Introduction

The LEADTOOLS Multimedia API is designed to provide you with all of the tools you need to create professional, high-quality multimedia applications. With it you can add multimedia functionality such as Capture, Play, and Edit, as well as the latest DirectShow filters and multimedia file support. You can load/convert to and from many common file formats, such as WAV, AVI, ASF, WMA, WMV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, OGG, FLV Flash format., and others. All in all, nearly 100 formats, media types, and subtypes are supported, with full control over compression quality.

Add-on modules are available to enhance these capabilities. The LEADTOOLS DVD Module adds functionality for programmatically creating, capturing, authoring, burning, and playing DVD images. The LEADTOOLS Video Streaming Module is perfect for developers who need to serve videos on demand, using a standard IIS web server or the Microsoft Media Server.

Key Features

Product Demonstrations

The LEADTOOLS Multimedia API provides dynamic link library (DLL) functions that can perform the following tasks:

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Burn a DVD. LEAD's DVD conversion capability also allows you to convert a DVD to other multimedia file types. However, due to U.S. and international copyright laws, LEAD requires a special license agreement before providing the customer access to this capability. To see if you are eligible to obtain such a license, contact: licensing@leadtools.com

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Multimedia Capture:

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Create applications that can capture from WDM, native DirectShow including DV , Video for Windows capture devices, control DV devices

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Capture audio or video data to a file.

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Capture audio or video data to a sample.

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Multimedia Playback:

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Create applications that can play all formats supp1orted by DirectShow . Get support for DVD navigation, saving player settings to files and streams

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Play an audio, video or multimedia sample.

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Play an audio, video or multimedia file.

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Multimedia Conversion:

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Add features to your application so your users can convert to and from AVI, Windows Media content, WAVE, and MPEG1 Audio (MP3) formats, select DV devices for output

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Convert an audio, video or multimedia file to another file type.

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Convert an audio, video or multimedia file to a multimedia sample.

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Convert a multimedia sample to another multimedia sample.

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Convert a multimedia sample to a multimedia file.

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Multimedia File Formats:

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Add support for the most popular multimedia formats (AVI AVI (Audio Video Interleave) is a file format defined by Microsoft. It is the most common format for audio/video data on PCs. AVI files can have one or more video streamsand one or more audio streams. The video and audio streams can be compressed using various compressors (MCMP, JPEG, MCMW, MJ2K, H263, H264, MPEG-2, MPEG-1, MPEG-4,Vorbis, MP3, AC3, AAC, and many others). Each compressed file needs a decompressor Also known as a decoder Also known as a decompressor, this is a module or algorithm to decompress data., this is a module or algorithm to decompress data. to be played or converted. This means that even though two files have the same extension they may not be similar. You might be able to play one AVI file because you have its decompressors, but you might not be able to play another because you do not have its decompressors. Or you might have the audio decompressor but not the video decompressor--in which case, you would hear the audio, but not the video. You need to have both the audio and video decompressors to play back both streams., ASF ASF stands for Advanced Streaming Format because it is designed to be viewed while it downloads (streams) from the Internet. This is one of the formats used by Windows Media Player. It is a file format that has audio and video streams and is designed to run over networks like the Internet. It contains streamin gaudio, video, slide shows, and synchronized events. The video and audio streams can be compressed using various compressors (MCMP, JPEG, MCMW, MJ2K, H263, H264, MPEG-2,MPEG-1, MPEG-4, Vorbis, MP3, AC3, AAC, and many others). Each compressed file needs a decompressor to be played or converted. This means that just because two files have the same extension they may not be similar. You might be able to play one ASFfile because you have its decompressors but you might not be able to play anotherbecause you do not have its decompressors. See also: <WMV>, WMV WMV (Windows Media Video) is a file format developed by Microsoft. WMV files have audio and video streams. The video and audio streams can be compressed using various compressors (MCMP, JPEG, MCMW, MJ2K, H263, H264, MPEG-2, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, Vorbis, MP3, AC3, AAC,and many others). If you cannot play the file then you do not have the codec A COmpressor combined with a DECompressor, or encoder Also known as compressor, this is a module or algorithm to compress data. Playing that data back requires a decompressor, or decoder. and a decoder, which allows you to both compress and decompress that same data. to decompress the file. If you cannot play the file, then the file cannot be converted., WAV The WAVE file format is used to store digital audio data in raw form and is a standard CD quality audio format that requires a large amount of memory (10 MB for 1 minute)., OGG OGG is the name of Xiph.org's container format for audio, video, and metadata. Its default audio compressor is called Vorbis. Vorbis compression offers better quality than MP3 and yields a higher compression ratio. Ogg Vorbis is different from other formats because it is completely free, open, and unpatented. OGG files can have oneor more video streams and one or more audio streams. The video and audio streams can be compressed using various compressors (MCMP, JPEG, MCMW, MJ2K, H263, H264,MPEG-2, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, Vorbis, MP3, AC3, AAC and many others). Each compressed file will need a decompressor to be played or converted. This means that even though two files have the same extension they may not be similar. You might be able to play one OGG file because you have its decompressors, but you might not be able to play another because you do not have its decompressors. Or you might have the audio decompressor but not the video decompressor-- in such a case, you would hear the audio, but not the video. You need to have both the audio and video decompressors to play back both streams., FLV , MPEG-2 MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) formats have the extension .mpg or .mpeg. MPEG files can have one or more video streams and one or more audio streams. The video streams are compressed using MPEG-2 compression scheme. The audio streams are compressed using the MPEG audio or AC3 compression scheme. Each compressed file needs a decompressor to be played or converted. This means that just because two files have the same extension they may not be similar. If you have an MPEG-2 video decoder you will be able todecode most MPEG-2 videos but since MPEG files can contains two types of audio, you may not be able to play all MPEG files unless you have both AC3 and MPEG audio decoders., MPG MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) formats have the extension .mpg or .mpeg. MPEG files can have one or more video streams and one or more audio streams. The video streams are compressed using MPEG-2 compression scheme. The audio streams are compressed using the MPEG audio or AC3 compression scheme. Each compressed file needs a decompressor to be played or converted. This means that just because two files have the same extension they may not be similar. If you have an MPEG-2 video decoder you will be able todecode most MPEG-2 videos but since MPEG files can contains two types of audio, you may not be able to play all MPEG files unless you have both AC3 and MPEG audio decoders., ISO An ISO image An ISO image (.iso) is a disk image of a file system. It includes data files that are contained in the ISO image along with filesystem metadata. ISO images are an alternative to physical media for distribution of a "DVD" over the Internet. Most operating systems allow ISO images images to be "played" as if they were physical discs. See also: DVD Image. (.iso) is a disk image of a file system. It includes data files that are contained in the ISO image along with filesystem metadata. ISO images are an alternative to physical media for distribution of a "DVD" over the Internet. Most operating systems allow ISO images images to be "played" as if they were physical discs. See also: DVD Image A set of files that contain all of the video and audio content for a DVD, organized with a table of contents (optional). See also: Title, Chapter, ISO Image.., PSP thumbnail and MPEG-2 DICOM).

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Multimedia Compression:

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Add support to your applications for compressing individual samples with any available DirectShow filters (Memory to memory).

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Multimedia Processing:

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Add to your applications the ability to process AVI, Windows Media content, WAVE, and MPEG1Audio (MP3) formats or data as it is captured using DirectShow filters. Nearly 100 formats, media types, and subtypes are supported

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Use the LEAD Video callback DirectShow filter to use any of the 200+ image processing functions to process movies during playback, conversion or capture

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Also included are evaluation versions of all the LEAD Audio/Video Codecs, the DVD writer, DVD burner The driver that writes the data (burns the data) to the DVD. It is the software that burns the DVD image to the physical media., MPEG-1 multiplexer A module that combines audio and video into one file., MPEG-2 multiplexer, ISO multiplexer, Screen capture filter, Network filters (source, mux, sink and protocol manager) and the following DirectShow filters: Frame Rate Control filter, Video Histogram Equalize filter, Video Overlay filter, Text Overlay filter, Video Unsharp Mask Filter, De-interlace filter, Motion detection filter, Audio detection filter, Video Resize filter, Video Crop filter, Video Callback filter and Video Rotation filter. For pricing on these DirectShow filter client licenses, contact Sales@LEADTOOLS.com.

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Stream multimedia content via the web.

$image\sqrblit.gif$ For more information, see the Feature Diagrams below, and refer to:

What you can do with the LEADTOOLS DVD Module

What you can do with the LEADTOOLS Video Streaming Module

Product Demonstrations

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Nearly 100 example programs and executable demos are included in all LEADTOOLS products. The executable demos provide a quick and easy way to evaluate the Multimedia features and performance. Examples include:

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Audio Video Detection demo (AVDetection.exe)

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Audio replace demo (AudioReplace.exe)

$image\sqrblit.gif$ MediaInfo demo (MediaInfo.exe)

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Look for these executables in the different Bin subdirectories of the root installation directory for LEADTOOLS 15 (for example, C:\Program Files\LEAD Technologies, Inc\LEADTOOLS 15\Bin\Win32\API).

$image\sqrblit.gif$ The LEADTOOLS DVD Module and Video Streaming Module includes several demo executables to help you get started with your own development project. These include:

$image\sqrblit.gif$ DVD burner demo (DVDBurner.exe)

$image\sqrblit.gif$ DVD Authoring demo (DVDAuthor.exe)

$image\sqrblit.gif$ Video Conferencing demos (NetServer.exe and NetClient.exe)

Requirements

LEADTOOLS Multimedia API features require that DirectShow 8.0 to be installed. There are also a number of files that you must include when you build your application.

Environments

The Multimedia features come in a WIN32 edition that can support development of software applications for any of the following environments:

Windows 95
Windows 98
Windows 2000
Windows Me
Windows XP
Windows Vista

Feature Diagrams

Burn a DVD: