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Configuring a WMV Encoder

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To create a valid output type for a Windows Media Video (WMV) encoder, you must have the following information:

  • The format of the uncompressed video that you will encode.
  • The video subtype that repesents the encoded WMV format. See Video Subtype GUIDs.
  • The target bitrate for the encoded stream.
  • The configuration properties to set on the encoder.

The configuration properties are documented in the Windows Media Audio and Video Codec and DSP APIs documentation. For more information, see "Video Stream Properties" in Encoding Properties.

To get a valid output type for the encoder, perform the following steps.

  1. Use the MFTEnum or MFTEnumEx function to create an instance of the encoder.

  2. Query the encoder for the IPropertyStore interface.

  3. Use the IPropertyStore interface to configure the encoder.

  4. Call IMFTransform::SetInputType to set the uncompressed video type on the encoder.

  5. Call IMFTransform::GetOutputAvailableType to get the list of compression formats from the encoder. The WMV encoders do not return a complete media type from this method. The media types are missing two pieces of information:

    • The target bitrate.
    • Private codec data from the encoder.

    Before setting the output type on the encoder, you must add both of these items to the media type.

  6. To specify the target bitrate, set the MF_MT_AVG_BITRATE attribute on the media type.

  7. Add the private codec data to the media type, as explained in the next section.

  8. Call IMFTransform::SetOutputType to set the compression media type on the encoder.

Private Codec Data

The private codec data is an opaque data structure that you must get from the WMV encoder and add to the compression type, before setting the compression type on the encoder. To get the private data, you must use the IWMCodecPrivateData interface, which is documented in the Windows Media Format 11 SDK.

To get the private codec data, perform the following steps:

  1. Call IMFTransform::GetOutputAvailableType to get a media type from the encoder. (This is step 6 from the previous section.)
  2. Specify the target bitrate by setting the MF_MT_AVG_BITRATE attribute on the media type.
  3. Convert the media type into a DMO_MEDIA_TYPE structure by calling the MFInitAMMediaTypeFromMFMediaType function.
  4. Query the encoder for the IWMCodecPrivateData interface.
  5. Call the IWMCodecPrivateData::SetPartialOutputType method, passing in the converted DMO_MEDIA_TYPE structure.
  6. Call the IWMCodecPrivateData::GetPrivateData method twice, once to get the size of the buffer for the private data, and once to copy the data into the buffer.
  7. Add the private data to the media type by setting the MF_MT_USER_DATA attribute on the type.

The following extended example shows how to create a WMV compression format from an uncompressed video type:

#include <wmcodecdsp.h>
#include <Wmsdk.h>
#include <Dmo.h>
#include <mfapi.h>
#include <uuids.h>

#include <mfidl.h>
#include <mftransform.h>
#include <mferror.h>

#pragma comment(lib, "Msdmo")
#pragma comment(lib, "mfplat")
#pragma comment(lib, "mfuuid")
#pragma comment(lib, "strmiids")
#pragma comment(lib, "propsys")

HRESULT GetEncodedVideoType(
    IMFMediaType *pTypeIn, 
    REFGUID subtype,
    UINT32 TargetBitrate, 
    IPropertyStore *pEncoderProps, 
    IMFMediaType **ppEncodingType,
    DWORD mftEnumFlags = MFT_ENUM_FLAG_SYNCMFT
    );

HRESULT CreateVideoEncoder(REFGUID subtype, DWORD mftEnumFlags, IMFTransform **ppMFT);
HRESULT AddPrivateData(IMFTransform *pMFT, IMFMediaType *pTypeOut);
HRESULT CopyPropertyStore(IPropertyStore *pSrc, IPropertyStore *pDest);

//
// GetEncodedVideoType
// Given an uncompressed video type, finds a suitable WMV type.
//

HRESULT GetEncodedVideoType(
    IMFMediaType *pTypeIn,          // Uncompressed format
    REFGUID subtype,                // Compression format
    UINT32 TargetBitrate,           // Target bit rate
    IPropertyStore *pEncoderProps,  // Encoder properties (can be NULL)
    IMFMediaType **ppEncodingType,  // Receives the WMV type.
    DWORD mftEnumFlags              // MFTEnumEx flags
    )
{
    HRESULT hr = S_OK;

    IMFTransform *pMFT = NULL;
    IPropertyStore *pPropStore = NULL;
    IMFMediaType *pTypeOut = NULL;

    // Instantiate the encoder
    hr = CreateVideoEncoder(subtype, mftEnumFlags, &pMFT);

    // Copy the properties to the encoder.

    if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
    {
        if (pEncoderProps)
        {
            hr = pMFT->QueryInterface(IID_PPV_ARGS(&pPropStore));

            if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
            {
                hr = CopyPropertyStore(pEncoderProps, pPropStore);
            }
        }
    }

    // Set the uncompressed type.
    if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
    {
        hr = pMFT->SetInputType(0, pTypeIn, 0);
    }

    // Get the partial output type
    if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
    {
        hr = pMFT->GetOutputAvailableType(0, 0, &pTypeOut);
    }

    // Set the bit rate.
    // You must set this before getting the codec private data.

    if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
    {
        hr = pTypeOut->SetUINT32(MF_MT_AVG_BITRATE, TargetBitrate);   
    }

    if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
    {
        hr = AddPrivateData(pMFT, pTypeOut);
    }

    if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
    {
        hr = pMFT->SetOutputType(0, pTypeOut, 0);
    }

    if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
    {
        *ppEncodingType = pTypeOut;
        (*ppEncodingType)->AddRef();
    }

    SafeRelease(&pMFT);
    SafeRelease(&pPropStore);
    SafeRelease(&pTypeOut);
    return hr;
}

The CreateVideoEncoder function creates a video encoder for a specified video subtype, such as MFVideoFormat_WMV3:

//
// CreateVideoEncoder
// Creates a video encoder for a specified video subtype.
//

HRESULT CreateVideoEncoder(
    REFGUID subtype,            // Encoding subtype.
    DWORD mftEnumFlags,         // Flags for MFTEnumEx
    IMFTransform **ppMFT        // Receives a pointer to the encoder.
    )
{
    HRESULT hr = S_OK;
    IMFTransform *pMFT = NULL;

    MFT_REGISTER_TYPE_INFO info;
    info.guidMajorType = MFMediaType_Video;
    info.guidSubtype = subtype;

    IMFActivate **ppActivates = NULL;    
    UINT32 count = 0;

    hr = MFTEnumEx(
        MFT_CATEGORY_VIDEO_ENCODER,
        mftEnumFlags | MFT_ENUM_FLAG_SORTANDFILTER,
        NULL,
        &info,
        &ppActivates,
        &count
        );

    if (count == 0)
    {
        hr = E_FAIL;
    }

    if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
    {
        hr = ppActivates[0]->ActivateObject(
            __uuidof(IMFTransform),
            (void**)&pMFT
            );
    }

    if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
    {
        *ppMFT = pMFT;
        (*ppMFT)->AddRef();
    }

    // Clean up

    for (DWORD i = 0; i < count; i++)
    {
        ppActivates[i]->Release();
    }
    CoTaskMemFree(ppActivates);
    SafeRelease(&pMFT);
    return hr;
}

The AddPrivateData function adds the private codec data to the compression type:

//
// AddPrivateData
// Appends the private codec data to a media type.
//
// pMFT: The video encoder
// pTypeOut: A video type from the encoder's type list.
//
// The function modifies pTypeOut by adding the codec data.
//

HRESULT AddPrivateData(IMFTransform *pMFT, IMFMediaType *pTypeOut)
{
    HRESULT hr = S_OK;
    ULONG cbData = 0;
    BYTE *pData = NULL;

    IWMCodecPrivateData *pPrivData = NULL;

    DMO_MEDIA_TYPE mtOut = { 0 };

    // Convert the type to a DMO type.
    hr = MFInitAMMediaTypeFromMFMediaType(
        pTypeOut, 
        FORMAT_VideoInfo, 
        (AM_MEDIA_TYPE*)&mtOut
        );
    
    if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
    {
        hr = pMFT->QueryInterface(IID_PPV_ARGS(&pPrivData));
    }

    if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
    {
        hr = pPrivData->SetPartialOutputType(&mtOut);
    }

    //
    // Get the private codec data
    //

    // First get the buffer size.
    if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
    {
        hr = pPrivData->GetPrivateData(NULL, &cbData);
    }

    if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
    {
        pData = new BYTE[cbData];

        if (pData == NULL)
        {
            hr = E_OUTOFMEMORY;
        }
    }

    // Now get the data.
    if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
    {
        hr = pPrivData->GetPrivateData(pData, &cbData);
    }

    // Add the data to the media type.
    if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
    {
        hr = pTypeOut->SetBlob(MF_MT_USER_DATA, pData, cbData);
    }

    delete [] pData;
    MoFreeMediaType(&mtOut);
    SafeRelease(&pPrivData);
    return hr;
}

The CopyPropertyStore function is a helper function that copies properties from one property store to another:

//
// CopyPropertyStore
// Helper function to copy properties from one property
// store to another property store.
//

HRESULT CopyPropertyStore(IPropertyStore *pSrc, IPropertyStore *pDest)
{
    HRESULT hr = S_OK;
    DWORD cProps = 0;

    PROPERTYKEY key;
    PROPVARIANT var;

    PropVariantInit(&var);

    hr = pSrc->GetCount(&cProps);

    if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
    {
        for (DWORD i = 0; i < cProps; i++)
        {
            hr = pSrc->GetAt(i, &key);

            if (FAILED(hr)) { break; }

            hr = pSrc->GetValue(key, &var);

            if (FAILED(hr)) { break; }

            hr = pDest->SetValue(key, var);

            if (FAILED(hr)) { break; }

            PropVariantClear(&var);
        }
    }

    PropVariantClear(&var);
    return hr;
}

Instantiating an Encoder MFT

Windows Media Encoders