So, you have been handled a project, and told to use DirectShow to handle some multimedia stuff. No big deal, let's see some samples, do some googling, a piece of cake...
Well, in practice, things may work out to be a little more complex. Except for the most trival tasks, you will find that your app works fine on this PC, not on this other one, crashes for this type of file, You have used this piece of code exactly as in the example on google or in the doc, and it still does not work... You have lost already 2 weeks on these 5 lines of code, and you have no clue about what is going on....
There is a good reason for this. DirectShow is supposedly one of Windows most complex API. Raw numbers do support this statement : 72 filters in the base distribution, 76 base classes, 181 interfaces, and thousands of methods.... (these are rough numbers). The behaviour of a DirectShow application is the result of the interaction of multiple components in multiple dimensions. This means that a DirectShow application has the complexity of a system, and not of an elementary task.
As a result, this makes the learning curve for DirectShow long and boring, if you tackle it on your own.
However, this complex environment is conceptually simple once you have covered the base principles.
When launching a project, my experience is that a few days training and consulting can save you months of lost development time, running into dead-ends and major pitfalls.
With proper support and advice, you can have a prototype running in a few days, instead of weeks or months. And you can start adding real value to your application, instead of debugging basic DirectShow stuff from beginner's errors.
Examples of achievements