Writing DirectShow Filters

[The feature associated with this page, DirectShow, is a legacy feature. It has been superseded by MediaPlayer, IMFMediaEngine, and Audio/Video Capture in Media Foundation. Those features have been optimized for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Microsoft strongly recommends that new code use MediaPlayer, IMFMediaEngine and Audio/Video Capture in Media Foundation instead of DirectShow, when possible. Microsoft suggests that existing code that uses the legacy APIs be rewritten to use the new APIs if possible.]

If you are developing a filter for use in a Microsoft DirectShow filter graph, read the articles in this section. In general, you do not have to read this section if you are writing a DirectShow application. Most applications do not access filters or the filter graph at the level discussed in this section.

• Introduction to DirectShow Filter Development
• Building DirectShow Filters
• How Filters Connect
• Data Flow for Filter Developers
• Threads and Critical Sections
• Quality-Control Management
• DirectShow and COM
• Writing Source Filters
• Writing Transform Filters
• Writing Video Renderers
• Writing Capture Filters
• Exposing Capture and Compression Formats
• Registering a Custom File Type
• Creating a Filter Property Page