Microsoft Halting Windows Media Player for Mac

[Jetson]

Fine Print

Where will it end?

I'm talking about these EULAs that are pages long and need the services of an attorney to decipher.

Good grief, this Flip4Mac software is a free app, but they make you agree to all sorts of unreasonable demands for the privilege of using it:

Section 3. Audit Permitted.
Telestream shall have the right, upon reasonable prior notice to You and during Your normal business hours, to audit Your use of the Licensed Materials and to inspect Your records related to any copies of the Software, or portions thereof, made by You.

If ever there was an area of the user experience that demands reform it's these darned end user licensing agreements. Why must we be coerced into agreeing to these contracts for each of the hundreds of software products that we use?

(I'm sure no one but me even cares about EULAs, much less reads them).

 

[edenwaith]

Not good

While I think that WMP for the Mac sucks the hind quarters of a donkey, I don't want to see it go away. Whether I like it or not, there is still a significant amount of video out there which does require WMP, whether it be avi, asf, or whatever. Fortunately, I have found that VLC does a pretty good job in covering these duties, but there are some clips which have been encoded funny and VLC cannot play them.

But WMP as an application is pretty poor. Version 7 skipped HORRIBLY, and while version 9 is better, it is still pretty slow. It doesn't even have a Clear Menu option for the Open Recent menu...not right. It's small things like that which makes an application not quite feel like a proper Mac application.

But maybe Microsoft dropping the ball (and the product) will hopefully make their products even less important and start to die away...when was the last time you used RealPlayer? The last time I even used RealPlayer was to open up some older files from the OS 9 days. But there are probably people who do make more significant use of WMP or RealPlayer, especially with news streams, but I don't bother much with those.

 

[coolsoldier]

Interesting side note:

If you ever need to pay back your friends for sending you an unplayable .avi, now you can get back at them by sending them a mac-only video.

The combination of QuickTime+Flip4Mac allows one to create video files that can only be played on the mac: WMV3 data wrapped in a QuickTime .mov.

• QuickTime with the Flip4Mac plugin will play it.
• QT for Windows won't play it because Flip4Mac is mac-only.
• WMP won't play QuickTime files,
• and VLC/MPlayer both choke on WMV3.

(You can create these files by opening a WMV file in Safari using the F4M plugin and choosing "Save as QuickTime Movie" from the drop-down menu)

 

[illegalprelude]

Microsoft is only worried about IBM.

....? explain

 

[ScottB]

Its about time they got rid of WMP, all I need now is MSN Messenger to go the way of Internet Explorer and intergrate it into iChat.

 

[X-Baz]

And yes the x86 architecture is CISC based. Welcome to 1985 (when the x86-32bit was introduced)

No it isn't. The instruction set is CISC-style but the implementation is RISC style. Likewise PPC chips instruction set is RISC-style but Altivec is CISC style.

 

[creativeone]

Not necessarily

It doesn't so anybody any good to complain unless you have an idea of how to do it better.

Now that's a dumb statement. He clearly stated he was a consumer and was growing tired of the war.

I sympathize. I'm a web designer, and the web design world is just now getting to the point that it uses a lot more standards to make the whole process better.

I wish there was a standardized format for USB cables. My camera takes one type of connect, my phone takes another, my hub uses the "stanrdard" cable type ... see where this gets you? Annoyed.

The content wars have begun. May the best person win, but don't shut out all platforms in the process. That's bad news for the consumer.

 

[iDM]

More specifically, you need to delete the plugin from /Library/Internet Plug-Ins.

I have read three different people post what "should" be removed to completely remove WMP from OS X. I have heard of the BatchMod which makes any files you drop on it authorized to be deleted regardless of what OS X tells it, which is not really something I am comfortable having. I have heard someone say to delete plug-ins and I also heard someone say to delete the Media Player folder and things found by Spotlight.

Has anyone successfully and completely removed WMP and if so how did you go about doing it?

deleting the "Plug-In" folder or deleting the things spotlight finds with media player does not remove everything.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[shamino]

I have read three different people post what "should" be removed to completely remove WMP from OS X. I have heard of the BatchMod which makes any files you drop on it authorized to be deleted regardless of what OS X tells it, which is not really something I am comfortable having. I have heard someone say to delete plug-ins and I also heard someone say to delete the Media Player folder and things found by Spotlight.

Has anyone successfully and completely removed WMP and if so how did you go about doing it?

I think I already said that I removed it from my system.

Deleted the application from /Applications. The plug-in from /Library/Internet Plug-ins. The two preference files from ~/Library/Preferences.

WMV files now play exclusively though QT, both in web browsers and from the Finder. If there is anything left of WMP on my system, please tell me what else there is, because it looks completely gone from over here.

WRT "three different people", I'm one of them. And from what I'm able to see, all three of us were saying the same thing. The BatchMod recommendation was from someone who needed it in order to trash the application file. My recommendation (application, plugin, preferences) is a superset of what you get with the Spotlight method. (Spotlight misses one preference file if you use "Windows media player" as the search key.)

deleting the "Plug-In" folder or deleting the things spotlight finds with media player does not remove everything.

So what's left? If you don't know, then how can you say something was missed?

 

[CreepyArcade]

Why even talk about realplayer? I hardly see any movies anymore that you need realplayer to watch but even if I came across some I could easily handle them on my windows computer by downloading "real alternative" at this adress:

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm

As for Windows Media player, the mac version really has some issues and the windows version is buggy and unappealing to look at but it does play wmv files better than the mac version.

Quicktime also seems to work quite a bit better on the mac than on windows.

I personally don't care that media player for mac was discontinued but it is important that we all have some way to view wmv files with as few problems as possible on our macs because there are just so many wmv files on the internet.

On a side note, if MacOS does end up getting some sort of windows emulation environment that actually works well then our problems in this area should be lessened since we could use it for those videos that do not play directly within MacOS. Though I'm not sure how well that would work...

 

[iDM]

I think I already said that I removed it from my system.

Deleted the application from /Applications. The plug-in from /Library/Internet Plug-ins. The two preference files from ~/Library/Preferences.

WMV files now play exclusively though QT, both in web browsers and from the Finder. If there is anything left of WMP on my system, please tell me what else there is, because it looks completely gone from over here.

WRT "three different people", I'm one of them. And from what I'm able to see, all three of us were saying the same thing. The BatchMod recommendation was from someone who needed it in order to trash the application file. My recommendation (application, plugin, preferences) is a superset of what you get with the Spotlight method. (Spotlight misses one preference file if you use "Windows media player" as the search key.)
So what's left? If you don't know, then how can you say something was missed?

Ahh thank you Shamino I guess my message had all of the pieces I just didn't put them together as being the complete removal operation. If I remember correctly you helped me out with another problem I was having relating to something OS X related. I'll knock all of the components you mentioned and hopefully all of my streams and WMP files will play through QT!

 

[shamino]

Ahh thank you Shamino I guess my message had all of the pieces I just didn't put them together as being the complete removal operation. If I remember correctly you helped me out with another problem I was having relating to something OS X related. I'll knock all of the components you mentioned and hopefully all of my streams and WMP files will play through QT!

Only one other potential gotcha.

The QT player application won't automatically associate with WMV files. Flip4Mac includes a "WMV Player" app that will auto-associate with WMV. It simply launches the QT Player. (If you have other WMV-compatible players, like VLC, the system may select that instead.)

I wanted to associate them with QT Player directly, however. This is no big deal:

• Select a WMV file
• Do a "Get Info" (off the File menu or type command-I)
• In the "Open With" pane, select "Other..." from the list
• In the dialog that pops up, select "All Applications" from the "Enabel" menu, then select "QuickTime Player" from the /Applications folder. Click the "Add" button.
• Back in the Info panel, click "Change All..." to make this selection the default for all WMV files.

 

[Randall]

Only one other potential gotcha.

The QT player application won't automatically associate with WMV files. Flip4Mac includes a "WMV Player" app that will auto-associate with WMV. It simply launches the QT Player. (If you have other WMV-compatible players, like VLC, the system may select that instead.)

I wanted to associate them with QT Player directly, however. This is no big deal:

• Select a WMV file
• Do a "Get Info" (off the File menu or type command-I)
• In the "Open With" pane, select "Other..." from the list
• In the dialog that pops up, select "All Applications" from the "Enabel" menu, then select "QuickTime Player" from the /Applications folder. Click the "Add" button.
• Back in the Info panel, click "Change All..." to make this selection the default for all WMV files.

When you do that, does the icon change for wmv files to look like the QuickTime icon with a little text at the bottom saying WMV? etc. Just curious.

 

[Randall]

No it isn't. The instruction set is CISC-style but the implementation is RISC style. Likewise PPC chips instruction set is RISC-style but Altivec is CISC style.

So you call a CISC inscruction set not CISC based? What is it then? I assume you're going to tell me the line between RISC and CISC is being blurred, which is true, but there is still a definative inscruction set, and for x86 it is CISC.

 

[Randall]

Its about time they got rid of WMP, all I need now is MSN Messenger to go the way of Internet Explorer and intergrate it into iChat.

Forget iChat, you can already use the MSN Messenger protocol built into Adium X

 

[shamino]

When you do that, does the icon change for wmv files to look like the QuickTime icon with a little text at the bottom saying WMV? etc. Just curious.

For the few files I have, the icon didn't change. Some are keeping the WMP icon (possibly because WMP is still in my trash), and some have blank document icons.

 

[shamino]

So you call a CISC inscruction set not CISC based? What is it then? I assume you're going to tell me the line between RISC and CISC is being blurred, which is true, but there is still a definative inscruction set, and for x86 it is CISC.

The entire concept has been blurred to the point where the terms are meaningless except for marketing departments and flame-wars.

The x86 instruction set definitely started out as CISC, but these days nearly every instruction executes in a single clock cycle - a key feature of RISC.

Similarly, chips like PPC, MIPS, SPARC and others started out as RISC, but all of them now have a handfull of multi-clock instructions in the set - one of the defining features of CISC.

And chips like the Opteron are actually custom RISC chips running microcode for x86 emulation - executing most instructions in a single clock, but some in multiple clocks. So what is that? CISC? RISC? Something else? Who cares?

 

[Randall]

For the few files I have, the icon didn't change. Some are keeping the WMP icon (possibly because WMP is still in my trash), and some have blank document icons.

Yuck. There must be a way to fix that. Why is WMP still in your trash? In case you decide to revert back?

 

[Randall]

The entire concept has been blurred to the point where the terms are meaningless except for marketing departments and flame-wars.

The x86 instruction set definitely started out as CISC, but these days nearly every instruction executes in a single clock cycle - a key feature of RISC.

Similarly, chips like PPC, MIPS, SPARC and others started out as RISC, but all of them now have a handfull of multi-clock instructions in the set - one of the defining features of CISC.

And chips like the Opteron are actually custom RISC chips running microcode for x86 emulation - executing most instructions in a single clock, but some in multiple clocks. So what is that? CISC? RISC? Something else? Who cares?

Sorry I didn't mean to start a flame war. Time to put this puppy to bed.

 

[Counter]

I think I already said that I removed it from my system.

Deleted the application from /Applications. The plug-in from /Library/Internet Plug-ins. The two preference files from ~/Library/Preferences.

WMV files now play exclusively though QT, both in web browsers and from the Finder. If there is anything left of WMP on my system, please tell me what else there is, because it looks completely gone from over here.

WRT "three different people", I'm one of them. And from what I'm able to see, all three of us were saying the same thing. The BatchMod recommendation was from someone who needed it in order to trash the application file. My recommendation (application, plugin, preferences) is a superset of what you get with the Spotlight method. (Spotlight misses one preference file if you use "Windows media player" as the search key.)
So what's left? If you don't know, then how can you say something was missed?

I have done this, and changed the 'open with' for all wmv files to Quicktime. For files on my system it's now fine, all open in Quicktime.

But browser based wmv streams don't. If you go to cnn.com, to the 'watch video' flash widget midway down on the right hand side, do those streams work for you?

I may be missing a preferences file though. Only ones I could find and trash were Windows Media Player Prefs and Windows Media Favorites.

Edit
-------

Looks like this is a DRM issue. It's easy to turn the Flip4Mac wmv browser plugin on and off in it's system preference pane though. Which obviously requires you don't delete the Windows wmv plugin.

 

[shamino]

Yuck. There must be a way to fix that. Why is WMP still in your trash? In case you decide to revert back?

I don't manually empty my trash. I use a program called Compost, which automatically purges individual items as other stuff is dropped there.

IMO, Compost is an incredibly useful program. It provides for Mac OS one of the few things I really love about Windows. (Disclaimer: I'm a friend of the author.)

 

[dirtskier]

hey, I have a question/test for anyone out there using flip4mac...

if you go to XFM's website http://www.xfm.co.uk/home.asp and click on the "listen now" up at the top, will flip4mac allow the stream to work properly?

it's applications like this that I've been worried about (sorry if this was mentioned earlier in the thread.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

hey, I have a question/test for anyone out there using flip4mac...

if you go to XFM's website http://www.xfm.co.uk/home.asp and click on the "listen now" up at the top, will flip4mac allow the stream to work properly?

it's applications like this that I've been worried about (sorry if this was mentioned earlier in the thread.

Just tested with the web plug-in. Get the following error: 403. Tried switching to use QuickTime Player instead of plug-in mode. No dice, QT doesn't even load, still getting 403 error.

 

[dirtskier]

Just tested with the web plug-in. Get the following error: 403. Tried switching to use QuickTime Player instead of plug-in mode. No dice, QT doesn't even load, still getting 403 error.

hmmm, not a good thing for net radio users then... too many streams run like that. hopefully compatibility issues will get resolved in the future. til then I cant really afford a mac as it is...

anything else out there for mac that would play this?

 

[devman]

hmmm, not a good thing for net radio users then... too many streams run like that. hopefully compatibility issues will get resolved in the future. til then I cant really afford a mac as it is...

anything else out there for mac that would play this?

yeah I've had no success at all with flip4mac and any streams (including english premier league broadcasts) I've been copying the url out of the failed flip4mac page and then pasting it into VLC. That's working for me.