How do I play .WMV windows media player files on my Mac?
September 21, 2005 8:13 AM   Subscribe

How do I play .WMV windows media player files on my Mac? How about in fast-forward?

I have a class with webcast lectures online, and I'd like to watch it at home. The class streams lectures online, and I can view them with my windows media player browser plugin in Safari. However, if I want to download the lectures and play them, it won't work with the version of WMP I have (the newest one for mac).
Is there another program that will play these files? (I haven't had much luck with VLC)

Also, some of my friends with PCs have been watching these lectures at 1.5x, turning them into 1 hour lectures instead of 1.5 hours. This is extremely appealing - any way to do this on my mac?

(OSX 10.4)
posted by sdis to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)
 
Windows Media Player for Macs
posted by Lame_username at 8:34 AM on September 21, 2005


You might want to try moving the files to a higher level on your hard drive, like to the desktop. I can't play WMP files on my Mac if they are embedded too deeply in folders--I think the program has some kind of problem with the path name being too long.
posted by bcwinters at 8:39 AM on September 21, 2005


I should read more carefully. I assume that is the player you already have. I've got nothing.
posted by Lame_username at 8:40 AM on September 21, 2005


Lame_username: sdis said he had the latest WMP for Mac.

Anyway, have you tried MPlayer? That's the program, other than VLC, that often crops up with such questions.

You should also speak to your college or whatever and ask that they stop using WMVs in favour of a more open format. Things won't change if people don't complain and just go for a somewhat unpleasant workaround.
posted by edd at 8:41 AM on September 21, 2005


It might require an extra step, but you may try something like this application here

Convert to quicktime .mov
Use Quicktime pro's nice 1.5x feature.
posted by freq at 8:43 AM on September 21, 2005


Response by poster: Oops! Forgot to mention an important fact: it says,
In order to play this file, you need to upgrade your media player to a version compatible with Windows Media Rights Manager V7
posted by sdis at 8:44 AM on September 21, 2005


Response by poster: Downloading 20/150 megs of my wmv and trying out that WMV-->Quicktime converter, i get a white screen. Dunno if that's due to an incomplete download
posted by sdis at 8:59 AM on September 21, 2005


Can you Get Info on the clip (when it's loaded in WMV) and identify the audio and video codecs? ".wmv" is just an extension; it can wrap media encoded in a variety of different formats.
posted by Wolfdog at 9:10 AM on September 21, 2005


I can play WMVs in Quicktime after I obtained a program called Flip4Mac. You'll need to pay for registration, otherwise it will only show you half the video, but it works great for me.
posted by synecdoche at 9:13 AM on September 21, 2005


I highly recommend mplayer (link to .dmg) for the mac. Though it is still a preview release, it is the best player I have ever found. It opens everything I give it and has a nice clean, simple interface.
posted by chrisroberts at 9:23 AM on September 21, 2005


Best answer: Google says you're out of luck. No Mac clients appear to support Windows Media Rights Manager V7 (not even Windows Media Player). Sorry.
posted by Sibrax at 9:25 AM on September 21, 2005


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