MICROSOFT DIRECTSHOW - A NEW MEDIA ARCHITECTURE

The desktop revolution in production and post-production has dramatica lly changed the way film and television programs are made, simultaneou sly reducing equipment costs and increasing operator efficiency. The e nabling digital innovations by individual companies using standard com puting platforms has come at a price-these custom implementations and closed solutions make sharing of media and hardware between applicatio ns difficult if not impossible. Microsoft's DirectShow(TM) Streaming M edia Architecture and Windows Driver Model provide the infrastructure for today's post-production applications and hardware to truly become interoperable. This paper describes the architecture, supporting techn ologies, and their application in post-production scenarios.