WMV File Format

File Format Description

WMV (Windows Media Video) is a compressed video compression format for several proprietary codecs developed by Microsoft. The original video format, known as WMV, was originally designed for Internet streaming applications.

WMV files may be played on the Microsoft Windows Media Player (they already have the codec required to view WMV video and audio files), which is available for both the Microsoft Windows and Macintosh systems. They may also be played on the two systems through web browsers that have Windows Media Player plug-ins. Nullsoft Winamp for Windows can also open WMV files. Various othe platforms, like Linux, use FFmpeg to implement WMV codecs.

WMV Playback Issue

It is easy to play WMV files on Windows platform but it is not that easy to play them on Mac platform. However, Mac users can use Flip4Mac WMV (also known as Microsoft Windows Media Components for QuickTime) to play WMV files. If you don't want to install plug-ins, you can choose to convert WMV to QuickTime MOV for playback.