Video Playback in DirectShow

We start with an overview of the DirectShow archicture. We ll introduce some terminology that we ll be using extensively throughout the next few chapters, then we ll walk through some basic code to play a video file. After that, we ll explore some of the sophisticated video-mixing features that are provided in DirectShow out of the box. With minimal coding, you can mix and alpha-blend multiple videos , creating fades, zooms, picture-in-picture effects, fly-in effects, and so forth. These effects look impressive enough on a 2-D window ” embedded in a 3-D environment, they look even better. But that s a subject for Chapter 10.