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Aug 12, 2026
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LAV Filters is a free, open-source set of DirectShow splitters and decoders built on the FFmpeg libraries, letting any compatible Windows player open H.264, HEVC, VP9, AV1, DTS-HD and TrueHD with nothing to pay and no bundled extras.
Built on the libavformat and libavcodec libraries from the FFmpeg project, LAV Filters lets a DirectShow player open almost any file you throw at it.
Key Features in LAV Filters 0.82
- Broad format support. Video from H.264 and HEVC through VP9, AV1 and VVC, audio from AAC and AC3 through DTS-HD and TrueHD.
- Hardware acceleration. DXVA2, NVIDIA CUVID and Intel QuickSync hand decoding to the graphics card, which keeps the processor quiet and the fans down.
- Bitstreaming. Dolby Digital and DTS-HD pass straight through to your AV receiver untouched, so the receiver does the decoding.
LAV Filters only decodes. If you need to encode rather than play, that is a different job and a different tool - x264 for H.264 and x265 for HEVC.
On the audio side, our guide to EAC3 audio explains where that format keeps turning up, and the DTS/AC3 Source Filter covers Dolby and DTS on its own if you do not want a full filter set.
Windows also carries some of this in its own store components. The VP9 Video Extension is the one people most often find missing, and fdk-aac is the reference library behind most AAC encoding.
Uninstall Haali Media Splitter First
BEFORE YOU INSTALL
Remove Haali Media Splitter first, or rename its AX file. Haali overrides player settings and will quietly take priority over LAV Filters, which makes it look as though the install did nothing.
Once it is in, our guide to playing HEVC and H.265 video on Windows with LAV Filters walks through the settings that matter. There is a companion piece on getting more out of your media player with LAV Filters once the basics work.
LAV Filters Megamix
The Megamix bundles LAV Splitter together with the pieces most people end up installing anyway.
- XySubFilter and DirectVobSub for subtitle rendering.
- MPC-HC in a lite build, plus PotPlayer if you prefer that one.
- madVR for high-quality rendering, with the H.264 MVC 3D Decoder and DirectX 10 as optional extras.
Why Use LAV Filters
It is small, it is fast, and it stays out of the way. Install it once and virtually everything plays, without the bloat a full codec pack drags in.
Changes in LAV Filters 0.82
LAV Splitter
- NEW: Support for APV (Advanced Professional Video) video streams.
- Fixed: VVC in MP4 without CTTS did not play properly.
- Fixed: AV1 streams with invalid metadata did not get handled correctly.
LAV Video
- NEW: Support for decoding APV (Advanced Professional Video).
- Changed: Re-designed pixel format mapping to be based on a heuristic rather than hard-coded, improving support for rarely-used formats.
- Fixed: Deinterlacing of 4:2:2 videos was broken in 0.80.
LAV Audio
- Fixed: Bitstreaming TrueHD from Blu-rays with seamless branching could result in out-of-sync audio, or a noticeable gap.
One caveat. Containers are not all supported equally, so a format that plays inside MKV might still fail inside MP4. And "tested" is never a guarantee - there are too many codec and container combinations for any developer to cover them all.
Download LAV Filters 0.82 and see how it handles your files, or tell us how you got on if you have used it before.
KO
@miao
When LAV Video enables HDR passthrough, the GPU switches color/bit-depth modes, which temporarily resets the HDMI audio device and causes “no sound” at playback start.
Disabling LAV Video prevents this HDR mode switch, so the audio device never drops.
You can avoid the issue by enabling HDR before playback, disabling auto HDR passthrough, or using tone-mapping instead.
We're going to write a short guide on how to do these steps in the coming days.
When LAV Video enables HDR passthrough, the GPU switches color/bit-depth modes, which temporarily resets the HDMI audio device and causes “no sound” at playback start.
Disabling LAV Video prevents this HDR mode switch, so the audio device never drops.
You can avoid the issue by enabling HDR before playback, disabling auto HDR passthrough, or using tone-mapping instead.
We're going to write a short guide on how to do these steps in the coming days.
MI
why lav video when start up hdr will make no sound output,why like that??
when i turn off lav video filter it fine no problem at all....
when i turn off lav video filter it fine no problem at all....
ZI
The LAV filters are the de facto standard for Windows users when dealing with audio and video codecs; the developer is talented and its filters (FFMPEG based) are focused on high quality direct playback from hard disk, less on video streaming content.
The D3D11 interface, together with madVR, are a solid video rendering path for the new 10 bit videos.
The D3D11 interface, together with madVR, are a solid video rendering path for the new 10 bit videos.
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