| ffdshow | |
|---|---|
 | |
 ffdshow video decoder configuration onWindows 7 | |
| Original authors | Milan Cutka, Peter Ross |
| Developers | clsid, XhmikosR, et al. |
| Initial release | 20 May 2002 (2002-05-20) (original ffdshow) 11 September 2006 (2006-09-11) (ffdshow tryouts) |
| Final release | |
| Preview release | 1.3.4533 (30 September 2014; 11 years ago (2014-09-30)) [±][3][4] |
| Written in | Assembly,C++,C[5] |
| Operating system | Windows XP and later |
| License | GNU General Public License 2.0 |
| Website | ffdshow-tryout |
ffdshow is an open-source unmaintainedcodec library that is mainly used for decoding ofvideo in theMPEG-4 ASP (e.g. encoded withDivX orXvid) andH.264/MPEG-4 AVCvideo formats, but it supports numerous other video and audio formats as well. It isfree software released underGNU General Public License 2.0, runs onWindows, and is implemented as aVideo for Windows (VFW) codec and aDirectShow filter.
ffdshow does not include a media player orcontainerparsers. Instead, after installation of ffdshow, compatible DirectShow orVFWmedia players such asMedia Player Classic,Winamp, andWindows Media Player will use the ffdshow decoder automatically, thus avoiding the need to install separatecodecs for the various formats supported by ffdshow. The user configures ffdshow's audio and video settings by launching the ffdshow video decoder configuration program independently of any media player.
For playingtransport stream files such as AVC(H.264) an additionalmediasplitter should also be installed. There are several free mediasplitters available such as theLAV Filters.
ffdshow can be configured to display subtitles, to enable or disable various built-in codecs, to grab screenshots, to enable keyboard control, and to enhance movies with increasedresolution, sharpness, and many other post-processingvideo filters. It has the ability to manipulate audio with effects like an equalizer, aDolby decoder, reverb,Winamp DSP plugins, and more. Some of the postprocessing is borrowed from theMPlayer project andAviSynth filters.
ffdshow uses thelibavcodec library and several other free, open source software packages to decode video in most common formats, such as:
ffdshow also decodes audio, such as:
The post-processingvideo filters of ffdshow can be used in video editors such asVirtualDub orAviSynth, by configuring the VFW settings. In these editors, ffdshow can also be used to encode MPEG-4 video compatible withXvid,DivX, orx264 codecs, as well as lossless video and a few other formats supported by libavcodec.
The first versions of ffdshow were published in May 2002, as an alternative to theDivX ;-) 3.11 andDivX 5.02 (which came bundled withGator[6]) decoders of the time, and as a way to combine the speed and quality ofMPlayer with popular Windows video players. It continues to support more formats, new and old, asFFmpeg developers add support for them.
The main developer was Milan Cutka. When he stopped updating the project in 2006, new maintainers opened the ffdshow tryouts as a fork, where bug-fixes, stability fixes, new features, and codec updates continued. Development of ffdshow tryouts was discontinued in 2012 with users recommended to useLAV Filters instead.[7]
