If you want to play MP4 on Mac computer, there are many choices on 2021 best MP4 player Mac-oriented for free.
Mp4 Downloader For Mac free download - MP4 Downloader Pro, MP4 Youtube Video Downloader, Mac Video Downloader, and many more programs. More than a Mac downloader, it can convert any local or downloaded files to all kinds of formats such as MP4, MKV, MOV, MPEG, WMV, AVI, FLV, MP3, RM, VOB, OGG, AAC, AIFF, WAV, etc. After that, you may transfer the video to popular gadgets like iPod, iPad, iPhone, Zune, PSP, Android and more for endless enjoyment. YouTube is the most obvious source for online videos, however it is not always obvious how to download them for your offline usage. There is a hidden gem among the apps - Airy MP4 YouTube downloader for Mac. YouTube downloader to MP4 for Mac for the best resolution and size. Download Airy and activate its full version for unlimited video downloading. Free version of Airy allows 2 downloads.
There are users complaining that QuickTime can't play mp4 on Mac. Though MP4 is listed as one of the supported formats by QuickTime Player, there are some MP4 files in codec that is proprietary to Microsoft. In fact, QuickTime Player support several formats only (namely mov, mpeg4, mpeg2, mpeg1, 3gpp, 3gpp2, avchd, avi, DV), and many popular formats are out of luck, including MP4 encoded with certain codec. Here are top MP4 video player for macOS.
Table of Contents
Part 1: List of 2021 Best MP4 Player for Mac
5KPlayer
Price: Free
Supported formats: Almost all popular formats, HD/4K/5K/8K UHD videos, DVD
Ads: Ads-free
5KPlayer is not only a free MP4 video player for Mac computer, but a Mac player for all formats. It's 100% free and clean of ads or virus. With massive codec library built-in, Mac users can smoothly play any MP4 files, H.265, WMV, AVI, MOV, MP4, M4V, FLV, MKV etc. Unlike some Mac MP4 players that may generate choppy or improper playback with high-res videos, 5KPlayer serves as a 4K UHD player with full support for 8K/5K/4K UHD, HD 1080P/720P.
Less CPU usage is also noticed even with UHD video. It offers online video downloader and Airplay media streamer.
VLC Media Player
Price: Free
Supported formats: Almost all popular formats, DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs
Ads: Ads-free
VLC Media Player is one of the most popular Mac player for MP4 videos. Its robust features makes it one of 2017 best MP4 player Mac for free. It plays everything you throw at it, be it MP4, AVI, LFV, MOV, WMV, disc image, DVD, CD etc. Its long-term leading position is self-explanatory on its powerful features.
The only thing you may note is that VLC can't play mp4 on Mac smoothly in UHD resolution. Though you can solve this by enable the GPU decoding, which works with H.264 only. There are also users complaining on audio delay problem and outdated interface.
Elmedia Player
Price: Free (paid version available)
Supported formats: Almost all popular formats, HD videos
Ads: Ads-free
To free download 2021 best mp4 video player for macOS, Elmedia Player also stands as a good choice. This player is totally free and safe. A wide range of video/audio formats are supported, including MP4, FLV, WMV, MOV, AVI and more to allow users play MP4 on Mac freely. It surpasses many other competitors for that it integrates an online browser and Airplay streamer.
The player has its drawbacks that it plays mp4 videos in up to HD only, where massive CPU is occupied. Some useful features like online video download is bounded with the Pro version, which is priced at $19.95.
Cisdem Video Player for Mac
Price: Free (paid version available)
Supported formats: 50+ video/audio formats, 4K/5K/HD videos
Ads: Ads-free
Cisdem Video Player is a 100% FREE MP4 player for macOS. It loads videos fast, plays most file formats and runs smoothly with HD/UHD videos without buffering or crashes. You will rarely experience MP4 not paying on Mac problem with the player. You're also allowed to add extra subtitles to the movie directly.
Eltima Video Downloader
Comparing with other programs, this video player falls in limited playable formats. Meanwhile, note that it supports El Capitan now and is compatible with the latest macOS.
DivX Player
Price: Free (paid version available)
Supported formats: Most popular formats, Ultra HD 4K Videos
Ads: Ads-supported
DivX Player is a famous 4K media player to play 4K HEVC videos. It plays a variety of formats on Mac, including AVI, DIVX, MKV, MP4 and more. If you want a free Mac MP4 player that gives you the highest playback quality and best compression, DivX Player is undoubtedly the best choice, as it is dedicated for Ultra HD videos. Plus, it has a huge number of additional features.
It will be an even better HD MP4 video player for Mac if there the ads can be removed. Besides, the DivX pack comes large in size and more functions are available with the paid version.
Movist for Mac
Price: Free (paid version available)
Supported formats: Most popular formats, Ultra HD 4K Videos
Ads: Ads-free
If your QuickTime Player can't play MP4 on Mac smoothly, free download MP4 player on Mac Movist. This is a QuickTime alternative video player that plays a plethora of media formats not supported by QuickTime. A wide range of playback navigation options are offered. Most importantly, it has the most flexible subtitle control available, with which you can adjust the subtitles as you like.
Part 2: How to Play MP4 and Any Other Formats on Mac Freely
If you can't play MP4 files on any Mac MP4 players 2019 due to uncommon codecs, or have trouble with other formats, there is another way to allow you play videos in any formats freely in addition to a MP4 video player for Mac: converting videos. For the widest formats supported and highest playback quality, here MacX Video Converter Pro is selected:
- Built in 320+ video and 50+ audio codecs, it converts any MKV, MTS, MOV, AVI, H.264, H.265, HEVC any videos freely to format supported by your player;
- Output videos to any media players, iPhone, iPad, Android and other mobiles;
- Free download MP4 videos, other web files from YouTube, FaceBook, Vimeo, Vevo and 1000 more sites;
- Convert 4K UHD, 8K/5K, HD videos with untouched quality loss;
- No.1 converter with Intel QSV/Nvidia/AMD hardware acceleration support to ensure the fastest video to MP4 conversion speed.
How to Convert Any Videos for MP4 Video Players on Mac
Step 1: Free download this high-end MP4 video converter on Mac or Windows computer and open it. Then click 'Add File' button to load the MP4 videos not playing on Mac (or any other formats).
Step 2: Choose an output format. To convert videos for any free Mac MP4 player (as well as QuickTime Player), select MP4 H.264 as the output format. (you can also select a compatible video format for iPhone, iPad or Android devices)
Step 3: Click 'Browse' button to select a destination folder and click OK.
Tips: Please do check the Intel box to enable the hardware acceleration tech to boost the mp4 conversion on Mac.
Step 4: Click 'RUN' button to start converting videos to MP4. Then you can play the output MP4 videos on QuickTime Player or other MP4 video players for macOS.
If you are a Windows user, choosing a YouTube video downloader is easy, but it is a different story for Mac users. And therefore, we will present 15 best YouTube video downloader for Mac that are compatible with all Mac platforms, such as Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, EI Capitan & Yosemite etc., and there are more than 15 of them in the market.
Here is the list of 15 best YouTube video downloaderthat work on all Mac platforms in 2021.
- 1. Gihosoft TubeGet for Mac
- 2. MacX YouTube Downloader
- 3. Airy
- 4. ClipGrab
- 5. MediaHuman YouTube Downloader
- 6. 5KPlayer
- 7. Apowersoft
- 8. Wondershare AllMyTube
- 9. iTube Studio for Mac
- 10. Total Video Downloader
- 11. YTD
- 12. Downie
- 13. SConverter.com
- 14. Softorino YouTube Converter 2
- 15. 4K Video Downloader for Mac
1. Gihosoft TubeGet for Mac
If you are looking the best way to download YouTube videos on a MacBook, then you can resort to Gihosoft TubeGet, a YouTube video downloader for Mac & Windows. It allows users to download multiple videos or a whole playlist from YouTube at once even if the clips are lengthy. The tool has no trouble saving HD & UHD quality videos and it doesn’t hog much system resources.
Gihosoft TubeGet also offers the capability to download 48/60fps videos from YouTube, which is a boon for the game and sports lover. Well, to the language learner, Gihosoft TubeGet develops the feature to grab the closed caption, local subtitle, auto-generated subtitle & auto-translated subtitle are all supported.
2. MacX YouTube Downloader
If you are a Mac user, no matter MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, Mac mini, no matter Mac OS X, OS X, macOS 10.12, 10.13, 10.14, 10.15, 10.16, and have a strong desire to download YouTube videos, MacX YouTube downloader for Mac is a nice choice. MacX helps to save videos from Facebook, Dailymotion, Vevo, Vimeo and multiple popular video hosting websites.
MacX YouTube downloader free full version supports to download YouTube videos in whatever resolution that YouTube provides, such as 720P, 1080P, 2K, 4K & 8K etc., and keep them in MP4 or WebM format. Integrated with an easy-to-use interface and advanced technology, MacX YouTube Downloader makes it the ultimate choice for you to download popular videos & musics at a fast speed with minimal quality loss.
3. Airy
Unlike other video downloader that listed in this article, Airy only works with YouTube, perhaps the developers know that concentration is the key to success. Airy offers the feature to download full HD 1080P, 4K & 8K Ultra HD videos from YouTube conveniently. You also get options on video formats, e.g. MP4, WebM, FLV, OGG & 3GP etc.. If you want to save soundtracks in MP3 format, and not keep the whole music video, Airy can perfectly finish this work, and it can even download the album art for you.
Airy also has the capability to save the entire playlist or channel from YouTube. Another big advantage about Airy is that it even lets you pause a download, and resume download the YouTube video right from where you suspended it, which is a perfect design if you are not on your computer all the time.
4. ClipGrab
Another Mac version YouTube video downloader added to this list is ClipGrab. ClipGrab is a completely free software which makes a living by donations, free as it’s, its video downloading feature doesn’t lose out to any competitor. ClipGrab allows you to search your videos directly through the address bar by keywords without opening YouTube, that’s quite time-saving.
When it comes to downloading YouTube videos, ClipGrab provides a super easy way to do that. Just copy and paste the link into the address box, it will show all the possible resolutions. You just click the “Grab this clip!” button, it will save the videos offline on the desktop of your MacBook or iMac.
5. MediaHuman YouTube Downloader
This Mac software can help you download videos from YouTube and many other similar video sharing websites like VKontakte, SoundCloud & Vevo etc.. What we love about this YouTube download app for Mac desktop is that it has so many practical features, such as simultaneous download, downloading HD & UHD videos such as 1080P, 2K, 4K & 8K, and the ability to download entire YouTube playlist & channel at a time.
Just like other YouTube downloader for Mac, MediaHuman also gives you options if you want to download the video or extract the audio track alone. This is a boon for people who enjoy music, it also can provide the original audio without quality loss. MediaHuman has many advanced features, you can find it in the preference setting, such as preventing from sleep while downloading, ignoring 30+ fps videos, using format priority list etc..
6. 5KPlayer
How can we download YouTube videos on MacBook in resolution up to 1080P, 2K, 4K or even 8K? Well, desktop packages can help you with that. Although these desktop software are not cross-platform, but they are more powerful in functions than online downloader on Safari. Downloading HD & UDH videos for those tools is just easy as pie. The best part of these software is that they can batch download all the videos on a playlist at one time, and grab the subtitles as well.
For YouTube download software on Mac, 5KPlayer is one of the best. This app works flawlessly on Mac system to download videos and movies in MP4, WebM, MKV, 3GP depending on your preferences. It also supports video resolutions from 360P, 720P, 1080P to 4K & 8K, which means it will allow you to download really high-resolution videos. This is perfect for those who want to download clear long videos, such as full feature films and documentaries.
7. Apowersoft
Perhaps what is great about this app is that it lets you convert videos to other file formats suitable for devices like iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, PSP, Kindle Fire, and other mobile devices. This Mac video downloader understands that some of us do not just watch videos on our computers, but also on other portable devices. But not just that, it also helps you download high-resolution videos outside of YouTube. You can also use this app to download videos from Twitter, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Facebook.
As a bonus feature, this easy-to-use app will even allow you to download YouTube playlist to your Mac. Not satisfied with the only downloading function, Apowersoft also integrates itself with screen record and video conversion section, now it becomes an one-stop tool. With Apowersoft in hand, one can easily download online videos from YouTube, record game videos, and convert videos taken by camera to more popular formats so that users can easily edit and upload them to YouTube.
8. Wondershare AllMyTube
Wondershare AllMyTube is a pretty popular app, probably one of the most used YouTube video downloader for Mac. Supporting many popular sites, AllMyTube can also convert videos to other formats or to music files, grab whole playlists and handle batch downloads all at once. It’s a shareware so you get limited functions, the free version can only allow users to download 2 videos, and there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee.
The design of AllMyTube is very intuitive, it has 4 parts: downloading, downloaded, converted & WiFi transfer. When you finish downloading your YouTube videos, you can convert them to other formats and send them to your phones directly by scanning the QR code. As a senior specialist for YouTube, AllMyTube supports download age-restricted YouTube videos, just input the login password, you can unblock the restriction.
9.iTube Studio for Mac
To save videos from YouTube on your Mac devices (MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac or Mac mini), we have another alternative for you – iTube Studio for Mac.
The best thing about this app is that it’s integrated with many useful functions, such as video downloading, recording, converting & transferring, totally an all-in-one tool. Equipped with a private mode, now you can use it to download videos in secret. As a professional video recorder, iTube allows you to record videos from Netflix, Hulu, iTunes & BBC iPlayer etc.. So if a video site is prohibited from downloading, you can just record them, nice design.
10. Total Video Downloader
There are multiple applications which you can utilize to save YouTube videos on your MacBook Air or Pro successfully, and Total Video Downloader is one of the best and fastest. This app is designed to download any video uploaded on the Internet, and it works exactly well for what it’s designed for.
This app offers an interface that looks like a web browser, so users can have easy access to many hot videos on YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo and Lynda. However, if this app is in running for one of the top apps to use when downloading videos, it will fall behind when it comes to format conversion. But that’s not a big deal, you can use other apps to convert videos instead. However, when it comes to downloading videos, this app is highly recommended.
11. YTD
Although we have talked about many desktop software that work smoothly on MacBook, I’d like to add another one to this list – YTD. YTD is also a popular app which we hear a lot. Users can easily navigate through this app and get on with their download without the challenge of getting familiar with the interface.
YTD lets you download videos just like other YouTube downloaders, but with an added bonus feature of allowing you to convert videos to different formats & cut the videos to your preferred length. What we love about this downloader is that it’s one of the most handy apps. It is very simple, and thus very easy to use.
12. Downie
Downie is video downloader for YouTube & many other video sites that works only on Mac operating system, and it requires macOS 10.11+, including Big Sur, Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, EI Capitan. Like many other competitors, Downie supports many video hosting sites, including YouTube, Youku, Bilibili, Vimeo & SoundCloud etc., and the number is rapidly growing. It can grab HD videos up to 4K, and convert videos into MP4 or MP3 so you can play them on your iTunes.
Downie is multilingual, and it updates about once a week with new features, bug fixes, and new sites supported. What it attracts me is that the software can group the video file by site and playlist, so that all the downloads can be sorted into folders based on where you downloaded them from or from which playlist they are.
13. SConverter.com
When the topic of downloading YouTube videos on a MacBook comes up, usually there are 2 ways to do this. One is to install a full version program, just like the software I have mentioned above, or you can use an online video downloader, and SConverter.com is a good recommendation.
All Sites Video Downloader Mac
To make downloading YouTube videos as simple as possible, SConverter.com requires you to do nothing more than paste a link and hit ‘Download’ button. The downside of these sites is that they can only download videos from YouTube with the resolution up to 720P, while can’t do anything for the 1080P & higher resolution videos, such as 2K, 4K & 8K, let alone 60fps videos. But if you just want to download a single clip & save time, then an online YouTube downloader is ideal.
14. Softorino YouTube Converter 2
Mp4 Downloader Malware
YouTube itself has no passage in downloading videos directly, on both desktop and mobile. However, sometimes you have your reasons to do this, especially when you are on trains, subways, buses, or trips to places without reliable 4G or WiFi. That being said, with a right YouTube video downloader in hand, grabbing videos from YouTube is a surprisingly easy thing, and it doesn’t require a high configuration laptop.
Softorino YouTube Converter 2 is a fast video download for Mac which can fully satisfy your needs without any complications. This tool allows you to download video from YouTube, SoundCloud, Vimeo, BandCamp, VK, LiveLeak, and many more. Apart from that, you can also download the content as video, audio, or even create them as ringtone. Integrated with an automatic Wi-Fi feature, now you can transfer downloaded media to other devices such as iPhone, iPod or iTunes at a fast speed without USB cable.
15. 4K Video Downloader for Mac
For those who want to download & keep videos from YouTube on their Apple computer, 4K Video Downloader for Mac has always been a good and reliable option. This desktop app for Mac covers many popular sites, such as YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Dailymotion and Metacafe, and it doesn’t have any snag in saving videos offline.
The developers of this tool pay great attention to simplicity and usability, you can download your favorite videos in the precise format or resolution you need, and has no hassle in downloading multiple videos in batch simultaneously. All in all, 4K Video Downloader for Mac is a good video downloading solution and it does what is promises without any complications.
In Conclusion
When you finish reading this article, you will have clear thought about how to download YouTube videos on a Mac computer. And now I’d like to hear from you: What’s your #1 YouTube video downloader for MacBook? If you have personally been using any app that is powerful, don’t be shy and type in your recommendations in the comments section below.