Perian “The Swiss-Army Knife for Quicktime”

Perian Being a minimalist I quickly became captivated by Apple’s ability to streamline multiple functions into single, easy to use applications. OS X is a clear example of this consistency, every bar, every window and every feature all reflect an over arching goal of practicality and use. My desire for a clean, simple interface quickly translated to third party apps as well. But thankfully most OS X applications follow the very same streamline pattern.

Pre Perian

Not an application, but a Quicktime component, I felt Perian could do with a mention because without it, I wouldn’t be using Quicktime at all. Previous to Perian I relied heavily on VLC for my video needs. I would change all my defaults so my video collection would have immediate access to it. Plus VLC offers unique qualities like network streaming. For basic use however, I felt the need to minimize my Hard Drive foot print and minimize the amount of applications I currently had. In my quest I came across Perian, a total Quicktime lifesaver.

Post Perian

Perian allows you to playback DivX and Xvid, among other formats, with Quicktime. The only issue I ran into was playing full screen. Without Quicktime Pro, full screen viewing is disabled unless you’re using iTunes or Front Row. Thanks to Perian being a component plug-in, and Quicktime being such a deep component of OS X, Front Row obligingly played my DivX files in full screen. Just be sure and keep your DivX in your movies folder, and Front Row will recognize them.

From what I understand of the Apple TV hacks, Perian is the choice for DivX playback. So why not use it on all your computers as well? With Perian installed on multiple computers, I’ve been able to share my DivX through Front Row across my network. Usually that requires sharing a folder or two, but that’s another story. I’m sure Perian is the component of choice for the ultra Mac fan, and probably works best for those of you who include a Mac Mini in your Living Rooms.

So while this may not work for everyone, I encourage you to at least give Perian a go because you’ll still retain DivX playback from OS X, which trust me, is amazing. And if it helps you save even a fraction of hard drive space, well my work here is done then. If you’ve had different experiences or uses for Perian, please share them, I’m very curious to see what else can be done with this digital “Swiss-Army Knife”.

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