Notes about latest versions of FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder :
- FFDShow 2010-02-08 (rev. 3255) was compiled by
drevil_xxl using GCC 4.1.1 (libavcodec.dll & libmplayer.dll), FFDShow 2010-01-23 (rev. 3222) MMX* was compiled by
clsid using ICL9 while FFDShow 2009-12-12 (rev. 3200) SSE** was also compiled by
clsid using ICL9.
* Only for CPUs with support for MMX (MultiMedia eXperience) instructions.
** Only for CPUs with support for SSE (Streaming SIMD Extensions) instructions. Check if your CPU has support for SSE or SSE2 instructions using
Cpu-Z, a small tool which shows infos about CPU.
First of all, the FFDSHOW consumes way less CPU power than original DivX codecs, even with maximum post-processing. At the same time the post-processing seems to give excellent quality results and allows more configuring than the original DivX codec. It can even automaticly reduce post-processing if your CPU is getting overloaded. The noise filter adds a kind of a rasterising effect to the picture - might be useful in some cases. The alpha version also includes experimental playback for MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 files (such as VCD and SVCD movies), which works pretty damn well. Only problem is that MPEG-2 playback can't play the SVCD clips directly from the CD, but requires the video to be extracted to the HDD by using VCDGear first.
Features of FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder :
- various compression methods:
· MPEG 4 compatible (Xvid, DivX 4, DivX 5, DivX 6, DivX 7) using libavcodec or XviD
· Divx 3 compatible, MSMPEG4v2, MSMPEG4v1
· WMV1/7, WMV2/8
· H263, H263+, H264
· HuffYUV in YV12 colorspace
· MJPEG
· MPEG 1
· MPEG 2, using mpeg2enc code from MJPEGtools project
· MP3, AC3, DTS, E-AC3, AAC
· SVQ3
· Vorbis
· Theora (not for regular use, format isn't stabilized yet)
· all Windows Media Video 9 supported encoders with output to asf/wmv file or AVI
- all common encoding modes: constant bitrate, fixed quantizer, fixed quality, two pass encoding (depends on compressor features)
- for libavcodec and XviD detailed selection of motion estimation method
- minimum and maximum I frames interval
- minimum and maximum quantizer selection, quantizer type and trellis quantization selection for libavcodec
- adaptive quantization (aka. masking) for libavcodec and XviD, single coefficient elimination
- selectable compression of starting and ending credits
- two curve compression algorithms for second pass of two pass encoding - thanks to XviD developers
- second pass simulation: although not very precise, still helpful for tweaking advanced curve compression parameters
- ability to use libavcodec internal two pass code
- image preprocessing with ffdshow image filters (latest ffdshow version must be installed)
- graph during encoding: if your encoding program doesn't provide one
- B frames support: from one to eight consecutive B frames
- support for MPEG 4 quarterpel and GMC
- selectable interlaced encoding
- decompression
Changes from FFDShow rev. 3220 to FFDShow rev. 3233 :
- TffPict::convertCSP() will now work with a black background surface (as intended), instead of gray surface.
- bugfix: when using libavcodec, avcodec_close calls avcodec_thread_free, there's no need to call avcodec_thread_free for the second time (it will cause a crash for some values)
- FFDShow audio : added an audio delay option in the output section and removed "allow WAVEOUTFORMATEXTENSIBLE option.
- TrueHD fix : all samples should work now
- ASS/SSA subtitles : use the same shadow settings as SRT
- DTS-HD regression fixed in revision 3197
- Updated FFmpeg
- bugfix: logical error in the refactoring at rev. 3217.
- fixed regression in rev. 3205: avisynth filter is now able to remove frames.
- Remove b frame workaround for ffmpeg-mt that is no longer needed.
Important Note :
- Some antivirus software -like AVG- may "detect" a trojan in FFDShow builds. This is a false positive,
there are no trojans in FFDShow builds! 
