Mac users

Ok, so i made the switch from a PC to a Mac yesterday. I was worried about alot of stuff but so far i have to say i love it. it is far superior to microsoft in almost every conceivable way. i'm really impressed with the touch pad. it works like an itouch and i can do almost anything with a swipe or a finger twist. it is amazing and flawless. i do have one complaint. Mac beats PC in every way so far except one. the Media Player. itunes is fine for music, but for video quicktime is terrible! its pretty much un usable for video. i've been using media player 10 forever and love it. media player 11 is ok but not as good as 10. either way, they are both way better than itunes. first of all, i find itunes awkward and annoying when trying to play multiple video's. I like to highlight a bunch of tv shows and play them randomly. doing that from an external drive is very annoying. it tried to copy them all to the hard drive instead of just reading them, which is not what i want to do. In addition, many of my tv shows, porn and movies are in wmv format, which apple wont play. thats annoying since media player will play apple files. in short, media player seems much more versitile and convenient than itunes and will play many more formats. so heres my question. what is the best media player to use for a mac?

dont say VLC. VLC is great for playing any media file in the world, but it sucks as an actual media player. it is not a workhorse. its good for one file at a time or weird formats but sucks for playlists and day to day shit.

I found a version of media player 9 for OS X, but for some reason i couldn't unzip the file. not sure why. would the fact i have OS 10.5 have anything to do with that?

so once again.... whats the best media player for videos? and if there is not a great one, what do i have to do to get my .wmv files to play on a mac?

 

Im sure there could be a plugin or a converter around in the web... but yes, i do like wmp better than itunes, which i had installed on my pc...

 

MACS rock!! You won't regret making the switch

 

You need to get a WMV player : http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcomponents.mspx

BTW what MacBook did you pick up?
I am loving my 17 in macbook pro

 

i would have stuck with PC if they didn't fuck themselves out of the market. i hate trying to get use to the mac but it is so much better than anything microsoft has ever come out with. plus, if i got a pc i'd have to use vista cause its getting harder and harder to get a pc loaded with xp

yeah, its pretty bad. i'm a little dissapointed that the one thing mac is suppose to excel at (video and graphics) they completely drop the ball on when it comes to a native media player. shame on them. so far its my only complaint though

no i have not, thanks for the link

so far i'm loving it. i just have to get my media switched over.

 

i got the macbook 2.4ghz with the aluminum casing. i believe its the most powerful mac laptop you can get without upgrading to the "pro". is the only difference with the pro the bigger screen and better video card?

 

amazing huh??

 

i'm smart enough to know that constant error messages, blue screens and reloading my machine every 6 to 9 months is not acceptable. I still like PC's in theory. i like that they are more universal than macs and i like that i know how to use them. but they just cant seem to get anything right. Explain this to me....

when you order a PC, you start it up. immediately you have to download, then open, then run countless drivers. for example. with my PC i had to download a video driver before my screen would scroll seamlessly without jumping. i had to download a driver to make the audio work, even though i had an sound card and speakers. i had to download wireless drivers, and everything else. why? I open my mac and turn it on and its ready to go. why would microsoft make it such a pain in the ass?

here's another thing that bothers the hell out of me. first pc i had had a writable cd drive and a dvd drive. i tried to burn a cd and it wouldn't work. i had to download a plug in and remove a bunch of software that was restricting my downloaded music (jukebox to be exact). then i tried watch a dvd on my dvd drive. cant do it. you either have to buy a dvd program or pay for a plug in for media player. why sell a piece of hardware you cant use? thats like paying for a 4x4 tacoma just to find out you have to go bck to the dealer and buy the switch for the dashboard. doesn't make sense.

 

You can try Flip4mac It's a plug-in that lets quicktime play wmv files. I just use the free version.

 

go to youtube and type in how to unzip mac

i love my mac

 

i'm not one for conspiracy theories. i dont think everyone is out to get me. i dont think we faked the moon landing and i dont think the CIA was behind 9/11. but i will say this, i think microsoft is intentionally being shitty in order to make more money. I dont think Bill Gates is saying "make this not work so we can charge people more money to fix it". But i do think they just dont care. "well, vista does suck, but lets go ahead and get it on the market and we'll fix it as we go". or "hey i know, lets charge them for a dvd drive, then we'll charge them extra for the software to use it, that way we can charge them twice!" Or "yeah, i know its a dvd burner, but lets not let it rip or burn unless htey buy a different program" or "yeah, it would be easier for the customer if we already had all needed drivers installed, but that would be harder for us. lets just ship it and let them download and istall the drivers themselves". thats like buying a truck with a tow package and going to pick it up and them saying "installing the package would be too much work on our end so we just put it in teh bed, you can install it yourself when you get home". well i'm done paying for half ass work and mediocrity. so fuck microsoft. maybe one day they'll get their act together but i dont see it happening anytime soon.

 

i tried that last night but my complaint is it still uses itunes. are there any programs out there that are more like media player? hell, i'll pay for it if its good enough. i'd just like to use itunes for music and something else for video.

i'll have to try that once i get off work. thanks for the hint

 

fuck a bunch of mac.... I would DIE without my right click!!!

 

You can right click on a Mac.

 

Do a search for a plugin called "perian" it's described as the Swiss army knife of quicktime. It will let you play at file type from .mov to .avi to .flv. Great program

 

copy and paste ?

 

Right clicking pulls up a menus just like in windows. Copy and paste are among the options available.