The issue here is really with ffdshow itself. We do not install that program or use it with Visual Site Designer in anyway. The only program that is comes with is Video Recorder and it is an optional install. Why it is being called when you use VSD I really have no clue.

As a test, I just installed that codec on my system yesterday to try and replicate this and never once did I receive an error or anything close to what you were describing. I have tried it with bgsound and all of our Flash applications to see if I can trigger it. I then tried to remove it and I can see the program under my Control Panel > Add Remove Programs and was able to remove it from my system.

http://www.coffeecup.com/files/forums/ffdshow.png

I can understand where you want answers to somethings but this really falls outside of support that we can provide since it has nothing to do with our products. I would say your best course of action is to talk with Dell because they had you install it or or maybe the open source community for ffdshow and see if they have any ideas why it is affecting other applications on your computer.

Thanks for the clarification Scott.

Scott, I'm curious whether you downloaded ffdshow from the link you provided previously (sourceforge.net) or if you downloaded it from mediacodec.org. I suspect you got it from sourceforge.net as a standalone app rather than from mediacodec.org as part of a bundle of codecs (the Essentials Codec Pack). If I'm correct, you may be using a different version of ffdshow than is provided with the ECP. If you go to the sourceforge.net site, you will see this post:

"FFDShow was a great project, but it has been dead since 2004. Another group has picked up the torch (and the source code) and now releases "FFDShow Tryouts". Download that instead."

Apparently, there's more than one "ffdshow" out there, which would explain why you aren't having this problem and both Eric and I are. And, like I explained in my previous post, the ffdshow dialog box is just a notification that ffdshow doesn't recognize VSD or any of the other apps that are calling it (as is the case on Eric's PC).

To clarify once again, Dell did not tell me to install ffdshow or the Essentials Codec Pack. They only told me that I probably need to update my codecs so that my audio and video files would play correctly. I researched audio codecs on the web and found mediacodec.org along with several other codec download sites. I chose mediacodec.org's ECP because it seemed to be the best one out there. The reason ffdshow doesn't show up in my Control Panel is that I didn't install ffdshow by itself.

Also, I believe the reason VSD is calling ffdshow is that ffdshow is the default codec on my PC for audio and video files. VSD doesn't know anything about ffdshow. It's just issuing a call for a media codec, and ffdshow is responding to that call and informing me that it doesn't recognize VSD either because VSD isn't listed as a "black" or "white" (bad or good) application. The only way this dialog box won't pop up for me is for VSD to be added to the list. The only way it won't pop up for Eric is for his other apps to be added to the list. How this is done, I have no idea, but I suspect you would have to do this because you are the developer of these apps. Of course, I could be wrong about this because it's possible that anyone could add these apps to the list. The only way to find out is to contact mediacodec.org, as you suggested. Perhaps Eric would want to do this because of all the apps that are doing this on his PC. It doesn't bother me anymore now that I understand what's going on, so I won't be contacting them. That's all I got to say.

Tom

It is only slightly annoying to me, but primarily because I did not understand what was going on, and why ffdshow continued to pop up. I kept selecting "not at this time" to the "do you want to install ffdshow?" until I found out more information. Good to feel in the know now.

I only installed the version that we added to Video Recorder to see if it had any impact on our software. Since ffdshow is an open source program, I am sure there has to be dozens of variations out there by now.