pctechguide.com

ActiveMovie Technology

ActiveMovie, a Microsoft API that was announced in March 1996, is receiving wide support in the computer industry as “the next generation of cross-platform digital video technology for the desktop and the Internet”, according to a Microsoft press release. It is being touted by industry observers as the cure for the deficiencies in Microsoft’s VfW and Apple’s QuickTime. ActiveMovie removes most of the limitations imposed by VfW, such as the small number of supported file formats, limited I/O throughput, inconsistent driver models, and the lack of driver compatibility between Windows 95 and Windows NT. ActiveMovie solves these problems primarily by using the Component Object Model (COM) as its foundation, the most widely recognised implementation of which is Object Linking and Embedding (OLE). Various objects in the model control such actions as decompressing data, adjusting volume levels, and so forth.

Building ActiveMovie on the COM architecture, Microsoft has provided application developers with a digital video API that has a number of benefits, such as independence from operating systems and programming languages, thus allowing the same or similar code to be used on multiple platforms. ActiveMovie also supports more popular formats – including MPEG audio, .WAV audio, MPEG video, and Apple QuickTime video – making it especially convenient for Internet and intranet application builders. Moreover, ActiveMovie is integrated with Microsoft’s DirectX technology. This allows it to automatically take advantage of accelerating video and audio hardware to allow each computer to perform according to its capabilities. For example, ActiveMovie improves the video playback quality of AVI and QuickTime movies by using DirectDraw, a DirectX component, along with features present on many standard graphics cards.

One of ActiveMovie’s most impressive features is the ability to decode MPEG video using either hardware or software, including MPEG-2. It can decode MPEG-1 entirely in software and provide high-quality playback on Pentium-based systems. Or, if the computer has hardware for decoding MPEG, ActiveMovie can use DirectMPEG, another component of DirectX, to access this hardware and play back the video seamlessly.

ActiveMovie has recently been enhanced and is now called DirectShow. The largest enhancement included in this change is that DirectShow supports DVD while ActiveMovie did not.

 

Filed Under: Digital Video

Latest Articles

CoupMania Removal

CoupMania is another in a long list of annoying adware products. It is not a serious or malicious piece of software, but like other forms of adware, it can open up doors to other infection and be an overall nuisance. Therefore, it is best to remove CoupMania as soon as you are aware of its … [Read More...]

Here Are Some Of The Current Web Design Trends 2019

The year 2019 is leading us quickly to the final chapter of this decade. Over the years, the internet has grown significantly. It has also changed the lives of everyone, and it is exciting. One of the evident changes is that more and more businesses are shifting to online markets and advertising on … [Read More...]

Pentium Northwood

For several months after the Pentium 4 began shipping in late 2000 the leadership in the battle to have the fastest processor on the market alternated between Intel and rival AMD, with no clear winner emerging. However, towards the end of … [Read More...]

Guides

Recent Posts

HDD Regenerator Review

HDD Regenerator HDD Regenerator is a program that is needed by all data recovery professionals. It's not really meant to recover files, but it is … [Read More...]