
You should be able to download this free media player for Mac, then play most videos right away. VLC media player is a free option you may consider. Note that this method may not work since the video in problem is not in a compatible format with the default media player on your Mac.

Go to the More info section, you can see codecs of both audio and video used in the file. Then choose Get Info option from the contextual menu. Right-click (or press and hold Control key while you click) on the MP4 video file. Want to know which codec the MP4 file is encoded with? Here’s the quick way to find out the video code on Mac. Go to play the video in m4v format using the player you prefer see if any luck. m4v, if you make this change, your document may open in a different application. You’ll be asked whether you are sure to change the extension from. Duplicate the original video file in Finder, then rename it and change its extension from. Just give it a try see if any luck when you found a MP4 video can’t be opened in QuickTime Player on Mac. QuickTime Player video supportĬhange extension from. We recommend MP4 with h.264 or h.265 codec for great compatibility with various devices and even online browsers. In such case, you can either use a more powerful media player with the codec support or transcode the video to a compatible codec, such as H.264.

If the QuickTime Player won’t play a MP4 video, most likely the video is compressed using an incompatible codec. It is like a box that contains your video, audio, and metadata.

Why MP4 videos can’t be opened or played on Mac?

We all know that MP4 is the industry standard, the most popular video format and QuickTime Player is the default app to open and play MP4 files on Mac. Failed to open a MP4 file on Mac? MP4 video is not compatible with QuickTime Player?
