Setup a Proper Decoding Chain in Windows 7

Well, after I completed my original decoding chain guide here, I realized that I needed to specify a few things with respect to the intricacies of Windows 7. Thus, this post was born.

Okay, the reason why you may want to reconfigure the defaults on Windows 7's decoding options is because they are either not working for your current setup with your encoding software (BD Rebuilder or MeGUI for example), or you are just darn curious. Either way, here's how to get started.

First off, download the Windows 7 Preferred DirectShow Filter Tweak Tool.

The title is a bit of mouthful, isn't it? From now on, I'll just be calling it Filter Tweaker.

Step 1)§

Unzip and run Filter Tweaker. You will be presented with a screen like the one below (64-bit users, you will see a window with 64-bit decoders as well).  I highly recommend that you run through this list and ensure that all of your decoders are assigned to FFDShow.

**Note:**For those of you on a 64-bit machine, you should install the 64-bit version of FFDShow.

Step 2)§

This isn't really a step as much as an important consideration. While scrolling through that list that I showed above, make sure that the VC-1entry is set to use FFDShow as its main decoder. When you are done, click the Apply button.

This step is important, because if you followed my first "Setup" guide (link at the top of this page), then you should already have FFDShow set to use the WMV9 codec when processing VC-1 video. This additional step in Filter Tweaker is necessary to wrestle the control of the VC-1 decoder away from Windows and give it to FFDShow.

Step 3)§

You will now be taken to the Media Foundationpage that I have shown below. You can pretty much leave it at default, but I have posted it here for reference. If everything is set as you desire, click the Apply button again.

Step 4)§

You should now be on the More tweaks for Windows 7 page. I chose to disable any built-in windows components that dealt with my decoders as I think they are all crap. I want to give full control to FFDShow, as it is the greatest decoder package available. You can do whatever you like, but I have had absolutely no problems disabling everything as I have shown below.

When you are ready, click Apply once again.

Conclusion)§

Well, that is about all of the extra tweaking that you have to do in order to get things running extra smoothly on a Windows 7 machine. Thankfully, a program such as Filter Tweaker exists and makes the whole process so much easier.

If you have any questions, or what to express your opinion, please post in the comments.

Enjoy your problem free decoder setup!