question regarding ffdshow and CoreAVC.

[ellesshoo]

First off, I really don't quite understand fully how codecs/direct show filters work on a PC. All I know is that installing them allows me to view videos.

So in the past I've installed the latest ffdshow build and watch everything within WMP11 (I know many of you don't like WMP11, but I do). My CPU isn't the greatest so I decided to give CoreAVC a shot.... It worked great.

Now my question is, when I open an AVC file, is ffdshow decoding it or is CoreAVC? Sometimes both icons appear in the tray. Is there a way to tell ffdshow not to render AVC files but to continue to do all other types and leave the AVC stuff to CoreAVC? Again, I really don't understand how all these parts interact.

[Dark Shikari]

DirectShow codecs, like FFDShow and CoreAVC, work on a merit system.

Ideally, as Microsoft originally laid it out, codecs would define merits based on how "good" they were for a particular format; a codec specializing in X would have a very high merit, while a general codec which might not be as good at X in particular would have a low merit for X. The highest merit codec would be chosen.

Of course, Microsoft let the codecs pick their own merits, so for the next 10 years it was a merit "cold war" in which each company kept raising their merit value.

FFDShow by default has an extremely high merit, but unlike most codecs, its configuration screen allows you to turn off and on decoding for all of the video formats it supports.

To see what is being used, go to Media Player Classic's playback menu and check the "filters" tab.

To use CoreAVC, turn off H.264 decoding in FFDShow.

[Amdh]

As Said By Dark Shikari Whom I Thank For The Intresting Explanation, You Can Turn Ffdshow AVC Decoding Off By Going To The Ffdshow Menu In Programs And Selecting Video Decoder Configuration, The Left Part Of The Window Appearing On Screen Shows A List .. Click On The Item Codecs, The List Of Codecs Supported By Ffdshow Will Appear, You'll Find On Top Of The List H264, Is Case It's Enabled, Click In Front Of It And Select Disabled .. Click OK. That's All, From Now On You're Sure That CoreAVC Is Decoding Every AVC Thing On Your PC ! Hope I Was Clear.

[Guest]

Hope I Was Clear. It wasn't clear, because of your stupid use of initial capital letters on all words that makes it very hard to read your text. Please stop doing that.

[blizard]

Here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ffdshow) you have a wiki to FFDSHOW and a picture which explain the list that Amdh talk about.

You can make FFDSHOW to show up in taskbar as one "Notification" (icon you will see beside your clock in Windows XP taksbar; called "tray") to have quick access to both decoder and filters in FFDSHOW video or FFDSHOW audio. That way you will also see the filter chain for which Dark Shikari mention as "filter" in MPC. I do not believe you can gain access to filter in the same manner for WMP 11 as in MPC.

FFDSHOW is divided into two part: one for audio decoding and one for video. As the first line (from above in the list) you will find "Codecs" here you control which decoder that will be active for all directshow capable player (=WMP). If you want use option offered by FFDSHOW like re-sizing or other you disable H.264/AVC and let CoreAVC do its job and enable at the end for Codecs>raw video. That will make it possible to use features that FFDSHOW support like post processing or or support for subtitles with CoreAVC.

The next is called "Directshow control" and will let you control which application that will use or not use FFDSHOW to decode and "Tray, dialogue and paths" will let you have access to tray icon which I recommend you to enable for both FFDSHOW video and for FFDSHOW audio. Remember to make those stay as notification can be made to hide. Right click clock and change "Costume Notification" for those icon.

To elleshoo I recommend the use of Google as there are plenty of good guide today out in internet on how to use FFDSHOW with screen shots to guide you through different setting and what those can do.

If you really have a weak computer system I would also try MPlayer to decode your H.264/AVC file as it is available as a package (player/codec/encoder) with all you need and does not need to be installed, just be placed in one folder in Windows XP and then run it from there. You can delete folder without any problems as it does not need to interact with directshow or windows in anyway. There both GUI based and basic MPlayer for windows, so you can pick whatever you like. The basic MPlayer look very simple, but have on screen (OSD) feature that set you to get more control and you use keyboard to control different setting on the fly.