Windows Media Player does not support the following formats. If you want to share files created in one of these formats, you'll need to use another program for playback, or find a third-party utilityto convert the files into a supported format.

(a) Advanced Audio Coding (AAC)    This audio format evolved from the popular MP3 standard and boasts higher quality with significantly smaller file sizes. It is the default format used with Apple Computer's iPod portable music players and the iTunes online music store.


(b) Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) and Shorten (SHH)      Both of these audio formats provide lossless compression. Some portable music players and consummer audio devices support the FLAC format, and the WinAmp music player supports both formats for playback.


(c)  Ogg Vorbis (OGG)         This all-purpose compressed media format is suitable for audio, video, and games. It is mostwidely used for audio tracks and is functionally similar to AAC and WMA in this application. (For more information about this format, visit the Vorbis site at http://www.vorbis.com.)  SomeWeb sites offer unsupported releases of the Ogg  Vorbis code that reportedly allow clips in this format to play in Windows Media  Player 9 Series or later.

(d)   RealMedia  (RM)   You are most likely to encounter this format, which can be used with audio, video, or both,  when playing streaming media from a Web site. Most Web sites that support this format  also offer a Windows Media stream as an option. For sites that offer only RealMedia streams, you need to use a player from Real Software (http://www.real.com.)

(e)   QuickTime (MOV)    Apple Computer controls the rights to this format, which is used to play back video (and, less frequently, audio). To play back files or decode streaming media encoded in this format, you need to download the free QuickTime player from http://www.apple.com/quicktime.