atari2600land's Blog

When dealing with audio and video files it's important to understand the differences between the container format and the codec.  Confusion often arises because the filename extension typically indicates the container (e.g. WAV, AVI, MOV, MKV, OGG, MP4) but most container formats can handle a wide variety of codecs (e.g. H.264, MPEG2).  People who don't understand this will complain they can't play a particular WAV or AVI file, not understanding that their player doesn't have a decoder for the codec.

 

According to Wikipedia, WMV files are generally one of the Windows Media Video codecs in an ASF container.  In addition WMV 9 was standardized as VC-1.

 

So depending upon the codec used for your WMV files, HandBrake could have just put the exact same compressed data into an MP4 container.

 

However, looking at episode 1, it appears it's been transcoded to H.264, but probably at a high enough bit rate that the video is visually indistinguishable from the original.

 

As to why WMV is obsolete - it was a proprietary format.  Typically proprietary formats always lose to more open formats.

.. in particular if even the format owner starts migrating to other formats that are more general and popular, which I believe Microsoft may have done.

I've heard that most of WMV's codecs were alterations of MPEG anyway.  My own experience with WMV is that it placed more preference for detail around the center of the frame and less around the edges, leading to a sort of blurring around the edges.  I always had trouble getting acceptable audio quality from the audio codec too, even with quality-based VBR.