QMP is compatible with a wide array of audio and video formats.  The following list is by no means comprehensive, and users are encouraged to add to it.  

Many of these formats require [[plugins]] to be installed for playback in QMP, both native and external.  See [[installing plugins]] for information on setting up external plugins.

======Audio Format Compatibility (General)======
^Format ^Compression Type ^Supported by QMP ^Streamable in QMP ^Notes ^
|[[AAC]] | Lossy | Yes, with plugin | Unknown | MP4, M4A, M4P, and AAC+ are all essentially variants of AAC |
|[[AC-3]] | Lossy | Unknown | Unknown | |
|[[AIFF]] (AIF) | Unknown | Yes | Unknown | |
|[[ALAC]] | Lossless | Unknown | Unknown | Apple Lossless Audio Codec |
|APE - See Monkey's Audio |||||
|[[ATRAC]] | Lossy | Unknown | Unknown | |
|[[AU]] | Unknown | Yes | Unknown | |
|[[BWF]] | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Broadcast Wave Format |
|[[CD Audio]] | Uncompressed | Yes, built-in | No | QMP can also play other audio files that have been burned to a CD-R |
|CDA, CDDA - see CD Audio |||||
|[[DTS]] | Lossy | Unknown | Unknown | |
|[[FLAC]] | Lossless | Yes, with plugin | Unknown | Also known as Ogg FLAC |
|[[LPAC]] | Lossless | Yes, with plugin | Unknown | Lossless Predictive Audio Compression |
|M4A - See AAC |||||
|M4P - See AAC |||||
|MAC - See Monkey's Audio|||||
|[[Monkey's Audio]] | Lossless | Yes, built-in  | Unknown | Can have the extensions .ape or .mac |
|[[MP1]] | Lossy | Yes, built-in | Unknown | |
|[[MP2]] | Lossy | Yes, built-in | Unknown | |
|[[MP3]] | Lossy | Yes, built-in | Yes | |
|[[MP3 Pro]] | Lossy | Unknown | Unknown | |
|MP4 - See AAC |||||
|MP+ - See Musepack |||||
|MPC - See Musepack |||||
|[[Musepack]] | Lossy | Yes, with plugin | Unknown | Also known as MPC or MP+ |
|OFR - See OptimFrog |||||
|Ogg FLAC - See FLAC |||||
|Ogg Speex - See Speex |||||
|Ogg Vorbis - See Vorbis |||||
|[[OptimFrog]] | Lossless | Yes, with plugin | Unknown | |
|SHN - See Shorten|||||
|RA - See Real Audio|||||
|RAM - See Real Audio|||||
|[[Real Audio]] | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | |
|[[Shorten]] | Lossless | Unknown | Unknown | |
|[[SMF]] | N/A | Unknown | Unknown | Standard MIDI file |
|[[SND]] | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | |
|[[Speex]] | Lossy | Yes, with plugin | Unknown | Also known as Ogg Speex |
|SPX - See Speex|||||
|[[True Audio Codec]], The | Unknown | Yes, with plugin | Unknown | Normally abreviated TTC |
|TTA - See True Audio Codec|||||
|[[Vorbis]] | Lossy | Yes, built-in | Yes | The term 'Ogg' by itself is sometimes used to refer to Ogg Vorbis |
|[[VQF]] | Lossy | Yes, with plugin | Unknown | |
|[[WAV]] | Uncompressed | Yes, built-in| Unknown | WAV is actually a [[container format]], but is normally associated with uncompressed audio |
|[[WavPack]] | Lossless | Yes, with plugin | Unknown | |
|[[WMA]] | Lossy | Yes, built-in | Unknown | Must have WMA codecs installed in Windows |
|[[WMA Lossless]] | Lossless | Unknown | Unknown | |


======Audio Format Compatibility (Special Purpose)======
^Format ^Audio Type ^Supported by QMP ^Notes ^
|[[AA]] | Audiobook | Unknown | Audible.com Audiobook|
|[[KAR]] | MIDI | Unknown | Karaoke MIDI file|
|[[Line-in]] | Uncompressed | Yes, with plugin |  |
|[[NSF]] | Unknown | Yes, with plugin | NES Sound file |
|[[MIDI]] | MIDI | Yes, built-in | Requires configuration to use, see article |
|[[MOD]] | MIDI | Yes, with plugin | Amiga Module audio |
|[[MTM]] | MIDI | Unknown | MultiTracker Module |
|[[RMI]] | MIDI | Unknown | RIFF MIDI format |
|[[S3M]] (STM) | MIDI | Unknown | ScreamTracker Module |
|[[VOC]] | Unknown | Unknown | Creative voice file|
|[[XM]] (XMZ) | MIDI | Unknown | Fast Tracker eXtended Module (Not to be confused with XM satellite radio)  |
|[[XMF]] | MIDI | Unknown | eXtensible Music File |

======Video Formats======
Note: Many of these are actually [[container formats]].  Support is added by installing the appropriate DirectShow filter into Windows, then adding the file's extension to QMP's list of video file types.
  * [[ASF]]
  * [[AVI]]
  * [[M1V]]
  * [[M2V]]
  * [[MPEG/MPG]]
  * [[WMV]]

======Playlist Format Compatibility======
^Format ^Supported by QMP ^Notes ^
|[[ASX]] |Yes, built-in |Microsoft Advanced Stream Redirector |
|[[B4S]] |Unknown |Winamp 3.0 playlist |
|[[CUE]] |Yes, with plug-in | |
|[[M3U]] |Yes, built-in | |
|[[M3U8]] |Yes, built-in |M3U playlist with UTF-8 character encoding|
|[[PLS]] |Yes, built-in | |
|[[RAM]] |Unknown |Real Media playlist |
|[[WAX]] |Unknown |WMA-only version of ASX |
|[[WMX]] |Unknown | |
|[[WVX]] |Unknown |WMV-only version of ASX |
|[[XSPF]] |Unknown |Xiph.org XML Shareable Playlist Format |