Perian
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Perian posts end of life notice. Mac video enthusiasts weep.
Perian has been a steadfast friend on my computer for years. With Perian, nearly any video format I throw at QuickTime simply works. Perian has been a wonder. It supports AVI. It supports DivX. It supports MKV. It's been one of the best and most useful tools I have had access to and invariably the first thing I reinstall after any upgrade. And now, according to a statement by its devs, it's reaching the end of the road. Today, the Perian dev team announced that the software will no longer be updated. They will release all the source code to Google Code or Github, but the team is moving on. We here at TUAW give them a well-deserved round of applause for the excellence of their effort, and their contribution to the OS X community. Perian will be missed. Thank you to Chris "Growl" Forsythe, Graham "Adium and Fire" Booker, Alexander "ffmpeg" Strange, and Augie "mecurial" Fackler, as well as everyone else who contributed in the past. For now, Perian continues to work with OS X Lion. From here, however, it's unsure whether it will make the leap to Mountain Lion. Check out NicePlayer, which remains in development. The dev team is no longer accepting contributions and requests that you send any money in their honor to Ronald McDonald House, Child's Play, or the EFF. Goodbye Perian. You were amazing.
Perian updated to 1.2.3, fixes several 1.2.2 bugs
Perian, a plugin that vastly expands QuickTime's suite of supported video codecs, has been updated to 1.2.3. The Perian 1.2.2 update released in April apparently introduced a fair number of new bugs, and 1.2.3 is essentially a bugfix release designed to squash them. While Perian said 1.2.2 would be the last version to support pre-10.6 versions of Mac OS X, the system requirements for 1.2.3 still state that Mac OS X 10.4.7 and above are supported. The update includes the following bug fixes: Some Fraps videos only displayed black. Workaround checks for Front Row stopped being effective. Fixed compatibility with web video playback. Worked around System Preferences crashing during an update on 10.6. Further fixes to Matroska import. The update is just under 4 MB, and you can either download it from Perian's site or check for updates from the Perian prefpane in System Preferences.
TUAW's Daily Mac App: Perian
Have you ever wished QuickTime would just play all those random formats you've got? That you didn't have to resort to other programs, or worse converting everything, just to get them to play? You need Perian. We've covered Perian a lot in the past, and for good reason -- it's a one stop-shop media plug-in that just works. Installed as a Preference Pane, it essentially gives QuickTime support for a myriad of file formats, video and audio codecs, and subtitles. Included in the mix is playback of MKV files with H.264, DivX and VP6 video, which combined with AVI support, should mean that almost any file you find strewn across the internet can be played. If that wasn't enough, you've also got FLV support, so you can play back all those videos you downloaded from YouTube. With Perian installed you can turn QuickTime X into a proper video player, while still being able to revel in the sleek, minimalist Apple user experience with tight integration into your Mac. Perian is available for free, supports OS X 10.4.7 and higher and, if you don't want to resort to programs like VLC, could be the solution to your file playback problems.
Perian QuickTime plug-in updated; A must-have for every Mac
Yesterday Perian updated its QuickTime plug-in for the Mac. For those of you who don't know about it, Perian is a plug-in allowing Mac users to view a virtually unlimited number of video codecs in QuickTime Player. Among the codecs are AVI, DIVX, FLV, MKV, GVI, VP6 and VFW, just to name a few. The 1.2.2 update adds compatibility with WebM/VP8, compressed MKV files and FFv1 lossless video formats. Perian 1.2.2 requires Mac OS X 10.4.7 or later. But users of older Mac OS versions are forewarned -- this is the last version of Perian that will support PowerPC Macs or any Mac running Mac OS X 10.5 and below. Going forward, future releases of Perian will only support Intel Macs running Mac OS X 10.6 or higher. Perian is a free download.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Apple TV and oddball video formats
Hey Auntie TUAW, I just ordered my new Apple TV, and have a ton of footage in MKV, AVI, etc. which probably won't work with iTunes, let alone my Apple TV. What can I do to batch convert and import all my movies to iTunes, which will work with Apple TV and be as high-rez as possible? With all my love, Ari
iMovie, other non-Apple QuickTime components updated
Hot on the heels of yesterday's Aperture 3.0.2 update, Apple has released iMovie 8.0.6. The update improves reliability when working with videos from Aperture and requires Mac OS X 10.5.6 or later and iLife '09. The update weighs in at 35.84 MB and is available via the download link above or Software Update. In other movie software update news, Flip4Mac WMV has updated its free player to version 2.3.2. Flip4Mac is a QuickTime plugin that lets you watch WMV files in QuickTime Player. The new update fixes problems playing back files and streams with MP3 content and corrects problems launching QuickTime Player under Snow Leopard. Finally, Perian has been updated to 1.2.1. Perian is a QuickTime plugin that allows you to play virtually any kind of media through QuickTime Player. This update adds Indeo 5 decoding and fixes several bugs. Both Perian and Flip4Mac require 10.4 or higher.
Flash beta update, Perian gets a refresh
There were two minor video plug-in related updates last night. First Adobe released a new beta of their Flash Player 10.1 beta 2 (this on the heels of a set of security patches for the stable release version last week). Flash 10.1 is introducing a host of new features, but is primarily aimed at the mobile market. Among the biggest new features in 10.1 will be the ability for developers to create multi-touch aware Flash content for a wide range of devices. Looks like Adobe is still hoping to prove Flash worthy for Apple for use on the iPhone. Along with this beta release Adobe has reminded us that they are abandoning the G3 processor after this upcoming version of Flash. In the release notes [PDF] and in last week's security announcement, Adobe says: Note: The Adobe Flash Player 10.1 release, expected in the first half of 2010, will be the last version to support Macintosh PowerPC-based G3 computers. Adobe will be discontinuing support of PowerPC- based G3 computers and will no longer provide security updates after the Flash Player 10.1 release. This unavailability is due to performance enhancements that cannot be supported on the older PowerPC architecture. I'm all for moving forward with tech, and G3 are ancient by today's standards anyway. Besides, how many people will this decision actually affect? In other plugin news, Perian, which we've mentioned several times here on TUAW, has been updated to version 1.2. Perian enables QuickTime support for additional media types, including: AVI, FLV, and MKV file formats MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivx, H.264, FLV/Sorenson Spark, FSV1, VP6, H263i, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), and MPEG Layer II Audio AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3 Subtitle support for SSA/ASS and SRT This is Perian's first major update since Snow Leopard has arrived. While there are no big new features, it's always nice to see an update after a big OS upgrade just to know that everything works on the new system.
VLC 1.0.0 released
While being a useful tool for several years now, VLC has finally reached that first pinnacle of software development: 1.0. VLC is an alternative media player for Mac, Windows and Linux that handles a wide variety of media file formats without requiring additional software (like Perian) to be installed on your system. It can also be used as a server to stream video on higher-bandwidth networks. Personally, I think it's handy for things like making still frame images of DVDs, or capturing video from your EyeTV tuner. Anytime I have to send QuickTime or MP4 video to PC or Linux users, I recommend they download and install VLC to watch it. The software isn't for everyone: If you're already familiar with VLC, the upgrade is a solid one. Performance is good, and the feature list is tough to beat. If you've never used VLC and you're happy with QuickTime Player (thank you very much), then feel free to pass this one by. Binaries for VLC 1.0 are available for Intel-based Macs running Mac OS X Leopard (and developer previews of Snow Leopard). Source code and other, older packages for PowerPC and earlier versions of Mac OS X are also available. Thanks, Chris!
Perian 1.1.3 now available, provides lots of fixes
On Monday, Perian 1.1.3 was released. Perian is a Preference Pane that provides QuickTime with a ton of extra codec support, including: AVI, DivX, and FLV. Version 1.1.3 updates the following aspects of Perian: Enabled Indeo 2/3 decodecs Added external idx/sub (VobSub) support Added support for H.264 and H.263 in FLV containers Apple's decoder now handles Baseline/Main Profile H.264 Fix inconsistent importing for multi-channel audio Reduced memory usage for packed streams Added sanity checks on all preferences Enabled hack to show subtitles in Front Row Fixed negative values in SSA \frz tag Fixed VSFilter bug-compatibility for \an You can learn more about Perian, and download the new update, by visiting the Perian.org website.
Perian 1.1.2 released, fixes updating
Last night, Perian was updated to version 1.1.2. If you need to extend the capabilities of QuickTime, the free Perian plugin allows QuickTime to play back all kinds of popular video formats (.AVI, .MKV, .FLV and more). It's a handy utility for anyone who watches a lot of video on their Mac. Here's a list of the bug fixes/improvements in 1.1.2: Fixed update checker never running - this version requires a manual install Enabled frame-dropping on AppleTV Fixed some frames being lost in AVCHD/.mp4 with newer versions of QuickTime Fixed another ffmpeg crash on G3s You can download the update to Perian from the project's website. You can also see the version history list on their support website.Thanks for the tip, Chris!
Perian 1.1.1 just released
Perian, the ultimate QuickTime plug-in, was just updated to version 1.1.1. Some of the changes in this version include: H.264 in AVI fixed Some anamorphic AVI files are now supported Performance problems due to PIC fixed with Xcode 3.1 Incorrect frame skipping on H.264 intra frames fixed Better character set detection The update checker is now much more polite Several parsing and rendering bugs with subtitles fixed Player freezing while loading subtitles with embedded fonts fixed Audio fixed for some older MKV files with AAC/FLAC Strange values in MKV chapters or video sizes are handled better Initial support for SAMI subtitles added Worked around a QuickTime bug (#5770288) causing frames to be lost during export New codecs: DosBox ZMBV, VP6+Alpha, Nellymoser ASAO FFmpeg: Crashing on PPC G3 fixed Fraps decoding artifacts fixed You can view the full change log on the support website. Perian is a free System Preference pane that can be downloaded from the Perian project website. Thanks, Chris!
TubeTV 1.0
It would seem that the Mac OS X development spectrum is bursting with excellent freeware applications. TubeTV is one such freeware application that fills a void that many Mac-YouTube users have -- saving videos in a Mac compatible format for later viewing (there are some paid alternatives out there, such as Tubesock but TubeTV is free, and offers up some additional features).TubeTV features a built-in web browser that allows you to surf over to your favorite video sharing websites. When you are viewing the video you want to download for later, just click the little download button in the toolbar. The video will begin downloading and then covert to your specified format on-the-fly. TubeTV uses the free Perian to convert the videos to either iPod, AppleTV, iPhone, or a standard phone format. When I used it, the software was spot-on. It downloaded the video very quickly and converted a 3 minute video to iPod format in well under a minute. The great thing about TubeTV is that you aren't limited to using only YouTube, you can use it with other flash-based video sites as well. I tried it with Viddler, and it worked as advertised. The video quality is also excellent.TubeTV can be downloaded from the developers website for $0.00 in all currencies (however, donations are accepted).
Perian 1.1. released
A few weeks ago, we were talking about our must-have Mac programs on the Talkcast and one of our readers mentioned Perian; I couldn't agree more. For anyone unfamiliar, Perian is a plugin that allows QuickTime to playback all kind of popular video formats (.AVI, .MKV, .FLV and more). It's a great utility for anyone who watches video on their Mac. Back in December, Erica wrote about the 1.1 beta; well beta testing is over and Perian 1.1 is available now!Here's a rundown of some of the improvements since the last update, taken from Perian's update page: Major performance improvements TrueAudio, MP1, and DTS audio support Slice-based multithreaded decoding for MPEG-1/2/H.264 Apple H.264 now handles AVCHD/interlaced video Compatibility fixes for QuickTime 7.4 and Leopard Objective-C GC compatibility Fixed a crash in Toast Better subtitle rendering Subtitles play during MKV loading Snow support Miscellaneous bug fixes Perian is free (donations are accepted) and requires at least OS X 10.4.7Thanks Robert!
Beta Beat: Perian 1.1 hits beta
Psst. Perian is about to enter a private beta for version 1.1. If you recall, last time Perian went into beta mode the software leaked. This was generally a bad thing as a buggy and unstable version made the rounds, hitting Mac Update at one point, before the team was ready for it to go public. This time, they're reacting by limiting the beta list to users who have made donations and help support development. If you've donated to Perian, keep your eyes open for an invitation email.
Perian 1.0 released
Unfortunately, it looks like Perian 1.0 has not been released and that its appearance at MacUpdate was in error. Chris Forsythe, whom I mention below, has identified himself as the Perian Project Manager.Perian, the swiss army knife of QuickTime codecs finally hit version 1.0. But don't run over to the Perian Home Page right away. It hasn't been updated yet. Instead, as TUAW reader Jason P tipped us off, point your web browser to this MacUpdate page instead.The new version of Perian installs in a new way. It's a Preferences pane that you double-click (versus a QuickTime component that you drag to /Library/QuickTime--the new codec installs to ~/Library/QuickTime instead). You can remove it, check for updates or set your Audio options from this panel. New features include integrated A52 Dolby Digital support, subtitles, a bunch of bug fixes and many new codecs. The full list of 1.0 changes follows after the jump Thanks Jason PUpdate: TUAW reader Chris Forsythe wrote in reporting that he found Perian 1.0 buggy and that it's crashing on him. So far it's working fine for me but I have only tested it with Xvid and streaming MPEG-4 (the keynote). Let us know your results in the comments.Update 2: readers are reporting that the file seems to have disappeared from MacUpdate. "I get to the Perian 1.0 page, but if you click the download link you get a file not found error."Update 3: TUAW reader Yuvi writes that the MacUpdate link was not meant to be released.
Perian - play most video formats in QuickTime for free
The veritable ocean of available video formats can often instigate a confusing and frustrating adventure in hunting for plugins and explaining to grandma why that DivX email forward she received plays the audio, but not the video. Fortunately, instead of bookmarking the plethora of codec download pages and backing up loads of installation disk images, a new plugin called Perian brands itself as a "swiss-army knife for QuickTime," as it aims to help solve all our video format woes. Perian supports an impressive list of codecs, including DivX, XviD, 3viX, FLV (y'know, those Flash files you can save but can't play because Adobe's Flash player doesn't seem to install an actual GUI front end?), AVI, and much more. Of course, you still need Flip4Mac if you have to play WMVs, but it looks like Perian can have you covered for most of the other formats you (and grandma) might encounter in your journey across the internets. As an upcoming bonus for Democracy Player users, Perian will be included in the next version.Perian is offered for free from Perian.org, though I can't track down any system requirements or whether it works on both Mac and PC.Thanks Rick
