Mac users can try the following alternatives when the VLC media player isn’t working. QuickTime Player. QuickTime player, the best VLC alternative Mac, is the most familiar media players for Mac users. As the default movie player as Mac, QuickTime player is capable of supporting various formats of videos, music, images, and other media. QuickTime Player won't play nice with some increasingly common formats like Matroska. The clunky interface of Videolan's VLC always seems to open at least one more window than is strictly necessary. And the more recent MPV only offers unofficial third-party Mac builds as an afterthought.
It has been a long time people consider VLC as the best video player for Mac. However, if you have ever tried it, this is quite a simple app and still far from perfect. VLC excels at the video playback features but its media library is so confusing and you would not want to use it to manage your movies and music.
Recently I’ve had the chance to try the free app called 5K Player on my Mac. This is a promising app because it is said to be the combination of a HD video player, a music player, a radio player, AirPlay media streamer and Youtube video downloader. Let’s check it out.
Vlc Player For Mac Reviews
Key Features of 5K Player
First and foremost, this is a video and music player. I tried to use it with all media files on my Mac and it didn’t have any problem playing them at all. It can play MKV, M2TS, MP4, AVI, WMV, FLV video files, MP3, AAC, AC3, WMA, FLAC and ALAC lossless audio files.
Vlc Video Mac
Besides, it also has a built-in radio player with some preset Internet radio stations like BBC Sports, CBS Sports, NBC, Hotmix radio, ABC Lounge, HeartFM, etc. If your favorite station is not included in the list, just put in the radio URL and it will show up in the list next time.
Of course, you can also insert your DVD and play it with the software. I even see the option to rip the DVD, unfortunately, you will have to pay more than $30 for another app. At the moment, I feel fine with playing my DVD because there are solutions to rip Blu-ray/DVD for free.
Another interesting feature of the 5K Player app is its built-in Airplay streaming support. Of course, you can stream your content with Airplay from your iPhone to your Mac or from your Mac to your TV anytime because the technology features in all those Apple’s products. 5K Player just made it a little easier with an Airplay button on top right corner. Just click on that button and choose the destination and you are done.
If you often use online services to download videos on Youtube, you might also find the app useful because it is built with a Youtube video downloader. Just paste the Youtube URL and click on the Download button, you can also choose among tons of video formats for the file.
Performance
As mentioned above, the app works pretty well with my video and audio files. I also love its interface and the media library. It is much more beautiful and intuitive than the VLC’s library.
The only problem I got is probably the video quality. The colors of videos seem a little washed out and look brighter than other video players I’m using. Therefore, you might see that the image quality is inaccurate and loses a lot of details. You can check out some screenshots below, click on the pictures to see them clearer.
Vlc Media Player For Mac Review
As you can see, the video quality of VLC is much more accurate with a lot more details. Then I found out that 5K Player has Video Tuner to adjust brightness, saturation, contrast, gamma, and hue. I tried to make colors of the video close to the one on VLC but obviously the image quality couldn’t be as sharp and smooth. You can see that the text in the video even got pixelated.
The 5K Player is currently available for free here. Check it out and let me know what you think of the app.
Vlc Player For Mac Review Cnet
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