Top 8 MOV Players For Windows 10, Mac, Android, IPhone

Part 1. Top 8 MOV Video Players Mac, Windows, iOS, Android Free Download

No.1: 5KPlayer

• Price availability: Free
• Rating: ★★★★☆ 4.7/5 (Cnet)
• Operating System: Windows 11/10/8/7, macOS Monterey & earlier
• Highlited features: Play videos, music & DVD discs, live stream TV & radio, grab online contents, AirPlay iOS, DLNA media to smart TV

5KPlayer stays at No.1 on the list of best free MOV players for 4K. It shows great performance in MOV playback on Windows 10/11 and Mac, including MOV files up to 4K UHD and MOV encoded in HEVC/H.264 without any third-party help. More than a MOV player with HEVC support, it also plays MP4, MKV, WMV, FLV, AVI, H.264, H.265, VP9, MPEG4, etc. format videos in 4K, 1080p, 720, 480p and 360p smoothly as silk and in high quality. As multifunctional software, you can also throw DVDs, ISO Images, 360-degree videos, etc. at it, and use it to live stream IPTV/internet radio, download online media files, DLNA stream contents to smart TV and AirPlay iPhone iPad at will.

Pros:

• Support nearly all codecs used to encode MOV files including HEVC/h.265, 10bit x264, H.264, AVCHD, AVC.
• Play MOV files with various customizable settings like video speed up/slow down, add subtitles, video audio synchronization, etc.
• Cross-platform share MOV files to smart TV with bigger enjoyment with the help of DLNA.
• Smoothly play MOV videos up to 4K 30fps thanks to NVIDIA CUDA®, AMD, Intel® QSV, & DXVA 2.0 Hardware-acceleration techs.
• Create playlist to play favorite music songs, render DTS surround sound.

Cons:

• Choppy playback performance when the 4K MOV videos are at 60fps or 120fps.
• Crashes occasionally during MOV playing without notice.
• Run in the background and is high in CPU usage when you don't use it.
• MOV HDR video playback performs bad, and sometimes image color washes out.

No.2: VLC Media Player

• Price availability: Free
• Rating: ★★★★☆ 4.5/5 (TechRadar)
• Operating System: Windows 11/10/8/7(64bit/32bit), Vista, macOS Monterey & earlier, Android, iOS, Linux, Chrome OS
• Highlighted features: Open source, multimedia & DVD playback, video conversion, network streaming, record screen, Chromcast/DLNA media.

As the world's number one downloaded and used open-source free media player for MOV, MP4, MKV, DVD, WMV, etc. video files, VLC Media Player handles your media files without the need to install extra codecs or codec packs in most cases. Besides a desktop MOV file player, you can also download VLC mobile app to play MOV videos on iPhone, Android, and iPad freely when your MOV videos are not playing. Also, it has many hidden features that help enrich your media viewing experience.

Pros:

• Play all MOV video files without downloading extra codec packs.
• Various customizable settings like video speed up/slow down, add subtitles, video audio synchronization, etc.
• Cross-platform share MOV files to smart TV with bigger enjoyment.
• Hardware Acceleration tech helps 4K MOV smooth playback up to 60fps.
• Create playlist to play, convert MOV to MP4, and record MOV videos.

Cons:

• Choppy, crashing, mosaic, or frame dropping when the 4K MOV videos are at 120fps.
• Lots of MOV errors: MOV no sound, MOV no video, MOV video audio out of sync, MOV HDR washed out colors, etc.
• It is hard to recognize sub-codec of AV1 - av01.
• Sudden green screen, blank screen or black screen without notice.

No.3: QuickTime Player

• Price availability: Free
• Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 2.9/5 (Cnet)
• Operating System: Windows Vista or Windows 7, macOS Sierra 10.12 and earlier
• Highlighted features: Video music playback, edit a movie, record Mac screen, capture screen of iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch

MOV file format is a QuickTime format developed by Apple for native playback on Macs, iPhones or iPads. In theory, QuickTime Player should be the default MOV player for Mac computer to play MOV video files. However, due to codec issues, you may encounter MOV file not compatible with QuickTime error message on Mac or Windows 10. Though QuickTime Player only supports MOV encoded with MPEG-4 or H.264 video and AAC audio, you can convert H.265 to H.264 to fix can't play MOV error thanks to the help of a video converter.

Pros:

• Play MOV videos by default with various customization settings like: choose a screen size, show subtitles, choose soundtrack, etc.
• Record a MOV movie.
• Edit MOV videos: Trim, rearrange, rotate, and split a movie into multiple clips.
• Share MOV movies through AirDrop.
• Export MOV movies to other file formats and resolution.

Cons:

• Play MOV files encoded with certain codecs only.
• No updates on Windows QuickTime 7.7.9 in 2016.
• Unknown error happens now and then.

No.4: PotPlayer

• Price availability: Free
• Rating: ★★★★☆ 4.7/5 (G2)
• Operating System: 32bit & 64bit Windows 10, 8, 7, VISTA, XP
• Highlighted features: Multimedia playback, enhanced Hardware Acceleration tech, immersive 3D experience, subtitles support, variety of built-in codecs.

This is another free MOV video player for Windows 10/11 and older. It is lightweight and supports a large number of media formats including MOV, MP4, MKV, WMV, AVI, FLV, etc. With enhanced Hardware Acceleration mode, the player shows greate performance in playing 4K Ultra HD MOV videos including HEVC MOV files on Windows 10. It offers various settings and customizations for MOV files, which is also a big drawback because complicated settings can be confusing.

Pros:

• DXVA, CUDA, & QuickSync Hardware acceleration techs help fast and smooth 4K/8K MOV playback.
• Play MOV, MP4, MKV, AVI, etc. video files with subtitles (SMI, SRT, ASS, SSA).
• No need to install different codecs, built-in OpenCodec lets users easily add whatever codecs they want for MOV.
• Customizable settings: Preview the scene, bookmark scene or chapter, full screen playback, etc.

Cons:

• Most of settings are complicated, which make it more suitable for experienced users.
• Occasional errors include no sound, time error when making bookmarks playlist, small subtitles, broken screen, strange color, etc.
• Problems in playing 4K ProRes MOV videos: audio out of sync, choppy playback, black screen.
• No Mac version. Can't play MOV on Mac.

No.5: RealPlayer

• Price availability: Freemium
• Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3.3/5 (Cnet)
• Operating System: Microsoft Windows, Android, macOS, Linux, Symbian, Oracle Solaris, Palm OS
• Highlighted features: Play local and online videos, video downloads, stream & cast videos to bigger screen, all-platform enjoyment

RealPlayer, formerly known as RealOne Player and RealAudio Player, supports lots of file formats, including QuickTime MOV, MP4, FLV, AVI, WMV, etc. This MOV media player has various plug-ins and its browser plugin can download online videos for offline viewing. Users are also allowed to directly post MOV videos to Facebook and Twitter from RealPlayer. However, QuickTime must be installed to help play .mov files successfully.

Pros:

• Play any online and local videos, music, movies in any format including MOV, MP4, MP3, etc.
• Chromecast MOV videos to smart TV with bigger picture and better sounds.
• Online MOV videos downloads.
• Access media files from anywhere anytime: iPhone, computer, and TV.
• Customizable settings: Automatically organize videos, browse & search videos, find & remove duplicates, create playlists, make videos private.
• Convert MOV to other common formats. Turn video into MP3.

Cons:

• Real Player Library loads slowly or not at all, stops working, keeps crashing, or show video black screen when playing videos.
• Computer is too slow when running Real Player.
• Can't display videos in SD card, but just show no video found.
• Very limited in working video/audio enhancement features.
• The Mac version is not as stable as the PC version.

No.6: KMPlayer

• Price availability: Free
• Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3.9/5 (Cnet)
• Operating System: Windows 2000, OS X 10.6, Android 4.0.3, iOS 7 or later
• Highlighted features: Play movies/dramas/music, 3D/4K UHD playback, KMPlayer 64X plays 8K and 60FPS, subtitles support, video capture

KMPlayer, also KMP Player, MKP, can be used as a free MOV player that also handles a wide range of video formats, such as MKV, AVI, MP4, WMV, MPEG1, H.264, H.265, and more. To satisfy the increasing needs of high-res video playback, KMPlayer also beefs itself up to be able to play 4K/8K, 60fps MOV video files, skip damaged frames and play incomplete MOV files easily. If needed, you can also download KMPlayer mobile app to play MOV videos on Android, iPhone, and iPad.

Pros:

• Built-in codec enables quick and convenient use when playing different files.
• KMPlayer 64X plays 8K and 60FPS thanks to Hardware Acceleration, and downloads MOV.
• Supports subtitles in SMI, ASS, SRT, PSB, S2K, SUB, TXT and LRC formats.
• Capture desired screen and audio of MOV playback in the format you want.
• Customizable settings: Noise reduction, rotate the screen, bookmark chapters, audio video synchronization, etc.
• Supports 24 languages for users worldwide.

Cons:

• CPU occupying, takes a lot of source when playing files especially the 4K videos.
• There are many ads and pop-ups in the homepage, dedicated side panels, and the options panel.
• The KMPlayer Mac version is still in beta, so it is not very stable for MOV playback on Mac.
• The installer contains several extra software.
• The audio quality in all versions of KMPlayer needs improvements

No.7: Windows Media Player

• Price availability: Free
• Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3.0/5 (Cnet)
• Operating System: Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 7
• Highlighted features: Multimedia playback, disc burning/ripping, media streaming

Windows Media Player is also able to play QuickTime movie file MOV. Windows Media Player is included in clean installs of Windows 10 so that you don't need to download it by yourself. However, as for Windows Media Player on Windows 10, only version 12 or higher version can accept MOV files though there is still "only sound no image" problem. Besides, in many instances, the extra MOV codec for Windows Media Player is required to play some certain MOV media files, for example, HEVC codec is needed for playing MOV HEVC content as MOV is not by default supported by Windows Media Player.

Pros:

• Default media player for Windows users to play MOV when relative codec installed.
• DLNA stream MOV files to Android smart TVs.
• Built-in Media Guide lets create playlist, browse a website for music, movies, TV, and Internet radio.
• Automatically download all the information about CD: name of the album, artist name, song title, year, etc.

Cons:

• Won't play MOV video files encoded in modern codecs like ProRes codec, H.265/HEVC, AV1, ProRes, VP9, etc.
• Choppy or sluggish performance when playing 4K, 2.7K & 1080P, 60fps, 50fps, 30fps, etc. videos
• Can't stream MOV properly especially over slow DSL connection.
• No updates anymore. It hasn't received any new versions ever since Windows 7 was released.

No.8: MOV Viewer Free

• Price availability: Free
• Operating System: Windows 8.1 and above
• Highlighted features: Play video audio files, dedicated MOV viewer

MOV Viewer Free is designed for opening and playing MOV files especially on Windows 10 computer. You can download its official version on Microsoft Store and play MOV, WMV, WMA, MP4, etc. files in a very easy manner. Some users report crashing error and the viewer doesn't open MOV files from iPhone with the screen going black, but it can be fixed by converting the video to other formats. However, it is not an ideal choice if you are looking for a free MOV video player for Windows 10 or earlier that can deal with various other formats and up to 4K UHD.

Pros:

• Play most MOV files and other media formats such as 3G2, 3GP, WMA, WMV, etc.

Cons:

• Crashing error happens often especially when playing videos up to 4K UHD.