How to Play WMV Video on Mac OS X (Snow Leopard included)

Since WMV’s compatibility with Mac system is not very satisfying, many Mac users find it impossible for them to play the their own WMV videos or WMV videos sent by their friends who have PCs. This article is about how to play WMV video on Mac (Snow Leopard included), introduces four most popular ways to play WMV videos and some WMV conversion apps.

Part 1: How to play WMV on Mac (Snow Leopard included)

VLC Media Player (Highly Recommended, Compatible with Snow Leopard)
Mac users can use VLC media player to play WMV files and the output quality is quite satisfying. This player is an open source, free software media player written by the VideoLAN project. I highly recommend this player as I think it’s the most powerful media player ever! It supports a wide range of video and audio formats, as well as DVDs, Audio CDs VCDs and streaming protocols. Plus, it’s one of the most platform-independent players available, with versions for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, BeOS, Syllable, BSD, MorphOS, Solaris and Sharp Zaurus.
Windows Media Player 9 for Mac

windows-media -player


Windows Media Player 9 for Mac developed by Microsoft for Mac users to playback both local and streamed WMV and WMA files. It’s available as a download free of charge, but Microsoft seemed to attach little importance to it because it announced that there were no plans for the upgrade of the player.

In general, this player meets the needs of playing WMV files on Mac. However, the discontinue upgrade decision did cause trouble to Mac users. This player supports Apple Mac OS X version 10.1.5 or later (latest release of version 10.2.x recommended) when it was released in 2003. Some Leopard OS users find it really a headache to unzip the player 9 download or to get this player to work normally. So if your system is not supported by this player, turn to other solutions.

Flip 4 Mac ( Flip4mac WMV Beta supports Mac OS X Snow Leopard )

As mentioned in the above that Microsoft won’t upgrade windows media player 9, Microsoft did offer an alternative for Mac users: Windows Media® Components for QuickTime Flip4Mac, which is developed by Telestream. With this QuickTime component, you can play WMV and WMA files directly in QuickTime Player and watch streamed WMV videos.

If you want to edit, convert or encode the WMV files, they offer more commercial tools, but the price is relatively high and the WMV Studio Pro HD cost whooping $179.

Part 2: Convert WMV on Mac (Snow Leopard included)

WMV File Conversion

If you just want to play WMV videos on Mac, you can choose one of the above ways to do it. I personally prefer VLC player considering its powerful functions. But for converting WMV videos, a video conversion program is a more sensible choice. A video converter is like an integration of all video format components.

WMV Studio, which is one of the Flip4Mac component series, can do the conversion. It cost $49 but can only convert WMV to MOV file. In comparison, iSkysoft Video Converter for Mac cost only $35. It supports all video conversion on Mac, including convert WMV to MOV, MP4, iTunes, iMovie, etc. If you don’t want to pay extra $49 for like AVI component, get a video converter.

more tags:
Play WMV HD on Mac,Convert WMV HD on Mac,play wmv HD on Mac,play wmv HD files on mac,convert wmv HD videos on mac
Play WMV Videos on Mac,Play wmv Videos on Snow Leopard,VLC Media Player snow leopard,play mac wmv movies,play wmv mac snow leopard,play wmv files on mac
play DRM WMV files on Mac,Remove DRM from WMV,play drm wmv files,remove drm wmv mac free,drm wmv mac,play drm wmvs mac