Best Media Player Apps on macOS Catalina & Big Sur: FREE Trial Downloads

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Top 3 Media Players for macOS 11: Big Sur Free Download

Written by Kaylee Wood | Last update: June 28, 2020 | 4 Min Read

At WWDC 2020, Apple announced the next version of macOS: macOS 11 Big Sur which brings the biggest redesign since the introduction of macOS 10. That means it’s another year to upgrade the OS of your MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Pro, Mac mini and iMac Pro to enjoy everything new. Also, it is another round to switch your media player to a macOS Big Sur compatible one. Now that macOS Big Sur download is available for everyone, this article mainly focuses on showing top 3 media players for macOS Big Sur to play H.264/HEVC 4K, HDR, DVD, 360°, etc videos successfully and smoothly.

How to Choose the Best Video Player for macOS 11 Big Sur?

Before we start, it is worth mentioning that videos not playing on macOS Big Sur problem may happen because of Apple’s 32-bit to 64-bit tech transition plan put forward in macOS Catalina in 2019. If your Mac media player including QuickTime Player 7 is a 32-bit app that relies on the older 32-bit codecs, it won’t work well on macOS Catalina as well as macOS Big Sur. That is to say, the media player on macOS Big Sur should be in favor of 64-bit technology to enable successful media playback. Based on the fact that all apps on macOS Catalina is compatible with 64-bit technology, any media player for macOS Catalina after upgrading can be used on macOS Big Sur. Below are top 3 media players for macOS 11 Big Sur which comes with different amazing features, so get the one based on your needs.

Top 3 Media Players for macOS Big Sur Reviews

No.1 QuickTime Player – Apple’s Own Mac Media Player

As is well known, QuickTime Player is built in every Mac computer as the default Mac media player and is people’s first choice to play media files on Mac. Every time macOS gets update, QuickTime Player will also be updated automatically. So, it is always the first choice for some basic media playback on Mac.

As the number one go-to option for you Mac users, this macOS Big Sur video player lets you play, record, edit and share audio and videos files easily.

Media playback: Compatible with a number of media file formats, like iTunes DRM files, QuickTime movie files (MOV), most MPEG-4 files (MP4, M4V, M4A, MP3), MPEG-2, DV Stream, and some audio files like WAV, AIFF and AAC, QuickTime Player satisfies the basic playback requirement. On macOS Big Sur computer, playing H.264/HEVC 4K high resolution videos is also a piece of cake. Besides, basic playback controls in any media player including play, pause, rewind, fast-forward and adjust volume are available on QuickTime Player as well. No one is perfect, however, QuickTime won’t play MP4 sometimes because of the missing codec pack and won’t play WMV and MKV as it doesn’t natively support the formats. Another downside is that QuickTime Player cannot play .srt files. If interested, you can stream videos from Mac to Apple TV through this player.

Screen recording: QuickTime Player on macOS Big Sur is also a powerful screen recorder to record movies from built-in and external cameras, record the screen of iPhone /iPad/iPod touch, record audio from a microphone and record the Mac screen.

Edit videos: No matter downloaded movies, self-made videos or recorded clips, QuickTime Player offers the possibility for simple and quick post processing. You are allowed to cut a video to remove the unwanted part, split a file into multiple segments that can be manipulated later, remove audio from a video or remove video to keep the audio only, and flip or rotate a video clip.

In addition to what are mentioned above, the newly-designed QuickTime Player supports Picture in Picture mode to allow you to enjoy movies while working on other things, and it also improve its Movies Inspector to let you view more media information about the currently played file, like color space, HDR format, bit depth, scale and aspect ratio.

Pros:
Built in macOS Big Sur. No need to install.
Play iTunes DRM files.
Easy to use interface.

Cons:
Won’t play WMV, MKV and sometimes MP4.
Can’t play .srt subtitle files.
Won’t play output files including MOV generated by itself on OS before macOS Catalina.

No.2 VLC Media Player – The Most Popular Open-source Media Player for macOS

With over 3 billion downloads, VLC media player is surely the big boss in the media player world. Combining media playback, download, stream, convert and record functions into one, it’s no wonder it becomes almost all people’s choice when discovering it among the rest media players. When playing media files on macOS Big Sur, it will offer you a lot freedom. Besides, starting from version 3.0.12, you can use VLC player on current M1 Macs and any future Macs with Apple Silicon chips.

Play everything: Firstly, files (including zip files), discs, webcams, devices and streams (m3u8/IPTV, RTSP, HTTP) are on the list of VLC’s supported contents list. Secondly, no need to download external codec packs, it plays most codecs including MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, HEVC, AV1, etc. Thirdly, it is also a DVD player to play encrypted and multi-region DVDs. Compared to QuickTime mentioned above and 5KPlayer below, the better playback ability of this macOS Big Sur media player is it supports the playback of damaged, incomplete or unfinished files that are still downloading. With the inbuilt Hardware Decoding method, VLC also handles highly compressed 4K, HDR, 360°, etc videos very easily frame by frame.

Stream contents: VLC media player can be used as a server and a client to stream and receive local and internet network streams. To name a few, you can stream local videos from VLC to Chromecast and DLNA stream files from your Mac to DLNA-certified devices. As for online streams, this Mac media player let you subscribe to Apple Podcasts, listen to online radio, stream M3U8/IPTV links and play YouTube videos.

Download online videos: VLC is really a great media center that provides unlimited video resources for enjoyment by downloading videos from online media files. Anytime you want to play a specific clip offline, you can use VLC media player to download it and play it thereafter.

Record videos: As powerful as QuickTime Player, VLC also provides the possibility to record videos, including webcam videos, desktop videos, online radio streams and offline playing videos.

Other function of this macOS 11 media player also include files converting, downloading and adding subtitles, video audio loop, video rotating, deinterlacing video and playback speed control.

However, nothing is perfect. VLC audio video out of sync, VLC crashing when playing 4K files and VLC color distortion during HDR playback have been headaches for a long time. Luckily, these problems don’t occur at the same time to a same user.

Pros:
No external codec needed. Huge range of file compatibility.
Multifunctional.
Support vast number of plug-ins.

Cons:
Bland user interface.

No. 3 5KPlayer – Brand-new 4K UHD Video Player for macOS Big Sur M1 Mac

5KPlayer is tailor made for multimedia playback, AirPlay screen mirroring, DLNA media stream, online media download and IPTV live stream. With this five-in-one software, you will have an unprecedented multimedia experience on macOS Big Sur including the newest M1 Mac.

Multimedia supported, play videos up to 4K/8K: Without the need to download external codec pack, 5KPlayer eats SD, HD, UHD and FUHD videos without errors. Powered by Intel QSV, DXVA, AMD & NVIDIA CUDA hardware acceleration technology, this macOS Big Sur video players handles 4K/HEVC/HDR/AV1/360° VR, and even up to H.264 8K very easily. Also as a powerful multimedia player , 5KPlayer plays DVDs, MP4, MKV, MOV, WMV, FLV, MP3, AAC, etc files fluently. By the way, the post processing feature of 5KPlayer allows you to cut videos directly during playback for collecting, sharing or later editing.

AirPlay-enabled, screen mirror iOS to Mac: Supporting Apple’s AirPlay protocol, 5KPlayer helps turn your macOS Big Sur computer into an AirPlay receiver to receive what’s sent from iPhone, iPad and iPod, including videos, movies, music, games, photos, apps, presentations and live streams. With it, you can enjoy everything on 4K/6K Mac and iMac 5K, bigger and funnier. It really is a perfect way for sharing exactly what you want to share with families or friends.

DLNA-compatible , stream videos music to smart TVs: Besides building connection between Apple iOS devices and computer, 5KPlayer also allows for the interoperability of Android devices. Put specifically, 5KPlayer plays as a DLNA controller to help stream movies and music from macOS Big Sur to Android TV, smart TV and other DLNA-certified devices wirelessly. Also, it acts as a DLNA renderer on macOS Big Sur to play videos music beamed from Android phones.

Download online media files: Compatible with 300+ online sites, 5KPlayer supports for download online videos, music and TV shows from Vimeo, Dailymotion, Vevo, etc fast and in high quality. Also, it can convert video to MP4 and extract audio from a video.

Stream live channels: What makes this macOS 11 video player superior than others is that it lets you listen to online radio stations and HLS stream M3U8 playlist URLs, IPTV channels and RTSP contents smoothly.

Pros:
No external codec needed. Huge range of file compatibility.
Multifunctional.

Cons:
Doesn’t support plug-ins.

macOS Big Sur FAQs

What is macOS Big Sur?

Marking the end of OS X, macOS Big Sur, aka macOS 11, is the next major release of macOS for Mac computers. It was announced at the Apple WWDC on June 22, 2020, with the public beta version scheduled to be released in July and general version in fall of 2020. What makes macOS Big Sur totally special is it is the primary version of the Mac OS on Macintosh computers which will use Apple’s own ARM chips.
macOS Big Sur features a major user interface redesign, with support for iOS and iPadOS apps, and update of Safari, Messages, Maps, etc.

macOS Big Sur Compatible Devices:

MacBook (2015 and later);
MacBook Pro (Late 2013 and later);
iMac (2014 and later);
Mac Pro (2013 and later);
MacBook Air (2013 and later);
Mac mini (2014 and later);
iMac Pro (2017 and later);
M1 Mac (2020 MacBook Air, 2020 MacBook Pro 13, 2020 Mac mini)

How to Install macOS Big Sur on Mac?

As of now, the developer beta of macOS Big Sur is available to Apple Developer Program members at developer.apple.com, and the public beta is available to Mac users in July at beta.apple.com. The general version of macOS Big Sur for free update is available on Nov. 12, 2020.

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