That's a tall order, right?  VLC from VideoLAN.org has become the go-to media player for most, as it can play so many things that Windows Media Player won't, and it's free.  Well, how does it do that, play more than other players?  The Libavformat and Libavcodec libraries, the same ones created by and for the FFmpeg project (and so many other multimedia applications). 

VLC & DirectShow Filters

DirectShow is one of Microsoft's multimedia frameworks, formerly known as ActiveMovie, which replaced Microsoft's earlier Video for Windows framework.  VLC supports DirectShow-based input sources through a module (not very well, IMO, though), but the default Windows version downloaded from VideoLAN cannot reference 32-bit DirectShow filters installed on your Windows PC for audio/video decoding (i.e. filters/codecs registered in your Windows Registry), as the default version downloaded is x64.

As an example, a DCCTV video file exported from a GeoVision system to an AVI file may be using the proprietary GMP4 video codec. In order to play the video, you must install the GeoVision GMP4 codec necessary to decode the primary video stream; this is a DirectShow filter.  DirectShow filters can only be referenced by applications that can leverage DirectShow, which we've established, VLC x64 cannot. 

The multimedia evidence community has been really buzzing the last couple of years in regards to how useful FFmpeg and Libav can be for dealing with proprietary video formats. Both tools are extremely useful in several aspects of a forensic DME workflow. With that said, however, whether it’s FFmpeg, Libav or another 3rd party tool, there are limitations and causes for concern when using them to process proprietary video file formats.

By Ryan Paul

Developers Ronald Bultje, David Conrad, and Jason Garret-Glaser are creating a native VP8 video codec implementation for the open source FFmpeg project. The aim of this effort is to bring first-class VP8 support to FFmpeg and demonstrate the feasibility of producing an independent VP8 implementation.

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FFmpeg is a great tool to have in your toolbox if you’re a multimedia geek. If you live mostly in the world of Microsoft Windows and have dozens, hundreds, or thousands of files to process though they lose a little luster. Sure, there are tons of free applications built on FFmpeg that provide some limited batch processing capability, but usually they're just that; limited. Here’s a simple way you can process hundreds of files from one format to another, using the full capability of your FFmpeg install.

First, which scripting languages do you know? Great, we won’t need those, but that’s really cool that you know them. Given that you’re reading this, I’m going to assume you can write plain text into a text file. I don’t like to assume anything, but I’m feeling pretty good about that one. Alright, let’s get started.

If you have a PSP and aren't using its video playback capabilities other than via UMD, you're missing out on one of its best features. The PSP can basically serve as your personal wide-screen video player, which comes in quite handy for those who travel frequently. A 1GB Memory Stick Pro Duo card can hold several hours of good quality video and still have room for your music, pics, etc.

The only problem with this is that the PSP is very finicky with regard to MP4 files. It'll balk on image sizes, frame rates, bit rates, file names, file locations, and just about anything else you can think of. And to top it all off, each firmware release for the PSP seems to handle things differently. But then again, I suppose if it were a simple standard process that remained consistent, Sony wouldn't be able to market and sell software to manage this process for you (a.k.a. PSP Media Manager).

Want to know what to encode with for great H.264 files? Robert Reinhardt, founder of VideoRx.com, is happy to tell you. One minute into his recent Streaming Media West presentation on how to evaluate H.264 encoders he gave the big reveal: FFmpeg is the best choice around.

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As you may know, version 1.10.4 of Avery Lee's video capture/processing utility was released a little over a month ago. I've packaged it with several of the input plugins I regularly use, with one notable exception; the FFmpeg input plugin. I've had nothing but issues w/version 0.7 of the FFmpeg input plugin when used with version 1.10.4 of VirtualDub, so I've provided the source but did not install the plugin in my v1.10.4 package.

The v1.9.11 package contains all of the same input plugins, and version 0.7 of the FFmpeg input plugin is loaded automatically as well. Head past the break for the links to download.