Switching between Media Foundation and DirectShow video engines

Sonar’s video engine defaults to using Microsoft’s Media Foundation framework, rather than DirectShow. This fundamentally improves the way video files are loaded, played, edited and exported in Sonar. Media Foundation generally supports most older formats supported by DirectShow as well as many newer formats such as H264 video. A full list of media formats supported by Media Foundation can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd757927(v=vs.85).aspx.

When importing a video file, Sonar will first attempt to use the default Media Foundation video engine. If the video format is not supported, Sonar will next attempt to use the legacy DirectShow video engine.

If you experience compatibility issues with video files that worked well with previous versions of Sonar, you can globally revert to the DirectShow video engine.

To specify the default video engine:

1.	Go to Edit > Preferences > Audio - Configuration File.

2.	Under Configuration Settings, click Edit Config File.

The Aud.ini file opens in the default Windows text editor.

3.	In Aud.ini, create a new [Video] section and add a new entry called VideoEngine and set its value to 0. For example:

[Video]

VideoEngine=0

Valid values are as follows:

0 = DirectShow engine.

1 = Media Foundation engine (default).

4.	Save Aud.ini and close the Windows text editor.

5.	Click Reload Config Settings to reload the current audio configuration settings from Aud.ini.

Sonar will now use the DirectShow video engine when loading project’s that contain video. Removing the above lines, or setting VideoEngine=1, will allow Sonar to globally use the new Media Foundation engine.

 

Tip: To confirm which video engine is currently used, right-click the Video view or video thumbnail and select Video Properties on the pop-up menu, then click the Info tab.

 

More Frequently asked questions.