Windows Media Components for QuickTime
Encyclopedia
Windows Media Components for QuickTime, also known as Flip4Mac WMV Player by Telestream, Inc. is one of the few commercial products that allow playback of Microsoft
's proprietary audio and video codecs inside QuickTime
for Mac OS X
.
It allows playback of:
It also includes a web browser plug-in to allow playback of embedded Windows Media files in web pages.
With the components installed, any QuickTime-compatible application is able to directly play WMV content. This includes the official QuickTime Player by Apple as well as countless third party players. WMV Player also allows Windows media files to be associated to QuickTime Player.
On 2006-01-12, Microsoft discontinued support for Windows Media Player
for Mac OS X and began distributing a free version of WMV Player as Windows Media Components for QuickTime on their websitehttp://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/flip4mac.mspx.
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
's proprietary audio and video codecs inside QuickTime
QuickTime
QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...
for Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
.
It allows playback of:
- Windows Media VideoWindows Media Video'Windows Media Video is a video compression format for several proprietary codecs developed by Microsoft. The original video format, known as WMV, was originally designed for Internet streaming applications, as a competitor to RealVideo. The other formats, such as WMV Screen and WMV Image, cater...
7, 8, 9, SD and HD - Windows Media AudioWindows Media AudioWindows Media Audio is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs...
7, 8, 9, Professional and Lossless
It also includes a web browser plug-in to allow playback of embedded Windows Media files in web pages.
With the components installed, any QuickTime-compatible application is able to directly play WMV content. This includes the official QuickTime Player by Apple as well as countless third party players. WMV Player also allows Windows media files to be associated to QuickTime Player.
On 2006-01-12, Microsoft discontinued support for Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player is a media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices...
for Mac OS X and began distributing a free version of WMV Player as Windows Media Components for QuickTime on their websitehttp://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/flip4mac.mspx.
Timeline
- July 8, 2006 – Flip4Mac did not officially run on Intel-based Macs.
- July 15, 2006 – version 2.1 of Flip4Mac now supported Windows Media Player 10 content, which was previously inaccessible to Macintosh users. This newer version also supports Intel-based Macs.
- July 27, 2006 – version 2.1 is a non-beta release of the Universal BinaryUniversal binaryA universal binary is, in Apple parlance, an executable file or application bundle that runs natively on either PowerPC or Intel-manufactured IA-32 or Intel 64-based Macintosh computers; it is an implementation of the concept more generally known as a fat binary.With the release of Mac OS X Snow...
format for OS X.
See also
- Flip4MacFlip4MacFlip4Mac is a trademarked brand name for Telestream, Inc.'s proprietary digital media tools for the Macintosh. It is particularly known for being the only QuickTime component for Mac OS X that supports Windows Media Video, although there is non-QuickTime OS X software that supports WMV...
- PerianPerianPerian is an open source QuickTime component that enables Apple Inc.’s QuickTime to play several popular video formats not supported natively by QuickTime on Mac OS X...
- VLC media playerVLC media playerVLC media player is a free and open source media player and multimedia framework written by the VideoLAN project.VLC is a portable multimedia player, encoder, and streamer supporting many audio and video codecs and file formats as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It is able to...
, an alternative open sourceOpen sourceThe term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
player - Xiph QuickTime ComponentsXiph QuickTime ComponentsThe Xiph QuickTime Components are Xiph.org's implementation of the Ogg container along with the Speex, Theora, FLAC and Vorbis codecs for QuickTime...
External links
- Official download site (microsoft.com)
- http://www.flip4mac.com/