I have been keeping an eye on my Blog Stats and interestingly enough, I’ve discovered that there is a fair amount of people coming to my blog because they searched the term “k lite codec pack mac“. The actual search term may vary (E.g. some people might search for k codec mac instead), but as you can see, they are trying to find the “Mac version of K-Lite Codec Pack“. Unfortuneately, at the time of this writing, I don’t think there is a Mac version of the software…but surely there should be something on the Mac that does more or less the same thing. As far as I know, Perian is one of those software that is kind of like the K-Lite Codec Pack on the Windows….and might just be what you are looking for.
Perian is a free, open source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular video formats.
–Official Description
Download: http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/22923/perian
Below is a step by step guide on how to install Perian 1.0 on your Mac.
Step 0: Download the software onto your Mac:
Step 1: Double click on the file “Perian 1.0.dmg” and it will be mounted in a few seconds:
Step 2: Double click on the Perian.prefPane to install Perian on your “System Preferences“:
Step 3: Your System Preferences window should come up shortly:
Personally I would like to install it for all users of this computer instead of just this user only. After you have made your choices, click on the Install button:
Step 4: If Perian is not installed, you won’t see a “Installed Version” number, so just click on the Install Perian button:
Step 5: A dialog box should come up and ask you for your Password, just type in your password and press OK:
(the Name will probably be something else other than David, unless you have the same user name as mine)
Step 6: Make sure you verify that Perian is installed before you try it out:
Notes: Although it didn’t ask you to “Restart” in the software…I’ve found that I need to restart my Mac before for the software is taking effect.
It does not actually need a restart. You will need to restart (quit and relaunch) any QuickTime client applications such as QuickTime player, Safari or Front Row.
Quitting the last one (and probably Quick Look server under leopard) is a bit tricky. You will either need to use Activity Monitor or shell commands (ps and kill) or logout of your user account and log back in. If you haven’t yet opened Front Row or used Quick Look in the current session you won’t need to do any of these hairy stuff.
– Hooman
from
Tehran
Islamic Republic of Iran
I googled “K-Lite Codec mac” haha, thanks a lot man.
Heh. Thanks for the tip on Perian. QT Player initially took me over to Apple.com to get the DivX codect but that didn’t work with the video I was trying out. I then installed Perian and voila!
P.S. I didn’t need to restart my system; I simply quit QuickTime Player and then started it again.
P.P.S. First few days on an iMac that I’ve got at work to use for some testing 🙂
Great, now I discover that QuickTime Player doesn’t let you play videos full screen unless you buy the Pro version. WTF? Gonna go with VLC media player, definitely better IMO.
can you edit in the VLC media player like yo can in Quicktime?
Hi no.good.at.coding,
Thanks for your comments 🙂 I think if you are using the latest version of Quicktime player, you should be able to play movies in full screen 😀
VLC is a great player too…I love using it…especially useful on DVDs 😉
[…] I am not sure if this will work… However, I would say to try it out and see if it works. 😡 Codecs I am going to take a look and see if I find something else.. o.o" New Sigs: + + + Old […]
thanks for your tip..now i can listen to videos….ciao
i was one of those who googled. thanks a mill! 🙂
Thank you so much David!!!!
QT was really giving me a hard time with these avi videos… I tried converting them using Divx Doctor II along with the 3vix and the Divx codecs and it worked, but the files were twice as big on my HD… finally with Perian I can watch my old avi videos on my new mac ^^ you rock man!
Found your site looking for codecs for a mac.
Downloaded Perian , restarted machine …Perian is definately on the system but to play the video, do I need to do anything with Perian?…I clicked on the video, it opens in QT and I get a ‘Additional software is required….’ message, and the problem I have still persists…it’s an AVI file that plays fine on a PC, but on my mac, only the sound plays..no pic.
Re Sam:
Thanks for your comments 😀
Actually…you shouldn’t need to install any extra stuff with Perian…QT should be fine. If Perian doesn’t solve your problem…you should try the following players:
DivX 6.7.1: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11695/divx
VLC Media Player 0.8.6h: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/5758/vlc-media-player
Hope it works for you 🙂
You, sir, are a saint. Thank you.
I installed Perian on my macbook pro but still can’t get audio in Quicktime, only video? Footage from my camcorder was described as .MOD and .MOI which I’d never heard of and wasn’t recognised so I changed it to .mpg and quicktime then played the video fine – but no audio. Any ideas?
Re George:
Have you tried to use video players like VLC and DivX to play your videos? Did you have any software bundle with your camcorder? If so, are you able to play your video footage using those software?
By the way, my email can be found on the “About Me” page 🙂
Hi David, I had so many problems with .mkv files and spent two days trying to fix them. I finally, somehow ended up searching in google for “k lite codec pack mac” and came to your blog. Your guide to install Persian made my day. Thank you, very very much!!!
Chris
Hi David!
I have been downloading shows in .avi format but sometimes it takes too long for an .avi to be posted so I tried downloading a .mkv file. I always use VLC so i tried it for the .mkv, initially i have sound and picture but then the picture will suddenly stop (or should I say, “still”) on one frame while the audio goes on, the picture then plays but in a very far frame from where it stopped and will again stop after a second or two.
I am using a mac and as I searched there is no player or codec for me to use so that I can play .mkv files. Maybe you know a little more and can help me out? And by the way I already used Perian and it still doesn’t work. I then searched for K-Lite Codec Pack for Mac and here I am. Hope you can help me out.
Thanks!
Hi Paul
Thanks for your comments……just wondering is it possible for you to send me the video file that you’ve got? Thanks.
Hi David
I don’t know of any way I can send you the file since its 100-200MB per file. Is there anything in the file I can tweak or I can use so I can play it properly on VLC or do you need to see the file first so you can give me a more definite answer?
If it can help… I download anime series in mininova.com ( a torrent site). Specifically the Macross Frontier series. They have a ton of .mkv files there all of which I encounter the same problem.
Hope my answer helps you out… a bit 😀
Thanks again!
Hi Paul, just wondering can you send me an email instead? Thanks 🙂
p.s. My email address can be found on the About Me page……
thank you so much *0*!!
i googled also XD and it was the first link so you’re popular David XD
Hi, David
How come my ALL AVI movie have a stamps on that
It did not Happen before
????
Hi MEGAN,
How are you? Just wondering can you send me an email with a screen shot of your icons? Thanks.
To take screen shots, just use the keyboard shortcut:
1. Shift + Command + 3 = the whole screen
2. Shift + Command + 4 = just a selection of your choice
My email can be found in the “About Me” tab at the top.
I googled and ended up here finally after 2hrs and finally got what I needed, thanks so much!
Thanks David,
I am trying to send you e-mail, Somehow, I can’t catch Shot from the real player screen by using shfit +command+3
All AVI fIles played by real player has a big stamps like your expired icon just show on the playing screen
I am really not good in computer : (
MEGAN
Dear David,
PLease kindly check your e-mail.
i did it finally
MEGAN : )
many many thanks
grets from mexico
Thanx a lot
I googled it too and found this, thanks alot mate !
THANK YOU THANK YOU
I had a shitty non working codec before and when I downloaded this one it got rid of the old one completely
This one made everything work
Thank you VERY much
thanks so much!!! 🙂
Thank you for finally solving my codec problem!
A new version of Perian just came out……now the latest version is 1.1.1!
Thanks a lot! It worked perfectly!
Thank you so much for this
Dude,
Thanks to google I found your page, and thank you for taking the time to post this. It’s exactly what I was looking for!
cheers
JC
after several days of thinking what i did wrong in downloading my videos that have no sound, i just installed perian and everything’s working.
thanks dude.
Awesome!! Thanks for the lead on the codec pack!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!
I was looking for the right codecs and I had found a site that claimed they had everything blah blah and when I downloaded them where they said and put them where they said it just didn’t work. I looked at all the files there were when I was deleting them all [after I found this] and there was a perian in there but every video i tried playing was broken >.<
You honestly have my thanks as a new mac user [been on windows for too long] who was distraught when he couldn’t watch his anime!
i also googled ‘k-lite codec mac’ and it came to this first up. Perian worked a treat, thanks!
excellent post on the guide,
definite the best guide on helping new mac user
thx alot mate!
this works very well… thank you very much! I’ve tried the other players but none of them really worked. thankss! =)
Thanks man … it works for me … may god bless you with your kind help ..
[…] Mac OSX that I’m currently using. Instead of finding the K-Lite to function on Mac I found a blog, where another package called Perian, was introduced. I’ll take a look on that […]
Thanks a lot! Very intuitive from you 🙂
I can’t play rm format 😦
I did search K Lite Codec Pac for Mac. You’re a savior! Thanks!
Hello!
Just wanted to thank you for this lovely programme… I got all my movies back!!!!!!
Thank you again!
Regards,
Olga
hey dude, have you got any ideas on how to play dvd-r’s that have been recorded on a sony dvd recorder? they just come up as blank dvd-r’s and then ask me if i want to burn onto them…
even when i insert them and hold “command, option, i” they just appear as blank dvd’s 😦
Thanks from Brazil! 😉
[…] perian which is for mac. URL: Help With Codecs! You can download it from this link:- URL: K-Lite Codec Pack for Mac?! David’s logbook Within that page, I read some people did have success, some still have problems. One users there […]
DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I’VE BEEN TRYING TO GET VIDEOS TO PLAY SOUND ON MY MAC!!!
Thank you SO much for this!
THANK YOU.
Hey dude,
thanks for that link…. After running away from windos, I am happy configuring my new MBP and your tip is essential to transform quicktime experience into a bigtime experience…
cool
Thank you David,
After stumbling upon your article about Perian codec pack I decided to try it out to see whether or not it would play a .avi (xvid) formatted video. It indeed did.
Thanks a bundle, this really helped me out alot.
thanks for your help!
thanks dude, i googled klite codec for mac
greeting from indonesia 😀
hey dave,
cheers man,, this was so helpful but it seems i am not the only one,,i had some avi downloads and even vuze would not play the files, but thanks to ur perian,,truely the swiss knife for quicktime,,tried various codec and they did not work..well thanks a bunch because now i have hours of watching at my fingertips 🙂
I use VLC, what do I need to do to make audio work? Some movies is silent…really annoying!
Help!
greetings. thanks for the kindness of your website. even with perian, i can’t get movies to stream online with AC3 sound. if i download them, they play fine. just can’t listen to them through the browser. any help is appreciated. have a gracious day.
I just got the mac mini and I have had nothing but problems getting this thing to function correctly. Every movie is silent. I installed the divx as well and still nothing. I am trying this plugin tonight and will let you know the result. I just don’t get why Mac wouldn’t equip the quicktime player with its own software. Its 2009 for the love of god.
Thank you very much,,, today i had learned a lot!,
thank you so much!
tried to down load this program and when i restarted my computer the entire soundsystem won’t work now… i can’t even get audio to work on itunes… what went wrong?!
i tried to un intall it and my sound is back (on and off) and now my entire screen keeps turning dark… please help!!
Hi David,
Thanks a lot for your post! It is really helpful for a new Mac users like me 🙂
hi david,
i am on a website that allows me to watch movies but for some of the movies i cant watch the bottom link says to install k-lite codec pack.. and it connects me to the link.. but i have a mac and couldnt use it.. any suggestions??
Thank you
Thanks David,
This helped a lot!!!
thanks David,you are the man