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Using the DirectShow Base Classes

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[The feature associated with this page, DirectShow, is a legacy feature. It has been superseded by MediaPlayer, IMFMediaEngine, and Audio/Video Capture in Media Foundation. Those features have been optimized for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Microsoft strongly recommends that new code use MediaPlayer, IMFMediaEngine and Audio/Video Capture in Media Foundation instead of DirectShow, when possible. Microsoft suggests that existing code that uses the legacy APIs be rewritten to use the new APIs if possible.]

To use the base classes in DirectShow, you must build and link the base class library.

The base class library is provided as a SDK sample in the Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=62332). The exact location depends on the version of the SDK that you have installed, but the relative path is:

(SDK samples root)\DirectShow\BaseClasses

Header: Streams.h

Library: The sample builds retail and debug versions of the library:

  • Retail version: Strmbase.lib
  • Debug version: Strmbasd.lib.

For more information on setting up your build environment, see Setting Up the Build Environment.

Preprocessor Symbols

When you include the header file Streams.h, the following preprocessor symbols have special meaning:

  • PERF: Reserved. Do not use this preprocessor symbol.
  • VFWROBUST: Enables pointer validation in retail. For more information, see Pointer Validation Macros. In debug builds, it is not necessary to define VFWROBUST.

Note

In Windows Vista and later, the pointer validation macros are empty.