I haven't read so much the blurb for Snow Leopard but will QuickTime X do without the need for Perian and Flip4Mac plug-ins? I understand QuickTime X has some increased compatibility, though I'm guess not to the extent that you can do without those plug-ins...?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
QuickTime X - will I still need Perian and Flip4Mac?
- Thread starter Karvel
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Perian is a freeware codec suite that competes with several commercial offerings. Apple recommends some of those commercial offerings. It is unlikely that it would undercut commercial QuickTime developers and their professional customers in favor a freeware offering.
Flip4Mac is a family of commercial offerings built around a Windows Media-compatible codec. Its supports goes only up to Windows Media 9. Including Flip4Mac with the default set of codecs would likely bring with it a license fee. We won't know until Snow Leopard arrives, but my money is on its not happening.
You might just be hoping that Apple develops its own replacements for Perian and Flip4Mac. If you are, then why? Perian and Flip4Mac do what they do well. Apple has enough to do. Why would it want to devote its resources to duplicate the efforts of others?
Long story short: My best guess answer to both of your questions is: "Yes, you will still need Perian and Flip4Mac."
My point was more that on Windows, Windows Media Player (the equivalent on that platform of QuickTime) does not seem to require these two plug-ins - or indeed any - to view the files (WMV, AVI etc.) that QT struggles with. I was setting a new Mac up for someone and one of the questions was why she couldn't play xx video file, to which I had to respond "download Perian and Flip4Mac" - it just seemed somewhat of a shame that QuickTime itself can't offer to play these files, even if the formats themselves are dire.
That's because WMV and AVI are native windows video containers, MOV and MP4 are native Quicktime containers.
The situation is the same on windows, if you want to play MOV files or XViD/DIVX files you have to install codecs for them.
My Guess is that Quicktime X won't change the situation at all.
The situation is the same on windows, if you want to play MOV files or XViD/DIVX files you have to install codecs for them.
My Guess is that Quicktime X won't change the situation at all.
Actually Windows Media Player 12 (coming with Windows 7) has native support for H.264, XviD, DivX, MOV and AAC audio.
However, I see absolutely no reason to use WMP in Windows at all. Media Player Classic Home Cinema + ffdshow has been far superior combination for years, even though it's not pretty UI-wise. Likewise I never use Quicktime Player in OSX, apps like VLC and NicePlayer do a better job. Quicktime X looks like a nice step forward though so maybe it'll be nice.
Both Quicktime Player and WMP suffer from being too simplified when it comes to options for my tastes.
I tend to use VLC or other alternatives for viewing stuff when quicktime doesnt work. I have put a bunch of codecs into quicktime. divx and others as well.. so quicktime pretty much more or less plays everything i need it to! which is bonus, i like quicktime-admittedly its not the most stable program, but its better than windows media player! 
flip4mac doesnt work in QTX. Hopefully it has to be redone as a normal codec for it to work because flip4mac stinks and seems more like a hack than a codec.
QTX better support MKV as well, if it doesnt then its just as useless as the current QT.
QTX better support MKV as well, if it doesnt then its just as useless as the current QT.
Correct... apart from MP4. MP4 is the container from the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group, nothing to do with QuickTime.
Indeed. In fact, Apple's own HD Quicktime movies play back more
smoothly under Windows 7 than under OS X 10.5. CPU usage here
is typically less than 1% during playback.
Yeah, but they also play nicer in QuickTime X then WMP12. Considering that QuickTimeX comes out BEFORE WMP12, I think you should compare them together. QuickTime X has been using about 1-2% CPU on an old MacBook Pro santa rosa for me.
Sounds good. Is this inaccurate then?
Very low CPU usage during playback generally implies GPU assisted decoding.
So they have 100% control over the perception of QT.
If somebody plays a video and QT doesn't support the codec then Apple gets blamed. Unfair but that's how it is. Of course this is, "do-it-my-way-or-the-highway" Apple we're talking about.
It's not so much that they don't want to. There's no reason too. Perian does it's job fine. Flip4Mac really sucks though but they can't take Microsoft's codec without their permission.
I'm sure both developers will eventually update their codecs so they work fine. You can even play .mwmv directly in Quicktime X as long as Flip4Mac is installed. Not .mkv though which is more important.
More importantly is there any trickery we can do to get it to play now?
I'm sure both developers will eventually update their codecs so they work fine. You can even play .mwmv directly in Quicktime X as long as Flip4Mac is installed. Not .mkv though which is more important.
More importantly is there any trickery we can do to get it to play now?
You have to download filp4mac from Microsoft.com now, so Im pretty sure they fully approve and probably bought it in some fashion. Its likely Apple's fault that flip4mac is crap, they wont make a media player that fully supports any codec so people have to make hacks that put the files in different containers that QT will play.
Yeah that is pretty ****. However, I just tried Movist on a few WMV9 files I've got using FFmpeg and it opened them just fine straight away. It only does the conversion thing if you set it to Quicktime.
They still open in Quicktime 7. I'm curious, why do you use Quicktime for MKV files? MPlayer and VLC are much better.
A couple years back, Microsoft did purchase the technology behind Flip4Mac.
However, it is in no way Apple's fault that there exist problems in Flip4Mac. QuickTime was developed in 1991 with an extensible plugin-based system that allows plug-ins like Perian and Flip4Mac to work. Hell, the QuickTime team won a number of awards for the .MOV container. It's complicated, but the data structure is really amazing, made more so by the fact that it is still used today.
Just think about the difference in your computer now versus your computer in 1991. That's why QuickTime 7 is being completely replaced in Snow Leopard with QuickTime X. The guts of QuickTime are a pain to work with-- if anything, the upcoming releases of Perian and Flip4Mac will be better because of the changes made in the new QuickTime.
No, this is wrong. MP4 has very much to do with Apple. In fact, MP4 actually IS the QuickTime container (file extension MOV), which has later been standardized by ISO/IEC with the file extension MP4.
http://foolrulez.org/blog/2009/09/snow-leopard-playing-mkv-with-perian-and-quicktime-10/
An extra plugin that activates mkv and avi with no problems..
An extra plugin that activates mkv and avi with no problems..
You might just be hoping that Apple develops its own replacements for Perian and Flip4Mac. If you are, then why? Perian and Flip4Mac do what they do well. Apple has enough to do. Why would it want to devote its resources to duplicate the efforts of others?
Long story short: My best guess answer to both of your questions is: "Yes, you will still need Perian and Flip4Mac."[/QUOTE]
I would say there would be copyright issues with Microsoft that might be the first consideration for WHY Perian AND Flip4mac would continue to be needed...
Long story short: My best guess answer to both of your questions is: "Yes, you will still need Perian and Flip4Mac."[/QUOTE]
I would say there would be copyright issues with Microsoft that might be the first consideration for WHY Perian AND Flip4mac would continue to be needed...