Windows Media Encoder (WME) is a discontinued,

freeware Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the f ...

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

encoder developed by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

which enables content developers to convert or capture both live and prerecorded audio, video, and computer screen images to

Windows Media Windows Media is a discontinued multimedia framework for media creation and distribution for Microsoft Windows. It consists of a software development kit (SDK) with several application programming interfaces (API) and a number of prebuilt technolo ...

formats for live and on-demand delivery. It is the successor of NetShow Encoder. The download page reports that it is not supported on

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearly ...

. WME has been replaced by a free version of

Microsoft Expression Encoder Microsoft Expression Encoder (formerly Expression Media Encoder) is a transcoding and non-linear video editing software application for Microsoft Windows. It can create video streams for distribution via Microsoft Silverlight. This utility is cre ...

. The Media 8 Encoding Utility is still listed. WME was available in both

32-bit In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in 32-bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform large calculation ...

and

64-bit In computer architecture, 64-bit Integer (computer science), integers, memory addresses, or other Data (computing), data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit central processing unit, CPUs and arithmetic logic unit, ALUs are those ...

versions. Windows Media Encoder 9 can encode video using

Windows Media Video Windows Media Video (WMV) is a series of video codecs and their corresponding video coding formats developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows Media framework. WMV consists of three distinct codecs: The original video compression technology ...

version 7, 8 or 9. Audio encoding uses a number of

Windows Media Audio Windows Media Audio (WMA) is a series of audio codecs and their corresponding audio coding formats developed by Microsoft. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs. The or ...

version 9.2 or version 10 (if the version 10 codecs are installed) profiles and a Windows Media Audio 9 Voice

speech codec Speech coding is an application of data compression of digital audio signals containing speech. Speech coding uses speech-specific parameter estimation using audio signal processing techniques to model the speech signal, combined with generic d ...

. Content can also be created as uncompressed audio or video. Windows Media Encoder 9 enables

two-pass encoding Variable bitrate (VBR) is a term used in telecommunications and computing that relates to the bitrate used in sound or video encoding. As opposed to constant bitrate (CBR), VBR files vary the amount of output data per time segment. VBR allows a ...

to optimize quality for on-demand (

streamed Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

or download-and-play) content. It also supports

variable bitrate Variable bitrate (VBR) is a term used in telecommunications and computing that relates to the bitrate used in sound or video encoding. As opposed to constant bitrate (CBR), VBR files vary the amount of output data per time segment. VBR allows a ...

(VBR) encoding for download-and-play scenarios. True VBR can be applied over the entire duration of a high-motion sequence, ensuring the highest quality. This version also enables scripted encoding with the wmcmd.vbs

VBScript VBScript (''"Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition"'') is an Active Scripting language developed by Microsoft that is modeled on Visual Basic. It allows Microsoft Windows system administrators to generate powerful tools for managing computers w ...

file, allowing content developers to encode large numbers of prerecorded media files. Bundled with the program are the applications Windows Media File Editor, Windows Media Profile Editor, and Windows Media Stream Editor. The GUI encoder application is actually a "wrapper" of the encoder itself. Developers can write their own applications using

Visual Studio Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft. It is used to develop computer programs including web site, websites, web apps, web services and mobile apps. Visual Studio uses Microsoft software development platfor ...

to perform the same functions found in the application. These applications can be used to automate audio and video production. An SDK is also available. With the removal of

Windows Media DRM Windows Media DRM or WMDRM, is a Digital Rights Management service for the Windows Media platform. It is designed to provide delivery of audio or video content over an IP network to a PC or other playback device in such a way that the distributor ca ...

in the

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on J ...

Anniversary Update, Windows Media Encoder 9 is no longer compatible with the current version of Windows as of May 2017.

Versions

*NetShow Encoder 3.0 *NetShow Encoder 3.01 (comes with PowerPoint 2000) *Windows Media Encoder 4.0 (also as part of the Windows Media Tools) Windows Media Tools 4.1 was the last release for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0. * Windows Media Encoder 7.1 (for Windows 98, Windows Me and Windows 2000) * Windows Media 8 Encoding Utility (

command-line A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...

) for Windows 98, Windows Me and Windows 2000 * Windows Media Encoder 9 * Windows Media Encoder x64 Edition (based on Windows Media 10 SDK) Windows Media Encoder Studio EditionWME Studio Edition
/ref> was a separate planned version of Windows Media Encoder 9 with support for segment encoding and multiple audio channels. After beta 1, it was eventually cancelled. Microsoft later released the commercial application, Expression Encoder as part of its

Expression Studio Microsoft Expression Studio is a discontinued suite of tools for designing and building Web and Windows client applications and rich digital media content. Overview Microsoft introduced Microsoft Expression on September 16, 2005, at Microsoft's ...

suite.

References

External links

Fix for issues with Windows VistaMicrosoft Expression EncoderSoftpedia - Windows Media Encoder
{{Compression software Streaming software Screencasting software Windows multimedia software Windows-only freeware Video editing software Video conversion software

Versions

See also

References

External links