This VLC does not feature all the features of the classic VLC! It does not support DVD or Blurays! Use the desktop version instead! ⚠⚠ VLC media player is a portable, free and open-source, cross-platform media player and streaming media server written by the VideoLAN project. VLC is available for all operating system, desktop, mobiles or TVs. VideoLAN's VLC is the premier video and audio player. It is the most widely used video player on Windows and has made many a Mac user's life easier since it arrived on the Mac. The first thing that you will notice is that VLC is made up of two windows when you are playing video: the video player and the control window.

When you need to play a video on your Mac, what do you do? Which app do you open? If you’re new to macOS, you might just double-click on the media file and it’s likely that QuickTime Player will start up — good enough for the most common tasks.

One of the best free, open source multimedia players available for Mac devices. VLC Media Player is often seen on Windows Operating System. This version named VLC for Mac can run on Mac OS X and is endowed with the same functions as on Windows. It one of the best free, open source video players available for Mac devices.

Soon though you’re bound to feel QuickTime’s limitations. It might be that you’ve transferred a file from your camera that’s not supported, or you want to watch a foreign movie with external subtitles. All this is difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish with QuickTime Player. You need to upgrade.

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Instead of having one VLC player alternative, get an entire collection. Setapp is a Mac apps subscription that gives you a large choice.

What Makes VLC Player For Mac Good

From the first moments of looking for a better media player, VLC for Mac is going to show up in search results again and again. The app is free, has good ratings, and seems to be universally loved. There’s even a version for your iPhone (and nearly every other operating system in existence). What’s not to like?

The official story of VLC player goes back to 1996, when a few students of École Centrale Paris in France developed the app as their academic project. Back then, they called it VideoLAN Client (VLC for short). As VLC player got more and more recognition and became popular worldwide, the original developers released the code under the open-source license, so that anyone could fix bugs and contribute new features.

By now, VLC player is available on Windows, macOS, iOS, Apple TV, Linux, Android, Chrome OS, and Xbox One. The only question left is how to find a VLC for Mac download.

How to get a VLC download for Mac

Unfortunately, due to some licensing issues, VLC player for Mac isn’t available on the App Store (although the iOS version is). With a simple Google search you’ll find that lots of third-party websites offer you VLC for Mac downloads — but beware! Such download files are often infected with various kinds of malware looking to find an easy way into your computer.

The only option that’s 100% safe is to find a VLC download for Mac on its official website:

1. Go to videolan.org/vlc

2. Click Download VLC

3. Double-click the .dmg file in your Downloads folder

4. Move the VLC icon into Applications

With regards to technical requirements, VLC player is supported by any 64-bit Intel-based Mac that runs macOS 10.7.5 or later (the latest one is 10.15). This covers 99% of Macs in use nowadays. And even if you need to make VLC player work with ancient Macs, older VLC versions are available for download from the official website as well.

To play a video on VLC for Mac:

1. Open VLC

2. Either drag the video you like onto the app’s window or go to File ➙ Open File… ➙ select the video ➙ Open

One of the most beloved VLC media player features is adding and fine-tuning external subtitles. When you’ve downloaded the .srt subtitle file you want to use:

1. In the menu bar of the VLC player, click Subtitles

2. Add Subtitle File… ➙ select the file ➙ Open

3. In the same Subtitles menu you can change the text size, thickness, color as well as the background color

Vlc Video Player For Mac Download Windows 10

With so much to offer, why would anyone choose any other app for their videos than VLC player? True, while QuickTime Player struggles with nearly every video encounter, VLC for Mac handles all the basics pretty well. But there’s so much more to discover in the land of video-playing features: multiple subtitles, audio extractions, ad-free web playback, AirPlay streaming, etc. Let’s see which VLC alternative for Mac offers it all.

Stream anything anytime with Elmedia Player

If VLC media player for Mac is a shell you can open content in, Elmedia Player is a full-on entertainment center. Get any videos you want anytime, thanks to its streaming functionality. The app is able to download YouTube directly to your Mac or play videos instantly using its web-browser extension, which allows to bypass all the ads.

Moreover, any downloaded videos can then be easily played on your AirPlay-enabled devices — watch a movie on a big screen with Apple TV, for example, without the need for USB drives or awkward cables. And while VLC media player might get stuck playing HD videos on a big screen, Elmedia will sail through them seamlessly with the help of hardware-accelerated decoding.

Play, stream, and download video

Get Elmedia Player, a perfect replacement for VLC, which has a streaming feature and a browser extension for direct downloads.

Vlc Video Player For Mac Download Free

Elmedia Player, simply put, has everything you’ll ever need not to get bored. Even when videos become too much, you can extract audio files and save them as MP3 for easy on-the-go listening.

Gain full video control with Movist Pro

As good as Elmedia Player is, the ultimate VLC alternative for Mac could be a mighty 4K movie player called Movist Pro.

Movist Pro not only effortlessly decodes any video you come across (with an option to select decoders manually if needed) but also lets you configure the perfect video-watching scenario, including the quality and the size of each file.

If you want to watch a high-dynamic-range (HDR) video, but your screen doesn’t support it, the colors will show up dull and faded. Movist Pro features a built-in HDR tone-mapping technology that automatically adjusts colors to what they are supposed to be.

While nearly every VLC alternative for Mac lacks powerful subtitle management that VLC is known for, Movist Pro takes it a step further with support for multiple subtitles at once — invaluable when you’re trying to learn a new language or watching a movie with a bunch of international friends.

Finally, using the Movist Pro Safari extension, you can watch any video right from your browser window, with any of the above personal settings already specified.

How to start with Movist Pro? One step only: simply drag and drop your video onto the app and enjoy.

The best VLC alternative for Mac

So while some might argue that VLC media player for Mac is still good, the truth is — lots has changed since 1996. New entrants like Elmedia Player with its built-in downloader and ad-free streaming, or Movist Pro with multiple-subtitle support and HDR improvement are winning the market. The one you choose should quite frankly depend on the features you’re going to use the most.

Vlc Video Player For Mac Downloads

Best of all, you don’t need to go all in and buy Elmedia Player or Movist Pro to see how they work. Both apps are available to you on a free seven-day trial from Setapp — a platform with over 150 Mac apps, where each one is the best for a particular task, whether it’s budgeting, retouching, or just getting things done. What might you be watching tonight?

Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.

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