The advent of computer technology has brought with it versatility as concerns applications that can be handled by the modern computer. CPU power and the development of high speed ports for internet connections have made the PC a primary device used for watching movies. Videos that are posted on the internet come in different formats with WMV being one of the most popular formats. WMV is an acronym for windows media video. This name refers to a video encoder that was built by the Microsoft Corporation which is a software giant in its own right. Video encoders have made it possible to actually watch movies and videos on the personal computers.
WMV files form part of windows media from Microsoft which also includes encoders, formats and other files which have a common task of integrating video and sound. The other windows media from Microsoft include Windows Media Audio or WMA that is used by millions of people to play music files, High Definition Photo (HDP) and Advanced Systems Format or ASF. WMV can be said to Microsoft Corporation's own version of MPEG-4 encoder which has proved to be extremely popular. This software from Microsoft was originally developed way back in the 90s and was formally introduced into the market in 1999. Since then, it has been upgraded several times through changes here and there. Its chief function nowadays is to act as a form of video distributor in the internet as well as in DVD and CD format. Video encoders are also known as codec.
WMV as a codec might be popular but it is facing stiff competition from real video, MPEG-4 AVC, Xvid and DivX. So, how do you go about playing these files? In order to successfully play these files, you need to have a media player that can support this format such as Windows Media Player version 7 among others. The internet has lots of such media players which are easily downloadable. These media players include MPlayer, BSPlayer and Win AMP. Other applications which are considered to be third party and which have the capacity to open these files include power DVD, KMPlayer and zoom.
Some programs that include freeware, shareware and full blown programs also allow for video export into this format. These programs include Expression encoder, Adobe Premiere Pro, Sorenson Squeeze and Windows Movie Maker. Files affiliated to WMV are easily identified by the .wmv extension. These files can have several parts within a single file. They may include Sipro, ACELP.net audio codes as well as ASF files. Most .wmv versions can be easily converted into avi files. Each version upgrade and consequent release comes up with a Windows Media Video that has increased capabilities and features. One of these features is the ability to process the data using several network protocols. With WMV, you can be able to get components and updates online through downloading. These files are capable of supporting several languages as well as average bit rate, variable bit rate, constant bit rate, non square pixels, frame interpolation etc.
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This article touched the basics of the topic. I have 2 more resources related to the above. They are wmv and wmv files . They are worth a read.
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