Flip4Mac updated for Snow Leopard

Stephen Withers
Monday, 19 October 2009 03:41

Opinion and Analysis

Teleetream's Flip4Mac WMV software for Mac OS X has been updated for Snow Leopard compatibility. It also delivers an optional install of Microsoft's Silverlight software.

After Microsoft stopped developing Windows Media Player for Mac, its place was taken by Flip4Mac. This QuickTime plugin from Telextream comes in various versions with increasing capability, but the free Flip4Mac WMV allows QuickTime-aware applications to play Windows Medial files in QuickTime Player and in web browsers such as Safari.

However, DRM-protected files cannot be played, and certain Windows Media codecs (Audio Voice, Video Screen, and Video Image) plus GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar are not supported.

Flip4Mac Version 2.3 provides support for Snow Leopard. However, there is still a compatibility problem with Safari 4. The WMV Player controller does not appear when playing a non-embedded movie in Safari 4 under Mac OS X 10.5 or higher, or when playing any movie in Safari running in 64-bit mode (the default).

If it is important to see that controller (rather than the normal QuickTime controller), you'll need to use Safari or another Mozilla-based browser, Safari 3 or 4 under Mac OS X 10.5, or run Safari 4 in 32-bit mode under Mac OS X 10.6.

Another change delivered in Flip4Mac 2.3 is that local files are now imported in the background. This means movies can start playing much more quickly.

The update also delivers various (generally unspecified) bug fixes and improvements.

Flip3Mac WMV now includes an optional installation of Microsoft's Silverlight plug-in. Silverlight is generally described as Microsoft's answer to Adobe's Flash.

Silverlight is installed by default, but it can be omitted by deselecting the Silverlight option after clicking the Customize button in the installer.

The latest version of Flip4Mac WMV is available here.

The capabilities of the free version can be extended to import and export with various paid licences normally ranging from $US29 to $US179. Telestream is currently discounting prices by $US10.