All three of those apps do different things. Flip4Mac adds in a WMV decoder to Quicktime. Microsoft office for mac software. Perian adds a whole bunch of other codecs (but NOT WMV) to Quicktime.

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VLC, on the other hand, is a standalone decoder. Quicktime has nothing to do with VLC. VLC will decode things all on its own. They have their plusses and minuses. Flip4Mac uses Microsoft's actual codecs for WMV, so you're going to get the best WMV playback out of it (although it has some quirks like you have to set it to preload everything or you can't scan around the file until it's all loaded). VLC is completely independent of everything, so it is often the fastest.

Their media player application called Elmedia Player Pro ( version 6.5 ) is a neat and practical application which we will discuss in this review. ELMEDIA PLAYER PRO Eltima’s Elmedia Player is available in a free and paid PRO version. Macgo Free Mac Media Player is the best all-in-one free media player for Mac OS X in the world. It can play HD movies on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch for free.

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Perian I like because the more things that Quicktime knows how to render, the more preview icons you get - and also the more stuff just 'works' with a click. (Good if you share the computer or aren't super knowledgeable!) - G.