Sometimes humans need a helping hand. Why else would Bart Simpson be now filling inboxes worldwide, naked and straddling a fellow yellow cartoon character, exclaiming “I have bought those pills and now I am a real sex king”? Software too, can be vulnerable to performance issues, and benefit from the assistance of some add-on or helper apps.

Flip4mac Studio Pro 1.06

arniepot.mov to .wmv via flip4mac

Despite the volume of video being published and traded online having ballooned massively in recent years, there still remains several incompatibility and format issues. Videomakers everywhere are still being wounded by return emails saying “Your video wouldn’t work on my computer.” While these problems are not about to disappear anytime soon ( We are still having trouble with mere text in the 21st century – .txt and .rtf files can be read by everybody. If you attach any other kind of text files ( eg .doc ) the receiver needs the same software as you to be able to read it), the Flip4mac software is one small step in a good direction and improves the situation greatly for mac video users, by allowing window media files to become viewable, editable and exportable within quicktime.

Most audio players across many platforms can play the standardised audio format of ‘mp3’. However, while most video players can play the standardised video format of ‘mp4’, not everybody uses mp4 yet and not everybody is interested in maintaining open standards. Further complicating matters is that the ‘mp4’ format is also a ‘container’ or ‘wrapper’ format – meaning it can be used to combine different multimedia streams (mostly audio and video) into one single file. To understand container formats, we need to understand ‘codecs’.

A codec ( think COmpression / DECompression ) is software used to compress large data signals into small spaces with minimal perceived loss of information ( eg mp3, sorenson, cinepak, divX ). And when you play a video file encoded with a certain codec, you need to have that codec installed on your computer to allow it to decompress and playback properly. Container formats such as .mp4, quicktime’s .mov, .avi and .mpeg allow
allow you to combine different multimedia streams (most of the time audio and video) into one single file. This means a .avi or .mov file may in fact include a video file which has been encoded as a divx, meaning it will only play if you have the divx codec installed.

What flip4mac essentially does then , is bring the windows media file format ( .wmv ) into the quicktime ‘container’ architecture, allowing playing of wmv in QT( flip4mac player $9.99US), importing and editing of wmv in QT ( flip4mac player pro $49.99 ), and exporting of Windows Media files from a qt video or qt powered application such as Final Cut Pro ( flip4mac studio $99US ), and export high definition wmv 9 and 5.1 wmv 9 audio from qt or qt apps (flip4mac studio pro $179US).

Once installed, nothing spectacular happens – clicking on .wmv videos simply loads them up in quicktime, and they view as any other video would within quicktime. Quicktime is also used within browsers to embed videos within the design of pages, and in the Safari browser, wmv files worked fine within their pages ( and allowed me to scrub along the timeline which you can’t do with wmv apparently ). Firefox 1.06 however, usually asked for the video to be downloaded ( which you could then watch fine ) rather than neatly embedding the video within the webpage.

All-up Flip4mac runs a treat, have yet to come across a wmv file that won’t play in quicktime with it, and their support for HD and higher end encoding suggests they might be around for a while ( a necessity with the ongoing codec changes ). Well recommended for mac users who want to be able to remix windows media.

UPDATE:::: as of Jan 11 2006 >>
Flip4Mac Version 2.0 is now available at www.flip4mac.com.
Other changed details >>
Flip4Mac WMV Player – Now FREE (previously cost $9.99)
Play SD and HD Windows Media in your QuickTime player and Safari web browser

Flip4Mac WMV Import – $29 (previously WMV Player Pro)
Adds Windows Media import for editing and conversion to other formats

Flip4Mac WMV Studio – $49 (new)
Import and export Windows Media files using expanded preset encoding profiles

Flip4Mac WMV Studio Pro – $99 (previously WMV Studio)
Adds the ability to create your own standard definition, one-pass encoding profiles

Flip4Mac WMV Studio Pro HD – $179 (previously WMV Studio Pro)
Adds the ability to create high definition, multichannel audio, and two-pass encoding profiles

Little Snitch 1.2
What with the crazy Sony CD ‘secret-installer’ debacle of recent times, having a capacity to understand what information flows in and out of your computer is becoming increasingly desirable. Little Snitch serves to fill that gap on the mac platform, monitoring requests for any software to send information to the internet so that you can see these background processes and approve or disapprove. As well as preventing applications from “phoning home”, Little Snitch also protects you from trojans, worms, and other network parasites, shows which applications send information over the internet and ‘provides a higher level of security for the paranoid’. While firewalls are good protection from what is trying to get into your computer, Little Snitch seems the best mac option for protecting what might be trying to get out of your computer. Little Snitch 1.2 has an easy system of rules to click and allow/disallow applications to get online through your machine, is compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), and costs $25US.