DirectShow
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DirectShow is a large collection of objects for working with multimedia data. The library mainly consists of "filters" - objects which process data - which you'd then connect up into "filter graphs." For example, there are filters which read data from a file, filters which compress/decompress video streams, and filters that render video to the screen. The number of filters is pretty immense, though, and it includes a framework for writing your own if what you want to do isn't present.
DirectShow was born as a stand-alone technology under the name "ActiveMovie" (codename "Quartz"), meant to supersede the obsolescent Video for Windows, but it is now part of the DirectX library.
External links
- Microsoft's DirectShow documentation (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/directshow/htm/directshow.asp)
- Brief history of DirectShow (http://www.gdcl.co.uk/names.htm)