How to play 1080P video on a 1440 × 900 screen?

[Bubble99]

A friend of mind give me video in a WMV format and QuickTime or VLC will not play it because it is in WMV format and to make it worse the laptop is only 1440 × 900 screen and the video is 1920 by 1080.

What should I do? Is there other free video players that will play WMV format? Also does the screen size being bigger than 1440 × 900 be problem? Will the video have to be down converted to 1440 × 900 or less before it will play? The fact it is 1080P video way above 1440 × 900 be also other problem? And it is very old MacBook Pro be problem.

When I try to play the video in VLC it just freezes.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

VLC should play it, and resolution has nothing to do with it, any video player will play any resolution video (in a format it supports.)

Might also try IINA, another open source video player like VLC, but specifically made for macOS, not cross-platform, so less buggy.

It's also just possible that the video file is corrupt.

 

[Bubble99]

VLC should play it, and resolution has nothing to do with it, any video player will play any resolution video (in a format it supports.)

Might also try IINA, another open source video player like VLC, but specifically made for macOS, not cross-platform, so less buggy.

It's also just possible that the video file is corrupt.

I have VLC version 2.0.8 that came out in 2013-07-25

The computer and OS is too old so cannot update to a new version.

Not sure if that has any thing to do with it.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

That almost certainly has something to do with it. What model MacBook Pro is it, and what OS are you running?

Heck, you might try loading the old Microsoft Windows Media Player for Mac or its Microsoft-approved replacement flip4mac

 

[Bubble99]

I just checked the video on my windows computer and it plays okay.

So it has to be some thing with old hardware, old OS and VLC using old codecs.

But I don’t know how to update VLC or put other video player on it if they don’t support old OS and old hardware.

 

[Gwendolini]

What exact Mac with what exact macOS version do you have?

 

[Bubble99]

What exact Mac with what exact macOS version do you have?

Not sure the MacBook Pro is over 10 years old.

 

[Gwendolini]

Not sure the MacBook Pro is over 10 years old.

You can find out what Mac you have via going to the Apple on the top left and selecting "About This Mac".

Find your Mac model name and serial number - Apple Support

Use any of these ways to find the model name and serial number of your Mac.

support.apple.com

The Mac OS version is listed there too.