Supported file types

The following table lists the file types (formats) that are supported by Windows Media Player.

If you cannot play a file that is included in this table, the file might have been encoded using a codec that is not supported by Windows Media Player.

File type (format)	File name extension
Music CD Playback (CD audio)	.cda
Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF)	.aif, .aifc, and .aiff
Windows Media audio and video files	.asf, .asx, .wax, .wm, .wma, .wmd, .wmp, .wmv, .wmx, .wpl, and .wvx
Windows audio and video files	.avi and .wav
Windows Media Player skins	.wmz
Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG)	.mpeg, .mpg, .m1v, .mp2, .mpa, .mpe, .mp2v, and .mpv2
Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI)	.mid, .midi, and .rmi
AU (UNIX)	.au and .snd
MP3	.mp3 and .m3u
DVD video	.vob
Macromedia Flash	.swf
Microsoft Recorded TV Show	.dvr-ms

Note Image Notes

To play DVDs, you must have a DVD-ROM drive and a software or hardware DVD decoder installed on your computer. If you do not have a compatible DVD decoder installed, DVD-related commands, options, and controls do not appear in the Player and you cannot play DVDs. By default, Windows does not include a DVD decoder. For more information about DVD decoders, see the DVD Support in Windows XP Web page at the Microsoft Web site.
To play .mp2v and .dvr-ms files, you must have a software or hardware DVD decoder installed on your computer. For additional information about .dvr-ms support, see the Microsoft Download Center.
For more information about supported file types, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 316992 at the Microsoft Web site.