If you need to play WMV or WMA files on your Mac, then *Flip4Mac* is a simple
and effective solution. Softonic has been given *exclusive access to the
preview of the 3.0 private beta version of Flip4Mac* which has been rewritten
to meet the new requirements in OS X 10.7 and 10.8. Note that Softonic will
be the first to offer a download link to the public beta as soon as it is
released by the developers Telestream early next week. Flip4Mac 3.0 includes
an option to install Microsoft Silverlight which is Microsoft's answer to
Adobe Flash although you don't have to install it. However, it's useful to
have it as some video streaming events on the net use Silverlight to deliver
content. First some background to Flip4Mac. WMV is Microsoft's own video
format which by default, won't play on Macs since Apple's own video format is
QuickTime. The most common solution for users has been to install a
multimedia player such as VLC media player or a plugin such as Perian or
Flip4Mac which both allow QuickTime to play WMV files. However, with Perian
no longer being developed, Flip4Mac is set to become the most logical choice
for users, especially because it is officially endorsed by Microsoft and
effectively, the official Windows Media Player for Mac. Flip4Mac 3.0 is not
just a plugin for QuickTime however. For the first time, it introduces its
own player - *Flip Player* - but it will still allow you to view WMV videos
in QuickTime. The difference from the previous version of Flip4Mac however is
that it now leaves a watermark in the top right-hand corner of QuickTime.
Flip Player doesn't feature this watermark with the additional bonus that it
has some powerful added extras although many of them are only available in
the Pro version. The free version of Flip Player in Flip4Mac 3.0 is very
clean in appearance and does a good job of not obscuring video content during
playback as there are no overlay controls. Instead, the player controls only
appear when you move the mouse cursor over it. Flip Player also includes a
new *"Dim Lights"* feature which neatly darkens everything around it so that
you focus on just the video. Playback controls are enhanced with *slow
motion* options and most functions can be performed using keyboard shortcuts.
Among the more powerful features of the basic version of Flip Player are the
ability to *Crop, Rotate, Scale and Trim* video which is not possible in
QuickTime X. You can also now convert and export WMV video for iMovie and
Final Cut Pro but without creating quality damaging H.264 files. Instead, a
native AIC (Apple Intermediate Codec) file is created for iMovie to avoid
additional transcoding when importing. For Final Cut Pro users, it creates a
ProRes file that automatically sets the correct dimensions and native video
codec that fit with project settings. You can even export sound from your
favorite videos to an iPhone ringtone and use the trimming features to refine
it. If you want to change the general plugin settings of Flip4Mac 3.0, they
can be accessed at the bottom of your Mac system preferences under "Other".
There are several different configurations options including for the Flip
Player media browser, upgrade, update and plugin settings. Note that
*Flip4Mac 3.0 no longer supports OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard* (although version
2.4.4 still does) as its been designed for the new demands of Lion and
Mountain Lion such as Gatekeeper aimed at making Macs more secure. The
benefit of this is that Flip4Mac 3.0 features much improved 64-bit support
for OS X 10.7 and 10.8 although the QuickTime video components have remained
32-bit due to the QuickTime component architecture. However, audio codecs are
64-bit now. Overall, the introduction of Flip Player is the major innovation
in Flip4Mac 3.0. It offers some powerful features that aren't available in
the free version of QuickTime, and it's very well designed to suit the look
of OS X. However, it lacks some of the features of QuickTime (such as screen
recording) and some users may feel it's not quite as slick as Apple's own
player. *Flip4Mac 3.0 remains a powerful solution for anyone that needs to
play WMV and Windows Media on their Mac and the introduction of Flip Player
is a significant enhancement that makes managing WMV files on Mac easier than
ever.*Download *Flip4Mac 3.0.0.79 Beta* in Softonic
