How to play WMV files

[MacDaddy951]

hi what do i need to download to get a wmv movie to play on a mac?

 

[silence]

iSquint - You can't play the files directly, but it converts them to mpg or other viewable formats on Mac.

 

[mark!]

flip4mac

 

[Chundles]

iSquint - You can't play the files directly, but it converts them to mpg or other viewable formats on Mac.

You need either Windows Media Player for Mac (sucks) or Flip4Mac Quicktime plugin (sucks a bit less).

On an Intel Mac it's a bit trickier, you either need to run Flip4Mac and Quicktime through Rosetta unless you can find the Universal beta of Flip4Mac OR run WMP through rosetta. At the moment, both of those options suck until Flip4Mac goes Universal in it's next release.

 

[MacDaddy951]

what about realplayer for mac will that work?

 

[Chundles]

what about realplayer for mac will that work?

For RealMedia, yeah it works fine, it's Universal so it should be good to go. RealPlayer doesn't play WMV though.

 

[Peace]

http://www.popwire.com/product_info..._id=7&osCsid=ad603da6f3078440e9c002c6c38d6a5d

It's Universal

 

[MacDaddy951]

ok i downloaded windows media player but it won't open! do i have to download something else for it to open now? i'm confussed!

 

[mad jew]

You may need to decompress it with Stuffit Expander. Do you have an Intel Mac though? If so, I don't think WMV will work anyway.

 

[MacDaddy951]

no my mac doesn't have an intel in it

 

[ChrisFromCanada]

If you are not on intel then simply go to http://flip4mac.com/wmv_download.htm download, install, and enjoy wmv files playing in Safari, Firefox, quicktime and more.

Use this, is is free and works best.

 

[Chundles]

no my mac doesn't have an intel in it

WMP for Mac is a three-year-old program, it has been replaced with the Quicktime plugin Flip4Mac that is the official Microsoft solution for playing most Windows Media files on your Mac and I recommend it over WMP for Mac. Because you have a PPC Mac you can run either option at native speed so that's good.

Because WMP:Mac is 3 years old it uses a 3 yr old compression format called .sit to open a .sit file you will need to download and install Stuffit Expander (just Google it). Then you can open the installer file.

Much easier and a better option to download and install Flip4Mac as it's new, approved and uses the modern compression for it's installer so you won't need anything to open it.

 

[Makosuke]

The Microsoft WMP player isn't just 3 years old and discontinued, it is a flaming pile of garbage that has an inordinate amount of trouble doing the only thing it's intended to do: Play WMV video. The fact that Microsoft stopped development on it and just licensed the Flip4Mac codec to give away for free should be some indication of just how worthless it is.

Flip4Mac is great--it was worth it when I paid $20 for a license last year, and it's even better free. Plays more video than WMP ever did, and does it far more smoothly and with better quality (WMP has horrific scaling, while Flip4Mac scales video quite nicely using QuickTime).

Since you don't have an Intel Mac, there isn't even anything to be thinking about--get it, install it, and call it done.

 

[duskanddawn]

What if intel present ?

Hello All,
I have the same problem of not able to run wmv files on my new mac. ( 3 days old) But it has intel in it what shld i do now...how can play these wmv files and why is that only Xp can play these damn wmv files in general.. I hate that

 

[Nermal]

Download and install Flip4Mac.

 

[fivetoadsloth]

as mentioned above get flip4mac, it isnt the best but simple and works ok.

 

[duskanddawn]

hi,
I tried flip4mac but its still not working even with quick time running ..
Is there anything wrong which i am doin .. I installed flip4mac using the rosetta insataller process as described somewhere and then set qucik time to run in rosetta mode .. but it still not working .....
Please help

 

[Nermal]

You don't need to use Rosetta, and it probably won't work if you do. The posts above were from June, and are therefore for the old (PowerPC) version of Flip4Mac.

 

[duskanddawn]

ok i tried some things and the wmv files are playing but now the 2 main problems..
The files open in a quick time window rather than the player which is embedded on the webpage displaying the videos.
And second there is a lot of flickerin goin on in the quick time while showing the wmv content which is quite annoying and disappointing.
Is there anything else which i can do to get around these things...

 

[maskd]

You can use VLC, an open source media player that will play nearly any format you throw at it: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html

 

[Aniej]

just grab flipformac it runs seamlesly in safari, and while not th greatest media player, solves the problem. Real player works just fine. I am not sure there is really much more to it than downloading these two applications. Neither require a MB/P.

 

[duskanddawn]

i Even have VLC on my system but how will i direct the application to VLC as its all streaming video...is there a way so that i can show that it should be played in VLC

 

[Reno404]

Hey guys!

Since I use Flip4Mac on my Intel Macbook, most of WMV files work fine.
The problem I have now concerns some of the downloaded AVI files I got using the Torrent client Azureus. I download the file (350 Mb), then play it in VLC. 4 times out of 5, I get no sound, ni image, I can just see the progress going way to fast (a 40min episode runs in 10 seconds). 1 time out of 5 (approx), the episode works fine. Mplayer and Quicktime, even Flip4Mac-ed, won't play those files either.

Anyone else has this problem? Or know how to solve it? It's a bitch downloading 5 different torrents of the same episode, hoping one would end up working properly...

Thx