Introduction

In Video for Windows 1.1, compression and decompression drivers could define custom compression and bitmap formats by assigning a four-character code, known as FOURCC. The compression type four-character code must be unique.

DCI is independent of FOURCCs. It is the job of the DCI provider to enumerate and create the surfaces with FOURCCs that correspond to the data formats supported on a device. DCI works as a bridge to graphic devices, allowing clients to write in the data formats which are native to a given device. It is up to a graphics vendor to decide which FOURCCs are appropriate for their hardware.

To get a complete list of all registered types or to register new ones, refer to New Multimedia Data Types Documents and Microsoft Multimedia Registration Kit. Contact the Microsoft Developer Services fax back server line at (800) 426-9400, select option 2, option 1, and follow instructions to retrieve the document # 950 or download the document MRDK.ZIP from CompuServe® WINMM forum.

You can create and register your own custom FOURCCs formats. Download the MRDK.ZIP file and follow instructions for registration.

Below is a partial list of the FOURCCs registered with Microsoft at the time of this release.

FOURCCs	Format Description	Bit Count
MSVC	Video 1	8,16
MRLE	Run-length encoding	4,8
cvid	Cinepak
RT21	Indeo™ 2.1 format
IV31	Indeo™ 3.0 format
IV32	Indeo™ 3.2 format
IF09	Indeo™ Intermediate Common Format
YVU9	YVU9 Planar	9
Y411	YUV 4:1:1 Interleaved	16
YUY2	YUYV 4:2:2 byte ordering	16
YVYU	YVYU 4:2:2 byte ordering	16
UYVY	UYVY 4:2:2 byte ordering	16
Y211	YUV 2:1:1 Packed	8

The Indeo 3.2 codec supports IF09 and RGB formats. The Cinepack codec shipped with the DCI kit supports RGB formats. To license a codec for a specific YUV format, contact the respective codec vendor.