5KPlayer Editor's Review

Download and play internet and hi-res video on your Mac with this cool desktop app.

I love video.

I love watching movies, music videos and yes, even the silly, crazy family style home videos that you see on <a href="http://www.facebook.com">Facebook</a>. Color me silly, but they make me laugh at times, and that, more than anything is why I love video. Watching a movie or other video content relaxes me. With video quality passing HD into the realms of 4K and even 5K resolutions, the days of Blu-ray are truly numbered and finding the right kind of player is a very serious task. This is why apps like 5KPlayer are so important, and on the Mac, it’s a great app to have in your media tool kit.

5KPlayer is a free media player for Mac OS. It's an all-in-one HD video/ music player, AirPlay streamer and free online video/ music downloader. It plays video flawlessly, and supports 4K/ 5K/ HD resolutions in MKV, MP4, AVI, WMV formats. It also can play YouTube video, MP3 music & DVD's.

One of the best things that 5KPlayer does is support Apple's AirPlay . AirPlay allows you to stream media from iPad, iPhone to and from your Mac or AppleTV. If you've ever used AirPlay, then you know that the ability to find what you're looking for with one device and then wirelessly play it on your screen of choice is a huge win, especially if you have an Apple TV. You can find what you're looking for on your Mac, using the browser and tools you're most familiar with and then shoot the playback to your big, 50"+ flat screen TV. It's an awesome experience. 5KPlayer also allows you to download free video music from YouTube, Facebook Vimeo and others. You can shoot those to your AirPlay compatible devices, too. Once you find the video content, 5KPlayer will help you to convert that free audio to a format that you can take with you.

If you're into audio more than video, 5KPlayer has you covered there too. The app will allow you to play radio audio from the BBC, Heart, XFM, KISS, Magic and other internet radio stations. That's a huge win if all you're looking to do is play music while doing work. That white noise – albeit high quality audio white noise – can be a huge productivity booster. 

App Pro’s: Free, video conversion,

App Con’s: It's not an iTunes replacement

Conclusion: To be honest, I wasn't really excited about this app when I sat down to take a look at it. I ended up really loving it in the end. The app is easy to use, great looking, and best of all, supports AirPlay. The biggest "disappointment," however, is that it's not a full iTunes replacement. iTunes has become so bloated over the years that it's hard to work with at times and doesn't do a great job of organizing music. 5KPlayer is close here, but really does have a long way to go.

However, its video playback is wonderful; AND it supports HD, 4K and 4K video playback, which you're going to want going forward. The app is free and would be a winner even if you had to pay for it. This is a must have app.