14 DAY TRIAL // Perian aims to provide a single package for all your playback needs. It is a collection of QuickTime components incorporating several libraries, dubbed as “the Swiss-army knife for QuickTime”. The newly updated version fixes a number of bugs, improving your experience.
Perian is a free, open source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular video formats. With Perian installed, any OS X application that uses QuickTime can also use an array of 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. If the files are inside an AVI, you can also use AAC, h.264, MPEG4, AC3 Audio and VBR MP3, while supported subtitle formats include SSA/ASS and SRT.
Perian can be used with QuickTime Player, NicePlayer, and QTAmateur, just to name a few supported media players. Unfortunately, Windows media is unsupported, but you can use the Flip4Mac WMV Components instead, says the Perian Team.
Bug fixes added in Perian 1.1.2 include,
· 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.
Some Perian users complained that it takes too long for MKV to load. The Perian Team sadly informs users that their hands are tied, since QuickTime expects to know about the entire movie when playing it, ”but that's not possible with many formats, including MKV and MPEG. Ask Apple to support seeking without an index if you'd like this to go away!” the team jokes. You may download Perian using the link below.
If you're not happy with its performance, you can get rid of Perian by opening the System Preferences, selecting the Perian pane and 'Remove'. Then, in System Preferences, click 'Show All', control-click / right-click the Perian pane and select 'Remove "Perian" Preference Pane'.