On This PageWindows Media Photo Is Renamed HD PhotoThis Device Porting Kit supports the still image format previously released under the name Windows Media Photo. Throughout
the development of the HD Photo still image file format, the project
was first known (internal to Microsoft) by its code name "Photon."
Throughout its beta release, and when publicly introduced at WinHEC
2006, the file format was named "Windows Media Photo." With the
introduction of the released version of the Device Porting Kit, the
format name has been officially changed to "HD Photo." "Windows
Media Photo" is still used as the name for the Windows implementation of
the "HD Photo" format, in both Windows Vista and the Windows Image
Component (WIC) and .NET Framework 3.0 redistributable packages for
down-level versions of Windows. "Windows Media Photo" may still be used
internally with this release of the Device Porting Kit. Windows
Media Photo and HD Photo refer to exactly the same file format. There
are no features or changes that differentiate one from the other. They
are two names for the same format. We have extended the
specification to allow two different file extensions - either .wdp or
.hdp - to be used to identify an HD Photo (or Windows Media Photo) file.
With the 1.0 release of Windows Vista, only the .wdp extension is
recognized. This will be updated at some point in the future.
Applications that support the HD Photo file format should recognize
either extension, and ideally offer the option to create files with
either extension. While we recognize the potential confusion and
issues that this name change can create, we believe the new name,
initiated in part based on feedback from our partners, provides a better
identification for broad, cross-platform support for this new still
image file format. Device Porting Kit ContentsThis
Device Porting Kit contains documentation, reference source code,
sample applications, and utilities for the evaluation and implementation
of the HD Photo file format and compression technology. If you
have used a zip file utility to extract all the files to a single
directory, stop now. Delete the files and run the self-installing
executable file to install the individual files in the correct directory
structure. Assuming the installation dir is C:\HDPHOTO, all the paths mentioned below are relative to this base path. The Visual Studio 2005 main solution is: | • | Systems\tools\SampleCodeNew\WMPEncDecoder\WMP.sln |
Build WMP.sln Debug Configuration, you will get: | • | Systems\tools\SampleCodeNew\WMPEncDecoder\Debug\WMPDecApp\WMPDecApp.exe | | • | Systems\tools\SampleCodeNew\WMPEncDecoder\Debug\WMPEncApp\WMPEncApp.exe |
The
xplat subdirectory contains a UNIX and Linux compatible make file for
building the encoder and decoder, including support for big-endian or
little-endian processor architecture. It is the developer's
responsibility to properly organize all the source files according to
the paths defined in this make file for its correct operation. This is
provided as a convenience for cross-platform developers and to
demonstrate the correct operation of the encoder and decoder on
big-endian systems. "HDPhoto_Feature_Spec_1.0.doc" documents the
file container format, metadata tags and Windows API's, and other
general information about the file format. "HD_Photo_Bitstream_Spec_1.0.doc"
provides a detailed specification of the compression encoder and
decoder algorithms plus the detailed structure of the compressed data
(elementary) bit stream. This document is designed to be used in
conjunction with the included source code. If you find instances where
the code differs from the documentation, the code implementation should
be used as the reference. "HD_Photo_DPK_1.0.doc" documents the
contents of this porting kit, the usage of the command line file
conversion utilities (WMPEncApp.exe and WMPDecApp.exe), and technical
details of the API's and data structures between these sample
command-line applications and the core codec. The code and
documentation in this release represent the final design and
specification of the 1.0 bit stream, and can be used as the reference
for final implementations of encoders and decoders for HD Photo. This
version corrects some bugs that were present in the previous RC version. This
release of the DPK has received extensive testing of all the various
pixel formats, encoder options and modes of operation. We are confident
that most errors and other bugs have been resolved. Any code bugs,
documentation errors or other discrepancies found in this release
candidate should be reported to Microsoft as promptly as possible.
These can be submitted to [email protected]. This
DPK provides basic support for big-endian architectures. We have
successfully tested the encoder and decoder using a big-endian
processor. This support is provided as a starting reference to be
adapted to the specific platform and hardware architecture of the target
system. Contact InformationFor
any and all technical questions or feedback about any part of this
Device Porting Kit, including the documentation, please send e-mail to: [email protected] We will respond as promptly as possible with answers to your questions. Additional
information, best practices, tools, utilities, sample code, sample
image content, links to additional resources and community discussion
can currently be found at http://blogs.msdn.com/billcrow. - The Microsoft HD Photo Development Team Change HistoryV.07 September 2005 First Beta DistributionV.08 November 2005 Documentation Update| • | There
are NO CHANGES to the bit stream. Files encoded with the 0.7 release
of the porting kit are fully compatible with this release, and vice
versa. However, due to various minor fixes, encoded bit streams may not
match exactly between the two versions. | | • | Major
rewrite of the bit stream specification. This document is still not
complete but this version contains significant improvements, including
the removal of extraneous implementation information not relevant to the
bit stream specification. | | • | Updates
to the feature specification including an important correction on the
use of the encoder property parameters, using TIFF-compatible
descriptive metadata tags, a significant correction to the formatting
(which had caused chapters 2 & 3 to be inadvertently merged
together), and numerous other minor corrections and clean-up. | | • | Minor changes to the Porting Kit spec to sync with the other documents | | • | A
number of minor bug fixes to the codec code and a fix to the glue code
to insure the encoder was writing correct metadata to the output file. |
V.09 February 2006 Documentation Update, Bitstream Update, New Features| • | The
bitstream has changed to accommodate new features, correct some
inconsistencies and respond to feedback we have received to date. Files
encoded with previous versions of the porting kit will not decode with
this version of the decoder. Likewise, files encoded with this decoder
will not decode with previous versions. | | • | Significant
expansion and improvements to the bit stream specification. This
version should help answer a number of questions and more completely
describe the algorithm and the associated bit stream elements. | | • | The
feature specification includes numerous corrections, plus updates
describing the operation of the new compressed domain operations. These
new features are still being finalized and have not had extensive
testing at this time. | | • | The
porting kit spec has been updated to document the new command line
options in the sample apps for compressed domain operations as well as
to correct some other minor problems. |
V1.0RC May 2006 Documentation Update, Bitstream Update, New Features, New Tools| • | There
are a couple minor (but breaking) changes to the bit stream from v.09
to support some requested new capabilities. This is now the FINAL bit
stream for Windows Media Photo Version 1.0. This version of the bit
stream is compatible with the implementation of Windows Media Photo in
Windows Vista Beta 2. | | • | The
Feature Specification was expanded to include a new chapter with
detailed descriptions of the different numerical encodings, pixel
formats and default color spaces supported by Windows Media Photo. | | • | The
specification for including an embedded thumbnail/preview was added to
the Feature Specification. Numerous other changes, corrections and
minor additions were also made to the feature specification. | | • | Compressed domain transformation operations have been implemented. | | • | Many
issues with different pixel formats have been resolved. Most of these
were bugs in the sample applications and did not require changes to the
encoder or decoder. | | • | Encoder
and decoder support for big-endian architecture has been added. There
is also a UNIX/Linux compatible make file for building the porting kit
code on a big-endian processor. | | • | The Porting Kit Spec has been updated to include updated documentation on the sample application command line options. | | • | An
unsupported utility to convert from compressed .hdr files to
uncompressed .hdr files is included. Adobe Photoshop CS2 saves .hdr
files in compressed mode only. This utility can be used to convert
these to uncompressed mode, which is required by the wmpencapp utility.
While we have tested this utility (we use it regularly for our own
testing), we cannot offer any support if there are problems with its
use. |
V1.0 RTM November 2006 Name Change, Float/Alpha Fixes, Doc Updates, New Tools| • | Three
separate problems with floating point pixel formats were identified and
corrected, including a quantization bug, a problem with renormalization
of the base and with the use of the block transform. This may result
in changes to the compressed bit stream for floating point images, so
any previously created images that use one of the various floating point
pixel formats may need to be re-generated with this corrected version. | | • | A problem with interleaved alpha channel encoding was fixed. Interleaved alpha channel images should now work properly. | | • | The
default restriction in the RC release that prevented certain tiling
modes (to insure compatibility with Windows Vista Beta 1) has been
removed. | | • | The
version code written to the header of the container has been changed
from the development value of 00 to the release value of 01. | | • | There were other bug fixes and cleanup work implemented throughout the code. | | • | All
documentation was updated to reflect the name change to HD Photo.
Please note that to avoid unnecessary delays in releasing this version
of the Device Porting Kit, no changes have been made to any code related
to this name change. These changes will be integrated in a future
release. | | • | The
Feature Specification was updated to describe the new name, provide
information on additional meta data tags, clarify a number of sections
based on feedback we have received, and correct a number of other minor
typos and syntax problems. | | • | The
DPK Specification was updated to reflect the new format name, provide a
more detailed description of the use of the sample applications (and
describe the use of the various encoder parameters), document the new
utility programs, and correct a number of other typos, errors, omissions
and formatting issues. | | • | The
Bitstream Specification was updated to reflect the new format name,
significantly expand and improve the technical description of the
compressed bit stream, and correct a number of typos, errors and
formatting issues. | | • | WMPEncApp
was enhanced to properly default the alpha mode and add support for
setting the quality of planar alpha channels independent from the image
quality. | | • | A
new utility, IMAGECOMP, was added for uncompressed image quality and
difference measurements. While we have tested this utility (we use it
regularly for our own testing), we cannot offer any support if there are
problems with its use. |
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