Playing Windows Media files on Mac
 

Recommendations? Of course, I could load MS WMP for Mac, but is it good, and is it safe? Won't conflict or cause issues with existing Mac apps? I want to play WMV and WMA files. Also would be nice to be able to convert MP3 to WMA since the player in my car and on the motorcycle will play those, and it gives me double the room on each CD.

Windows Media Player for the Mac works fine and doesn't conflict any more than any program does. VLC also does a pretty good job with many Windows-centric files.

I'm sure there are utilities out there that would convert MP3 into the even more lossy format WMA, but I've never had an interest in converting to that format and couldn't imagine wanting to. I strongly suggest looking through http://sourceforge.net

Conversion is just a matter of laziness and potential storage on a single disc. WMA at 64k sounds nearly as good as MP3 at 128k, so less disc changing. And on the motorcycle, changing the disk requires access under the seat, so it's not like I could swap them in the middle of a ride...

Thanks for the tips, I'll start with giving WMP a try. I would imagine it does conversion.

Don't hold your breath...

Windows Media Player for Mac is OK... it needs some serious work on the details in my opinion. Personally I use VLC for all WMA and WMV files I can... but some files just play better (smoother and or clearer) in WMP.

If you have the albums, you could always rerip to AAC ;)

Ugh, don't get me started on a rant about formats that only work on one brand of player... Loaded WMP, didn't blow anything up, but haven't had time to play with it.

Wait, you're using WMP to listen to music?

I started with VLC - but still encountered the odd problem with some files... sound was fine but video problems... so I grabbed WMP for mac - and it works fine.

hehe, i didn't know people actually used things other than iTunes or Audion to listen to music on a mac :o

With regards to WMP for music... If it sounds good enough to you and does the job you want it to, then there ain't no point fixing what ain't broke. But never EVER say that WMP matches MP3 not only is it an untransperant medium, it adds its own compression to the track but that statement is simply untrue and deemed an offence to anbody in the music technology world. It may seem "nearly" as good as MP3 at 128 bitrate when sounding through typically bad car speakers and speaker amps. Sitting in machine of transport with wind gusting past you at 80mph also never does any good to your perception of audible quality.

No, I use iTunes. But a lot of video files are WMV encoded, so I need a way to play them.

I also encode some music in WMA format for use on my Pocket PC and to make CDs to play in the car and on the bike. The quality is close, I don't care to argue the details of how good one format is over another. On the bike, it's pretty hard to hear the difference over the wind noise. The car has a high end system which does show the differences, so I use both formats depending on what I want, the music type, etc. The car/bike players and the PPC can play MP3 and WMA, but not other formats.

Recoding is the way
 

I came up against this not to long back and as I love itunes i didnt want to get involoved with ms application I found a piece of freeware called easywma and it converts wma to mp3s perfically

I would reccommend re-ripping from the CD, as .wma --> .mp3 is a considerably lossy conversion.

Yes… It would be kinda like converting JPG(50%) to JPG(80%). That's a 20% loss on an already 50% loss!

I hate Windows Media Player
 

For clips longer than say, 30-40 seconds -- Windows Media Player always starts buffering and then stalls buffering around 46%. Anyone know how to fix this?

Are you talking about regular clips on your hard drive, or streaming clips?

Streaming clips.

All of the music I've ripped from CD myself has been done with WMA at maximum settings. My use for convertors is for music I've acquired as an MP3 and don't have a CD available.

On the subject of music...any add-ons to capture the internet radio streams from iTunes?

Sure, WireTap or Audio Hijack

WireTap is free while Audio Hijack is shareware. Both programs are great.

Remember: www.macupdate.com and www.versiontracker.com are your friends!

I notice this too (not sure about the actual spot it fails, but i know i can never get through a whole streaming clip with WMP), but i always attributed it to a slow network (even though i download over 200 kbps).

I'm not really sure what is up here...that should be fast enough to stream a clip since clips that stream via Quicktime work fine.

Buy an iPod... :)

Hmm...what?