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Backstories

Windows Media in Action

Windows Media Anywhere with the Advanced Profile Codec

Produced by Bill Birney
Microsoft Corporation
October 2004

This month we explore the Windows Media Video9 Advanced Profile codec with Windows Media test lead David Workman. This new codec adds new capabilities that make it easier for you to use Windows Media Video9 compression in applications that don't involve a computer running Windows. For example, the codec can be used to deliver improved standard and high-definition video through set-top boxes to interlaced televisions, and through standards-based infrastructures, such as on future high-definition DVDs, over satellites, and even cell phones.

At the heart of Windows Media technologies are the Windows Media Audio and Video codecs, which lower the bit rate and size of the content, and the Advanced Systems Format (ASF), which packages the compressed data so that it can be efficiently streamed or transported over a computer network. David Workman describes how the Advanced Profile codec helps extend Windows Media outside the PC by maintaining improved interlaced compression, and enabling producers to wrap compressed video in transport streams other than the ASF format.

What is the Advanced Profile Codec? Watch the video! (300 Kbps, 2:42)	Using the Advanced Profile Codec Watch the video! (300 Kbps, 1:29)	Fine-Tuning Codec Settings Watch the video! (300 Kbps, 3:28)	Conversion between Interlaced and Progressive

Use the standard Windows Media Video9 codec to stream video over an IP (Internet Protocol) network, and the Advanced Profile codec if your video is destined for a standard interlaced TV set.	It's easy to use the Advanced Profile codec in Windows Media Encoder9 Series to improve interlaced or progressive video.	The Advanced Profile codec provides a number of advanced settings that you enter through the system registry.	A perfect conversion between interlaced and progressive frames is not possible because the even lines in an interlaced frame occur 1/60th of a second later than those in a progressive frame.

To view last month's Backstories column, see High-Definition Digital Dailies.

For More Information

Bill Birney
Bill has worked as writer, director, and producer on numerous film and video projects, as well as music composer, sound designer, and disc jockey. He's co-written several books for Microsoft, including the Windows Media Resource Kit, and is a regular contributor to the Knowledge Center.

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