Windows Media Player (WMP) as plug-in in Safari

I do not want to use "Flip4Mac" as an alternative

Why?

Windows Media Player has not been supported by Microsoft for the Mac for a number of years, and they themselves refer you to Flip4Mac.

Whether it plays in your browser or a separate window is dependant on how the site is programmed.

These are the downloads and the settings you need in order to view/hear pretty much everything that the net can throw at you: The setup described below has proved repeatedly successful on both PPC and Intel macs, but nothing in life carries a guarantee!

It is known to work in the great majority of cases with Safari 3.0.4, QT 7.3 and OS 10.4.11. (If you are running Leopard, ensure that all plug-ins have been updated for OS 10.5)

Assuming you already run Tiger versions OS 10.4.9 or above (this has not yet been verified with Leopard) and have Quicktime 7.2 or above, and are using Safari 2 or 3, download and install ( or re-install even if you already had them) the latest versions, suitable for your flavor of Mac, of:

RealPlayer 10 for Mac from http://forms.real.com/real/player/blackjack.html?platform2=Mac%20OS%20X&product= RealPlayer%2010&proc=g3&lang=&show_list=0&src=macjack

Flip4Mac WMV Player from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcomponents.mspx (Windows Media Player for the Mac is no longer supported, even by Microsoft)

Perian from http://perian.org/

Adobe FlashPlayer should first be uninstalled using the appropriate uninstaller available here: http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14157&sliceId=2 and then the latest version obtained from here: http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1ProdVersion=ShockwaveFlash and installed.

(You can check here: http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/about/ to see which version you should install for your Mac and OS.)

In earlier versions than QT 7.1.3 in Quicktime Preferences, under advanced, UNcheck Enable Flash, and under Mime settings/Miscellananeous only check Quicktime HTML (QHTM).

You should also ensure, if you are running Tiger 10.4.11 or Leopard, that you have downloaded and installed the correct version for your Mac of Security Update 2007-009.1.1, which also deals with the Quicktime/Flash issues you may have experienced, such as the '?'. What happened was that both Quicktime as well as Adobe FlashPlayer tried to play the Flash video at the same time. This no longer happens. (N.B. Security Update 2007-009 requires both a restart and a permission repair.)

See also the very informative post from QuickTimeKirk dated Dec 3, 2007 in this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1268489&tstart=0

In Macintosh HD/Library/Quicktime/ delete any files relating to DivX (Perian already has them). However it should be noted that Perian is not an internet plugin and will not play DivX files imbedded on a website. For that you will need the DivX Player browser plugin available from http://www.divx.com/divx/mac/

Now go to Safari Preferences/Security, and tick the boxes under Web Content (all 4 of them).

Lastly open Audio Midi Setup (which you will find in the Utilities Folder of your Applications Folder) and click on Audio Devices. Make sure that both Audio Input and Audio Output, under Format, are set to 44100 Hz.

Important: Now repair permissions and restart.

You should also consider having the free VLC Player from http://www.videolan.org/ in your armory, as this plays almost anything that DVD Player might not.

Hi ttling,

It works perfectly fine for my PowerBook. However, my MacBook would not work!

Your PowerBook uses a PowerPC processor, the MacBook an Intel processor. Windows Media Player was only ever released with PowerPC code. To get it to work on your MacBook you will need to set Safari to run in Rosetta mode (check the Help on your Mac if you are unsure how to enable it for Safari).

As Klaus1 rightly says, WMP has not been updated for several years now and Microsoft themselves advocate the use of Flip4Mac.

Happy New Year to you too!

Hi ttling,

Here you go: [Intel-based Macs: Forcing a Universal application to run with Rosetta|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303120]

I'll deposit my 2¢ worth on this topic also. While you may be able to get the WMP plugin to work by forcing Safari to run under Rosetta you will experience a noticeable slowdown in performance because Rosetta takes time to convert PPC code to something Intel machines can understand. As the other responders have pointed out Flip4Mac is the official, Microsoft endorsed replacement for WMP. Flip4Mac will play Windows media content that the older plugin cannot. In fact Flip4Mac will play just about all Windows media content with the exception of DRM protected files.

I think I can say I speak for most of the experienced users here when I say Flip4Mac is the preferred plugin for viewing Windows media content. Windows Media Player is defunct.

I have an exact opposite problem. I would like the window media player to pop up as separate window instead of playing within the safari window. It is because the web site does not know how to allow window media player to play within the safari window.

I know that the site will work with Tiger Mac OS X 10.4.11 with Safari 3.0.4 and Window Media Player 9. However, it does not work with Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) with Safari and Window Media Player 9 due to the above reason.

Please advice how should i go around the problem.

Thanks

Windows Media Player has not been supported by Microsoft for the Mac for a number of years, and they themselves refer you to Flip4Mac.

Whether it plays in your browser or a separate window is dependant on how the site is programmed.

Please see my first reply to the OP.

thank you for the quick reply !

I tried the flip4mac too, but it does not work either.

As i mentioned before, Window media player window will POP up under Tiger when i click on the link but it will try to run the window media player within safari when i click on the SAME link under Leopard.

Why did the behavior different for the SAME link and SAME site ? one with pop up window while the other just running within Safari window.

Thanks,

Hi,

Tried everything and it doesn't work for me.
Trying to open page: http://www.intv-inter.net/ru/tv/programm/?channel=8. There is a media content in the middle. Everytime I'm trying to open it, my Safari became mad (almost 100 PCU usage) - no bugs, nothing - just shows page with white area (where movei should be shown) and that's it.

Please, help me!