Major Media Types
In a media type, the major type describes the overall category of the data, such as audio or video. The subtype, if present, further refines the major type. For example, if the major type is video, the subtype might be 32-bit RGB video. Subtypes also distinguish encoded formats, such as H.264 video, from uncompressed formats.
Major type and subtype are identified by GUIDs and stored in the following attributes:
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| MF_MT_MAJOR_TYPE | Major type. |
| MF_MT_SUBTYPE | Subtype. |
The following major types are defined.
| Major Type | Description | Subtypes |
|---|---|---|
| MFMediaType_Audio | Audio. | Audio Subtype GUIDs. |
| MFMediaType_Binary | Binary stream. | None. |
| MFMediaType_FileTransfer | A stream that contains data files. | None. |
| MFMediaType_HTML | HTML stream. | None. |
| MFMediaType_Image | Still image stream. | WIC GUIDs and CLSIDs. |
| MFMediaType_Metadata | Metadata stream. | None. |
| MFMediaType_Protected | Protected media. | The subtype specifies the content protection scheme. |
| MFMediaType_Perception | Streams from a camera sensor or processing unit that reasons and understands raw video data and provides understanding of the environment or humans in it. | None. |
| MFMediaType_SAMI | Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange (SAMI) captions. | None. |
| MFMediaType_Script | Script stream. | None. |
| MFMediaType_Stream | Multiplexed stream or elementary stream. | Stream Subtype GUIDs |
| MFMediaType_Video | Video. | Video Subtype GUIDs. |
Third-party components can define new major types and new subtypes.
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