Windows Media Player (2022)
Media Player is a media player software for Windows, developed by Microsoft. Written in Windows App SDK, it is built upon Groove Music to add video playback and it’s a modern replacement of the original Windows Media Player. It was first released in January 2022, built for Windows 11 and later released to Windows 10 on January 2023, and it replaces several separate apps.
History
A new Media Player from Microsoft was first leaked in September 2021, a few days before the retail release of Windows 11. It was eventually released on November 16, 2021, to Windows 11 Insider channels, with Windows 11 initially shipping without the new Media Player. Eventually it started rolling out to all Windows 11 users as a software update in January 2022.Media Player is the successor to Groove Music, Microsoft Movies & TV, and the original Windows Media Player. Unlike the first two, Media Player is a straightforward player for local content and not tied in with an online media service.
The new Media Player was later released to Windows 10 users in January 2023 and replaced Groove Music through an update.
Features
Media Player, a UWP app built on Groove Music, adds support for video files, as part of Groove Music's rebranding from a music streaming service to a media player. Other changes to the app include the album cover view being in fullscreen, and a refresh to the mini player. Accessibility has also been optimized in this new version, with some improved keyboard shortcuts and hotkey support for keyboard users and with other assistive technologies.Some features from the original Windows Media Player were initially not included, such as DLNA local streaming and the ripping of CDs. Ripping was eventually reintroduced in July 2022 for Windows 11, supporting the AAC, WMA, FLAC, and ALAC formats.
Supported formats
This is a list of known supported formats in Media Player on Windows 10 and Windows 11.| File Container | File Extension | Number of channels |
| MPEG-1 Audio Layer III MPEG-2 Audio Layer III | .mp3 | 2 |
| Free Lossless Audio Codec | .flac | 2 |
| Raw AAC stream Audio Data Interchange Format Audio Data Transport Stream | .aac,.adt,.adts | 2 |
| MPEG-4 audio-only file | .m4a, .m4r | 5.1 |
| Waveform Audio File Format | .wav | 2 |
| Windows Media Audio | .wma | 5.1 |
| Dolby AC-3 | .ac3 | 5.1 |
| Enhanced Audio Codec 3 | .ec3 | 15 |
| 3GP and 3G2 | .3gp, .3g2 | 2 |
| Adaptive Multi-Rate | .amr | 2 |
| CD-Audio track | .cda | 2 |
| Matroska audio-only file | .mka | 2 |
| Music Module file | .mod | 4 |
| MPEG-2 audio file | .mpa | 2 |
| Ogg audio-only file | .oga | 2 |
| Ogg container | .ogg | 2 |
| Ogg container | .opus | 2 |
| Dolby AC-4 | .ac4 | 7.1.4 |
| DTS Audio | .dts | 5.1 and more |
| File Container | File Extension | Notes |
| MPEG-4 video Apple MPEG-4 video | .mp4, .m4v, .mp4v | Dolby Vision, H.265, and AV1 playback require installation of an add-on from Microsoft Store. DTS Audio playback requires DTS Sound Unbound from Microsoft Store with a DTS:X Decoder license. |
| QuickTime File Format | .mov | |
| Advanced Systems Format | .asf | |
| Audio Video Interleave | .avi | |
| Windows Media Video | .wmv | |
| BDAV MPEG-2 Transport Stream | .m2ts,.m2t,.mts | |
| MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video file | .mpeg,.mpg,.mpe,.mp2,.mp2v,.m1v,.m2v,.ts | Requires installation of the MPEG-2 add-one from the Microsoft Store. |
| JVC Everio Video Capture File | .tod | |
| 3GP and 3G2 | .3g2,.3gp,.3gp2,.3gpp | |
| Matroska video | .mkv | |
| WebM | .webm | AV1 playback requires installation of add-on from the Microsoft Store. |
| Ogg container | .ogv | |
| Ogg media file | .ogm | |
| DivX video file | .divx | |
| Xvid video file | .xvid |
| Streaming Protocol | URL Identifier |
| Shoutcast / Icecast | — |
| HTTP Live Streaming | .m3u8 |