WMV
Short for Windows Media Video, WMV is a type of video compression format developed by Microsoft to be used with several video codecs for Internet streaming of video. It was first released in 1999 as WMV, to be a competitor of the RealVideo format used by the RealPlayer application. The .WMV file extension is used by video files that use the WMV video codec. The video quality of the WMV 7 format is comparable with the MPEG-4 ASP format.
The latest version, WMV 9, is gaining popularity as a format for Blu-ray Discs and is comparable with the H.264 format, capable of high definition video playback. Besides .WMV files using the WMV video codec, AVI and Matroska video files can also use this codec. The Windows Media Player application is capable of playing .WMV video files. The RealPlayer and VLC Media Player applications are also able to play these files.
