The player can play almost everything on a single platform from DVDs, and audio CDs to streams and webcams. This free, lightweight, open source cross-platform media player is powerful enough to cope with most video formats including MPEG, WMV, MP4, MKV, MOV, and AVI. When it comes to the best video players for Mac, VLC is the longtime king. The Winners Best Overall: VLC Media Player In this case, an app must offer the best value for the money if you decide to purchase it. User Interface and Experience: Having a wide range of features can create a learning curve, but a great video player should stay user-friendly and have an attractive and intuitive interface to create the best possible user experience.Īffordability: Most of the video players available for Mac are free, some of them provide extra features that require payment. Supported Formats: As the Mac default player isn’t powerful enough to support some of the most wide-spread formats, this criteria was the most significant during our test.Ĭompatibility: The best Mac media player should be compatible with latest macOS and support videos of the highest resolution (4K).įeature set: When it comes to QuickTime alternatives, a great set of features (video/audio filters, subtitle synchronization, playback speed, customization, etc.) is what makes the best player stand out from the competitors. To determine the winners, I used my MacBook Air and followed these criteria: Let’s see in detail what these apps have to offer! How We Tested and Picked
They have extra features to create and manage playlists, customize your movie-watching experience, and mirror content on other devices that are above and beyond those supported by Quicktime. The apps reviewed in this article cope with a variety of formats including MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, WMV, etc. Using a third-party player is a way out of this situation. As you can see from the screenshot below, so am I:Īlthough it has a smooth UI, QuickTime is poor in terms of compatibility.
#Best media players for mac os x mp4#
Many Mac users experience trouble playing MP4 or MKV files via QuickTime Player. You’re definitely not alone here.Īlthough QuickTime is a native Apple application for Mac, it’s a bit slow to launch and supports limited video formats. If you’re searching for the best video player for Mac, you’ve probably had problems playing video via Quicktime Player. So keep on reading! Do You Need A Different Media Player Want to find out more about the winners? We also tested other video players for macOS and chose some alternatives you might find useful. Intuitive UI and comprehensive platform support make it an excellent option for creating and managing a personal media library. Plex consists of two parts: the media server itself and media player that can handle almost all formats and Ultra HD resolution. In fact, it’s a media streaming server app. Plex is much more than just a typical video player. But the most impressive thing about 5KPlayer is the DLNA and AirPlay support which allows users to stream video across their devices. Apart from supporting a wide range of formats, the player also works as a video downloader and converter. The player comes with an easy-to-use interface that can be customized with just a few clicks.ĥKPlayer is an all-around great media player for Mac that has a few tricks up its sleeve. Whether you’re a beginner or advanced Apple user, you need to try VLC as it supports all major formats from MP4 to WMV. It is a simple yet powerful program and is perhaps the best replacement for the default video player on your Mac.
#Best media players for mac os x free#
The open source IINA macOS media player is a free download, and you can check out IINA’s GitHub page here.VLC is a well-known cross-platform media player developed by VideoLAN. IINA is compatible with macOS 10.11 and later, but the developer recommends using it with macOS Mojave (10.14) for the best experience. While VLC has been one of the most popular choices for open source video players for a while, IINA looks to be a compelling choice for Mac users with tight integration of both design and functionality for macOS. It adopts the post-Yosemite design language of macOS and keeps up the pace of new technologies like Force Touch, Touch Bar, and Picture-in-Picture. IINA is born to be a modern macOS application, from its framework to the user interface. Here’s how the developers describe the media player: It includes solid features like a dark mode, picture in picture, customizable interface, and more and looks to be a nice alternative to VLC.Īfter leaving beta, IINA has officially been made available today as a free, open source macOS-only media player and looks to have both great design and functionality. A new open source, modern media player has launched today called IINA that’s made just for macOS.