The VideoLAN Forums

Hi folks:

I'm a mod of a local BBS ([urlwww.maysvillekybbs.com[/URL]) and alerted the folks to the new malware that can get into .WMA/.WMV files.

I promised I'd check on VideoLAN to get them away from media player. So what should I tell them? I assume that VCL can handle all .WMV/.WMA files, but what exactly is the danger, and how does VCL guard against it?

I get the idea that Media player 'runs' executable code in .WMV files. But I have no details on what happens here. I'd like to assure them, that VCL, or another program Media player classic won't run code it shouldn't, and will work with .WMV/.WMA files reguardless.

I haven't been able to really test .WMV files easly with VCL, as I have too few. I've set my system already to run only VCL when it encounters a .WMV file, and checking with LitePC to see if there's a way to safely take out media player.

So what ever you can say, I'll share with them.

Kevin[/url]

Hi Kevin

There are WMV-Files which try to connect to a web site and display a form in your media player window where you can submit your logon credentials (for which you'll had to pay I guess...) before the media file is being played. I wasn't able to play these files using WMP6 and older versions of WMP9. The error message I got im WMP was: "The file name specified is incorrect. (Error=80004005). Cannot open. Please verify that the path and filename are correct and try again." After I upgraded to the currently available WMP 9 version I was able to watch these files.

VLC media player is not able to play these files. VLC starts playing the file, but you don't see anything than some weird colours. In the messages window I saw among many others the following messages:

"asf warning: unknown asf object"
"ffmpeg debug: ffmpeg codec (Windows Media Audio 2) stopped"

Still, there ARE WMV-Files that can be played using VLC.

Hope that helps
Regards, Richard