End of the Road for Windows Media Player for Mac
Microsoft announced they will no longer support or upgrade the Macintosh version of the Windows Media Player. Right, like they were upgrading or supporting it for the past few years. The Mac version sucked. And that’s being nice about it. I kept a copy around because I needed it for, errr, well comparisons sake. Yeah, that’s it. But fear not those that visit WMV only sites like Ultra MILF. MS has passed the torch to Telestream’s Flip4Mac plug in for Quicktime. Seems to work as well as WMP Mac did in the few times I’ve used it. There’s a free version and enhanced version with import and many other features not found in the MS version. Like the ability to encode WMV files from Final Cut or iMovie.
So, what’s the big deal Dave? It’s not a big deal for Mac users. It’s a time to celebrate. We got a better player from it. What’s going to suck is that vendors that are lining up behind MS for the latest versions of the WMP DRM for their pay for play music download sites are basically ditching the Mac users. That’s not going to suck for Mac users, we’ve already got the best, most trafficed online music store with iTunes Music Store. There other offerings coming online, some already online like Rhapsody, the new Yahoo store and Urge, the Borg’s attempt to out do the guy in the black turtleneck and rumors of others. What’s happening, to steal a comparison I heard in a podcast, is that all these vendors will be selling the same thing, for pretty much the same price, in the same mall. There is very little differentiation. There might be some exclusive content, but I really don’t need to see Flavor Flav banging a hammered Bridgette Nielson or Vern Troyer naked and drunk on a mobility scooter peeing in the corner of his room. Been there, done that, got the shirt though I’m not sure what the stains on it are. With the lackluster demo of WMP 11 that I saw at CES (which isn’t due for a couple more months) there’s really nothing new that iTunes doesn’t already have, right now. The lockout from the WMP DRM is an issue, but not for Mac users. If the people using WMP DRM don’t want our money, we’ll find another place to spend it. And be happier for it.
January 14th, 2006 at 11:35 pm
I installed Flip4Mac about 2 months ago and ended up taking it off, pronto. It screwed up quicktime compatibility badly, could no longer load/play embedded .mov or .mpg files, and only played .wmv files about half the time.
VLC is THE media player for mac, although it doesn’t do plug-in - you have to d/l the file you want to watch. It’ll play darn near anything, though - .wmv and almost everything else, including .avis - which is great for Verne Troyer fans.
January 14th, 2006 at 11:52 pm
Good of you to stop by John. Interesting, I haven’t had those issues just yet. I couldn’t get embedded Win Media files go play back in either Safari or Camino with WMP Mac 9. I’ve got Firefox but don’t use it that much. I’ve been using F4M for a couple days now, nothing problematic just yet. I’ll keep my eye out.
Thanks for the VLC tip, I’ll check it out. Not being able to play embedded in a browser isn’t such a big deal for me. The stuff I want to keep I save to the hard drive anyway.