Any experience with the new Windows Media 10 format?

Chanimal wrote on 9/12/2004, 4:51 PM

The latest upate to Windows Media was just release and is available for download. Has anyone had any good or bad experiences with it yet?

Nice interface, but I'm wondering about file compatability, quality, etc.

Comments

Laurence wrote on 9/12/2004, 7:55 PM

I've been using for about a week. Aside from the look I can't see any differences.

snicholshms wrote on 9/12/2004, 8:14 PM

Thankfully it didn't screw up my PC! I'm hesitant to download major updates because our PCs are only used for video editing. So far there have been no problems... and you can supposedly uninstall this version.

Chanimal wrote on 9/12/2004, 9:24 PM

As an update. I've since read three different reviews. It appears that the interface and functionality of the player has improved, but the codec is supposed to be the exact same. That's the part that would concern us for video editing and that I was more concerned about.

NickHope wrote on 9/13/2004, 12:06 AM

As far as I understand it version 10 is just the player. The Windows Media codec is still at version 9 (and for video it's great!).

DouglasClark wrote on 9/13/2004, 8:30 AM

Actually, there are new "9.1" codecs, which are included in Microsoft's Windows Media Format 9.5 SDK. http://www.msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/wmform95/htm/introducingwindowsmediaformat.asp

From the SDK's What's New page:
------------
"The Windows Media Format 9.5 SDK introduces new features to provide enhanced content security and flexibility. The following changes have been made to the SDK since the 9 Series release.

New Version of the Windows Media Video Image Codec
- The Windows Media Video 9 Image v2 codec simplifies the sample
- geometry calculations for panning and zooming. The new codec also
- supports several complex transitions between images.
New Version of the Windows Media Audio Codecs
- The Windows Media Format 9.5 SDK includes the following updated
- audio codecs:
- Windows Media Audio 9.1
- Windows Media Audio 9.1 Professional
- Windows Media Audio 9.1 Lossless
Windows Media DRM 10
Support for New DRM Licenses
New Video Codec
- The Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile codec builds on the high
- quality of the Windows Media Video 9 codec while adding support for
- interlaced encoding.
S/PDIF Output
Low-Delay Audio
...
--------------
Douglas

NickHope wrote on 9/13/2004, 11:52 AM

I wonder if WM Player 10 will play stuff encoded with these new codecs out of the box or if it will need to download them.

Interlaced encoding sounds interesting.

DouglasClark wrote on 9/13/2004, 12:14 PM

I wonder why you'ld want to interlace a video in a format to be shown on the web? Maybe it's for portable dvd/tv players. Or could you actually get better picture using interlaced, without adding bandwidth?

NickHope wrote on 9/14/2004, 10:38 AM

Maybe now that there are DVD players that support DivX on TV that this is Microsoft's answer and we'll see WMV-capable set-top players?

DGrob wrote on 9/14/2004, 11:52 AM

Do we get an updated Vegas-render template to reflect the upgraded codecs? Or is it even necessary? Darryl