Flip4Mac

Flip4Mac

Flip Player's main window on OS X Mavericks
Developer(s)	Telestream, Inc.
Initial release	December 6, 2004[1][2]
Stable release	3.3.7.2[3] / October 5, 2015
Development status	Active
Operating system	macOS
Platform	x86, x64
Available in	English
Type	Multimedia framework, plug-in, media player
License	Proprietary commercial software
Website	www.telestream.net/flip4mac/overview.htm

Flip4Mac from Telestream, Inc. is a digital media software for the macOS operating system. It is particularly known for being the only QuickTime component for macOS that supports Windows Media Video.

Features

Telestream previously offered a free standalone player also known as Flip Player while charging for their Pro and Studio features until the release of v3.3 on May 1, 2014 when they began charging for Flip4Mac Player^[4] (plug-in and standalone player combined).^[5]

There are four versions of Flip4Mac Player:^[6]

• Flip4Mac Player ($5.95)

Play Windows Media files (.wma and .wmv) directly in QuickTime applications and view Windows Media content on the Internet using a web browser

• Flip4Mac Player Pro ($29)

Adds the ability to import WMV and WMA files for editing and conversion to QuickTime formats or iOS devices

• Flip4Mac Studio ($49)

Includes all the features of Player Pro, and adds the ability to create standard definition (up to 768 x 576) WMV files using preset templates and custom encoding profiles

• Flip4Mac Studio Pro HD ($179)

Includes all the features of Studio, and adds two-pass HD (up to 1920 x 1080), VBR encoding and pro audio features

Technical specifications

Below is the following technical specifications for Flip4Mac Player:^[7]

Codec support

Supported audio codecs	Play and import	Export
Windows Media Audio 9 Professional	✓	✓
Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless	✓	✓
Windows Media Audio 9 Standard	✓	✓
Windows Media Audio 7/8	✓
Microsoft G.726	✓
Microsoft IMA ADPCM	✓
Microsoft ADPCM	✓
Supported video codecs	Play and import	Export
Windows Media Video 9 Advanced (WMVA) — Broadcast Profile	✓	✓
Windows Video Codec 1 (WVC1)	✓
Windows Media Video 9 Standard (WMV3)	✓	✓
Windows Media Video 8 (WMV2)	✓
Windows Media Video 7 (WMV1)	✓
ISO MPEG-4 V1.1 (M4S2)	✓
ISO MPEG-4 V1.0 (MP4S)	✓
Microsoft MPEG-4 V3 (MP43)	✓
Microsoft MPEG-4 V2 (MP42)	✓
Microsoft Motion JPEG (MJPG)	✓
Supported file formats	Play and import	Export
Advanced Systems Format (ASF)	✓	✓
Advanced Stream Redirector (ASX)	✓
Audio/Video Interleaved (AVI) — WMV media wrapped in AVI file format	✓

• NOTE: Exporting WMV9 Advanced and WMA Professional and Lossless is supported only by Flip4Mac Studio Pro HD

Network stream protocols

Stream type	Name	Protocols
MMS	Microsoft Media Server	MMS, HTTP, RTSP, and TCP
HLS	HTTP Live Streaming	HTTP and TCP

Frame sizes available for export

4:3	Studio	Studio Pro HD
160 x 120	✓	✓
240 x 180	✓	✓
320 x 240	✓	✓
384 x 288	✓	✓
480 x 360	✓	✓
640 x 480	✓	✓
768 x 576	✓	✓
960 x 720		✓
1280 x 1080		✓
4:3 CCIR	Studio	Studio Pro HD
720 x 480		✓
720 x 575		✓
16:9	Studio	Studio Pro HD
320 x 180	✓	✓
640 x 360	✓	✓
960 x 540		✓
1280 x 720		✓
1920 x 1080		✓

System requirements

In order to run Flip4Mac, you need to meet the following specifications:^[3]

• Intel-based Mac
• Mac OS X Snow Leopard or later

• NOTE: Please note if running on Snow Leopard, you need to update to 10.6.8 via Apple Software Update.

Windows Media Components for QuickTime

Windows Media Components for QuickTime allow free transparent playback of the most common Windows Media Video and Windows Media Audio formats on macOS inside QuickTime applications and web browsers.

On January 12, 2006, Microsoft discontinued the Macintosh version of Windows Media Player and began distributing Flip4Mac Player for free^{[8][9][10][11][12]} until May 1, 2014 when Telestream began charging for Flip4Mac Player.^[4] Microsoft's website refers the product as Windows Media Components for QuickTime while Telestream just refers to Flip4Mac.^[13]

Windows Media

Advanced Stream Redirector

Advanced Stream Redirector (ASX) file format is a type of Extensible Markup Language (XML) metafile designed to store a playlist of Windows Media files for a multimedia presentation. Flip4Mac currently supports the following MIME types:^[14]

video/x-ms-wmv	audio/x-ms-wma
video/x-ms-wm	video/x-ms-asf
video/x-ms-wvx	video/x-ms-wmx
audio/x-ms-wax	video/x-ms-asx

Advanced Systems Format

Advanced Systems Format (ASF) is Microsoft's proprietary digital audio/digital video container format, especially meant for streaming media.

Windows Media Audio

Windows Media Audio (WMA) is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs.

Windows Media Digital Rights Management

Flip4Mac is unable to play content that has been protected using digital rights management.^[15]

Windows Media Video

Windows Media Video (WMV) is a video data compression technology developed by Microsoft.

Version history

• Flip4Mac 2.1 was released on July 2006 with support for Intel-based Macs.^[16]
• Flip4Mac 3.0 was released on September 2012 with support for 64-bit improvements as well as Gatekeeper. It also includes Flip Player, a new multi-format video player with the ability to play the most common Windows Media formats.^[17][18]
• Flip4Mac 3.1 was released on February 2013 with support for the third generation MacBook Pros, MacBooks (relaunched version of the original MacBook line), and iMacs with Retina display. It also includes the ability to export videos to iTunes from Flip Player.^[19][20]
• Flip4Mac 3.2 was released on May 2013 with support for dramatically improved load time for ASF (.wmv, .wma, .wm, .wmp, .asf, etc.) file formats.^[21][22][23]
• Flip4Mac 3.3 was released on May 2014 with several minor 3.3.X updates with 3.3.7 being the latest update. Several updates include re-supporting Mac OS X Snow Leopard^[3] (after the support being removed in 3.0), and natively supporting OS X Yosemite^[3] and OS X El Capitan.^[24]

See also

• Perian

References

1. 'Telestream Flip4Mac brings Windows Media encoding to the Mac' by Telestream (December 6, 2004) – Wayback Machine
2. 'Telestream Flip4Mac offers WMV encoding on Mac' by Brad Cook (December 6, 2004) – Macworld
3. Flip4Mac v3.3.7 release notes – Telestream
4. Why is Telestream charging for Flip4Mac Player? – Telestream
5. Flip4Mac versus Flip Player – Vimeo
6. Flip4Mac's overview – Telestream
7. Flip4Mac's technical specifications – Telestream
8. 'Microsoft quietly ditches WMP for Mac' by Ed Oswald (January 11, 2006) – BetaNews
9. 'Windows Media content goes Mac OS X' by Digital Trends Staff (January 11, 2006) – Digital Trends
10. 'Microsoft confirms: WMP for Mac dead' by Nate Mook (January 12, 2006) – BetaNews
11. 'Music stops for Mac Windows Media Player' by Ina Fried (January 12, 2006) – c|net
12. 'Microsoft bails on Windows Media Player for Mac' by Jim Dalrymple (January 14, 2006) – Macworld
13. Windows Media Components for QuickTime – Microsoft
14. Flip4Mac's technical specifications – Advanced Stream Redirector (ASX) support – Telestream
15. Flip4Mac v3.3 User Guide – Telestream
16. 'Flip4Mac 2.1 adds Intel Mac support' by Jim Dalrymple (July 28, 2006) – Macworld
17. 'Telestream releases Flip4Mac 3.0 including new multi-format video player' (September 2012) – Digital Production Buzz
18. Flip4Mac v3.0 release notes – Telestream
19. 'Flip4Mac 3.1 released with Retina display support and iTunes export' (February 23, 2013) – iClarified
20. Flip4Mac v3.1 release notes – Telestream
21. 'Flip4Mac 3.2 brings dramatically improved load times for WMV and ASF video' (May 2, 2013) – iClarified
22. 'Flip4Mac 3.2 brings dramatically improved load times for WMV and ASF video' (May 2, 2013) – iHash
23. Flip4Mac v3.2 release notes – Telestream
24. Is Flip4Mac supported on OS X El Capitan? – Telestream

Further reading

Flip4Mac has been mentioned in the following books:

• Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, OS X Yosemite Edition (ISBN 978-1-4919-4718-0)

External links

Flip4Mac website