For those people who have just switched from Windows to Mac platform, it's likely that there will be a moment that you wish to play the favorite movies or TV shows stored on your local drive with the default QuickTime player on your Mac computer or transfer the movies, vidoes to your iPad, iPhone for watching on move. However, the final result is that you are just sitting there with a video file that you can't use just because it's stuck in a format not recognizable by your Mac computer or other portable devices.
No need to worry, all your head-scrathced problems can be easily eliminated with a Mac video conversion software, which helps to create a compatible file type for any devices or applicatios you own. Before looking for some expensive piece of software that you may only use a handful of times, we highly recommended you to first have a glance at the following 5 Mac video converter tools which are totally free but all featured with full functions.
Best 5 Free Mac Video Converter
#1 Handbrake
HandBrake is a free and open-source multithreaded transcoding app for converting video from nearly any format to widely supported codecs. It comes with built-in device presets for high quality conversion, supports most common multimedia files, but it has its limitations on the output formats options.
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#2 QuickTime
As video player bundled in OS X, QuickTime can also function as an excellent and easy to use video converter. It not only helps you to turn videos into iPad compatible formats, but also output a video ready for any iOS device or PC. Since it's already bundled with your Mac, therefore, you don't have to download anything else or fiddle with much to get it working.
Although it is pretty convenient to perform a video conversion with QuickTime on Mac. However, QuickTime Player does have a few downsides. Mostly, it's that QuickTime has limited codec support, and while you can choose different resolutions (480p, 720p, 1080p) and file formats (different iOS devices, Mac, or generic PC), don't expect to open a WMV file or any obscure video formats with it. Also, there is no batch processing option like there is with Handbrake and Miro.
#3 ffmpegX
FfmpegX is a Mac OS X graphic user interface designed to easily operate more than 20 powerful Unix open-source video and audio processing tools includingffmpeg the "hyper fast video and audio encoder", mpeg2enc the open-source mpeg-2 encoder and multiplexer and mencoder the mpeg-4 encoder with subtitles support.
It input formats including MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DIVX, XviD, non-encrypted VOB and VIDEO_TS, Quicktime .MOV, .DV, .WAV, Real Audio, Real Video, H.263, MP4 H.264, PGM, YUV, PPM, AC3, PCM8/16 bits, mulaw/Alaw, WMA-1/2, SUN AU format, MP2, MP3, AAC, 3GP, FPS1, ALAC, etc and can convert above formats to DivX, AVI XviD, H.264 MP4, MOV, DV, 3GP, Sony PSP, MP2, MP3, AAC, AC3, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, VCD, CVD, SVCD, KVCD, KSVCD, DVD, KDVD and MPEG-TS with complete control over encoding options.
#4 MPEG Streamclip
MPEG Streamclip converts QuickTime movies, MPEG-1/2/4 files and transport streams into several formats; for MPEG-2 playback and export, the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component is required.MPEG Streamclip can play and convert selectable parts of QuickTime movies, MPEG files and transport streams with MPEG/AC3/PCM audio into DV streams or QuickTime, AVI, MPEG-4 movies using any video codec, with optional 2D-FIR professional scaling, motion-adaptive deinterlacing, and other pro options; all in YUV, with audio in perfect sync. It also performs fast conversions to muxed MPEG files and demuxed M2V, AIFF, M1A, AC3 files, for direct burning with DVD Studio Pro and Toast 6, 7, 8.
#5 Miro Video Converter
Miro makes video conversion extremely simple, and for those who want ease of use it's hard to beat. Miro accepts tons of popular video formats including FLV, AVI, MKV, MP4, WMV, XVID, and MOV, and it also supports batch processing of groups of video and movie files, even if they're different formats. If you are just looking to make a movie compatible with the myriad of other devices out there, it's a great simple choice.
Miro takes the technical names and confusing aspects out of conversion as much as possible, instead referencing the intended viewing devices rather than movie format types and resolutions. You'll find support for Apple TV, Universal, iPad, iPad 3 (HD), iPhone, iPhone 4 (HD), iPhone 5 (HD wide), iPod nano, iPod touch, Android devices from HTC, Motorola, Samsung, Sanyo, or any other device by video size, Kindle Fire, PSP Playstation Portable, MP4, Ogg Theora, and WebM HD & SD.
Professional Mac video converter software - Pavtube iMedia Converter for Mac
Looking for a more powerful Mac video conversion program with more input and output options, versatitle video customization features and also perfect output file quality. Pavtube iMedia Converter for Mac (review) caters to you great demand with enhanced media compatiblity for virtually any digital file formats (H.265/HEVC, MXF, XAVC/XAVC S, Prores, AVCHD MTS/M2TS included) with the resolution of 4K/2K/HD/SD and also commercial Blu-ray/DVD disc with complicated copy protection and region code. As for the output options, it not only allows you to output various popular digital file formats (H.265 MP4/MKV included) but also hot devices and programs preset profile formats with optimal playback settings. For those 3D movie fans, the program will also does you a great favor to directly generate VR Headsets, 3D TV or 3D projector favorable 3D SBS/TAB/Anaglyph favorable movie type formats. What's more, the built-in video editing function and profile customization tool can ensure you to get your desired video with perfect output video/audio quality. The last big merits of this program is that it keeps constant update with perfect support for the new Mac OS X El Capitan and macOS Sierra.