QuickTime is the built-in video player on macOS but supports only a few imported formats and has other limitations. If you are looking for the best multimedia player for Mac, don’t miss this post. Here are the top 5 media players for Mac. (Looking a video player and editor for Windows? Try MiniTool MovieMaker.)
5 Best Multimedia Players for Mac
- VLC: Free, open-source, and feature-rich but complicated to use.
- MPV: Free and open-source, control from the command line, highly customized functions.
- IINA: Free and open-source, dark mode, and has a beautiful user interface.
- Movist: Excellent performance, fully functional but needs to pay $4.99.
- Plex: free, intuitive interface, comprehensive platform support, abundant video streaming content but ad-supported.
1. VLC
VLC is one of the best free multimedia players for Mac. It supports playing almost all video and audio formats. It also lets you load external subtitles, play online videos, record video clips, crop videos, download videos from websites and many more.
To customize VLC media player, you can install some extensions like YTSubDownload, SubSync, etc. VLC is a freeware without ads.
The downside of VLC is that it stutters when playing 4K videos.
You may also like: How to Make VLC the Default Player
2. MPV
MPV is a free media player for Mac based on MPlayer, mplayer2, and FFmpeg. Different from other video players, MPV has a minimalist GUI. It allows you to play any video and control the video playback by using shortcuts. It has all the features of a professional media player. It supports a wide range of video, audio and subtitle formats, plays UHD videos without lagging, and streams videos from YouTube or other websites.
This video player is perfect for geeks!
3. IINA
Powered by MPV, IINA can play almost all media files you want. It supports dark mode, picture-in-picture mode, music mode, Force Touch, Touch Bar, thumbnail preview, online subtitle search, etc.
Aside from that, IINA provides you with command-line tools and browser extensions, so you can control the playback from the command line and play online videos in IINA from web browsers. IINA is the best multimedia player for Mac.
Also read: 10 Best Media Player for Windows 10 That You Should Have
4. Movist
Movist is a simple and powerful HD video player for Mac based on QuickTime and FFmpeg. You can choose the QuickTime or FFmpeg decoder to decode videos or reopen with other decoders. The interface of Movist is simple and sleek, which enables you to easily control the video playback.
Additionally, Movist supports SMB, SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, so you can directly play online videos without downloading them. Movist is not free to use, it costs $4.99.
5. Plex
Plex is a media server and player developed by Plex. It’s compatible with macOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and other platforms. Unlike the above-mentioned multimedia players, Plex hosts thousands of free movies, TV shows, podcasts, and more. You don’t have to download videos from websites or open online videos via URL, you can directly enjoy your favorite movies with Plex.
Conclusion
The 5 best multimedia players for Mac are listed in this post. Choose the one you like and try it now!