Play any video files with the best video and audio quality. Support almost all video and audio formats, from MP4 to AVI, from MOV to WMV. Use hardware and software acceleration to improve the performance. Offer extensive custom options for making unique audiovisual experiences. Compatible with Windows 10/8.1/8/7/XP/Vista and Mac OS.

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 Mac video player 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.

The extension is the letters shown at the end of the file's name, such as.avi.wmv, or.mkv. Learn more QuickTime Player (version 10.0 and later) in OS X Mavericks through macOS Mojave converts legacy media files that use certain older or third-party compression formats. 5 MKV Video Players for Mac OS X. MKV files are usually high quality videos compressed within a Mastroska container format. Typically you’ll encounter these with Bluray rips or video exported from an HD stream, and you might have discovered they won’t open in a standard movie player app. Not to worry though, MKV files can be played on a Mac. It offers you a completely new experience with your Mac and iOS devices and more powerful built-in apps. However, when it comes to playing AVI on the latest OS X Mojave, you will get stuck for the new Mac system that doesn't support playing AVI files. This article will tell you how to play AVI files on Mac with the best solution below.

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 2021

Video player software isn’t rare, but top free video player for Mac users is not easy to come by. Hence we picked out the 10 best video players for Mac and give you some detailed information below.

#1. Cisdem Video Player for Mac

Compatibility: macOS 10.10 or later

Cisdem Video Player is an incredible program playing a vast assortment of media file formats. It’s fully compatible with all popular video formats (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 and the music/videos downloaded from YouTube, Vimeo, or others. You can automatically or manually add subtitles in .ass and .srt formats. It offers smoother playback while other media players show a video jitter, choppy, or stalling.

Cisdem best Mac video player contains a built-in video converter, allowing you to media files to MP4, M4V, MOV, MP3, M4A, iPhone, iPad, Samsung, and so on. It's totally free to play video & audio files but to unlock the conversion function, you need to upgrade to the pro version.

Pros:

Equipped with a concise and decent interface
Play video/audio files in more than 100 formats
Play 1080P, 4K, 5K, and even 8K videos
Load subtitles in any language, or import subtitles, as you want
Choose the audio soundtracks and stereo
Capture snapshots of each frame
Turn volume up or down
Take less occupancy on CPU memory of your Mac

FAQ: What're the differences between Cisdem Video Player and Cisdem Video Converter?

Cisdem Video Player	Cisdem Video Converter
Download	Free download	Download the free trial
Price	Free ($9.99 to active conversion feature)	$49.99
Video Play	Dedicated video player (rich playback controls)	Inbuilt-in video player (non-primary function）
Video Convert	Support 40+ output formats	Support 300+ formats
Batch Convert	No	Yes
Extra	/	Rip DVD movies and music Download online videos from 1000+ sites

Both programs support playing and converting features. But as their names indicate, the former is mainly used to play videos, while the latter is a professional video converter & downloader.

#2. VLC Media Player for Mac

Compatibility: Mac OS X 10.7.5 or newer

VLC Media Player, an uncluttered, open-source and cross-platform program, supports DivX and MPEG streaming. It can play DVDs, CDs, VCDs, network streaming protocols, and various types of video files. The best video player Mac offers playlist for viewing multiple videos one after the other.

Meanwhile, VLC empowers you to open Zip media files without unpacking them. And you can simply tweak the playback controls and audio volume (up to 200%). But it’s a little delayed while playing, 'Each time I click on run video network it plays other audio and DVDs, etc. and after a million times it finally plays the YouTube video.'

Pros:

Help you enjoy Windows Media, MP3, QuickTime, and OGG files.
Record the movies/music you are playing with VLC
Adjust playback speed (slower, normal, and faster)
Support external subtitles and Closed Captions

Cons:

Outdated user interface
Delay a little while playing the media files

#3. MPlayerX for Mac

Compatibility: Mac OS X 10.7 or above

MPlayerX is one of the fastest choices to play MPEG (damaged MPEG files included), MP4, AVI, ASF, WMV, MOV, WAV, OGG/OGM, CD audio, etc. Plus, this best media player for Mac supports multi-touch, gesture, auto-encode subtitles, and online YouTube/Vimeo playback. But don't confuse MPlayerX and MPlayer OSX Extended. They are two completely different programs.

Pros:

Stand-alone video player for Mac
Support various output formats and devices
Auto convert subtitles for media files

Cons:

Injects pop-up ads or advertising banners which may bring a virus
Take up too much CPU
Encounter problem when open the software and ask you to eject the disk image

#4. QuickTime Player for Mac

Compatibility: Mac OS X 10.6.6 or above

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.

However, it supports limited video formats. For more formats available like FLV, you have to install external plug-in Perian.

Pros:

No additional installation required
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
Can’t work with common subtitle files
Can’t open MKV, WMV, WMA, AVI, FLV, etc.

#5. Elmedia Player for Mac

Compatibility: OS X 10.9.0 or later

A multifunctional free media player for Mac, Elmedia Player supports a wide range of common and not so common a

Osx Avi Player