Windows Media Video

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.

In 2003, Microsoft drafted a video compression specification based on its WMV 9 format and submitted it to SMPTE for standardization.

Usage of the term WMV often refers to the Microsoft Windows Media Video format only.

[9] Continued proprietary development led to newer versions of the format, but the bit stream syntax was not frozen until WMV 9.

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.

They work best when the source material is mainly static and contains a small color palette.

The format works by applying timing, panning and transition effects to a series of images during playback.

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.

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.

Windows Media DRM, which can be used in conjunction with WMV, supports time-limited subscription video services such as those offered by CinemaNow.

[32] In 2007, the loss of the ability to restore licenses for WMV files in the Windows Media Player 11 was not positively received.