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What happened to WMP?


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What happened to WMP?
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Yochanan
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Join Date: May 2005
 
2005-06-16, 12:39

Is Windows Media Player for OS X supposed to suck this much?

QuickTime 7 worked fine for me in the beginning, but as I found more files to play I downloaded more media players. I started with VLC, then I downloaded NicePlayer( meh), lastly I downloaded MPlayer. Most of this was in attempt to avoid WMP, I finally caved and got it.

When you download WMP, it comes with a sample file. You play the sample file to make sure everything's all right. My sample as well as everything else worked fine for a while, but… all of a sudden I get this:


And that's for the sample video.

I'm not sure what happened. Eventually it goes back to normal, but I can't figure the rhyme or reason to it. MPlayer works on almost every file possible, but even that sometimes is completely off. When WMP plays something after that error message, there's video but no sound.

What should I do?
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Brad
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2005-06-16, 12:47

Quote:
Originally Posted by Yochanan
Is Windows Media Player for OS X supposed to suck this much?
It's a free product from Microsoft. Need I say more?

The suckitude of WiMP for Mac is enormous. I curse at every time I'm forced to use it.

The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting.
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curiousuburb
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
 
2005-06-16, 13:00

To answer the thread title question... What happened to WMP?

It has fallen and it can't get up.
Not even MS own sample files escape the event horizon of lame coding from the WMP hole.

Last edited by curiousuburb : 2005-06-16 at 13:01.
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ast3r3x
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2005-06-16, 13:02

Do you guys know about WMV Player?
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atomicbartbeans
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2005-06-16, 13:03

I actually have managed to avoid downloading it since I got my Mac in January. Oh, I also deleted MSIE on day 1.
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Yochanan
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Join Date: May 2005
 
2005-06-16, 13:49

Quote:
Originally Posted by atomicbartbeans
I actually have managed to avoid downloading it since I got my Mac in January. Oh, I also deleted MSIE on day 1.
Even better, I got a Mac that didn't have IE to begin with.

But on the topic, the codec problem happens even windows media content is embedded in web pages. I've tried deleting the pref. I've tried deleting the program (several times). I figure the problem is that a codec is being used by another program and that it's been assigned as the default user of that codec. But those programs aren't being run, and even they have trouble at times. I've tried reassigning files to certain apps, but to no avail.

This is just frustrating.
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Yochanan
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Join Date: May 2005
 
2005-06-16, 13:52

Quote:
Originally Posted by ast3r3x
Do you guys know about WMV Player?
Ack! Payware! It looks good though…
  quote
Brad
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2005-06-16, 13:52

Quote:
Originally Posted by ast3r3x
Do you guys know about WMV Player?
I do, but I also know that it costs $$$.

edit: GMTA, Yochanan.
  quote
ast3r3x
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2005-06-16, 13:58

Oh...I suppose I must have forgot that I had to pay for it
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Yochanan
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2005-06-19, 13:01

I see from a Google search that this is being talked about all over: www.google.com Some of it's even back from 2003.

A good thread on this is on Mac OS X Hints is here. I haven't tried all of the things listed there yet, but it doesn't seem to work for anyone anyway.

In the last few days it has gone from working to failing again. This time it happened right after I used MPlayer to play a file that WMP seemed to choke on. In retrospect WMP was playing it fine, but it had a slow down in the middle to about 9fps. MPlayer played it but with the sound going super fast. Now WMP plays video but no audio.
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Barto
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Canberra, Australia
 
2005-06-20, 05:58

Quote:
Originally Posted by Yochanan
Ack! Payware! It looks good though…
WMV Player costs money? Wow. I always thought it was like the bowl of candy on store counters.

Mmmmm.... candy.
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Yochanan
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2005-06-20, 19:02

You guys get free candy down under?
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Brad
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2005-06-20, 19:33

No, he steals the peppermints from that tray where you're supposed to donate 5¢ for poor kids.
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trevo
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Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2005-06-21, 01:39

WOW! My WMP started doing this last week but after downloading and installing again it worked fine... Anywho.

Good old Microsoft has locked files in the package of the app, is there any way to unlock them all or do i have to go through one by one unlocking and deleting?
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Yochanan
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2005-06-21, 19:36

Did you reset between the time you downloaded again, and restarted WMP?
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Brad
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2005-06-21, 22:20

If you move the app to the trash, you can force locked files to be deleted by holding the option key when selecting Empty Trash.
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IonYz
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2005-06-22, 00:07

I use WMP when I have to, works fine on embedded onto webpages through IGN and the like. Otherwise I use MPlayer and when all else fails VLC. Oh and QuickTime for mov files. WMP is nasty and will stay as such.

/* styling for my posts */
.intelligence {display: none;}
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Yochanan
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2005-06-22, 13:56

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad
If you move the app to the trash, you can force locked files to be deleted by holding the option key when selecting Empty Trash.
Does this mean all of the files associated with WMP will be deleted along with the app? I can't imagine wanting that, but it's good to know.
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Brad
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2005-06-22, 17:43

Quote:
Originally Posted by Yochanan
Does this mean all of the files associated with WMP will be deleted along with the app? I can't imagine wanting that, but it's good to know.
Close enough, yeah. Remember this.

The only thing that will be left behind are the browser plugin at /Library/Internet Plug-Ins (which will be inert without the app) and your preferences file (which is inert by nature).

The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting.
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Yochanan
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Join Date: May 2005
 
2005-06-22, 19:27

Thanks for the answers Brad. I don't think I've ever been to your site before. Looks good, you should update more often.
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Yochanan
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Join Date: May 2005
 
2005-06-22, 23:30

Okay, I trashed the app and reinstalled. At first it worked fine again, the sample was playing fine so I assumed it was okay again. I played another file (an .asf) and it said again the ditty about codecs. I checked the codecs again but this time I'm going to write them out here.

It's only the audio codec that doesn't work, so tell me if this kind of codec would work for you: MPEG Layer 3 16kBit/s, 11,025 Hz, Mono.

Remember this file worked in WMP before.
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NaMo4184
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: H-Town
 
2005-06-23, 03:21

can it play streaming content though. Better yet can it parse avis
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Yochanan
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Join Date: May 2005
 
2005-06-23, 14:12

I've been having trouble with AVIs, but then again who hasn't? It's playing the streaming and webpage-embeddded WMP stuff too. Just to note it failed on me again last night. But I fixed it sort of.

I deleted the preferences, the favorites, the app, the whole thing. I kept the installer and installed it again. It worked out, for now.
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Yochanan
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Join Date: May 2005
 
2005-12-05, 09:45

1. Taking into consideration the files on your Mac that play in WMP, are you allowed to fast forward or rewind through them?

2. Anyone have any alternatives to flip4mac, that does what it does?
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Brad
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Join Date: May 2004
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2005-12-05, 09:57

Quote:
Originally Posted by Yochanan
1. Taking into consideration the files on your Mac that play in WMP, are you allowed to fast forward or rewind through them?
This is strictly a limitation of the playback software, not the file format. QuickTime can fast forward and easily scrub through the timeline; Windows Media Player cannot. So, WMV files played in QuickTime Player via the Flip4Mac plugin can be fast-forwarded, etc.

The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting.
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kungfuelmosan
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Gold Coast
 
2005-12-05, 18:43

havent read the full thread guys but when I switched from NT to my shinnie new mac (god it was good) i had heaps of wma files in media player and itunes didnt support them (thank god) so i downloaded a converter, it was free and works like a charm!
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Yochanan
Member
 
Join Date: May 2005
 
2005-12-05, 18:57

How can they leave out FF and RW? That's so basic…

It's leaving me speechless with it's suckiness. I guess I'm gonna have to get flip4mac. It's a good thing it's not too much. IS MS ever going to update this .app? Give us a new version? I can't even use all of the skins in the program. I tried to get a look at "modern", as translucent is okay, but the .app crashes every time.
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Brad
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2005-12-05, 18:59

Quote:
Originally Posted by kungfuelmosan
havent read the full thread guys but
Next time, please do read before posting.
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chucker
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2005-12-05, 19:41

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad
This is strictly a limitation of the playback software, not the file format. QuickTime can fast forward and easily scrub through the timeline; Windows Media Player cannot. So, WMV files played in QuickTime Player via the Flip4Mac plugin can be fast-forwarded, etc.
It should be said, though, that it depends on a lot of factors how well this scrubbing will actually work. (For example, the clip could have too few keyframes.)
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Phoenix
formerly "trav"
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Behind you
 
2005-12-05, 19:48

Flip4Mac is fantastic. It's up there with Toast as the most useful cheaper bits of software we have here.
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