# .wmv MIME Type: video/x-ms-wmv

> Windows Media Video in Microsoft's ASF container.

- MIME type: `video/x-ms-wmv`
- Extensions: .wmv
- Content-Type header: `video/x-ms-wmv`
- Compress in transit: no (already compressed)
- File signature: `30 26 B2 75 8E 66 CF 11` (the ASF header GUID, shared with .wma audio and .asf files)

## Good to know

- No browser plays WMV. Transcode to H.264 MP4 for the web.

## Server configuration

### nginx (inside the types block in mime.types)

```
video/x-ms-wmv wmv;
```

### Apache (.htaccess or server config)

```
AddType video/x-ms-wmv .wmv
```

### Express

```
res.set("Content-Type", "video/x-ms-wmv");
```

### Python

```
import mimetypes

mimetypes.add_type("video/x-ms-wmv", ".wmv")
```

### HTML file input

```
<input type="file" accept=".wmv,video/x-ms-wmv">
```

## FAQ

### What is the MIME type for .wmv files?

`video/x-ms-wmv`.

### What Content-Type header should a .wmv file be served with?

`Content-Type: video/x-ms-wmv`. It's already compressed, so servers shouldn't gzip it.

### How can I tell if a file is really a .wmv?

Check its bytes rather than the extension: WMV files start with `30 26 B2 75 8E 66 CF 11` — the ASF header GUID, shared with .wma audio and .asf files. On the command line, `file --mime-type name.wmv` does this for you.

## Related types

- [.mp4 — video/mp4](https://www.devkult.com/mime/mp4.md)
- [.avi — video/x-msvideo](https://www.devkult.com/mime/avi.md)
- [.mov — video/quicktime](https://www.devkult.com/mime/mov.md)

Open the interactive page: https://www.devkult.com/mime/wmv