What are the best media player for OS X?

Options
Considered

User
Recs.

Jan 13, 2024

Last
Updated

IINA vs VLC media player vs MPV

vs MplayerX vs Movavi Media Player vs Elmedia vs 5KPlayer vs Movist Pro vs Elmedia Player vs SyncMate vs Folx vs VideoDuke for Mac

Specs

Platforms

License

Platform

Embedded tracker

Download videos

Play online videos

Download Mp3

Search

Selective downloading

Magnet

SİK

Platforms

Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, ChromeOS, AppleTV

License

Platform

Embedded tracker

Download videos

Play online videos

Download Mp3

Search

Selective downloading

Magnet

SİK

Platforms

Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD, Android

License

Platform

Embedded tracker

Download videos

Play online videos

Download Mp3

Search

Selective downloading

Magnet

SİK

Platforms

License

Platform

Embedded tracker

Download videos

Play online videos

Download Mp3

Search

Selective downloading

Magnet

SİK

Platforms

License

Platform

Embedded tracker

Download videos

Play online videos

Download Mp3

Search

Selective downloading

Magnet

SİK

Platforms

License

Platform

Embedded tracker

Download videos

Play online videos

Download Mp3

Search

Selective downloading

Magnet

SİK

Platforms

License

Platform

Embedded tracker

Download videos

Play online videos

Download Mp3

Search

Selective downloading

Magnet

SİK

Platforms

License

Platform

Embedded tracker

Download videos

Play online videos

Download Mp3

Search

Selective downloading

Magnet

SİK

Platforms

Mac

License

Free/Pro

Platform

Mac

Embedded tracker

Yes

Download videos

Yes

Play online videos

Yes

Download Mp3

Yes

Search

Selective downloading

Magnet

SİK

Platforms

License

Platform

Embedded tracker

Download videos

Play online videos

Download Mp3

Search

Selective downloading

Magnet

SİK

Platforms

License

Shareware

Platform

Mac

Embedded tracker

Download videos

Play online videos

Download Mp3

Search

yes

Selective downloading

yes

Magnet

yes

SİK

yes

Platforms

License

Platform

Embedded tracker

Download videos

Play online videos

Download Mp3

Search

Selective downloading

Magnet

SİK

Pros + Cons

Pro
Like MPV with better GUI and settings

It's like mpv, just more user friendly GUI and more settings available via UI.

Comment

Pro
Support for lots of codecs

Supports lots of video codecs, like mp4, mkv, etc, and lots of audio codecs including opus.

Comment

Pro
Doesn't black out other displays when doing full screen

It can black out other screens if you want, but out of the box it leaves your other displays alone.

Comment

Pro
Can overdrive audio up to 10x

In the latest build, IINA 1.0.0-beta2 Build 80 (on Mac) the audio can be overdriven to 10x or 1000% system audio levels. This is great for when audio sources are very quiet or when people having hearing issues and need louder output for equivalent hearing experience. A note to people that use this feature, please be careful not to damage existing hearing or your audio equipment.

Comment

Pro
MPV scripting support

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Supports local files, online streaming, and YouTube playlists

A modern movie-watching app for Mac.

Comment

Pro
Runs on MPV so it's scriptable and runs any MPV script

See here. Tip: if you're doing a lot of cropping and slicing of videos and you thought the new quick tools in Finder / Quicktime Player are a great improvement, try setting up IINA with slicing.lua and some keybindings for navigating your video + setting the slicing positions. Make sure your ffmpeg command (in slicing.lua) is set to copy the original codecs and that it's using your GPU.

Comment

Pro
Extremely stable

Extremely stable, even while still in the beta.

Comment

Pro
Up to 1000% volume

[add description]

Comment

Con
Energy consuming

It uses quite some energy, even more than VLC.

Comment

Con
Buggy

Crashes sometimes.

Comment

Con
No chromescast support

This would make it perfect.

Comment

Con
Can't overdrive the audio over 100%

Other media players let you overdrive the sound, this one doesn't.

Comment

Con
I couldn’t find any audio equalizer

I couldn’t find any audio equalizer.

Comment

Pro
Plays back almost everything

VLC reads almost all music and video without codec installation. It has a wide range of supported encodings. From basic .avi to .mov, VLC is capable of playing BluRay, HD and most common video format types used on Mac – .mp4 & .mov.

Comment

Con
Absence of personalisation

Player has only one basic interface in white or black colour and overall personalisation opportunities are quite narrow.

Comment

Pro
No payment is required

VLC is free to download. Despite this fact, it is frequently updated just to correspond with users needs.

Comment

Pro
Fast and light software

Players efficiency is based on good compatibility with OS X and light weight.

Comment

Con
Has problems with video formats used on iTunes

Unfortunately, if .mp4 & .mov is not a problem, then .m4P is. VLC video player can play .m4A and .m4V files, but .m4p audio files will be a problem.

Comment

Con
Some insignificant, but irritating flaws

Despite all keyboard shortcuts, the width of the picture can not be controlled by trackpad. Besides that, VLC start up window doesn’t open at the same place, or same width it was previously closed at.

Comment

Con
Lacks libraries and advanced music player features

VLC is a media player first and foremost. There is no library management, aside from playlists, usage of tags is very limited, no rating system and VLC is best at playing a file directly from a folder as opposed to helping the user manage or find good songs in their music library.

Comment

Pro
Can play every format video available (as of 2017)

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Surprisingly Lightest on Resources

Yes. Lightest. Even better than the ones known to be light. Both when playing music, only a single song or when playing a video. Either in terms of Ram and Cpu. Compared with almost all, including the ones from Windows like mpc-hc .. or light ones from Linux like Alsa Player, Audacious, SmPlayer .

Comment

Pro
Doesn't require additional codecs

Everything VLC needs to play media files is contained within which means no outside codecs are needed. This makes it one of the most hassle-free music players as it can play virtually anything as soon as it's installed.

Comment

Pro
Free, open source, and cross-platform

VLC is licensed under the CC-SA v3.0+ and available on Windows, OSX, and Linux with source code available here.

Comment

Pro
Simple to setup and use

VLC is an incredibly robust application but very simple on the surface. It makes playing music simple, yet still manages to give the user all the tools he/she wants in a music player.

Comment

Pro
Can be almost completely keyboard-driven

VLC includes keyboard shortcuts for most actions. The player be controlled with simple and customizable keyboard commands.

Comment

Pro
Great ability to play content over the network

Software is capable of creating and connecting to a video stream.

Comment

Pro
Built-in audio equalizer

As sometimes audio track of a video file can be quieter than usual, it is possible to boost the sound a little bit without major distortion.

Comment

Pro
Tons of advanced settings

Besides basic configurations, video player has great amount of adjustable settings.

Comment

Con
Not so great for audio files

While VLC is doing a good job with video reproducing, it is fairly un-suitable for audio files.

Comment

Pro
Needs no additional codecs

Everything MPV needs to play media files is contained within which means no outside codecs are needed.

Comment

Pro
Minimal interface

Click to open files and get Video with sound (and passthrough of codecs like DTS etc) for a perfect cinema experience. Works okay for many files. Default window is not much more than a title bar - and if you drag/resize the window it resizes the video and leaves no empty areas. There is no visible control or display unless you use mouse/keyboard over the window. This is the best player to use unless you're going for a media center (then use MPV based Plex Media Player to display and play the Plex Server library).

Comment

Con
Lack of a typical GUI can be jarring to some

The minimal interface comes at the cost of beginner-friendliness. You need to know keyboard shortcuts by heart, settings are set in text files, right-clicking won't bring up a menu, etc.

Comment

Con
Minimal theme support

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Extensive scripts library and scripting support

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Highly configurable

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Fast

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Extremely responsive

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Caches livestreams

Intelligently caches livestreams and enables jumping within the cached stream.

Comment

Pro
Integrates with streaming services

When used with youtube-dl.

Comment

Con
System crash is more frequent

MPlayerX creshes occur more often than in usual video players. They should be tackled properly.

Comment

Con
No proper playlist feature

In spite of easy and comfy smart-play, its general playlist isn’t user friendly.

Comment

Con
No retina display support on old OSX

MPlayerX does not support retina display on OS X older than Mountain Lion, but amount of Mac’s with older OS X are quite rare nowadays.

Comment

Con
High CPU usage is possible

Sometimes, after the player or OS X update, file reproduction can demand a significant part of CPU usage.

Comment

Con
Freezing issues

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Best Player for macOS

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Stream local files to Chromecast, Smart TV, Apple TV, other AirPlay and DLNA-compliant devices

Elmedia Player streams local videos to other devices, like Samsung TV, LG TV, Sony TV, and other supported smart TV sets.

Comment

Pro
Plays almost any video file

Elmedia Player is a free media player for Mac that supports various audio and video formats, including FLV, SWF, MP4, AVI, MOV, MP4, DAT, MP3, etc.

Comment

Pro
Handy Open URL option

Open URL option allows watching YouTube videos without ads.

Comment

Pro
Making screenshots

Making a screenshot of any moment in the movie or making the entire video a series of pictures with adjustable interval

Comment

Pro
Video & audio settings

Flip vertically, rotate, mirror videos or revert to original; adjust video brightness, contrast, saturation, and more, sync subtitles to the video, adjust the sound for different genres; set an output device for audio

Comment

Pro
Subtitles editing

Allows changing font, size, font color, border color, etc. Possibility to increase or decrease subtitles delay

Comment

Pro
Play online videos online without ads

You can open an online video with a URL and play it without Ads (like it usually happens on YouTube).

Comment

Pro
Built-in subtitles search

For an effortless access to various subtitles Elmedia is integrated with the opensubtitles.org service, which lets users add desired subtitles to a movie without leaving the app.

Comment

Pro
Convenient video settings

You can use different settings to video like video and image layout adjustments.

Comment

Pro
Built-in web browser

The app features built-in web browser that allows you to watch online videos directly from the app, while Open URL enables you to do it without noisy ads.

Comment

Pro
Now it can save subtitles from opensubtitles.org

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Allows torrent search

PRO version of Folx enables torrent search directly from the application.

Comment

Pro
Scheduling of downloads

You can choose the time for starting the download.

Comment

Pro
Speed control

You can set up speed control in different ways.

Comment

Pro
Download from YouTube

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Remember login and password for websites

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Download from YouTube

Simply add Youtube video link and choose quality.

Comment

Pro
Splitting of downloads in up to 20 threads

Download can be split into up to 20 separate simultaneous downloads - threads. When the server supports multiple connections this can greatly improve download speed.

Comment