How to watch WMV files with VLC Media Player on Mac

How to watch WMV files with VLC Media Player on Mac

VLC Media Player is the most versatile player out there allows you to play WMV files as well without the Flip4Mac Plugin. And it can play pretty much every video and audio file format and run almost all platforms.

In the past, a very common problem for Mac users is playing Windows Media Video (also called WMV) files. When you tries to open WMV files by default in QuickTime on Mac, commonly you'll receive an error message along the lines of "This is not a movie file".

The reason for this is because WMV files use Microsoft proprietary codecs that don't work in OS X. This is really annoying if someone sends you a WMV video clip by e-mail or if you want to download a WMV clip from the net.

In the year of 2006, Microsoft discontinued making Windows Media Player for Macs meaning there was no longer a suitable player for the WMV format for OS X. Fortunately, there are a free and easy solution to this problem, it is VLC Media Player.

Guides on watching WMV files

In the following part, we will show you how to watch WMV files with VLC Media Player on Mac. However, you must download the installer of VLC Media Player and install it on your Mac computer.

Right click your WMV file, and click "Play with VLC media player". If there is no "Play with VLC media player", click the "Open way", choose "VLC media player".

Make VLC media player running. Click "Media", choose "Open File...", then find your WMV file.

Open VLC media player. Click "Advanced Open File..". In the File Selection pannel, click "Add" button, find your WMV file. The WMV file will appear in the text box. Then click "Play" button.

With anyone of the three methods, you can watch WMV files with VLC Media Player on Mac.