Movist is a free, open source movie player for Mac OS X. Like VLC, this application will pretty much play anything you throw at it. It uses FFmpeg and QuickTime codecs to play your video. That, in and of itself, is pretty great, but there are other reasons to use this app as well.
Customization
You can configure just about everything inside of Movist. If you prefer to play your h.264 movies with QuickTime instead of FFmpeg, you just change the setting under the Advanced > Codec Binding tab. If you have a preference on how videos should play, this app will apply it to every video you view.
Full Screen Navigation
Included with this application is a ten-foot interface nearly identical to Apple’s Front Row. Combined with your Apple Remote, this interface allows you to browse your Movies folder, iTunes Movies folder, and iTunes TV Shows folder. I have noticed crashes here and there, but it seems more responsive than when I load Front Row.
Auto-detection of a Series of Files
If you have a numbered list of files, it will automatically play all of them in a row. If you have a TV season in a folder, loading one episode will load them all into the Movist queue. This is extremely useful to me, but this can be turned off if you don’t want it.
In sum, this is a great, lightweight video playback application. If you’re looking for a new way to watch videos with a few unique features, give Movist a go.
What do you think about this app? Do you have some great tips for us? Comment on this post or hit me up on Twitter.
Photo Credit: Lee Jordan
