The Ultimate Guide: Why VLC Is the Top Free Download for Mac Users

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Download VLC Media Player for Mac - Best Choice?

Posted by Kaylee Wood | Last update: June 29, 2020

We are all familiar with VLC media Player for Mac which has gained universal recognition as the best media player on planet, however, driven by the tide of accelerated S&T updating, many doubts start to emerge that await further confrontation, which generates the question – Is VLC Mac really the best? Not exactly, indeed.

VLC media player for Mac has enjoyed a long time reputation for its great video playing function including playing HD/UHD/4K/5K videos, supporting almost all file formats, streaming, downloading and files conversion. But, as IT industry develops, many burgeoning media players like KMPlayer, 5KPlayer , Potplayer, Divxplayer for Mac now can also reach the height of same capability. The high-ranking status of VLC Mac is indeed trembling.

Undesirables and Inconveniences of VLC Media Player for Mac

Functional Inconveniences of VLC Media Player for Mac:

Version 3.0.12 VLC added support for M1 Mac, but problems also follow

After using VLC on the new M1 Mac for a very short time, there are some complaints from users:
- Closing VLC from dock often reports a failure and the program crashes
- Pressing escape while watching a video in full screen resulted in kernel panic crash and hard reboot of the macbook once (the first and only time i have ever had a crash on this machine)
- CPU load seems to be about the same or even higher than on the 3.0.11.1 x86 version via Rosetta

However, there is no official solution as of now. You have to wait some time if you encounter the same problems.

1. VLC Media Player Mac broken in Mac OSX 10 and above like Mavericks 10.9.2, Yosemite etc. when you try to play MKV files!
Tons of users have already experienced the sudden non-responsive condition of VLC Media Player for Mac, and the reason is still under further investigation, but a possible reason for this may lay in the plug-in VLC uses according to VLC Forum, since VLC Mac requires certain plug-in to read MKV files and other file formats.
5KPlayer, in this regard, designed for iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Mini or Mac Pro running OS X 10.7 or later, without any plug-in for varied file formats, plays MKV and plays all the other video/music formats like MP4, MOV, AVI, FLV, MP3, etc. effortlessly and smoothly on Mac Mavericks 10.9.2 and Yosemite.

2. VLC Player for Mac Has Troubles in Video AirPlay
VLC player Mac does have built-in Bonjour protocol, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it supports AirPlay independently. You can achieveVLC video AirPlay in three ways, of which one is unstable and the other two are quite demanding. Comparatively speaking, the AirPlay-enabled 5KPlayer with evident AirPlay icons on its interface, streams video music from Mac to Apple TV, even AirPlay media files from iPhone/ iPad/ Apple Watch to Mac/Apple TV like a cork, directly and independently. It is simple in operations, smooth in streaming and quick in process.

3. VLC Media Player for Mac Suffers Cockamamie and Fussy Download/Converting Procedures
Although VLC Mac is capable of downloading files from online websites and converting them into target formats, the process can be quite cumbersome. For example, it takes 12 steps to simply download a short MPEG-4 video and 5 steps to convert it to a MP4 (H264) file. The tricky and overly complicated options really annoy users in the course of getting what they want.

4. VLC Media Player Mac Affected by Security Vulnerability
This is a security issue that we should be altered using VLC for Mac and Windows as well. Malware attack loop holes have been back then detected in subtitles, DEP access violation vulnerability, a write access flaw, and today’s LIVE555 RTSP server. The security issue of an open source media player is unavoidable, but we can always do an update.

5KPlayer however, provides the most simplified and user-friendly processes to get videos/music downloaded from over 300 websites and converted easily, which means that you can download instagram videos, YouTube videos, FaceBook videos, and other music videos from VEVO, Vimeo, etc.
Three Steps to Download Online Videos/Music with VLC Media Player Alternative for Mac Users:
* Copy the URL of the video from the browser;
* Past the URL in the analyze box and wait for analyzing;
* Click “Download” button
Two Simple Ways to Convert File Formats with VLC Mac Alternative:
a: * Click the convert button on the videostrip in the Library; *choose the target conversion format;
b: * Click setting icon on the videostrip of download window; * choose the target format you want to convert.

Design Inconveniences of VLC Media Player for Mac

Design Inconveniences of VLC Player for Mac:

VlC Mac also suffers complaints from users about its jerky interface, ugly logo, obscure options and ineffective design of its playlist without tagging and rating features.

The design of 5KPlayer, on the contrary, stands for elegance and conciseness. All the major features and function of 5KPlayer are presented on the main interface embedded with buttons for easy access. Considerate procedure guides for file download and AirPlay are also implanted. This free VLC alternative for Mac can act as a video manager that allows you to tag favorite videos/music and create new playlists to organize your media empire.

How to Tackle Those VLC Player for Mac Problems All at Once and Once for All?

Download and try VLC Mac alternative- 5KPlayer.
Although, you can solve some of those VLC Mac problems by converting MKV files to other commonly used formats, using converter software , resorting to Keepvid or other download solutions to download videos music, and timely checking system requirements for upgrading, etc. but, none of them can solve the problems all at once and once for all. 5KPlayer offers the best and easiest solution.

How Can 5KPlayer Help to Address VLC Media Player for Mac Problems?

As has compared above, 5KPlayer, the free alternative to VLC player for Mac can really embrace user’s intent and offer the most user-friendly and effective media playback services. 5KPlayer supports almost all file formats ranging from AVI, DVD, MP4, FLAC, FLV, MKV, MOV to ACC, MP3, M4A and the like. And here we’ll show you how good it works with MKV files as an example.

2 Simple Steps to Play MKV Files with 5KPlayer on Mac:

Step 1. Download free VLC player Mac alternative - 5KPlayer and launch it, for PC users, you can download the Windows version;

Step 2. Click the Video icon on the main interface of this free VLC media player for Mac alternative and choose your MKV file. Or, you can directly drag and drop the MKV file onto 5KPlayer interface.

Note: The video will start playing once you opened the files. For better visual enjoyment, you can also AirPlay the video to Apple TV or to another computer/iMac with bigger screens.

It is true that VLC Mac has occupied the free media player market for decades, but it won’t shade 5KPlayer any more since this thriving free video music player with its ideal combination of video music download and AirPlay/DLNA, is lighting its way out! As for other functional aspects like A/V editing, 5KPlayer for sure offers the high-end editing functions including subtitle-adding and video-rotating .

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