor performance in general, set this to “EVR Custom Pres.”, “Haali Renderer” or “VMR-9 (renderless)” instead – try them in that order until you find one that works.
  5. Make sure the LAV Video is selected as default decoder. If in doubt, go to external filters, choose “Add Filter”, select LAV Video Decoder and switch it to “Prefer”:
  6. After making the above changes, restart MPC-HC and play back any file. You should notice the madVR icon in the system tray. Right click this to access the settings:

    Once inside, disable the “fullscreen exclusive mode” under Rendering -> General Settings. I recommend leaving this off unless you are having playback problems, because it prevents you from taking screenshots and makes the transition to fullscreen very ugly (It also messes up MPC-HC’s interface):

Step Three: Confirmation

  1. Play back a Hi10P file and use Ctrl+J to enter the OSD: (If it doesn’t show up or looks completely different, doublecheck output configuration)
    Correct
    		 Incorrect
  2. Finally, check the “Filters” list (in the right click menu of MPC-HC during playback) and confirm that LAV Video is being used:

Bonus: Adding ffdshow (Optional)

Adding ffdshow will allow you to use its audio decoder (for filters + a more customizable mixer), as well as using it for formats other than AVC1 (H.264), VC1 and MPEG-2. Especially for older 480p and worse content (which isn’t likely to be encoded in AVC1), you can use the ffdshow deblocking or debanding filters to attempt to improve image quality this way.

  1. Install the latest ffdshow-tryouts.
  2. Open ffdshow’s settings dialog (Start -> All Programs -> ffdshow -> Video decoder configuration), under “DirectShow control” set the Merit to normal:
  3. Go back to the internal filters menu of MPC-HC and disable all of the remaining transform filters:
  4. Double check Step Three to make sure ffdshow doesn’t touch your H.264 video.

Enjoy Anime!

Written by nand – 31.07.2011

250 Responses to Setup guide for MPC-HC + madVR

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  1. 2012-05-29 at 06:03:19
    Roadtrip writes:

    Thanks for the guide. Just set this up on my new Main PC and it works perfectly. More importantly, it worked well on my 3 yr old laptop before this, and made Hi10 videos playable.

    Did find that if I went to http://1f0.de/downloads/, I could get the latest LAV Filters 0.50.5 (released May 12, 2012)

  2. 2012-05-29 at 17:03:44
    Crono writes:

    I set this up on my new laptop (geforce 560m / 2.2ghz i7) and it worked wonderfully, it looks tons better than it did with CCCP.

    However, I also tried this on an older netbook with an nvidia ion card that was capable of playing regular h.264 but got raped by 10-bit and not only did it not improve 10bit, even regular h.264 would not play properly anymore. (I was previously using CoreAVC / CCCP).

  3. 2012-05-31 at 17:02:58
    Anon writes:

    I tried this set up (skipping out on madVR) after fiddling with CCCP for hours and finally I’ve managed to get Hi10 files playing on my shitty old laptop with little-to-no-lag… funnily enough, the only problem I’m getting now is with Coalgirls releases; the OPs and EDs aren’t playing for some reason, any idea what settings I need to adjust to fix this?

  4. 2012-06-03 at 02:51:21
    yesanime writes:

    Thanks for the guide and great video quality!!! I was wondering what settings I should use in a software to compress the video for storage without reducing quality much? Telling me which software to use is helpful as well too. Thanks again.

  5. 2012-06-05 at 13:22:11
    nabojsa writes:

    I did everything that you said, double checked everything but I’m still getting “incorrect” screen in confirmation part of your tutorial…any advice to fix this?
    I didn’t install ffdshow if that makes any change.

  6. 2012-06-12 at 23:53:35
    jcolor writes:

    @ nabojsa. I got the “incorrect” screen at first also. The mistake I made was in step 2: Configuration, paragraph 5. For the LAV audio and video filters, you have to left click on the video decoder, check prefer and click apply and then repeat these steps for the audio decoder. I had only done this for one and not both. Not sure if that’s the problem you had.

  7. 2012-06-20 at 01:00:45
    Alex writes:

    Thanks for the guide!

  8. 2012-06-29 at 17:44:58
    ezki writes:

    nice guide thx

    i only miss madFlac

  9. 2012-07-05 at 17:11:10
    dvddude writes:

    This guide is well out of date now. You shouldn’t be using Haali it hasn’t been updated in a long time. LAV comes with it’s own splitter now, choose that in External Filters options and remove Haali.

  10. 2012-07-11 at 10:58:01
    newbie - in codecs writes:

    erm sorry guys but can anyone help me with my problem? sorry im very new to all these but the guide is definitely very helpful and thx alot coalgals. i ve followed the instructions step by step and yeah although i got a fix on my 1080p video however theres a problem with my audio.
    I can hear the background music and all but i can either hear the conversation (dialog) with minimal volume or i can’t even hear it at all. could some one help me on this one. thx =)

  11. 2012-07-11 at 12:54:00
    newbie - in codecs writes:

    ^ ok sorry u guys can ignore the above comment. my speakers were abit faulty and had to realigning the 3.5mm jack to receive full audio. hahaha.
    Btw once again thx for the guide. its awesome. =D

  12. 2012-07-18 at 19:16:34
    nowis writes:

    the lav filters dont show up 🙁 i have no idea what to do now , i installed them but they arent there 🙁

  13. 2012-07-19 at 03:13:13
    Epically Bacon writes:

    You may have to manually add them in the external filters field. They say it in the guide.

  14. 2012-08-14 at 18:15:29
    Nivlem writes:

    Um on step 3-2 (the one where I check the filters) I only get the LAV video decoder but not the LAV audio decoder. Instead I see the MPC audio decoder. I followed the instructions exactly I even added them in the external filters part too but it still doesnt show up. Can anybody help out?

  15. 2012-08-20 at 04:15:35
    djmasturbeat writes:

    @Nivlem – make sure all internal filters are unchecked on rt side of MPC-HC’s internal filters.
    in external filters section, move LAVF to the top of the added list (it prioritizes top to bottom if you have a lot of filters in this list).
    Check “Prefer” for LAVF audio and video and splitter filters (keep reading) which should help force these filters for anything that they actually play (for now this means not DVDs, with the video filter for example, in which case, it finds my next filter that handles DVD video).

    i agree with DVDDude, install LAVF splitter, too, along with LAVF audio and video;
    turn Haali Splitter /HS (AR) to “Block” in MPC-HC. why tell people to move past ffdshow, but then to stick with Haali, which does some incorrect things.

  16. 2012-08-22 at 13:51:27
    Someone writes:

    LAV Splitter does currently not support ordered chapters. Until it does that, it is no real alternative to Haali.

    Also, instead of linking to a horribly outdated version of LAV, the guide link to the forum thread, so people can easily download the latest version.
    http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=156191

    I also like to set “normalize” in the audio settings, but I have no 5.1 system.

  17. 2012-08-29 at 01:39:50
    Luizk writes:

    thanks for the guide! Madvr , Lav Filters rock! coreavc was piss off with that!

  18. 2012-09-04 at 07:59:51
    Jose Sanchez writes:

    on step 6 the madIR icon is there but it doesn’t show the option to edit the settings, all i have is enable lan settings and edit tray icon settings, i’m not sure what i did incorrectly so can anyone help?

  19. 2012-09-07 at 18:08:46
    Akurei writes:

    This guide is “almost” perfect! everything runs a bit smoother and there are less issues compared to the CCCP setup. It’s a damn shame the LAV Splitter can’t play ordered chapters but it can’t be helped. my two biggest quips with this setup is it’s Audio Switcher and the “Reinitialize when changing display” option in the Output selection. MadVR still does a slight reinitializing even when you unclick the option (i’m always switching video files between displays) the only way to fix that would be to use EVR custom Pres. it kinda defeats the purpose of using MadVR as the root of this setup. my last quip is when right-clicking your video files and trying to switch between Eng or JP audio files or subtitles you would have to go through the “filters” options and then go to “Haali Media Source” to switch between subtitles and audio. under a normal CCCP + MPC-HC (x64) setup all you would have to do right click and find either the “subtitle” or “audio” section and switch from there. the 2 issues are not that devastating but they are a major inconvenience. is there any way to fix either of these issues? other than that this setup is perfect. thank you so much!

  20. 2012-09-22 at 01:49:52
    Erico writes:

    Interesting but i can´t live without my ffdshows’s pletora of internal filters and customizations.
    Also, upscalling via “resize” settings inside ffdhshow gives better quality than regular MPC upscalle.

  21. 2012-09-27 at 08:56:10
    Hailene writes:

    I had some issues running some of Coalgirls releases. I followed your playback guide and now your releases look crisper and smoother. Absolutely no complaints.

    The only problem is that now someone anime has an overwhelming fuzz. I can’t hear anything over it.

    I installed the ffdshow filters and rechecked step three to make sure everything was correct and it was. Still having the fuzz.

    Has anyone else had similar problems? Could someone help me, please?

    I did not have this static problem before. I used CCCP, but I completely installed it as per the coalgirl playback guide suggests.

  22. 2012-09-27 at 08:57:31
    Hailene writes:

    Oh, in addition to the overwhelming static the video playback is also much slower than it should be.

  23. 2012-09-27 at 09:37:27
    Hailene writes:

    Nevermind. Just went to MPC’s options, playback, output, and changed the audio renderer. Works perfectly fine now. Thanks!

  24. 2012-10-02 at 22:02:10
    Epitimos writes:

    Thank you for the guide! However I have a request: Could you alter the guide a bit so that it includes Bit exact playback? I think it would benefit the fact that you encode anime in flac, and personally would save me from some headaches 😉

  25. 2012-10-08 at 00:33:44
    Kolby writes:

    Is there any reason why there isn’t a LAV video decoder here?

    http://puu.sh/1cvvp

  26. 2012-10-17 at 16:53:04
    Stan writes:

    Kolby, I had the same problem. Just open Lav Filters Video settings, go to format and check the 264 mark

  27. 2012-10-27 at 02:55:57
    erie88 writes:

    Thank you for the guide! I tried the output madVR (the video played with so much lags) so I changed the output to Haali and it works perfectly and smoothly.

  28. 2012-11-02 at 07:03:46
    Haze writes:

    @erie88
    Thanks. MadVR lagged for me as well, but taking your advice and changing it to Haali made it ran perfectly.

  29. 2012-11-03 at 19:10:47
    Remi writes:

    When I change the Output to madvr, I get the following error when opening a file: “madvr reports creating direct3d device failed.”
    Could someone help me?

  30. 2012-11-05 at 17:28:48
    erie88 writes:

    Oh and i forgot to mention that i t seems that if you have Nero application installed, they’ll clash and making the player unable to play 10 bit. I’m still not sure but I had my windows registry cleaned with CCleaner and found so much left over registry of Nero application which I uninstalled before hand. After restarting windows, I could play the 10 bit flawlessly even using VLC which wouldn’t even do before. I’ll try again by removing all the codecs I have to see if I could play the 10 bit video perfectly with only using VLC. If could then Nero was the source problem.

  31. 2012-11-11 at 08:01:27
    Raka writes:

    Yesterday I came with a problem that sais “madHcCtlr.exe seems to be corrupt!” I tried to replace it downloading it again, but it didn’t work, so I followed this guide and everything worked fine until today again. Any idea on how to fix this? I can still play videos, but the problem is bugging me.

  32. 2012-11-12 at 14:14:02
    CtrlAltDown writes:

    Great guide, just tried it out. Though as stated the screens are a bit out of date and overall the guide could just use a general update. Though, and I know I’ll catch flac for this, but VLC is still giving me the fastest playback on 10bit files (I don’t even care if it’s downscaling to 8bit, not 1 bit) I need to stop using puns.

  33. 2012-12-04 at 12:23:28
    Parfate writes:

    Thanks alot!! u saved my life lolz….
    tot something goes rong when dling it n wanna try to dl it agn

  34. 2012-12-18 at 21:21:24
    Hurr Durr writes:

    I’m wondering, if this guide is considered outdated then does anyone know of a more recent guide? Following the steps in this guide works for me but if there’s a better solution floating out there it’d be nice to know.

  35. 2012-12-19 at 00:11:22
    anotherAzn writes:

    This guide is still pretty accurate. Make sure you have the latest everything, though. For instance, madVR was just updated a few days ago @ http://www.videohelp.com/tools/madVR.

    Other than that, I’d say get xy-VSfilter. http://code.google.com/p/xy-vsfilter/wiki/Downloads
    Install that, then go to Options => Playback and uncheck “Auto-load Subtitles.” Then, under Internal Filters add Directvobsub (auto-loading version) and set that to preferred.

    Hope that helps.

  36. 2012-12-20 at 20:41:59
    elmaton04 writes:

    Yeah, that xy-VSfilter makes subtitles rendered properly.

  37. 2012-12-24 at 06:21:16
    Amido writes:

    TY for the tutorial, i have translated for my site and have all the credits ^^’

  38. 2013-01-04 at 03:22:11
    Scab writes:

    So I have all the latest versions of everything, and I did everything to the mark from this guide (except I have the xy-VSfilter, that shouldn’t matter though) but when I do Control + J for the OSD, it says I “YV12, 8 bit, 4:2:0” which is incorrect according to the guide.
    http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/2686/bakeny.jpg

    The guide says to double check the output, which I’ve done, and everything looks correct. So does anybody know anything that could help while sticking with madVR? Or will I HAVE to change the output to something else?

  39. 2013-01-16 at 03:31:33
    Norelco writes:

    Is is important to select the Source Filters on the left side of the internal filters menu. Having them selected never caused me any problems untill I tryed to watch a certain movie which had the music playing but no voices. After deselecting all of the source filters i was able to fix the audio. Im just checking to see if i should leave them deselected, or if theres any advantage to using those internal filters selected in the guide picture.

  40. 2013-01-16 at 21:37:43
    Bob writes:

    This guide is now obsolete. There is no need to follow all these instructions anymore.

    Everyone should just download the “Kawaii Community Pack”. Its basically all that done with a simple installer.

    Here:

    http://haruhichan.com/wpblog/index.php/2333/new-project-kcp-kawaii-codec-pack.html

  41. 2013-01-28 at 14:10:19
    Shawn writes:

    Hey guys, i just went thru all this and it seemed to go well, i normally play yify files and some 1080p and 720p and stuff, i was watching my hd naruto files and .mkv final fantasy stuff, but the thing it says is 8 bit not 10 bit…any ideas?

  42. 2013-02-02 at 15:08:01
    Adam writes:

    ^ I have exactly the same problem… i thought it was just me!

  43. 2013-03-07 at 17:41:32
    Azuri writes:

    ^ Non 10-bit encodes

  44. 2013-04-14 at 23:34:29
    XP user writes:

    I use Windows XP.

    Today, after updating my copy of LAV and MPC-HC which I installed ages ago, without MadVR and with EVR custom pres. as filter, according to coalgirls’ instructions, I found that I can’t render subtitles on any MKVs, though overall playback, lagging etc. is not and never has been a problem so long as I don’t use madVR and stick to EVR custom pres.

    While trying to find the problem online, I found KCP. But I need Vista or above to install it.

    I hope it’s OK to ask if: there is a “next best alternative” or such for XP?

    Or: is XP honestly just too crappy for playing anime MKVs now? Again, beforehand I played hi10p, normal 720 and 1080p etc. with no issues! Yeah, XP is old, but if I can keep watching anime on it I have no pressing reason to change my OS.

  45. 2014-05-31 at 04:44:00
    Johnf126 writes:

    In fact when someone doesnt understand then its up to other visitors that they will help, so here it takes place. gefdkdkbckfc

  46. 2015-04-16 at 20:22:21
    Jeremy writes:

    An other very good guide and up to date to setup MPC-HC with madVR, ffdshow, Avisynth, etc…

    http://www.ezoden.com/htpc/4/how-to-setup-htpc-introduction

  47. 2015-07-01 at 20:29:14
    yedude writes:

    is it ok if i’ve keep on vlc in my system or do i need to clean all playback? i wanted to use both if possible yes mpc-hc is amazing w/ madvr though.

  48. 2015-07-04 at 21:15:08
    oMa writes:

    can u also make a guide for SVP on MPC-HC thanks.

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