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Microsoft has hurt my mac experiance...again!

M

Moofman

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 20, 2003
8
0
New York, NY
Hi everyone.

I got a mac to get away from microsoft. Why windows maniacs out there still use WMA and other proprietary windows formats to encode media files, I'm not entirely sure. The upshot is that now, most media files will not play in my Windows media player. It brings up a browser window to this site:

http://windowsmedia.com/wmrm/wmrm.asp

I don't know what this means, exactly, but have no fears: as soon as I click the only link, everything will make perfect sense. Oh, right, it's a link to the deep dark ofr the microsoft web page...a site so poorly designed and maintained few have returned alive. Apparently, windows media player for osx does not support Windows Media Rights Manager V7...
so:

Is there a way to get a player that will support this rights manager? (I tried VLC and Mplayer for OSX, but neither of these usually helpful programs worked.)

Is there a way around this?

But even, what exactly IS this rights manager.

How come it seems like the OSX version of Windows media player is ages old when compared to the PC version. What's the big idea, microsoft? That's not fair.

If anyway can shed some light on this, I'd be thrilled.

Thanks guys,
MoofMan
 
Re: Microsoft has hurt my mac experiance...again!

Originally posted by Moofman


How come it seems like the OSX version of Windows media player is ages old when compared to the PC version. What's the big idea, microsoft? That's not fair.
Click to expand...


uhh...why should they care to update software for a program thats not for their OS? Its completely fair. ;)
 
It's not all about being fair, or being nice, it's common courtesy: Apple supplies the same version of QT for PC that it does for Mac. Sure they're not obligated to keep us up to date, but I really feel screwed when I can't use windows stuff. Why can't websites and companies use cross platform encoders! WMA is really bad quality, or at least, the stuff that I've come across.

Frustrated,
moofman
 
I dont know what you could want WMV-files for anyways... most of the high quality content on the web is quicktime or MPEG... the stuff that's windows media player, is either stuff I don't care for (=crap) or porn (which I don't care for too).

vSpacken
 
It's called owning the world--or trying to own the remaining 10% anyway. You're supposed to think to yourself "oh crap, if I only used Windows these annoying problems would go away." Microsoft does not want to make it easy on Mac users--it goes against their business plan. When I encounter a website that is Windows-centric I don't go back. wma is not the standard for web media so why jump through hoops to hear it?
 
WMA! WHY!

See, the problem is that I don't want to jump through hoops. I Don't want there to be WMA files, but when I find one, and I want to hear it, and I can't, it's like a brick wall. Sure I avoid it, but I shouldn't have to be held hostage by microsoft. Does anyone know what the advantages of using it as a encoding method are? I guess just the assumption that everyone uses a PC. But the quality is really bad, in my experiance!

Moofman
 
Re: WMA! WHY!

Originally posted by Moofman
I shouldn't have to be held hostage by microsoft.
Click to expand...

No, you shouldn't--but get used to it. If you want to avoid big brother in the future, don't support Microsoft now--not even a little. If it's only available as a wma it's not worth hearing. Period.
 
You could also try using MSN 8. I have an account from years ago when I still used windows and I find that the embedded player in MSN 8 for OS X is compatible with almost all windows formats. It works 99% of the time for me.

-dh
 
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