Video codec development guide

[wincent]

Hello,

I am studying in electronics and computer science and I'd like to write my own video codec.
I have downloaded and installed Windows DDK, but I find little information.
Where can I find a development guide from the programmer's point of view ?
Should I use Vfw or DirectShow ?
Note that I have already looked at other codec source code, but I don't know what functions are required for every video codec.

Thanks for your help.

[DaveEL]

The DDK is for drivers and so won't help you with codec writing.

In general a VFW codec is used for encoding and decoding in tools such as virtualdub but for playback in media players a direct show codec will be used so for practical purposes you need to write both.

[wincent]

Thank you for your reply, DaveEL.