Top 5 MKV Players for Mac/Windows in 2023

Do you still manage to find a convenient and matching MKV player for your favorite MKV videos and it would be perfect if it is totally free and supports both Mac OS and Windows systems? And to save your precious time, here comes a list of the best MKV players in 2021 for your reference. Among these alternatives, most of them not only show support to play only videos of MKV formats but also other commonly seen formats.

Why You Need a Professional MKV Player

As it is widely accepted, videos of MKV format are one of the most common forms applied in daily movies or TV shows, but it seems difficult to find a qualified MKV Player to play these MKV files. You may wonder why it would be like this. The answer is easy to grasp: MKV is specially designed to be universal to contain and transmit various information for HD/4K videos with comparatively higher resolution and larger size. So, due to codec difference inside MKV container, relatively higher definition, and bigger file size of MKV videos, finding a professional program is the first yet difficult task if you want to play H.264 or HEVC encoded HD/4K MKV files smoothly under any circumstances, including 3840x2160, 1920 x 1080, 1280 x 720, etc. with MBs or GBs.

To make it easier for you to play all those favorite MKV videos, this article will bring to you a review of 5 outstanding MKV players both for Mac and Windows out of the vast market for your kind consideration. The list of MKV players will get you to watch MKV file videos smoothly without the necessity of installing any other assistant soft wares.

Top 5 Best MKV Video Players for Mac/Windows

5K Player

There is no doubt that 5KPlayer can be seen as the leading one in terms of specially designed software for MKV video watching, which is also available both for Mac and Windows with whatever video or audio content supported by itself. That means you don’t need to download any CCCP codec pack for smooth video watching in terms of MKV videos.

Characterized by tremendous video playback capacity, 5KPlayer allows you to play all of MKV files, not to mention other files including MP4, HEVC, M2TS, AVCHD, MOD, H.264, MPEG-4, AVI, MOV, WMV, FLV, and so on. Powered by NVIDIA CUDA®, Intel® QSV, DXVA 2.0 & AMD Hardware-acceleration, it makes sure that you can enjoy fluent playback of 4K MKV video by transferring the computer-intensive 4K HEVC decoding tasks from general-purpose CPU to graphic-expert GPU.

In addition to a universal MKV player, 5KPlayer also provides a host of value-added services to make your watching experience more abundant, such as playing lossless music, playing any DVDs, 300+ sites media download, DLNA streaming across devices, Airplay iPhone/iPad, IPTV/M3U/M3U8 streaming, etc.

Features

• Built-in file converter with lots of supported file types
• 3D and 360°video playback
• Speedy conversion and image processing
• Download videos from the most important video distribution platforms
• Low impact on your system’s resources
• Provide one-click downloads from over 1,000 websites such as YouTube, Facebook, Dailymotion, Vimeo, Vevo, or Metacafe.

VCL Media Player

The second best MKV player is VCL Media Player, having something in common with the top one 5KPlayer, which is because it is also free to download. That means you don’t need to download any other soft wares to accomplish the MKV video-watching process.

Already been downloaded 3.8 billion across the whole world, except for MKV playback, VLC currently is no doubt the most popular media player to play daily videos, music, DVDs, live streams, and so on. As a user and editor’s choice, you can always trust it to play MKV video files up to 4K without worrying about the safety issue.

Features

• Runs on all platforms, including mobile
• Plays most codecs with no codec packs needed
• It can play back any video file, including streaming
• Fast hardware decoding
• Subtitle synchronization, video, and audio filters

DVDFab Player 6

Wonder why I put DVDFab Player 6 here in the third-best position, it is just because it is not totally free. Except for paying for service, DVDFab provides comprehensive service in an all-around way. Basically, it provides two versions including standard and ultra-versions for different prices.

The brand-new generation of DVDFab Player 6, the best 4K Player software functioning as an all-in media center that not only plays all multimedia files on the local HDD but manages all the media library efficiently by Poster Walls.

Features

• Organize & manage local media library by Poster Wall
• Hi-Res audio output support, up to Dolby Atmos & DTS:X
• All-inclusive support on 4K UHD, HEVC, and other media files including H.264, H.265/HEVC, MP4, MKV, MOV, FLV, VOB, and M2TS, all in high resolution from 720p, 1080p, to (2160p) 4K.
• Support diverse audio formats
• All-around 3D Playback on all forms of 3D contents

DivX Player

Truth to be told, video formats that DivX Player supports are quite limited. It actually only plays MKV video files back but has developed many enhanced playing functions for users’ better experience including supporting up to 8 MKV multiple subtitles and audio tracks, offering fluent fast-forward adjustment as well as rewinding MKV playing process and auto-generated MKV chapters.

Or we can see DivX Player as a comprehensive software more than just a video player for its varied functions. Users can watch video libraries in high-quality up to 4K, enjoy a variety of video formats such as AVI, DIVX, MKV, and MP4, and take advantage of features like smooth FF/RW and Chapter Points. The function of Chapter Points is actually designed to help users easily to navigate to their favorite scenes or find different scenes.

However, it is not free to provide all features available for all, which means users have to pay to get advanced features. That’s what the DivX Pro provided. And users need to consider adding a Blu-ray video playback function while some of the MKV video files contain in Blu-ray Disc.

Features

• Available for Windows 10/8/7, macOS
• Available for paying, creating, and DLNA-casting videos, including DivX, AVI, MP4, and HEVC up to 4K
• Allow you to switch seamlessly between soundtracks to hear other languages or comments
• Free to create and loop your playlist
• Offers free HEVC (High-Efficiency Video Coding) playback

Media Player Classic

Another open-source media player, Media Player Classic with MKV media playback ability. It is also free to download from its official website and to enjoy a batch of services. What’s more, there will be no advertisements or similar banners to bother you while using. Not only MKV format is included in its capacity of playing, but some common formats are also covered, too, including MP4, MOV, AVI, FLV, DVD, CD, etc.

Nothing is perfect. There is one thing about Media Player Classic to be noted: it cannot play old MPEG-1 files or smoothly play 4K HEVC video at 60FPS. Also, any new formats of videos like AV1 and ProRes cannot be supported by it since it has ceased to update since 2017.

Features

• Only support Windows 10/8/7
• Support MKV, MP4, MOV, AVI, FLV, DVD, CD formats
• Most light-weight MKV video player

Conclusion

After comparison, each MKV video player has its edges and shortages to some extent. Remember, what meets the most of your requirements and expectation is what suits you the most. To find a standout MKV player, the media player you find must firstly show support of playing MKV videos together with other video and audio formats. Also, an excellent media player needs to provide popular features like providing open media resources and so on. Therefore, it is totally depending on you to choose a super MKV player from the above list.