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[lalittle]

When I start MC15 or 16, I get a popup called "ffdshow compatibility manager."  It says:

The application "Media Center 15.exe" has made an attempt to load ffdshow.
This dialog is shown because this application is not listed in the ffdshow whitelist or blacklist.
Your choice will be applied to both audio and video, if both are used.

It goes on to offer me 4 choices:

Don't use ffdshow. (just this once)
Don't use ffdshow. (always)
Use ffdshow. (just this once)
Use ffdshow. (always)

If I select "Use - always," I get a checkbox option that says "Report this exe file name via internet anonymously."

I have no idea what I'm supposed to check for this, or what the implications are.  I realize that this is as much of an ffdshow question as it is an MC question, but since it's popping up when I start MC, and since I'm curious what the implications are as they relate to MC, I figured that this was the place to ask this question.

Note that ffdshow was installed by another application I installed -- i.e. I didn't specifically install ffdshow -- so I'm not even clear exactly how ffdshow interrelates with MC, or why I would or would not want MC to use it.

Any help in understanding what to check for this would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Larry

[glynor]

Are you running on a non-admin account?  I've read (in brief searching) that this can happen with ffdshow when you are running on a limited user account, but I'm not 100% clear on this.  You might also want to update your build of ffdshow if it is an old one, as many of the "complaints" I'm seeing for this online are all posts from late 2009.

[lalittle]

Are you running on a non-admin account?  I've read (in brief searching) that this can happen with ffdshow when you are running on a limited user account, but I'm not 100% clear on this.  You might also want to update your build of ffdshow if it is an old one, as many of the "complaints" I'm seeing for this online are all posts from late 2009.

Thanks for the response.

I'm definitely running with an Administrator account, so that's that the issue.

I pretty certain that it was Sorenson Squeeze 7 that installed ffdshow.  This version of Squeeze only came out fairly recently, but it could still be using an older version of ffdshow.

So is the idea that if I use a newer version, I won't get the popup?

I'm not saying that it's a problem -- I simply don't know how I'm supposed to respond when this pops up in MC.  Am I supposed to let MC use ffdshow?  What will happen or not happen if I do or do not tell MC to "use" ffdshow?  Is it normal for MC to use ffdshow?

Thanks,

Larry

[Alex B]

I faintly recall seeing that popup a very long time ago. As glynor said, it might be a good idea to install a recent ffdshow build anyway. ffdshow provides good decoders for various DirectShow video and audio formats. It is good have it installed even if you set a specific format to use some other decoder.

The currently active ffdshow development branch is ffdshow tryouts. The CCCP package includes an ffdshow tryouts build from last October. I usually install first the current CCCP package and then occasionally update ffdshow to a later tryouts SVN build. (The SVN builds are not considered stable, but they have worked fine for me.)

EDIT

glynor's DirectShow Playback Guide.

[glynor]

The CCCP package includes an ffdshow tryouts build from last October. I usually install first the current CCCP package and then occasionally update ffdshow to a later tryouts SVN build. (The SVN builds are not considered stable, but they have worked fine for me.)

This is exactly what I do in most cases.

Actually, for most of my machines, I just run whichever CCCP is current.  For my HTPC, which gets the heaviest use, I do occasionally update to a newer SVN build, particularly if I'm looking for some specific feature.

[lalittle]

Thanks for the help.

So -- just to make sure I understand the situation -- it sounds like the best approach is to just install CCCP, which will give me a more recent version of ffdshow.  What I'm not sure about at this point is what the best way to proceed is given my current situation, where I already have an older version of ffdshow installed.  Do I first uninstall my current ffdshow and then install CCCP, or will installing CCCP overwrite my existing ffdshow with a newer one?

In the future, can I just install the latest CCCP over the top of the old one, or should I always uninstall the old one first?  I'm wondering if uninstalling a current version will cause some issues with any program already set up to use the older version.

Thanks,

Larry

[glynor]

Do I first uninstall my current ffdshow and then install CCCP

Yes.

In general, follow these instructions.

In the future, can I just install the latest CCCP over the top of the old one, or should I always uninstall the old one first?

I usually just install over-top.  It doesn't hurt to uninstall first.  Programs should not link directly to a particular ffdshow build, because the current build is registered on the system, and they should pull the current one.  It is certainly possible that some really old software could break with newer versions of ffdshow, but I wouldn't worry too much.  I don't think this is common.