Question: Play a WMV on a Mac

tommasz — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:23:02 -0800

I've got a Mac G4 running 10.4.11 and I've been experiencing worsening problems playing WMV files. I realize this is a kludge to begin with, but things are getting weird...

When I doubleclick a WMV file in the Finder, it appears to start the Quicktime Player, but nothing happens. I can view the file in VLC with no problem. This has been an on-going issue.

Now, and this is recent, in both Camino and Firefox certain embedded WMV files download but instead of playing in the browser window, I get a black window with a white bar across the top and "(no video)" in the center of the window. Nothing plays.

I had both Perian and Flip4Mac installed so I uninstalled both with no change in behavior. I have the latest Quicktime and my system software is up to date. I can work around all of this but it bugs me that it's supposed to work and doesn't. Any ideas?

By: suedehead

suedehead — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:30:04 -0800

That's because OSX doesn't have any native support for WMV files. VLC itself can read WMV files by itself, however. You should try reinstalling Flip4Mac. More here.

By: GatorDavid

GatorDavid — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:33:27 -0800

You should just need the latest Quicktime components from Microsoft. That worked for me. Get 'em here.

Comments on: Play a WMV on a Mac

Question: Play a WMV on a Mac

By: suedehead

By: GatorDavid