|
|
HD Photo The HD Photo file format is also known as Windows Media Photo.
Introducing HD PhotoHD Photo is a new file format for continuous-tone still images that surpasses the limitations of existing image formats. HD Photo supports a wide range of features including:Multiple color formats for display or print Fixed or floating point high-dynamic-range image encoding Lossless or high-quality lossy compression Efficient decoding for multiple resolutions and subregions Minimal overhead for format conversion or transformations during decode
HD Photo delivers a lightweight, high performance algorithm with a small memory footprint that enables practical, in-device encoding and decoding. It delivers compression quality comparable with JPEG-2000 and more than twice the quality of JPEG.
HD Photo is the new name for Windows Media Photo. Both names refer to the exact same file format. The Windows Media Photo name is still used to describe the implementation of HD Photo in existing Windows products.
 Back to Top
HD Photo Feature SpecificationThe Feature Specification provides detailed information about the file container format, including the overall structure, the wide range of supported image pixel formats and the metadata. It also contains information about the application program interfaces (APIs) in Windows Vista, including Windows Image Components (WIC) and .NET Frameworks 3.0 for previous versions of Windows. The Feature Specification, along with the appropriate Windows development documentation, provides the information required to implement support for HD Photo in Windows applications, services, and device drivers.
This specification does not document the compressed bit stream format. That information is provided in the Device Porting Kit (DPK), available below. The DPK also includes the Feature Specification.
Back to Top
HD Photo Device Porting KitThe Device Porting Kit (DPK) provides detailed information about the HD Photo compressed bit stream format, and the implementation of an encoder and decoder. It contains reference ANSI source code for the encoder and decoder components, and sample applications that provide basic support for processing the HD Photo container and metadata. Additional development and test utilities are included, as well as a sample Make file for building the reference code on a Unix/Linux platform with support for big-endian processor architecture.
Back to Top
DownloadsVisit the Microsoft Download Center to download the HD Photo Device Porting Kit.
Windows developers do not need the DPK. An optimized HD Photo codec is included in Windows Vista and available for Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 with either .NET Framework 3.0 (for managed code applications) or Windows Imaging Component (WIC) for unmanaged code applications.
The HD Photo Feature Specification 1.0 (also included as part of the DPK) is available separately from the Microsoft Download Center.
Back to Top
|
|
