Getting Started Building

April 5, 2026 at 5:50 PM Edit on GitHub

Building WinDV

This document covers everything needed to compile WinDV from source: build steps for CMake and VC6, NMAKE command-line build, SDK path configuration, and known issues with non-original toolchains.

For prerequisites (compiler, MFC, SDKs, libraries), see Prerequisites. For a description of what the build produces and how it fits together, see Architecture.

Building with CMake (primary)

CMake is the primary and recommended build system for new development. It targets MSVC 2017 or later and produces binaries for Windows 7 and above (Win7+). XP-compatible builds require the v141_xp toolset (Visual Studio 2017).

Prerequisites

  • Visual Studio 2017 or 2022 with the C++ desktop workload.
  • CMake 3.16 or later.
  • For XP builds: VS 2017 with the optional Windows XP support for C++ component (v141_xp toolset).

Standard Build (Win7+)

cd WinDV
cmake -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A Win32
cmake --build build --config Release

Output: build\Release\WinDV.exe

XP-compatible Build

cmake -B build -G "Visual Studio 15 2017" -A Win32 -T v141_xp
cmake --build build --config Release

Static MFC (no MFC DLL dependency)

cmake -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A Win32 -DSTATIC_MFC=ON
cmake --build build --config Release

Notes on Mixed C/C++ Sources

The CMake project file declares LANGUAGES C CXX to support sha256.c, which is a pure C file:

project(WinDV VERSION 1.6.0 LANGUAGES C CXX)

sha256.c is compiled as C89 and is explicitly excluded from the precompiled header mechanism:

set_source_files_properties(sha256.c PROPERTIES SKIP_PRECOMPILE_HEADERS ON)

All other .cpp files use StdAfx.h as the precompiled header.

DirectShow BaseClasses (vendored)

The BaseClasses are vendored in the baseclasses/ subdirectory and built automatically as a CMake sub-project via add_subdirectory(baseclasses). No manual BaseClasses build step is needed when using CMake.

Building from the Visual C++ 6.0 IDE

The VC6 project files (WinDV.dsp / WinDV.dsw) are retained for compatibility with VC6-based XP environments. They include DVError.cpp and sha256.c as source files. sha256.c has the /Y- flag (# SUBTRACT CPP /YX /Yc /Yu) to disable precompiled header processing for that file.

  1. Open WinDV\WinDV.dsw in the Visual C++ 6.0 IDE.
  2. Select Build > Set Active Configuration and choose one of:
    • WinDV - Win32 Release – optimised build, links strmbase.lib.
    • WinDV - Win32 Debug – debug info, no optimisation, links strmbasd.lib.
  3. Press F7 (Build) or choose Build > Build WinDV.exe.

Output location:

Configuration Output directory
Release WinDV\WinDV\Release\WinDV.exe
Debug WinDV\WinDV\Debug\WinDV.exe

The build also produces WinDV.pdb (debug symbols) in the Debug configuration.

Building from the Command Line (NMAKE)

NMAKE requires a makefile exported from the IDE. Export it once from Project > Export Makefile. This produces WinDV\WinDV\WinDV.mak.

From the WinDV\WinDV\ directory, run:

:: Release build
NMAKE /f "WinDV.mak" CFG="WinDV - Win32 Release"

:: Debug build
NMAKE /f "WinDV.mak" CFG="WinDV - Win32 Debug"

The NMAKE environment must have the VC6 toolchain on PATH. The standard way to set this up is to run the VC6 vcvars32.bat first:

call "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin\vcvars32.bat"

SDK Path Adjustment

If the Platform SDK or DirectShow BaseClasses are not installed at C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\, update the paths in one of two ways:

Option A – Edit the .dsp File

Open WinDV\WinDV\WinDV.dsp in a text editor and change the /I and /libpath: arguments in the compiler and linker settings sections.

Search for occurrences of Microsoft SDK and replace the path prefix.

Option B – Set Environment Variables Before NMAKE

set INCLUDE=C:\YourSDK\Include;C:\YourSDK\Samples\Multimedia\DirectShow\BaseClasses;%INCLUDE%
set LIB=C:\YourSDK\Lib;C:\YourSDK\Samples\Multimedia\DirectShow\BaseClasses\Release;%LIB%
NMAKE /f "WinDV.mak" CFG="WinDV - Win32 Release"

For the Debug configuration, point LIB at the BaseClasses\Debug\ directory instead to pick up strmbasd.lib.

Known Issues with Modern Toolchains

Visual Studio 2005 and Later

The .dsp / .dsw project format is not supported. Visual Studio 2005 can convert them to .vcproj / .sln, but the resulting project requires manual correction of:

  • Include and library paths (the old paths use backslash-only and will need updating regardless of SDK installation).
  • The /GX flag, which was renamed to /EHsc in later MSVC versions.
  • Deprecated functions: strtok (use strtok_s), strftime (no change needed for VC6 behaviour).
  • MFC version: WinDV targets MFC 6; later Visual Studio versions ship MFC 9 and later, which are largely compatible but may produce warnings about deprecated MFC features.

64-bit Compilation

WinDV is a 32-bit application (Win32 target). It uses int where the code assumes 32-bit width and casts between long and REFERENCE_TIME (__int64) at several points. A 64-bit compilation (x64 target) would require auditing all such casts.

DirectShow BaseClasses Availability

The DirectShow BaseClasses were removed from the Windows SDK after Windows SDK 7.1. For modern SDK versions, obtain the BaseClasses from one of:

  • The Windows SDK 7.1 samples package.
  • The DirectShow BaseClasses repository on GitHub (search for Windows-classic-samples / DirectShow).

The BaseClasses must still be compiled with a compatible compiler (VC6 or a version that produces compatible object files).

Windows 10/11 FireWire Support

The Windows inbox 1394ohci.sys driver on Windows 10 and 11 does not expose the legacy msdv.sys DirectShow capture interface on all hardware. On some systems it is necessary to replace 1394ohci.sys with the legacy ohci1394.sys driver or use a third-party OHCI driver that supports the DV streaming interface that WinDV relies on. This is a driver-level issue unrelated to the build.