More Windows Media Player Trouble

[Ian Sidle]

> When I followed the links I found I was unable to completely play the 
> webcast on the free Media Player for OS X I had just downloaded: I was 
> missing audio.  The picture worked, but no sound.
>
> I copied the file into my Virtual PC XP, but it wouldn't read the file 
> at all when I started up the Windows native Media Player.
>
> Can anyone suggest any possible solutions?  I'm dying to see Gates 
> after having seen Jobs for the first time introducing the Music Store.

Can be many. What is the file extension? .asf? .wmf? .avi?
In reality, all of the windows media formats are in reality just 
contain audio and video codec "foobar". [just like quicktime] 
Generally, its one form or the other of mpeg-4. So you need an 
additional codec or "driver" in order to play those files. Most files 
generated by "amateur" video editors and use mp3 for audio and divx 
[mpeg-4] for video. Is it an actually *stream* file (i.e. the file is 
like >20k) which just points to a stream server or is it a self 
containing media file?

If its the second, try mplayer (http://mplayerosx.sourceforge.net/). 
With the many smart people out there and in the open source community 
have created this wonderful program. Originally for linux of course, 
but then "ported" to mac os x. They have reverse-engineered virtually 
every windows [non qt] codec known to man.

If its a stream - then your pretty much out of luck. Go find a windows 
machine :(.

thanks,
Ian Sidle