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For some time now, I’ve been using VLC Media Player on my MacBook Pro. Well, it’s what I’ve been using for years, even when I was on Windows. It has been a free, great alternative to what Apple offers by default and I’ve never been a fan QuickTime. Although VLC is great and does what it does pretty well, I think I might have found a new default media player. I thought I would only take 5KPlayer for a spin and ditch it, but the features available look too good to pass off.
Why 5KPlayer?
Unlike other media players I’ve used recently, this 4K video player has a wider range of features, supported media types and formats.
Radio and Live Audio
If you’ve always wanted to listen to the radio right on your computer, this media lets you do these with ease. There are some default radio stations like BBC SPort, CBS SPort, NBC, Atomix Radio, Music Radio, and a few others.
Apart from these, you can also manually add the link to your stream and listen live.
4K/UHD Video Playback with Hardware Acceleration
If you’ve been having issues playing UHD and 4K videos with your current HD video player, the hardware acceleration approach used by this program makes playback of these video formats really smooth. You can as well play DVDs and several other supported media types. I haven’t had issues playing any type of video with 5KPlayer as it seems to support everything you throw at it.
You can as well play 360-degree videos.
Music Play
Although I don’t see 5KPlayer replacing iTunes for my music play, it’s nice knowing it’s capable of being a real music player too as it lets you create customizable playlists.
AirPlay Mirroring
I was able to get my iPad and iPod screen to display on my MacBook Pro through screen mirroring. Normally, Apple only allows you to mirror iOS devices to the Apple TV, but 5KPlayer enables your computer to act as an Apple TV.
1. To do this, you only need to enable AirPlay service from the settings:
2. Now pull down the Control Center on your iOS device and select Screen Mirroring:
3. Select your Computer from the list of available devices and the screen should display right on your computer.
You can as well record the iOS device screen and save on your computer by simply hitting the red Record button.
Android Video Music Streaming
5KPlayer supports Android video music streaming, and I got the DLNA service working to make the MacBook act as a media server. The allowed to me play media files from the computer on my Android device over my local WiFi network.
Online Video Downloader
This UHD video player lets you download online videos from YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, DailyMotion, Metacafe, Vevo, DailyMotion, and over 300 hundred video websites.
To do this, you need to only paste the link to the video page and the program does the rest. Just select your preferred video resolution and download. You can as well choose to download music videos as audio.
Simple Video Editor
5KPlayer has a video editor that lets you do basic video edits like cropping, color adjustment, rotation, playback speed adjustment, voice delay and more.
What does it cost?
5KPlayer is absolutely free. There’s no paid upgrade or hidden fees. However, to unlock AirPlay and the DLNA feature, you only need to register the product and this costs nothing as well.
5KPlayer is available for both Windows and Mac and it’s free on both platforms.
Windows: https://www.5kplayer.com/5kplayer-download-windows.htm
Mac: https://www.5kplayer.com/5kplayer-download-mac.htm
Enter Giveaway
Even though this program is free, you stand a chance to win a prize just for using it. All you need to do is to download 5kplayer and enter the sweepstake. You have the chance to win a Panasonic HC-VX1, 30 YouTube Premium subscriptions, and unlimited licenses of WinX HD Video Converter.