I just switched to Mac couple weeks ago. and Have a ton of WMV files. I am using the Flip4mac component for quicktime x to play them but I have to wait for them to load up. then i tried VLC play, it plays wmv just fine but when I try to fast forward or backward..it starts acting all funny and doesn't obey the control. So I am thinking converting all my wmv files to MOV. I have no problem of buying a software. BUT I wanna buy a software that actually works! So I heard that the flip4mac pro can convert wmv to mov then i bought it then I realize the flip4mac pro only works on imovie 06. since i have the latest mac, I have imovie 09 so it doesn't work. then I am looking at quicktime pro. SO the big question. Does it convert WMV files to MOV?? means that I can open quicktime pro then import wmv and then export them out as mov?!!!
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Does QuickTime Pro convert WMV?
- Thread starter greylee
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Since you have bought Flip4Mac Pro, QuickTime Pro will use that as a plugin to convert from WMV to other apple friendly formats.
does quicktime pro work by itself tho?
actually I refunded the flip4mac pro since it only works with imovie 06. now I only have the free version of flip4mac. can I just buy the quicktime pro then convert my wmv files?
or do i have to buy both flip4mac pro and quicktime pro to convert?
OK.
If you have Flip4Mac and if all you want to do with your WMV video is to play it, then there is nothing to be gained by converted it to a different format. To the contrary, you will lose quality.
If you want to transcode WMV to a different format so that you can edit the video, then you must upgrade to Flip4Mac Pro.
What do you want to do?
I just wanna play those WMV videos. and as I said, it takes a long time for flip4mac to load up the video so I can fastforward and stuff. So I am thinking converting WMV to MOV will make them play more smoothly and playback much more smoothly as well.
And it dose loose the quality of the video?! really?! I had them as WMV coz the quality of the video is better so I thought i can convert them to MOV and play smoothly and keep the good quality.
1. If all you want to do is play videos, Flip4Mac plus QuickTime (non-Pro of each,) will work fine. Any issues you experienced with Flip4Mac Pro on the playback side will continue to exhibit on the non-Pro side.
2. If you want to convert WMV to MOV, you will need one of the following solutions:
--a. QuickTime Pro *PLUS* Flip4Mac Pro
--b. A freeware or open-source video converter, such as TranscoderRedux (formerly known as iSquint) or VLC.
Note: The transcoding process, by the mere nature of what it is doing, *WILL* reduce the quality. If you take a photograph of a photograph, the second one will look worse. It may not look MUCH worse, but it will have degraded.
For the extra work involved in converting, if your goal is merely to watch them on your computer, just using Flip4Mac is your best bet. (You may also want to try VLC, purely to watch. It's easy to use when just watching, rather more difficult when trying to convert.)
THANKs!!
yea all i want is to watch WMV quality videos with smooth playback. but flip4mac has to wait for the video to load up to playback and VLC playback acts weirdly with some WMV but less weirdly with the other. So there isn't really a perfect solution, looks like it.
I think im just gonna settle with getting the MOV format of those video with a little less quality video instead of going thru all these trouble converting and still not as good quality.
but THANKS for your reply.
What is your fixation with load-up time? It is an issue if you want to jog back and forth. It can also be an issue if you are watching streaming video on a slow connection. If load-up is at least as fast as playback, then that is all you need for playback.
FWIW, you are dealing with the limitations of the WMV format. The perfect solution is for "perfect solution" would be for content providers to abandon Microsoft's misbegotten format.
Here is something you can try with Quicktime Pro. Open the wmv and let it load, then select save as, and save as a new reference mov file. What this does is create a small that reads the data from the old wmv but has the time code data in the smaller file. This should let it open immediately without quality loss.
You can keep the reference files in the same directory for easy access.
You can keep the reference files in the same directory for easy access.
There is more of that misbegotten format out there than quicktime stuff. Don't forget, until recently only a small percentage of people used
. I don't think its a matter of limitations on WMV format. It's a stubborn egomaniacal CEO that refuses to ship software that plays WMV natively.Many PC users feel this way about Quicktime. On a PC I hate using Quicktime, it is garbage. On a mac it doesn't bother me as much.
Just because you have an alter to Bill Gates in your bedroom doesn't mean that the rest of us have to worship there. QuickTime stuff? The iPod and iTunes started out as MP3 players. Since when has MP3 been "QuickTime stuff"? When Apple went online with the iTune Music Store, it went online with AAC, the standard soundtrack format of MPEG 4. MPEG 4, another family of open formats. Except for Apple Lossless, Apple's music ecology is based on open standard formats. In case you did not know, my Windows loving friend, WMA stands for Windows Media Audio, a family of proprietary Microsoft formats. On Windows, you may use WMA because Windows grants access to Microsoft's proprietary Windows Media frameworks. You may believe that it is OK for Apple to pay Microsoft to use WMA on MacOS X [if Microsoft will allow it], but I'm willing to bet that most Mac users would rather Apple save its money and pass the savings on to the customer.There is more of that misbegotten format out there than quicktime stuff. Don't forget, until recently only a small percentage of people used
Many PC users feel this way about Quicktime. On a PC I hate using Quicktime, it is garbage. On a mac it doesn't bother me as much.
Okay, you can try converting the wmv file to a different format. Two free converters worth trying are VideoMonkey, and offshoot of the excellent VisualHub converter. Unfortunately Visualhub is no longer produced, but the developer released the code and the VideoMonkey was born. Not quite as good IMO, but still worth a shot.
Brian
Brian
Thanks for all the posts on this subject. I'm definitely with the first poster, who doesn't like the fact that, even with Flip4Mac installed, WMV files take forever to load. I have Flip4Mac Studio Pro 220 on my Mac, and compared with older versions of Flip4Mac, WMV files take longer than ever to load. Part of that may have to do with my machine. It's a bit old but it's all I've got: A 2005 MacMini with 1GB Ram running 10.4.11.
Note that if you just have the free version of Flip4Mac, even if you have QuickTime Pro installed, you'll get a watermark if you try to export a WMV file to another format. And not just a small watermark. It'll cover the whole bottom half of your screen.
Brian's advice, however, is probably the best. VisualHub (I own version 1.3.4) is a great tool. I resaved WMV movies to AVI, noodled with some settings, and the video quality was great. Trouble is, it just takes too long to do it on my MacMini.
Since I already own VisualHub, I haven't tried VideoMonkey, but if it's based on VisualHub, you should give it a go. Provided your Mac is fast enough!
Running Photo Story 3 files saved as .wmv
HELP!
I'm being driven mad because I have try and to mark student assignments done in Photo Story 3 and saved as wmv files on my Mac! I've tried Flip for Mac and the latest upgrade to 2.3.8.1 won't work. VLC. and MacVCD wont look at them and even Window Media Player 9 (the last by MS that works?) only runs the audio file. Do you know of anything at all that would simply run the video?
HELP!
I'm being driven mad because I have try and to mark student assignments done in Photo Story 3 and saved as wmv files on my Mac! I've tried Flip for Mac and the latest upgrade to 2.3.8.1 won't work. VLC. and MacVCD wont look at them and even Window Media Player 9 (the last by MS that works?) only runs the audio file. Do you know of anything at all that would simply run the video?
Here is the deal. Photo Story is a Microsoft product. Undoubtedly, it uses a very recent version of the Windows Media APIs. Flip4Mac supports Windows Media up to Windows Media 9. Flip4Mac does not support either Windows Media 10 or Windows Media 11. Photo Story is free, but it comes at a cost.