View source for Windows Media Player

{{wikipedia|Windows Media Player}}
Windows Media Player is the standard multimedia [[player]] for Microsoft® [[Windows]]® systems.

== Supported formats ==

According to Microsoft® [http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316992 Knowledge Base Article 316992], Windows Media Player supports the following formats "out of the box":

{| class="wikitable"
 ! scope="col" | Type
 ! scope="col" | Supported formats
|-
 ! scope="row" | Microsoft® media formats
|
*Advanced Systems Format (.[[asf]])
*Audio Visual Interleave (.[[avi]])
*Audio for Windows (.[[wav]])
*Microsoft® Digital Video Recording (.dvr-ms)
*Windows Media Audio (.[[wma]])
*Windows Media Video (.wmv, .wm)
|-
 ! scope="row" | Microsoft® media metafiles
|
*Advanced Stream Redirector (.asx)
*Windows Media Audio Redirector (.wax)
*Windows Media Download Package (.wmd) 
*Windows Media Player Playlist (.wpl)
*Windows Media Redirector (.wmx)
*Windows Media Video Redirector (.wvx)
|-
 ! scope="row" | ISO/IEC (MPEG)
|
*MPEG-1 (.mpeg, .mpg, .m1v) 
*MPEG Audio Layer III (.[[mp3]])
*MPEG Audio Layer II (.mp2, .mpa)
*Metafile Playlist (.[[m3u]])
|-
 ! scope="row" | Industry standard
|
*Audio Interchange File Format ( .aif, .aifc, .[[aiff]]) 
*CD Audio Track (.cda)
*Musical Instrument Digital Interface (.mid, .[[midi]], .rmi) 
*Sun Microsystems and NeXT (.[[au]], .snd)
|}

== Common Issues ==
=== MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 playback ===

Microsoft® does not bundle [[codec]]s for [[MPEG-2]] or [[MPEG-4]] with Windows and recommends purchasing them as part of a "DVD decoder pack" from a third-party vendor.

The symptom associated with a missing codec is Windows Media Player displaying the cryptic "C00D11CD" error code immediately after opening an MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 coded file or stream.  At that point, you must purchase the appropriate codec, perhaps from Microsoft's® [http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/plugins.aspx list of approved vendors].

=== Streaming from VLC ===
To date, the only option for streaming from VLC to Windows Media Player is to:
* [[Transcode]] the file or feed into [[WMV]] format
* Encapsulate the transcoded stream in the [[ASF]] container format
* Use [[MMS]] or [[MMSH]] for the stream transport

{{forum|255}}.

Otherwise, Windows Media Player does not appear to support streaming for anything other than its proprietary formats.

<blockquote>''
"Windows Media Player 9 Series can play files in a wide variety of digital media file formats, but Windows Media Services 9 Series '''cannot stream all of those files'''. In certain cases, you may need to convert digital media files into a compatible format before you can stream them." [http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/server/faq.aspx#2_3]
''</blockquote>

Streaming to Windows Media Player over [[HTTP]] is supported, but the multimedia stream must be converted to a Microsoft-proprietary format with [[Windows Media Encoder]] beforehand. 

Streaming is known to work with Windows Media Player 9 or higher.  In particular, Windows Media Player 8 does not interoperate with VLC.  {{forum|5199}}

=== Compatibility ===
If you discover problems with your Windows Media Player please download the latest version:
* [https://www.microsoft.com/EN-US/download/windows-media-player-details.aspx English]
* [https://www.microsoft.com/DE-DE/download/windows-media-player-details.aspx Deutsch]
* [https://www.microsoft.com/FR-FR/download/windows-media-player-details.aspx Français]

{{Outdated}}

[[Category:Player]]
[[Category:Windows]]