- Best Free Video Player Mac
- Top Video Player For Mac Windows 7
- Top Video Player For Mac Windows 10
- Best Movie Player For Mac
- Top Video Player For Macbook Air
How to play 3D 360 degree videos? And any awesome 360 video players recommended? Keep rolling for further details.
- Let us review these video players for Windows 10 and Mac in detail: #1) CyberLink PowerDVD 20 Ultra Best for media playing with 8K, 4K, Ultra HD Blu-ray & H.265/HEVC playback. CyberLink PowerDVD 20 Ultra is an all-in-one solution that offers more functionalities than just a Blu-ray & DVD player.
- The Best Free Video Players app downloads for Mac: VLC Media Player SmartPSS for Mac (64-bit) Flip Player Apple QuickTime Player 7 5KPlayer Cisdem Vid.
13 Best Android Emulators For Windows PC And Mac 2020 Edition List. It ranks among the best video player apps because of its lightweight nature. ACG Player has all the essential features.
360 video is the wave of now and future. It has been applied to many areas, for example, world's 1st NHS cancer operation is live streamed in 360-degree virtual reality; Michelle Obama has made a 360 degree video interview recently; Intel buys a 360-degree sports video replay specialist for the slam-dunk competition at this year's NBA All-Star games; YouTube creates a brand-new 360 video subscribtion and Facebook allows 360 degree video like and share. Having said all of 360 video application, it's high time to take a close look at this hottest buzz word in the tech world: what's 360 video? How to play such videos?
What's 360 Degree Video?
360 degree videos is known as immersive videos or spherical videos. They are videos recorded typically in every direction by a special rig of multiple cameras or a dedicated omnidirectionaly camera that contains many camera lenses therein. 360-degree video is formatted in an equirectangular protection typically. The cameras supporting creating 360-degree videos include GoPro's Omni, Vuze Camera, Kandao Obsidian, Samsung Gear 360, etc. Users can play 360 degree videos with 360º video player, they can have a control of viewing direction by dragging the video around. It's a form of virtual reality.
Table of Contents
Top 6 360 Video Players to Play 360 Degree Videos Without Any Hassle
After recording or downloading 360 degree videos, you may find difficulty in picking a reliably 360 vr player or xbox 360 media player for 360 video playback because there only a few video players supports 360 video playing on the market. Now that 360 degree video players are badly in demand for 360 degree videos playback. Here we list top 5 360º video players, giving you a new way to enjoy yourself.
#1 - 5KPlayer
When mentioning a 360 video player, 5KPlayer absolutely takes 360 video playback as its obligation. It is a 100% free 360º video player, specially designed for Mac and Windows users to play 360 degree virtual reality videos, 4K UHD 3840x2160, HD 1080p/720p, 3D Blu Ray videos as well as SD MP4, MOV, AVI, FLV, MKV etc videos. It also features download & airplay knacks. That is to say, you are free to get YouTube 360 degree video download with 5KPlayer. If you don't know how to play 360 videos on your computer, this video player for 360 videos will be a good choice.
#2 - Kolor Eyes
Kolor Eyes is a free 360° video player for Windows, Mac, HTML5, iOS and Android. It allows you to play and interact with your 360° videos on your computer and on your Oculus Rift. The desktop application of this 360 vr player lets you play 360-degree videos on your Mac or PC, watching videos up to 8K and enjoy the finest resolution at 360 degrees. What's more, turn at 360 degrees, zoom in and out, change the projection and apply visual effects all can be done with Kolor Eyes.
#3 - VR Player
VR Player is an experimental Virtual Reality 360 media player for Head-Mounted Display devices like the Oculus Rift. It features playing 360 degree videos, reading 2D/3D images and videos, local files, streams (including YouTube), disc, and more! For the moment, VR Player is a rare 360 video player keeping the trend of videos.
#4 - JW Player
JW Player is one of the most popular embeddable 360 vr players for websites. It supports a wide array of platforms, browsers, and media formats, including 4K 360 degree videos, 3D 360 VR, 1080P/720P, and standard definition videos in MP4, MOV, AVI, FLV etc. It is open-source software which is easy to configure, customize, and extend. Besides, it's a trifle for JW Player to play 360 degree videos, as well as xbox 360 games walkthrough served as an awesome xbox 360 media player.
#5 - Total Cinema 360° Web Player
Our Total Cinema 360° Web Player lets you experience and play 360° videos on the web from both desktop and mobile browsers. Built with HTML5 and WebGL, the 360 Web video Player operates seamlessly on Chrome, Firefox, and Safari on Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. But it's a pity that Total Cinema 360° only have access of its official site contents.
#6 - Kolor GoPro VR Player
Kolor GoPro VR player is placed sixth in our best 360 video players list. It is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux computers, on which you can play 360°action videos, without an internet connection. With a lightweight interface, the player allows you to play 360 degree videos at the cost of the least effort, by simply loading the VR files and opening the very basic controls. An added value for the tool is you can adjust the general settings, video encoding, controllers, and more before playing 360° spherical videos.
Where and How to Get 360 Degree Video Contents?
As we can see above, though 360 video players are ready to play 360 videos. But where and how can we get 360 degree videos? You can certainly record your own 360 degree videos with the cameras, while getting 360 video download is also a decent idea, since both YouTube and Facebook nowadays are set to be the cradle of 360-degree VR videos. MacX Video Converter Pro makes the downloads a simple task. It allows you to download 360 degree videos hassle-free since it's an outstanding 360 VR video downloader, allows all kinds of video download including YouTube 360° videos, 4K UHD, 1080P/720P videos and so on.
1.Free download the 360 video downloader for Mac or Windows version for PCs and launch it. Click 'YouTube' >> 'Add Link' >> 'paste & analyze' to detect the 360 video URL copied from YouTube.
2. Choose the output format, resolution, size etc.
3. Specify the output folder path to save the downloaded 360 video.
4. Hit 'Download' button to start 360 degree VR video download.
Note: This 360 degree video downloader Mac also owns outstanding editing features like compress video size, trim video to several video clips, crop unwanted areas, merge multiple videos into a new one, add watermark to 360 vr video and more. Thus, after shooting 360 degree video with Samsung Gear 360 VR camera or other cameras, you also can edit your personalized 360 degree video for uploading to YouTube etc.
Additional: How to Watch 360 Degree Videos?
However, though there are a lot of 360 degree videos available on the internet today, not everyone has tried or already experienced to watch 360º videos. So, after we proceed to the top 5 360º players, let's check how to watch 360 VR video in a simple and easy way as possible.
1. To start with, a normal windows MAC or PC or a smart phone is needed.
2. For you to hear the sounds of the movie you are watching, you need to have a 360 VR headset depending on what effect you want to best achieve.
3. Choose a 360 degree video player where you can have the movie.
4. 360 degree movie or game- downloads like 360 VR videos from 360 video sites also.
5. Once you have downloaded the 360 video, you can now find a place where you can choose to watch the movie.
6. Just put your VR headset, start playing the 360 VR video you download using also your best 360 video player on your smartphone, PC/ MAC. But before you start, make sure not to forget to put your own earphones on for you to experience the best virtual reality sound and view you want for.
Quick Summary
VLC is a well-known cross-platform media player developed by VideoLAN. It is a simple yet powerful program and is perhaps the best replacement for the default video player on your Mac. Whether you're a beginner or advanced Apple user, you need to try VLC as it supports all major formats from MP4 to WMV. The player comes with an easy-to-use interface that can be customized with just a few clicks.
5KPlayer is an all-around great media player for Mac that has a few tricks up its sleeve. Apart from supporting a wide range of formats, the player also works as a video downloader and converter. But the most impressive thing about 5KPlayer is the DLNA and AirPlay support which allows users to stream video across their devices.
Plex is much more than just a typical video player. In fact, it's a media streaming server app. Plex consists of two parts: the media server itself and media player that can handle almost all formats and Ultra HD resolution. Intuitive UI and comprehensive platform support make it an excellent option for creating and managing a personal media library.
Want to find out more about the winners? We also tested other video players for macOS and chose some alternatives you might find useful. So keep on reading!
Do You Need A Different Media Player
If you're searching for the best video player for Mac, you've probably had problems playing video via Quicktime Player. You're definitely not alone here.
Although QuickTime is a native Apple application for Mac, it's a bit slow to launch and supports limited video formats. Many Mac users experience trouble playing MP4 or MKV files via QuickTime Player. As you can see from the screenshot below, so am I:
Although it has a smooth UI, QuickTime is poor in terms of compatibility. Using a third-party player is a way out of this situation. The apps reviewed in this article cope with a variety of formats including MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, WMV, etc. They have extra features to create and manage playlists, customize your movie-watching experience, and mirror content on other devices that are above and beyond those supported by Quicktime.
Let's see in detail what these apps have to offer!
How We Tested and Picked
To determine the winners, I used my MacBook Air and followed these criteria:
Best Free Video Player Mac
Supported Formats: As the Mac default player isn't powerful enough to support some of the most wide-spread formats, this criteria was the most significant during our test.
Compatibility: The best Mac media player should be compatible with latest macOS and support videos of the highest resolution (4K).
Feature set: When it comes to QuickTime alternatives, a great set of features (video/audio filters, subtitle synchronization, playback speed, customization, etc.) is what makes the best player stand out from the competitors.
User Interface and Experience: Having a wide range of features can create a learning curve, but a great video player should stay user-friendly and have an attractive and intuitive interface to create the best possible user experience.
Affordability: Most of the video players available for Mac are free, some of them provide extra features that require payment. In this case, an app must offer the best value for the money if you decide to purchase it.
The Winners
Best Overall: VLC Media Player
When it comes to the best video players for Mac, VLC is the longtime king. This free, lightweight, open source cross-platform media player is powerful enough to cope with most video formats including MPEG, WMV, MP4, MKV, MOV, and AVI. The player can play almost everything on a single platform from DVDs, and audio CDs to streams and webcams. The video runs smoothly, without issues. No extra codecs are needed.
VLC has hardware decoding on most platforms. The player (version 3.0.6) runs on Mac OS X 10.7.5 (64-bit Intel-based Mac) up to Mac OS Mojave. Older devices (Mac OS X 10.0 — 10.6) are supported by previous releases. However, that support ended for these releases so they won't receive any further updates.
In addition to extensive format support, the video player has a wide range of features such as adjustable playback speeds, subtitle synchronization, and audio/video filters. VLC gives users an opportunity to customize almost all aspects of the software. While its design isn't the most attractive on the market, the player allows adding and creating skins, installing extensions, and changing keyboard shortcuts.
If you want to watch online videos outside the browser, VLC handles this task easily. It allows downloading content right to your computer. The program even has a built-in podcast manager so that you can add and listen to your favorite podcasts all in one place. VLC can also serve you as a converter.
Why is VLC one of the most popular video players so far? The answer is simple. This completely free program is easy-to-use, fast, and powerful. Besides, it has no annoying ads. VLC is not efficient when it comes to battery life as Quicktime, but overall it deserves to crown the top of our list of the best video players for Mac.
Runner-Up: 5KPlayer
Another superb video player for Mac that can easily play almost all available formats is 5KPlayer. The program is a great mixture of free HD video and music player, media library, online downloader, and DLNA/AirPlay-enabled media streamer.
When it comes to formats, 5KPlayer supports 4K, 5K, and 1080p HD videos including MKV, WMV, MP4, and MTS. It can play almost any multimedia file such as music, video (UHD, 3D, HDR 360), CDs, Audio CDs, DVDs, and VCDs.
Runner-Up: 5KPlayer
Another superb video player for Mac that can easily play almost all available formats is 5KPlayer. The program is a great mixture of free HD video and music player, media library, online downloader, and DLNA/AirPlay-enabled media streamer.
When it comes to formats, 5KPlayer supports 4K, 5K, and 1080p HD videos including MKV, WMV, MP4, and MTS. It can play almost any multimedia file such as music, video (UHD, 3D, HDR 360), CDs, Audio CDs, DVDs, and VCDs.
The player also handles streaming/mirroring video via DLNA/AirPlay without quality loss. With built-in AirPlay tech, 5KPlayer can render the whole screen of iPads and iPhones to computers as well as Mac to Apple TV in a blink. Also, there is a screen recording utility connected to the mirroring function that allows up to 4K UHD video recording.
Apart from being a feature-rich video player, 5KPlayer is a useful video downloader that supports more than 300+ online platforms including YouTube, Vimeo, Vevo, MTV, Facebook, Instagram, and CBS. With its help, you can easily download many videos free of charge.
5KPlayer offers subtitle synchronization supporting various formats such as *.ass, *.srt, *.ssa, and *.sub. Just drag and drop the subtitle file to the playback window and subtitles settings will update right away without restarting the program.
What I like the most about 5KPlayer is that it allows Mac users to create a personal multimedia library where they can sort out their favorite videos and manage Youtube playlists.
Its UI looks smooth and user-friendly. During testing, there were no glitches or unexpected errors–a good sign as the software doesn't reduce computer's productivity by a great measure. The video player is packed with features. On the other hand, it might be confusing for some beginners who just started exploring video player's world.
Also Great: Plex Video Player
Top Video Player For Mac Windows 7
If you're looking for something more complex than a simple video player, Plex is a top choice. It's a full-fledged media server app that can scan and organize all media on your computer perfectly, managing your playlists alongside with online content and streaming music.
As a video player, Plex can cope with just about every possible video format and 4K resolution. There is no need to convert formats by yourself, as the program automatically transcodes them when required.
What's more, it can stream videos from one device to another (Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Chromecast, Android, TiVo, Android/iOS phones and tablets, etc.). With Plex, you can connect your Mac to a TV in a few clicks and watch your favorite movies on a bigger screen with no compromise in quality.
The Plex UI is eye candy for all Apple lovers. What I love the most is that the app adds cover art and descriptions to each video in your media library, making it look fantastic. Plex's drawback is the tricky installation and setup process. Additionally, to get access to the Plex Media Server, every user must create a MyPlex account.
Even though Plex is free, users can purchase an upgraded version called PlexPass to get additional features such as parental controls and Live TV & DVR for $4.99 per month or $119.99 for lifetime access.
The Alternatives
Elmedia
As a multifunctional video player for Mac, Elmedia by Eltima Software supports all popular video formats (MP4, FLV, AVI, MKV, MOV, WMV, MKV, and others). The program plays HD media without slowdown or any interruptions. It's also powerful enough to stream content to Apple TV, Smart TV, and other AirPlay or DLNA devices.
Elmedia allows users to customize playback speed, manage audio and subtitle delay, and browse the web without leaving the app. With its help, you can create and manage bookmarks to easily find your favorite parts of a movie.
Top Video Player For Mac Windows 10
The user-friendly interface of an app is an excellent match for the newer macOS versions. Elmedia offers tons of tools to improve your watching experience, but not all of them are free of charge. The PRO version of the app costs $19.95.
Cisdem Video Player for Mac
If you're looking for a lightweight player with a decent interface and easy navigation that can provide you with a perfect experience of watching HD videos, you might want to try out Cisdem Video Player. Many users consider it a great alternative to VLC and 5KPlayer. It runs well on macOS 10.10 or higher.
Cisdem Video Player plays more than 50 formats (MKV, WMV, AVI, FLV, etc.) on Mac with no additional codec packages needed. But an ability to cope with high-quality formats such as 4K, 5K, and Full HD 1080p is not the only advantage of this software.
The player can convert multimedia files in various formats for any device like iPhone, iPad, Android phones, and etc. Using Cisdem Video Player as a converter, you can turn a file into an iPhone supported format and transfer it to your device via iTunes. To activate this feature, you have to purchase a license for $9.99 (1 Mac/Lifetime license). The upgraded version also gives free technical support and other benefits such as the removal of ads.
MPlayerX
Another noteworthy video player for Mac is MPlayerX. Although it hasn't been updated since 2016, MPlayerX is a very lightweight, free, and easy-to-use program which can handle most formats without extra plugins or codec packages. MPlayerX runs smoothly on any Mac with OS X 10.7 or later and a 64-bit Intel CPU.
Designed specifically for Apple users in mind, this player has a minimalistic interface and simple navigation. It can 'dance on your fingers' allowing users to control the playback via a Mac touchpad with gestures. MPlayerX provides Apple Remote support and online streaming from YouTube, Vimeo, and other websites.
This program offers subtitle support including Hebrew, Arabic, and Eastern Asian languages. It can quickly detect and convert subtitle files automatically. The player also lets users change the subtitle size. MPlayerX provides full-screen mode and a batch of other helpful customization options. As for me, the most useful one is the ability to increase or decrease the speed of the playback.
Best Movie Player For Mac
DivX Player
Since the early 2000s, the DivX company has been providing users worldwide with high-quality solutions for playing digital video. Its same-name video player DivX supports a wide range of formats including HD 1080p and 4K UHD videos.
This software has an intuitive interface and an overwhelming feature set. It can stream videos to DLNA-compatible devices. Just use the 'Cast to' options and pick a device you want to stream to (Chromecast, Smart TV, Playstation, Xbox, etc). Also, DivX can help you burn media to discs or change the viewing size of the playback in a few clicks.
Despite the fact the player is free, access to its many features is quite limited. To make the most of using this software, you need to buy a DivX Pro for $19.99. The advanced version includes an ad-free option and adds AC3 audio playback, Cloud Connect to import videos from Dropbox and Google Drive, a DTS-HD plugin, and VideoPack to convert VC-1 and MPEG-2 video to DivX, MKV and MP4.
The free version comes with a 15-day or 30-day trial of some features so that you can try them and decide whether it's worth the money or not.
During testing, DivX played a movie without glitches but crashed unexpectedly several times.
IINA
The last-but-not-least video player on our list is IINA, a modern movie-watching app for Mac. Just like media players listed above, IINA can play almost any format and offers useful customization options.
The app requires macOS 10.11 or newer. Written in Apple's Swift programming language, it's based on an open-source video player and is still under development. When complete, it's going to give the best video players a run for their money.
The player supports local files, online streaming, and YouTube playlists. It also has good gesture support via trackpad that can be modified up to your preferences. If you already have macOS Mojave, you'll surely like IINA for its UI with colors and icons that can adjust for dark mode.
Top Video Player For Macbook Air
Conclusion
After in-depth testing of various video players for Mac, we've found the best options to help you create a real home cinema experience with your computer — VLC, 5K Player, and Plex. Whether you watch movies from time to time or want to create a stunning video collection, we hope this review will help you choose the app that suits your needs.
Have you tried another Mac media player app that's worth being featured in this review? Let us know in the comments below!