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Windows Media-based content is no longer played back solely on computers. Instead, there is increasing demand for playing the content on various hardware devices, such as set-top boxes, wireless handsets, and DVD players. If you want to ensure that your content can be played on a certain type of hardware device, you can encode your content by using a hardware profile. Windows Media Encoder includes a number of hardware profiles, which are intended to meet a range of encoding needs.
Even if you do not use a hardware profile to encode content, you can still determine the type of hardware device that can play the content. All encoded content is mapped to a hardware profile; the profile used to encode is indicated in the Encoding Results dialog box (in Profile conformance) that appears when encoding is complete.
Windows Media Encoder includes the following hardware profiles: simple low, simple medium main low, main medium, and main high. For more information about each profile, see Hardware profiles for video. A given profile and level always supports lower profiles and levels. For example, a device that supports the main profile, medium level, also supports the main profile, low level, and all levels in the simple profile.
The following table lists, in ascending order, the hardware profiles for audio content included with the encoder.
| Audio profile | Description |
| L1 | For audio bit rates from 64 Kbps to 128 Kbps (uses the Windows Media Audio 9 codec) |
| L2 | For audio bit rates that are less than or equal to 160 Kbps (uses the Windows Media Audio 9 codec) |
| L3 | For audio bit rates less than or equal to 384 Kbps (uses the Windows Media Audio 9 codec) |
| L | Supports all bit rates; intended for playback on computers as a demonstration of codec capabilities (uses the Windows Media Audio 9 codec) |
| S1 | For audio bit rates that are less than or equal to 20 Kbps, for low-complexity voice content (uses the Windows Media Audio 9 Voice codec) |
It is not possible to select the profiles listed in the following table when setting up a session. However, if the encoded audio meets the parameters listed in the table, the content will be mapped to the corresponding hardware profile.
| Audio profile | Description |
| S2 | For audio bit rates that are less than or equal to 20 Kbps, for mixed music and voice content (uses the Windows Media Audio 9 Voice codec) |
| M1 | For audio bit rates that are less than or equal to 384 Kbps, sampling rate less than or equal to 48 KHz, and 5.1 or fewer channels; recommended for surround sound for standard-definition movies (uses the Windows Media Audio 9 Professional codec) |
| M2 | For audio bit rates that are less than or equal to 768 Kbps, sampling rate less than or equal to 96 KHz, and 5.1 or fewer channels; recommended for surround sound for high-definition movies (uses the Windows Media Audio 9 Professional codec) |
| M | Supports all bit rates, sampling rates, and channels; intended for playback on computers as demonstration of codec capabilities (uses the Windows Media Audio 9 Professional codec) |
The following table lists recommended combinations of video and audio hardware profiles.
| Video | Audio |
| Simple low | L2 or S2 |
| Simple medium | L2 or S2 |
| Main low | L2 or S2 |
| Main medium | L3, S2, or M1 |
| Main high | L3, S2, or M2 |