Video Input Formats

[The feature associated with this page, Windows Media Format 11 SDK, is a legacy feature. It has been superseded by Source Reader and Sink Writer. Source Reader and Sink Writer have been optimized for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Microsoft strongly recommends that new code use Source Reader and Sink Writer instead of Windows Media Format 11 SDK, when possible. Microsoft suggests that existing code that uses the legacy APIs be rewritten to use the new APIs if possible.]

The writer accepts the following video formats as input to be compressed using the Windows Media Video 9 codec:

  • WMMEDIASUBTYPE_IYUV
  • WMMEDIASUBTYPE_I420
  • WMMEDIASUBTYPE_YV12
  • WMMEDIASUBTYPE_YUY2
  • WMMEDIASUBTYPE_UYVY
  • WMMEDIASUBTYPE_YVYU
  • WMMEDIASUBTYPE_YVU9
  • WMMEDIASUBTYPE_RGB32
  • WMMEDIASUBTYPE_RGB24
  • WMMEDIASUBTYPE_RGB565
  • WMMEDIASUBTYPE_RGB555
  • WMMEDIASUBTYPE_RGB8

You should always use IWMWriter::GetInputFormatCount and IWMWriter::GetInputFormat to enumerate the available input formats and to obtain the input media properties object for the desired format. Video input media properties objects must be changed to reflect the frame size and frame rate of your input media.

Media Type Identifiers

Media Types