How to Play MP4 on Chromebook without Playback Issues [3 Ways!]

Video Files: MP4, OGV, WebM, MOV, AVI, MKV, M4V, OGM

Audio Files: MP3, M4A, OGG, WAV, OGA

Specific Audio/Video Codecs:

So can Chromebook play MP4 video? The answer is positive. As shown in the table, Chromebook supports MP4 files with H264 or MPEG4 video codecs. In fact, MP4 can also use the H265 and other compression methods to encode videos. However, H265/HEVC is not supported on Google Chrome. If you put an H265 MP4 video to your Chromebook, you’ll definitely fail to watch it. In this case, you can use the recommended converter software to convert H265 to H264 or MPEG-4 for smooth playback. The next part illustrates how to do the conversion step by step. Download the software and keep reading.

To finish the conversion task effectively, a good video converter is necessary. Here, we use WonderFox HD Video Converter Factory Pro, a professional program designed to solve kinds of video compatibility issues through conversion. It can help you convert all mainstream video files to MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, WebM, etc. It also allows you to convert the unsupported MP4 file to your Chromebook since it offers a direct preset for Chromebooks. Besides video codec, this software enables you to modify other parameters including, bit rate, frame rate, resolution, aspect ratio, channel, volume, and so forth.

Let’s see how to watch MP4 on Chromebook by conversion. Please free downloadfree download and install the software on your PC to get ready.

Launch HD Video Converter Factory Pro. Open the Converter and click Add files to import the Chromebook unsupported MP4 file. Or you can directly drag and drop it into the interface.

Tips. This software supports batch mode to process multiple files simultaneously.

Click the format image on the right side. Go to Select Device > Google > Chromebooks. In this way, all the video parameters like encoder, audio bitrate, and sample rate will be set automatically.

Alternatively, you can choose “MP4” under the “Format” > “Video” tab. Then, change the video encoder to H264 or MPEG4 and adjust other settings in “Parameter settings”.

Click the inverted triangle button at the bottom to specify an output path for the final files. Then press Run to start the conversion process. With hardware acceleration, it will complete in a few seconds to minutes. Then, you can find the converted MP4 files and play them on your Chromebook without any issues.

Google Drive is a cloud storage service on which you can store videos from your Chromebook. Beyond that, it supports playing media files. When you can’t play MP4 on Chromebook, you can try to upload the video to Google Drive and open it there. Using this method, you need to have enough space for the video and a good network connection for flawless streaming.

How to play MP4 videos on Chromebook through Google Drive:

Go to https://www.google.com/drive/ and sign in. Find the videos you want to play and drag them into My Drive. Double-click on the video to open and play it on Google Drive.

Related Sources: Google Drive Video Formats | Google Drive MP4 | Upload DVD to Google Drive

As mentioned in the first part, Chromebook only supports quite a few video files. When Chromebook is unable to read the codec within the MP4 container, you can switch to a third-party player. VLC is a powerful media player that is available for Linux-based Chromebooks and other operating systems. In addition to multimedia files, VLC can play DVDs, CDs, and VCDs easily. To get a VLC player, just go to the Chrome Web Store and follow the instructions to install the VLC for Chrome OS on your laptop. Then you can play MP4 on Chromebook with ease.

Chrome Web Store: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/vlc/obpdeolnggmbekmklghapmfpnfhpcndf

Also read: Play WMV on Chromebook | Play MKV on Chromebook | Stream AVI to Chromecast

Can Chromebook play MP4 video with proper codecs installed?

Yes. You can insert the required codecs to make the MP4 video work properly on Chromebook. To do that, you can download and install a codec pack on your tablet from K-Lite Codec Pack, which is one of the most commonly used codec packs.
Website: http://codecguide.com/download_kl.htm

How to play MP4 videos on Chromebook via Google Play?

Google Play offers a Simple MP4 Video Player for users to watch movies, TV shows, and other videos. But before anything else, you should check and enable the Google Play feature on your Chromebook: click on the Quick Settings Panel > Settings > turn on Google Player Store > Accept the terms of service > now you can use it to play MP4 files.
Website: http://codecguide.com/download_kl.htm

Some users have reported that changing the file extension was also helpful when Chromebook not playing MP4 files. It’s a quick fix you can try. Just locate the video you want to play and change the filename extension from .mp4 to .mp4v. Play the video again to see if that works. (You’d better back up the video before you change the extension in case it gets invalid.)

That’s all the working ways to play MP4 on Chromebook without compatibility issues. Compared with Google Drive and VLC media player for Chromebook, WonderFox HD Video Converter Factory Pro is a better way to solve such video playback issues. Although Google Drive and VLC can support a wide range of file types, there are still video/audio codecs they cannot recognize or read. Therefore, fixing the unsupported video format is the most effective solution for perfect playback.