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Windows Media Player in Linux

mr lee writes "Today CodeWeavers released CrossOver plugin 1.1 which now supports Windows Media Player 6.4 under Linux. As much I would not like to see or support sites that use Windows Media shite, its still really nice to have this option. Not too mention kick ass QuickTime playing." Update: 02/27 18:30 GMT by H : I've actually been using this - it's done really really well. I'm planning on doing a fuller review soon, but it's very well done.

9 of 339 comments (clear)

  1. what about Mplayer by steve.m · · Score: 4, Informative

    which supports Win32 Codecs including Quicktime MOV, etc. see Here.

    1. Re:what about Mplayer by kraf · · Score: 4, Informative

      From the mplayerhq.hu website:
      (http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/formats.ht ml#2.1.1.4 )

      "Codecs: any codecs allowed, both CBR and VBR. Note: most new mov files use Sorenson video and QDesign Music audio. These formats are completely secret, and only Apple's quicktime player is able to play these files (on win/mac only)."

      So it basically doesn't support MOV except some old stuff.

  2. Re:No native version? by HMC+CS+Major · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's modded (+3, funny) as I type, but it really is true ...

    See http://www.vnunet.com/News/105831 and http://content.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19981009S 0021 for details.

  3. Too late by jandrese · · Score: 4, Informative

    Mplayer already does pretty much everything Windows Media Player can do, and it's native to Linux. The Quicktime support mentioned in the writeup is a red herring, Windows Media Player (IIRC) still does not support Sorenson Quicktimes, making it no better than xanim at playing modern .mov files.

    --

    I read the internet for the articles.
  4. Re:No native version? by Mike+Hicks · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yeah, back when it was known as the NetShow player (this was back in 1997 or 1998). It was released shortly after Microsoft acquired another company that had made a cross-platform player. MS had said that they would release another version, but it never happened.

    I used it a few times, mostly to play the .asf video of Win98 crashing for Bill Gates at a computer conference..

  5. Few comments on crossover 1.1.0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ok, you might want to read this:

    The crossover plugin will let you play Windows media player files, but emedding inside the browser is very problematic. Why? simple - The Windows Media player when works with Netscape - uses Netscape's Java (1.1.x) to communicate with the player and to embedd the window.

    What does this means to you? it means that you can watch WMP embedded in your browser - if you're using the old Netscape - Version 4.x - not Konqureror, not Mozilla (any build).

    It's not CodeWeaver's fault - it's the way MS did it - the exact thing will happend on Windows. The guys from CodeWeavers will look into it and probably try to hack something..

    Other features that are not mentioned - you can now use Trillian, Real Player 8 (the much better Windows version, not the crappy Linux version), you can install fonts directly from MS web site, and the speed seems to be imrpvoed.

    Lots of other plugins has been added to the crossover, and IMHO it's worth the $19.95 price (there is a free upgrade to previous owners), and of course - all the hacks that was done to wine - are rolling back to the main tree - so your money helps open source...

    I'm sure that people here will write that "don't buy it since it support non standard audio/video format" - to them I'm saying that when 90% of the people have those players - webmasters won't give a crap about others...

    Cheers,
    Mesh Mesh

  6. Re:[OT] Re:No native version? by Edgewize · · Score: 4, Informative

    Um, no, it wasn't fake. The 'slide in' effect came from the video source. If you've ever changed resolutions on an older video projector, you'd see that the horizontal alignment starts way off and then slides to the center.

  7. Re:Codecs by HeUnique · · Score: 4, Informative

    So far - from my tests - it played every movie that Windows Media player can play in standard windows - and yes, the player downloads the codec from microsoft site and installs it..

    --
    Hetz (Heunique)
  8. Re:Likely Not Legal by fobbman · · Score: 5, Informative

    The EULA snippet from above appears in WMPlayer versions 7 onward. This is why they went with 6.4, as this requirement does not show up in 6.4's EULA.

    CodeWeaver's is, however, looking for a way around this for those of us who have Windows installed on another partition.