Double-click the MP4 file in the Finder on Mac, and QuickTime will open it.Drag and drop the MP4 file to QuickTime Player to play.Play MP4 file on Mac in QuickTime Player by using one of the following ways. However, some other MP4 videos, MKV, AVI and WMV files can't be recognized by QuickTime Player and then you need to switch to other ways. When playing MP4 files encoded with MPEG-2, MPEG-4 or H.264 video codec and AAC audio codec, QuickTime Player performs very well. It supports most common media files and works great with HD videos. QuickTime Player is the default Mac video player develped by Apple for Mac users to play media files on Mac.

As better MP4 players are prepared, you can directly use one of them to play MP4 files on Mac easily, smoothly and in high quality, especially when your QuickTime Player can't play MP4 files on Mac. To be honest, there is no need to hang yourself to a specific tree. If the MP4 video is encoded with MPEG-2, MPEG-4 or H.264 video codec and AAC audio codec, QuickTime Player is the first choice to play MP4 on Mac. BTW, damaged or corrupted MP4 file is another culprit, but it is not the main reason. To let Mac play MP4 videos without issue, you can try to convert the unplayable MP4 videos to Mac-supported codecs or other formats like MOV, or simply switch to a more powerful Mac MP4 player on the road to smooth MP4 playback. That’s why sometimes you come across the error message like 'the movie could not be opened' or 'MP4 file not compatible with QuickTime' when trying to open MP4 files on Mac computer. For instance, the default QuickTime Player plays MP4 videos encoded with MPEG-2, MPEG-4 or H.264 video codec and AAC audio codec only. In specific, MP4 is a container format which could include numerous different video audio codecs based on the usage, and also determines how an MP4 player can play an MP4 file on Mac most. If that happens, your app won't open the file or won't play back its audio or video' - from Apple 'Older or specialized media formats might not work in your app, because the format requires software designed to support it. So, if your QuickTime Player is outdated and lacks the right codecs to recognize certain MP4 videos, the MP4 files won't be played on Mac. Though MP4 is an Apple standard pushed with QuickTime 6 that by natural is playable on Mac with QuickTime player, QuickTime only plays MP4 files on Mac that have been encoded to meet Joint Video Team (JVT) standards. Free Download For Win 7 or later Table of Contents

How to play mp4 files on mac