Windows Media is a multimedia framework for media creation and distribution for Microsoft Windows. It consists of a software development kit with several application programming interfaces and a number of prebuilt technologies.

The Windows Media SDK is being replaced by Media Foundation.

Applications

• Windows Media Player - Media playback
• Windows Media Encoder - Media encoding tool
• Windows Media Services - streaming media server

Formats

• Advanced Systems Format (ASF)
• Advanced Stream Redirector (ASX) and Windows Media Playlist (WPL)
• Windows Media Audio (WMA)
• Windows Media Video (WMV) and VC-1
• HD Photo (HDP) (formerly Windows Media Photo (WDP)
• DVR-MS, the recording format used by Windows Media Center
• SAMI, the closed caption format developed by Microsoft. It can be used to synchronize captions and audio descriptions with online video.
• WMF, the Windows Media Format

Other

• Media Transfer Protocol (MTP), for transferring and synchronizing media on portable devices
• Microsoft Media Services (MMS), the streaming transport protocol
• Windows Media DRM, an implementation of digital rights management
• WMV HD, (Windows Media Video High Definition), the branding name for high definition (HD) media content encoded using Windows Media codecs. WMV HD is not a separate codec.
• Windows XP Media Center Edition, versions of Windows XP or later with built-in Windows Media Center
• Windows Movie Maker, a Windows Media movie editing application

External links

• Microsoft's official WM site
• Windows Media Intelligent Streaming (or Intellistream)
• Windows Media Lite
• Description of the algorithm used for WMA encryption

See also

• QuickTime - Apple Computer's multimedia framework