StreamingMedia.com posted an interview today with Ben Waggoner, program manager for Microsoft’s codecs division. The interview touches on the differences between Windows Media Video 9 and VC-1, as well as how Silverlight relates to Flash. Here’s what he had to say about Silverlight and codecs:

[Silverlight’s] native A/V capabilities are chiefly Windows Media-based supporting WMV 9/VC-1, WMV 7 and 8 for video, and WMA and MP3 for audio. For streaming support, it uses Windows Media Services in Windows 2003 Server, and really starts to “sing” with the improvements coming in our new Windows Server, code-named “Longhorn”.

I haven’t seen any demos of the Windows Media Services improvements in Longhorn, but I haven’t spent much time looking either. Perhaps it’s time to dig something up - Ben definitely makes it sound intriguing!

Check out the full interview for much more.