Download Optimus Player

Version 1.5

Requires macOS Catalina or later.

Release Notes

Version 1.5

New Features

Native support for Apple silicon.
Support for Picture in Picture.
(macOS Monterey or later) Support for Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking. Requires a Mac with Apple silicon.
(macOS Big Sur 11.4–11.6.6) Support for Spatial Audio without dynamic head tracking. Requires an Intel-based Mac.
Opening a video file now automatically opens associated subtitles files. Associated subtitles files are named similarly to the video file and are located either in the same folder or in a subfolder named “Subtitles” or “Subs”.

Bug Fixes

Restored windows now also restore any subtitles files that were previously added.
(macOS Big Sur or later) Added workaround for macOS bug that sometimes caused the cursor to appear even when it was supposed to be hidden.
Fixed bug that sometimes caused the window to zoom into the video after switching from one video track to another.

Version 1.4

Disruptive Changes

macOS Mojave is no longer supported.

New Features

Updated the app icon to match the look of macOS Big Sur.

Bug Fixes

(macOS Big Sur or later) Added workaround for macOS Rosetta 2 bug that would cause a video to play faster than its audio when connected to an AirPlay 2 device.
(macOS Big Sur or later) Fixed silent crash when restoring audio player windows during app launch.
Reduced app size by 30 MB.
Fixed bug that caused the playback rate control to use the wrong font.

Version 1.3

Announcements

This version adds initial support for macOS Big Sur. Subsequent versions will feature even tighter integration with the new macOS, including a new app icon and optimizations for Apple silicon.
This is the last version that will support macOS Mojave.

New Features

(macOS Big Sur or later) Updated the user interface to match the look of the new macOS.
(macOS Big Sur or later) Support for AirPods Automatic Switching.
- In theory, this should work. However, we were unsuccessful in our attempts to use the feature—in any app—as of macOS 11.0.1.

Bug Fixes

(macOS Big Sur or later) Fixed bug that prevented the window title bar from disappearing.
(macOS Big Sur or later) Fixed silent audio after switching the audio output from an AirPlay 2 device back to the built-in system output.
(macOS Catalina or later) Fixed bug that caused playback to pause when switching the audio output between the built-in system output and an AirPlay 2 device.
Fixed bug that sometimes caused windows to erroneously start playback and/or enter full screen after being restored during app launch.
Fixed bug that caused part of the media scrubber to be invisible when “Increase contrast” in System Preferences was turned on.
Prevented unimportant media player controls from receiving focus when “Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls” in System Preferences is turned on.
Show the media player controls area briefly when moving focus between controls.
Fixed missing focus ring for the Play/Pause button.
Fixed bug that sometimes caused the VoiceOver cursor to be positioned incorrectly when it was supposed to encompass the playhead.
Removed the redundant “show external playback menu” button that was visible from VoiceOver.

Version 1.2.1

Subtitle Fixes

Fixed missing subtitle text when playing certain MKV files.
Fixed corrupt text when playing certain subtitles files containing non-English characters.

Version 1.2

Disruptive Changes

Changed the keyboard shortcuts for navigating media. Jumping backward/forward can now be done using the arrow keys by themselves. Stepping backward/forward now requires the Option modifier key.
Jumping backward/forward now jumps 15 seconds by default.
Jumping backward/forward no longer pauses playback.
Swapped the order of the Tracks and Controls menus in the menu bar.

New Features

Change the playback rate from the Controls menu.
Added option to customize the default playback rate.
Added option to automatically start playback after opening the media.
Added option to automatically enter full screen after opening the media.
Added option to customize the amount by which to jump backward/forward.
The subtitle track from a chosen subtitles file is now automatically selected after opening the file.
The audio track can now be deselected in the Tracks menu.
The key combinations for controlling playback are now visible in the Controls menu.

Bug Fixes

Fixed potential crash when showing subtitles.
Fixed bug that sometimes prevented the software decoder from automatically activating when hardware acceleration is unavailable.
Fixed playback of certain WebM files.
Fixed playback of certain subtitles files.

Version 1.1.3

General Fixes

Fixed bug that sometimes prevented the display from automatically turning off even after all windows were closed.
Fixed error when uninstalling the AirPlay Enabler helper tool after System Integrity Protection has been re-enabled.

Audio Fixes

Fixed distorted playback of certain files containing AAC audio.

Version 1.1.2

Video Fixes

Improved performance of the software decoder (by up to 10× during informal testing).

Version 1.1.1

General Fixes

Fixed the direction of multi-touch gestures when “Scroll direction: Natural” in System Preferences is turned off.

Video Fixes

Added workaround for macOS bug that caused the color to change during full screen playback of certain types of video.
Fixed playback of certain types of H.264 and HEVC video.

Audio Fixes

Fixed playback of Opus audio.

Version 1.1

New Features

Control playback using the media keys or from headphones, Siri, AirPlay devices, and (macOS Catalina or later) AirPlay 2 devices.
(macOS Catalina or later) AirPlay 2 audio is now fully supported out-of-the-box. The AirPlay Enabler helper tool is no longer needed.
Support for playing AV1 video.
Support for playing GIF files.
Updated the FFmpeg software libraries to version 4.2.1 in order to bring in additional new features and bug fixes.

Bug Fixes

Reduced energy usage (by up to 30% during informal testing).
Fixed graphical corruption when navigating MPEG-TS media.
Added workaround for macOS bug that sometimes caused the app to stop responding after selecting a device in the AirPlay device picker.
(macOS Mojave) Fixed potential crash when uninstalling the AirPlay Enabler helper tool.

Version 1.0.1

General Fixes

Trials can now be reactivated after switching to a newly-released version of the app.
Enabled multithreading for the software decoder to improve performance when hardware support is not available.
Added workaround for macOS bug that caused windows with different aspect ratios to shrink when tabbing between them.
Fixed bug that caused the memory used by a window to not be released when the window was closed.
Updated the FFmpeg software libraries to version 4.1.4 in order to bring in additional bug fixes.

Video Fixes

Fixed playback of rotated videos (e.g. iPhone videos captured in portrait orientation).
Updated HDR support on macOS Mojave so that HDR video looks OK on non-HDR displays. Unfortunately, HDR is only fully supported on macOS Catalina or later. Apologies for the incorrect information.
(macOS Catalina or later) Pass HDR10 metadata to the video renderer so that colors that are brighter than the display can be properly mapped to a color that is supported by the display.

Audio Fixes

Fixed crash when playing Windows Media Lossless audio.
Fixed crash when playing certain files containing AAC audio.
Fixed playback of Dolby TrueHD audio.
Fixed playback of ATRAC3, ATRAC9, ATRAC Advanced Lossless, G.723.1, G.729, Monkey’s Audio, MPEG-4 Audio Lossless Coding, Shorten, Speex, and Windows Media Audio Lossless/Professional/Voice audio.

Subtitle Fixes

Fixed 1-second delay of subtitles when playing certain MP4/MOV files.

Version 1.0

Optimus Player is the best app for playing audiovisual content on the Mac. Major features include color accuracy, AirPlay 2 audio (experimental), and dual subtitles. We hope you love using the app as much as we enjoyed making it!