by Christine Smith • 2020-10-27 15:13:32 • Proven solutions

As many Mac users have noticed, they can't play or open MKV files on Mac. What's the matter? MKV is a free, open-source container format with different types and an unlimited number of video, audio, picture, or subtitle tracks, making it unrecognizable by a single player like QuickTime. Then how to watch MKV files on Mac? Don't worry. We collect 3 methods for you to play MKV Mac successfully.

Part 1. Play MKV with All-in-one Wondershare MKV Player & Converter

Without further ado, I'd like to recommend you Wondershare UniConverter (originally Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate), which combines MKV player and MKV converter into one, allowing you to free play MKV, MP4, MOV, and over 1000 popular video formats and easily convert MKV formats to other supported formats for playing back on any player.

1. Play MKV on Mac with Wondershare Free MKV Player

MakeMKV is a useful tool that can create MKV files from any DVD or Blu-ray disc. The program reads the discs you insert in the computer and shows a window with all the tracks inside the DVD or Blu-ray, organized into individual clips so you can choose which ones you want to rip the files from to get the audio, video, or subtitles. The K-Lite Codec Pack is a free software bundle for high quality playback of all your music and video files. It is easy to use, but also very flexible with many options. Enjoy problem free playback of MKV, MP4, AVI, FLV, and all other multimedia file formats.

Step 1 Add MKV to Wondershare Free MKV Player

X264 is a free software library and application for encoding video streams into the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC compression format, and is released under the terms of the GNU GPL. ACE Mega CodecS This is the lastest and greatest release of famous ACE Mega CoDecS Pack. ACE Mega CodecS Pack's development was discontinued. foobar2000 Free Encoder Pack Foobar2000 Free Encoder Pack is a piece of software including all natively supported free encoder binaries which are used by the foobar2000 audio player. DivX Total Pack DivX Total Pack makes it.

Open the Wondershare MKV player, drag, and drop your MKV video to the MKV video player. Then the added MKV file will be loaded in the video thumbnail.

Step 2 Play .mkv on Mac

Move the mouse over the MKV video thumbnail. You'd see a Play icon in the middle just as the screenshot shows.

Click the Play icon, and you'll see the loaded MKV video starts playing immediately.

2. Convert MKV to MOV or Other Formats Supported with Wondershare MKV Converter Mac

Here we take converting MKV to MOV as an example. See the detailed steps below.

Step 1 Add MKV Files to Convert to MOV

Launch Wondershare MKV Converter Mac, click to browse your Mac, and add your target MKV video to the program.

Step 2 Choose MOV as Output Format

Click the down arrow icon beside Output Format to get the full list of the output formats, select Video > MOV and choose a video resolution in the right.

If you have a lot of MKV files and want to play them on other Apple devices like iPhone, iPad, or iPod, you'd better convert MKV to an optimized device. In short, you can choose any format or device you want (most popular format or devices are also supported here).

Step 3 Convert MKV to MOV Easily

Hit Start All or Convert to start converting MKV videos on Mac. Once the MKV conversion completes, you can click the folder-like icon beside File Location in the bottom to get the converted .mov file. Now you can freely play MKV video with QuickTime player. Here, you also can download the MKV videos from the online site as the MOV format in this Wondershare Video Downloader for Mac easily.

Mkv Codec For Mac

Part 2. Convert MKV to Mac-compatible Formats with Free MKV Converter Online

Here is an easier way for you to free convert MKV to other supported formats on Mac. With the online MKV converter tool AConvert, you don't need to install any program but start MKV conversion online.

1. Open AConvert, click on Video from the Control Panel located on the left side first.
2. Click on the File > Browse button to add your MKV file.
3. On Target Format, click on the down arrow and search for MOV or other formats.
4. Click on Convert Now to initiate MKV conversion. Once finished, you can find the converted MKV files under Conversion Results.

Part 3. Install Perian Plugin for QuickTime to Play MKV on Mac

Perian is a free, open-source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular video formats like the MKV. When you've had Perian installed, you have to quit QuickTime completely and then restart it.

Note that you don't close the QuickTime Window. Actually, it's still running in the background. Since only that way, QuickTime can update its format and encoding library. See the detailed steps below.

1. Download Perian for QuickTime and double click to launch it.
2. Drag and drop QuickTime components to Perian.
3. Restart all programs related to QuickTime, including iTunes, QuickTime Player, your browser, etc.

Mkv Codec Mac

Now you'll find that QuickTime now can magically support more diverse video formats: AVI, DivX, DivX 3.11 alpha, XviD, MS-MPEG4 v3, 3ivX, MS-MPEG4 v2, MS-MPEG4 v1, Truemotion VP6, Sorenson H.263, FLV, and formats that an AVI file contains--AC3, AAC Audio, VBR MP3, mpeg4, and h.264. In short, feel free to play MKV files on Mac.