An advanced user's tool: GRAPH EDIT

Today's Windows' multimedia architecture is based on DirectShow, which works basically as a collections of filters with input(s) and/or output(s) for data. Every multimedia component is represented by a DirectShow filter. This includes audio/video compressors/de-compressors, but also the input/output of your soundcard, along with many others. By connecting filters together, you create data paths for multimedia data, eventually resulting in an action (for example a video compression conversion).

Microsoft's DirectShow SDK (Software Development Kit) comes with a great application called Graph Edit, which allows you to graphically build filter graphs, thus manipulate directly every multimedia component of your system!

1. Using GraphEdit
2. Filter manipulation
3. Full graph-creation example
4. Possibilities of GraphEdit
5. Description of some DirectShow filters
6. The Dolby Digital downmixing

1. Using GraphEdit