Safari not playing *.WMV flies

Any time I try to view pages with the "windows media player" built into a website to view a movie (or streaming media like on XM radio), the movie doesn't play; rather opens my own separate version to play the WMV file externally.

How do I get my wmv files to play within safari?? The "player" usually shows up as that blue lego piece with the ? on it, then opens the file externally through windows media player.

This is the error box I get:
"Some content on this page requires an Internet plug-in that Safari doesn’t support. The application “Windows Media Player” may be able to display this content. Would you like to try?"

Any thoughts?
Everything works fine in Firefox; any quicktime movies play within Safari
Thanks for the help!

MBP 2.0GHZ, Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Posted on Mar 20, 2006 4:53 PM

Reply
28 replies

Mar 21, 2006 1:42 PM in response to homertime33

I came across that exact same problem a couple days ago. I was sure WMP worked fine until I installed the Flash Player update that wasn't intended (silly me, yes). So I did a clean install, but that didn't help. I can't even get it to open WMP.

In the end my band-aid solution is to open Safari as a PPC app when I want to stream (select the Safari logo and either hit command I or File -> Get Info in the finder and then check off the Open as PPC app). Hopefully Filp4Mac will have an Intel plugin soon. It's going to get annoying to have to switch back and forth between PPC and UB Safari.

Mar 21, 2006 2:07 PM in response to Mac Daddy jr

ummm...you guys a little ways up do realize that safari is a universal app...right? Rosetta does not come into play when judging the speed of safari, because it does not have to use emulation.

http://guide.apple.com/action.lasso?-database=macosguide&-layout=cgi_detail&-res ponse=/ussearch/detail.html&prodkey=58310&-search

flip4mac will be the best bet once it goes universal

Mar 21, 2006 3:15 PM in response to Steven Santoianni1

"This version of Flip4Mac WMV Player cannot be installed on Intel-based hardware. Check again soon for a compatible version."

This is what I've always gotten from trying to install Flip4Mac; especially since they say themselves "still not compatible with intel".

This is for latest version 2.0.2
Verson 2.0.1 installs, but the preference pane shows an error message.



Since no one has been helpful in explaining how to solve my problem, I finally found this article, for anyone else having this problem:
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=13902
I'm going to try this now, and maybe it'll work.
I'll post my results

Mar 21, 2006 3:41 PM in response to homertime33

What I described above is an effective way to RUN FLIP4MAC, but does not solve the "browser plugin" issue - I imagine since the "flip4mac" in System Preferences is still unavailable, then their plugin for WMP for Safari still doesn't work.

Needless to say the player is quite slow using Rosetta.

At least now I know someone else has noticed this problem (thank you for saying so).

I guess we'll just wait for the official Intel Flip4Mac to be released, which could be any day to weeks.

What disappoints me the most is that the Intel has been out a while now, of course not in the MBP, but in the new iMac which was released almost a month prior. I would have thought that these stupid bugs would have been worked out by the time they released the MBP.

Time will be the answer to this concern, especially since we're not going to get any support from Microsoft anymore. Thank you all for trying, and I apologize for voicing my frustration... it's just annoying when people put their 2 cents in when they don't have a definitive solution.



As stated by Harry above, the TEMPORARY FIX is to open Safari using Rosetta (assuming that you have installed WMP). Your streaming videos and WMV's will open flawlessly; so for those of you that care to see WMV's within your browser:
Either use Firefox, or use Safari with Rosetta

Mar 21, 2006 10:17 PM in response to homertime33

OK here's the deal, you can download www.flip4mac.com and load onto your Intel MBP. First thing to do before launching the flip4mac installer is to go to
Applications-->Utilities - Find the application "Installer" and right click- get info and check box "open using rosetta".
Go back to flip4mac installer and launch. It will now allow you to install onto Intel Mac. Previously, you would get an error not allowing you to install on Intel Macs. Should be gone now. Once installed, you can go back and change the installer back to original. Once flip4mac is installed, find the Safari app in the applications folder and right click- get info and select "open using rosetta". All Windows .wmv files will now play within the browser window and not download to your HD. The sacrifice is the hit in speed you'll take while Safari runs in Rosetta mode. But you can toggle on and off as you need.

Apr 28, 2006 10:12 AM in response to Art Sez

Hi

I tried this idea and flip4mac installed OK (I think - at least I didn't get the message that I can't install it on intel Macs this time. But still wouldn't play any video clips on websites using windows media player. I have checked the box to tell safari to open in Rosetta and done everything according to Art Sez's post. What have I done wrong? Any ideas?

Cheers

Anne

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Safari not playing *.WMV flies

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.