Silverlight-supported media formats, protocols, and log fields

Defined

Container: Also known as a "wrapper format" for storing media data and information about how to store this data in a container.

Codecs: See "Video Codecs" and "audio codecs" below.

Delivery method: How the media is passed to the user.

Video codec: A device or software that enables video compression and/or decompression for digital video.

Audio codec: A device or software that enables audio compression and/or decompression on digital audio.

Incremental download: Delivers media by playing the downloaded portion of a file while the download is still executing.

Traditional streaming: The media is passed and rendered without having to be stored first.

Smooth streaming: Similar to traditional streaming processing, but it can adjust the size of the stream processing according to the user's hardware and network connection. It is provided by the IIS 7.0 server.

Original video: Video in original format or not encoded format. Typically, this is a captured content that is formatted as RGBA or YV12.

Raw AUDIO: Audio in original or unformatted format. This is usually the content that has been captured as a linear PCM sample.

H.264 (ITU-T H.264/iso MPEG-4 AVC): The standard for video compression, equivalent to the 10th part of MPEG-4.

Server-side Playlist (SSPL): See Server-side playlists.

ASX: Client Play list. See "Playlists" below.

Delivery methods, containers, and codecs

To deliver content to a user, you must first determine the following issues:

Delivery method: How to pass the media to the user? For example, whether you want to use smooth streaming, traditional streaming, and so on.

Containers: What do you use to include media? For example, MP3, MP4 and so on.

Codec: What codec is used to encode the media? For example, H264-AACLC, MP3 and so on.

The following table helps you determine what options are available when using Silverlight to deliver content. The first table specifies what containers can be sent when the delivery method is used, and the second table specifies the codec that can be used for the given container.

Container for delivery method support

/tr>

delivery method	supported containers
incrementally download	windows Media, MP4, MP3, ASX
	w indows Media, server-side playlist (SSPL)
smooth streaming (Mediastreamsource specific type)	fmp4
windows, ASX
server-side playlist	windows Media
mediastreamsource	mediastreamsourc E provides developers with complete control over the container. For any container, this container can be used as long as the developer writes or uses the appropriate parser.

After you determine which container to send when you use the required delivery method, you must determine the codec used to encode the media into the container.

Codecs supported by the container

Container	Codec
Windows Media	WMA, WMV
MP4	H.264 (ITU-T H.264/iso MPEG-4 AVC), AAC-LC
MP3	MP3

The following is a summary list of the formats supported by MediaElement. These encodings are supported regardless of the file name extension.

Video

Original video

YV12-YCRCB (4:2:0)

RGBA-32 bit Alpha, red, green, blue

Wmv1:windows Media Video 7

Wmv2:windows Media Video 8

Wmv3:windows Media Video 9

Support for simple configuration files and primary configuration files.

Only progressive (row-by-line scan) content is supported.

Wmva:windows Media Video Advanced configuration file, non-VC-1

Wvc1:windows Media Video Advanced configuration file, VC-1

Supports advanced configuration files.

Only progressive (row-by-line scan) content is supported.

H264 (ITU-T H.264/iso MPEG-4 AVC)

Supports H.264 and MP43 codecs.

Supports basic configuration files, primary profiles, and high profile files.

Only progressive (row-by-line scan) content is supported.

Only 4:2:0 chroma Two sampling profiles are supported.