What does wma stand for and how can I open it?

[George Kimery]

I downloaded Greg Cutshaw's Crazy Arms in Cth audio. It downloaded as CrazyArms.wma. When I click on it to open it, I get a dialog box that says: "The movie could not be opened. This is not a movie file" When I open it, I get the quicktime blue Q icon. My Quicktime player is version 7.6.4 and my computer is an iMac OSX vs. 10.4.11. If this is not a movie file, why is my comuter trying to open it as such? What is wma all about? Does the w stand for windows. Is the file just not compatible with my iMac? Is there another route I can go to get it to open and play? As you can tell, I am not very savy on computers, but I am trying to learn. Thanks for any education and help.

[Ron Anderson]

Get this:

Media Player Classic. It just does it all. Always.

http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/

If this won't play it your file is corrupt.

[George Kimery]

Ron, thanks a lot, but when I went to the download site, it only shows downloads for Windows, not Mac.

George

[Wiz Feinberg]

Wma file types are Windows Media Audio. You need a codec to decode wma for whatever your Mac audio player might be.

[George Kimery]

One more thing: I just noticed that I have a downloaded icon on my desktop that says:

"free-wma-mp3-converter.exe" If I click it to open, I get the same message: "The movie could not be opened. this is not a movie file.

I though I might be able to use this to convert the wma file to mp3, but don't know how to go about it since I can't get it to open.

[George Kimery]

Wiz, thank you for telling me what the wma stands for. At least now I know that it is windows, so my Mac doesn't recognize it. I have iTunes but I don't know what else I have to play audio mp3 files. I don't know what the word codec means. I'm just too computer illiteriate. Thank you for your imput.

[Wiz Feinberg]

One more thing: I just noticed that I have a downloaded icon on my desktop that says:

"free-wma-mp3-converter.exe" If I click it to open, I get the same message: "The movie could not be opened. this is not a movie file.

I thought I might be able to use this to convert the wma file to mp3, but don't know how to go about it since I can't get it to open.

.exe file types (Executable) are usually Windows OS specific. Your Mac uses .bin file types, among others, instead. It cannot open a .exe file without a Windows emulator program, like Parallels, etc.

Here is what the Wikipedia has to say about EXE file types.

EXE is the common filename extension denoting an executable file (a program) in the DOS, OpenVMS, Microsoft Windows, Symbian, and OS/2 operating systems. Besides the executable program, many EXE files contain other components called resources, such as bitmaps and icons which the executable program may use for its graphical user interface.

[Scott Malchow]

George,
Do a google search on "perian" to find the site for perian quicktime components. I believe it's www.perian.org

It is free to download and install.
It will allow you to open and play WMA files in quicktime.

Good Luck,
Scott

[Cal Sharp]

VLC should play it.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

[Greg Cutshaw]

There used to be a version of windows media player for MAC. Now there is a free plug in for QuickTime that will play any .wma or .wmv file (including all the files on my web site):

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... components

I've got a lot of mac users listening to my stuff! I


Greg

[Jeff Agnew]

Greg is correct. The Flip4Mac plug-in is the solution of choice for playing windows media files on a Mac.