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Windows Media Video
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Windows Media Video is the name of 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, was originally designed for Internet streaming applications, as a competitor to RealVideo. The other compression technologies, WMV Screen and WMV Image, cater for specialized content, after standardization by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, WMV version 9 was adopted for physical-delivery formats such as HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc and became known as VC-1. Microsoft also developed a digital format called Advanced Systems Format to store video encoded by Windows Media Video. In 2003, Microsoft drafted a video compression specification based on its WMV9 format, the standard was officially approved in March 2006 as SMPTE 421M, better known as VC-1, thus making the WMV9 format an open standard. VC-1 became one of the three formats for the Blu-ray video disc, along with H. 262/MPEG-2 Part 2 and H. 264/MPEG-4 AVC. A WMV file uses the Advanced Systems Format 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. Although WMV is generally packed into the ASF container format, it can also be put into the Matroska or AVI container format, the resulting files have the. MKV and. AVI file extensions, respectively. One common way to store WMV in an AVI file is to use the WMV9 Video Compression Manager codec implementation, Windows Media Video 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 and its main competitors are MPEG-4 AVC, AVS, RealVideo, and MPEG-4 ASP. The first version of the format, WMV7, was introduced in 1999, continued proprietary development led to newer versions of the format, but the bit stream syntax was not frozen until WMV9. WMV9 also introduced a new profile titled Windows Media Video 9 Professional, which is activated automatically whenever the video resolution exceeds 300,000 pixels and it is targeted towards high-definition video content, at resolutions such as 720p and 1080p. The Simple and Main profile levels in WMV9 are compliant with the same levels in the VC-1 specification. The Advanced Profile in VC-1 is implemented in a new WMV format called Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile and 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 WMV9 formats, however, 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, WMV HD mandates the use of WMV9 for its certification program, at quality levels specified by Microsoft. WMV used to be the only supported video format for the Microsoft Silverlight platform, Windows Media Video 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 WMV9 Screen files and they work best when the source material is mainly static and contains a small color palette
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Windows Media Audio
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Windows Media Audio is the name of a series of audio codecs and their corresponding audio coding formats developed by Microsoft. It is a technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs, the original WMA codec, known simply as WMA, was conceived as a competitor to the popular MP3 and RealAudio codecs. WMA Pro, a newer and more advanced codec, supports multichannel, a lossless codec, WMA Lossless, compresses audio data without loss of audio fidelity. WMA Voice, targeted at voice content, applies compression using a range of low bit rates, Microsoft has also developed a digital container format called Advanced Systems Format to store audio encoded by WMA. The first WMA codec was based on work by Henrique Malvar. Malvar was a researcher and manager of the Signal Processing Group at Microsoft Research. The first finalized codec was initially referred to as MSAudio 4.0 and it was later officially released as Windows Media Audio, as part of Windows Media Technologies 4.0. Microsoft claimed that WMA could produce files that were half the size of equivalent-quality MP3 files, the former claim however was rejected by some audiophiles. RealNetworks also challenged Microsofts claims regarding WMAs superior audio quality compared to RealAudio, newer versions of WMA became available, Windows Media Audio 2 in 1999, Windows Media Audio 7 in 2000, Windows Media Audio 8 in 2001, and Windows Media Audio 9 in 2003. Microsoft first announced its plans to license WMA technology to third parties in 1999, although earlier versions of Windows Media Player played WMA files, support for WMA file creation was not added until the seventh version. In 2003, Microsoft released new audio codecs that were not compatible with the original WMA codec and these codecs were Windows Media Audio 9 Professional, Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless, and Windows Media Audio 9 Voice. All versions of WMA released since version 9.0 - namely 9.1,9.2 and 10 - have been compatible with the original v9 decoder and are therefore not considered separate codecs. The sole exception to this is the WMA10 Professional codec whose Low Bit Rate mode is only compatible with the older WMA Professional decoders at half sampling rate. Full fidelity decoding of WMA10 Professional LBR bitstreams requires a WMA version 10 or newer decoder, a WMA file is in most circumstances contained in the Advanced Systems Format, a proprietary Microsoft container format for digital audio or digital video. The ASF container format specifies how metadata about the file is to be encoded, metadata may include song name, track number, artist name, and also audio normalization values. See Windows Media DRM for further information, related industry standards such as DECE UltraViolet and MPEG-DASH have not standardized WMA as a supported audio codec, deciding in favor of the more industry-prevalent MPEG and Dolby audio codecs. Each WMA file features an audio track in one of the four sub-formats, WMA, WMA Pro, WMA Lossless
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Microsoft
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Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, Microsoft Office office suite, and Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface tablet lineup, as of 2016, it was the worlds largest software maker by revenue, and one of the worlds most valuable companies. Microsoft was founded by Paul Allen and Bill Gates on April 4,1975, to develop and it rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by Microsoft Windows. The companys 1986 initial public offering, and subsequent rise in its share price, since the 1990s, it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions. In May 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion, in June 2012, Microsoft entered the personal computer production market for the first time, with the launch of the Microsoft Surface, a line of tablet computers. The word Microsoft is a portmanteau of microcomputer and software, Paul Allen and Bill Gates, childhood friends with a passion for computer programming, sought to make a successful business utilizing their shared skills. In 1972 they founded their first company, named Traf-O-Data, which offered a computer that tracked and analyzed automobile traffic data. Allen went on to pursue a degree in science at Washington State University. The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics featured Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systemss Altair 8800 microcomputer, Allen suggested that they could program a BASIC interpreter for the device, after a call from Gates claiming to have a working interpreter, MITS requested a demonstration. Since they didnt actually have one, Allen worked on a simulator for the Altair while Gates developed the interpreter and they officially established Microsoft on April 4,1975, with Gates as the CEO. Allen came up with the name of Micro-Soft, as recounted in a 1995 Fortune magazine article. In August 1977 the company formed an agreement with ASCII Magazine in Japan, resulting in its first international office, the company moved to a new home in Bellevue, Washington in January 1979. Microsoft entered the OS business in 1980 with its own version of Unix, however, it was MS-DOS that solidified the companys dominance. For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, branding it as MS-DOS, following the release of the IBM PC in August 1981, Microsoft retained ownership of MS-DOS. Since IBM copyrighted the IBM PC BIOS, other companies had to engineer it in order for non-IBM hardware to run as IBM PC compatibles. Due to various factors, such as MS-DOSs available software selection, the company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft Mouse in 1983, as well as with a publishing division named Microsoft Press. Paul Allen resigned from Microsoft in 1983 after developing Hodgkins disease, while jointly developing a new OS with IBM in 1984, OS/2, Microsoft released Microsoft Windows, a graphical extension for MS-DOS, on November 20,1985. Once Microsoft informed IBM of NT, the OS/2 partnership deteriorated, in 1990, Microsoft introduced its office suite, Microsoft Office
