Solved Playing YouTube videos in Media Player Classic (MPC)

Hello!

I know this is not a Windows 11 issue, but I post here to make sure some good fellow can help me, other forums are slow to respond. Up until recently, you could download youtube-dl, copy it to the Media Player Classic folder, and then open the YouTube video by copying the URL from your browser and pasting to the Open dialog box. But there is some recent change in YouTube and now this method produces an error that it was unable to extract uploader ID or similar. I already know I can use VLC instead, but I prefer MPC, so please don't tell me that. Unfortunately, updating youtube-dl is not an option since I already have the latest version of 2021. Is there any alternative to youtube-dl that I can add to MPC and work? Thank you.

I was using Media Player Classic until they stopped, then I switched to a fork called Media Player Classic - Black Edition.
I think MPC-BE has youtube-dl already integrated because when I open YouTube links, they just open and play.

I will try it, but if it has old 2021 version of youtube-dl I'm afraid it won't make any difference. Thanks.

I downloaded Media Player Classic Black Edition (MPC-BE) and yes, it can play YouTube videos. I then had a look in its settings and found out that it uses yt-dlp to play YouTube videos: GitHub - yt-dlp/yt-dlp: A youtube-dl fork with additional features and fixes So I downloaded yt-dlp, copied to MPC folder and run it as Administrator to register. After that I can again open YouTube videos in the original MPC by copy-pasting the URL in the Open dialog box. Mission accompliced!

PS: The file yt-dlp.exe is 64-bit only. For 32-bit Windows 10 or earlier you must download yt-dlp_x86.exe instead, copy to MPC folder and rename to yt-dlp.exe to work.

I also found a patched and updated version of the original youtube-dl: GitHub - ytdl-patched/youtube-dl: Unofficial daily builds for youtube-dl. DO NOT OPEN PULL REQUESTS HERE This works as well!

Apologies for the late reply. I was busy IRL.

spapakons said:

I downloaded Media Player Classic Black Edition (MPC-BE) and yes, it can play YouTube videos. I then had a look in its settings and found out that it uses yt-dlp to play YouTube videos: GitHub - yt-dlp/yt-dlp: A youtube-dl fork with additional features and fixes So I downloaded yt-dlp, copied to MPC folder and run it as Administrator to register. After that I can again open YouTube videos in the original MPC by copy-pasting the URL in the Open dialog box. Mission accompliced!

PS: The file yt-dlp.exe is 64-bit only. For 32-bit Windows 10 or earlier you must download yt-dlp_x86.exe instead, copy to MPC folder and rename to yt-dlp.exe to work.

Click to expand...

I actually didn't know that. I thought MPC-BE just works with YT videos.

spapakons said:

I also found a patched and updated version of the original youtube-dl: GitHub - ytdl-patched/youtube-dl: Unofficial daily builds for youtube-dl. DO NOT OPEN PULL REQUESTS HERE This works as well!

Click to expand...

It's a good thing someone decided to create an updated/modified build of youtube-dl.

MPC BE works out of the box, but I prefer the original MPC.

Sometimes I prefer old 4:3 videos to fill the screen, not have black bars left and right (pillar boxed). So I copy the video URL and paste in Media Player Classic where I have the stretch option enabled. It is also a convenient way to skip ads.