DirectShow Multimedia Pipeline (Compact 7)

  • Article

3/12/2014

The DirectShow multimedia pipeline available in Windows Embedded Compact 7 includes new playback capabilities and customizable source filter components built with:

  • A new buffering filter. The buffering filter efficiently uses memory by allocating it when it is required and releasing it when it is no longer needed.

  • A new HTTP source filter with non-ASF HTTP filtering capability. The HTTP source filter supports HTTP 1.0 and 1.1 on-demand streaming for content that is not in Advanced Systems Format (ASF). The filter can connect to any HTTP server that is compliant with World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) HTTP specifications.

  • A new video mixing renderer. This renderer filter replaces the DirectShow Video Renderer filter as the default video renderer. The filter uses DirectDraw to provide the following features:

    • True alpha blending of up to 16 input streams.
    • Access to the composited image before it is rendered.
    • A plug-in that you can use to create custom video effects.

  • New MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 demultiplexers.
    The MPEG-2 filter splits MPEG-2 transport and program streams delivered to the filter in pull mode.
    The MPEG-4 filter is a pull mode filter that requests data from an upstream buffering filter and pushes the demultiplexed streams to down-level decoders. This filter parses MPEG-4 presentation streams for local file playback and streaming over HTTP.

    Note

    AAC, AC3, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and H.264 decoders are not included with Compact 7. MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 decoders require a non-Microsoft software decoder or the decoder capability of the platform you are already using to render MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 content.

Each of the source filter components is customizable, and even lets you incorporate your own technologies into the components. The components function as versatile building blocks that you can add both Microsoft and non-Microsoft plug-ins to and create the desired customization for your device, such as the ability to play and stream MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 content.

Because Compact 7 supports MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 formats, you can build devices that:

  • Render and play back local MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 container files.
  • Stream MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 container files over HTTP.

See Also

Concepts

Windows Embedded Compact 7 Multimedia Features
Media Library
Media Player
Windows Embedded Compact 7 and the DLNA Standard