If you need to play WMV or WMA files on your Mac and editing power too, then
*Flip4Mac WMV Player Pro* is a simple and effective solution. The new 3.0
version of Flip4Mac which has been rewritten to meet the new requirements in
OS X 10.7 and 10.8. Flip4Mac WMV Player Pro 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 only supporting older
versions of WMA and now 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 WMV Player Pro 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
that are only available in this Pro version. Amongst the advanced features of
Flip4Mac WMV Player Pro are the ability to *Crop, Rotate, Scale and Trim*
video which is not possible in QuickTime X. You can also 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 WMV Player Pro. 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 WMV Player Pro 3.0* in
Softonic
