In addition to the KSCATEGORY_AUDIO Categories, the INF file can also "decorate" the device driver as having other interfaces that the builder might want to probe.
These can help in directing the builder to probe and fill out a description for the device when making its Audio Endpoint.
For some of these types it attempts to discover abilities and interconnected topologies so that the Endpoint makes better sense to the end user when complete.
Video capture and Audio capture applications typically try to "find" or make sense of the resources of a video capture card by strumming theses "inventories" of endpoints and interfaces when building up a list of choose-able sources and sinks of video and audio data.
Video Capture applications aren't very sophisticated when looking for sources beyond the current year in which they are written.. so a re-think or re-conceptualization of how to present usable resources can lock them out of running properly on newer re-thought operating systems.
"Some" device drivers hook themselves into the default audio or "desktop" when loaded.. some do not.. those that do are easier to support with legacy capture software because they merely have to capture from the default channels of the system.
UVA and UVC seems to be the latest "re-think" in the way video and audio information is presented as a resource to the operating systems and programs. And they are generally across USB serial buses.
Since Analog video capture is mostly long gone.. supporting moving between XP to Vista and 7 or 8 and 8.1 is unlikely to be something that can be done for much longer. Even the device driver signing methods and keepers of the hardware and kernel keys is consolidating at Microsoft.. and locking more and more of the developer community out.. which could lead to an upheaval in computer programming moving forwards.. abandoning Microsoft and Apple products for a more flexible and open system.. unlikely Linux since that too seems to have started blocking flexible development models. A stagnation of original thinking seems to be beginning a new dark age.
Ironically the XP operating system without hardware device driver signing.. is the easiest to develop for.. and the ReactOS may eventually prove to be the favored operating system of the future. Its hard to imagine Microsoft will mentor and shoulder the burden of solving problems for indiscernible and not immediately profitable motives long term.
