everyone i know has it and how many downloads does it have i can't remember but it is in the hundreds of millions.

also quicktime 7 supports H.264 codec so go with the best

and filbut1 i do not know a single person that has WMP on OS X, i wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole

but does QuickTime can play .wmv, .wma, .asf, .asx, .avi , .midi.... that WMP supports ?

The truth is I use QT for playing .mov only

remember H.264 is the best codec out there and AAC owns at audio

i have it play .avi and .midi

and .wmv and .wma don't work on OS X anyways, and i wouldn't touch .asf or .asx

for all other file formats i use VLC anyways

I wouldn't either. I'm just saying it exists.

Remember, MPEG will play on virtually any player on any platform--and when compressed to a Video CD format, it can be 1 MB/minute and still look good at 352 x 240 at ~30 FPS. Also remember that AVIs are not a standard format but just the extension for a file that can be one of any hundreds of codecs for both audio and video.
No, no, no, no, depends, yes (and it often sounds far better than WiMP).

also the wmv3 codec and some wma codec doesn't work AT ALL on OS X even in WMP it doesn't work. i believe but even if it did (which i don't 100% know) i don't allow anything windows like on my computer

This argument is one more reason to keep them has direct download. If the person dos'nt have the player you support he is told to download it, a lot of people just leave the site at this point, unless they really want to see the movie.

By letting them download the file the user can watch the movie in the player he wants. Many of the codec's are supported in both quicktime and WMP if you have the proper codec's installed.

Right but this cannot be applied for Streamloading, you must have understood the purpose of streamloading, with WMP I got the best player for streamload.

I decided to go the route of a video thumb, clip description, format and size, and finally a downloable link to the clip in the end :D

However I think i will have to start re-encoding the clips...most are in WMV.....
And for those talking about the Mac issue....i am with you on that...I used to work extensively on a Mac and anything by MS on a Mac is just plain crappy.

How would you suggest doing your method and makeing video thumbs etc.?
I want to upload to the server and have it to where people can only download the vid.Is there a way to restrict a user group to where they can download the file only once and when they do it restricts any further download of that particular file?