How to play wmv files in html5 video player

Question

Is there any way to play .wmv files using html5 video player?

@Pekka: i am using html5 for browser independence only. i am hopping that all browser in future will support it. — Dr. Rajesh Rolen, Dec 16 '10 at 10:55
very hardly. WMV is a proprietary format. You should probably think about switching video formats instead — Pekka, Dec 16 '10 at 10:56
You can use [JW silverlight player](http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/jw-wmv-player/) to play your wmv. — Ura, Dec 30 '11 at 21:31
Is this still the case or is there a worked is available to use HTML5 video with wmv format? — chandravadan, May 26 '16 at 04:52

score 32 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 16 '10 at 10:51

32

There is no way. No browser (currently, if ever) supports playing wmv files. You will have to convert it into a format that browsers know how to play.

answered Dec 16 '10 at 10:51

Jan Hančič

53,269
16
95
99

1

Technically, I think he's correct. while a .wmv will "work" inside of IE and only IE I think i've seen enough bugginess and crashing from doing this that I can with a clear conscience agree with him on this even though this is answer has zero intended seriousness. – Joel Apr 21 '15 at 20:26
Can you please give free online web-based wmv converter to mp4 or webm? so that people coming to this answer have 100% solution – Nov 18 '15 at 21:55

score 11 · Answer 2 · edited May 30 '20 at 12:42

That's not true. Wmv files CAN play in IE with the windows media player object.

Example:

<object classid="clsid:22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95" width="480"
        height="360" codebase="http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/MediaPlayer/">
   <param name="Filename" value="http://walkernewsdownload.googlepages.com/HP-iPaq-614.wmv">
   <param name="AutoStart" value="true">
   <param name="ShowControls" value="true">
   <param name="BufferingTime" value="2">
   <param name="ShowStatusBar" value="true">
   <param name="AutoSize" value="true">
   <param name="InvokeURLs" value="false">
   <embed src="http://walkernewsdownload.googlepages.com/HP-iPaq-614.wmv"
          type="application/x-mplayer2" autostart="1" enabled="1" showstatusbar="1"
          showdisplay="1" showcontrols="1" 
          pluginspage="http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/MediaPlayer/" 
          CODEBASE="http://activex.microsoft.com/activex/controls/mplayer/en/nsmp2inf.cab#Version=6,0,0,0" width="480" height="360"></embed>
</object>

You might need to install the Windows Media Player plug-in for your browser (if it is still available for your browser)

Credit: See http://www.walkernews.net/2008/08/17/windows-media-player-how-to-embed-wmv-file-in-html-code/ for a more thorough explanation.

Welcome to Stack Overflow! Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, [it would be preferable](http://meta.stackexchange.com/q/8259) to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. — jjnguy, Feb 02 '12 at 23:13
The question asked if it was possible using "html5 video player." The solution you linked to did not use the video tag. — vlasits, Apr 14 '17 at 19:10

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 04 '15 at 07:10

Mediaelement.js player documentation says, support to wmv and mov, but so far i have not seen any positive or success comments for these formats.Formats like wmv and mov are proprietary, so to play video user need to explicitly install browser based plugins. Latest version of Firefox doesn't support wmv directly, there is a work around.To support mov format,user need to have quicktime player install in the system.Go for players that supports Flash fallback for non HTML5 browsers.

WMV plugin for firefox

Firefox Documentation:

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 07 '11 at 09:04

1

AFAIK, the only way to play WMV files in a browser without resorting to embedding WMP is using Silverlight.

answered Jun 07 '11 at 09:04

Husky

5,757
2
46
41

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 18 '13 at 13:30

0

Sorry, but actually isn't supported in google chrome, safari, Opera and firefox...

You can use any programs to pass WMV to MP4 files, supported :)

I hope this reply has helped you a lot!

answered Oct 18 '13 at 13:30

Tony Montero

9
1

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 21 '11 at 15:43

Heh, you would think IE would support it as WMV was a Microsoft format and IE is a Microsoft application. Interesting how they don't seem to mix.

Regardless, I hope that WMV will be supported in the future. Technically speaking, all current video formats except for OGG are proprietary. OGG is the only open platform codec.

How to play wmv files in html5 video player

6 Answers6

Linked