opening & viewing: asf, avi & wmv files

[jolly oscars]

i received my imac from a family friend who moved away so all of the software on it was his. so i am still getting used to it all. my question though is for videos how do i view asf, avi & wmv files? if i click launch the only thing that happens is that sand-clock comes up showing that it is opening and then nothing happens. i am guessing that in order to be able to play these files i need specific players used outside of limewire in order for the files to work. i was also wondering if i could open my mp3 files with a different and better player. if these players are free please give me links to them and a step-by-step analysis as to how to play the files. example: do i need to be out of limewire in my shared folder to be able to play these files? thank you

[murasame]

Ok, lemme give you three advice for people new to Mac:
-1) asf and wmv are filetypes created by a PC computer, in other words, a computer that uses the OS (Operating System) Windows (betcha allready heard about that one, huh?) and Mac and PC are not exactly what you'd call identical. Of course, Microsoft has been kind enough to make a Windows Media Player (the built-in player for Windows) in a Mac version (thanks Microsoft!). Find it here: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/otherpr...d=windowsmedia . This player should be able to play the asf, wmv and wma files you may encounter. The problem is that it's a really crapy player (IMO folks).
-2) avi is a file format for movies and needs specific codecs to be played. Instead of letting us Mac users plunge into a desperate search for those damn codecs, VideoLan has been so kind as to make a player that will play most every filetype out there (not everything. Nobody's perfect), even the wmv and the ogg (Ogg Vorbis). The player, called VLC, can be found here:http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ . Get it. For your own good.
-3) The player incorporated in Limewire is, uh, not that good (no offence guys). If you'r computer is a little slow, then you can experience jumps and stuff during playback. IMO (and not only mine, I'm sure), this player is there for previewing a file, in other words, checking if the file you are dlding is indeed the one you want, during the download and without having to wait for the entire file to be downloaded. It is not possible though to preview a file without having dlded a minimal portion of it, which means that you can't preview files that you're not dlding (unless of course you already started the download at some time, then killed it and are now trying to preview the Incomplete dld from the Incomplete folder, in which case I have no idea what happens since I've never tried it before).

Now GO! Be proud to have a Mac! BWAHAHAHA!!!!!

[murasame]

Oh, and another thing: about the .mp3 files, try iTunes. It's Apple's own player and is supported by Limewire with the cool feature of having your finished downloads go directly into an iTunes playlist labeled Limewire. It does not support .wma though. Get it here: http://www.apple.com/itunes/

I hope all that crap was somehow helpful.

[arne_bab]

About asf you can try mplayer ( http://mplayerosx.sf.net ).

And don't use WindowsMediaPlayer. It might well try to compromise your privacy and spill information about you to microsoft, or allow microsoft to legally delete files on your computer (as soon as you sign the agreement at its first start).

[murasame]

Yup, yup. As I said: crappy player.


Abou the mplayer: it's a nice player and I think delivers a better image than VLC. It has some weird functions, or rather is lacking some important ones (like subtitle select for .ogg files: where the hell is that, huh?).

[Lord of the Rings]

One other point about iTunes, you can set iTunes to automatically play your mp3's after downloading. See iTunes section in your LW Prefs. iTunes will also make a copy of the mp3 into its own library. (You didn't say which mac OS you have.) There's also other Mac mp3 players & encoders around that can do things iTunes can't & do a better job at editing mp3 tags. But stick with iTunes as your main player. QuickTime can play almost all movies that have a QT icon (looks like a QT file. MPlayer / VLC will play the rest.)

[jolly oscars]

Originally posted by arne_bab
And don't use WindowsMediaPlayer. It might well try to compromise your privacy and spill information about you to microsoft, or allow microsoft to legally delete files on your computer (as soon as you sign the agreement at its first start). [/B]

uh oh i already have it on my computer and i think ever since i have had it whenever i download a new song my computer doesn't make an effort to open the new file. my old downloads work, but all my recent ones do not. i started a thread about this in the downloads section so if you could please check this out or pm me it would be much appreciated!

[jolly oscars]

o yea and i just downloaded iTunes on my iMac and its not working. no real icon came up, just a blank document icon and it said try opening with: stuffit expander or movie player and i tried both and neither worked. i tried the same thing with the virus protection software agax today and the same thing happened. i was deleting old things off my harddrive today so do you think i deleted something very important that will open these downloaded programs. if you know please tell. i was only deleting stuff i already had copies of though im pretty sure

[arne_bab]

Try getting iTunes via one of the two following magnet-links from the bitzi tickets (german version):
http://bitzi.com/lookup/IPEOHBWNFNA3...LVI2LC6TETNOBY
http://bitzi.com/lookup/3EEM47Q5UQP4...YTD7VXBSGBPUOR

[Lord of the Rings]

I'm starting to get dizzy going from section to section. I presume that's OSX you have. A possible reason the file is white is because it's a .hqx file. Drag & drop it onto the StuffIt Expander program in order to uncompress the installer. If it doesn't open then either the file is corrupted & you'd need to redownload or StuffIt Expander isn't working & you'll need to reinstall that. The latter not working would help to explain why your dwnlded files have white icons (but they don't always have picture icons anyway.) For another copy of S.Expander visit
http://www.stuffit.com/mac/index.html