| Microsoft DirectX 8.0 |
This section describes the interfaces and components that you can use to play back MPEG-2 content using Microsoft® DirectShow®. MPEG-2 allows simple file playback, supports a variety of storage formats (disk or removable media), and requires no authoring. MPEG-2 is supported by all software decoders, but is not supported by some older hardware decoders. For information on playing back DVD-based content with DirectShow using the DVD Navigator and IDVDGraphBuilder components and their interfaces, see DVD Application Development in DirectShow. Note that MPEG-2 playback uses the IGraphBuilder and IMediaControl interfaces, not DVD-specific interfaces such as IDVDGraphBuilder and IDvdControl2.
The main component provided with DirectShow for MPEG-2 playback is the MPEG-2 Splitter filter (similar to the MPEG-1 Stream Splitter component provided with previous versions of DirectShow). DirectShow does not provide any MPEG-2 decoders. DirectShow-compatible MPEG-2 audio and video decoders that accept MPEG-2 Packetized Elementary Streams (PES) are required for use with the MPEG-2 Splitter filter. The user can activate file playback using the MPEG-2 Splitter filter by double-clicking a file recognized by DirectShow (preferably .mpg) that contains MPEG-2 program stream content.
See the following related topics for more information.