How to use use directshow features on Windows 10?

[aeneas]

I've been using IMGburn for a long time but just now wanted to create an audio CD (i.e., CD that can be played on an ordinary/traditional CD player) from files in my Windows music library.  Following instructions in the guide provided on this forum produced an error that referred to the need to use "directshow".  I think that refers to an API supported on Windows for accessing the codecs used to make necessary conversions of existing files that could have been created/encoded in a variety of different file formats.

In the case of my Windows 7 computer it appears as though a standard OS installation does NOT contain the necessary software.  I couldn't find a way to get anything from Microsoft that could be used to add the necessary capability.  However, I did find a third party package called Direct Show Filter Package (DFFP Version 5.1) that was pretty easy to add to a Windows 7 system and get the needed support.  Initial trials at creating audio CDs seem to work as expected.  However, as a present novice I'd want to get more experience before saying just how good it is doing.  No problems so far.

Windows 10 looks like a different situation.  Insofar as I couldn't find any indication that there was a separate add-on package available but plenty of information about how to develop software that uses the interface.  This leads me to think that for Windows 10 the interface (API) may have changed.  This would explain how my Windows 10 system might contain the underlying software needed to support the directshow API but NOT support the interface being used by IMGburn.  This suggests that these features of IMGburn simply can NOT be made to work on Windows 10.  This idea is pure speculation but leads me to conclude that it is either correct or I'm in need help figuring out how to make this feature of IMGburn work on Windows 10.

Would appreciate suggestions for those with the necessary knowledge.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

What type of audio files are you actually trying to use? File extension / codec please.

[Ken852]

What does the error message say?

What type of files do you have?

I had no idea ImgBurn could write Audio CDs, and I have used ImgBurn more than once in the past.

Quote

 

ImgBurn relies on DirectShow / ACM for decoding your audio files.

As such, you'll need to have the appropriate filters installed for the types of files you'll be burning.

Support for MP3, PCM, WAV and WMA should be built into Windows - at least it is on XP / Vista / 7.

 

https://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?/topic/5555-how-to-write-an-audio-cd-from-music-files-using-imgburn/&tab=comments#comment-91374

You should not need to install any DirectShow filters if you're working with any of these file types. Only if you're working with other file types that you may need to install filters, and a list with links to filters for common audio file types is given in the guide.

DirectShow will eventually be replaced by Media Foundation, but DirectShow is still present in Windows 10.

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking here. How to use DirectShow features on Windows 10? What features? It's not something you as a user should ever be concerned with. You use ImgBurn, and in turn ImgBurn uses DirectShow (with assistance from additional filters if need be).

[aeneas]

The files I tried today are type .m4a (i.e., apple lossless compression sometimes called ALAC).  I think this might also be referred to as mpeg4 audio.  The files came from iTunes.

The error received (screenshot attached) on Windows 10 is the same as on Windows 7.  However the referenced filter package obtained from codec.com had to be installed on Windows 7.  Windows 10 was NOT among those stipulated for that package.  Also my research on Windows 10 suggested that a separate package need NOT be installed on Windows 10.  If Microsoft might have had an installation package for Windows 7 it doesn't surprise me that they stopped supplying it when Windows 7 support was withdrawn.

Maybe it would be better to state my question as "how to fix the error preventing IMGburn from creating such a CD on Windows 10?". 

 

Edited March 22, 2021 by aeneas

[LIGHTNING UK!]

None of these packages are from Microsoft.
Anything not supported ‘out of the box’ requires 3rd party DirectShow filters.

Having Googled a bit for ‘alac DirectShow filter’, this one got mentioned a lot.

http://dsp-worx.de/?n=15

[aeneas]

Fortunately I have some test systems which allow for low risk experimenting.  I'll give it a try.

However, I am still confused.  Another observation I've made is that Windows Media Player (WMP) on Windows 7 does NOT support .m4a files.  However, now that I've installed the mentioned filter package it can play .m4a files.  At the same time .m4a is NOT an available choice for the format in which ripped files are created.  On the other hand, Windows 10 (out of the box so to speak) can both play and rip to .m4a format.  Why would I need to add this kind of filter package to Windows 10 which seems to fully support .m4a format?

[Ken852]

16 hours ago, aeneas said:

The files I tried today are type .m4a (i.e., apple lossless compression sometimes called ALAC).

Are these the same files (or same file type at least) you tried yesterday when the initial error occurred? Are you having problems with more than just M4A files?

For M4A files the following resources are referenced in the guide:
 

Quote

 

M4A - CoreAAC - http://www.free-codecs.com/download/CoreAAC_Directshow_filter.htm

M4A - ORBAN - http://www.orban.com/plugin/ or http://www.free-codecs.com/download/aac_aacplus_player_plugin.htm

 

Have you tried installing any one of these? The Orban.com URL appears to have changed or the content has been removed. Unfortunately Free-Codecs.com site appears to be down for me at the moment (or is it down for everyone?) so I can't check any of those links.

16 hours ago, aeneas said:

The error received (screenshot attached) on Windows 10 is the same as on Windows 7.  However the referenced filter package obtained from codec.com had to be installed on Windows 7.  Windows 10 was NOT among those stipulated for that package.

I take it you mean Free-Codecs.com, and again the site appears to be down at the moment from my end so I can't check or download anything from there. When you talk about referenced package, do you mean the one referenced in the guide or the one you linked to in your first post?

As a reminder, this is the link you posted:
https://www.free-codecs.com/download/directshow_filterpack.htm

This is not a link you will find in the guide on what DirectShow filters to install for M4A file support. It may work equally well, perhaps even better, that I don't know.

Have you tried installing any one of these filters on your Windows 10 computer to see if it will make or break ImgBurn? It's understandable that it doesn't specifically say it's made to work with Windows 10. I'm pretty sure that ImgBurn itself was never designed with Windows 10 in mind, yet by some software magic it's still alive and kicking. I think most users will only use it these days to archive their optical disc collection, not to burn new optical discs, and even less so to author Audio CD discs with it.

16 hours ago, aeneas said:

Also my research on Windows 10 suggested that a separate package need NOT be installed on Windows 10.

Any source on this? In what context? To enable ImgBurn to write Audio CD discs or something else? Then why is it throwing the same type of error you see in Windows 7?

3 hours ago, aeneas said:

Another observation I've made is that Windows Media Player (WMP) on Windows 7 does NOT support .m4a files.  However, now that I've installed the mentioned filter package it can play .m4a files.  At the same time .m4a is NOT an available choice for the format in which ripped files are created.  On the other hand, Windows 10 (out of the box so to speak) can both play and rip to .m4a format.  Why would I need to add this kind of filter package to Windows 10 which seems to fully support .m4a format?

Mere presence of M4A file format support you see in Windows 10 is not a guarantee that you will not need DirectShow filters to enable MP4 encoding and decoding in a given software application. The term "support" goes deeper than that. Things have to be put in a context, because everything is relative. You may be able to play MP4 files on a Windows 10 computer without any additional software, but that may only be possible if you use the default media player that ships with Windows 10. If you try using a different media player, especially an older one, let's say... Winamp! Then you may not be so lucky. I'm pretty sure Winamp still installs on Windows 10 and plays what it was designed to play, but M4A files are not on the list of things it will play. Unless of course someone comes along and hacks it to play things it's not supposed to. A similar thing has happened with Windows Media Player, per your description. I would call that a "beneficial bug". It's not supposed to let you play things it was not designed to play. But if it works, it works, be happy for what does work and not sad for what doesn't. For it to fully support M4A in all the ways you expect it would need to be reprogrammed.

Why you need DirectShow filters for ImgBurn on Windows 10? I know nothing about the implementation details of neither Windows Media Player nor the new "Groove Music" media player, but if I have to guess I would say that Microsoft has switched to using Media Foundation rather than DirectShow in its new media player. It's something that ImgBurn isn't programmed to take advantage of. It's relying on the old technology called DirectShow, and there may not be any (easy) way to bridge the two for backwards compatibility with older software such as ImgBurn.

Edited March 22, 2021 by Ken852

[LIGHTNING UK!]

M4a seems to have 2 codecs associated with it. AAC and ALAC. So even if something says it supports M4A, it doesn’t meant it’ll support both codecs.
As your OS install can’t decode the files you’re feeding it (well, feeding into ImgBurn), that tells us you need another codec installed on the system.
It sounds like you’ve got it working ok now having installed that DirectShow filter, so that’s good.

[aeneas]

1 hour ago, Ken852 said:

Are these the same files (or same file type at least) you tried yesterday when the initial error occurred? Are you having problems with more than just M4A files?

I've only tried .m4a files when it comes to using IMGburn to produce an audio CD!

 

1 hour ago, Ken852 said:

Have you tried installing any one of these?

The one initially referenced was found by doing a web search (duckduckgo) that specifically asked for Win7.  However, it was also from free-codecs.com which I'm also NOT able to access at the moment and I think it includes links to the codecs.com domain.

 

1 hour ago, Ken852 said:

Any source on this? In what context? To enable ImgBurn to write Audio CD discs or something else? Then why is it throwing the same type of error you see in Windows 7?

Statement is based on findings lots of information about how to use the API but nothing about the need to add anything to the Windows 10 base software.

 

1 hour ago, Ken852 said:

Mere presence of M4A file format support you see in Windows 10 is not a guarantee that you will not need DirectShow filters to enable MP4 encoding and decoding in a given software application. The term "support" goes deeper than that. Things have to be put in a context, because everything is relative. You may be able to play MP4 files on a Windows 10 computer without any additional software, but that may only be possible if you use the default media player that ships with Windows 10. If you try using a different media player, especially an older one, let's say... Winamp! Then you may not be so lucky. I'm pretty sure Winamp still installs on Windows 10 and plays what it was designed to play, but M4A files are not on the list of things it will play. Unless of course someone comes along and hacks it to play things it's not supposed to. A similar thing has happened with Windows Media Player, per your description. I would call that a "beneficial bug". It's not supposed to let you play things it was not designed to play. But if it works, it works, be happy for what does work and not sad for what doesn't. For it to fully support M4A in all the ways you expect it would need to be reprogrammed.

Why you need DirectShow filters for ImgBurn on Windows 10? I know nothing about the implementation details of neither Windows Media Player nor the new "Groove Music" media player, but if I have to guess I would say that Microsoft has switched to using Media Foundation rather than DirectShow in its new media player. It's something that ImgBurn isn't programmed to take advantage of. It's relying on the old technology called DirectShow, and there may not be any (easy) way to bridge the two for backwards compatibility with older software such as ImgBurn.

Yes this explanation fits with my experience as well as a few more trials I've undertaken which I'll post separately from this reply.

[aeneas]

I did try this (DSP-worx) package, suggested by Lightening UK, on Windows 10 and it solved the problem.

Therefore, I have both Win7 and Win10 working properly but with different Directshow Packages.  At this point, I concluded that I did NOT have much of any reason to think that either package might work on either system, which led to the idea of trying the DSP-worx package on Win7.  This failed but with a different error message (both screenshot and log file attached).

As a result, I decided to also try the DSFP-5.1package that is working on Win7 on Win10.  It failed.

I suppose even though still perplexed this means I am lucky to have gotten IMGburn to work properly on both Win7 and Win10 prior to free-codecs disappearing even if it means using different Directshow Filter packages on each system.

If free-codecs re-appears I may experiment with the codecs mentioned in the guide.  Will post findings if that happens.

Many thanks to both participants for helping to solve my problem.

IMGburnWin7Log.txt

Edited March 22, 2021 by aeneas

[Ken852]

2 hours ago, aeneas said:

The one initially referenced was found by doing a web search (duckduckgo) that specifically asked for Win7.  However, it was also from free-codecs.com which I'm also NOT able to access at the moment and I think it includes links to the codecs.com domain.

Congratulations! You are the last person on Earth to have visited and checked out of Free-Codecs.com.

None of those two domain names are responding anymore!

(They both point to 94.75.248.167.)

Edited March 22, 2021 by Ken852

[Ken852]

3 hours ago, LIGHTNING UK! said:

M4a seems to have 2 codecs associated with it. AAC and ALAC. So even if something says it supports M4A, it doesn’t meant it’ll support both codecs.

Good point! I didn't know that.

1 hour ago, aeneas said:

I did try this (DSP-worx) package, suggested by Lightening UK, on Windows 10 and it solved the problem.

That's really great news! Nicely done!

Perhaps LUK can add that link to the guide? Assuming of course the Free-Codecs site comes back online again.

1 hour ago, aeneas said:

At this point, I concluded that I did NOT have much of any reason to think that either package might work on either system, which led to the idea of trying the DSP-worx package on Win7.  This failed but with a different error message (both screenshot and log file attached). 

As a result, I decided to also try the DSFP-5.1package that is working on Win7 on Win10.  It failed.

One suggestion I will make here is that you need to do your testing cleanly, i.e. starting off from a non-working state and make it work. Because if I understood correctly, you have first installed "DSFP-5.1" on a Windows 7 computer, and then "DSP-worx" on top of that, and similarly, "DSP-worx" on the Windows 10 computer followed by "DSFP-5.1" on top of that. This is a recipe for disaster and unreliable results. I hope ImgBurn still works on both your systems after these experiments. After all the trouble I wouldn't want to see all that work go to waste. So if you can, do these types of test in a virtual environment rather where you can use snapshots to roll back the clock so to speak and undo the changes you're making.

1 hour ago, aeneas said:

Many thanks to both participants for helping to solve my problem.

Thank you! I'm happy to see you got this working. Great perseverance!

I think I might do some of this tinkering myself, just for the fun of it.

 

[aeneas]

3 hours ago, Ken852 said:

One suggestion I will make here is that you need to do your testing cleanly, i.e. starting off from a non-working state and make it work. Because if I understood correctly, you have first installed "DSFP-5.1" on a Windows 7 computer, and then "DSP-worx" on top of that, and similarly, "DSP-worx" on the Windows 10 computer followed by "DSFP-5.1" on top of that. This is a recipe for disaster and unreliable results. I hope ImgBurn still works on both your systems after these experiments. After all the trouble I wouldn't want to see all that work go to waste. So if you can, do these types of test in a virtual environment rather where you can use snapshots to roll back the clock so to speak and undo the changes you're making.

I did exactly what you suggest.  In that, ran the uninstall script/s and verified that IMGburn produced the same erroneous result as previously experienced before activating a different codec.

While they use the term install & uninstall to describe the procedures I think activation & deactivation would be better.  It looks to me like what is being done is to setting (activating) and un-setting (deactivating) some registry keys.  One of them uses the term register and unregister which is pretty hard to quarrel with but for some users it may NOT convey the desired meaning.  But of course I'm also guilty of nit picking when saying this.

[Ken852]

Free-Codecs.com is back online again!

7 hours ago, aeneas said:

I did exactly what you suggest.  In that, ran the uninstall script/s and verified that IMGburn produced the same erroneous result as previously experienced before activating a different codec.

So you did not use a virtual machine for your testing? I guess what you did should also work, but uninstalls tend to leave some stuff behind that can hinder future installations or modifications. So I would rather use a snapshot to wind back the clock completely as if I never installed anything. Using virtual machines is great for this kind of testing.

7 hours ago, aeneas said:

While they use the term install & uninstall to describe the procedures I think activation & deactivation would be better.  It looks to me like what is being done is to setting (activating) and un-setting (deactivating) some registry keys.  One of them uses the term register and unregister which is pretty hard to quarrel with but for some users it may NOT convey the desired meaning.  But of course I'm also guilty of nit picking when saying this.

I haven't had to work with DirectShow filters for a very long time, but I would assume they come with some kind of script or "wizard" that helps you install it. Registration or installation is the best way to describe it in my opinion, because in my mind "activation" means that something is already present but not switched to "ON" position yet.

I am tempted to do some testing myself, but I just realized that I don't own/have any M4A files. So first things first, I will have to find some samples online.

[aeneas]

6 hours ago, Ken852 said:

Free-Codecs.com is back online again!

So you did not use a virtual machine for your testing? I guess what you did should also work, but uninstalls tend to leave some stuff behind that can hinder future installations or modifications. So I would rather use a snapshot to wind back the clock completely as if I never installed anything. Using virtual machines is great for this kind of testing.

I haven't had to work with DirectShow filters for a very long time, but I would assume they come with some kind of script or "wizard" that helps you install it. Registration or installation is the best way to describe it in my opinion, because in my mind "activation" means that something is already present but not switched to "ON" position yet.

I am tempted to do some testing myself, but I just realized that I don't own/have any M4A files. So first things first, I will have to find some samples online.

Yes!  I have now downloaded some of the other filter packages.

I've always run my computers using multi-boot with about 3 instances of Windows per computer.  Usually, all 3 are the same version of Windows.  In this case, one computer is Win10 the other Win7.  This allows me to experiment without fear of messing up the instance of Windows I really depend on and if something bad happens to that one (which has yet to happen) I've got other readily available options.  When I end up really screwing up the test system I have an image of a good copy of Windows with all the basic software installed such as IMGburn that just involves running the Windows installer to restore.  I started doing this on Windows NT, well before virtual machines were readily available, and it still works even though Win10 was a bit of a challenge.  I do see some advantages to VM but then you essentially have another underlying system to maintain.  I just haven't come to the point of wanting to invest the time into learning about it.

Your point about install verses activate does have validity.  Not something I'm worried about.  Thanks again for the help.

Edited March 23, 2021 by aeneas

[aeneas]

Another finding which invalidates one of my prior conclusions.  The error I reported regarding the Windows 10 experiment with the DSFP-5.1 filter is problematic.  It now appears like that failure pertained to the files that were used for testing.  What I can say now is that this (DSP-worx) package, which I thought was working on Windows 10 only works on certain files.  As it turns out it has yet to fail on a file that came from iTunes.  However, it is also true that it has yet to work on files that were created by Windows Media Player (WMP) on this same Windows 10 computer while there is no problem using those (WMP created) files on the same IMGburn version running on Windows 7.  I suspect that the failure I reported above when testing the DSFP-5.1 filter was on the same WMP created files that also fail when using the DSP-worx filter.  I'll have to do some more testing to confirm.

[aeneas]

More extensive investigation reveals that the 2 codec packages being discussed herein and referenced as DSP-worx and DSFP Version 5.1 are in fact the same with respect to what, I think, are the purposes associated with this post.  They came from different sources and the DSFP Version 5.1 package includes additional codecs NOT found in DSP-worx.  However, the audio codecs are the same package with the exception that several of the .dll modules are slightly newer in DSFP Version 5.1.  The differences were verified by computing and comparing an MD5 checksum on files with the same name.  The file named DCBassSource.ax, which appears to be the basis for setting up the filters is exactly the same.  Interestingly the 4 (of 9) .dll modules with different last modified dates of 2011 rather than 2010 appear to include the ones related to the projects associated with this post.  In that, files named bass.dll, bass.aac.dll, bass.alac.dll, and bass.ape.dll are the ones that have changed.  According to participants in this discussion aac & alac codecs are used in connection with .m4a type files.

I'm afraid none of this provides a very good explanation for the problems reported herein.  The good news is that I now have the DSFP Version 5.1 package with the slightly newer .dll files installed and it seems to be working properly.  While I cannot be certain I do suspect that getting these DirectShow Filters to work properly may necessitate rebooting Windows after running the install/uninstall scripts.  I think some of the problems I reported may have involved experiments undertaken after making changes but prior to rebooting.

It might also be worth pointing out that I found a program called Direct Show Filter Manager also on the free-codecs website which allows one at minimum to list the running codecs.  On Windows 10 this requires setting compatibility mode which I set to Windows 7 which seems to work but on Windows 7 it works better with Windows XP3.

Edited March 27, 2021 by aeneas