WMV files are a type of video file (usually containing audio) from Microsoft. These files can be played on a variety of video players on both Mac and PC machines. Some WMV files may have digital rights management (DRM) protection which prevents users from making unauthorized copies of files purchased in online stores.
Windows Media Video (WMV) is a compressed video file format for several proprietary codecs developed by Microsoft. These files are based on the Microsoft Advanced Systems Format (ASF) container format encoded using the Windows Media Video (WMV) codec.
Associated programs
MPlayer Microsoft Windows Media Player PowerDVD RealPlayer VideoLAN VLC Media Player
Using Zamzar it is possible to convert WMV files to a variety of other formats:
wmv to 3gp (3GPP Multimedia File) wmv to 3g2 (3GPP2 Multimedia File) wmv to aac (Advanced Audio Coding File) wmv to ac3 (AC3 Audio File) wmv to avi (Windows video file) wmv to flac (Free Lossless Audio Codec) wmv to flv (Flash video) wmv to gif (Compuserve graphics interchange) wmv to ipad (MPEG-4 (H264) Video File) wmv to iphone (MPEG-4 (H264) Video File) wmv to ipod (MPEG-4 Video File) wmv to mov (Apple QuickTime Movie) wmv to mp3 (Compressed audio file) wmv to mp4 (MPEG-4 Video File) wmv to mpg (Moving Picture Experts Group File) wmv to ogg (Ogg Vorbis Compressed Audio File) wmv to wav (Windows audio file) wmv to webm (Multimedia Container Format)
The MOV file format is most commonly associated with Apple and the QuickTime video clip. The file format was developed by Apple as was QuickTime Player, it is compatible with both the Microsoft and MacOS platforms. MOV files are capable of storing two or more tracks which can be video, audio, text, graphics or effects. This flexibility makes this file format very popular for music and video editing.
MOV files use a proprietary compression algorithm and each track that is held within the file is made up of an encoded media stream or a reference to a media stream that is located in another file - this allows the embedding of existing media. QuickTime player which was developed and created by Apple allows a user to open and play .MOV files and later version of QuickTime Player, such as QuickTime Pro allows the user to edit and export .MOV files.
Associated programs
Apple QuickTime Player CyberLink PowerDirector Roxio Easy Media Creator