Windows Media Video

Short description: File format family

"WMV" redirects here. For the container file format .wmv, see Advanced Systems Format.

Windows Media Video (WMV) is a series of video codecs and their corresponding video coding formats developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows Media framework. WMV consists of three distinct codecs: the original video compression technology, known as WMV, originally designed for Internet streaming applications as a competitor to RealVideo, and WMV Screen and WMV Image compression technologies, which cater to specialized content. After standardization by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE),[1][2] WMV version 9 was adapted for physical-delivery formats such as HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc and became known as VC-1.[3][4] Microsoft also developed a digital container format called Advanced Systems Format to store video encoded by Windows Media Video.

## Contents

* 1 History
* 2 Container format
* 3 Video compression formats
* 3.1 Windows Media Video
* 3.2 Windows Media Video Screen
* 3.3 Windows Media Video Image
* 3.4 Versions
* 4 Audio compression formats
* 5 Players
* 6 Encoders
* 7 Digital rights management
* 8 Criticism
* 9 See also
* 10 References
* 11 External links

## History

In 2003, Microsoft drafted a video compression specification based on its WMV 9 format and submitted it to SMPTE for standardization. The standard was officially approved in March 2006 as SMPTE 421M, better known as VC-1, thus making the WMV 9 format an open standard. VC-1 became one of the three video formats for the Blu-ray video disc, along with H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC.[3][4]

## Container format

Main article: Advanced Systems Format

A screenshot from VLC Media Player of what a WMV file may contain

A WMV file uses the Advanced Systems Format (ASF) container format to encapsulate the encoded multimedia content. While the ASF can encapsulate multimedia in other encodings than those the WMV file standard specifies, those ASF files should use the .asf file extension and not the .wmv file extension.[5] The ASF container can optionally support digital rights management using a combination of elliptic curve cryptography key exchange, DES block cipher, a custom block cipher, RC4 stream cipher and the SHA-1 hashing function.

Although WMV is generally packed into the ASF container format, it can also be put into the Matroska[6] container format (with file extension .mkv), or AVI container format (extension .avi). One common way to store WMV in an AVI file is to use the WMV 9 Video Compression Manager (VCM) codec implementation.[7][8]

## Video compression formats

### Windows Media Video

Diagram illustrating the relative frame sizes of several common video resolutions targeted by Windows Media Video 9 Professional, starting with 480p

Windows Media Video (WMV) is the most recognized video compression format within the WMV family. Usage of the term WMV often refers to the Microsoft Windows Media Video format only. Its main competitors are MPEG-4 AVC, AVS, RealVideo, and MPEG-4 ASP. The first version of the format, WMV 7, was introduced in 1999, and was built upon Microsoft's implementation of MPEG-4 Part 2.[9] Continued proprietary development led to newer versions of the format, but the bit stream syntax was not frozen until WMV 9.[10] While all versions of WMV support variable bit rate, average bit rate, and constant bit rate, WMV 9 introduced several important features including native support for interlaced video, non-square pixels, and frame interpolation.[11] WMV 9 also introduced a new profile titled Windows Media Video 9 Professional,[12] which is activated automatically whenever the video resolution exceeds 300,000 pixels (e.g., 528 px × 576 px, 640 px × 480 px or 768 px × 432 px and beyond) and the bitrate 1 Mbit/s . It is targeted towards high-definition video content, at resolutions such as 720p and 1080p.

The Simple and Main profile levels in WMV 9 are compliant with the same profile levels in the VC-1 specification.[13] The Advanced Profile in VC-1 is implemented in a new WMV format called Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile. It improves compression efficiency for interlaced content and is made transport-independent, making it able to be encapsulated in an MPEG transport stream or RTP packet format. The format is not compatible with previous WMV 9 formats, however.[14]

WMV is a mandatory video format for PlaysForSure-certified online stores and devices, as well as Portable Media Center devices. The Microsoft Zune, Xbox 360, Windows Mobile-powered devices with Windows Media Player, as well as many uncertified devices, support the format.[15] WMV HD mandates the use of WMV 9 for its certification program, at quality levels specified by Microsoft.[16] WMV used to be the only supported video format for the Microsoft Silverlight platform, but the H.264 format is now also supported starting with version 3.[17]

### Windows Media Video Screen

Windows Media Video Screen (WMV Screen) are video formats that specialise in screencast content. They can capture live screen content, or convert video from third-party screen-capture programs into WMV 9 Screen files. They work best when the source material is mainly static and contains a small color palette.[18]

One of the uses for the format is computer step-by-step demonstration videos. The first version of the format was WMV 7 Screen. The second version, WMV 9 Screen, supports VBR encoding in addition to CBR.[18] Additionally there is MSA1 (aka “MS ATC Screen codec” or “MSS3”) which is used in Live Meeting 2007\. FourCCs for the formats are `MSS1`, `MSS2` and `MSA1`.[19]

### Windows Media Video Image

Windows Media Video Image (WMV Image) is a video slideshow format. The format works by applying timing, panning and transition effects to a series of images during playback.[20] The codec achieves a higher compression ratio and image quality than WMV 9 for still images as files encoded with WMV Image store static images rather than full-motion video.

Since the format relies on the decoder (player) to generate video frames in real-time, playing WMV Image files even at moderate resolutions (e.g. 30 frames per second at 1024 px × 768 px resolution) requires heavy computer processing. The latest version of the format, WMV 9.1 Image, used by Photo Story 3, features additional transformation effects, but is not compatible with the original WMV 9 Image format.[20]

Hardware support for WMV Image is available from Portable Media Centers, Windows Mobile-powered devices with Windows Media Player 10 Mobile.[15]

Since no known domestic DVD player supports this format, users of Photo Story 3 wishing to generate material capable of being played in a DVD player will first have to convert to MPEG-2 before burning a DVD (average file sizes in MPEG-2 are 5 to 6 times the .wmv file).

### Versions

Public Name  | FourCC | Description

|
|

Microsoft MPEG-4 version 1  | MPG4  | Video for Windows-based codec. Non-standard MPEG-4 codec incompatible with the later standardized version of MPEG-4 Part 2.
Microsoft MPEG-4 version 2  | MP42  | VfW-based codec. Non-compliant with finalized MPEG-4 part 2 standard.
Microsoft MPEG-4 version 3  | MP43  | VfW-based codec. Non-compliant with finalized MPEG-4 part 2 standard. Eventually locked for encoding only with ASF files (build 3688 and earlier could also encode to AVI).[21]
Microsoft ISO MPEG-4 version 1  | MP4S  | DirectX Media Objects (DMO)-based codec. MPEG-4 Simple Profile compliant.
Microsoft ISO MPEG-4 version 1.1  | M4S2  | MPEG-4 Advanced Simple Profile compliant.[22]
Windows Media Video 7  | WMV1  | DMO-based codec.
Windows Media Screen 7  | MSS1  | DMO-based codec. Optimized for low-bitrate sequential screen captures or screencasts. Deprecated in favor of Windows Media 9 Screen codec.
Windows Media Video 8  | WMV2  | DMO-based codec.
Windows Media Video 9  | WMV3  | DMO-based codec. Video for Windows (VfW/VCM) version also available. [1]
Windows Media Video 9 Screen  | MSS2  | DMO-based codec. Optimized for low-bitrate sequential screen captures or screencasts.
Windows Media Video 9.1 Image  | WMVP  | DMO-based codec. Optimized for encoding video from sequential bitmap images. Used, for instance, by Photo Story.
Windows Media Video 9.1 Image V2  | WVP2  | DMO-based codec. Optimized for encoding video from sequential bitmap images. Used, for instance, by Photo Story.
Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile  | WMVA  | DMO-based codec. Deprecated as non-VC-1-compliant.
Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile  | WVC1  | DMO-based codec. VC-1 compliant format.

## Audio compression formats

The audio format used in conjunction with Windows Media Video is typically some version of Windows Media Audio, or in rarer cases, the deprecated Sipro ACELP.net audio format. Microsoft recommends that ASF files containing non-Windows Media formats use the generic .ASF file extension.

## Players

Software that can play WMV files includes Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, MPlayer, Media Player Classic, VLC Media Player and K-Multimedia Player. The Microsoft Zune media management software supports the WMV format, but uses a Zune-specific variation of Windows Media DRM which is used by PlaysForSure. Many third-party players exist for various platforms such as Linux that use the FFmpeg implementation of the WMV format.

On the Macintosh platform, Microsoft released a PowerPC version of Windows Media Player for Mac OS X in 2003,[23] but further development of the software ceased. From January 2006 to May 2014, Microsoft endorsed and distributed the 3rd party Flip4Mac, a QuickTime Component developed by Telestream that allowed Macintosh users to play WMV files in any player that used the QuickTime framework.[24][25] Telestream ended sales of Flip4Mac on 1 July 2019 and officially ended support on 28 June 2020.[26] The Elmedia player, which can play WMV files on Macintosh computers, is still available.

## Encoders

Many programs can export video in WMV format; a few examples are Windows Movie Maker, Windows Media Encoder, Microsoft Expression Encoder, Sorenson Squeeze,[27] Vegas Pro,[28] AVS Video Editor, VSDC Free Video Editor, Telestream Episode, Telestream FlipFactory,[29][30] and FFmpeg.

Programs that encode using the WMV Image format include Windows Media Encoder, AVS Video Editor, and Photo Story.

## Digital rights management

Main article: Software:Windows Media DRM

While none of the WMV formats themselves contain any digital rights management facilities, the ASF container format, in which a WMV stream may be encapsulated, can. Windows Media DRM, which can be used in conjunction with WMV, supports time-limited subscription video services such as those offered by CinemaNow.[31] Windows Media DRM, a component of PlaysForSure and Windows Media Connect, is supported on many modern portable video devices and streaming media clients such as the Xbox 360.

## Criticism

WMV has been the subject of numerous complaints from users and the press. Users dislike the digital rights management system which is sometimes attached to WMV files.[32] In 2007, the loss of the ability to restore licenses for WMV files in the Windows Media Player 11 was not positively received.[32]

## See also

* JPEG XR/HDHD, an image file format and format developed by Microsoft

## References

1. ↑ "SMPTE VC-1 Receiving Industrywide Support". http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/apr06/04-24VC1PR.mspx.
2. ↑ "Microsoft VC-1 Codec Now a Standard". 3 April 2006. http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_VC1_Codec_Now_a_Standard/1144097224.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Blu-ray Disc BD-ROM Specification Adds Microsoft's VC-1 Advanced Video Codec". http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/sep04/09-01BluRayDiscPR.mspx.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Microsoft Technology Brings HD DVD to the Mainstream". http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2007/jan07/01-08HDDVDMomentumPR.mspx.
5. ↑ "The Difference Between ASF and WMV/WMA Files". November 17, 2003. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/284094.
6. ↑ "Archives | Matroska". 2003-06-19. http://matroska.org/news/archives.html. "As a sidenote, his muxer filter will also allow transmuxing of Microsoft WMV9 video files ( ASF/WMV container ) fine into matroska files, from Graphedit, and with WMV9 VCM installed on your PC you can even open and edit the files in latest VirtualdubMod"
7. ↑ Microsoft Corporation (2003-07-07) Windows Media Video 9 VCM , Retrieved on 2009-08-07
8. ↑ "Windows - Official Site for Microsoft Windows 10 Home & Pro OS, laptops, PCs, tablets & more". http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/codecs/video.aspx#WindowsMediaVideo9VCM.
9. ↑ "News, Features, Reviews, Forums and Resources for the Professional Content Creator - Creative Planet Network". http://digitalcontentproducer.com/mag/video_mpeg_makes_scene/.
10. ↑ "Windows Media Audio & Video 9 Series". http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/f/c/6fc03c60-5d5b-42c0-bcce-5e184fa56741/2_Audio_Video.ppt.
11. ↑ "Windows - Official Site for Microsoft Windows 10 Home & Pro OS, laptops, PCs, tablets & more". http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/demos/video_quality_demos.aspx.
12. ↑ "Windows Media 9 Series Beta Reviewer's Guide". http://www.elims.org/downloads/sample_content/9Series_RevGuide.pdf.
13. ↑ "Using the Advanced Settings of the Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile Codec". http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/howto/articles/codecadvancedsettings.aspx.
14. ↑ Waggoner, Ben (21 February 2007). "Best Practices for Windows Media Encoding". http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=64909.
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Windows - Official Site for Microsoft Windows 10 Home & Pro OS, laptops, PCs, tablets & more". http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/windowsmobile/faq.aspx.
16. ↑ "MSN - Outlook, Office, Skype, Bing, Breaking News, and Latest Videos". http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=41932.
17. ↑ "Microsoft Silverlight Developer Server Audio Video Streaming FAQ". http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/faq.aspx.
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 "Windows - Official Site for Microsoft Windows 10 Home & Pro OS, laptops, PCs, tablets & more". http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/codecs/video.aspx#WindowsMediaVideo9Screen.
19. ↑ "Microsoft Screen Codec - MultimediaWiki". http://wiki.multimedia.cx/?title=Microsoft_Screen_Codec.
20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 "Windows - Official Site for Microsoft Windows 10 Home & Pro OS, laptops, PCs, tablets & more". http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/codecs/video.aspx#WindowsMediaVideo9ImageVersion2.
21. ↑ VirtualDub VirtualDub documentation: codecs , Retrieved on 2009-11-28
22. ↑ MPEG4 Part 2 Video Decoder MSDN documentation: Profiles and Levels , Retrieved on 2009-11-28
23. ↑ "Office 365 for Mac, Office 2016 for Mac". https://products.office.com/en-US/mac?pid=download&location=/mac/download/misc/winmp_osx.xml&secid=80&ssid=8&flgnosysreq=True.
24. ↑ "Telestream Press Release". http://www.telestream.net/news/06_01_10.htm.
25. ↑ "Knowledge Article: Flip4Mac Player: Why is Telestream charging for Flip4Mac Player". https://telestream.secure.force.com/kb/articles/Knowledge_Article/Why-isTelestream-charging-for-Flip4Mac-Player/?l=en_US&fs=RelatedArticle.
26. ↑ "Knowledge Article: Flip4Mac retired as of July 1, 2019". https://telestream.secure.force.com/kb/articles/Knowledge_Article/Flip4Mac-retired-as-of-July-1-2019.
27. ↑ "Sorenson Media - Next Generation Television Starts Here". http://sorensonmedia.com.
28. ↑ "Sony Creative Software - Vegas Pro 8 - Technical Specifications". http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products/product.asp?PID=457&PageID=107.
29. ↑ "Supported file formats in Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0". http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=332612.
30. ↑ "EMS - PLAYOUT - CG - MAM - INGEST - ENCODER - IP MULTIVIEWER". http://www.easymediasuite.com.
31. ↑ "Windows - Official Site for Microsoft Windows 10 Home & Pro OS, laptops, PCs, tablets & more". http://www.playsforsure.com/ItemDetail.aspx?id=26.
32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 "Microsoft Media Player shreds your rights". https://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34523.

## External links

* Description of the algorithm used for Windows Media encryption
* Demonstration of WMV 9 delivering 720p video at 1.8 Mbit/s ABR
* Demonstration of WMV 9 delivering 1080p video at 10 Mbit/s ABR
* History of Windows Media Player (archived 2009)

* v
* t
* e

Multimedia compression and container formats

Video
compression|

| ISO, IEC, MPEG|

* MJPEG
* Motion JPEG 2000
* MPEG-1
* MPEG-2
* Part 2
* MPEG-4
* Part 2 / ASP
* Part 10 / AVC
* MPEG-H
* Part 2 / HEVC
* MPEG-I
* Part 3 / VVC

|

ITU-T, VCEG|

* H.120
* DCT
* H.261
* H.262
* H.263
* H.264 / AVC
* H.265 / HEVC
* H.266 / VVC
* DV

SMPTE|

* VC-1
* VC-2
* VC-3
* VC-5

TrueMotion|

* TrueMotion S
* DCT
* VP3
* VP6
* VP7
* VP8
* VP9
* AV1

Others|

* Apple Video
* AVS
* Bink
* Cinepak
* Daala
* DVI
* EVC
* FFV1
* Huffyuv
* Indeo
* Lagarith
* Microsoft Video 1
* MSU Lossless
* OMS Video
* Pixlet
* ProRes 422
* ProRes 4444
* QuickTime
* Animation
* Graphics
* RealVideo
* RTVideo
* SheerVideo
* Smacker
* Sorenson Video/Spark
* Theora
* Thor
* WMV
* XEB
* YULS

Audio
compression|

| ISO, IEC, MPEG|

* MPEG-1 Layer II
* Multichannel
* MPEG-1 Layer I
* MPEG-1 Layer III (MP3)
* AAC
* HE-AAC
* AAC-LD
* MPEG Surround
* MPEG-4 ALS
* MPEG-4 SLS
* MPEG-4 DST
* MPEG-4 HVXC
* MPEG-4 CELP
* MPEG-D USAC
* MPEG-H 3D Audio

|

ITU-T|

* G.711
* A-law
* µ-law
* G.718
* G.719
* G.722
* G.722.1
* G.722.2
* G.723
* G.723.1
* G.726
* G.728
* G.729
* G.729.1

IETF|

* Opus
* iLBC
* Speex
* Vorbis

3GPP|

* AMR
* AMR-WB
* AMR-WB+
* EVRC
* EVRC-B
* EVS
* GSM-HR
* GSM-FR
* GSM-EFR

ETSI|

* AC-3
* AC-4
* DTS

Others|

* ACELP
* ALAC
* Asao
* ATRAC
* AVS
* CELT
* Codec 2
* DRA
* FLAC
* iSAC
* Monkey's Audio
* TTA
* True Audio
* MT9
* Musepack
* OptimFROG
* OSQ
* QCELP
* RCELP
* RealAudio
* RTAudio
* SD2
* SHN
* SILK
* Siren
* SMV
* SVOPC
* TwinVQ
* VMR-WB
* VSELP
* WavPack
* WMA
* MQA
* aptX
* aptX HD
* aptX Low Latency
* aptX Adaptive
* LDAC
* LHDC
* LLAC

Image
compression|

| IEC, ISO,
IETF, W3C,
ITU-T, JPEG|

* CCITT Group 4
* DCT
* HEIF
* HEVC
* JPEG
* JPEG XR
* JPEG XT
* TIFF/EP
* Arithmetic
* JBIG
* JBIG2
* JPEG-LS
* JPEG 2000
* LZ
* GIF
* PNG
* TIFF
* TIFF/IT

|

Others|

* APNG
* BPG
* DjVu
* EXR
* FLIF
* ICER
* MNG
* PGF
* QTVR
* WBMP
* WebP

Containers|

| ISO, IEC|

* MPEG-ES
* MPEG-PES
* MPEG-PS
* MPEG-TS
* ISO base media file format
* MPEG-4 Part 14 (MP4)
* Motion JPEG 2000
* MPEG-21 Part 9
* MPEG media transport

|

ITU-T|

* H.222.0
* T.802

IETF|

* RTP
* Ogg

SMPTE|

* GXF
* MXF

Others|

* 3GP and 3G2
* AMV
* ASF
* AIFF
* AVI
* AU
* BPG
* Bink
* Smacker
* BMP
* DivX Media Format
* EVO
* Flash Video
* IFF
* M2TS
* Matroska
* WebM
* QuickTime File Format
* RatDVD
* RealMedia
* RIFF
* WAV
* MOD and TOD
* VOB, IFO and BUP

Collaborations|

* NETVC
* MPEG LA
* HEVC Advance

Methods|

* Discrete cosine transform
* DCT
* MDCT
* Entropy
* Arithmetic
* Huffman
* Modified
* FFT
* LPC
* ACELP
* CELP
* LSP
* WLPC
* Lossless
* Lossy
* LZ
* DEFLATE
* LZW
* PCM
* A-law
* µ-law
* ADPCM
* DPCM
* Transform
* Wavelet
* Daubechies
* DWT
* Transform

Lists|

* Comparison of audio coding formats
* Comparison of video codecs
* List of codecs

See Compression methods for techniques and Compression software for codecs

* v
* t
* e

Data compression software

Archivers with
compression
(comparison)|

| Free software|

* 7-Zip
* Archive Manager
* Ark
* Expander
* FreeArc
* Info-ZIP
* KGB Archiver
* PAQ
* PeaZip
* tar
* XAD (decompression only)
* Xarchiver
* Zipeg
* ZPAQ

|

Freeware|

* Filzip
* LHA
* StuffIt Expander (decompression only)
* The Unarchiver (decompression only)
* TUGZip
* ZipGenius

Commercial|

* ARC
* ALZip
* Archive Utility
* ARJ
* BetterZip
* JAR
* MacBinary
* PKZIP/SecureZIP
* PowerArchiver
* StuffIt
* WinAce
* WinRAR
* WinZip

Non-archiving
compressors|

| Generic|

* bzip2
* compress
* gzip
* lzip
* lzop
* pack
* rzip
* Snappy
* XZ Utils

|

For code|

UPX

Audio
compression
(comparison)|

| Lossy|

* Fraunhofer FDK AAC
* Nero AAC Codec
* Freeware Advanced Audio Coder (FAAC)
* Helix DNA Producer
* l3enc
* LAME
* TooLAME
* libavcodec
* libcelt
* libopus
* libspeex
* Musepack
* libvorbis
* Windows Media Encoder

|

Lossless|

* ALAC
* FLAC
* libavcodec
* Monkey's Audio
* mp4als
* OptimFROG
* Shorten
* TTA (True Audio)
* WavPack

Video
compression
(comparison)|

| Lossy|

| MPEG-4 ASP|

* 3ivx
* DivX
* Nero Digital
* FFmpeg
* HDX4
* Xvid

|

H.264 /
MPEG-4 AVC|

* CoreAVC
* Blu-code
* DivX
* FFmpeg
* Nero Digital
* OpenH264
* QuickTime
* x264

HEVC|

* DivX
* x265

Others|

* CineForm
* Cinepak
* Daala
* DNxHD
* Helix DNA Producer
* Indeo
* libavcodec
* Schrödinger (Dirac)
* SBC
* Sorenson
* VP7
* libtheora
* libvpx
* Windows Media Encoder

Lossless|

* FFV1
* Huffyuv
* Lagarith
* MSU Lossless
* YULS

* See also: compression methods and compression formats

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows Media Video. Read more

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Windows_Media_Video&oldid=4296320"
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template