Free AVI Player for Mac. Free AVI Player for Mac provides the easiest and best way to play AVI and other frequently-used video formats like MP4, MKV, MOV, FLV and more with high visual and sound quality. Play 4K/8K/1080p/720p AVI, MP4, MOV videos and audio. Play AVI, MP4, MKV, MOV, MP3, AAC with lossless audio effect. Download MKPlayer - MKV & Media Player for macOS 10.10 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. MKPlayer is an easy-to-use media player designed to offer unique features to enjoy watching videos and listening to music: - Play movies on your TV with a simple click (check compatibility before unlocking) - Safari Extension to help you to easily open.
Watching movies on a laptop is not the best way to do it but you can’t carry a TV on the Plane, yet. While the Quicktime Player handles all of my media content with ease, there are certain formats that it still can’t recognize. The MKV format is one of the popular ones in the movie industry because of it’s unlimited storage capacity. In this guide, I’ll show you how to play MKV files on a mac. Let’s get started.
Wondershare UniConverter for Mac (originally Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate for Mac). MKV is a free multimedia container format that is not only popular these days but also is convenient to use as it holds numerous subtitle files, audio, video, etc in one single file. Selecting an MKV player for Mac is one of the toughest jobs in the world. The Best MKV Player Mac/Windows. DVDFab Player 6 is the best MKV player on Mac and Windows. It is free and easy to use, plays videos fast and smoothly without any ads or bugs. To use it, you have to start from this MKV player download. (1) Download and Install DVDFab Player 6.
The MKV format is an open and free container format that can hold an infinite number of audio, video, and text files in a single file. This makes it an excellent format for TV shows, movies, etc.
There are various options to play MKV files on Mac but we’ll choose the easiest three;
- Installing a QuickTime Plugin
- Installing a third party Player
- Converting the Video
1. Play MKV Files on Mac – QuickTime Plugin
Quicktime Player is the default video player for macOS. Yes, it does lack a few features which other players have but it’s nothing a plugin won’t fix. Perian is a popular Plugin for QuickTime Player which lets you play MKV videos on your Mac.
Download the Plugin setup file from the official website or by clicking this link.
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Your download should automatically start and once the file is downloaded, you can simply open the downloads by clicking the downloaded button on the tray. Click on ‘Perian.dmg’ to begin the setup.
It would show the error just like the figure below, which says “Perian can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer”. Fret not, you can easily remove this error, by temporarily disabling the security blanket of GateKeeper.
To disable Gatekeeper, open ‘System Preferences’ by searching in the Spotlight or from the Apple menu. It would open the settings window and you can click on ‘Security & Privacy’.
After that, you’d see the section which says ‘Allow apps downloaded from’ and a button ‘Open Anyway’. Click the button to override the default action.
If your Mac has a password, you need to enter it again to authenticate it. Make sure you enter the Administrator’s name and password or else it won’t install the plugin.
Now, this will open the installer and you just have to click ‘Perian.prefPane’ to begin the installation.
Ignore this warning and allow it by clicking ‘Okay‘. It automatically installs all the necessary files and you just have to wait for it to finish.
After the installation is finished, you’ll see the window similar to one below. You can close it now as the Plugin is successfully installed.
Play the MKV file with Plugin
Now, you can open any file from your system with QuickTime Player and it would start loading instead of showing you an error. Depending on the Size of the file, it may take some time.
This Plugin converts the MKV file to MP4 and that’s why it takes a little while to load. Once it does, you can watch the video without any problems on your QuickTime Player. If you close the window, you’ll get a pop-up that would suggest you save the file in MP4 format. You can save the file in MP4 format and play that instead.
Pros
- No additional Player required
- Easy installation and integration
- Open-sourced
- Converts MKV to mp4 as well
Cons
- Slow loading speeds
2. Play MKV Files on Mac with VLC
The last method works great if you want to keep using QuickTime Player as your main media player on the computer. The Plugin is still a workaround and slow when compared with other media players.
The VLC media player is one of the most popular video players out there and the popularity keeps growing because of its consistent and reliable performance and support for a wide range of formats and codecs. You can install VLC to play MKV files and other formats without installing any special plugin. You can even set it as a default media player on mac.
Go to the VLC’s website and download the latest package or click this link.
It opens the download page and beings the download in a few seconds.
Once the download is finished. Double click the package in the Downloads to install it.
As it unwraps the container, you’ll see the window like the one below, you have to drag the traffic cone to the applications folder by clicking and holding the icon.
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It would prompt you with an authentication pop-up, Click ‘Authenticate’ button to begin the installation.
It may ask you the login credentials. Enter the administrator username and password and click ‘Modify Settings‘.
VLC media player would install and now you can play any MKV file with VLC media player. Simply right-click the MKV file and select ‘Open With’. Click on the VLC icon. It begins to play the video without a hiccup.
Pros
- Support for a wide variety of Plugins
- Native support for MKV
- Sleek UI
Cons
![Best Player For Mkv Mac Best Player For Mkv Mac](/uploads/1/1/8/6/118659360/161856232.png)
- Problems with 4K playback
3. Play MKV Files on Mac With Handbrake
If for any reason, you can’t use the above two methods. Converting the MKV files to a supported format is the best option. Using a web converter is both time-consuming and slow, considering you have to first upload, convert, and then download the converted file again.
Handbrake is an open-sourced video transcoder that is used to rip DVDs and it also lets you convert MKV files to mp4. Installing Handbrake on your mac would take no more than five minutes. Go to the website or click this link to download the installer package.
Start by clicking the downloaded package in the Downloads folder.
It would open the container and you can click on the Handbrake icon to launch the converter.
To select an MKV file for conversion, click the ‘Open Source’ button on the top left corner of the window.
Select the file from the computer by browsing to the desired folder.
After selecting the file(s), you can select presets, and adjust video duration. You can edit dimensions, filters, video, audio of the output file. After you’re done with the tweaks, choose the output folder, and click start.
After the conversion, The output file is automatically stored to the destination address. You can open the folder and play the file on any media player or send to other devices using iTunes.
Pros
- Multiple files can be converted at once
- Multiple presets are available
- Full control over dimensions, audio, chapters, etc
Cons
- Only converts to MP4
Also Read: 5 Best Time tracking apps for Mac to boost your productivity
3 Ways to Play MKV Files on a Mac
These were 3 ways with which you can play MKV files on a Mac. Installing a Plugin is the easiest way to play MKV files if you don’t want to move to a new media player considering QuickTime is already powerful. Installing a VLC is my recommended choice because it gives you so much more than just MKV playback, even AirPlay(coming soon). Handbrake is best when you need to convert and transfer the file to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod. This gives you more control over the quality and you can optimize the video for specific devices. Tell us which method would you use to play MKV files on a mac.
By Nathan E. Malpass, Last updated: April 24, 2020
“I love to watch movies and listen to music on my Mac, and I heard there are some great MKV Players available. I don’t know what those are, but a lot of people are saying that I should get it for my Mac and everything. I don’t know. I am not very techy and would love to know what are my options and what the MKV players actually are. All I know is that there are a lot of options available if I am not mistaken. Any help would be greatly appreciated!”
A lot of people use their Macs as an entertainment tool to watch movies anywhere at any time. Assuming you’ve been getting files here and there, you may have come across the MKV file and these are great multimedia container formats. A good thing to note about MKV files is that it can contain audio, video and even subtitles in one file, which makes it fairly handy to have all around. Unfortunately, there are some media players that have yet to be able to play MKV files, but not to worry, here is a list of the best MKV Players for Mac:
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Part 1: Five Best MKV Players for Mac
1. VLC
VLC is one of the most popular players available on the net, it’s fast, sleek and easy to use. A lot of people are already using this and are quite happy. It can play a lot of formats and rarely has too many files that it cannot work with. Definitely a contender for one of the best MKV Players for Mac. A must try for newbies and veterans alike.
2. Wondershare Player
This is a pretty nifty player and is gaining popularity with a lot of users. Wondershare Player has a very friendly interface and has a variety of formats that it can easily play. It’s easy to use and download, plus it is of course subtitle-friendly and works with both Macs and Windows. Give it a shot as it’s, of course, free to download and install.
3. Perian + QuickTime
For those who have been using Macs for quite some time, QuickTime is the default player that is installed on most Macs. Unfortunately, though, QuickTime is not able to play MKV files as of now and it has a few more formats that it does not recognize. For heavy media player consumers, this is a no-go so they often start to shop around for other options. That’s where Perian comes in.
Perian isn’t an MKV Player in the traditional sense of the word, but it is a third party add-on for QuickTime. What Perian does, is actually allows QuickTime to start reading formats and files that QuickTime could not before. All you need to do is download it and install it accordingly, then it will work its magic on QuickTime. So, if you are pretty happy with QuickTime, then Perian might just be a good option for you.
4. MPlayerX
The name might be a dead giveaway, but MPlayerX is a great MKV player. The interesting thing about MPlayerX, however, is that it has a very close similarity to QuickTime. Again, if you do prefer QuickTime and find that Perian is a little too complicated to get, then MPlayerX might just be the best option for you. The interface is very minimalist, which is great because you won’t get distracted while watching a movie and it works quite well on most Macs.
5. Mac Blu-ray Player
As one can immediately tell, Mac Blu-ray Player works great for pretty much all Macs. Not only can it play Blu-ray formats, but it has a long list of formats that it can easily play and of course, MKV files are among that list. A fairly great program that deserves a spot on the best MKV Players for Mac.
These are just some of the many available options out there, there could be some more great players and new MKV Players are being developed yearly, while new features are added to existing MKV Players. You have quite a few choices to make, but at the very least the options above will give you a quick overview of some of the more popular decisions.
Moving forward, however, you may need to start trying several MKV Players and then uninstalling them, but you need to make sure that you uninstall them properly too. For that, you may need to keep reading to make sure that you are able to maintain the health of your Mac.
Part 2: Nice Tip-Proper Uninstalling When Not Suitable
There are a lot of great MKV Players available to Mac users and that’s great, the best part is, as mentioned earlier, you can keep trying whichever player until you are satisfied with the right one. While most of them are free, you also have to remember that after installing one and finding out it isn’t quite what you are looking for, you should uninstall that player.
You can definitely uninstall the usual way, but that leaves a lot to be desired for, as it will leave a lot of useless files on your Mac and unless you know how to find them manually, that will eventually become a larger problem. On the other hand, you can always use FoneDog PowerMyMac.
PowerMyMac is a program that was developed to better maintain your Mac and if you are trying a lot of MKV Players out, this just might be what you need. Among the tools that PowerMyMac uses, it has a great Uninstall tool that will not only remove the program or app that you want removing, it will also remove all related files to said program or app. Follow these steps in order to make sure that you have successfully removed all of the files related to the MKV Player you want to remove:
Step 1 - Download and install PowerMyMac - Download and install PowerMyMac for your Mac. Simply go to the official site, find the download and follow the necessary steps in order to proceed. The downloading time may vary depending on your internet speed, however, overall it should not be that long.
Step 2 - Opening PowerMyMac - When you have successfully installed it, as soon as you open PowerMyMac it will do an immediate health check of your Mac. They say having information is important and in this aspect, PowerMyMac has it in spades, you will get a quick overview of your Macs health and get a great clue as to what you need to do in order to better improve its performance. After checking the health of your Mac you will see three options available to you. The Toolkit is the one you want to choose for now.
Step 3 - Options and many more other choices - After choosing the Toolkit, quite a few more options will open up. Your attention will immediately be drawn to the Uninstaller option. Press that option to proceed.
Step 4 - Scanning time - PowerMyMac will ask for permission to scan through your computer, you will want to allow it and give it a few seconds to scan through your entire Mac. Please note this may take time depending on how much data PowerMyMac needs to scan through, please do not quit the program until it is done.
Step 5 - Choosing the program - Perhaps you tried several MKV Players already and still have them on your Mac, or maybe you only have one or two, doesn’t matter to PowerMyMac. You can simply choose what programs you want to delete and proceed.
Step 6 - Opening the program - When you’ve decided which programs you want to uninstall, simply click the name of the program and you will see all other files related to that file. You can scan through them or you can just choose all in order to really remove all of the files altogether.
Step 7 - Confirm - All that’s left is to confirm the uninstall it along with all the other files connected to it and when you’ve done that you are pretty much done.
Thankfully, with PowerMyMac, you can easily keep downloading and trying whatever MKV Player you want to give a try and then uninstall it as quickly as you installed it. You can confidently be assured that using the Uninstall option of PowerMyMac will result in the complete removal of the MKV Player along with all the now useless files related to it, making sure that it doesn’t become useless junk on your Mac for future use.
Mkv Video Player Mac
Part 3: Conclusion
Being able to test out multiple MKV Players is super easy and should be done. You need to enjoy your MKV Player and it needs to fit into your lifestyle, if you prefer a simpler display, shop around, if you prefer better option settings, keep looking. As mentioned, most MKV Players are free and are easy to download, all you have to do is find the right place to download them. And having FoneDog PowerMyMac at your side, ready to uninstall any MKV Players is always great and having the many other tools available to you is another added bonus.
Mkv Player For Mac
![Best player for mkv mac os Best player for mkv mac os](/uploads/1/1/8/6/118659360/460199921.jpg)
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