Software you should know: Perian
Perian recently went from version 1 to version 1.1. I installed it and then thought about how this is the first time that I have touched/opened any install of Perian on any of my computers since their initial installations. Pretty amazing for a program that I use almost every day.
Why? Because Perian is a true Apple software application. My reason for saying that is this: It just works.
After your initial installation, Perian runs in the background when you’re playing any video that requires a codec other than those natively supported by Quicktime. Like its icon would suggest, Perian truly is the swiss army knife of the Apple Quicktime codec world. Which, lets be honest, is a pretty specific thing…but they picked one thing, and they did it well.
Perian eliminates the need for codecs to be downloaded. Which is great, because they bloat Quicktime and cause it to run slowly. However, there is one thing that Perian can not play…
That’s right, Windows Media files. However, by downloading Flip4Mac’s WMV player you can play WMVs and WMAs directly through Quicktime. Which gives your PC friends one less thing to brag about. Even though WMV files aren’t really worth bragging about all that much.
For those of you out there who for some reason want to save files as WMVs, you may also use Flip4Mac to export your MOVs or AVIs or whatever else you can think of to WMVs. Though at that point you’re venturing into territory where you actually have to pay for the application to unlock said features.
