watch WMV files on Mac

Mac users a common problem is play Windows Media Video (WMV) files. When your Mac to try the default open and play in the QuickTime WMV files, you will usually receive an error message “this is not a movie file”.

The reason behind this it the fact that WMV files use Microsoft proprietary codecs that don’t work in OS X. This gets really annoying if you come across a WMV file and want to watch it on your Mac.

Microsoft in 2006 to stop the Windows Media Player for Mac, means that no longer tailor Player for OS X WMV formats. Fortunately, there are some free and simple solution.

 

Option 1 – Use a Mac Video Player that Supports WMV

 

The good news is that there are plenty of simple and useful choices when looking for a wmv player for Mac. There are dozens to choose from in our catalog, but below we’ve selected the top 3 WMV compatible players for you.

 

Flip4Mac Plugin

Flip4Mac Plugin
This is likely to be watching WMV files the simplest solution, because it enable QuickTime player WMV files. This plugin, founded by Telestream, allows you to import, export and play Windows Media video and audio files on Mac. Flip4Mac WMV plug-in can also with other QuickTime based applications, such as iMovie and Final Cut Pro, means that you can even edit WMV files on the Mac.

 

VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player
The most versatile player out there, VLC media players lets you play WMV files without the Flip4Mac Plugin, although it’s only a playback solution; it doesn’t let you edit WMV files in QuickTime supported apps including iMovie and Final Cut. The great thing about VLC Media Player, however, is that it’s lightweight, fast, and can handle almost any media format you throw at it.

 

MPlayer OSX

MPlayer OSX
The player appeared in the Google Codes projects, and even tried to create a versatile player. MPlayer OSX is a simple but powerful video player, the player designed for Mac, can handle WMV. It is better than the VLC Player more options and preferences, the only drawback is that it play video for the first time, it must establish a font cache, it may take a while. Luckily, it only needs to be done once.

Option 2 – Convert the WMV file to a Different Format

 

Another option, and one that is equally good is to use a tool to convert wmv to mp4 or another popular format supported on the Mac. This is a particularly good option if you’re going to want to share the video with other Mac users. Once again, there are a lot of wmv converters for the Mac in our catalog. To save you some time, we’ve hand-picked some of the best ones right here.

VLC Media Player

 

VLC Media Player

If we don’t have VLC? Yes, if you have read so far, then you know VLC media player has been shown in our WMV video player list. But VLC is also a killer tool, is used to convert all video format, it is the best tool to download and convert WMV to MP4 or Mac support of any other major video format.

Total Video Converter Lite

Total Video Converter Lite
Another top-notch option for converting WMV files on your Mac to another format is Total Video Converter. It features a friendly user interface that will be more comfortable to some Mac users than VLC and it supports conversions of over 160+ video format types.

Unregistered lite version is limited to convert files before only 30%, but, you need to upgrade to the Pro version of Total Video Converter to finish my homework.

But VLC is also a killer tool for converting videos of all formats, and it’s hands-down the best tool of the bunch for converting WMV to MP4 or any other major video format supported by the Mac.

Total Video Converter Lite