Top 10 Best DVD Players for Mac

Although Blu-ray discs are rapidly increasing in popularity all over the world, a lot of people are perfectly happy with continuing to watch their favorite movies on DVD. And why not? DVD movies offer decent picture quality, take up less storage space, and are quite a bit cheaper. In other words, there’s no reason to throw out your DVD movie collection just yet because this format is still very much relevant even in this day and age. With that in mind, today we’re going to take a look at some of the best Mac DVD player software that will help you get the most out of your DVDs.

DVDFab Player 5 for Mac

DVDFab Player 5 for Mac is a modern multimedia player that offers all the features you would expect from a product like this, along with a few that you didn’t even knew you needed. The player is fully capable of supporting all types of video formats up to and including 4K UHD Blu-rays so DVDs are definitely not a problem for this bad boy. Not only can this DVD player for Mac reliably handle DVDs but the software also supports navigation menus for all types of media discs.

If you’re looking for a cinema-like experience at home, DVDFab Player 5 is the ideal choice because it offers two distinct playback modes, one optimized for computers and one optimized for big-screen TVs. HDR10 support? Check. Hi-Res audio support? Check. The player also supports 3D content and even offers a mode that lets you watch 2D content in 3D mode. Speaking of interesting features, the new Preview mode is a great addition that lets you quickly find important scenes throughout a movie when you just feel like browsing through. Here’s a quick look at how this Mac DVD player works:

1. Open DVDFab Player 5 and choose the playback mode that works best for you. We’re going to pick PC for this example.

2. The software immediately recognizes any DVD you insert in your optical drive but you can also use the “+” button to add a DVD movie that was previously saved on your computer.

3. After picking the title you want to watch you will be greeted by the navigation menu. Use it as you would normally use movie menus to change the language, audio tracks, select scenes or access any special features. The options available here may vary from movie to movie.

4. Click Play Movie once you’re ready and hit the right-click button at any time if you want to make use of the customization tools to change the aspect ratio, subtitles, audio tracks, chapters, and more.

VLC Media Player

VLC is a free DVD player for Mac that sits at the very top when it comes to popularity. VLC is mainly intended for digital-only content but can also play movies directly from DVDs, albeit you do need to spend a bit of time configuring the player if you also want it to show you navigation menus. VLC is supported by a very large community of loyal fans so you’re always likely to find interesting skins, themes, plugins, and other goodies if you want to make your player look a bit more unique.

Apple DVD Player

A pretty basic Mac DVD player developed by Apple itself. The software was launched many years ago so don’t expect any special or unique features here. That said, if all you’re looking for is to play movies without having to worry about any extra features, the Apple DVD Player is a pretty decent pick.

Free Mac Blu-ray Player

This software developed by Blu-ray Master may be a good fit for playing Blu-ray discs but it can just as easily be used to run DVDs as well. Free Mac Blu-ray Player comes with a very clean interface and some useful social media sharing features, however, it also incorporates some adware that some users might find annoying. And if you want to play high resolution videos, it will require you to upgrade it to the pro version.

5K Player

Though more suited for high-resolution Blu-ray movies, 5K Player is also a good choice for running the lower resolution content found on DVDs. The player was designed to support all formats so no need to worry about compatibility issues with this one because it can comfortably handle any type of DVD you throw at it.

Ultimate DVD Player

Another solid DVD player for Mac, Ultimate has been around for some time and is a bit hard to recommend nowadays due to its price tag. However, the player does offer some interesting features that might come in handy for some people, such as the ability to change the speed and pitch of videos. Definitely not the best in its class but might be worth a look.

Mac Media Player

Not to be confused with Apple DVD Player but very similar in terms of its capabilities. This Mac DVD player was designed to work with videos of up to 1080p, which is ideal if you only want to use it for DVDs but not ideal if you want a player that can also run 4K content. Still, Mac Media Player made a name for itself back in the day as one of the first HD players on the system and is still a solid choice even to this day.

Cyberlink PowerDVD

PowerDVD is a nice designed player that offers a pretty looking interface and a good amount of customization tools to work with. This Mac DVD player is also a lot more lightweight that some of the other entries on this list and includes a power saving mode, two qualities that make it ideal for laptops.

MPlayerX

MPlayer is fairly similar to VLC not only in the sense that it’s a free and open source piece of software but also because it offers many of the same features. This includes online streaming and support for any format you can think of, including the vob files of DVDs. The Mac version of MPlayer used to be plagued by a number of technical issues a few years ago but nowadays works better than offer and is received new updates all the time.

Kodi

Kodi is a great Mac DVD player that underwent a number of transformations over the years. Formerly known as Xbox Media Center or XBMC, the software is nowadays available not just on Microsoft’s console but on most other platforms as well, including Mac. Kodi was designed as a multimedia hub so you can use you not just for DVD playback but also for Blu-rays, music, photos, and more.

Conclusion

A great DVD player for Mac needs to be powerful, easy to use, and ideally cheap or even free. That description applies to most of the players we discussed today but it’s particularly fitting in the case of DVDFab Player 5. The software is not only very powerful and simple to use but you can also try it out for free and then decide later if you want to upgrade to the Standard or Premium versions and gain access to all of its great features.

This post introduces DVD players to play DVDs, but if you want to rip your DVDs to digital files for backup, please check how to copy DVD to hard drive.