Microsoft Halting Windows Media Player for Mac

[Bern]

So another M$ back turn on the Mac community. Oh well it's no big deal really. Flip4Mac does the job when needed, I've been using it now for almost a year.

I don't know why anyone using a Mac would want to encode into wmv format anyways. Regardless of the idea that most people own pc's and therefore use Media Player, I think the more people use a better codec the better it will be in the long run.

 

[d.perel]

I certainly won't miss WMP for Mac.

Same here. it has crashed more times than any other program I have ever used

 

[iJaz]

Ok, so does this mean that we will never be able to use Microsofts DRM on the Mac? No Napster or Urge or whatever they are called for Mac?
I personally don't regret that, I am just curious.

 

[Roller]

I've never liked WMP, either, but there's too much video content to ignore the format. Apple ought to just buy the rights to distribute the free player/browser components with QuickTime. Flip4Mac could still sell the import and studio versions.

 

[Detlev]

Curiosity killed the cat. I went ahead and installed Flip4 after all and for some reason I cannot watch streaming university TV anymore. Does this app affect .asf ?

 

[niffer]

Streaming??

What if I want to watch a streaming presentation that defaults to using WMP? Can I force it to using QT? (Streaming being the key point.)

 

[~Shard~]

I use VLC and MPlayer - I could care less about this - all it means is one less piece of MS software I'd have on my machine.

 

[m-dogg]

What's the best way to get WMP off my system? Can I just do a spotlight search and drag everything to trash? Or so I need to run a WMP uninstaller or something?

 

[iGary]

Well, there goes my pron collection.

 

[AidenShaw]

There's no Windows Media 10 codec

I assume my problems are Windows Media 10 files....

According to Macorchard Flip4Mac won't support it.

Windows Media 9 is the latest codec - the *player* is V10, but the codec is V9.

 

[50548]

Flip4Mac crashes Quicktime every time I close a movie. Great work.

It's already fixed...go to Flip4Mac's site and download the x.x.1 update there. It works perfectly now.

 

[AidenShaw]

avi is not a codec

Ah well, hopefully this will decrease usage of the equal worst video codec ever (other one being avi). Flip4Mac makes things *bearable though*. I do not understand why people can't make all their vids on their websites as .mpeg or .mov though. Reliability.

.wmv and .avi are container file formats, not codecs. The video/audio within an AVI file can be any of a number of coding standards, such as DV or mpeg4 or....

DivX/Xvid movies are .avi files.

 

[50548]

Ah well, hopefully this will decrease usage of the equal worst video codec ever (other one being avi). Flip4Mac makes things *bearable though*. I do not understand why people can't make all their vids on their websites as .mpeg or .mov though. Reliability.

Yes. It's amazing how awful-looking the Windows Media codec/file is...I really can't understand how people keep using it, instead of MPEG, QuickTime or any other...simply amazing. Why do you need hi-res displays when everything is pixelated in WMV? Bollocks.

 

[MacsRgr8]

Windows Media 9 is the latest codec - the *player* is V10, but the codec is V9.

Ah. Tnx for clearing that up.

Not sure what's causing the problems.

 

[Randall]

Flip4Mac with 3ivX + QuickTime should play just about any clip you want, and Mplayer will play the rest. No need for WMP or the ****ty RealPlayer.

 

[FocusAndEarnIt]

When I've used it, it's been unbearably slow and just not a pleasant program to work with. I'll use the Flip4Mac program if I have to view WMP files.

Where do I go about to get this??

EDIT: I found it and installed.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

No great loss for me. I bought Flip4Mac, and it works great. I upgraded to the new free version, since it does all I need it to do - play WMV files.

 

[Yvan256]

I have Flip4mac pro and I actually make a lot of WMV content for websites, This should be interesting. I'm sure someone will continue to make a Mac solution for windows media player.

How about making lots of QuickTime content for websites instead.

 

[kretzy]

Meh, big deal. It was a pathetic excuse of a program anyway...even by MS's standards.

 

[Yvan256]

Ah well, hopefully this will decrease usage of the equal worst video codec ever (other one being avi). Flip4Mac makes things *bearable though*. I do not understand why people can't make all their vids on their websites as .mpeg or .mov though. Reliability.

Or, now that QuickTime 7 is available on both platforms, in H.264. It provides better video quality (good for the users) and lowers bandwidth requirements (good for the users and providers).

Since we can assume a lot of people have QuickTime on Windows (most of those iPod owners are Windows users), it would make sense for both platforms too. I mean, how can websites keep using Windows Media if Microsoft doesn't even offer the player for the Mac anymore?

 

[Kernow]

I mean, how can websites keep using Windows Media if Microsoft doesn't even offer the player for the Mac anymore?

Because unfortunately, Macs still have a low % of market share. People will encode videos in a format which they think the most of their visitors will be able to view.

As most of these will be Windows users with WMP, I would guess that's why they go for it. It's a pain & I agree it would be nice to see videos in H.264, but I can't see the dropping of the Mac version of WMP precipitating this.

 

[IlluminatedSage]

I think this is really crummy of Microsoft.

They are killing the ability for Mac users to watch DRM Windows Media Files.

I Watch movies and files like this on paid download services.

Without it, People can't watch things like:

Hentaivod.com
vod.com
hotmovies.com

they use Windows Media, high end DRM.

This is another way Microsoft is screwing the mac user. if they are getting rid of mac support. They better enable work arounds for third party software. AND SOON!!!

OTHERWISE IM STOPPING BUYING MAC OFFICE WHEN NEW VERSIONS COME OUT AND WILL USE OTHER SOFTWARE.

 

[TheMasin9]

good

this is good, wmp9 sucked bigtime anyway. Id rather use flip4mac, its a lot more dependable.

 

[mongoos150]

Thank God, no more WMP! I am STILL having a hard time getting .avi files to play on my Mac though, any suggestions?

 

[AidenShaw]

Because unfortunately, Macs still have a low % of market share. People will encode videos in a format which they think the most of their visitors will be able to view.

People will encode videos in a format which they think the most of their visitors will be able to view without having to download and install a 32 MB adware application.