Perian developers have posted the following open letter to their website:
We began the Perian project over 6 years ago. We wanted to simplify viewing your content. Our team has attained that goal and with that in mind, Perian will be retired soon. Our stewardship has been a blast but it’s time for all of us to move on.
From the beginning we kept Perian simple. Our preferences were minimal, updating was easy, and we gradually grew the product to add in extras like subtitles and different formats. We’ve contributed a lot. Today, Perian stands as complete as it ever will be under our stewardship.
There are some projects that we never got to. As an example, we would have liked an official, flexible, and well-documented import API to speed up MKV. We hit a brick wall there. Still, we reached a great stopping point and Perian’s installed userbase proves how valuable this tool became to so many people.
Starting 90 days after the final Perian release, we will no longer provide support. We’ll wrap up our loose ends, pack up our bags, and move on to new and exciting projects.
Here’s what our roadmap looks like:
• We will soon release the final version of Perian, including all the fixes we’ve worked on since the last release. It may — or may not — work on 10.8.
• We will post the source code to either Google Code or Github.
Here’s what we’re looking for from you, our users
• Download Niceplayer, it’s pretty great — and those folks are doing a fantastic job.
• Support each other on our Google Group list . We mean this. Just because we aren’t helping anymore on a regular basis, that doesn’t mean that you can’t.
• Are you a developer? Pick up where we left off. Join us on #perian on irc.freenode.net. Yeah, we’re all pretty busy — so stick around after asking your question. You may have to wait a bit for an answer. Chalk it up to asynchronous tech support.
• Want to donate? We appreciate the thought. It’s hard times these days and your money will make a bigger impact elsewhere. Consider Child’s Play , Ronald McDonald House , or the EFF . We no longer accept donations.
A final word: If and when Perian stops working, try looking into VLC or MPlayer OS X. Sure, they’re not Perian, but they offer great software still under development.
Thanks for all of your support over the years. It has meant a lot to all of us.
Chris Forsythe
Graham Booker
Alexander Strange
Augie Fackler
P.S. We would like to thank Erica Sadun for helping us write this letter, and for general guidance.
Source: Perian.org
[Attribution: FairerPlatform. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Shawn” for the heads up.]
That sucks. Is there an equivalent tool for importing these codecs into QuickTime natively?
Damn damn damn. This is going to be painful
It doesn’t mean that your installed version of Perian is going to stop working. If it works on Mountain Lion, it’ll probably serve you well for several more years.
Lets hope so.
But as the developer said if it doesn’t use VLC or Mplayer.
“We will soon release the final version of Perian, including all the fixes we’ve worked on since the last release. It may — or may not — work on 10.8.” – developers of Perian.
I suppose I’ll be uninstalling it then, and start using MPlayer OS X Extended full-time, instead of just for MKV.
What a shame. I’ve been using Perian for years and it’s been the mutt’s nuts for video playback. Full marks and a huge thank you to the developers for their sterling efforts.
=:~)
Truly is the swiss army knife of video playback…totally invisible, you forget you even have it at times.
First time I’ve ever heard of it, and I’ve been using Mac’s since ’95. Go figure.
same here.
never heard of it. kinda sounds familiar, but no real knowledge of it.
It was (and still is) the bees-knees for adding codec support to Quicktime (Apple ships QT with barebones codecs).
It allows you to use quicktime, rather than have to use VLC and it’s ilk for multimedia playback. It was for MANY a “Must Have” in their OS X installs. It was a one stop item, rather than endless searching for codecs.
I cannot stand VLC, I will be very sad when this stops working.
damn truth always hitting me upside the head. someday I’m gonna hit back with some beefed up allegory.
+100 agreed, I do not like VLC installed on my Mac.
Just the codecs made it all the more simpler and I believe more stable too.
Using Mac since 1988. And there are many softwares I have never heard of or use. But Perian will be well missed.
As stated, it is the Swiss Army knife of Quicktime components and Apple should adopt Perian additions completely. If possible – buy it out or make it apart of QT. Without Perian, VLC or MPlayer is needed and those to me are nice but bloated extras not required when QT is the player already and with Perian component you can use all those media types on a much smaller scale or code needed. That is its beauty. PLay back FLVs and save as MOVs with out a glitch.
Its hands down the best addition to Quicktime. Seamless. Small. Easy to forget you have installed. Allows you beautiful playback of so many other file types otherwise not possible in Quicktime. Just simply great. Smooth as silk. Software well worth a price but is free. Again – it will be missed.
http://perian.org/
Apropos nothing at all, here’s Morgan Webb’s bouncing big boobies to take the pain away.
You like drag queens?
No, I like big boobs.
My taste in women might be questionable but as long as they’re packing, I’m racking…
Morgan Web is a very lovely young woman, quite brilliant actually. Engage her and she can speak to most topics concerning the things many of us hold dear like technology. She is no fan of the Macintosh, generally due to the price, her preference for building her own machines, and the dearth of games. Any of you rabble would be fortunate to have her as a friend.
Morgan is married to another brilliant young man by the name of Rob Reid. Rob recently did a Ted Talk called “The numbers behind the Copyright Math.” In this talk he uses the absurd math offered by our friends at the RIAA to justify harassing computer users to show that an iPod with a few pirated songs on it would constituted an 8 billion dollar theft, based on RIAA copyright math. It is thoroughly enjoyable and very entertaining.
http://blog.ted.com/2012/03/20/the-numbers-behind-the-copyright-math/
So don’t belittle her. We are not children in high school, oh wait… are you guys?
you must be kidding… She’s ƒuçk!ng gorgeous!
Hey! Don’t talk smack about my Morgan! She’s got an awesome chest and eyes you could just fall into!
——RM
Please excuse M. You see, M has mistakenly hooked up with drag queens so many times, he now suspects every ostensibly beautiful woman sees is a drag queen. Just take it easy on the poor guy. He’s doing remarkably considering all he’s been through.
Thanks for the mammaries!
So… Perian wasn’t retired a long time ago? I’ve had Perian installed for what seems like forever and I literally can’t remember the last time it informed me of an update. I think it was years ago. Do I have some setting wrong, or is the version I have installed incompatible with the updates?
Oh, well, whatever. Between QuickTIme w/Perian and VLC, I can play everything.
——RM
While it is sad to see any open source group pack up shop, I had to uninstall Perian years ago due to the (yuy/hsv/rgb) colorspace conversion gamma issues that cropped up.
Because of that I don’t think many pro users were using it at this point, and the consumer/prosumer doesn’t really need it any longer for content creation/editing (only for playing odd codec videos off the web which can be accomplished using MPlayerX from the app store or by downloading & installing VLC)