Flip4Mac
Encyclopedia
Flip4Mac is a trademark
ed 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. They offer a free player while charging for their production versions.
and Windows Media Audio
formats on Mac OS X
inside QuickTime
applications and web browsers.
On January 12, 2006, Microsoft
discontinued their own Windows Media Player
for Mac OS X and began distributing Flip4Mac WMV Player for free instead. Both Flip4Mac's and Microsoft's websites list the product as "Windows Media Components for QuickTime by Flip4Mac". The product refers to itself during install as "Flip4Mac WMV."
sponsored the development of an open source implementation of Windows Media
Video 3 playback, as part of the Google Summer of Code
(open source code for Windows Media Audio and older versions of WMV already existed). The program succeeded in developing WMV3 support, which was contributed to the ffmpeg
project, and other software projects that use ffmpeg benefitted as well. WMV3 support was introduced in both VLC media player
0.8.6 and MPlayer
OS X 1.0rc1 in December 2006.
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
ed brand name for Telestream, Inc.
Telestream
Telestream, Inc. is a privately held provider of software and hardware products for video capture, encoding, transcoding, and network-based delivery. Products include desktop components, screencasting, video streaming, cross-platform encoding software and transcoding applications to automate...
's proprietary digital media tools for the Macintosh. It is particularly known for being the only 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...
component 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...
that supports Windows Media Video
Windows 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...
, although there is non-QuickTime OS X software that supports WMV. They offer a free player while charging for their production versions.
Windows Media Components for QuickTime
The "Windows Media Components for QuickTime" allow free transparent playback of the most common 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...
and Windows Media Audio
Windows Media Audio
Windows 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...
formats on 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...
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...
applications and web browsers.
On January 12, 2006, Microsoft
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...
discontinued their own 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 Flip4Mac WMV Player for free instead. Both Flip4Mac's and Microsoft's websites list the product as "Windows Media Components for QuickTime by Flip4Mac". The product refers to itself during install as "Flip4Mac WMV."
Alternatives
In 2006, GoogleGoogle
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
sponsored the development of an open source implementation of Windows Media
Windows Media
Windows Media is a multimedia framework for media creation and distribution for Microsoft Windows. It consists of a software development kit with several application programming interfaces and a number of prebuilt technologies, and is the replacement of NetShow technologies.The Windows Media SDK...
Video 3 playback, as part of the Google Summer of Code
Google Summer of Code
The Google Summer of Code is an annual program, first held from May to August 2005, in which Google awards stipends to hundreds of students who successfully complete a requested free or open-source software coding project during the summer...
(open source code for Windows Media Audio and older versions of WMV already existed). The program succeeded in developing WMV3 support, which was contributed to the ffmpeg
FFmpeg
FFmpeg is a free software project that produces libraries and programs for handling multimedia data. The most notable parts of FFmpeg are libavcodec, an audio/video codec library used by several other projects, libavformat, an audio/video container mux and demux library, and the ffmpeg command line...
project, and other software projects that use ffmpeg benefitted as well. WMV3 support was introduced in both VLC media player
VLC media player
VLC 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...
0.8.6 and MPlayer
MPlayer
MPlayer is a free and open source media player. The program is available for all major operating systems, including Linux and other Unix-like systems, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Versions for OS/2, Syllable, AmigaOS and MorphOS are also available. The Windows version works, with some minor...
OS X 1.0rc1 in December 2006.