IINA
Freempv wearing a proper macOS coat
A macOS video player built on the mpv core — it plays anything, but the interface follows macOS conventions such as trackpad gestures, picture-in-picture, dark mode, Force Touch and native windows. It adds online subtitle search, playlists, audio and video filters and speed control.
Why we picked it
GPL-3.0, 46,400 stars.
mpv's decoding paired with macOS interface conventions explains its install rate on Macs. VLC plays everything but its interface has not moved in twenty years; QuickTime looks right and refuses half your files. IINA takes both halves.
Subtitles get real attention: local files matched automatically, online search and download, two subtitle tracks displayed at once — useful when learning a language — and font and position adjusted on the fly. Gestures are native too: two fingers to scrub, vertical swipe for volume, without your hand leaving the trackpad.
To be clear about:
- macOS only. On Windows and Linux you install mpv itself.
- The core is mpv, so when a decoding oddity shows up, community answers usually point at mpv configuration.