QuickTime Player is the default media player on MacOS, however, it’s very limited in functionalities and lacks support for many popular video formats. Therefore, most people will look for a better alternative and Elmedia Player is one of them.
The developer is making the app 100% free to use and you can download it on the Apple App Store on one their official website. There is also a PRO version with some advanced features like online video download, extract MP3 from Youtube videos, stream local files to smart TVs, Apple TVs, Chromecast, or DLNA-enabled devices, AirPlay support, audio equalizer, and video adjustments. Most Mac users don’t need those advanced features when playing videos on their devices, so the free version is good enough.
It can play any file format including the widely-used ones like AVI, MP4, FLV, SWF, WMV, MKV, MP3, M4V, etc without the need of installing any other plugin or codec.
One of the most useful features of the media player is the built-in subtitle search. It is integrated with the opensubtitles service, so you can easily find and load a subtitle with just a few mouse clicks. When you use other media players, you will have to go to a subtitle website to find a matched subtitle; This is a tedious process that I really hate to do. Now, it can be done in a few seconds with the feature and I even don’t need to open a web browser.
Another interesting feature is the Elmedia Browser. This is a simple web browser with a special feature that allows you to download media from the web easier. When you visit a web page, it will show you all media files in a table underneath; Then you can choose the desired output format or resolution to download the files instantly. At the moment, you can’t download 4K videos yet as it supports up to 1080p videos.
In terms of video quality, I made a comparison between Elmedia Player and another media player. You can take a look at the 2 screenshots below and decide which one you prefers. In my opinion, the image from Elmedia Player is smoother but it lacks some details.
Another Player 
Elmedia
The app supports hardware acceleration, so the playback is pretty smooth and responsive. You won’t feel any lag or hiccup at all. The Elmedia Player PRO version can even cast 4K videos to supported devices; It streams in their native formats or will transcode the files in real time. It’s really great as we don’t lose the video quality in the transmission. So, you can stream 4K movies to the big screen of your smart TV like Samsung or Sony.
I highly recommend you to check out the Elmedia player if you often watch movies on your Mac. The free version can satisfy most users and if you are interested in the advanced features like 4K video streaming, you can upgrade anytime at a very affordable cost.
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