Yep, if it is any help, same behavior here, using Safari. Spinning beachball.
I tried this link out on Firefox on my SuSE Linux 9.3 and it plays just fine. It is a WMV file - very nice video of a world champion kite exhibition.
I am stumped. Any ideas anyone? Perhaps there is a way to stop Safari and/or Firefox from attempting to play the embedded media? Can this be disabled somehow? Then you could at least save off the file and play it in Windows Media Player for Flip4Mac or some other.
BTW, this is not WMV specific. I have identical issues with some MPGs, per my earlier post. When I find the next one (it seems erratic) I will post it as well.