New ffdshow installation guide added

Written by Rich Fiscus @ 20 Mar 2008 3:37 User comments (14)

As promised earlier this week we have a new guide for ffdshow which covers basic installation and configuration of video and audio decoders.

If you're not familiar with ffdshow, it uses open source libraries (DLL files) to build a DirectShow interface, adding support for all common video and audio formats to most Windows playing, editing, and encoding software. It's particularly popular for the included MPEG-4 AVC support, which rivals any commercial competitor.

ffdshow Installation and Configuration

As new video and audio formats continue to be developed it's becoming harder and harder to make sure that your computer has the required software to playback the latest multimedia files. If you suddenly have a need to playback a format you've never seen before the last thing you want to do is spend hours figuring out why it won't play, only to discover you need to buy a new decoder of some kind. If you don't want to keep installing "just one more" Codec, or worse yet an assortment of codec packs, you should consider using ffdshow instead... (Read More)

As always, feedback on our guides is welcome. Let us know what we can do to improve our content.

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14 user comments

120.3.2008 03:45

Ryu77

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FFDshow is a must have!

220.3.2008 19:42

sgriesch

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Junior Member

It's good with Media Player Classic if you want to play FLV files. Allows you to have one player with more capabilities.

320.3.2008 20:55

cart0181

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Member

I've been using VLC and I haven't run into the need for this yet. What exactly is this for again? I haven't run into .flv files.

420.3.2008 22:51

Ryu77

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Senior Member

flv is a flash video file like you find on YouTube. However FFDshow's capabilities go way beyond that. This direct show filter can decode almost every kind of video and audio format there is. One of the main formats I find it useful for is h264 decoding. AVC (h264) is definitely where the future is, as many others can verify Blu-ray discs encoded using this codec leave mpeg2 encodes in the dust.

520.3.2008 22:51

DXR88

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you get .flv when emmbeding content into a webpage example of major flv use is Youtube.

yes VLC is great Media Player. this is because while most player read from a format or codec VLC read Bit2Bit or a Raw read. this has its draw backs .AVI files above 2 gigs have been known to lock up VLC. VLC also carry's A Very Large Memory FootPrint. so its a no no on older computers.

But FFDshow can not be replaced its on of the best codec packages i have seen. if you dont have it get it.

620.3.2008 22:53

DXR88

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Ryu you beat me to it by a couple of seconds. Darn

724.3.2008 15:49

cart0181

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Member

So is FFDshow used to SAVE this type of content? I knew there was a way to save it, but I've never needed to bad enough to investigate it.

824.3.2008 15:59

DXR88

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Senior Member

No just to decode if your talking about downloading .Flv files PM Me

924.3.2008 18:55

Ryu77

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Senior Member

Originally posted by DXR88:
No just to decode if your talking about downloading .Flv files PM Me

Why does he need to PM you? "SaveTube.com" would have used up less words! :-P Hehe

IDM (Internet Download Manager) also has a FLV download option integrated into Windows.

1024.3.2008 19:48

umberto21

Inactive

Yeah I am using a few conversion programs (like ConvertHQ and a few others) and if they are based on DirectShow engine, then FFDSHow is DEFINATELY a great improvement. What's mega cool is that FFdShow is actually ONE codec that encompasses many formats.
To put it simply, it is one video module (called a "Filter") that says to your computer : "I can play all those formats".
so when Mediaplayer tries to find a codec that is able to play your video file, it often choses the FFDshow codec.

1130.3.2008 20:53

wazzat

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Junior Member

You might want to try Orbit downloader.

123.7.2008 23:50

huntr

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Newbie

My question about ffdshow is "Can it ENCODE the codecs like xvid and h.264". Encoding is just as important to me as decoding.

134.7.2008 01:28

DXR88

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Senior Member

Originally posted by huntr:
My question about ffdshow is "Can it ENCODE the codecs like xvid and h.264". Encoding is just as important to me as decoding.

If there Open Source more than likely, they can be encoded. i answer you with uncertainty, as i am by far no expert with FFDShow.

146.9.2008 13:04

economy

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Newbie

multipost removed, please see this one instead - http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_jump.cfm/699095/4252550

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 10 Sep 2008 @ 3:36

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New ffdshow installation guide added

ffdshow Installation and Configuration

14 user comments

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