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Page 4 - Decoding and Rendering

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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)

AC3Filter Installation and Configuration

• AC3Filter is a free Surround Sound processor for Windows which includes the ability to not only decode digital surround formats such as Dolby Digital and DTS, but also perform realtime processing to adjust the output level (volume) and digital range compression (DRC) of surround sound streams during playback. AC3Filter is comparable, and generally superior to commercial alternatives included with various media and DVD player software titles.... (Read More)

Introduction to Haali Media Splitter

• Just a few years ago the only multimedia containers most Windows users had to worry about were AVI and MPEG-2 Program Streams. Although a number of other proprietary, and even open source containers have been used, for MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 (ASP) video AVI and MPEG-2 PS (.MPEG / .MPG) files have traditionally been the standard. With the development of MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video the MP4 and MKV containers have been slowly replacing both for a variety of applications.... (Read More)

Removing Commercials from MPEG-2 captures with Cuttermaran

• The introduction of the DVB and ATSC digital television (DTV) broadcast standards amounted to a major step forward for television capture. While analog captures vary by hardware, software, and even the person doing the capturing, DTV captures amount to an exact (lossless) copy of the original digital signal (streams). In fact there's generally no difference between captures made by experts or near complete novices.... (Read More)

Convert MPEG-2 Captures to AVC with Super

• In recent years the video capture landscape has changed significantly. With the availability of high quality hardware based MPEG-2 encoding and digital TV (DTV) capture cards its become possible for even a complete novice to get high quality captures. At the same time, MPEG-4 AVC (Advanced Video Coding) is slowly taking over as the new standard for consumer video. AVC has also become a popular format for storage and computer-based playback.... (Read More)

Creating MKV files with mkvtoolnix

• Matroska (MKV) files have become a popular container for storing various types of video and audio, but perhaps most commonly AVC video with Dolby Digital (AC-3) audio. The primary reasons for this are the need for a standard container more adavanced (with better cross-platform support) than AVI which can handle streams from different sources equally well. Although currently consumer electronics support in devices like standalone DVD players is lacking, for HTPCs, and even some mobile devices it's becoming more common.... (Read More)