Hi,

The wife has asked me to edit an AVI file, to be played on some Macs, which I have done using Windows Live Movie Maker, as it was the easiest option on my PC at the time.

I only have the option to save it as a WMV file, (Windows Media Video) and am not sure if that will play on OSX "Out of the box" or would I need to convert it to an AVI format.

If I do need to convert it can anyone recemmond any free software, (Windows only I''m afraid) that will convert from WMV to AVI or any other format that Macs like?

Thanks in advance,

John.

You can download VLC for the Mac, that should play it fine.

And this will allow you to play an awful lot of AVI & WMV files using the standard quicktime player.

Sorry guys, I should have been clearer... They can't install any software on their Macs, (at college - locked down) so I wanted to know if there is anything supplied with OSX that plays WMV's

Or any software to convert a WMV file to AVI...

Thanks for the replies though

Handbrake to convert...

VLC is the way to go, or Flip4Mac, which adds additional codecs to QuickTime... But requires an install.

Could she not take the .dmg file (disk image) of VLC and run it from there, without installing it? Or are .dmgs somehow locked from being loaded?

If the Macs are a no go for installing VLC - I thought it wasn't a good idea to be running software from a .dmg? - then for Windows there's SUPER - Clicky. (Their site is just shocking, but don't be put off by that.)
Will turn your .wmv into pretty anything, but an .mp4 or even a .mov would probably be the safest bet.


I've not had the best experience with Perian, I've found it breaks other software like Toast.

Thanks guys, I ended up downloaded Prism Video Cobnverter, and it's converting it to AVI now...

Dave, Installs are a no-go as there are a few Macs which will be used to view the video, and they cannot install anything. Also, a disk image? She's a teacher... to her, a disk image is a picture of a disk, probably drawn in crayon, (and yes, she will smack me in the head when she reads this!)

Alex, The site you suggested really is truly shocking... Since she gave me the oriinal video file in AVI format, and said it worked, I'd rather give her the new file in the same format, (saves her 'phoning me during the day, screeching about how the stupid video is broken!)

Thanks again guys.

Another way would have been WMV from Movie maker, then use Handbrake to convert it to an MP4. Just make sure you put the quality setting right up or you'll lose a lot of clarity in the conversion.

It is quite possibly the most annoying thing about WMM - no MP4 output!

I'm guessing that Handbrake is a mac video conversion application? When I read Dave's original post, I actually thought he was saying to not convert the file, but find another way of playing it...

Anyway, I converted it using some free software on the PC and she is very happy with the resultant AVI file. I'll update with the name of the software when I turn on the main PC at home next...

It's cross platform and rather good, AFAIK.

+1

Handbrake is on all formats and it is quite excellent.

Lots of people bigging up Handbrake...? I guess I'll have to investigate. Thanks guys!

It's really good for getting DVDs that you legitmately own the rights to onto your computer...