It is a good idea to have one of the best video players for Mac whether you’re reliving your old movie collection or watching your high school reunion footage. Despite the fact that the Mac contains Quick look preview and QuickTime Player, it lacks the intuitiveness and advanced functionality of other video players. That’s why, after analyzing dozens of video players, I’ve whittled down the list to the best video players for Mac.
QuickTime Player is a built-in video player for Mac OS X that works well for watching a few brief clips. It can play a few common video formats like MOV, MP4, and so on, but it won’t play more advanced formats like MKVs. Not to mention that the user interface is not built for the keyboard, necessitating the usage of the mouse for each and every control.
Best Video Players for Mac
Video players are media players that can play video data from a variety of sources, including local discs, DVDs, VCRs, CDs, streaming services, and so on. The following is a hand-picked list of the best video players for Mac, along with popular features and links to their websites.
1. VLC: Most Popular Video Player
The video player in the shape of a traffic cone has been around for almost two decades and has a legacy that few can equal. VLC is a cross-platform multimedia player that can play just about everything you throw at it, including CDs and DVDs. It supports a variety of codecs, including MKV, H.264, WebM, WMD, mp3, and others.
VLC is modular, so you may add custom skins and change the player’s appearance and feel. Extensions include additional features like bookmarks, intro skippers, subtitle downloaders, and other features that might enhance your viewing experience. VLC for macOS is absolutely free.
VLC for macOS is available for free.
2. IINA: Modern Video Player for Mac
VLC is reliable, but it doesn’t appear very current, which is why IINA exists. It’s based on the macOS design language and includes current technologies like TouchBar, Force-Touch Trackpad, PIP, and more. It also has a dark mode that matches the system style and provides a beautiful user interface.
You may also watch online material from many websites in addition to most file formats. Finally, YouTube dl support is included, allowing you to watch YouTube playlists directly in the video player. For macOS, IINA is absolutely free.
IINA for macOS is available for free.
3. Beamer: Video Player for AirPlay on TVs
I normally watch videos on my MacBook, but there are times when I need to watch anything on a big screen. However, transferring your videos and flicks to the television can be difficult. This feature is in the Beamer’s video player. With just one click, you can cast videos from your Mac to your AirPlay- or Google Cast-enabled TV.
Beamer can play almost every file type you can think of, including less common ones like DivX, ASF, FLV, VOB, and WeBM. Beamer is a macOS video player that is absolutely free.
The Beamer for macOS is available for free.
4. Hermit Crab: Video Player with Organizer
If you have a large library of videos and films, you’ll need a Mac video player to help you organize them. Hermit Crab includes an integrated system for organizing video files into folders, which you may rate, tag, and take notes on. You can mark the videos as not viewed and come back later to find them. It can play mp4, MOV, WebM, MTS, m4v, 3gp, MPG, ts, MKV, AVI, ASF, and WMV files, among others.
The folders can be password-protected using the AES-256 key cryptography, ensuring that your video files are safe from prying eyes. Hermit Crab is a popular Mac video player that features extensions for Chrome and Safari. That allow you to save web videos to Hermit Crab.
Hermit Crab for macOS is available for free.
5. Movist: Video Player for Apple Silicon Macs
The Movist is the way to go if you want a video player that’s ready to exploit the M1’s capability, even though Rosetta 2 handles x86 like butter. When trying to decode a 4K film, video players frequently kick the fans, which is where Movist steps in and decreases CPU utilization while maintaining smooth performance. This is very useful if you wish to play Lord of the Rings multiple times in a row.
Movist has some fantastic features that you will appreciate. The letter-boxed subtitles would place the subtitles below the video frame, preventing the text from blocking your movie. When activated, the player also has listening subtitles, which read them out loud. Movist costs $7.99 with all features unlocked. However, you can try a free version to see whether it meets your requirements.
Movist for macOS is available for free or $7.99.
6. Switch: Video Player for Professionals
Then there’s a video player for professionals who work with video and need software that can assist them to inspect and alter the video’s attributes. Audio channels, speaker labels, aspect ratio, bit rate, metadata, and other video attributes are included.
Mac video player switch
Switch also includes audio meters, which can be used to monitor audio levels, rearrange audio tracks, add extra files, edit the video, and export it right from the video player. The switch is a premium product with prices ranging from $15 to $549, but if you’re intrigued, you can receive a free test.
Get Switch for macOS (free demo, $15)
7. Elmedia Player: The All-in-One Video Player
Elmedia Player for Mac is a feature-rich video player with tools and features you’ll actually use. It also supports DLNA, which allows you to play media on any DLNA-certified device, in addition to AirPlay and Google Cast. If you watch a number of internet streams like YouTube, Dailymotion, and Vimeo, Elmedia can fetch the videos for you and play them all at the same time, ad-free.
In the settings, you can change the subtitle text to focus more on the movie rather than the text. Elmedia Player also contains advanced capabilities like snapshot capture, loop sections, audio delay clipping, and video interlacing, to mention a few. Elmedia Player is available for Mac at no cost.
Get Elmedia Player for macOS (free).
Closing Remarks: Best Video Players for Mac
These are just a few of the top video player apps for Mac available right now. The list above contains a wide range of video players. Each of which is suited to a different set of requirements. VLC, for example, is the most widely used open-source media player, and you can download it with your closed eyes. Elmedia is the most feature-rich, with Hermit Crab allowing you to manage and secure your catalog. So, which one do you prefer, or if you have a better one. Send me a Tweet and tell me about it.
