How to play an AVI with WMV3 codec ?

From what I've been able to determine, there is no Mac player that can handle a WMV3 video in an AVI file (as a WMV, yes, but not AVI, and no, you can't just change the extension name). You'll have to play this on a Windows system, or get a Windows-owning friend to re-encode WMV3 AVIs; apparently you can do this with Virtualdub on Windows: http://www.virtualdub.org

There will be a update to VLC in time to handle this, DVDJohn said so. 😉

well folks
i had the same problem and the only solution i could find was flip4mac but when i installed it, the problem remained ...aaarghh!
i have been through all the forums and message boards and the answer to the question wether or not wmv3 file are playable under mac os x is almost always NO!
there are different suggestions on how to hack the problem, but the problem is that in most cases mac os x doesn't recognize the file for what it is!!
i recently downloaded a wmv3 from the Net but mac os x kept telling me it was an mpeg file. vlc player, win mplayer, qt .... nobody could open it and i kept getting the old error message (-2048) or format not supported ..... and flip4mac didn't do it's job, man i was getting tired of this.

so here's what you need
- qt player latest version 7.0.4 (req. os x 10.3.9)
- flip4mac latest version 2.0.2.10
- vlc player (as a diagnostic tool)

1. try opening your non-playable file in vlc player and get the errror message as usual
2. click "open messages window" and have a look at the log. find a string in red that says "Main Error" in red and find your actual codec (in my case .WMV)
3. close vlc - don't need it anymore
4. open your video file with the Inspector (cmd + i) and got to the file name & extension
5. change the extension to .wmv and confirm - close inspector window
6. right click the video file and choose "open with" - you should find the option "wmv player there ....take it.
7. qt should now open the file without hesitation and play normally
8. find out that your movie is actually some home **** shot by the guy from across the street and decide that you don't actually need this f ******* file

so done on an iBook 14' with mac os x 10.3.9 - it goes to show that all computers are stupid even macs although they are not as stupid as pc's ...viva la mela!

Just in case nobody told you, MAN you rock... this worked flawlessly the first time I followed yr instructions.... though VLC error said i had missing WMV3 encoder... following your instructions played the file in qt, NO PROBLEM... thanks again...