Video players for Windows and Android are everywhere while little information is available about the best media player for Mac computers. If you'd like to have the best Mac video player for your video playback needs, like fluid playback of all video file formats, SRT file support, and more on a MacBook, iMac or Mac mini, you've come to the right place.
QuickTime Player, developed by Apple, is the default video player on Mac OS system and apparently a good free option for Mac users to play videos on Mac. QuickTime Player for Mac supports most common video audio and image formats, works great with HD videos, and enables you to record, edit and stream Internet videos and HD movie trailers. One exception is that QuickTime Player does not support MKV, AVI, and WMV natively, so that you have to switch to another Mac media player to play such files.
download vlc media player for mac os x 10.6.8
VLC for Mac is a FREE and open-source multimedia player compatible with Mac OS X 10.7.5 or later, written by the non-profit organization VideoLAN. Technically, it supports videos in nearly all types of file formats, like MOV, MP4, QuickTime, AVI, MPEG, some WMV, DVD ISO files, etc. in 720p, 1080p, and even 4K, despite that sometimes VLC 4K HEVC choppy playback is an annoying thing.
5KPlayer is a free 4K video player for Mac. Thanks to the support of tons of video/audio codecs, it can play any movie/music video smoothly and directly without the need to install third-party codec packs. It performs well in playing SD/720P 1080p HD/4K UHD media source in any format, including MKV, M2TS, TS, MOD, TOD, MP4, AVI, WMV, MOV, M4V, MPEG, H.264, FLV, etc. With built-in Hardware Acceleration support, playing 4K videos on Mac with 5KPlayer is as smooth as silk.
Besides a free media player for Mac, 5KPlayer can also be used as a DLNA streamer, AirPlay server, video grabber, DVD player, Internet radio player, and IPTV M3U/M3U8 streamer on Mac OS, new 16-inch MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, 5K Retina iMac, etc.
Many Mac users take MPlayerX media player as a standard part of their toolbox simply because it works properly and almost all popular codecs are in it. No fuss or headache of codec installing or updating. Seriously, you will not be frustrated with such a practical video player on your Mac OS. MPlayerX is armed by FFmepg and MPlayer, so it plays contents these two support, like MP4, MOV, AVI, etc. videos with subtitles.
Like 5KPlayer, Elmedia Player is also a 4-in-1 media player for Mac combining media playback, online download, AirPlay, and DLNA streaming functions into one. As a media player, it can handle any conceivable media formats, such as AVI, MKV, MP4, MP4, etc., containing native and non-native Mac formats even on M1/M2 Macs to render outstanding HD performance. Elmedia Player for Mac is also a good music player with audio equalizer and audio visualization, and renders AC3/DTS surround sound.
Designed for macOS only, IINA is a free and open-source media player for Mac users to play native and non-native Mac file formats smoothly. Based on MPV player and written in Swift, it has every feature that MPV has like playing local files, online stream and YouTube playlists. Released under the GNU General Public License version 3, it is modern from its framework to the user interface. It supports new technologies like Force Touch, Touch Bar, Picture-in-Picture, and Dark mode.
Mac has the problem of being lack of support for many third-party programs, including video players. One way of reducing your concerns of video format compatibility will be to get the best free video player for Mac installed on your computer or convert your video to Mac supported file formats. The 9 Mac media players hand-picked by us will ease the way to play any video files on Mac computer, so you can pick any one you like.
Note: MOV, MP4, MKV, AVI, etc. is a container format that may contain different video and audio codecs which your Mac media player can't recognize. To solve the video not playing error caused by incompatible codecs, simply convert a video first and then play with your Mac video player.
WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe is a 4K video converter that can convert any format for any media player, device, or platform. You can convert MOV to MP4, AVI, WMV, MKV, etc. for storage, sharing and uploading, and also compress 4K large videos to smaller sizes.
Nearly all good Mac video players are capable of playing multimedia files including MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, FLV, WMV, etc. However, speaking of playing high resolution or rare videos, it is picky. Accordingly, 5KPlayer is thought of the best free video player for Mac to play not only 4K 60fps videos, DVDs, HDR files, but also encrypted DVDs.
Usually, you have two ways. The easiest and most direct way is to download a good Mac video player to play video files on Mac. And the other way is to convert videos to Mac-compatible ones to play successfully.
VLC media player for Mac is an open-source cross-platform multimedia player that plays most multimedia files, as well as various streaming protocols. Safe, powerful, and completely free, the VLC app can play a range of media, including video and music files, in multiple formats directly on your Mac.
VLC media player can play video or music files in just about any format from MPEG to FLV, MKV and RMBV files. VLC plays most codecs with no codec packs required, including MPEG-2, MPEG-4/Xvid, H.264, MKV, WebM, WMV, and MP3. It can also play audio CDs, and DVDs and BluRay discs, ignoring region codes.
At a very basic level, VLC media player is an easy program to use for simple viewing of videos and listening to audio. During software installation, a user can set VLC as the default media player, meaning that whenever they click on an audio or video file it will automatically open in VLC.
VLC media player also has great hotkey support and, if you learn the shortcuts, it can be controlled without touching your mouse. Functions such as changing the video's size, jumping to a specific time point in the video, and taking a quick screengrab are available using the hotkeys.
VLC media player for Mac is not just for simple video and audio playback, however. More ambitious users will want to take advantage of the host of advanced features the player offers.
VLC media player makes it easy to add subtitles to video files too - simply add the SRT file to the folder where the video is kept, and it will automatically play with subtitles. Also useful is the fact that users can use VLC media player to preview files that are downloading since it plays incomplete parts of video files.
It's possible to use VLC player to stream and download videos from YouTube, allowing users to convert YouTube videos to formats such as MP3. While this does break the terms of service for using YouTube, it's a helpful feature if users need to play a YouTube video without internet access. Alternatively, 5KPlayer for Mac also has this functionality.
Many users may question whether VLC media player for Mac is safe to use. To ensure 100% security, VLC player should only be downloaded from a trustworthy site. This will make sure the version used does not have viruses, spyware, or malware.
While in general VLC media player is safe to run, there have been reports of vulnerabilities. Users should protect their hardware and privacy by only using VLC to open trustworthy files, and keeping the software updated to the most recent version.
At its most basic level, VLC media player for Mac is a powerful multi-format media player that will play even the most unusual or stubborn files where other players fail. Where it falters, however, is the accessibility of its more advanced features. Many users will not have the technical knowledge - or patience - to navigate its overly complicated menu items and workflows, meaning they'll likely miss out on its most impressive features.
Many Mac users have stuck on the same issue like the user above. Since MKV is not a friendly format, there are some other common errors when opening MKV on Mac, such as Quicktime plays it no sound, can not open MKV file sometimes, VLC media player bogged down with issues like, stuttering, no audio, loading file all the time...
Mac Quicktime MKV plugin - Perian has a solution to the problem MKV files not playing on Macbook, iMac or Mac mini. With Perian, you can play MKV video movie in HD, SD on any Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later, El Capitan, Yosemite, needless of MKV player for Mac. And below are the detailed steps to play MKV on your Mac using QuickTime:
VLC Media Player is is a free cross-platform multimedia player that can play most multimedia files, DVDs, etc. It can be downloaded to Windows PC or Mac computer. Here's how you can play MKV on Mac using VLC Media Player
MacX Video Converter Pro helps to convert MKV to MP4, M4V, MOV, AVI, and other video formats that are supported by QuickTime and VLC, or other media players. With the MKV video converter, you can play MKV on Mac freely, solve VLC, Quicktime MKV playing issues, and even add MKV to iTunes, Final Cut Pro, iMovie etc. You don't need to sacrifice any video audio quality during the conversion process thanks to the advanced High Quality Engine. Meanwhile, the Level-3 Hardware Acceleration and Auto Copy technologies deliver a super-fast MKV video converting speed.
Will VLC play MKV files on Mac? Yes, but not smoothly, common issues are MKV files audio not working on VLC, some MKV files not loading, open successfully, Skipping, Chopping, VLC does not support the audio or video format, etc. If you still prefer to using VLC media player, the following tips of VLC player not playing MKV may help you out, if it still fails to work, try other players. 2ff7e9595c
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