Players will not use filters

[HelpPlease]

I will preface this by saying I have tried multiple versions of the following video players potplayer. mpc-hc, mpc-be and vlc.

I currently have potplayer installed, personal preference but it is the one I like the most.
I have ffdshow audio decoder installed.
ffdshow is the only external filter added into potplayer
ffdshow is set to "prefer" in potplayer
ffdshow is selected from every allowable drop down audio decoder selection box in potplayer settings
ffdshow has the codecs in its own settings enabled to load the compatible formats

However, for some reason no player will use any filter not ffdshow, not lav and not ac3 ( mpc-be) is another weird story as it has its own built in version of lav.
But the point is that regardless of what filter I install
regardless of the settings both in the player and the filters themselves
regardless of what media I try to play.
No player will load any filters whatsoever, the only active filter related to audio during playback is "directsound audio decoder"

Does anybody have any experience with this? maybe any suggestions?
Thank you


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Edit* these settings probably will not be 100% right, but I have had ongoing issues for months now and I just did a fresh install of both player and filter before opening this thread, so apologies for oversights, but hoping this time I can figure it out, and here is where I am starting from.