4k on Mac
Posted: 30 Jul 2017 02:40
what is the best version for 4K play back on Mac?
VLC has been marked '4K' ready since version 2.1 (See: https://www.videolan.org/vlc/releases/2.1.0.html). A brief test with MacOS X 10.12.5 and VLC 2.2.6 on a 2014 MacBook Air, shows that an MPEG4 video (4096x2306) using H264 works well, but an MKV video (3840x1632) using H265 stalls, as does another MPEG4 video using H264. This was a quick test with some videos I was able to find.
The limitation is more likely to be the processing capability of your Mac, than VLC, though more recent versions of VLC are likely to be more optimised for any given scenario, but it will unlikely help if you have weak hardware.