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Media Types for Windows Media Format SDK

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[The feature associated with this page, Windows Media Format 11 SDK, is a legacy feature. It has been superseded by Source Reader and Sink Writer. Source Reader and Sink Writer have been optimized for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Microsoft strongly recommends that new code use Source Reader and Sink Writer instead of Windows Media Format 11 SDK, when possible. Microsoft suggests that existing code that uses the legacy APIs be rewritten to use the new APIs if possible.]

Media types identify the different types of media that can be used by the Windows Media Format SDK. All media types are GUID values that have been assigned to constants in the SDK. The GUID values represented by the constants listed in this section are listed in the Media Type Identifiers section of this reference.

The following table lists major media types. These constants define the high level classification of digital media supported by the Windows Media Format SDK.

Major type Description
WMMEDIATYPE_Video A video stream.
WMMEDIATYPE_Audio An audio stream.
WMMEDIATYPE_Script A script stream.
WMMEDIATYPE_FileTransfer A stream that contains data files. Web streams, which consist of HTML files, also have this major type.
WMMEDIATYPE_Image A JPEG image stream for an illustrated audio file (as in a slide show).
WMMEDIATYPE_Text A text stream.

 

In addition to the explicitly supported major media types, you can create your own arbitrary data types. For custom arbitrary data types, you must ensure that the GUID you use does not match an existing major type.

A media stream will often have a subtype in addition to its major type. The following sections list the supported subtypes.

Section Description
Uncompressed Media Subtypes Describes the subtypes available for uncompressed media. These are the types typically associated with input or output media.
Compressed Media Subtypes Describes the subtypes available for compressed media. These are the types typically associated with media in a stream within an ASF file.
Video Input Formats Lists the video formats accepted as inputs for the Windows Media Video 9 codec.

 

Media Type Identifiers

Programming Reference