Directshow filter being used...

[fabvideohelp]

Hi all,

I found a lot of tools out there to list & manage the directshow filters installed on your PC, but I cannot find a tool that tells me, for a given file, the list of suitable directshow filters, ordered by the merit value.... further, this list cannot be static, becouse some players "bypass" the merit list and use theri own filters directly... so this tool should work "runtime" to tell which one is being used.... I ask everyone if such a tool would be useful (I think so), and/or someone is developing it....thanks,

Fab

[Chris K]

If you throw a file on GraphEdit it tells you what is used. Don't know if you mean this?

Chris.

[jagabo]

MPC can show you what filters it is using via Play -> Filters. Mplayer2.exe (included with WMP) can show you most of the filters it is using via File -> Properties -> Advanced. GSpot can show multiple possible filter chains at the bottom of its main dialog.

[fabvideohelp]

thanks, I'll try that tonight... but that will give a partial answer, given the fact that with a certain player (cyberlink) it works, and with WMP doesn't.... what is really needed is something that tells in real time what filter is being used....

[jagabo]

I've never seen a tool that will show you another program's filter chain.

[fabvideohelp]

the situation is this :
if I play an elementary vc1 stream (.VC1), it works fine with WMP, graphedit says :
- sonic hd demuxer
- sonic cinemaster video decoder 4
- ffdshow
- video render

if I play a xvid avi, works fine with WMP, with this graph :
- avi splitter
- xvix decoder filer
- ffdshow
- video render

if I play the AVI obtainded by VC12AVI.EXE (with the working VC1 file as input) WMP doesn't play, virtualdub instead open and shows it.... graphedit says :

- avi splitter
- sonic cinemaster video decoder 4
- ffdshow
- video render

so, what's wrong ? the single avi splitter and cenimaster decoder work well with other filters, but togeter they hung ? what can I do ? try another splitter/decoder ? which ones ? any suggestion is welcome....thx

Fab

[JohnnyMalaria]

I've never seen a tool that will show you another program's filter chain.

There are ways. e.g., you can hook some of the Windows APIs to determine when a graph is about to be built by an application, intercept the call to grab the new graph's handle and put it in the ROT. GraphEdit can then see it.

Alternatively, you can write a wrapper filter than wraps around a known filter being used (e.g., a source filter or renderer) such that when the application requests an instance of the filter, it actually gets the wrapper. All the wrapper does is pass the data through untouched but registers the entire graph on the ROT. Or it can generate log data, sniff the data etc. I'm pretty sure I've seen such examples but I can't recall where. I was going to write such a thing a while back but the need went away.

[jagabo]

if I play the AVI obtainded by VC12AVI.EXE (with the working VC1 file as input) WMP doesn't play, virtualdub instead open and shows it

Are you saying when you double click on the AVI file that VirtualDub opens instead of WMP? What happens if you start WMP then drag the AVI file onto it? Are you sure it's an AVI file? Do you have Windows set up to show filename extensions?

My Computer -> Tools -> Folder Options -> View

deselect "Hide extensions of known file types".

[fabvideohelp]

yep, the file is avi extension... i already had extension viewed in Windows (first thing I do when installing a new OS...)... and it's the same the vdub opens... WMP does not, screen remains blank, no bar advancing... (I obtanin the same result with a VOB file, see my other post)...

thank you all for your intervention, but as of the moment, no useful suggestions.. Hope for the future...

Fab

[jagabo]

VirtualDub uses VFW codecs. Do you have ffdshow set up to decode WVC1 in both the VFW and DirectShow sections? Maybe a new version of ffdshow would help.

[fabvideohelp]

thx jagabo, I knew this.... ffdshow is set up correctly for both environment (or so I hope), and graphedit details that i post over should confirm that... or do you see something wrong in the graph ? thx