Is it possible to play MP4 file in VLC media player? The answer is yes, but why the question below happened, and I believe that the question is not unique.
“Recently, I downloaded a livestream from twitch. When finished, I tried to open it in VLC. It opened but didn’t play. By the way, I really don’t want to use Quicktime as I always get frame drops with it. Any help?” User from reddit.com.
When we check out the official website of the media player then we will find out that it supports MP4 file formats. Then why? We explore it and list some solutions in this article for you to make references except that the MP4 file is corrupted. And we get to start it, we have listed VLC playable formats listed below for you to understand this topic in depth:
Container formats: 3GP, ASF, AVI, FLV, Matroska, QuickTime File Format, MP4, Ogg, OGM, WAV, MPEG-2, AIFF, Raw audio, Raw DV, MXF, VOB, RM, DVD-Video
Video formats: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, H.265/MPEG HEVC, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2, Sorenson, Theora, VC-1, VP5, VP6, VP8, VP9, DNxHD, Prores and some WMV.
Part 1: Reasons and Solutions for VLC Cannot Play MP4 files
Reason 1: Too old version for VLC
Dec 08, 2018 Part 2: Top 16 MP4 Player Apps for Android or iPhone; Part 1. Play MP4 by Converting MP4 to Android or iPhone Supported Format In order to play MP4 videos on various platforms, you may need to convert them. Then you can't miss UniConverter, which helps play, convert and burn MP4 video with ease. This is the most used worldwide video converter. Jul 03, 2020 The most straightforward way to play MP4 on Mac is to just double-click on the file and let the Mac decide on the best app to open it. However, QuickTime can sometimes register errors when playing MP4 files. In such a situation, turning to a third-party app to play MP4 is the best choice. Jan 22, 2020 MP4 Player is a Windows application to play MP4, FLV and WebM video files. MP4 Player supports zoom 0.5x/1x/2x mode, full screen mode, playback progress control, volume control.
Solution: Check out whether you are using the latest version of VLC, if not, just update the latest version from VLC official website. As we all know, update means that the official have solved some bugs.
Reason 2: Wrong VLC 'video output modes'
Solution: Go to Tools > Preferences on your computer in VLC and follow the steps below:
Tick the box for Enable video (if it’s not ticked).
Tick the box for Window decorations (if it’s not ticked).
Click on Output and select X11 video output (XCB) as your video output.
After all procedures then try to play your MP4 again.
Reason 3: VLC MP4 Hardware Decoding Limitation:
Too many subtitle tracks or rending effects increase the difficulty of hardware decoding.
Solution: Go to Tools–>Preferences on your computer in VLC and follow the steps below:
Then navigate to 'Input / Codecs' –> 'Video Codecs' –> 'FFmpeg', choose Disable for 'Hardware Decoding' option.
Restart VLC and play MP4 again.
Part 2 : Step by step guide to Convert MP4 to VLC Supported Formats.
Pavtube iMedia Converter for Mac is an all-in-one professional video converter to solve out 'VLC not playing MP4' issue. It grants you to convert any video (MP4 included) to VLC supported formats in just few clicks. For example, it could transcode H.264 mp4, H.265 mp4, MPEG-4 mp4, divx mp4 and other unmentioned mp4 to VLC supported files. Meanwhile, converting VLC video files to MP4 is also just a piece of cake. By the way, it will be CPU comsuming if you are using VLC this kind of media player to play HD or UHD videos, the playback would be very choppy. To solve this problem, we suggest that you could downscale 4K to 1080p, or you could lower the kbps for your devices to playback smoothly on your Mac Book.
There is a thing you need to know, you need to download and install Libluray, Libaacs, or Libbdplus if you want to play DVD/BD on VLC. Instead, this smart assistant supports you to transcode BD/DVD/Video to virtually any video/audio formats without installing extra package. To sum up, it is not only a video converter but also a video player, video editor. More details are waiting for you to explore…
Step1: Install this program in your computer, and run it.
Step2: Load MP4 files.
You can click 'File'–>'Add Video/Audio' or 'Add from Folder' to import MP4 which you want to convert. Or you can directly drag or drop away the file.
Step3: Choose VLC playable output format.
To get the perfect and smooth playback, you can select the H.264 as output format from 'Format > HD Video > H.264 HD Video (*.mp4)'. Or you can choose other VLC supported formats as you like.
Step4: Start MP4 file conversion.
Start MP4 file to VLC conversion by clicking the right-bottom convert button. Just wait for a second, you can click the 'Open' button of the main interface and that will pop up the folder with converted file. Then you could play it will VLC smoothly.
When you get here, it’s the end of the article. As we all know, there are just few kinds of formats that VLC could support, if you have tried all solutions given by itself then you have not found the way to solve the problem – 'VLC not playing MP4', and you can have a trial of Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate, and you will find the new world.
A perfect day might include either reading a good book or enjoying a great movie along with a nice cup of coffee. Before Netflix, this meant going through the hassle of finding and downloading an MP4 file to watch the movie using QuickTime Player.
What if the MP4 video won’t be opened by QuickTime? Well, the issue does happen from time to time. In this article, we are going to show you how to fix that.
What is MP4 and how does it work? Basically, MP4 is short for Moving Picture Experts Group-4 (MPEG-4). It is a multimedia file format commonly used to store movies and video clips. An MP4 file can only be launched through certain applications. One of the most common applications for playing MP4 files on Mac is QuickTime. Apple has a detailed guide on how to use this player.
QuickTime Won’t Play MP4?
Unfortunately, the built-in video player for macOS, QuickTime, can fail you! While QuickTime works with many kinds of audio and video formats, there are certain MP4 videos that might not be recognizable by QuickTime. This is often because your MP4 is in an older or specialized video format that Quicktime does not support.
How to Play MP4 on Mac without Quicktime?
What App On Mac Plays Mp4 Download
I’m sharing two methods below. If they still don’t work, read our best Mac video player review for more options.
Method 1: Use a Third-Party MP4 Video Player
A good third-party player I recommend is Elmedia. There is a free version and a Pro version available. However, free users can only watch the video and go onto other browsers. Paid users have access to playback enhancements and can save the video from Youtube.
Alternatively, if you have a Setapp subscription, you can get it from there at no additional cost.
Step 1: Download Elmedia and follow the instructions to install this video player app.
Step 2: Launch the application, then click File and Open.
Step 3: Select the MP4 file that you have downloaded. Your movie will start playing. All you have to do is to sit back, relax, and enjoy!
Method 2: Convert MP4 Into a Playable Format
Alternatively, you can convert your file into a playable format that Quicktime will definitely recognize. A great option for this is Wondershare Video Converter. Although it is a paid application, there is a free trial available for you to test out whether it suits you.
Step 1: Download this software and install it on your Mac.
If you think you’ll require it more frequently than for the occasional movie conversion, you might want to consider purchasing the app.
Step 2: Launch the software, you will be brought to its main interface. Click on Add Files and choose the file you wish to convert.
Step 3: Convert to your desired file format. Click on the downward-arrow icon and then select the file type you want to convert to.
Mp4 Player For Mac
Step 4: Finally, hit Convert and you’re good to go. If you’re watching a series, you can upload them all and use the convenient Convert All feature to convert all files at the same time.
You can also read our full Wondershare Video Converter review for more information.
What App On Mac Plays Mp4 On Youtube
Alright, that is all. Hopefully, this has been useful to you. Feel free to comment below and give your feedback. If you happen to know another method to open un-supported MP4 files on Mac, leave a comment as well.