The crowded field of Mac OS X media players has another entrant: Eltima Software’s Elmedia Player. The free media player supports most popular Flash and video formats, including Microsoft Silverlight’s XAP format. The paid, pro version of Elmedia Player can also download online videos and their external resources directly to your hard drive.
The free version of Elmedia player is notable for its support of Microsoft Silverlight’s XAP format, which is gradually catching on as an alternative to Adobe Flash’s FLV format. The player also supports Real Media’s RM and RV, Flash’s FLV, as well as AVI, SWF, MOV, and MPEG formats. Along with playing local movies, Elmedia Player can also play online videos via a built-in Web browser. On the file management and organization end, Elmedia uses an iTunes-inspired media library that includes regular and smart playlists creation.
The pro version of Elmedia Player, which costs $20, lets you download online videos and movies along with their external resources directly to your hard drive. Simply visit the Website with your desired movie via Elmedia’s browser, and the application will find all of the external resources the movie may be using and offer to download them as well. This should allow you to put streaming flash animations onto your hard drive for offline viewing and such. The Pro version also unlocks full screen mode, an “always on top” option that keeps the player’s window on top of all other applications, and a screen shot feature.
Both the free and pro version of Elmedia Player are compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 and higher.
Elmedia Player