vlc 0.8.6 has support for wmv9 videos here are some wmv9 videos: http://www.grc.com/sr/themovie.htm playing it gives an error $ vlc SR6_With_Leo.wmv VLC media player 0.8.6 Janus [00000297] main decoder error: no suitable decoder module for fourcc `WMV3'. VLC probably does not support this sound or video format. upgrading to the lastest ffmpeg doesn't work for others architectures than x86 it could be great to have a native wmv9 codec(not win32codecs) moreover it's free software and win32codecs isn't
# emerge -av vlc These are the packages that would be merged, in order: Calculating dependencies... done! [ebuild R ] media-video/vlc-0.8.6 USE="X a52 alsa cdda cddb dts dvb dvd flac hal httpd libnotify matroska mp3 mpeg ncurses nsplugin ogg opengl oss png rtsp samba sdl speex svg theora truetype vorbis wxwindows xml xv -3dfx -aalib (-altivec) -arts -avahi -bidi -corba -daap -debug -directfb -esd -fbcon -ggi -gnutls -libcaca -lirc -live -mod -optimisememory -seamonkey -shout -skins -stream -svga -upnp -v4l -vcd -vlm -win32codecs -xinerama -xosd" 0 kB i don't see any ffmpeg use flag there...
it works when rebuilding vlc