Oku3D Media Player for Mac
Real-time 2D-to-3D and native 3D playback on 3D TVs, projectors and video glasses - built natively for Apple Silicon.
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The same player as on Windows and Linux, on every Apple Silicon Mac, from a MacBook Air M1 to the newest MacBook Pro. All it needs is an M1 or newer and macOS 14 Sonoma or later.
Read how to open it before the first start - macOS blocks it until you allow it once. What is new in this release.
Opening it the first time
Oku3D comes from outside the App Store and is not notarized by Apple, so macOS asks you to confirm it before the first start. It takes a few clicks:
- Unzip the download, if your browser has not done so, and move Oku3D to your Applications folder.
- Open it. macOS says it cannot verify the app - close that message.
- Open System Settings > Privacy & Security, scroll down to the note about Oku3D, click Open Anyway and confirm with your password.
If Open Anyway is missing, try to open Oku3D once more and look again. From then on it opens like any other app. A new version can need the same steps again, and it asks again for camera access the first time you use a camera, because macOS ties that permission to the app's signature.
If it does not start at all, run /Applications/Oku3D.app/Contents/MacOS/oku3d in Terminal and send me what it prints.
Where the Mac and Windows differ
The player is the same program on every system. These are the places where the Mac shows through.
Not on the Mac
| Feature | Why not here |
|---|---|
| Glasses-free 3D | The display runtime every route to these displays needs exists for Windows and Android only. A glasses-free display that converts side-by-side by itself still works, as a 3D TV does. |
| VR headsets | No headset maker offers the VR runtime for macOS that Oku3D talks to, so the settings have no VR page here. A streaming app with a side-by-side mode of its own still shows the picture in 3D - Virtual Desktop on a Pico headset, switched to Half SBS, does exactly that. |
| 3D Vision glasses | The output hands the picture to NV3D-Glass and NVIDIA's 3D Vision driver, which run on Windows only. |
| Game overlay | Not built for the Mac yet. Nothing in macOS stands in the way. |
| Bitstream audio | The Mac plays decoded sound only, as Linux does. |
| Pointer size from the system settings | The player's own pointer keeps its standard size. Holding L and turning the mouse wheel enlarges it, as everywhere. |
Same feature, different in practice
| Feature | On the Mac |
|---|---|
| Shortcuts | Cmd wherever Windows uses Ctrl, and Option where it uses Alt - the diagnostics report is Cmd+P, video export Cmd+S. Fullscreen is Control+Cmd+F, as in other Mac apps, because macOS keeps F11 for showing the desktop. The keyboard map in the app shows the Mac keys. |
| 2D-to-3D conversion | Runs on the Mac's graphics chip through Core ML. Each AI model is prepared once, in a few seconds, the first time it is used. The model list is the Mac's own: no Q4F16 builds, and Depth Anything V3 and Lotus at one fixed resolution. |
| Video export | Uses the Mac's built-in video encoder. Its progress shows in the control bar rather than on the Dock icon. |
| Remembering a setting per file | Settings offers Hidden file attribute where Windows offers a hidden NTFS stream; the portable .xmp sidecar works as everywhere. |
| Menu bar | The usual Mac menus. Cmd+, opens the settings and Cmd+Q quits. |
| Opening files | Open With in the Finder offers Oku3D for videos, pictures, music, stereo photos and Blu-ray images, without making itself the default app. |
| Screen capture | macOS shows its own picker for one window or one display. Picking is the permission, so nothing else asks. |
| Cameras and capture cards | macOS asks for camera access the first time. If you refused, allow it under System Settings > Privacy & Security > Camera. |
| Moving a file to the Trash | The Finder's Put Back may not be offered for it. |
| HDR | On a display with room above white - a MacBook Pro's, or an HDR monitor - HDR video and photos shine brighter than white, by as much as macOS allows at the current brightness. There is no HDR Passthrough switch: macOS decides how bright the picture may get. |
Feedback
Something not working as it should? Tell me, with the diagnostics report (Cmd+P) that copies everything a report needs, and the fix ships with the next release. The testing page lists the quick checks on a Mac that matter most.