The VideoLAN Forums

Hi folks,

As near as I can tell, WMV3 files aren't playable in VLC. Actually, I can get perfect audio, but never video. The following error message appears when I open WMV3 files in VLC:

<<< main: no suitable decoder module for fourcc `WMV3'. VLC probably does not support this sound or video format. >>>

My Windows Media Player is totally corrupt and won't ever open, and I've run out of options. So..

Are there any plugins/codecs available to enable VLC to view WMV3 video?

-Or-

Can anyone recommend another free download video viewer for OSX that can view WMV3 files?

Thanks,
Jon
--------------
OSX 10.4.3
QT 7.0.3
VLC 0.8.2

The only free WMV3 player for Mac OS X are Windows Media Player 9.

With the Flip4Mac, you can Play ALL WMV 3.0 Files in your Quicktime Player...cool an much bether than in the Windows Media Player....


Dear VLC-Team, is ther no way to integrate this plugin in the VLC-Player? Its possible for the QT-Player...

Liink: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window ... p4mac.mspx

1: Flip4Mac is not a free codec.
2: Flip4Mac is a QuickTime codec. VLC is not a QuickTime based player. It brings it's own codecs.

so the answer is No.

Hmm, its clear, that Flip4Mac is for QuickTime...I thought its maybe possible to use QT Codecs in VLC...but when not...ist bether to play the WMV3-Files with the Flip4Mac-Encoder than with the WindowsMediaPlayer10 (has no inerpolation, only pixel doubling, brrr!)

Talking of Flip4Mac, M$ have just released it for free. I know it won't solve the VLC not supporting WMV3 but it will help Mac users for the time being.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window ... p4mac.mspx

A workaround is to convert the WMV to VCD (or whatever your favorite format is). I generally use VLC's Exporting Wizard to convert the audio and ffmpegX to convert the video, then mux the two together in ffmpegX. Not exactly a pretty solution, but it's free.

Anybody got a better method?

Actually, i have just contacted the Flip4Mac developers and asked them wether they would care to assist us in implementing F4M WMV3 support in VLC. So that you can playback WMV3 with VLC, if you have the F4M components installed.

thats great news

Actually, i have just contacted the Flip4Mac developers and asked them wether they would care to assist us in implementing F4M WMV3 support in VLC. So that you can playback WMV3 with VLC, if you have the F4M components installed.

Not only is this a great news, I also gave F4M guys the WMV3-encoded AVI files (three files.. nearly a GB) so that their plugin can properly test and support those AVI files with WMV3 codecs in them. If it all works out, we'd have proper WMV3 support in BOTH QuickTime and VLC, ending grief for many people including me out there.

flip4mac will not play wmv3 files or any other drm windows media files

F4M WILL play WMV3 files, but not WMV3 avi files, and not DRM'ed files.

Stop making statements without knowing what you are saying.

F4M WILL play WMV3 files, but not WMV3 avi files, and not DRM'ed files.

Stop making statements without knowing what you are saying.

I have not tested them (AVI files with WMV3 video) yet, but their feature checklist makes the impression (to me, at least) that it is supposed to play avi-contaned WMV3 files... http://www.flip4mac.com/wmv_codecs.htm

Another little thing is that closing a wmv3 (.wmv container) file crashes Quicktime (and the application using it, be it Quicktime player, Safari...) which is not very nice and funny and all. Or maybe it's just me who has this problem. Yes, I know this is not the support forum for F4M plugin, but since many people here probably have some interest in this issue, I thought to drop in and share my experience with it. FWIW, I was running as a non-admin user when running the installer.

(Reasons for me to not run as an admin user to do my usual stuff vary from somewhere probably considered 'delusional' to somewhere else probably considered 'paranoid', so there's really no need to delve deeper into them now.)

Another thing, the EULA I got says few things about making them entitled to audit your places made me a bit uneasy on principle. I still clicked on the agree button, though.

Actually, i have just contacted the Flip4Mac developers and asked them wether they would care to assist us in implementing F4M WMV3 support in VLC. So that you can playback WMV3 with VLC, if you have the F4M components installed.

By any chance, would this mean that ffmpeg could have a better, platform-independent, GPL way of supporting WMV3?? Please, Please, PLEASE let it be true!!

Sorry for my English. I hope the reader can parse something sensible out of this.

My thanks to everyone who is working for the VLC and other Free (as in -dom) media playing software! You are really a gift to this world!

By any chance, would this mean that ffmpeg could have a better, platform-independent, GPL way of supporting WMV3?? Please, Please, PLEASE let it be true!!

Not by a longshot. I means, that VLC will use the closed source WMV3 decoder trough QuickTime. It has nothing to do with ffmpeg.

Well I'm very sorry if my technical knowledge was not quite right but the four hours I spent trying to get a wmv3 file to play must have been in my imagination.

Just to summarize on the WMV3 issue...

- Flip4Mac WMV plugin has started supporting playback of AVI. However, current tests show it's not working when the video codec is WMV3. The developers know this issue. As I mentioned before, I have sent sample files so they can test and solve this issue.

- .WMV files without DRM is supposed to have no problems playing, including WMV3, on QuickTime with that plugin. If there's a problem with the file you have you might want to contact Flip4Mac about it.

- .WMV files with DRM will not be supported on Mac platform for the forseeable future due to the lack of framework required for DRM to function 'as intended'. Simply adding a layer to support DRM is apparently seen as 'easily circumventable' and Microsoft would rather have the DRM'ed files not playing at all, lest the Mac platform become some sort of 'DRM hole'.

- With open-source WMV3 codec development being so slow, it seems natural that VLC development is looking to add its support through external means for Mac version. Sort of like how Windows version gets the support through external closed-source .dll file, actually.

Sort of like how Windows version gets the support through external closed-source .dll file, actually

This is partly incorrect. VLC uses the directshow media layer. It does not link to/open the dll directly

Read through the posts and there seems to be no sollution for playing avi files requiring wmv3 codec?

Is there any player for Mac that will solve this?

Thanks for any help!

Read through the posts and there seems to be no sollution for playing avi files requiring wmv3 codec?

Is there any player for Mac that will solve this?

Thanks for any help!

Read through them again. There is no solution 'yet' but solution is coming.

I am not too sure if this will help, but if I understand it correctly you might need to install the indeo video codec on your Quicktime for os9; it is not available for the OS X Quicktime at this time. The files that I had problems with were .avi files that would play only sound and I would get an error message about not having the codec, I played the file on a compy running media player and found out which codec it needed, indeo video, and did a search for it and found it on the pure mac download website: <http://www.pure-mac.com/video.html#indeovid>. It only works in the OS 9 Quicktime, but it works. Hope this helps.