DirectShow Animated Header -- About Compression Filters DirectShow Animated Header -- About Compression Filters* Microsoft DirectShow SDK
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About Compression Filters


A compression filter is a specialized type of transform filter. Compression filters (compressors) accept data, use a compression scheme to transform the data, and pass the compressed data downstream.

Microsoft® DirectShow™ includes an AVI Compressor filter and an ACM Audio Compressor filter, which will use any Microsoft Video for Windows® video or audio codec to compress data. You can write your own compressor filter if you need to compress data in a format that isn't supported by the default filters that DirectShow provides.

To begin writing a compression filter, write a transform filter that includes one input pin and one output pin. See the following articles for more information about writing a transform filter.

After you've written a transform filter, you should review the following points when completing your compression filter:

The VidCap Sample (Video Capture Filter) sample video capture filter included with the DirectShow SDK implements the IAMStreamConfig and IAMVideoCompression interfaces, and performs filter registration. Note that this sample code is for a capture filter, but the filter registration and implementation of these two interfaces is similar to that of a compression filter.

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