I know this has been dealt with before, but all the problems i've searched have usually ended the same way: Download the VLC media player. Well I tried that and it was worse. Not only did it play the files until the same 7% point (even though i've now downloaded 71%) but it froze afterwards. At least Windows Media Player didn't freeze. Also, it played some horrible screeching noise so loudly that I was temporarily deafened.

Ok, so i'm assuming that if I just let it download completely it will be fine, but I would like to know how to preview anyway to avoid future complications.

It only shows the first 3 minutes and 58 seconds despite the fact that it is 71% of a 699.7 MB file. I'm POSITIVE that's not right in terms of ratios.

Anyway, any help is GREATLY appreciated. Thank you.

*nods* my point exactly!!!

Well you still haven't said anything about the format of the file which is the issue here!

This is what VLC can read/playback: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html

VLC suffers with some wmv & asf files. If it's something else that VLC doesn't recognise properly then chances are wmp also wouldn't be able to recognise it & it's a very new format on the scene. I am aware of such formats.