How to listen to Windows Media Player on my MacBook Pro

I think if you download vlc you it should be able to play it. I'm not completely positive, but it's free so it's worth trying.

you should download

flip4mac
perian
and vlc

Personally, i think these are mac staples

Mrs HBF said:

I should download all of them? From any place in particular? My concern is that I don't want my MBP exposed to Microsoft viruses and such.

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flip4mac is sht, there I warned you.
I've tried it with several machines and lots of websites, it never works.
both perian and vlc are great, although they do almost the exact same, so you should be fine getting just one of them.

I think VLC will get the job done fine. Its a freeware that can be found on google.

Mrs HBF said:

I should download all of them? From any place in particular? My concern is that I don't want my MBP exposed to Microsoft viruses and such.

Click to expand...

Flip4Mac - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/windows-media-player/wmcomponents
VLC Player - http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Perian - http://www.perian.org

Btw, Microsoft does not really publish viruses.
And if you download malware meant for Windows, it will not harm Mac OS X, otherwise we could run Windows software without the help of third party solutions or Boot Camp.

GGJstudios said:

Mac Virus/Malware Info

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+1 for VLC . I swear it has just about every codec out there!

Just clicking the Download button will work, it downloads the correct version for your OS, at least it does for me.

Btw, VLC Player is free, thus CNET could only offer it for free anyway.

All three of those apps do different things.

Flip4Mac adds in a WMV decoder to Quicktime.
Perian adds a whole bunch of other codecs (but NOT WMV) to Quicktime.

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.

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