What types of videos can MediaElement play?

Question

I am looking for detailed information on what decides the media formats that MediaElement can reproduce, I cannot find any final source. I read somewhere that if it can be played in WMP, then MediaElement can play it. It's true? If so, my next question is: where can I find the features and limitations of WMP? And where is the connection between WPF MediaElement and WMP? I'm looking for a better understanding of these components and playing videos in WPF, and so far have been struggling to find anything on the Internet.

Answer 1

MediaElement internally uses WMP ActiveX. Theoretically, MediaElement may / should be able to play any WMP files, but this is not always the case, for example .vob files.

When you play a file in MediaElement, the ActiveX Player of Windows Media Player loads. Then WMP decides to use DirectShow or MediaFoundation paths to play media. The types of media that it can play depend largely on which codecs (DirectShow or MF) are installed on your computer. Once the media path is selected, WPF will provide a custom presenter for the Enhanced Video Renderer so that each video frame is displayed on a D3D surface primed for presentation as part of the WPF layout engine.