Unfortunately, Safari 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 some University of Edinburgh lectures (e.g. the Gifford Lectures), where 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:
Quit Safari
Download the latest Flip4Mac.dmg file and open it.....DO NOT INSTALL IT.
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.
Ignore the .app and the prefpane - unecessary bloat imo...all you need is the above plugins/components
Download the last available WMV Player (9.0.0) from the ms website and install it.
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).
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 ⌘ U and paste the URL...the 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).
