I tested color accuracy across several macOS video players
A while back I posted looking for the best macOS video player in terms of image quality and UI. That led me down a rabbit hole of testing more players than I expected, so I figured I'd share what I found. Quick disclaimer: I have basic knowledge in this area, so this is a hobbyist test, not a professional analysis. Take it with that in mind. How I tested I generated an SMPTE HD color bars video (BT.709 tagged, FFmpeg CRF 0) and measured each color bar with Digital Color Meter set to Display in sRGB on my Mac's built-in display. I compared the RGB values against the BT.709 theoretical reference and calculated the average deviation per bar. What stood out Vidi, QuickTime and Optimus all produced identical measurements, which strongly suggests they share the same underlying pipeline (AVFoundation). What surprised me was that newer players like Gyuni and Soia outperformed players that have been around for years. Gyuni in particular, was in a different league; the deviation was so small it was almost at measurement noise level. Gyuni will be my go-to player for now. Links if you want to run your own test: Gyuni Soia Infuse Vidi Optimus Elmediaplayer Omniplayer Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with any of the developers mentioned. Just a regular user looking for the best tools out there.
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As many of you requested, here is an update that includes the two most popular, IINA and VLC.
You should also repeat the experiment with HDR content. Iina is famously broken in that regard, and it would be interesting to see if other players can surpass it.
what about movist pro?
Damn, can't I just use IINA in blissful peace for a little while :)
Sure, haha, you can use whatever you like. I'm just an enthusiast looking for perfection because I have OCD.
No you cannot! You need to be perfecting and optimizing your life in all aspects and all the time. No time to waste. /s Now get on that bandwagon. 😬
No IINA? No VLC?
I did test IINA before but wasn't happy with the color output (Check the link in my post). VLC I've avoided for a while; the UI never clicked for me and back when I used it, I felt like it was somehow affecting file quality.
It doesn’t make sense that you didn’t include lINA in the initial post and then after the people ask for it to be added, you included it in the comments and it gets second place. It should be added in the first place if its that good for you.
Not able to test VLC makes this a bit useless tbh.
I just did; check the comment section.
What about IINA?
i use iina, but recently stumbled upon a screen cast that i recorded with some brand assets which colors i know well and was surprised with broken colors. investigated reddit for fixes and nothing helped. i like iina, but definitely don't trust its color reproduction anymore
I was wondering why downloads on github suddenly spiked! 😄,I’m the creator of Soia, thanks a lot to the OP for for including it in the comparison! Soia is still a very new open-source, cross-platform project, so there are definitely bugs to iron out.The current release only supports macOS 15+, but I’ll be releasing a new update this weekend that adds compatibility for macOS 13+ (both ARM64 and Intel). It supports Dolby Vision playback and WebDAV/DLNA streaming, and SMB support is coming soon.
i cannot whyever open your image. as i'm a colour enthusiast by heart (designer, old one) i would be very much intersted to have this done with a spektrometer (or however this translates to english)
Gyuni should be disqualified for its taste lacking icon 😵💫
btw, I have read a couple of your responses in the comments. the test look good and sane, BUT you failed to convey trust when you left on purpose the 2 most used video player IINA & VLC, and for reasons that were purely subjective and not objective . And IINA is the second best player according to your test, which absolutely should have been present. I would think that mpv is probably the 4th most used player but also absent. I would say that the image that includes IINA and VLC needs to be added to the original post, or pin a comment with that Now something not related to the color accuracy but important enough In their place (IINA/VLC/MPV) there is Gyuni and Soia that are not even 2 month old projects which by its own brings other things to consider, such as their security and privacy of being just only introduced. I am not saying that the apps are getting your data etc. but we need to consider that they just have been released and there are not enough eyes yet to check on them. not to mention that you do not know if they will continue to be supported after 3-6-10 months etc. IINA, VLC, MPV, Infuse are products that are being developed for years and have continuous support and user base. Which brings us again to your subjective removal of IINA/VLC and hence to the trust validity. You might think that I am going hard on you, but I hope someday down the road you will be able to understand the importance of subjective and objective validity when you do comparisons like this. Other than this, good job !!
Just bought Gyuni, thanks for this...Do you know how is the HDR 10 support on it?
Not a problem. I am not sure about that. You could check the developer's post and ask him directly if it is or will be on the roadmap.
What are these players? 😀 Ok, I know some of them... Ηow do they stand the test of time though? Some of them are outright deceptive "Free Video Player for macOS" -> click link to App Store -> It's 9.99€. IINA is mpv-based as well, why is it not worthy mentioning and Soia is?
I never heard of Soia, .. but it seems to handle DV better than VLC, and looks more modern, so win win!
MPV ?
why not include the default quicktime player ? It's already built into MacOS, so zero acquisition cost for testing. No VLC, no IINA
Would be great to know how MPV compares too
I wonder why colors get reproduced differently