Make QuickTime play almost any video format

Important Note: Perian is no longer under development and does not work with QuickTime 10 or above. However, it still works with QuickTime 7.6.6.

If QuickTime 7.6.6 is your default media player, then Perian is the tool you need to make sure it plays any media file type you want. It will not work with QuickTime 10 or above and since its no longer under development, never will.

This discreet little component adds support to a wide range of formats including MKV, FLV, DivX and WMA or even less known formats like Xiph Vorbis or Flash ADCPM. It also offers subtitle support for SSA and SRT so you can enjoy films in their original version in Quicktime. Users also like that Perian offers AVI support for H.264 and audio files like MP3 or AAC.

Perian is very easy to install and works automatically once it’s set up. While VLC Media Player is usually the recommended media player on Mac because of its wide support for all sorts of media file types, having Quicktime with Perian is also an excellent choice to play any sorts of media.

An excellent and free QuickTime component, Perian lets you enjoy almost any media format, including subtitles and a number of audio files. Highly recommended.

With Perian, the Swiss Army Knife for QuickTime, any OS X application that uses QuickTime can now use these additional media types: AVI, FLV, and MKV file formats MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivX, H.264, FLV1, FSV1, VP6, H263I, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), MPEG Layer II Audio AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3 Subtitle support for SSA and SRTWhat’s NewVersion 1.2.3:N.B. Version 1.2.3 is the last version to support Mac OS X 10.4Changes: Some Fraps videos only displayed black. [r1424] (#566) Workaround checks for Front Row stopped being effective. [r1426] (#564) Fixed compatibility with web video playback. [r1427, r1429, r1450] (#572) Worked around System Preferences crashing during an update on 10.6. [r1449] (#591) This change will take effect after this update. Further fixes to Matroska import. [r1432, r1441, r1447] (#338, #492, #594, #601)

Changes

• With Perian, the Swiss Army Knife for QuickTime, any OS X application that uses QuickTime can now use these additional media types: AVI, FLV, and MKV file formats MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivX, H.264, FLV1, FSV1, VP6, H263I, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), MPEG Layer II Audio AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3 Subtitle support for SSA and SRTWhat’s NewVersion 1.2.3:N.B. Version 1.2.3 is the last version to support Mac OS X 10.4Changes: Some Fraps videos only displayed black. [r1424] (#566) Workaround checks for Front Row stopped being effective. [r1426] (#564) Fixed compatibility with web video playback. [r1427, r1429, r1450] (#572) Worked around System Preferences crashing during an update on 10.6. [r1449] (#591) This change will take effect after this update. Further fixes to Matroska import. [r1432, r1441, r1447] (#338, #492, #594, #601)

Perian is a free plugin that enables QuickTime to play almost every popular video format. With Perian installed, any OS X application that uses QuickTime can now use these additional media types:

• Divx, XviD, FLV, AVI
• MS-MPEG4 v1, MS-MPEG4 v2, MS-MPEG4 v3, DivX 3.11 alpha, 3ivX, Sorenson H.263, Flash Screen Video, Truemotion VP6
• h.264, mpeg4, AAC, AC3 Audio, and VBR MP3 (when they are inside an AVI)