[The feature associated with this page,DirectShow, is a legacy feature. It has been superseded byMediaPlayer,IMFMediaEngine, andAudio/Video Capture in Media Foundation. Those features have been optimized for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Microsoft strongly recommends that new code useMediaPlayer,IMFMediaEngine andAudio/Video Capture in Media Foundation instead ofDirectShow, when possible. Microsoft suggests that existing code that uses the legacy APIs be rewritten to use the new APIs if possible.]

DirectX Media Objects (DMOs) are COM-based data-streaming components. In some respects, DMOs are similar to Microsoft DirectShow filters. Like DirectShow filters, DMOs take input data and use it to produce output data. However, the application programming interfaces (APIs) for DMOs are much simpler than the corresponding APIs for DirectShow. As a result, DMOs are easier to create, test, and use. DMOs can be used in many scenarios:

• Applications based on DirectShow can use DMOs through a DirectShow filter called theDMO Wrapper filter. The distinction between filters and DMOs is transparent to the application. The application does not directly call the DMO APIs.
• Applications based on Microsoft DirectSound can use audio effect DMOs. Again, the application is shielded from the low-level DMO APIs by the higher-level DirectSound APIs.
• Applications can use DMOs directly.

Thus, by writing a DMO, you create a component that can be used in a wide range of applications. This documentation contains the following sections:

• About DMOs
• Using DMOs
• Writing a DMO
• Media Parameters
• DMO Reference

Related topics

DirectShow