Delphi: Play mp4 file using DSPack

Question

I have been playing around with DSPack, it can play avi and wmv files, but it is not playing mp4 files. i have installed ffdshow codec but still it wont play any other format. I read somewhere that i need to use ffdshow filter, but there is very limited documentation on how to do so... Can someone help me out here?

Edit

Thats the error i get when playing any other format

raised exception class EDirectShowException with message 'C ($80040265).'. Process stopped. Use Step or Run to continue.

and thats the function which pops the exception

function CheckDSError(HR: HRESULT): HRESULT;
  var Excep: EDirectShowException;
  begin
    Result := HR;
    if Failed(HR) then
    begin
      Excep := EDirectShowException.Create(format(GetErrorString(HR)+' ($%x).',[HR]));
      Excep.ErrorCode := HR;
      raise Excep;
    end;
  end;

Edit I installed the haali demultiplexer, it was a self installer after installation i still get the same error. and the gdcl demultiplexer, those are two dll files, any suggestions on how to use them?

PS: I have never worked with codecs and/or this kind of stuff, so sorry for being so thick, And i am using Windows 7 x64

Answer 1

I can successfully play *.mp4 files with the "DSVideoWinDowEx\PlayWin" demo application that ships with DSPack. Windows 7 includes the mp4 codec, so this should not be an issue. Make sure that you're not running your application in debug mode, because many codecs refuse to work if a debugger is active.

The Haalie Media Splitter is not used for my test *.mp4 files. But it uses the AC3Filter. So your problem could also be a missing audio codec.

If that doesn't fix the issue then the question might be: "Why does it not work on your PC?" In order to further narrow down the issue try playing the video with GraphEdit or GraphStudio and see if that works. These tools will also show the filter graph that is used. You can also show the FilterGraph that is used in your DSPack application.

If you install a DirectShow filter (codec) on your system, it will be used automatically by DirectShow/DSPack. You could register a filter in the system manually by calling regsvr32 "path_to_codec.ax", but this is usually done by the installer. It is possible to manually use a filter in DirectShow, but most of the time this is not needed.

Answer 2

lavfilters provide everything you will need with source splitters and decoders. It's open source, actively developed and based on ffmpeg. If you can't playback the mp4 after installing lavfilters then I would say there is a problem with the mp4 itself. In this case use something like ffprobe to inspect the file or post a link to the file.