The VideoLAN Forums

Since VLC doesn't play wmv3, can some1 tell me where a can get a mac codec to play AVIs in windows media player?

I'm not sure I understand the logic of your question.

1. Yes, VLC and WMV3 are not the best of chums
2. What good is a "Mac codec" to Windows Media Player?
3. Windows Media Player can play WMV3
4. Windows Media Player can also play AVI's provided it can find the codecs for the elemental streams (and those codecs can be anything).

ever thought that i might have a mac?

Your question still doesn't make any sense, given the points above

ok...
so i have a mac, Windows makes a media player of osx, i have files encoded in WMV3 in a AVI package, windows only makes a codec for the windows version to play AVI, VLC doesn't play WMV3.
I want to know where, if there is, i can find a codec to play these files that works on mac

Your question still doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
but here is a link to Windows Media Player 9 for the Mac which will play those WMV3 avi's for you.

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/otherprodu ... ndowsmedia

that would be great...EXCEPT WMP9 FOR MAC CAN'T OPEN F#$*ING AVI CONTAINERS!!!! i need a codec for it that will

srry, little frustrated. basically i need something that plays avi with a wmv3 video file

I too have a mac and i must say, windows media player is to mac as quicktime player is to windows. Put simply win media player is very limited on the mac platform. I've tried numerous times to find codecs for it and i don't think i can get any. There doesn't seem to be a place to put windows media codecs whereas my quicktime player folder has about 35 codecs in it. I'm sure in windows world you'd have the same trouble trying to find quicktime codecs, whereas your windows m players are probably equiped to play everything. I would have thought VLC would have solved both mac and windows problems by playing those files that wouldn't normally play or were designed for the opposing platform.

microsoft suxx. plz update VLC with wmv3-support

I've been trying to nut this one out for about 2 months and my conclusion is that it is currently totally impossible to play WMV3 encoded AVIs under OSX.

It can be done under Linux/BSD it seems but ONLY by using the microsoft dlls and that means it MUST have an x86 hardware platform underneath it.

The only thing I haven't tried is maybe installing Windows XP within Virtual PC and playing them within that. I don't own Virtual PC nor an MS operating system that will work with in it (I've only got 2k3 server here) but if you've got spare cash or know someone with Virtual PC it may be worth a shot.

Your other option would be to re-encode the files on a friends PC but that's time consuming and annoying because you'll lose quality.

Frustrating I know but that's MS for you.

I'm curious, doesn't something like:
ffmpeg -i /filelocation/filename].avi -vcodec copy -acodec copy /filelocation/filename.asf

Do a translation to an ASF container? Then use WMP9 for MacOSX, which is supposed to handle a WMV3 ASF file?

Hmmm...just had a geeze in the software cupboard here at work and there is a copy of VPC with Windows 2000 which I know for a fact isn't installed anywhere else (no Macs at work at the minute) so I might grab it and let you know if it works.

Sure it's a very large install for a simple video player but hey...if it works it works.

can anybody test markfm's method? dont wanna DL wmp9 for trying out something! i really need WMV3 for mac!!!

now has anybody found a method to play wmv3 on a mac without installing VPC?

Haven't found another solution but I can confirm it works within VPC.

I think this one will be a long long way off getting solved unless some reverse engineering god is working on a linux port that DOESN'T need the Win32 dlls

can anybody test markfm's method? dont wanna DL wmp9 for trying out something! i really need WMV3 for mac!!!

I hereby confirm that using ffmpeg as described by markfm doesn't work. The resulting file cannot be played by WMP 9 on the Mac.

What is SO good about Windows Media Player v3? Why dont they make VLC player to play WM9?

The problem with WMV3 is that it's closed-source (proprietary), so that there is no way to include the WMV3 format inside the VLC distribution. There is work afoot to allow hooking to it, due to extensions of DirectX that provide a common interface (an API), but that will only work under Windows, since it relies on there being an external CODEC (the MS WMV3 DLL) that obeys the published API; I could be wrong, but suspect there is no equivalent available on the Mac. (a published API standard, with MS providing a WMV3 CODEC engine that meets the API).

MS is no worse than Real, or Quicktime, or Indeo -- all proprietary formats.

I posted in the other section about this problem.

So there´s no solution, mac cannot read thet WMV3 thing u_u

correct

Reverse-engeneering should be possible for that. But I have not the skill to do that as my computer science formation is too bad and self-learning is very difficult for me...

Reverse-engeneering should be possible for that. But I have not the skill to do that as my computer science formation is too bad and self-learning is very difficult for me...

If it's a possible thing, it's already begun.

can anybody test markfm's method? dont wanna DL wmp9 for trying out something! i really need WMV3 for mac!!!

I just did this with a file I have:

tsaar:/Applications/video tools/ffmpegX.app/Contents/Resources tsaar$ ./ffmpeg
-i /Users/tsaar/Desktop/downloads/bungy.avi -vcodec copy -acodec copy /Users/ts
aar/Desktop/outtest.asf
ffmpeg version CVS, build 3277056, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
Mac OSX static build for ffmpegX
configuration: --enable-mp3lame --enable-gpl --disable-vhook --disable-ffplay --disable-ffserver --enable-a52 --enable-xvid --enable-faac --enable-faad --enable-amr_nb --enable-amr_wb --enable-pthreads --enable-x264
built on Dec 1 2005 03:50:24, gcc: 3.3 20030304 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 1666)
[wmv3 @ 0x444b70]This decoder is not supposed to produce picture. Dont report this as a bug!
[wmv3 @ 0x444b70]Profile 1:
frmrtq_postproc=7, bitrtq_postproc=31
LoopFilter=1, MultiRes=0, FastUVMV=0, Extended MV=0
Rangered=0, VSTransform=1, Overlap=1, SyncMarker=0
DQuant=0, Quantizer mode=0, Max B frames=0
[wmv3 @ 0x444b70]Extra data: 16 bits left, value: 401F
Input #0, avi, from '/Users/tsaar/Desktop/downloads/bungy.avi':
Duration: 00:02:39.8, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 446 kb/s
Stream #0.0, 25.00 fps: Video: wmv3, yuv420p, 352x264
Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 48000 Hz, stereo, 128 kb/s
Output #0, asf, to '/Users/tsaar/Desktop/outtest.asf':
Stream #0.0, nan fps: Video: WMV3 / 0x33564D57, 352x264, q=2-31
Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 48000 Hz, stereo, 128 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
Press [q] to stop encoding
frame= 3957 q=151081.2 Lsize= 1kB time=158.3 bitrate= 0.0kbits/s
video:6021kB audio:2496kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead -99.993705%


And this plays in WMP 9 for OsX, but without sound

well folks
i have been through all the forums and message boards and the answer to the question wether or not wmv3 file are playable under mac os x is almost always NO!
there are different suggestions on how to hack the problem, but the problem is that in most cases mac os x doesn't recognize the file for what it is!?!!
i recently downloaded a wmv3 from the Net but mac os x kept telling me it was an mpeg file. vlc player, win mplayer, qt .... nobody could open it and i kept getting the old error message (-2048) or format not supported ..... and flip4mac didn't do it's job, man i was getting tired of this.

so here's what you need
- qt player latest version 7.0.4 (req. os x 10.3.9)
- flip4mac latest version 2.0.2.10
- vlc player (as a diagnostic tool)

1. try opening your non-playable file in vlc player and get the errror message as usual
2. click "open messages window" and have a look at the log. find a string in red that says "Main Error" in red and find your actual codec (in my case .WMV)
3. close vlc - don't need it anymore
4. open your video file with the Inspector (cmd + i) and got to the file name & extension
5. change the extension to .wmv and confirm - close inspector window
6. right click the video file and choose "open with" - you should find the option "wmv player there ....take it.
7. qt should now open the file without hesitation and play normally
8. find out that your movie is actually some home porn shot by the guy from across the street and decide that you don't actually need this f********* file

so done on an iBook 14' with mac os x 10.3.9 - it goes to show that all computers are stupid even macs although they are not as stupid as pc's ...viva la mela!