If you need to play WMV or WMA files on your Mac and need full creative
control over your media, then *Flip4Mac WMV Studio Pro* is a simple and
effective solution. The new 3.0 version of Flip4Mac WMV Studio Pro has been
rewritten to meet the new requirements in OS X 10.7 and 10.8. Flip4Mac WMV
Studio 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 Studio 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 Studio 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.
Flip4Mac WMV Studio Pro includes all features of Flip4Mac Player Pro plus it
adds the ability to create Windows Media files using your own highdefinition,
two-pass encoding profiles. Export WMV including VC-1 and WMA Standard,
Professional and Lossless files directly from media encoding applications,
such as QuickTime 7 Pro, Flip Player Pro in OS X 10.7 and 10.8, ScreenFlow,
Compressor and more. If you want to change the general plugin settings of
Flip4Mac WMV Studio Pro, 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 WMV Studio Pro 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 WMV Studio Pro
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 Studio
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 WMV Studio Pro 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 Studio Pro 2.4.4.2* in Softonic
