Definitions for "DirectShow"
Part of Microsoft's 32-bit API (DirectX) with provision for playing DVD-Video VOB files, ie containing MPEG-2 video, audio and navigation. DirectShow was called ActiveMovie and replaces MCI.
What Windows mainly uses for playback of audio and video. Most video codecs have both a Video for Windows layer and a DirectShow layer which is dedicated to playback.
(formerly known as ActiveMovie) the successor to Microsoft's Video for Windows architecture. It is built on top of the DirectX architecture, and supports playback of multimedia from WWW, CD-ROM, and DVD-ROM.