Mac Kindergarten

In the last post we covered Perian, a great, free extension to the Apple QuickTime Player to play all kinds of video and audio files.
However, as you might have seen, Perian does not support Windows Media. But be not afraid, we are here to help you.

Please welcome Flip4Mac, which enables you to play Windows Media Content with the QuickTime Player or view Windows Media videos in your browser (e.g. Safari).
There are several versions of Flip4Mac available, with only the Player itself being free. Unless you want to create content in Windows Media format, this basic version is enough.

You can get it at the Flip4Mac website, just hit the “Download Now” button to get the installation image.

Here is how to install it:

1. After the download has finished, the file shows up in your “Downloads”-Stack.

2. Click the stack to open it up and locate the downloaded file.

3. Click the file called something like “WM Components …” Doing so in a stack opens the file.

4. Now the mounted disk image shows up in the Devices list in Finder.

5. Now double-click the Installation package and proceed according to the instructions on the screen until you successfully finish the installation.

After the installation, as with Perian, you receive a new item in the System Preferences, that allows you to set up Flip4Mac according to your needs. The things you can set up, speak for themselves.

Mac OS X uses QuickTime as the standard for everything in connection with video (file extension: .mov). However, there are situations, when you receive video files that have a different file format and thus can not be played with the standard setup of Mac OS X.

This is exactly where Perian comes in. It’s a free addition to the QuickTime Player, that enables you to watch all kinds of video and audio file types on your Mac using QuickTime Player.

It adds native support for a long list of file types, so you can play them as they were QuickTime files, or e.g. use them in iLife programs.

Great, huh? Go get it at www.perian.org