
Being a rather popular format on Windows, WMV causes difficulties for QuickTime Player. To be able to seamlessly play this format, Mac users should search for third-party apps. In this article, we have gathered the list of the most popular WMV player Mac apps and will help you choose your perfect one.
When you need to play WMV on Mac, Elmedia Player is the obvious solution. It can open more than the files Mac natively supports, including AVI, FLV, SWF, MP3, DAT, FLAC, M4V, DivX, and MKV. The features include preview thumbnails on the timeline and bookmark editing. There’s an option to search for subtitles and save them as separate files, sync up video and audio, and add external audio tracks.
For just $19.95, Elmedia Player PRO can do even more. Stream unlimited video, audio, and pictures from your Mac to bigger screens like Smart TVs via AirPlay 2, DLNA, Chromecast, or Chromecast Ultra and enter Picture-in-Picture mode. Elmedia Player PRO also allows for custom-tuning of video playback, lets you take screenshots, and gives you the ability to adjust the color and font of your subtitles.
Pros:
Cons:
Supported OS: macOS
Price: free to use, PRO upgrade priced at $19.95
App Store Rating: 4.8 out of 5
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Elmedia is not the only WMV player for Mac, even though it’s the best. We’d also like to mention several other apps which caught our attention. These include both free and commercial solutions with various capabilities. The one thing that unites every media player on this list is their support for the WMV video file format.
VLC Media Player is a time-tested way to play WMV files. This open-source and free WMV player for Mac has the ability to play a large range of media files in resolutions up to 8K, as well as compressed video.
VLC for mac OS comes with an expansive set of features. You can change playback speed or audio quality and even add video effects. The app fully supports colored subtitles, additional subtitles, and audio tracks. However, one of the problems VLC has is that it’s hard to find a lot of these features in the less-than-intuitive menu, which can make it frustrating to use.
Pros:
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Supported OS: macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android
Price: free, donation-based service
Trustpilot Rating: 2.2 out of 5
If you’re looking for a WMV player for Mac that can manage your entire video collection free of charge, then 5KPlayer is one of the possible ways to do that. It has a media library feature, which allows you to sort and find videos easily. In addition, this video player can also stream videos straight from YouTube, as well as use Apple AirPlay to display those videos over multiple devices. Open just about any file types and customize it easily with the versatile audio and video playback management options.
Something to look out for, though, is that the free version of 5KPlayer is supported by ads, which can annoy you while you’re in the player’s menus. Thankfully, they don’t play while you’re watching a video.
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Supported OS: macOS, Windows
Price: freeware
Trustpilot Rating: 3.7 out of 5
IINA is a macOS video player that will help you open WMV on Mac. This smartly-developed app provides users with intuitive menus and even supports gesture controls to make playing videos much easier. The features make it a good option for a Retina screen, and it’s a perfect fit for every user’s needs, whether they need a simple video player or a high-quality professional application that can handle every part of the playback process. IINA can take care of anything you put up to it.
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Supported OS: macOS
Price: totally free
MacUpdate Rating: 4.4 out of 5
Switch Player can handle a variety of professional tasks. Designed for media editors, it not only lets you play videos, but also inspect and adjust the video files. The app allows single file transcoding and file conversion to ensure playback on any device. Change Windows Media content into MP4 files to make it compatible with any device out there.
It’s close to being the best WMV player for Mac. This solution was developed by Telestream, the developer of Flip4Mac, which was the only way to enable WMV support in QuickTime and play this format on Mac for a very long time. It comes with several different plans to use Switch the way you want to, starting at $19.95.
Pros:
Cons:
Supported OS: macOS, Windows
Price: free trial, 3 plans starting from $19.95
MacUpdate Rating: 1.6 out of 5
If you are searching for a WMV player for Mac at a reasonable price, take a closer look at OmniPlayer. The app can handle plenty of file types and supports streaming over AirPlay and DLNA. Another great advantage is its ability to play and create playlists. Besides that, OmniPlayer offers video playback from online streaming platforms like YouTube and Vimeo.
This media player offers many configuration options. You can easily tune your audio and video playback, adjust subtitles (colors and fonts), perform video color correction, and way more. Unfortunately, users can’t benefit from all these features unless they upgrade to the PRO version of the app.
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Supported OS: macOS, Windows
Price: free to use, PRO upgrade priced at $8.99
App Store Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Cisdem Video Player can play WMV on Mac. It doesn’t do much else - you won’t find an equalizer here, or any advanced UI elements like hotkey customization. But it’s solid, it works with most video files, the basic version is free and has no ads. The converter component is the only special feature. It’s not very in-depth, so you’re better off using any other conversion software, really.
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Supported OS: macOS, Windows
Price: $9.99
MacUpdate Rating: 3 out of 5
MPlayerX can play media files in all current formats without the use of third-party tools. The interface of this WMV player for Mac may remind users of QuickTime Player, but it’s more minimalistic.
This player is definitely not the worst option for watching HD videos on a Mac as well as playing WMV files as its price is pretty low in relation to its competitors, and it can be easily downloaded from the Mac App Store.
Pros:
Cons:
Supported OS: macOS
Price: $1.99
App Store Rating: 3.6 out of 5
If you absolutely need to play your WMV in QuickTime, or don’t trust any third-party players, then using something like Handbrake is your only choice. Conversion takes time, it’s pretty slow even at low resolutions, and when it comes to larger videos, encoding can take forever, so keep that in mind!
It’s clear that there are a bunch of capable Macintosh WMV player solutions but we want to narrow that down even further with a quick list of features. Look out for these when trying to find the best WMV player for Mac.
A good WMV player should:
We've curated the best WMV players for Mac in one easy-to-remember chart. Find the right one for you here!
Top Features
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VideoDuke
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Elmedia Player
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VLC Media Player
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5KPlayer
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IINA Player
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Switch Player
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Complete support for several video formats
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Complete support for several video formats
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yes (AVI, FLV, SWF, MP4, WMV, MOV, DAT, M4V, MPG, DivX, MKV, etc.)
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yes (MKV, MP4, VOB, WMV, MPG AVI, etc.)
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yes (MKV, M2TS, MP4, AVI, WMV, FLV, etc.)
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yes (AVI, MP4, FLV, SWF, WMV, MKV, M4V, etc.)
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yes (MKV, AVI, FLV, AVCHD, WMV, etc.)
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Supports several popular audio formats
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Supports several popular audio formats
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yes (MP3, WMA, AC2, MKA, OGG, FLAC, AAC, etc.)
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yes (AAC, AC-3, FLAC, MP3, ALAC, etc.)
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yes (MP3, AAC, AC3, WMA, FLAC, ALAC, etc.)
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yes (AAC,FLAC, MP3, WAV, WMA, etc.)
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yes (MP3, OGG, ACC, WMA, AIFF, etc.)
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Allows local WMV streaming to TV
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Allows local WMV streaming to TV
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yes (PRO)
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yes
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yes
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no
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no
|
Integrated Video Tuner
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Integrated Video Tuner
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yes (PRO)
|
yes
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yes
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no
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no
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Allows video conversion from one format to another
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Allows video conversion from one format to another
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no
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yes
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no
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no
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yes (PRO)
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Simple video enhancement features: rotate, mirror image, flip, etc.
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Simple video enhancement features: rotate, mirror image, flip, etc.
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yes
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yes
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yes
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yes
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no
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Built-in audio equalizer
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Built-in audio equalizer
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yes
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yes
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no
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yes
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no
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Integrated subtitle support
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Integrated subtitle support
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yes
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yes
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yes
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yes
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yes (PRO)
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Allows subtitle playback acceleration/deceleration (Subtitle sync)
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Allows subtitle playback acceleration/deceleration (Subtitle sync)
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yes
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yes
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no
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yes
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yes (PRO)
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Supports online searching for subtitles
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Supports online searching for subtitles
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yes
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add-on
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no
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yes
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no
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Hardware Acceleration enabled
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Hardware Acceleration enabled
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yes
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yes
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yes
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yes
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yes
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Enables screen recording
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Enables screen recording
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no
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yes
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no
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no
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no
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Built-in Browser extension plays media from websites directly
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Built-in Browser extension plays media from websites directly
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no
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yes
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no
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yes
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no
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No-cost version
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Free Option
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yes
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yes
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yes
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yes
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yes
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WMV, or Windows Media Video, is a compressed video file format. It was developed by Microsoft and used in several different third-party apps as well as enables easy sharing over the Internet and Email. It allows compression of large video files while allowing for high-quality playback to be achieved, which makes it incredibly popular in use with online radio stations that deliver a continuous flow of data. Its similarity to ASF means that it can be packaged with that file as well as AVI, making it optimal for streaming.
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