[HOWTO] Make QuickTime Player accept WMV and SWF files

[Mikuro]

If you use Flip4Mac's WMV Player ($10; free demo available) to play WMV files in QuickTime, you're probably annoyed that you can't simply drag 'n' drop WMVs onto QuickTime Player's icon.

It's also a bit of a secret these days that QuickTime Player can play (some) Flash (.swf) files. But again, you can't drag 'n' drop them.

Here's how to enable drag-and-drop for both WMV and SWF files (Note: you'll probably need an administrator password to complete these steps):

1. Control-click QuickTime Player (in /Applications), and select "Show Package Contents". (Make sure QuickTime Player is not loaded.)

2. Open the Contents/Info.plist file in any text editor, like TextEdit or BBEdit.

3. You'll see a bunch of HTML-like tags. Make a new line after this:

<key>CFBundleDocumentTypes</key>
<array>

And paste in this:

		<dict>
			<key>CFBundleTypeExtensions</key>
			<array>
				<string>swf</string>
			</array>
			<key>CFBundleTypeMIMETypes</key>
			<array>
				<string>application/x-shockwave-flash</string>
			</array>
			<key>CFBundleTypeName</key>
			<string>Flash</string>
			<key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
			<string>Viewer</string>
			<key>LSIsAppleDefaultForType</key>
			<string>No</string>
			<key>NSDocumentClass</key>
			<string>QTPMovieDocument</string>
		</dict>
		<dict>
			<key>CFBundleTypeExtensions</key>
			<array>
				<string>wmv</string>
			</array>
			<key>CFBundleTypeIconFile</key>
			<string>r129.icns</string>
			<key>CFBundleTypeName</key>
			<string>WMV</string>
			<key>CFBundleTypeOSTypes</key>
			<array>
				<string>ASF_</string>
				<string>WMV_</string>
				<string>WMV </string>
			</array>
			<key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
			<string>Editor</string>
			<key>LSIsAppleDefaultForType</key>
			<string>Yes</string>
			<key>NSDocumentClass</key>
			<string>QTPMovieDocument</string>
		</dict>

4. Save your changes. If you get an error message saying you don't permission, follow these steps:
4a. Choose "Save As..." from the file menu, and save your Info.plist file onto the desktop.
4b. In the Finder, drag the new Info.plist file you just saved over the old one (inside QuickTime Player). When the Finder asks you if you want to replace, say yes, and enter your administrator password at the prompt.

5. In the Finder, move QuickTime Player to a different folder (it doesn't matter what folder; I used /Applications/Utilities), and then move it back into /Applications. This is necessary to force OS X to update its database of what file types applications can accept.

6. Load QuickTime Player, and try dragging a WMV or SWF file onto its icon in the Dock. It works now! You're done!

Again, keep in mind that QuickTime Player can NOT play all SWF files. I guess (I'm not really sure) that it can only play ones made with older versions of Flash, which is why they took out the drag-and-drop ability they had in previous versions of QuickTime Player. *shrug*

And, of course, you need Flip4Mac's WMV Player if you want to be able to play WMVs.

[jjrecort]

well I have tried and it's still saying "it's not a movie file"

whatever, you drag or open...the files...

the SWF are just a pointer to a FLV media. the FLV media plays perfectly on Quicktime, but the files will be stored as SWF....

thanks!

[Mikuro]

QuickTime can only open some interactive swfs. Most newer interactive swfs will not work, in my experience. I'm not sure when Apple stopped updating QuickTime's Flash support. I guess it was with QuickTime 5 or 6.

If you want to play flvs in QuickTime, you need Perian. You might also want to use Perian's Type Installer to automatically make QuickTime accept flvs.

I've never actually seen flvs encased in swf files, so I can't comment on that.