Nice Player: The Best Looking Video Player on Mac OS X

Many say the only video player you need on Mac OS X is VLC, which I wholeheartedly agree with. Having said that I am really starting to appreciate Nice Player, an application designed from the ground up by people who enjoy watching movies.

What I like in a video player is an unobtrusive video window first and then support for as many file formats as possible; Nice Player fits the bill on both accounts. Here’s what you need to know.

The video window is borderless (VLC can also be made borderless but it’s still a two-piece UI) and can be configured to float on top of all other windows. In addition, it remembers its last position before you quit, adjusts itself to fit the size of the video being played back, and of course it can also be resized to accomodate the space you have available. This is what mine looks like on the top left corner of my (17″ Powerbook) screen.

The coolest trick is when you hover your mouse to the top or bottom of the window, it will respectively make the title bar or the control bar appear. Talk is cheap; install it and you’ll see what I mean. Here’s a screenshot of a video being played back.

As far as file support goes, Nice Player supports a bunch from the get-go; if in doubt, you can always install Perian and you’ll be all set. You can use a playlist to queue up several videos to.

Nice Player was written by Robert Chin and Jay Tuley and it’s available on their Sourceforge page for free. If you enjoy using it, consider donating to encourage development.