Perian is a free, open source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular video formats.

Perian enables QuickTime application support for additional Media Types:

• AVI, FLV, and MKV file formats
• MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivX, H.264, FLV1, FSV1, VP6, H263I, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), MPEG Layer II Audio
• AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3
• Subtitle support for SSA and SRT

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Download Perian 1.1

Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4.7 because 10.3 makes the iceweasel cower in fear.

Installation: Open the disk image and double click the Perian.prefPane icon.

Happy users should consider donations to encourage futher development:

Donate via PayPal

The Perian Project provides a Mac OS X QuickTime component wrapper for several libraries:

• libavcodec from the ffmpeg project along with code from the old FFusion component
• libavformat from the ffmpeg project along with AVIImporter.component
• libmatroska with matroska-qt.component
• liba52 with A52Codec.component

Perian enables QuickTime-based playback tools access to more file formats and codecs. The code is available under the LGPL.

Download Perian 1.1 Source

We offer several ways to communicate and collaborate:

• Software Configuration and Project Management to browse source and create tickets.
• Subversion Repository to checkout source and commit changes.
• Internet Relay Chat to say hello and introduce yourself.
• Mailing List to discuss features and ask questions.

Please enjoy our screencasts of Perian in action!

How to download and install Perian, then clean up the remaining disk image:

How to download a Flash Video file from YouTube and open with QuickTime Player:

We are proud to offer links to related software in the community:

• Perian can be used with QuickTime Player, NicePlayer, and QTAmateur to name a few
• Windows Media® is unsupported, use the Flip4Mac WMV Components instead
• The internet TV platform Democracy includes Perian

The Perian Project would like to thank:

• Jérôme Cornet of FFusion and Christoph Nägeli of XviD_Codec for the AviImporter.
• FFmpeg for providing such a rich audio/video codec library.
• Dag Ågren and the Mozilla Foundation for the universal Charset Detector.
• Matroska for the audio/video container libraries.
• Perian software downloads are provided by Cachefly, Thanks!

Perian Project Team:

• System Administration by Graham Booker
• Component Development by David Conrad, Alexander Strange, Augie Fackler, Allan Hsu, and Graham Booker
• Web Development by Sky Huvard

Please contact the Perian Project Team ONLY via the mailing list, bug report system, or forum.

Installation and Removal:

Please consider removing obsolete QuickTime Components: FFusion, Xvid Delegate, 3ivX, DivX, XviD, msmpeg4v1, msmpeg4v2, AviImporter, EX_M4S2, and Casio AVI Importer

How do I remove Perian?
Open the System Preferences. Select the Perian pane and 'Remove.' Now 'Show All' preference panes, control-click the Perian pane and 'Remove "Perian" Preference Pane.'

Frequently Asked Questions:

Why does it take so long for MKV to load?
QuickTime expects to know about the entire movie when playing it, but that's not possible with many formats, including MKV and MPEG. Ask Apple to support seeking without an index if you'd like this to go away!

Is it possible to use hardware acceleration for H.264?
No — this isn't possible or supported in Mac OS X. Not even the AppleTV does it.

Problems and Feature Requests:

Create a bug report for an enhancement request or bug fix.

Join the mailing list to discuss features and ask questions.

Visit the forum to follow happenings in the community.

Version History: