Freeloader Friday Download of the Week

Windows Media Revenge

Cheers erupted from Mac users the world over when Microsoft announced it would stop torturing us with their garbage web browser. This time around, the announcement of the discontinuation of Windows Media might raise some concerns - but it shouldn't. Here's why:

Flip4Mac WMV Player 2.0 As soon as the announcement was made by Microsoft, this free Windows Media player for QuickTime was announced. The player isn't new, but the free is. You can buy-up to various levels of pro versions for more features.

Flip4Mac's player isn't the only free Mac player for Windows media. The Open Source crowd has a couple solutions for us too:

VLC

This popular media alternative plays older Windows Media audio and video formats. It also supports streaming media. Its a very flexible and popular player.

MPlayer

MPlayer is another gift from the Open Source crowd. It supports a long list of codecs and formats, including most Windows Media types. This player requires QuickTime 7 or later and 10.3.9+. The interface is very smooth as well.

If it's audio you're after, then there's a solutions for just that.

ASFrecorderX

This Tiger only solution will record streaming Windows Media audio to an ASF file for local storage/playback. There's also a Darwinport for Tiger of the Linux asfrecorder application for doing the same thing.

On a related note, there are some nice Mac solutions for recording internet radio:

StreamRipperX and Radio Recorder

Both these applications will turn an internet radio stream into mp3's you can take to go on an iPod. Radio Recorder supports scheduling of recordings too.

So, let's celebrate the victory of one less crappy app on our systems and revel in the free alternatives to Windows Media Player!

Brian   


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