Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

wodez reviewed v1.0.3721 Beta on Apr 8, 2012

Why do you need a codec pack when you got FFDShow? There is no reason for it unless you need to play some really obscure formats

Phat Esther reviewed v1.0.3721 Beta on Jan 28, 2011

Some codec not working at all eg AVC1 or just result black screen.
I recommend identify every new codec and download officially place instead of universal but not professional project. FFDSHOW is the poor men codec pack.
All codec pack unnesesary. Not recommend at all. Wasted time. All modern player has built in codecs, if not, dont use.

@roj @aking80 you have very big mistake, as drink tell the ffdshow is the part of k-lite mega codec pack and not individually project, just a little piece of that. Not more, not else, not independent just same project. Must informating before writing something please.

roj reviewed v1.0.3721 Beta on Jan 27, 2011

Codec packs are poser crap. Bloated, finicky, high maitainance. This solution rocks. I finally went to it recently after years of codec Russian Roulette and I've got to say that if you go with codec packs, you have to either be uninformed or crazy.

FIVE stars - SIX if they gave them out.

Artem S. Tashkinov reviewed v20081219 rev2527 Beta 6 on Dec 23, 2008

Official download link: http://downloads.sourcef...a6_rev2527_20081219.exe

Official announcement:
Beta 6 adds support for E-AC3, DTS-HD, Dolby TrueHD and MLP decoding. This release also features a new deinterlacer called Yadif as well as various improvements to volume normalization and H.264 playback.
Among the usual slew of bugfixes stands out one important security fix: Updating is strongly recommended!

Changelog:
http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/changelog.php

aking80 reviewed v20081114 rev2322 on Nov 15, 2008

@dink: Because most the stuff codec packs use are unnecessary and installs a bunch of crap.

Anyways, ffdshow, CoreAVC, and directvobsub is all I need. Can play anything I throw at it.

dink reviewed v20081114 rev2322 on Nov 15, 2008

Why wouldn't one just use K-Lite Mega Codec Pack??
It has ffdshow built-in.

khagaroth reviewed v20081114 rev2322 on Nov 15, 2008

Unless you use some of the more demanding postprocessing filters, there is no need for you to use the SSE version. The decoding part is already manually optimized and does not get any speed improvements with SSE compile.

Just a note for BetaNews, this is not the original ffdshow, this is a separate fork of the original (its name is ffdshow tryouts), started by some developers on the doom9 forums, anyway, I'm glad someone took over the development after Milan (the original author) disappeared.

us3r reviewed v20081114 rev2322 on Nov 15, 2008

Meh... I will wait for the SSE build.

Artem S. Tashkinov reviewed v20081114 rev2322 on Nov 14, 2008

I second anarkhy'a opinion.

anarkhy reviewed v20080612 rev2000 on Oct 21, 2008

No need to have thousands of buggy codecs installed, just this one and media player classic play all my videos flawlessly. Great tool.

italyx reviewed v20080612 rev2000 on Oct 16, 2008

Instead of installing those bloatware codec packs this software decode almost any video/audio codec without being invasive, and you can choose to disable or enable the use of any codec. Wonderful.

bigspud reviewed v20080612 rev2000 on Aug 26, 2008

tweakers heaven, but de-interlacing is very poor compared to cyberlink codec.

analphatester reviewed v20080612 rev2000 on Jun 25, 2008

ffdshow-20041012.exe

the latest download ?????

go to homepage

Virtual_ManPL reviewed v20080612 rev2000 on Jun 19, 2008

@ echohead - are you stupid... ?
what madia player allow me to see everything video or audio... (KMP, MPlayer or VLC is bassed on FFmpeg project like these players ad use these same resources...

than what the **** you want me to do ?

instal all available codecs on earth to see odd media file...

no thx... I better install ffdshow...

get lost looser...
and stop trolling...

Tricatel reviewed v20080612 rev2000 on Jun 14, 2008

A once great tool has become a buggy bloated pest.

echohead reviewed v20080612 rev2000 on Jun 13, 2008

i think its really cute how everyone seems to think i said ffdshow was a media player - but unlike most of the people here, i actually have the courtesy to read other users' reviews.

ffdshow takes free software and codecs from other projects which are freely available separately for download, and wraps it in a single process that executes whenever you run audio/video inside a VfW media player. in terms of media QUALITY, it is at most on par with several other similar solutions. in terms of efficiency and implementation, it is dead last.

there are close to a dozen media players that do a much better job than any sub-par media player can do when paired with ffdshow. the only way ive been able to rationalize it still being used is that the people who refuse to let ffdshow to die are the same people that still actually use media player classic (despite having several bugs that have been around since gabest abandoned it). thats another thing: ffdshow's original developer abandoned it in 2006. if the original author didnt see any merit in continued development, why does anyone else?

i love how almost all the people who blindly gave this a 5-star review argued ***how simple ffdshow is, how it automatically configures all its settings to personally optimize media playback on your computer. but if you use a competent media player, youll need a masters degree in computer science to figure out what all the scary codec/filter settings do!*** its probably a coincidence that no one has mentioned the problems with VfW apps, or how encoding software like MeGUI, Handbrake, VLC and StaxRip completely avoid 'Video for Windows' in favor of their own libraries and executables.

ffdshow is a great example of redundancy. rather than switch to a media player with its own codecs, ffdshow encourages people to use whatever crappy half-finished media player they feel like. it keeps people in the dark by having them believe it provides optimum playback quality, when in reality it does everything it can to pull even with the competition. one begins to question why something that is perpetuated as the "best" video playback solution is updated many times more often than the codecs/filters/splitters/etc that comprise it.

"it is excellent for setting up your PC to stream and transcode xvid/divx content to your PS3 / Xbox360 in another room with a proper HD TV/Projector rather than just a puny 22-24in LCD monitor"
-fortunately for me, i know that re-encoding a lozzy xvid-encoded video drastically lowers its quality (i cannot stress this point enough). instead of downloading pirated xvid DVDrips, try encoding a few h.264 mp4's from their respective sources.

"If you need decoders and encoders for various codecs to by usable in several different playback and editing packages, you may find this quite a useful tool"
-name an encoding tool that relies on VfW other than virtualdub(mod). also, please name a media player that relies on VfW other than MPC, WMP, and media center.

"FFDShow's premier usage is decoding, upscaling and filtering video from all possible sources, and it excels at it with plenty of filters and accompanied options which NOT any other media player has for the time being, its the only DirectShow app that transforms a HTPC/MediaCenter to a full blown video processor with features that only very expensive television sets and upscaling dvds have"
-KMPlayer supports more filetypes than ffdshow. it also has one more upscaling filter than ffdshow. finally, KMPlayer along with $30 worth of cords at circuit city allows me to connect my computer to a television and play any media format i see fit.

i have never said that ffdshow is useless; just that it is completely unnecessary.

berserkchaos reviewed v20080612 rev2000 on Jun 13, 2008

If you don't want to install a zillion of codecs you need ffdshow.

shyuep reviewed v20080612 rev2000 on Jun 13, 2008

It's funny how echohead still frames his entire justification on ffsshow + "sub-par mediaplayer" vs "media players with internal codecs" when the whole point that many have made is that the purpose is other than watching video.

"ffdshow is a great example of redundancy. rather than switch to a media player with its own codecs, ffdshow encourages people to use whatever crappy half-finished media player they feel like."

Again, watching video on your PC is hardly the point here. If you insist on looking at this codec through this one particular application, then yes it's a crap piece of software. It's just like a Linux enterprise server is a crap machine for running MS Word.

I do not believe that ffdshow provides the "best" quality (a subjective assessment at best). But it's good enough. And who's to say that a video player with its own codecs is always the best solution? I have seen many all-in-one players which provides terrible video quality for a particular format, resulting in people installing three or four redundant players. Installing three players with built-in codecs is just as much junk!

"-fortunately for me, i know that re-encoding a lozzy xvid-encoded video drastically lowers its quality (i cannot stress this point enough). instead of downloading pirated xvid DVDrips, try encoding a few h.264 mp4's from their respective sources."

I have encoded my own videos before. I think most people know that re-encoding lowers quality (that's why it's called a lossy format). Unfortunately, current wireless technology may not be able to handle whatever bitrate video you choose to throw at it. And transcoding is a necessary evil, especially when you are not fussy about a particular video. When I am watching something I truly want to enjoy in all HD-level quality, I get the Blu-ray disc. But I am not fussy about every single video I watch.

M^3 reviewed v20080320 rev1909 on Mar 24, 2008

If all you need is a media player, this probably isn't for you. If you need decoders and encoders for various codecs to by usable in several different playback and editing packages, you may find this quite a useful tool.

Banquo reviewed v20080320 rev1909 on Mar 21, 2008

echohead, this isn't a media player! What a stupid review.

grimpr reviewed v20080222 rev1868 on Mar 11, 2008

Some people just dont get it, they spit out mindless zealotry instead of objective critisicm...so lets get some things straight...1st... FFDShow is NOT a media player application, its a Directshow filter designed for the techsavy and for people who want to tweak and filter video and get the best subjective quality for their eyes and equipment. 2nd...FFDShow is not a dead or abandoned project,its an opensource project currently residing at http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/ with active maintenance and bugfixes, the current build is stable and extremely fast. 3rd...FFDShow's premier usage is decoding, upscaling and filtering video from all possible sources, and it excels at it with plenty of filters and accompanied options which NOT any other media player has for the time being, its the only DirectShow app that transforms a HTPC/MediaCenter to a full blown video processor with features that only very expensive television sets and upscaling dvds have. 4rth...If you dont need FFDShow's video processing features, then simply don't use it, there are plenty of free/opensource players that do their job magnificently. Use the best tools for the job and need at hand, FFDshow fills a needed niche and does a great job at it.

echohead reviewed v20080222 rev1868 on Feb 27, 2008

books could be written, filled with reasons for why ffdshow should not exist. ffdshow does everything that so many other full-blown media players do...except actually play audio/video by itself. the first guy who successfully argued that having 2 media players open at once, deserves a medal...because i honestly cant figure out why ffdshow is still being used. there are other players that use internal codecs and equal or better upscaling filters. why hasnt ffdshow died yet? oh wait thats right, the original developers DID abandon it. and the weekly bugfixes/releases can only mean one of two things: ffdshow is either extremely unstable, or the developers only fix a couple of bugs before calling it a week. next time you download ffdshow, ask yourself why its updated so much more frequently than the codecs that comprise it.

if a media player cant do natively what ffdshow does in a separate process, shouldnt that mean its time to get a new player? two instances of bad software dont make for a good solution...dump ffdshow and get a decent player.

grimpr reviewed v20080127 rev1821 on Feb 10, 2008

The King of video upscaling and filtering. the best app to install in your media center pc,this program will take any source (file,tv,dvd) and output high quality video upscaled to every size for your monitor or HDTV set. its complex and comes with myriads of options for filters,experimentation is your best way to get the best settings for your hardware, there are also plenty of tweaking guides on the internet. I use FFDShow Tryout (Best version with speed and stability fixes) along with GOM Player and upscale/resize/filter my dvd and video files to my monitors native res at 1680x1050 with amazing results. One of the most absolute essential video apps and FREE!

Remember to grab the FFDShow Tryout version.

photonboy reviewed v20080127 rev1821 on Jan 28, 2008

Works great.

Echohead, I'm afraid you really don't know what you are talking about. In fact, you gave a really low score without even a good reason except for your statement that you think all players should use their own internal decoders.

KMPlayer can use both its internal decoders as well as external decoders (see the Settings). Media Center for MCE 2005 and Vista Premium needs external decoders to create thumbnails and play video (Microsoft has no financial reason yet to write its own version of DivX and other decoders).

A really good setup is to have external decoders and a good program that uses internal decoders. Example:

1) KMPlayer, WMP11 and WMP Classic
2) CCCP (codec package)

I've got many, many videos primarily using AVI and MKV containers and many codecs (H264, VC-1, Divx, XVid, AC3, MP3, Vorbis etc.) and I primarily watch all of them with Zoom Player Pro using FFDShow Audio and Video decoders.

Nobody wants to reinvent the wheel, and ongoing changes to FFDShow reflect the fact that other software keeps changing (like Vista) as well as supporting new codecs like VC-1 and other new audio codecs for BluRay and HD-DVD.

FFDShow is likely going to be around for many years to come, although as time goes on more and more computers will use Hardware Decoders (like your DVD player or newer PC Graphics cards).

If you are a little confused over this, try using Wikipedia; it's very useful.

LRN reviewed v20071206 rev1685 Beta 4 on Dec 10, 2007

ffdshow is a DirectShow-filter. It works through DirectShow. DirectShow filters (and other DirectX components) assemble themselves as a chain, which is used to process audio/video/etc information (from the source file/stream to the rendering object, such as player window or another file).
This is the way Windows and DirectX should work.
And because of it ANY player/video editor/ANYTHING is able to play ANYTHING and do a lot of things with multimedia in Windows. And ffdshow fits here very nicely being "all codecs and a lot of filters in one thing".
If you like (i do) mplayer, vlc and other standalone players - use them, but don't throw your s*** at ffdshow!

echohead reviewed v20071206 rev1685 Beta 4 on Dec 10, 2007

my kmplayer does everything internally that ffdshow does in a separate process, INCLUDING upscaling, in a single process.

using this program implies that no video player decodes properly...okay, so there are a few people who refuse to use anything but mplayer and vista media center (wtf), but how about switching to another video player instead of delegating video decoding to something other than your video player?

kmplayer, gom player, vlc player (gag), zoom player, and so many others will play everything, without any codecs or bull***t ffdshow wizardry, so why still use this? considering it gets revised just about every week (even though the original author abandoned it), what are the odds that it can ever offer "optimum" decoding?

ffdshow is a placebo. period.

improvelence reviewed v20071114 rev1606 on Nov 30, 2007

I have used ffdshow for a long time, but lately it seems to be getting worse and it acts weird in vista sometimes. I have found the Mpeg-4 decoder bundled with Nero 7 does a better job handling divx, especially in vista. All in all its still a useful tool if a: you dont have nero b: you need to play a multitude of different files encoded with different codecs. I have pretty much consolidated my files to either Mpeg-4 or WMV so I dont really need it any longer but I keep the installer in case its needed, which is rare since VLC usually picks up the slack.

Point Zero reviewed v20071114 rev1606 on Nov 20, 2007

Seems like the higher the revision number, the more things get broken.

analphatester reviewed v20071114 rev1606 on Nov 19, 2007

Since I uninstalled this codec package no more multimedia crash on my computer.
This very early work, must working more hard because perhaps be good codec in the future.
but not today.

photonboy reviewed v20071114 rev1606 on Nov 18, 2007

I have a huge selection of various media and I have extensively tested all the codecs and media players (KMPlayer, MPlayer, VLC, Zoom Player, WMP11/Classic etc.)

KMPlayer, MPlayer and VLC have their own internal codecs. As good as they are they are pretty much identical in CPU usage and performance. I rarely bother doing post-processing because it rarely helps.

I find myself coming back to Zoom Player using FFDShow for my decoders. The FFDShow filters "just work" and Zoom Player is very configurable (once set up I usually just change the Contrast and Saturation). I recommend installing FFDShow and using it with Zoom Player. I also recommend having KMPlayer and VLC installed as backups. In some instances on some machines VLC might be the most efficient but in general FFDShow is about as good as the rest.

It's very easy if you have a large selection of various codecs and containers to compare. CTRL-ALT-DEL for the CPU performance. There's a lot of FFDShow versions but if it works stick with it.

jorgosch reviewed v20071114 rev1606 on Nov 16, 2007

echohead is at it again... are you writing crap in ALL the reviews?

Kushan reviewed v20071004 rev1503 on Oct 5, 2007

@echohead

Ummm...you spend 20mins b****ing about how bad and inefficient FFDShow is and then tell everyone to install the full k-lite CODEC pack...
Have you even bothered to read the contents of it? Here's the first few lines:

Features of K-Lite Codec Pack 3.4.5 FULL version :

• Player :
- Media Player Classic [version 6.4.9.1]
• FFDShow :
- FFDShow [rev. 1475]
- extra plugins
- FFDShow VFW interface

Plus all sorts of other crap you don't need.
FFDShow ISN'T just an alternative to DivX, as you state, it's an extremely efficient DECODER of said CODEC as well as a bunch of other formats. On my old Celeron 700Mhz, certain DivX/XviD encoded files would go out of sync because the CPU couldn't keep up. FFDShow was so much faster, it was able to play those same files perfectly.
You don't know what you're talking about, it's one of the best applications to install on ANY PC.

hell0 reviewed v20071004 rev1503 on Oct 5, 2007

@echohead
I cant stop laughing. Thanks for that post, really. I think there might be a good alternative to everything you do at : http://www.youfail.org/

Other than that - Awesome as per usual, no problems for years since I got into ffdshow. Great, high quality software.

echohead reviewed v20071004 rev1503 on Oct 5, 2007

the single most overrated and unnecessary piece of software ever, and thats an understatement.

ffdshow started as an alternative to the divx decoder back when divx came packaged with gator spyware. so the spyware is gone now, why is ffdshow still here?

the basic idea behind ffdshow is, rather than have your media player load the required codec into memory, why not let a completely separate process load ALL of its own codecs into memory and then decide which one(s) you need? now ignoring the fact that ffdshow is optimized for vista x64, one has to wonder how such an inefficient design has become so popular. nevermind that most media players have their internal codecs that they handle way more efficiently than ffdshow ever could....lets just waste memory for the heck of it!

over the years i have used windows media player, winamp, mplayer, bsplayer, vlc player, and media player classic before finally settling with kmplayer. 3 different computers and alll those media players and ffdshow never worked as advertised...video and audio were out of sync, video decoding was poor to say the least, and some videos were simply unplayable.

you want real playback?
1. install a decent media player (kmplayer, mplayer, gom player, zoom player)
2. install k-lite FULL. dont install anything having to do with ffdshow or media player classic
3. if you prefer it (like i do), grab foobar2000 for audio playback

@elliott nally: http://sourceforge.net/p...iles.php?group_id=82303

MPC was started by gabest, and he ended development at 6.4.9.0. the new version was released by an outside group as a half-assed answer to all the people who said a media player that hadnt been updated for over a year was outdated: http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli2

every feature in ffdshow is built in to almost all media players by default. there is absolutely no reason to use it unless you really enjoy an ineficient computer with redundant processes.

ffdshow is a joke.

zorty reviewed v20070815 rev1421 on Sep 3, 2007

i wonder where these files come from... I really do.

Application is excellent - the source is untrustworthy.

grimpr reviewed v20070815 rev1421 on Aug 20, 2007

Warning, the latest and most stable versions resides at http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/.

The best all-around filter and realtime video processor on Windows,FFDshow excels at manipulating video at realtime. Wanna upscale your DVD to HD 1920x resolutions?,FFDShow comes to the rescue.

FFDShow hits the sweet spot on Media Center PC's installed with MediaPortal where you can optimize your TV,Video,DVD viewing by simply tweaking FFDShow's settings...Upscaling/Resizing/Noise Reduction/Sharpening/Color Correction...it has it all.

There are various guides around the internet for understanding FFDShow's video tweaks, with a little experimentation you'll get the video image quality/setting you want and in your environment.

Tip,for upscaling Video to HD resolutions make sure to have a dual core processor.

An excellent solution for anything video on Windows but specially for MediaCenter PC's.

Excellent freeware, highly recommended.

shtraue reviewed v20070809 rev1413 on Aug 11, 2007

BTW, latest Media Player Classic build can be found here:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=128616

elliott_nally reviewed v20070809 rev1413 on Aug 10, 2007

@runningfool
Media player Classic is still being developed.

I use this (bundled with K-Lite Full) and it works Perfectly!

ArKay74 reviewed v20070809 rev1413 on Aug 10, 2007

Simply the best all-in-one solution.

RaGhul reviewed v20070710 rev1349 on Jul 26, 2007

@runningfool

"...vlc and kmplayer already come with necessary codecs..."

Yes, they do. Well... mostly. But what if you prefer another media player? Then you can play just about anything you want in the media player of your choice using these codecs. Although I think VLC is a very good player, I don't particularly like the way it associates itself to all of my video/audio files.

"...which at the time came bundled with gator spyware. the spyware was eventually removed, and ffdshow morphed into an AIO decoding bundle."

Also true. But even though DivX broke its ties to Gator, each new DivX package gets progressively more bloated. And this DOES affect performance in a big way.

Perhaps the biggest problem with bloatware isn't so much the hard drive space it consumes (as price-per-gigabyte becomes ever so inexpensive), but the performance hit. These excessively large programs also like to take over your PC and become the "default" handler for every task you do that it can perform, whether it's the best choice for that particular function or not, which is frustrating AND annoying.

It may seem like "fanboyism", but if that's the case, then count me as one of them. I've installed FFDShow (combined with MediaPlayer Classic) on literally dozens of clients PCs, and have received many happy customers in return.

BTW, the latest betas have a new set of tray icons:
http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/html/images/modern_icon_xp.png

I've seen many different sites listed here, but to the best of my knowledge, these are the official ones:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow-tryout/
http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/

runningfool reviewed v20070710 rev1349 on Jul 25, 2007

ive never seen so much rabid fanboyism for such an unnecessary program. most of the people who review this use that god awful k-lite codec pack anyway.

ffdshow started out as an open-source alternative to the official divx pack which at the time came bundled with gator spyware. the spyware was eventually removed, and ffdshow morphed into an AIO decoding bundle.

the program itself does technically work (unless you install external codecs which can override it as the default decoder), but with all the better alternatives out there, its kind of unnecessary. vlc and kmplayer already come with necessary codecs, gom player can automatically download ones you need, mplayer's ftp site has a codec download package that lets it play just about everything...hell even media player classic (which isnt even developed anymore) comes pre-bundled with many codecs.

it comes down to this: anyone running windows that wants the best audio quality uses foobar2000, and having audio pass through ffdshow first is at the very least redundant...if anything it degrades sound quality. as far as video is concerned, people encode videos using so many different settings and compression levels that its next to impossible to tweak ffdshow's video settings and get a definitively better video quality.

save your time (and RAM) and skip this one.

jorgosch reviewed v20070701 rev1324 Beta 3 on Jul 5, 2007

A complete solution for decoding video and audio in any d3dshow enabled application. No need for codec packs, it's all integrated here, and with near perfect quality.

sarrik reviewed v20070627 rev1322 Beta on Jun 29, 2007

Works great on Vista.
I was having trouble even thumbnailing video files in windows explorer with only DivX and XviD installed. It would take a metaphorical age, then still skip some files and never get the thumb no matter how often I tried.
After I installed FFDShow, I got thumbs on every file and many, many times faster.
Opening files takes nowhere near as long, which is more important than thumbs I guess.
Files play nicely.
An excellent codec and outstrips it's competitors by miles.

Edit: This is the first thing I've ever given a 5 on here. There's not a thing I can think of that would improve it within the confines of what it does now.

war593122 reviewed v20070615 rev1288 Beta on Jun 15, 2007

Change Log:

http://svn.sourceforge.n...fdshow-tryout/?view=log

Other builds:

http://www.free-codecs.com/FFDShow_download.htm

forresterinc reviewed v20070531 rev1220 Beta on Jun 2, 2007

Excellent tool. First time I tried viewing flv files, I used flvplayer and it didn't support seeking. So I installed this, and now Media Player Classic is the only video player I use.

Does all my DivX/XviD/flv decoding without a hitch.

@ VA: the program works fine. Methinks it's your media player that doesn't doesn't know how to interact with it. Review the program again when your media player works with it. (and no, it's not ffdshow's fault that your media player doesn't work, this program does what it's supposed to do)

ckasprzak reviewed v20070531 rev1220 Beta on Jun 1, 2007

Best decoder EVER!

It's actually FFDShow-Tryouts:
http://sourceforge.net/p...les.php?group_id=173941

photonboy reviewed v20070531 rev1220 Beta on Jun 1, 2007

I've switched to Ffdshow for most video that it can decode. I've also uninstalled AC3filter and just use the Ffdshow audio codecs, however I did turn up the volume amplification in the settings.

There seem to be different versions of Ffdshow, but I suppose there just being slightly tweaked occasionally at this point. I'm not sure if they need to be modified slightly to take full advantage of new hardware and drivers for video cards such as the 8600GTS.

Anyway, Ffdshow is an amazing, free audio and video decoding solution which should be a part of anyone's software.

Artem S. Tashkinov reviewed v20070517 rev1177 Beta on May 18, 2007

It's a brilliant codec especially when it's being used in a combination with Media Player Classic.

I hate all that mess Codec Packs create ;-)

endless17 reviewed v20070517 rev1177 Beta on May 18, 2007

to VA -

why bother ranking a program when you haven't used it or have no idea how it even works?

as to the program itself - it's a one-stop-shop for all decoding needs and is extremely customizable. have been using variations of this program for years.

V.A reviewed v20070517 rev1177 Beta on May 18, 2007

@ endless17

OK, point taken.
I installed it.
It didn't work.
Thus : a 1.

Maybe it will come with some more "help for non professionals" now ?

maxstep reviewed v20070424 rev1122 Beta on Apr 24, 2007

Amazing software - extremely! customizable codec, which plays ALL video and audio codecs with exceptional quality - what more to say??

zapatero reviewed v20070413 rev1097 on Apr 13, 2007

dhry: many videos downloaded from Google Video/YouTube are in FLV (Flash Video) format. Why? I don´t know. They can be played with Media Player Classic and FFDShow.

HelgeFossmo reviewed v20070328 rev1082 on Mar 30, 2007

ArKay74; ****in retard. you are asking for something thats already there.

it's not like SSE is anything revolutionary new and fantastic these days. 7 years ago - sure. but shut the **** up. ffdshow already support this and has done so for a bunch of years.

ArKay74 reviewed v20070328 rev1082 on Mar 30, 2007

How about SSE/SSE2 builds? Any users out there which DON'T have a CPU which supports those extensions?

cricri_pingouin reviewed v20070319 rev1050 on Mar 21, 2007

Excellent codec. I use it for everything it supports, and it does it well.

dhry reviewed v20070319 rev1050 on Mar 20, 2007

Great program. But what the hell is this FLV crap that you people keep going on about? AVI, MOV, WMV and MPG are the main movie formats that people should be worried about.

8bitmorethan reviewed v20070319 rev1050 on Mar 19, 2007

As far as I'm concerned this decoder is god-send. On the flv front: if you use the latest MPC it has internal flv splitter! Still, I too have experienced problems with the nightly/edge releases at times.. but then again, if one is using edge releases that is kinda to be expected - as a former poster wrote there's a brilliant official (and more stable) beta on sourceforge! :)

burfadel reviewed v20070314 rev1029 on Mar 16, 2007

Excellent codec system. By its design its not a pack, its a much better concept than that. Its fast, forever improving, great quality and works flawlessly. If you do have a problem with using it and mpc, it may have something to do with your setup. If you're using the display drivers that came with windows thats probably your're answer right there. Update the display drivers!

hook_ reviewed v20070221 rev952 on Feb 27, 2007

Tried two different builds, neither didn't work. Just gave me black screen. Good thing i keep older buils in my HDD. Nice try anyway.

RaGhul reviewed v20070221 rev952 on Feb 22, 2007

@CodecPack, twosheds

No need to install K-Lite at all. If you go to the NEW ffdshow project at SourceForge (use Treize's link below) you'll find that the project has been revived.

If you wanna be on the safe-side, download the official beta there. But if you want, these guys put out NIGHTLY builds! I've had problems only ONCE with the nightlies... and they support FLV.
:D

(Awesome codec, BTW!! This with MPC is all I need! But... shouldn't this be listed in the Codecs category? C'mon BetaNews!)

CodecPack reviewed v20070221 rev952 on Feb 22, 2007

@twosheds

Try K-Lite Standard. That a relatively small pack with just MPC, an up-to-date ffdshow, Haali Media Splitter and FLV Splitter.

twosheds reviewed v20070221 rev952 on Feb 22, 2007

An absolute Godsend, though it still lacks support for the .flv format, which can be installed by one of the five or six 'monster-codec' installers such as K-Lite(just untick everything except the .flv format support when installing).

Treize reviewed v20070221 rev952 on Feb 21, 2007

Just letting everyone know that Milan Cutka has stopped actively developing it, and the newer versions are now posted here, compiled by other people: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow-tryout/

Diam0nd reviewed v20070221 rev952 on Feb 21, 2007

It might not be the best codec one can dream of, but I really do think it's the best we have atm. At least its not some spyware-powered DiVX crap.

MidnightWatcher reviewed v20070218 rev938 on Feb 19, 2007

Excellent program. Now just release a native x64 version for Vista!!

polysius reviewed v20061230 on Jan 8, 2007

This is what Linux users take for granted with mplayer/ffmpeg. This is a must-have codec for Windows and will plug into pretty much EVERY media application you can think of. Installing ffdshow will let you compress movies in a movie editing program and watch movies in any number of players.

A better version to download is the latest CVS snapshot build at: http://ffdshow.faireal.net/

This is updated regularly and contains bugfixes and new features.

The codec has a mass of filters, tweaks and other things you can do to video. Increase gain (light levels), reduce noise (audio + video), various methods of deinterlacing, etc. The list is extensive!

10/10 - can't live without it!

RoSmecher reviewed v20061230 on Jan 6, 2007

after i installed this, videos with embedded audio such as you tube videos or google videos did not work anymore?
i recommened you wait until a fix comes out cause this thing totally messed my audio up.

mjm01010101 reviewed v20061230 on Jan 2, 2007

Use this link to report problems:
http://fileforum.betanew...4056131&branch_id=1

RaGhul reviewed v20060821 on Oct 5, 2006

Good stuff.

Very light. Great alternative since DivX turned into bloatware.

I gotta gripe about FileForum for a sec, though.
The search engine needs tweaking. Can't find an app unless it's the EXACT spelling. I searched for 'ffd' and got NO RESULTS. Had to put in entire 'ffdshow'.

Also, I'm often finding apps in wrong categories. What's up with that?

Aires reviewed v20060821 on Aug 23, 2006

It is not the best ever - it is now developed by people who are NOT as skilled as the original developer. As such they are producing a pos crap now.

ArKay74 reviewed v20060821 on Aug 23, 2006

I love this codec, but this seems to be using a different installer! It doesn't use the settings of the previous version I installed (installation path, shortcut location and--the worst--all of the codec settings!). It sucks putting builds made by different people on the same beta page.

nefarious1 reviewed v20060821 on Aug 23, 2006

I hope this version's installer doesn't delete all my existing codec references in the registry--as the previous one did. That was fun.

sikmik16v reviewed v20060522 on Aug 3, 2006

The best ever.
In regards to anyone who has had explorer crashes on avi, divx and xvid files. Whether it be from playing the file or viewing the files in thumbnail format. This is the solution. After years of looking for the best codec pack to play all files, i.e. Divx alpha and KLite codec pack. Only this plays the files without any errors from explorer.exe.
I uninstalled my Klite Codec pack, which without the xvid.dll related errors was a worthwhile codec pack in it's own right..but I was tired of my pc crashing, from playing these files.
Anyway, then in stalled the FFDShow codec pack from the following link and hallaluhah. No more errors from media player.

http://www.free-codecs.com/FFDShow_download.htm

Best find in along time.
Rob.

QQ reviewed v20060522 on May 22, 2006

"not much"? omg dude please read around? ;)

Kubla_Khan reviewed v20060522 on May 22, 2006

Great program.

But, they still need to work on the usability and the interface - that's if they can't think of anything else to do.

munga42 reviewed v20060420 on Apr 23, 2006

Works with many codecs.
Would get 5, but not much has happened since 2002 so..

paehld reviewed v20060420 on Apr 23, 2006

>Why are there different ffdshow builds?
>By default ffdshow uses SSE2 when compiled with GCC. So i compile it with "make SSE2=no"

FFDSHOW supportet just as well mencoder CPU RuntimeDetection. Works without any problem.
I have tested some version on my CPU one with SSE one my with CPU Runtime Detection, the same encode speed.

Test this version, the last CVS Version with GCC 3.4.5 and CPU Runtime Detection

http://www.paehl.com/open_source/?FFDSHOW

bob0r reviewed v20060413 on Apr 15, 2006

Why are there different ffdshow builds?
Simply because ffdshow is opensource, and the source can be compiled many ways.
By default ffdshow uses SSE2 when compiled with GCC. So i compile it with "make SSE2=no"
SSE2 crashes on systems that do not support SSE2.
SSE is generally used by any "decent computer"
The simple reason why ffdshow just can't be compiled with all cpu optimizes auto detected is, that the source is quite messy and it takes a lot of time to make this all working. (Any volunteers?)

This version is the most generic version possible with a free compiler (gcc). I prefer gcc because the whole compiling process goes automated, its quite some work.

This version is compiled with gcc 4.0.3 and supported by Milan Cutka, the developer.

The reason i share it is simple: the video encoder x264 (http://x264.nl) requires a decoder, and ffdshow is a good opensource solution (libavcodec can decode h264).

As for the old version on sourceforge, ffdshow simply isn't ready for a new "stable" build, until, if ever, all big issues are resolved (CPU detection could be one of them)

My ffdshow version is not tweaked, i compile it as is. Note i do use the latest DirectX SDK files for some components, but this can hardly be called tweaking.

I rate ffdshow: 4
ffdshow is very useful at most times, but is not optimized to it's fullest potential.

Enjoy!

Jarod Middelman
x264.nl

ffdshow discussion:
New ffdshow build (?): http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=98600
FFDShow Builds: Where to get them and who does what: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=105386

dhry reviewed v20060413 on Apr 15, 2006

Great program. But why is this version not even listed on the Daily Builds page? (and on their sourceforge page the latest full version is dated from 2002?!)

UTAKER reviewed v20060413 on Apr 14, 2006

I totally agree with "photonboy"'s review

photonboy reviewed v20060413 on Apr 14, 2006

FFDSHOW is very difficult to rate. First off, it performs differently in different computers. There are many versions and those with limited computer knowledge may be confused by talk of SSE2.

On top of this, there seem to be several people tweaking versions of ffdshow.
Ffdshow in general, performs very well. The officisl Divx6 decoder seems to run very slowly even with the advanced features OFF. Why the difference?

I would like to see one FFdshow that will install the components based on the detected CPU and have the option to update automatically.

Prospero424 reviewed v20051221 on Jan 30, 2006

Still a lifesaver for easy, fast, beautiful playback.

dsp77:

Check out the "Software Playing" forum over at www.videohelp.com. They are very helpful with stuff like this.

This space is meant for reviews, not tech support.

dsp77 reviewed v20051221 on Jan 29, 2006

I just downloaded the FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder after reading the reviews on this site, for some files that NO player would play, only to half sucess. The video plays, but real slow and becomes out of sync real fast. Does anyone have a way or solution of fixing this??
Thanks for your help

gate1975mlm reviewed v20051221 on Dec 22, 2005

I hope someday this will go final!

But as for now I find it to be the best way tp play your Avid and Divx videos.

Keep up the great work!

tremens reviewed v20051208 on Dec 15, 2005

celtic druid and bob0r have been active in the development process, milan has been fixing bugs but not doing any compiling for quite some time. welcome to Betanews. somebody's gotta build the cvs code for testing

Watchapa reviewed v20051208 on Dec 10, 2005

Perhaps I'm wrong but I only take Milan's build. Sorry for Celtic_druid and Bob0r, I don't know what's your job is in these builds... but thanks even !

tremens reviewed v20051201 on Dec 5, 2005

http://ffdshow.sourcefor...hp?page=Getting+ffdshow

Milan is doing frequent official builds again.

httpd.confused reviewed v20051115 on Nov 16, 2005

1. The pseudonym comment was a joke (Noun: A comment characterized by good humor).

2. I'm not posting binaries now am I?

tremens reviewed v20051109 on Nov 14, 2005

you mean like hhtpd.confused? i think bobor is still working on establishing equivalent stability from gcc as opposed to visual. where celtic druid is doing cvs builds less frequently but has got compiler options down and i believe is exclusively compiling with visual.

i primarily watch the main flavors of mpeg4: divx, xvid, 3vix. This is hands down the best performance I have achieved with minimal issues. BSPlayer/ffdshow combo is the best video playback I've used so far.

httpd.confused reviewed v20051107 on Nov 8, 2005

I prefer builds by whoever isn't hiding behind a goofy pseudonym. But in all seriousness--thanks for those links.

By the way, complaining about the appeal of the tray icon, as if this concern overrides everything else, is goofy. Really, really goofy.

Quark Fusion reviewed v20051107 on Nov 8, 2005

This version is compiled by bob0r, i prefer builds by celtic_druid, you can get it at http://esby.free.fr/CelticDruid/#ffdshow (Europe) or http://ffdshow.faireal.net/#ffdshow (US)

bunghole reviewed v20051103 on Nov 6, 2005

Sept 30 05 version works great

gawd21 reviewed v20051102 on Nov 4, 2005

You guys are going through pointing out bugs and yet rating it with a 5. How do you rate a resource hog program with a ugly icon a 5. When the same bugs that we keep hearing about aren't getting fixed and the program keeps getting larger and more twisted, you don't give a broken program a 5 stars. It has to earn it. Just like at a restaurant, you tip when they do a good job, not because they work there.

Kramy reviewed v20051102 on Nov 4, 2005

I use the sourceforge 2004 build since I have finely tuned postprocessing settings that get wiped every time I reinstall. Last time I tried one of these though it worked fine. I didn't need any of the new settings at that time though, so went back to the original.

Hey, just a question, but does ffdshow have individual easily created profiles yet? For tiny 320x240 movies, I sometimes want to ramp the postprocessing up to use as much CPU as possible vs quality, but other times that's not possible on HI-Def TV shows you missed(My Name is Earl).

Also, some times you might want to blur(nature scenes), but blurry space shows get really ugly. :P

QQ reviewed v20051102 on Nov 4, 2005

No gawd21, it's people like you who make this society a bunch of whining 10 year olds, crying over wrong logo on their car repair manual. Stop acting like a prick, take reshacker, paint, and do a better icon. then send it to author and i bet it'll get replaced. IF you care that much. Noone cares about stupid icons in media package anyway.

As for ffdshow, it does have too many bugs. It *is* resource hog.. but it's still a great package overall.

As for mp4, you need splitter for it, ffdshow is only a decoder :-)

Prospero424 reviewed v20051102 on Nov 4, 2005

Great program, but one thing has been bugging me:

I have looked at every single option in for the video decoder, and I just cannot get it to play .mp4 files.

Am I missing something or is it just not capable of this?

As for people saying it takes too much resources, I'm using ffdshow on my PIII 450, 256MB media center with a PCI video card (among other, newer machines) and it plays every single Mpeg4-derived file I have thrown at it (except mp4 files), even high-res 480 avis, without a hitch. If you're having trouble with processor usage, try turning off postprocessing or using an older build like the 9-30-05 one. You can get it here:

http://m17n.cool.ne.jp/freeware/mpc/

zimu reviewed v20051102 on Nov 3, 2005

gawd21: learn to go to options and disable tray icon, then come here and complain if you can't figure that out. you're just making yourself look stupid.

RoSmecher reviewed v20051018 on Oct 18, 2005

yup this version is great, but does anyone know when ffdshow will be able to work with mpeg-2 (svcd) movies? for some reason i have mpeg-2 checked when it is installed yet it still can't play mpeg-2 movies properly.

bob0r reviewed v20051018 on Oct 18, 2005

Yup, i have to agree with you.
Although ffdshow is perfectly for me, the reason we are trying/testing so many builds now, is that people are getting more interested, especially in x264.
My personal goal is to put only a GCC version of ffdshow online, to reach the most people who can use it.

If you look at the changes at:
http://cia.navi.cx/stats/project/ffdshow
Thats the reason why there are so many releases, we need tests for many feedback, to give to the ffdshow developers.

Follow http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=98600 closely and see why we are "struggling" with what versions to put online.
Finding the best ratio between very needed speed and stability is not so easy as it sounds.

Conclusion:
The ffdshow source is quite messy and under constant development.

General tip:
If it works for you, stick with it! Thats all it has to do, meet your needs.
If you want to test, read doom9 forum threads, do your own testing and post the results!

EarlyMorningHours reviewed v20051018 on Oct 18, 2005

I do like the program, especially being that it's free and open source, but seriously - how much feedback can you get to where you're issuing a dozen releases per month? I would love to see this product stabilize and for there to be some coherance between developers. A nice documented guide wouldn't hurt matters either.

And| reviewed v20051015 on Oct 17, 2005

Funny actually. With this installed, you have no need for DivX playback codec. The DivX codec is around 5-6mb packed, this just got to 3mb. Im sticking with an older version..

Kartun_355 reviewed v20051015 on Oct 17, 2005

Read this : http://m17n.cool.ne.jp/freeware/mpc/#cvs-20051013, this is changlog for ffdshow, so you could find out if you need new features :)

photonboy reviewed v20051013 on Oct 16, 2005

Awesome program. But, I wish someone would compare the different versions or at least the top few. It is getting ridiculous. There are about twenty versions or so floating around.

For example, I have SSE2 and only use the video (I use AC3filter for audio) with no post-processing. Which version is the best overall for me? Are the newer ones any better or are different people editing older versions? They could conceivable be worse than ones two years ago. I am currently using 2004-10-12-SSE2.

tremens reviewed v20051009 on Oct 12, 2005

++++
So you think when winamp 3(if u ever used it) came out, it was better than 2? i could give countless examples of preference.

MidnightWatcher reviewed v20051009 on Oct 11, 2005

FFDshow is one of the best pieces of software to come along. I give it a 5. For now though you might want to keep using the 2005-09-30 version, it's FFDshow on Viagra, performs great.

MeanE reviewed v20051009 on Oct 10, 2005

People say this because ffdshow is built by multiple people, and some people are better at it then others. Betanews does not discriminate against the great and not so great builds(ers)

Amazing piece of software though.

RoSmecher reviewed v20051009 on Oct 10, 2005

what's up with all these comments such as ohhhh don't use this version because it is not as good as the last. shut your damn mouth and always use the latest version and that's it. no more of this retarded talk.

tremens reviewed v20051006 on Oct 10, 2005

ffdshow rox!!!

stick with celtic druid releases though for x264 support, this 20051006 one is a step down.

http://www.aziendeassociate.it/cd.asp?dir=/ffdshow

zaga reviewed v20051006 on Oct 7, 2005

This Version sucks.
Stick with Sep. 30th version.

burfadel reviewed v20051006 on Oct 7, 2005

I give FFDShow overall a 5 but NOT THIS VERSION. The best version for playback I have experienced is the previous build from 30 Sep. This one chews through the CPU power something chronic. The 30 Sep version hardly uses any CPU power at all, and this is with the same settings such as postprocessing, deinterlacing etc. I have an Athlon 64 3500, I easily ran 5 movies at once (just to try it out) with the 30 Sep build with Media Player Classic (5 sessions open at once). With this build you can't even run two. I know you wouldn't want to watch 5 movies or even 2 at the same time, but the fact that there isn't any image quality improvement and it uses over 4x the CPU power it is not acceptable.

Another bug is that either vession trying to run the VFW Codec Configuration from the menu doesn't work. Also it causes programmes such as Xmpeg to crash.

Even thougn this is the case, 30 Sep build is currently the best one in my oppinion.

josse reviewed v20051006 on Oct 6, 2005

Perfect!!!

Watchapa reviewed v20050930 on Oct 3, 2005

I'm still with the "official" release 2005-03-03 SSE but ffdshow with real/quicktime alt and MPC is the best way to play all videos without codecs.
A must have!

Pixelsmack reviewed v20050930 on Oct 2, 2005

Last couple of versions have had problems decoding the latest DIVX. Now that DIVX offers a free no nag decoder best to install it in addition.

But for everything else FFDShow still seems to be the best all in one.

MikesLogic reviewed v20050930 on Oct 2, 2005

These builds are awesome, thanks very much for releasing them! I love FFDShow.

ModderXManiac reviewed v20050930 on Oct 2, 2005

Plays h.264 quicktime files with better quality, lower mem usage, and lower cpu usage all at the same time!!!

photonboy reviewed v20050920 on Sep 20, 2005

I love ffdshow, but like others I resent that I can not tell which version I should be using.

FYI. I tried Divx6. I can't tell the difference at all, but it is about 20-30% more CPU intensive.

I have an audio problem which I can't solve. If I pause a program and then start it again the volume goes to the maximum level regardless of where I move the volume slider to. This happens in almost every player I use with different audio filters.

seelie reviewed v20050909 on Sep 11, 2005

Honestly, though, if you are a novice user who only needs to play MPEG-4 Part2 (DivX, XviD, etc.), that older "official" version should be enough. (But still you must use the official "alpha," otherwise XviD 1.0+ doesn't play properly.)

If you are interested in playing with AVC aka H.264 (x264, Nero Digital, QuickTime 7 etc.), or even newer things like SNOW, a newer build is a must-have. If you don't believe celtic_druid, go ahead and get a build by milan himself:
http://sourceforge.net/t...d=53761&atid=471489
>Date: 2005-08-28 22:06
>Sender: milan_cutka

Any software is potentially buggy, but those ffdshow builds generally work fine. Actually it *might* be more reliable than official DivX decoder... But then again, you don't have to update your ffdshow if your DirectShow system is currently working flawlessly. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

As a side note, it's against the philosophy of open-source to assume that anyone but the original author is unreliable.

MidnightWatcher reviewed v20050909 on Sep 10, 2005

The "official" build is outdated. I prefer these newer builds by Celtic_Druid. Although they are not "official" per se, Celtic_Druid's builds have fewer bugs, are more up-to-date and perform just as well if if not better than the version you'll find on SourceForge. Anybody who calls this version crap doesn't know what they're talking about, and is only repeating something they've read elsewhere by others who also don't know what they're talking about.

bunghole reviewed v20050909 on Sep 10, 2005

The real FFDShow is great. Just make sure you get the 20041012 build from Sourceforge and not this crap.

These unofficial builds have sucked from the beginning and continue to suck.

lordnaastik reviewed v20050909 on Sep 10, 2005

The best thing about ffdshow is the support for decoding H.264 video as well as other compression formats like xvid,divx,3ivx,mjpeg etd.it can also decode ac3 and aac audio.its a very good free decoding tool.

DonGato reviewed v20050909 on Sep 10, 2005

Yes, they should be marked UNOFFICIAL!

And don't know why but in my home computer this build doesn't work properly. Returning to 20050822 one.

Aires reviewed v20050909 on Sep 10, 2005

Friggin hell!!!!!

" The files on this page are unofficial, CVS versions, mainly compiled and released by Celtic_Druid."

THIS IS UNOFFICIAL!

mmebane reviewed v20050909 on Sep 9, 2005

For the record, this build comes from here:

http://m17n.cool.ne.jp/freeware/mpc/

So head over there if you want to see the changelog.

photonboy reviewed v20050822 (Unofficial) on Aug 25, 2005

I've never had any problems.

To "GeorgeAugmentedReality" with the SLOW AUDIO. What video player are you using? I've only experienced this with the Divx6 player.

Try Zoomplayer, BSPlayer, Windows Media Player (default or v6.4.8.4). If you still have problems there's Videolan.

I like to use ffdshow (just the video) and AC3filter.

tremens reviewed v20050822 (Unofficial) on Aug 24, 2005

excelente

Quark Fusion reviewed v20050822 (Unofficial) on Aug 23, 2005

Excellent tool for software scaling of video. With CrystalPlayer this is fastest video playback solution.

GeorgeAugmentedReality reviewed v20050822 (Unofficial) on Aug 23, 2005

I have just downloaded this codec, and though it does decode DivX movies nicely now ALL MY MOVIES play with the audio coming too slow! There is a 3-4sec delay! I haven't installed any other DivX players that come with their own codecs. Any ideas what to do ? Shall I completely uninstall this FFDShow release and go for a DivX player instead?

Aires reviewed v20050822 (Unofficial) on Aug 23, 2005

This "unnoficial" version is complete junk and is trading on the good name of the _official_ version (not to mention the tens of thousands of downloads of the _official_ version here!). I repeat - this "unnoficial" version is complete junk!

And don't just take my word for it - go and ask the author of the _official_ version.

QQ reviewed v20050822 (Unofficial) on Aug 23, 2005

it's funny - those who rate state of the art piece of code 1 and call it complete junk - do they even know how funny does it make them sound?

Jose reviewed v20050803 (Unofficial) on Aug 18, 2005

Yeah, the turkeyfied mofo is knocking a great piece of ware.

Probably trying to run it on his cell phone.

improvelence reviewed v20050803 (Unofficial) on Aug 14, 2005

Orbit probably works for DiVX networks or something. Either that or his PC is complete crap. I have never had a problem with ffdshow screwing up my video quality...I think maybe you should look to bigger problems with your computer....or maybe it's just not strong enough to handle ffdshow...what a shame :(

Moron.

photonboy reviewed v20050803 (Unofficial) on Aug 4, 2005

I am giving ffdshow a 5 rating, but not necessarily this build.

How do we find out the pro's/con's of the different build's?

I went to the main site and it didn't help much. As for the "learning curve", yes there are a lot of options but I personally found that except for severely degraded video I didn't use any postprocessing and simply adjusted the brightness or color saturation in a program such as Zoomplayer.

I have to add my two cents as well. I don't know how someone can justify giving this a really low score. This is simply one of the best codecs there is and I have used it with many players on several computers with no problems whatsoever.

nant` reviewed v20050803 (Unofficial) on Aug 4, 2005

Where do you find the latest official version? The one I know of is from march...

KrVoLoK reviewed v20050727 (Unofficial) on Jul 31, 2005

THE quintessential decoder for all kinds of audio/video files with lots of settings and it's totally free.
It can even run movies on old low-end systems.
Strong recommendations!

Kramy reviewed v20050727 (Unofficial) on Jul 28, 2005

Awesome codec! Aside from installing Quicktime, I was able to get rid of every other codec I normally install(DivX, Xvid, etc.).

The learning curve for all the options is quite steep. I spent about 6 hours messing around with all of them to try and get the best quality. I think I found it, since now I have absolutely no "squares", even in low bitrate videos.

It's awesome, and now that mine is set up to use 95% of my CPU in postprocessing, it's even awesomer.

I do agree that the alpha build on sourceforge, although created at an earlier date, does seem to be a lot faster. I use it now.

Edit: 95% of my AMD XP 2800+ (2.1ghz)

DiGiTaLFX reviewed v20050727 (Unofficial) on Jul 27, 2005

I take back my previous comments. I'm actually understanding this now. Would be good if it could let me play a normal flac file in mpc tho! as far as i can work out it doesn't help with the .flac file itself (using the offical build tho which is quite old).

hhravn reviewed v20050701 (Unofficial) on Jul 16, 2005

ffdshow is the one and only codec, as mentioned before. No other codec (or codec packs) comes even close in versatility and performance. These unofficial betas, however, doesn't represent the quality of the official builds. I have tried several of the betas posted here, and the official alpha (dated october 12, 2004) does a far better job. More features in the new builds, perhaps, but the playback is sluggish in many situations where the official builds have no problems at all. do yourself a favour and go to sourceforge and try them out.

melkor reviewed v20050701 (Unofficial) on Jul 4, 2005

FFDShow is the swiss army knife of video playback. With it's advanced features it enhances any player that uses it. There is a high learning curve to fully use all of the features, but the average user will be able to FFDShow without too much difficulty. While it has many advanced features, the average user will not have a need for many of them.

jastonas reviewed v20050701 (Unofficial) on Jul 2, 2005

ok.. i dont understand very well ffdshow. can anyone e give me some guidance? any good helpfile- tutorial?

ecjs reviewed v20050701 (Unofficial) on Jul 2, 2005

Simple.

ye110mann reviewed v20050630 (Unofficial) on Jun 30, 2005

DiGiTaLFX, the interface allows maximum control. And I don't want all formats enabled by default. I don't want ffdshow to handle something like WMV8 which the native Windows codecs handle better.
Only those who don't understand how ffdshow works, give it less than 5 stars.

DiGiTaLFX reviewed v20050611 (Unofficial) on Jun 13, 2005

Its a great idea. But the interface is far too confusing, and it should enable all formats by default.

anomoly reviewed v20050611 (Unofficial) on Jun 13, 2005

well, Since no one mentioned it, I use the version
ffdshow-20050303-sse

photonboy reviewed v20050609 on Jun 10, 2005

The very best, however I agree that you must try a few to see which one is best for you.

For example, some newer versions don't allow me to change the brightness (I use 2005/03/12 build).

I also use the AC3 filter in conjunction with the audio being enabled in ffdshow and it works better.

I experimented with various settings and found that the default is best for me, then I adjust the brightness or saturation using Zoomplayer or BSplayer.

seelie reviewed v20050609 on Jun 10, 2005

This is not an official release, but one of many CVS builds, compiled unofficially by celtic_druid.

Basically only for testing. It's alpha or pre-alpha. Maybe it works fine for your purpose, but there might be terrible bugs too. If you prefer *relatively* stable versions, I'd recommend ffdshow-20050204.exe or ffdshow-20050406.exe [39D327A2].
ffdshow-20050527.exe, ffdshow-20050607.exe and this one (ffdshow-20050609.exe) are too new to judge.

EDIT:
20050611 is already out. This time celtic_druid released 2 versions (ICL8.1 and MSVC7.1)

RedBoar reviewed v20041012 Alpha on Dec 4, 2004

Hey Domingo, get BSPlayer with the 3 items you already installed and you have a winner.

Domingo reviewed v20041012 Alpha on Oct 12, 2004

I used to use the huge codec packs beforehand, but have found this program combined with Real Alternative and Quicktime Alternative is a better combo. Better quality video and audio, lower overhead, and fewer compatibility issues make it a great "program." Admittedly the config interface might not be for someone new to PC audio/video, but I like it.

I *do* wish it would play OGM files by default (I had to get an external codec for the audio...and with the codec pack I had to get one for video...) but other than that it's great. That's kind of an obscure format, but one I did run into recently.

This combined with MPC (and the 2 "alternative" codecs) will work for more or less anything.

bsr500 reviewed v20041012 Alpha on Oct 12, 2004

Hopefully this fixes the explorer.exe crash. This is a great program/codecs, but I wish It would come default with support for 2.1 audio. For those without 5.1 if you want to play a downloaded movie that uses AC3 and has dolby digital(logic) sound you have to enable the mixer and change the speaker output to 2/1 or 2/0 otherwise voice audio and other parts of the video wont be heard (or not correctly, or loud enough). Perhaps they could add better sound card setup detection or just make 2.1 the default.

bunghole reviewed v20040828 on Sep 16, 2004

this has almost always played everything perfectly for me, but recently i had a divx5 encoded movie that ran had 2 fps with ffdshow. i uninstalled ffdshow and installed divx; the movie then ran smoothly. i'm not sure what the problem was but its the only problem i've ever encountered with ffdshow. a nice piece of coding anyway, it saves the trouble of installing various codecs as it'll play virtually anything with less CPU as well. 4 3/4 *'s.

sn0wflake reviewed v20040828 on Aug 28, 2004

Excellent software. 5/5 points from me :)

jipi42 reviewed v20040808 on Aug 9, 2004

Hmmm, it seems that the sourceforge project is now being updated again :
http://ffdshow.sourcefor.../tiki-view_articles.php

ppinheiro reviewed v20040806 on Aug 7, 2004

This is a great program, but where is the changlog? Should ?e downlaod everynew version? What is changed?

x-ray reviewed v20040806 on Aug 7, 2004

what is this good for ??

GeneralLeoFF reviewed v20040725 Alpha on Jul 28, 2004

still a great program but all the diffrent versions and the lack of a true official site anymore (the SF page hasent been updated in years) to explan and track them is geting a little bit old and annoying. For now i'll have to drop it down from 5 to 4 until things start to get a little better organized with this project.

chichiri reviewed v20040718 on Jul 19, 2004

Thanks to Milan Cutka for picking up the ball and continuing to work on ffdshow after it had seemingly slowed down a little. Still the Swiss army knife of video playback decoders. MUST HAVE SOFTWARE.

war593122 reviewed v20040701 SSE2 on Jul 1, 2004

What about althlon xp? Just regular build?

MeanE reviewed v20040701 SSE2 on Jul 1, 2004

FFDshow is an amazing little piece of software. Although this is an SSE2 version, you can still get a non SSE2 version at

http://athos.leffe.dnsalias.com/

which, is what Betanews used to link to in the past. New build as of June 29.

freeafrog reviewed v20041606 on Jun 21, 2004

Haven't used this product but went to free-codecs.com recommended below and when I clicked to download a file I received a virus. Beware.

FailedCRC reviewed v20041606 on Jun 21, 2004

it's an sse2 only version, if you don't have a pentium4 / athlon64 it won't run

httpd.confused reviewed v20041606 on Jun 20, 2004

This version makes MPC crash instantly with any file I try to open with it. Back out to the previous version (ffdshow-20040607), and all is well.

ludeboy reviewed v20041606 on Jun 20, 2004

Anyone know how to set the film effect to look exactly like the divx one?

OPaul reviewed v20041606 on Jun 20, 2004

Very handy, can pretty much play all codecs. I just wish Betanews wouldn't link the download to free-codecs.com and not to the sourceforge.com download link.

sclyde reviewed v20040424 on Apr 29, 2004

This program is pretty sweet, with all codecs being wrapped in one. But i have been having one problem with the program. Not sure if its consistant problem that others are having either... I get a message box like the following when i play certain movies:
ASSERT Failed
g_cFGObjects=0
Atline 5868 of d:\builds\.......\filgraph.cpp
Continue?(Cancel to Debug)
I searched for this error on google, and the only thing i found to fix it was on the programmers side where they said "The workaround for now is to compile the DirectShow filters (NetSource.ax and NetRenderer.ax) in Release mode." Hopefully a resolution to this will be made soon, i am missing out on some of my best movies! Otherwise, the program is awesome, great work.

FDisk80 reviewed v20040424 on Apr 29, 2004

hedgehawk, AC3 is not double speed. You just need to set it up first.
In Audio Filter configuration enable "Mixer" and select your Output Speakers Configuration.

hedgehawk reviewed v20040418 on Apr 18, 2004

nope ac3 still double speed :( if this codec has ac3 and mpeg2/1 support it would be the best and only codec for you!

perplX reviewed v20040405 on Apr 7, 2004

Simply the best. Since no one else seems to know, this is where these newer builds come from http://athos.leffe.dnsalias.com/

frekio reviewed v20040405 on Apr 6, 2004

I looked for the web site... the old one is definitely not being updated anymore, and everything links to their sourceforge site which I was not able to find the newer files on. The closest thing I found was http://www.free-codecs.com/download/FFDShow.htm which actually has the latest changelogs (I didn't see the latest changelog anywhere else). Oh well, kick a** codec btw !

Treize reviewed v20040329 on Apr 1, 2004

Love the program, wish I knew where the new homepage was for this. The old one hasn't been updated in a year or so.

resi reviewed v20040329 on Mar 31, 2004

above build runs fine here.
good to see they're back at updating this wonderful piece of software.

borisf98 reviewed v20040312 on Mar 15, 2004

Latest version of this codec crashes Windows when trying to play DivX and Xvid coded files. Previous versions did not have this problem. Please fix it.

perica reviewed v20040312 on Mar 14, 2004

Great stuff, and Giacomo® rate the software, if betanews made mistake send them e-mail or something dont trash the software for nothing, and get a newer system, Win95 are ancient.

uranos227 reviewed v20040312 on Mar 14, 2004

Thanks Prospero424

Giacomo® reviewed v20040312 on Mar 13, 2004

Again, another program not compatible with Win95 although Betanews says it is; Betanews, please be more careful when saying that an app can run on Win95, only to discover, later, that it doesn't work:( !

Prospero424 reviewed v20040312 on Mar 13, 2004

Aha! I just found a chage log that's been posted over at Afterdawn.

Here: http://www.afterdawn.com...ion_history/ffdshow.cfm

Stephan Schwartz reviewed v20040304 on Mar 6, 2004

The Best. Period.

MeanE reviewed v20040304 on Mar 6, 2004

Best decoding filter ever! It seems to play everything that you can throw at it. Pair it up with Media Player Classic for an unbeatable combination.

ace101 reviewed v20040225 on Feb 26, 2004

Coool ... it seems that this last version now support Packet Bitstream of Xvid (in the previous version the playback wasn't smooth with xvid video encoded with this feature). There's no other particular problem in ffdshow now so it's really the ultimate directshow decoder !!

melkor reviewed v20040113 on Feb 8, 2004

The most recent builds of ffdshow have not been official releases; they were built from the source that was checked out of cvs. The reason there have been so few releases is that there has been very little work done on ffdshow. Many of the files that make it up haven't changed in 15 months. If you use ffdshow to play xvid through the xvid api, don't install xvid 1.0 as the api has changed (and it will no longer be an option). you can read more about what is going on here: http://forum.doom9.org/s...p?s=&threadid=48511

Neoprimal reviewed v20040113 on Feb 8, 2004

Ever since I found FFDShow, it hasn't let me down once.
Found it because quite a while back, I had a movie that refused to play on anything. Someone recommended it and I tried it. Haven't had a problem since.
DivX is very blah nowadays, plain and siple - the codecs included do not run all the movies out now. Too many different formats.....
Nimo has killed my XP machine because of a corrupt package that could not be undone. Whatever it put in, I couldn't trace all the parts to, to remove. Had my explorer minicrashing every time I opened a directory with movie files...even if they were not in thumbnail or sidebar preview mode.
FFDShow fixed the deal, glad to see they're updating.

oudoulj reviewed v20040113 on Feb 8, 2004

As already asked, where does that version come from?!
It is apparently NOT mentioned on the official website...

golbex reviewed v20040113 on Feb 8, 2004

YES, they've entered 2004! I love this codec pack.

Watchapa reviewed v20031128 on Jan 20, 2004

Why the 2003-09-27 and 2003-11-28 don't appear in the official site even in alpha or beta versions ???

liquiem reviewed v20030927 on Oct 6, 2003

ever wondered why filesize increased from ~700k to 1.1mb? well, you obvisouly didn't check out the new audio decoder. it supports wma, mp2/3 and ac3 - and it works.
as it is fairly new, it has its disadvantages. the ac3 codec doesnt have the nice DRC and Normalize settings like AC3Filter got to make smooth the volume during the movie (no extrem peaks in volume due to explosions etc). After playing some movies with the codecs i found skipping in movies doesnt work that well. after the movie stopped for few seconds, audio plays forehead, video to slow.

nevertheless, a nice codec, where the audio decoder needs more attention. if both work perfectly and gain more features like DRC and normalize, it would be the only codec pack you need for viewing you movies - forget about nimo, ace and pikachu codec pack.

4 points because the audio codec isnt that worthy for releasing ;)

illuvatar reviewed v20030927 on Oct 6, 2003

This is simply the best! When you're only into viewing divx and other mpeg4 movies, then this is the thing! Since I discovered ffdshow I turned my back to divx3, divx5, xvid and any other possible mpeg4 decoder. I only use this filter and it never failed on me. It plays every mpeg4 movie I feed it. PS: When you're into encoding movies, try the excellent (opensource!) xvid.

matt2971 reviewed v20030927 on Oct 6, 2003

ffdshow uses more CPU than just using your regular codecs, but it's invaluable for sorting out movies that won't play - XviD movies being the prime example. If youu can't get an XviD movie to play, just install this and tick the XviD box, and chances are that ffdshow will make a better go at it than the XviD codec alone.

golbex reviewed v20030927 on Oct 5, 2003

Need a mirror for this... and DON'T point to the homepage or Sourceforge, cause it's not there.

Jeffsoft reviewed v20030927 on Oct 5, 2003

finally an update!

christoofar reviewed v20030523 on May 28, 2003

great interface between user & codecs. Helpful in making sure you have the right codec available to playback all the myriad versions of codecs people seem to delight in using.

vis666 reviewed v20030523 on May 28, 2003

yep... this is my standard decoder for the *CRAP* divx 4 & 5 versions. at least this gem lets u choose between a varied choices of the "standard" codecs & options we use without the adwares or that crap divx playa. (wich didn't work for me anyway) FFDshow didn't get the full 5/5 because it's just a decoder, not an encoding codec. No problem though, that's why we have Koepi :)