MPC File

What are MPC files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening a MPC file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your MPC files.

What is a MPC file?

MPC files have multiple uses, and Musepack Encoded Audio is one of them. Read more about the other uses further down the page.

Musepack Encoded Audio

These files are audio files created with the Musepack software application. MPC files contain compressed audio files. The MPC file format is based on an improved variation of the MPEG-1 Layer-2 algorithm.

While MPC files are not as popular as MP3 files, they have a better sound quality than what MP3 files provide, even though the file size is smaller.

How to open MPC files

We have identified five MPC openers that are compatible with this specific type of MPC file.

Programs that open Musepack Encoded Audio files

Last updated: August 10, 2026

All known file formats using extension .MPC

While Musepack Encoded Audio is a popular type of MPC-file, we know of 3 different uses of the .MPC file extension. Different software may use files with the same extension for different types of data.

Electronic Arts MPC Video

Electronic Arts MPC Video is a format used by Electronic Arts for pre-rendered video content - such as opening movies, logo animations, title screens, and cutscenes - in PlayStation 2 games. Files with this format are written by EA's game engines during the game's production and deployed as part of the game's resource archives. Players holding the game data (or extracted archives) encounter these files when the game needs to play video content stored offline rather than generated in real time.

Internally the video frames in this format are compressed using a standard MPEG-2 video bitstream. That bitstream is wrapped inside an EA container employing a chunked layout called "MPCh", which EA's engine parses to find and decode the MPEG-2 data. When the game runs, it reads MPCh chunks, extracts the MPEG-2 frames, and sends them to a PS2 video decoder (the IPU or similar hardware) to display video. If the file contains audio, EA's proprietary ADPCM-type codec is often used alongside the video stream.

As an identifier, the file begins with the ASCII signature MPCh (bytes 0x4D 50 43 68) at offset zero. That FourCC labels the only frame chunk type in the file; that chunk's payload holds the elementary MPEG-2 video stream. Metadata is stored elsewhere via additional chunks in EA's standard multimedia container structure.

MPC opener for Windows

We have identified one MPC opener that is compatible with this specific type of MPC file.

Magick Persistent Cache Bitmap

We know that one MPC format is Magick Persistent Cache Bitmap. We have not yet analyzed in detail what these files contain and what they are used for. We're working on it.

While we have not verified the apps ourselves yet, our users have suggested ten different MPC openers which you will find listed below.

Various apps that use files with this extension

These apps are known to open certain types of MPC files. Remember, different programs may use MPC files for different purposes, so you may need to try out a few of them to be able to open your specific file.

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