Perian Editor's Review

Perian is an Open Source plugin for QuickTime, which enables the playback of other video formats.

QuickTime is not the only player that can use this plugin. Any other video player that uses a QuickTime module for displaying the video material can load this package.

By installing this package you can get support for codecs like Microsoft MPEG 4, versions 1, 2 and 3, as well as getting support for other MPEG 4 subset implementations such as DivX 3.11, DivX, XviD, 3ivX, MPEG4 video, H.264, Sorenson H.263, Flash Screen Video, Truemotion VP6, WMV, VBR MP3, AAC and AC3 Audio. As you can see, the supported list is quite decent.

Almost every format from the supported list can be decoded into a raw format too. The exceptions are WMV, VBR MP3, AAC, and AC3 Audio. In order to use two of these audio codecs properly, you have to install some additional packages. WMV requires Flip4Mac and AC3 requires A52 codec.

The supported containers are AVI and FLV. PCM/ADPCM and Flash Screen Video v2 are not supported within the FLV container.

Pluses: by using this plugin you can get easy access to a decent list of video encodings that are not supported by QuickTime. The Perian plugin comes as a part of the Democracy video player, so you have an alternative installation choice.

Drawbacks / flaws:

In conclusion: this package is very useful for the people who are using a lot of video file encoding types and they don't want to limit themselves to the Apple's container, MOV, and its supported encodings.

version reviewed: 0.5