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This article lists the MIME type strings supported for the Windows APIs that query for supported media playback types. The terms "content type" and "type" are well known historically as MIME typeThese base strings are consistent with those used in the HTML5 HTMLMediaElement.canPlayType method. These strings allow developers to query for whether specified media content, codecs, and features are supported.
The content type strings are defined in the following specifications.
- RFC 2045 This specification defines Content-Type strings that are used to specify media type and subtype identifiers.
- RFC 6381 This specification defines codec identifiers are used to specify codecs.
- RFC 2045 This specification allows for additional, custom parameters as modifiers in the form of
";<parameter>=<name>[=<value>] [,<name>[=<value>]". RFC 2045 compliant parsers must ignore these parameters if not recognized. For the feature queries,<parameter>is named feature. - RFC 4281 This specification enables extensions to query for additional features.
The Windows implementation requires the RFC 2045 media type and subtype identifiers, for example "video/mp4", and RFC 6381 codec parameter codec="<video codec>[,<audio codec>]" to always be present in order to provide valid query results. Some Windows APIs support an additional element of feature=<features>. The following tables list the supported strings that are supported by Windows APIs for each element of the type string.
The content type string format described in this article are used by the following APIs.
WinRT APIs
- ProtectionCapabilities.IsTypeSupported
- Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.MediaElement.CanPlayType(System.String)
Microsoft Media Foundation APIs
- IMFContentDecryptionModuleFactory::IsTypeSupported
- IMFExtendedDRMTypeSupport::IsTypeSupportedEx
- IMFMediaEngineClassFactoryEx::IsTypeSupported
- IMFMediaSourceExtension::IsTypeSupported
- IMFMediaEngine::CanPlayType
- IMFMediaEngineExtension::CanPlayType
Many of these APIs return enumeration values that express the result as "NotSupported", "Maybe", or "Probably". For WinRT APIs there are the ProtectionCapabilityResult and MediaCanPlayResponse enumerations. For Media Foundation there is the MF_MEDIA_ENGINE_CANPLAY enumeration. Some Media Foundation APIs simply return a boolean value indicating a binary supported or unsupported result.
Media type and subtype
Windows APIs only support content type strings with the media type "video" and the subtype/container of "mp4".
| Value | Description | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| "video/mp4" | Video media type and MPEG-4 subtype/container. |
Video codecs
| Value | Description | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| "avc1" | H.264 | |
| "hvc1" | HEVC | |
| "hev1" | HEVC | |
| "vp9" | VP9 | |
| "vp09" | VP9 | |
| "avc3" | H.264 | |
| "av1" | AOMedia Video 1 | |
| "av01" | AOMedia Video 1 |
Features
| Item | Sub-system | Feature Name | Feature Value | Description | Mandatory for this subsystem | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1a | Video Decode | decode-res-x | Non-negative number in pixels | Does the video decoder support this maximum resolution in the X-axis? | Y | |
| 1b | Video Decode | decode-res-y | Non-negative number in pixels | Does the video decoder support this maximum resolution in the Y-axis? | Y | |
| 1c | Video Decode | decode-bitrate | Positive number in kilobits per second (Kbps) | Does the video decoder support this maximum bitrate? | Y | |
| 1d | Video Decode | decode-fps | 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94, or 60 | Does the video decoded support this maximum frames per second (FPS) value? | Y | |
| 1e | Video Decode | decode-bpc (decode-bpp is deprecated) | 0, 8, 10, or 12 | Can the video decoder consume this per-pixel color depth? | Y | |
| 1f | Video Decode | decoder-hardware-acceleration | 1 or no value as true | Is DXVA hardware acceleration available regardless of an OS decoder being present? | N | Support introduced in Windows 10, version 1709 |
| 1g | Video Decode | decoder-software-acceleration | 1 or no value as true | Is an OS decoder present capable of decoding the stream? | N | Support introduced in Windows 10, version 1709 |
| 1h | Video Decode | decoder-software-requires-hardware | 1 or no value as true | Does the OS decoder’s functionality require that DXVA hardware acceleration is present? | N | Support introduced in Windows 10, version 1709 |
| 2a | Video Display 1 | display-res-x | Non-negative number in pixels | Does at least one intersecting display support this resolution in the X-axis? See Intersection algorithm for resolution. | Y | |
| 2b | Video Display 1 | display-res-y | Non-negative number in pixels | Does at least one intersecting display support this resolution in the Y-axis? | Y | See Intersection algorithm for resolution. |
| 2c | Video Display 1 | display-refreshrate | 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94, or 60 | Is the display configured (as understood by Windows) for at least the requested refresh rate? | N | |
| 2d | Video Display 1 | display-bpc (display-bpp is deprecated) | 8 or 10 | Do all intersecting displays with ≥ required resolution realize at least this color depth? | N | |
| 3 | Video Display 2* | hdr | 1 (supported) | Does the target support High Dynamic Range (HDR) rendering | Y | |
| 4 | Video Output Protection | hdcp | 0 (off), 1 (on without HDCP 2.2 Type 1 restriction), 2 (on with HDCP 2.2 Type 1 restriction | Do all intersecting enabled displays support at least the request protection level? | Y | |
| 5 | Video General: Efficiency | efficiency-setting | 0 (off = no restriction), 1 (on = limit resolution when on battery power) | Does the user want battery life, streaming overhead, and/or download speed in preference to highest resolution? | Y | Support introduced in Windows 10, version 1709. See Resolution with efficiency setting enabled. |
| 6a | Video Decryption | encryption-type | “cenc” or “cbcs” | Is this encryption type supported for decryption with the specified codec / key-system? If value is unspecified, default value of "cenc" is used. | N | |
| 6b | Video Decryption | encryption-iv-size | 8 or 16 | Is this Initialization Vector (IV) size (in bytes) supported for decryption with the specified codec / key-system? If value is unspecified, default value of 8 is used. | N | |
| 7 | Audio Render | audio-endpoint-codec | An audio codec string. See [Supported audio endpoint codecs] (#supported-audio-endpoint-codecs) | Is this audio codec supported natively by the audio endpoint? | N | Support introduced in Windows 10, build 1803.. Only supported for Microsoft Media Foundation APIs. Unsupported for WinRT APIs. |
Intersection algorithm for resolution
The intersection algorithm is:
- Find all displays where application user interface video client region has pixels.
- Find all graphics adapters driving the displays from step 1. For a hardware DRM query, this set of adapters is filtered to only those adapters having hardware DRM support.
- Find all displays connected to the graphics adapter(s) from step 2.
Resolution with efficiency setting enabled
It is up to the content provider to choose the resolution limit to use when this policy is on. A 1080p limit is recommended, but 720p may be used. Note that the input for this policy comes from the Video Settings user interface page added in Windows 10, version 1709.
Audio codecs
| Value | Description | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| "mp4a" | MPEG-4 Audio | |
| "ac-3" | Dolby Digital | |
| "ec-3" | Dolby Digital Plus | |
| "ac-4" | Dolby AC-4 | |
| "flac" | FLAC | |
| "mp3" | MP3 |
Supported audio endpoint codecs
Some audio encoding features require the audio endpoint to support the feature natively. The audio-endpoint-codec extension is useful for applications and streaming services, allowing them to figure out dynamically whether they should send stereo audio or 5.1 (because the device supports 5.1), and therefore control used bandwidth while maximizing audio quality.
The audio-endpoint-codec query differs from the codecs query because it determines whether the audio endpoint device connected to the PC supports the specified format. So, for example, if a PC has the software decoder for the AC3 codec, the codecs=ac-3 query will succeed. If the PC is using basic headphones as the audio endpoint, the audio-endpoint-codec=ac-3 query will fail. But if the PC is connected to an audio/video receiver that can decode AC3 format, the audio-endpoint-codec=ac-3 query will pass.
Support for audio-endpoint-codec was introduced in Windows 10, build 1803.
The following is an example content type string using audio-endpoint-codec.
'video/mp4; codecs="avc1,mp4a"; features="audio-endpoint-codec=DD"'
The following is an example content type string for uncompressed PCM audio.
'video/mp4; features="audio-endpoint-codec=PCM2.0"'
Note that if the endpoint supports more or the same number of channels as specified, the check will succeed. So, if the system is configured for 5.1 audio, then checks for "PCM2.0" and "PCM5.1" will pass, but a check for "PCM7.1" will fail.
| Codec string | Description | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| DD | Dolby Digital | |
| DD+ | Dolby Digital Plus | |
| DD+JOC | Dolby Digital + JOC compressed spatial audio | |
| DTS | DTS compressed audio | |
| DTSHD | DTS-HD compressed audio | |
| PCM2.0 | Uncompressed 2-channel audio | |
| PCM5.1 | Uncompressed 5.1 channel audio | |
| PCM7.1 | Uncompressed 7.1 channel audio | |
| AC3 | Dolby Digital |