Windows Media Format SDK

This document describes the Microsoft® Windows Media™ Format Software Development Kit (SDK), including Windows Media™ Device Manager. It contains overview and programming guide sections, and full reference sections on the interfaces, functions, and methods exposed by the SDK. Developers are also encouraged to refer to the source code of the samples included with this SDK.

The key features of the Windows Media Format SDK are:

Support for reading, writing, and editing Windows Media audio, video, and script files. Third-party applications are no longer required to work in media formats such as WAV or AVI; they can work directly in Windows Media™ Format. Applications also can include support for markers, indexes, and scripts, enabling advanced editing and delivery capabilities.
Support for live encoding of content into Windows Media Format, enabling applications to encode live content for delivery in real time over the Internet.
Improved audio support. CDs can be recorded at higher data rates so that transferred content can be played back with higher-quality sound. Applications can transcode Windows Media audio files to the CD-A (REDBOOK) format faster than in real time (1X). Once Windows Media™ files have been transferred to a user's hard drive (by using third-party file transfer software), they can be burned to a CD at more than 1X data rates, resulting in higher-quality CD playback.
Broad support for codecs for capturing and delivering Windows Media files and streams. This includes support for the MPEG-4 version 3 codec for music and video, Windows Media™ Audio codec version 2 for audio, and the ACELP codec for voice applications.
Support for authoring files larger than 2 gigabytes (GB), enabling developers to capture, store, and play back larger continuous media files.
Support for transferring secure content from applications to portable devices and memory. Application developers, hardware device makers, and flash memory manufacturers can transfer secure content from an application developed using Windows Media™ Technologies to a portable device through the Windows Media Device Manager interfaces of the SDK.

This SDK documentation contains the following sections.

Section	Description
About the Windows Media Format SDK	Discusses SDK overview topics, Windows Media types, media input and output formats, and SDK samples, and introduces Windows Media Device Manager.
Programming Guide	Discusses project definition, basic functional tasks, and how to port code from the Microsoft® Windows Media™ Audio SDK, and provides an overview of Windows Media Device Manager.
Windows Media Format SDK Programming Reference	Provides reference information for the interfaces, functions, structures, enumerated types, and constants related to Windows Media™ Format.
Windows Media Device Manager Programming Reference	Provides reference information for the interfaces, methods, and structures related to Windows Media Device Manager.

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