Although VLC has claimed its native support for HEVC/H.265 codec, however, it is well known that the H.265/HEVC playback is very processor extensive, even if your computer has meet the minimum standard to playback HEVC/H.265 video, you may still suffer video playback choppy or corruption issues because of the workload of your processor. Oct 09, 2019  VLC Media Player for Mac is a powerful and efficient app for playing all kinds of media in multiple formats right on your Mac. With this app in place.

Download Video Player to Play MP4 without Installing Codec

Why you still want a Plan B? Main reason, based on the feedbacks from users on the forum, is that some codec pack software contain adware, spyware, ransomware or even trojan virus to put your computer and internal file data into the edge of risk if you download from some informal websites. So comparatively, most users prefer an even safer way to play MP4 on Mac or Windows without codec incompatibility problem. The safer way you might need is to download MP4 video player to play MP4 video on MacBook/iMac or Windows.

And here we mainly focus on top two video player for both Windows and macOS: VLC player and 5KPlayer. Both of them are downloaded thousands of times each month on softonic. They have something in common and meanwhile differ from each other. Read the below table to see which one you like better.

VLC Player

1. Free play MP4 video on Windows and macOS with H264, MPEG-4, H265 and H263 codecs.

2. Support MPEG Audio, MP3, AAC, AC3, Vorbis, Flac, A52/AC-3, Opus, Speex, WAV and WMA2, 11 audio codecs in total.

3. Free convert MP4 to MKV, MP4 to AVI, FLV, WebM, etc.

4. One of VLC hidden features: free download YouTube MP4 via VLC.

5. Record non-downloadable MP4 screen video on you PC/Mac.

5KPlayer

1. Free play MP4 files on Mac and Windows with codecs like H264, H265, H263, MPEG-4, MPEG-4 ASP, MPEG-2 Part 2, MPEG-4 AVC, etc, no 3rd party app needed.

2. Up to 14+ audio codecs supported, for instance, MP3, AAC, AC3, iPhone Ringtone M4A, WMA, AIFF, WAV, Flac, OGG, DTS, etc.

3. Allow you to AirPlay MP4 video from iPhone iPad to MacBook, iMac, Mac Mini, etc. and stream MP4 file from Mac to Apple TV.

4. Free download MP4 video from YouTube, FB, Vimeo, etc. 1000+ sites.