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[AEN007]

This week I stumbled across the DirectShow FilterPack»
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/DirectShow_FilterPack.htm
The DSFP enables using bass.dll as an ffDShow filter.
The Softella - DirectShow Filter Manager is also useful and allows tweaking filter "merit".
I was wondering what having bass.dll as a ffDShow filter would do for me (& my PII)?

How does the DSFP bass.dll component interact with ffDShow mp3 decoding?

ffDShow has three codec choices for mp3 decoding.
Each codec then uses a filter? Whichever filter has the highest merit?

I use Skwire's Trout - built on the bass.dll.
My PII is too old (and battle scarred) to do any work on it, but
it is an excellent multimedia (MM) machine for playing mp3s and avi files while I work on my PIVs -
as long as the mp3/avi/MM player doesn't demand too much CPU usage.
Trout has great features & playback and LOW CPU usage - only CoolPlayer has lower CPU usage ...
I also wonder if using bass.dll as an ffDShow filter would result in low(er) CPU usage?

[Ionut Cristea]

The DSFP enables using bass.dll as an ffDShow filter.

This is not correct. That filter based on BASS, is a source filter, and can be used only for audio data.

[AEN007]

Well, I would like to hear from someone who has checked out the weblink & download.
The preceding reply tells me nothing about bass.dll in the DSFP ...
My other general ffDShow questions remain as well ...

[CoRoNe]

Hi AEN007,

I coincidentally stumbled upon your topic, so I thought I might as well make some things clear.

First of all, I hope you understand I'm not the creator of DSFP it's content, I'm simply the assembler.

The DC-Bass Source Filter (created by Milenko Mitrovic) is a BASS based DirectShow Audio Decoder. DCBassSource.ax is the actual DirectShow filter and needs the BASS library (bass.dll) as well as some format libraries (bass_flac.dll and bass_wv.dll for instance) to function properly. These libraries are in fact from the un4seen website, so they're exactly the same.

FFDShow has nothing to do with all this. The DC-Bass Source Filter is a source filter, so it will never even connect with FFDShow (only splitter filters do).

As far as I know FFDShow only has 2 mp3 decoder filters; libavcodec and libmad. It really doesn't matter which one you choose (not anymore at least).
As for your cpu-usage question; since mp3 decoding is so trivial nowadays, you really have to find that out yourself on your Pentium II, because with all the superfast processors you really can't tell the different between 1% and 1% cpu-utilization.