Perian
Perian is a free, open-source QuickTime component that extends macOS's native media playback support to include formats like AVI, DivX, XviD, MKV, FLV, and many video and audio codecs that QuickTime does not natively handle. It was installed as a System Preferences pane and allowed QuickTime Player and other applications relying on QuickTime to play media files that would otherwise be unsupported. The component was widely used by home users and professionals who needed to work with legacy or alternative media formats without switching to dedicated players like VLC.
AI Recommendation
1 suggestionPerian has been abandoned since approximately 2011. The development team officially announced retirement after their final release, stating they would no longer provide support starting 90 days after that final version. The project has not been actively maintained for over 14 years, and there is no native Apple Silicon build — the component will not function at all once Apple removes Rosetta 2 in macOS 28 (September 2028). Additionally, QuickTime itself has become obsolete on modern macOS, making Perian's QuickTime-component architecture doubly incompatible with current systems. Rather than seeking a Perian replacement, we recommend switching to VLC, which is free, actively maintained, runs natively on Apple Silicon, and supports all the media formats Perian once provided. VLC is available directly from videolan.org and handles AVI, MKV, DivX, XviD, FLV and virtually every other codec without needing system-level components. If you have specific workflows tied to QuickTime integration, mpv (available via Homebrew) is another actively developed alternative with strong codec support.
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