Play Almost Any Video With FFDShow Tryouts

Table of Contents
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Why use FFDShow Tryouts?
Required Files
Installation
Configure Video Encoder Options
Configure Video Decoder Options
Configure Audio Decoder Options
Make the Colors more Vivid and TV-Like
Make Your Videos Look Sharper

In this guide I will cover how to play almost any video using a single program called FFDShow Tryouts. Some of the most common formats supported include (Video) Divx, Xvid, H.264 and (Audio) DTS, AAC, AC3.

1. Why use FFDShow Tryouts?

FFDShow Tryouts is designed to be a single codec (or directshow filter) that acts like many video and audio codecs. This means it has a smaller footprint on your system. FFDShow Tryouts is included with many codec packs like the K-Lite Codec Pack or the Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP). If you're leary of codec packs, then FFDShow Tryouts would be the second best choice because it has decoding support for the most popular video and audio formats.

2. Required Files

FFDShow Tryouts (Required)
(Optional) Media Player Classic Homecinema (MPC-HC)

Note: It's important to note that FFDShow Tryouts is not the same as FFDShow. FFDShow Tryouts contains over a hundred bug fixes and is updated on a regular basis, whereas FFDShow support has been discontinued.

3. Installation

Install FFDShow Tryouts
When you come to this screen, make sure you choose "Disable Mixer". For some odd reason, FFDShow Tryouts likes to force a mixer by default. This changes the quality of sound and if you like audio reproduced accurately, disable the mixer.
You should come to a screen that asks you to run the various decoder configurations. Check all 3 options. Then hit finish.

4. Configure the Video Encoder Options

3 windows should open. Among them, you should have a window titled "ffdshow video encoder configuration". (The yellow icon) Choose the "Decoder" Tab at the top.
After selecting the "Decoder" tab, choose scroll all the way to the top in the left frame of the window and select "Codecs"
On the right, you should see a list of formats. Right click anywhere and choose "Set all stable formats to libavcodec".

Certain formats like WMV1/7, WMV2/8, WMV3/9, and VC-1 do not get set to libavcodec. It is better to allow Windows to decode these formats. I recommend leaving these alone.
Apply the changes and close this window.

5. Configure the Video Decoder Options

You should have 2 remaining windows. Go to the "ffdshow video decoder configuration" window. (The red icon). On the left, scroll all the way to the top and choose "Codecs"

.
After selecting the Codecs option on the left, you should see a list of formats on the right. Right click anywhere and choose "Set all stable formats to libavcodec".
Apply the changes and close this window.

6. Configure the Audio Decoder Options

The last window is the "ffdshow audio decoder configuration." On the left, scroll all the way up and choose "Codecs".
On the right, right click anywhere and choose "Set all stable formats to libavcodec".
Apply the changes and close this window.

If you did everything correctly, you should now be able to play almost any video and audio format using Windows Media Player 11.

7. Make the Colors More Vivid and TV-Like.

One of the coolest things about FFDShow Tryouts is that you can use it to control how the video looks and plays on your PC. If you have ever used VLC Media Player, you may have noticed that videos seem a bit pale, especially darker scenes of movies or videos. This is because Windows has a tendency to display videos with a larger range of contrast. You can fix this using Levels.

Open your Start menu and open "FFDShow Video Decoder Configuration".
On the left, scroll down until you find "Levels". Check the little box next to levels to activate it.
On the right you should see a white rectangle with a diagonal line inside. This line represents the range of black to white. We need to reduce the levels of black and white. To do this, check "Full Range". Just below the white box, there should be 2 bars that fade from black to white. One controls the Input and one controls the output. The only one we're interested in is the Input. Simply click the black arrow beneath Input and drag it to the right. The number beneath the arrow should change. Set the black arrow to 16 and set the white arrow to 235. It should look like this.

This will make your videos look significantly less pale and closer to their truer levels of gamma. If you're using a laptop, this may make it more difficult to see darker videos or movies, but if you're using an LCD monitor, your videos will look greatly improved. It all depends on your taste so experiment.

8. Make Your Videos Look Sharper

In addition to levels, you can improve the clarity of your videos by applying sharpen. Depending on the quality of the input video, this can either drastically improve your viewing experience, or ruin your viewing experience. Use at your own risk.

To apply Sharpen, simply open the "FFDShow Video Decoder Configuration" from the start menu.
On the left, scroll down until you see "Sharpen" Activate this by checking it.
On the right you should see many different ways to sharpen your video. My personal favorite is "Unsharp Mask".

Unsharp mask will exaggerate the edges of your videos to make them stand out but at the expense of introducing grain and blocking artifacts. These are especially noticeable in low bitrate videos, but it's a tradeoff. For watching HD movies, Unsharp Mask can be a blessing but for the more common XviD rips, it can make the viewing experience quite distasteful.

If you have any problems regarding FFDShow, please send an e-mail to neilvmoore (at) gmail (dot) com or leave a comment below.

Enjoy!

Last Updated (Sunday, 22 August 2010 14:09)