Table of Contents
In this post we'll talk about 5KPlayer, a free multi-purpose HD video player that can also perform as music player, AirPlay media streamer and online video downloader - all packed into one single, free application.
The tool also comes with full DVD support, meaning that it can also be used as a region-free DVD player to play ultra high definition videos with multi-subtitle tracks and soundtracks. It goes without saying that it can also play YouTube videos, HD Camcorder movies, Blu-ray videos, play satellite radio and other sources.
Main Features
- Play 1080p HD videos, and DVDs
- Play 4K/360°/HEVC video, music, DVD, radio, IPTV, M3U, MP3 AAC APE & FLAC music files
- Built-in AirPlay sender/receiver to stream audio video
- Download online videos from Dailymotion, Vimeo (with subtitles)
- AirPlay receiver tool with Mirroring Mode Support to record iPhone iPad screen on computer
- DLNA support for music & video streaming between PC/Mac and Android/smart TV/Xbox/PS4
- Built-in Radio Player
- Media Library Features
- Hardware Acceleration
- Video Cut/Edit features
- Audio extraction (extract audio from video)
- Intuitive, unobtrusive interface
- User Guide & online support available through the official site
AirPlay Receiver & Mirroring Mode
5KPlayer has a built-in AirPlay receiver tool that can help you stream audio and video media from any iPhone, iPad, iPod and Apple Watch to macOS and Windows platforms/PCs. The player can also be used as an AirPlay sender for free streaming of MP4, MOV, M4V, MP3 and AAC files from iMac, MacBook and Windows 10/8/7 to Apple TV, and AirPlay speakers wirelessly. AirPlay Mirroring is also supported, meaning that 5KPlayer will be able to render instant replication of any connected iPhone/iPad/Mac screen to a macOS PC: once the connection has been established, the mirrored screen can also be recorded by a screen recording utility, meaning that we can create home-made 1080P HD (yet also 4K/8K UHD) videos from our mobile device screen.
DLNA Support
5KPlayer combines the features and the capabilities of a DLNA controller, DLNA renderer and DLNA server. It allows any DLNA-compliant device to interoperate with each other and make them able to share music and video. For example, it allows to stream a MKV AVC Webm 3GP VP8/9 AAC video music from Android to a PC/Mac; or, we can stream H.264/MP4 MP3 AAC media on PC/Mac to smart TV, PS 3/4, Xbox; and so on.
Online Video Download
5KPlayer is also an online video music downloader that supports 300+ online video and audio sites, including: Facebook, Yahoo, DailyMotion, Vimeo, Vevo, Metacafe, Myspace, Vine, UStream, MTV, Instagram, Bliptv, LiveLeak, CBS slideshare, and Soundcloud. For those who want more, there's also a pro subscription available that further increase this list of peers. Needless to say, all videos can be downloaded to their native resolution - up to 4K 5K 8K Ultra HD.
Built-in Radio Player
5KPlayer can receive satellite radio to help you listen to the radio from, such as BBC, Heart, Capital, Gold, LBC, XFM, Chill, Kiss, Kisstory, Magic, Kerrang, Planet Rock, Absolute Radio and Classic Roc. You can click and choose among the preset internet radio stations recommended for you or input a subsistent radio URL.
Media Library
The media player feature allows 5K Player to provide your PC (and potentially any media device, thanks to the DLNA support) with a personal multimedia library: it means that we'll be able to access and manage all our videos and music files, sort out our favorite audios/videos, and create new classified playlist(s).
4K & 8K UHD support
5KPlayer comes with native support for 4K 8K HDR video playback in H.265, H.264, VP8/9, Xvid, DivX, thus showing every pixel detail of your digital captures and high-resolution videos in crystal-clear picture: no blurring and color distortion problem.
Hardware Acceleration
Thanks to its horse-powered by NVIDIA CUDA® , Intel® QSV, DXVA 2.0 & AMD Hardware-acceleration, 5KPlayer can maximize the video & audio quality with minimal consumption of CPU and GPU regarding decoding and rendering alike. This means that even 4K and 8K Ultra-HD videos should be able to play without shuttering, chokes and/or glitches. The Hardware Acceleration is a built-in feature optimized to work with any compatible device and OS, including Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP and maCOS.
Subtitle support
5KPlayer supports many available subtitle formats, including: *.srt, *.ass, *.ssa, *.json, *.aqt , *.sub, etc.; this can save us a lot of trouble in finding and/or converting subtitle format. All we need to do to load the subtitles it drag & drop the subtitle file in to the playback window: all changes of subtitles settings will update immediately, without having to restart the software or the media file.
Supported Audio & Video Formats
5KPlayer requires no additional codec and natively supports 450+ formats and codecs, including:
- Video Formats: MP4, MKV, MOV, WMV, FLV, AVI, MPG, MPEG, MTS, M2TS, AVCHD, VOB, DAV, DAT, M4V, SWF, F4V, Webm, OGG, ASF, 3GP, RMVB, MOD, etc.
- Audio Formats: MP3, DTS, AAC, AC3, WMA, FLAC, ALAC, WAV, etc.
Installation & Usage Guide
- Windows How-To and User Guide: https://www.5kplayer.com/user-guide/windows-how-to.htm
- MacOS How-To and User Guide: https://www.5kplayer.com/user-guide/
Download Links
5KPlayer can be downloaded for free from the following links:
Promotions
On November, 2019 5KPlayer started a 20M Downloads Campaign/Thanksgiving campaign offering various giveaway prizes, including:
- Samsung 4K TV
- AirPods
- Seagate External Hard Drive 5TB
- Echo Dot 3
Each 10K downloads on this page unlocks one prize. All participants get the chance to win all types of prize.
If you want to try out your luck, click here!
Test-Drive
We tested out 5KPlayer on the following machines:
- DELL Inspiron Series 5000 with Intel® Core™ i7-9700 and Windows 10 Professional
- ASUS ZenBook 14 UX431FN with Windows 10 Home
- MacBook Pro 16" with macOS 10.14 Mojave
And used it to playback the following files:
- Video file #1: 1080p x265 10-Bit Dual-Audio DTS-HD (1900x1080) MKV file
- Video file #2: 4K x265 HEVC 10-bit MKV (3840 x 2160) MP4 file
- Audio file #1: MP3 VBR created with L.A.M.E. encoder
- Audio file #2: FLAC file
The software performed very well within all our tests on all the testing device.
Conclusion
Despite being a huge fan of Media Player Classic, I can only recommend 5KPlayer in terms of performance and video quality: the various decoding and interlacing technologies used (Yadif/Blend/Inear Deinterlace filters, TrueTheater stabilizer and Bonjour service) do actually marks a significative difference when we compare this player to other alternative commercial products out there. Highly recommended!
