Windows 7 Media Center is a great improvement from its previous versions (Windows Media Center Edition 2005 and Windows Vista Media Center). One of the many new improvements is that now we have a variety of different codecs built-in, allowing us to play all kinds of video, music and picture file types in our computer.
So, before going online searching for codec packs and maybe end-up installing something that we don’t really need. It would be nice to review which are the file types supported in Windows 7 Media Center first.
Here is the list of video file types that are supported in Media Center:
| Video file types of file formats | File extensions |
| Windows Media Files | .wm .wmv .asf |
| AVCHD files (including Dolby Digital) | .m2ts .m2t |
| Apple QuickTime files | .mov .qt |
| AVI files | .avi |
| Windows Recorded TV show files | .wtv .dvr-ms |
| MPEG-4 movie files | .mp4 .mov .m4v |
| MPEG-2 movie files | .mpeg .mgp .mpe .m1v .mp2 .mpv2 .mod .vob |
| MPEG-1 movie files | .m1v |
| Motion JPEG files | .avi .mov |
Note: Some video file format might not be supported when you try to access them with Media Center Extender.
Here is the list of music file types that are supported in Media Center:
| Music file types or file formats | File extensions |
| Windows Media Audio files | .asx .wm .wma .wmx |
| Windows audio files | .wav |
| MP3 audio files | .mp3 .m3u |
| AAC files | .aac |
Here is the list of picture file types that are supported in Media Center:
| Picture file types or file formats | File extensions |
| JPEG files | .jpg .jpeg |
| JPEG XR files | .hdp .wpd |
| TIFF files | .tif .tiff |
| RAW files | .raw |
| GIF | .gif |
| Bitmap files | .bmp |
| PNG files | .png |
Note: Animation on GIF files are not supported.
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].