Microsoft’s upcoming operating system Windows 7 uses Direct Show filters to decode several audio and video formats. Direct Show is being used by several multimedia applications like Windows Media Player or Media Center. It can also be used in third party tools like MPlayer. Users who prefer to use alternative codecs for decoding these audio and video formats can either edit the Windows Registry to do so or use the Preferred Filter Tweaker for Windows 7.
This portable software program has been designed to offer Windows 7 users a quick and uncomplicated way of changing Direct Show filters in Windows 7. The tool supports a variety of popular formats including H.264, MPEG-4 (Xvid/DivX/MP4V) or MP3. Supported third party filters are (among others) ffdshow, divx, gabest, xvid, arcsoft or cyberlink filters.
Each supported multimedia format is displayed in the program’s interface upon startup with a selection of available filters next to it.
The Microsoft filters are selected by default. All it takes to switch to another filter is to select it from the list. A click on the apply button in the end will make the changes to the system. Please note that these changes only affect media players that use Direct Show to decode the video and audio codecs.
It should also be noted that it might cause problems in some applications when switching to third party filters. Some users have for instance reported that live TV would not function properly in Windows Media Center after switching to alternative filters. The Preferred Filter Tweaker is compatible with Windows 7 and can be downloaded from the developer’s website.
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