New Windows Media Video 8

With its industry-leading quality, broad reach and integrated DRM, Windows Media Video 8 is the best technology for both streamed and downloadable movies. Key features of Windows Media Video 8 include these:

- Near-VHS quality at rates as low as 250 Kbps with 320x240 pixel resolution at 24 frames per second.
- Near-DVD quality at rates as low as 500 Kbps with 640x480 pixel resolution at 24 frames per second.
- The most widely deployed digital rights management (DRM) technology for protecting streamed and downloaded audio and video content on the Internet
- For download-and-play uses, Windows Media Video 8 provides true variable bit rate (VBR) and two-pass encoding. True VBR encoding eliminates the 25-second barrier of other technologies, instead averaging encoding resources over an entire feature-length film and guaranteeing the best video quality, even through extended high-action sequences.

New Windows Media Audio 8

Delivering the first-ever near-CD-quality sound at 48 Kbps at about one-third the size of a comparable MP3 file, Windows Media Audio 8 nearly triples the digital music storage on portable devices, micro drives, PCs and CD players that support Windows Media Audio. Download times are also more than 60 percent faster, so consumers can spend more time listening to music.

- Windows Media Audio 8 achieves CD-quality sound at 64 Kbps.
- Windows Media Audio 8 offers near-CD-quality sound at 48 Kbps, comparable to MP3 files encoded at 128 Kbps.
- Windows Media Audio 8 is fully compatible with Windows Media Player 6.4, Windows Media Player 7, Windows Media Player 7 for Mac and the more than 60 consumer electronic devices that support Windows Media Audio.