Choosing the Right Renderer

Choosing the Right Renderer

With DirectX 9.0, DirectShow provides four separate video renderers: the old Video Renderer, the Overlay Mixer, the VMR-7 and the VMR-9. For various reasons, no single renderer is preferable in all scenarios. The following guidelines should help you decide which renderer to use in your application:

• Existing applications that require only basic video rendering, with no mixing

  Use the VMR-9 for its improved de-interlacing and ProcAmp support. Use the old default video renderer if you know in advance that the video hardware is not sufficient to support the VMR-7 or VMR-9.

• Applications based on devices that use video ports

  Use the Overlay Mixer if support on platforms earlier than Windows XP is required. If the application will only run on Windows XP, then use the VMR-7. The VMR-9 does not support video ports.

• Applications that require any of the special capabilities of the VMR

  Use the VMR-9 rather than the VMR-7 because the VMR-9 supports the latest Direct3D capabilities and is supported on all platforms supported by DirectX. If you specifically target the VMR-7, your application will run only on Windows XP.