Getting Stream Configuration Information from Codecs

[The feature associated with this page, Windows Media Format 11 SDK, is a legacy feature. It has been superseded by Source Reader and Sink Writer. Source Reader and Sink Writer have been optimized for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Microsoft strongly recommends that new code use Source Reader and Sink Writer instead of Windows Media Format 11 SDK, when possible. Microsoft suggests that existing code that uses the legacy APIs be rewritten to use the new APIs if possible.]

For audio and video streams that use the Windows Media Audio and Video codecs, you should get the values for the stream configuration structures from the codec you want to use. While it is possible to set these values yourself, using the codecs ensures that the values are accurate. You should not alter the values in these structures unless the documentation specifically recommends a particular change.

Information from the codecs comes in the form of codec formats. Each codec format is a single stream format supported by the codec. For more information about stream formats, see Formats.

You can request information from the Windows Media codecs using the IWMCodecInfo, IWMCodecInfo2, and IWMCodecInfo3 interfaces of the profile manager object. To get the IWMProfileManager interface of a profile manager object, call the WMCreateProfileManager function. Call QueryInterface on IWMProfileManager to get IWMCodecInfo3.

The following sections describe how to get the information you need.

Related topics

Configuring Streams