Windows Media Player
The Macintosh equivalent for Windows Media Player is, of course, QuickTime Player. It handily plays and shows almost any kind of movie, picture, or sound (although you’ll want to use iTunes for most music playback).
There are a few entertainment sources that come in the Windows Media format, however, notably Windows Media Video (.wmv) movies that play on Web sites. By itself, QuickTime Player can’t play them.
Microsoft actually went to the trouble of creating a Macintosh version of Windows Media Player (never mind the irony of its name). You can download it from www.microsoft.com/mac, but it’s officially been abandoned.
The more modern, equally free solution is to download and install Flip4Mac. It’s technically a plug-in for QuickTime Player, but you don’t need to know that. All you need to know is that once you’ve installed it, you can suddenly play all those Web videos that you couldn’t play before. You can download it from this book’s “Missing CD” at www.missingmanuals.com.
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