Optimized builds of ffdshow.ax can have an impact on performance when certain filters are used in ffdshow. Below is a list of - so far tested - filters that benefit from optimizations:
The following chart illustrates the possible increase in decoding performance when using optimized builds and filters:
Test setup: Pentium 4 2.8GHz (Northwood), Windows XP SP2, using null renderer
Test sample: Madagascar.avi (DX50)
To sum it up:
For benchmarking purposes, you will need Haali's timeCodec.exe [96KB]. For timeCodec.exe to work, Haali Media Splitter is needed.