seems cool enough

If you don't want Silverlight, simply do this:

1. Select "Flip4Mac WMV.mpkg", right-click (or ctrl+click) on it and select "Show Package Contents"

2. Go down the folder hierarchy into the folder Resources.

3. Just install "Flip4Mac QuickTime Components.pkg" and "Flip4Mac Web
Plugins.pkg"

4. Ignore Silverlight.3.0.pkg ;-)

2.3 version completed beta testing; now an official release.

I second neeklamy's comment re: MS Silverlight. When running the installer package, be sure to click the "Customize" button on the screen for "Installation Type."

This has always been a welcome addition to my Mac, but unfortunately Flip4Mac are starting to bundle Microsoft Silverlight with the download, just take a look at the size of the current beta release (2.3.0.11) - 20.6 MB, Silverlight takes up most of that. The inclusion is mentioned in the installer, but it would be ever so easy to miss.

Please note that this is identical to the product Microsoft distributes, advertised as Windows Media Components for QuickTime . As of this writing, that latest version is 2.2.3.7. Version 2.3.0.11 is a beta version, available not at the above link but here . It adds (among other things) support for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, but is still in beta.

For Snow Leopard users, there is a beta of the new version available.

Unfortunately, Safari 3 cannot launch WMV Player without crashing any more. Flip4Mac to the rescue? -- not quite. There are still numerous .wax and .wvx files that WON'T play with Flip4Mac. Flip4Mac simply states "cannot play this file, please go to our website" (why, I don't know).
Examples are, again, Univ of Edinburgh lectures (eg Gifford Lectures), the .wvx and .wax files WILL NOT RUN in Flip4Mac......only WMV Player can play them. There are many others I've come across too that don't play in Flip4Mac.

Is there a solution?.....YES......use both. Here's how I did it:

1 Quit Safari
2 Download the latest Flip4Mac.dmg file and open it.....DO NOT INSTALL IT.
3 Instead, use Pacifist to selectively install the following components:
* the 3 QT components (export/import/advanced) into /Library/QuickTime
* the 2 internet plugins (wmv.plugin/wmvplugin.webplugin) into /Library/Internet Plug-ins
Prebindings will be auto-updated as they are transferred by pacifist.

4 Ignore the .app and the prefpane - unecessary bloat imo.....all you need is the above plugins/components

5 Download the last available WMV Player (9.0.0) from the ms website and install it.
6 navigate to /Library/Internet Plug-ins and delete the "Windows Media Plugin" file (this causes Safari to launch WMV Player - don't want that now as we have F4M installed).

7 Run Disk Utility and Repair Permissions (just in case, but should be fine anyway).

Now, we have a streamlined install where the internet side is handled by Flip4Mac and the standalone is WMV Player. If you do come across a file that won't play in Flip4Mac, it will inform you after Safari enters the page.
So double click the address bar and copy the address.
Launch WMV player and hit "Apple-U" and paste the URL......file will now play fine in the standalone WMV Player.

So a combination of both will play any .wmv/.wax/.wvx file you come across (and doing the above avoids unnecessary bloat in the form of unneeded prefpanes for instance - and by keeping the two seperate, avoids any software conflicts between the two).

Should the page here list betaversions or the official version from the author's homepage?

yeah, ok :)

People at I Use This:
Why don't you delete this entry of Flip4Mac WMV and add these users to the more than 4000 users of the original post?
There's no need for this second entry.