DirectX Media Objects (DMOs) are COM-based multimedia and data-streaming components. In some respects, DMOs are similar to DirectShow filters. Like DirectShow filters, DMOs take input data and use it to produce output data. As the APIs for DMOs are much simpler than the corresponding APIs for DirectShow, they are easier to create, test, and use. For encoding/decoding, audio capture, audio processing and video processing effects, Microsoft encourages developers to write a DMO instead of a DirectShow filter. DMOs can be used in many scenarios: