What's the most recommended way to go?
                +1 
                A: 
                
                
              
            This is a pretty big topic. Try looking at OpenCV. It is nice for image and video manipulation, and you can stream video from files and webcams.
                  Alexander Rafferty
                   2010-09-05 10:36:25
                
              
                
                A: 
                
                
              Take a look at DirectX "Filter Graphs". You can use a simple tool from the DirectX SDK called 'Graph Edit' to construct a sequence of DirectShow Filters which can do things like capture video streams from a TV card or decode an MPEG/AVI file and then operate on the data stream and ultimately render it to video/audio or a file.
Most of the DirectShow samples are in VC++.
                  JBRWilkinson
                   2010-09-05 11:16:51
                
              There is no filter in directshow that can deal with streams directly.
                  Alan
                   2010-09-05 11:35:20
                Please give more information about the stream and then the community can better help you.
                  JBRWilkinson
                   2010-09-05 11:44:21
                No specific stream, I just need an example to deal with stream in order to get started.
                  Alan
                   2010-09-05 12:43:47