can't play avi? "This is not a movie file"

Download Mediainfo Mac (free) and check what the codecs really are.

It would really help to know the codecs involved. If it is something truly proprietary with no Mac version then there may be no option. The other thing to try is opening the file with a web browser. Sometimes they have codecs for doing weird media.

Edit:

oops, crossed posts. Check VLC website. I recall reading supported formats for MacOS there recently and vaguely remember WMV3 was not one of the supported codecs. WMV is definitely one of those weird proprietary codecs.

Message was edited by: Limnos

What version of VLC are you using? According to http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.php?cat=video VLC should play back WMV3. However, I don't know if there are features such as DRM protection implemented in this which may require a Microsoft player.

Have you installed Flip4Mac media player? [Free Flip4mac QuickTime player components|http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcomponents.ms px]

After installation a new Flip4Mac pane will appear in System Preferences. Make sure you set the boxes to ensure that it will play WMV files in Quicktime.

FFMPEGX may also provide conversion capabilities to another format.

With VLC Flip4Mac shouldn't be necessary but since VLC isn't working you might as well give Flip4Mac a try. What is the source of these videos? Is there reason to suspect they might have DRM protection? I don't think Flip4Mac will even help with DRM and that requires WMP running under some version of Windows, period.

Don't install any codecs with quick time, it's already messed up enough.

Again, any reason to suspect these might be DRM protected? Unless it is highly confidential then a link to the videos might help. Trying to get WMV to play on a Mac is requiring an extra step of effort since it is all third party software trying to get formats basically totally unsupported by the original software developer for playing on a Mac. I know the local library here has online resources for books on tape and even videos but the bottom line is, if you're on a Mac forget it.

The other thing is some ancient codecs may not be supported either. I don't have a list of those but just recall seeing mention of them in online reading.

As another poster mentioned, one doesn't willy-nilly install codecs on Macs when you encounter a missing one. If Perian, Flip4Mac, Quicktime, or VLC won't play it, or it won't play inside a browser, then it is quite likely nothing will. Some ancient ones will play with an older version of WMP in Classic. DRM requires Windows.

Just install VLC... it plays everything . If not, your file is corrupted or something

Message was edited by: awerty9999

I understand...

you can still download some with uTorrent or iTunes 😉