There are a plethora of Mac video players on the app market. From my perspective, the best video player for Mac should support a vast assortment of formats, crisp visual display, and user-friendly operating features. In this huge and intensely competitive market, we can’t figure out which free all-in-one video player for Mac is the best choice at once. If you have the same doubts, then you come to the right place. In this article, I’d like to show you the best media player for Mac that can give you excellent visual enjoyment.
4 Tips on Choosing the Best Media Player for Mac
The best video player for Mac is supposed to:
- Be free of ads, viruses, malware, and spyware.
- Born with a slick and directive interface, making the app simple to navigate.
- Come with strong coding skills and support wide-ranging video & audio format, so you can play any media file including 4K/5K video without losing quality.
- Have compact and basic video playback functions, like play/pause, time display, volume control, etc.
Well, I’ve listed and tested a bunch of Mac video players and screened out the top 10 best free video player for Mac with the above reference in mind.
Top 10 Best Video Player for Mac 2020
Video player software isn’t rare, but top free video player for Mac users is not easy to come by. Hence we picked out 10 best video players for Mac and give you some detailed information below.
- #1. Cisdem Video Player
- #2. VLC Media Player
- #3. 5KPlayer
- #4. MPlayerX
- #5. QuickTime
- #6. Realplayer
- #7. DivX Player
- #8. Movist Video Player
- #9. NicePlayer
1. Cisdem Video Player for Mac
Official Website: https://www.cisdem.com/video-player-mac.html
User Rating:
Cisdem Video Player is an incredible program playing a vast assortment of media file formats. It’s fully compatible with all popular SD, HD, FHD, and UHD video format (e.g. WMV, AVI, MOV, MP4, M4V, FLV, MKV, RMVB, MPEG, etc.), as well as audio files (e.g. MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV, M4A, etc.). The software supports all those codecs ensuring the playback of high-quality video files a breeze.
This best video player Mac takes care of your local media files or the music/videos downloaded from YouTube, Vimeo, or others, while also offering smoother playback when other media players show choppy video. You can automatically or manually add subtitles in .ass and .srt formats.
The Mac video player is completely free for media file playback but provides an in-app purchase for unlocking the video conversion function.
See all supported video & audio formats of Cisdem Video Player here.
Free Download
Pros:
- Equipped with a concise and decent interface
- Play video/audio files of more than 100 formats
- Play 1080P, 4K, 5K, and even 8K videos.
- Load subtitles in any language, or import subtitles as you want
- Can choose the audio soundtracks and stereo
- Take less occupancy on CPU memory of your Mac
Cons:
- This best media player only develops the Mac version
2. Elmedia Player
Download Site: https://www.elmedia-video-player.com/
User Rating:
Elmedia Player is all-in-one video player for Mac that can handle practically any audio or video file type out there, and it will stream content to Chromecast, AirPlay and DLNA devices. And yet, no additional codecs are required. Elmedia Player is a free video player for Mac that boasts compatibility with all commonly used video and audio formats, including AVI, FLV, SWF, MP4, WMV, MOV, MP3, DAT, FLAC, M4V, MPG, DivX and MKV. This video player Mac app delivers an outstanding HD experience without putting a strain on your CPU.
Pros:
- Help you enjoy Windows Media, MP3
- Record the movies/music you are playing with Eltima
- Adjust playback speed (slower, normal, and faster)
- Support external subtitles and Closed Captions
3. 5KPlayer for Mac
Download Site: https://5kplayer.en.softonic.com/mac
User Rating:
5KPlayer is a mixture of free AirPlay media streamer, online video downloader, music player and movie player for Mac. All HD, 4K, 5K videos including MKV, MTS, AVCHD are supported. With AirPlay streaming tech, you can as AirPlay sender/receiver: stream video music from iPhone, iPad to PC or from PC to Apple TV. Although the best Mac video player lets you download videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, etc., the download process will be a bit slower.
Pros:
- Embedded copious codecs for playing different audio, video, and DVD.
- No need to install an additional codec or pack.
- Import subtitle and switch soundtrack
- Manage YouTube downloaded videos, DLNA server, and playlist in library
Cons:
- Install Bonjour voluntarily without any hint when you need to make AirPlay work
- The media player will get stuck when playing high resolution & long videos
4. MPlayerX for Mac
Download Site: https://mplayerx.en.softonic.com/mac
User Rating:
MPlayer OSX Extended is one of the fastest choices on OSX to playback HD H264 videos. It also supports instant playback of MKV files and advanced styled subtitles in the ASS format. If you have an older dual-core Mac, which is struggling with HD video playback, give Mplayer OSX Extended a try.
Pros:
- The stand-alone video player for Mac supports new video filter options, ASS subtitles, and graphic equalizers.
Cons:
- MPlayerX is easily intrusive and injects pop-up ads or advertising banners that may bring a virus.
5. QuickTime Player for Mac
Download Site: https://quicktime.en.softonic.com/mac
User Rating:
QuickTime Player, bundled with the Mac operating system, is Apple’s flagship software. It ensures you to view Internet video, HD movie trailers, and personal media. This best media player for Mac is slick and easy to use. You can quickly export your videos to 4K, 1080P, 720P, 480P (based on original resolution) or extract them as M4A audio.
It also functions as a screen recorder. You can record your playing movie, track, or anything on your current desktop.
Video Format: QuickTime Movie (.mov) MPEG-4 (.mp4, .m4v) MPEG-2 (OS X Lion or later) MPEG-1 3GPP 3GPP2 AVCHD (OS X Mountain Lion or later) AVI (Motion JPEG only) DV
Audio format: iTunes Audio (.m4a, .m4b, .m4p) MP3 Core Audio (.caf) AIFF AU SD2 WAV SND AMR
Pros:
- Provide you with advanced H.264 video compression technology to help deliver perfect HD video with less storage space.
- Record your Mac screen
Cons:
- A bit slow to launch.
- Support limited video formats. For more formats available, you have to install an external plug-in Perian.
- Can’t work with common subtitle files
6. Realplayer for Mac
Download Site: https://realplayer.en.softonic.com/mac
User Rating:
Realplayer can play all formats of videos. This best video player Mac is a universal media player that automatically recognizes the file format of the video or audio file you want to play. So you can count on it to reliably play the most popular audio and video file formats including AVI, MP4, MP3, WMA, WAV, FLV, MPEG, and more. It requires a fairly powerful machine for some functions. Several applications need to be installed in advance to launch the application properly.
Pros:
- Offer several visualization ways for listening and locates your media files automatically.
- Include handy downloading and conversion features that may benefit some users.
Cons:
- Work slowly
- Less user-friendly to use
7. DivX Player for Mac
Download Site: http://download.cnet.com/DivX/3000-13632_4-21829.html
User Rating:
DivX Player delivers HQ video playback in formats including AVI, DIVX, MKV, MP4, and more. It is the best video player Mac to watch DivX, MKV, and HEVC up to 4K films, comes with DivX Codec Pack, and a free 15-day trial of DivX Plus Converter for those who plan to convert.
Pros:
- Support playing HD 720P/1080P, UHD 4K video movies in high speed
Cons:
- It is a big installation file.
8. Movist Video Player for Mac
Download Site: https://movist.en.softonic.com/mac
User Rating:
Movist is a simple and best video player Mac, it supports QuickTime and FFmpeg and also supports subtitles. It is pretty excellent for those that need to encode and decode QuickTime and FFmpeg formats. You can do some general and advanced settings for better and convenient video playback.
Pros:
- Easy to use and show wonderful playback quality
Cons:
- Have been designed as a replacement for Quicktime, but it supports limited formats
9. NicePlayer for Mac
Download Site: https://niceplayer.en.softonic.com/mac
User Rating:
NicePlayer is the best Video Player for Mac with a multi-engine player designed for playing movies nicely. This program features full-screen or borderless floating windows, useful controls for scrubbing or queuing movies, and on-the-fly playlist creation.
Pros:
- Lightweight and compatible with most formats
- Can adjust the aspect ratio
- Make a suitable presentation with the aid of a toolbar (Half Size, Double Size, Fill Screen, Fill Width, etc.)
Cons:
- Can’t handle AVI, MKV or MPG videos.
- No support for subtitles and changing audio sources, etc.
- Unable to play the videos by dragging it to the software
- Not convenient to switch to another video
What is Media Player (Software)？
We often need the best media player for Mac but before installing new software it is good to get some knowledge about it.
According to the explanation from Wikipedia, a media player (software) is a handy program that can help you play videos, music, movies, and other multimedia files on the computer. All media players display standard media control icons: play, pause, fast-forward, back forward, and stop buttons.
How to Change the Default Video Player on Mac?
QuickTime Player is the default Mac media player. You can change it into the best video player for Mac you think.
- Locate the media file you wish to play.
- Right-click on it, a drop-down menu will appear.
- Choose “Open With” > “Other”, which brings up a dialog for selecting the application to open your media file.
- Choose your best media player Mac, check the box- “Always Open With”, and click on “Open”.
Conclusion
I deem that you already have the best media player for Mac in your mind, just download it on Mac and have a try if it is right the thing as you expected. Here I advise those who still feel a little confused to choose from, I push Cisdem Video Player for Mac in front of you. it gets more and more reputation and becomes a stable status among the market. 4K video, 5K/1080p HD videos, all of popular SD & HD standard video formats which other free video player tools unable to support, or add subtitle files, Cisdem Video Player for Mac can all fix it. What’s the best I enjoy, it offers crisp and clear visual image, I feel the video playing quite high quality.