rowan said 28/11 at 8:08pm

MPEG Streamclip, a free application from Squared 5, can convert nearly anything to anything else, including WMV9 (normal & advanced with 2 pass VBR encoding). To confirm this, I just downloaded a FLV clip from YouTube, converted it to a WMV file and then played it in Microsoft's own Windows Media Player 9 for OS X and it played fine so I don't see what $25 is getting you here. (Also, MPEG Streamclip has 32- and 64-bit versions.)

jrs2008 said 28/11 at 2:24am

Note that the developer is packaging this along with ScreenFlow for a limited time: http://www.telestream.net/screen-flow/overview.htm (I haven't checked the other products)

But if you don't need ScreenFlow, this is probably a good deal.

mpstrex said 28/11 at 10:26am

Everyone, I use this almost every day, because most of my clients don't have QuickTime on their computers, and it's tough to walk them through installing it. So when I create video proofs in Final Cut Pro, I can make WMVs.

big77 said 28/11 at 12:54am

@iamclayed The free version just lets you view WMV; the paid version lets you save as WMV (for example, take a .mov and save it as a .wmv)

ploth said 28/11 at 9:10am

Can anyone tell me the benefit of this over, say, making a .mov in iMovie, iDVD or whatever - then using the free handbrake to convert to wmv?

Handbrake seems to have great results but if someone can tell me how / why this is better I will snap it up.

craig42a said 28/11 at 7:35am

I use the free plug-in. What you can do, is if you dislike Microshaft and WMV is view a .wmv file, then save as Quicktime for later viewing on your Mac. You need to own Quicktime Pro though to do this. Flip4Mac has saved my life many times. I recommend supporting this developer in any way you can.

kernelg said 28/11 at 7:31am

I have the lesser WMV Player "Pro" version, which for $29 enables importing and playing WMV via QuickTime (even on web pages) and exporting to various other formats supported by QuickTime. It works very well. It just won't create new WMV files like WMV Studio here. I don't remember paying $29 for Pro at the time, but that's where it is now, for comparison. So far I haven't found a reason to make WMV files on the Mac, but for $4 less you might as well have the capability.

antonyh said 28/11 at 7:12am

@Espiridion In what way is QuickTime terrible?

In terms of formats, there's not a lot to differentiate between them from an end user point of view, WMV, MOV, AVI, MPG, FLV, aside from quality and file size. Quality is subjective, and size is dependent on quality, so it all boils down to what you're using the video for and who your target market is.

theKryz said 28/11 at 1:51am

what it CANNOT do (according to the developer's site):

* Create custom encoding profiles

* Export High Definition and 2-pass encoding

These are left for the Studio Pro and Studio Pro HD versions.

I don't know if I could get along with fixed profiles and no HD exporting.

tcsdoc said today at 12:03am

Who needs this when VLC is available for free? Name one thing this program does that VLC (Mac and Windows) cannot.