Can't open WMV file

[Martin030908]

Even the Jesus phone does not support Microsoft's Windows Media Video (WMV) files or Audio Video Interleave (avi) files... WinMo (or most of them) support WMV (with various levels of success) and for some reason HTC tried to incorporate WMV into the G1, but that was a big fat failure.

But my laptop will play them.
Just kidding, I know there are limitations on everything.

While you are kidding, it also highlights the point... technically even Windows does not support these file formats, and it requires an app to run (granted in the US, the WMV player is bundled, but it is still a separate app)

never dawned on me but that's true.... even windows needs windows media player to play .wmv.... being built it does make us 'forget' about it though

[dfuser10332]

But my laptop will play them.
Just kidding, I know there are limitations on everything.

While you are kidding, it also highlights the point... technically even Windows does not support these file formats, and it requires an app to run (granted in the US, the WMV player is bundled, but it is still a separate app)

never dawned on me but that's true.... even windows needs windows media player to play .wmv.... being built it does make us 'forget' about it though

Yes, on second thought that's correct. But Media player is free. Again I don't want to sound cheap but they are charging for this app.

[JayMonster]

Just a few reminders. One, Windows Media Player is only included in the US. (Thanks to a EU ruling)

Second, it wasn't always the case. Not all of you are probably old enough to remember, but the original Media Player did not play anything but WAV files. If you wanted more, you had to *buy* (at the time) either RealMedia Player or QuickTime (or both). Only later did they become free (and the best player... VLC came much later).

I know it is a little weird coming from a Microsoft centric world to expect everybody to use Microsoft "standards" but they don't. That is why open standards like MPEG-4 and H.264 are supported out of the box, but WMV isn't.

If enough people want it... in time... I would wager that there will be more than one player that can support it and eventually one of them may very well be free (like if VLC gets ported, which isn't a far stretch since, it is open source and there is already a Linux version). Being an early adopter *costs* (just think by this time next year, the Droid will probably be $99) and if you want it NOW you have to be willing to pay for it... otherwise... wait... it will come.