Codec setup required for hardware acceleration of 1080p files in Windows 7

OhPinchy

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I have read the full 1080p setup article on guru3d and though it was a highly interesting read, it seems a bit outdated in that it doesn't referene the MS Media Foundation developments with Windows 7. I'm hoping this thread might collate current info that would help me get setup while also being a point of reference for other users in similar situations.

I have three machines I want to get setup to playback 1080p files (downloads, bluray rips, iPlayer HD etc.) and am trying to figure out what codecs I need - ideally all playback would be done through the Windows 7 Media Center interface. Will use Flash Player 10.1 Beta 2 on all machines.

Acer Revo 3600, Atom 230, Nvidia ION, 4GB RAM.

Samsung N510, Atom 280, 2GB RAM, Nvidia GEFORCE 9400M ION.

A HTPC with Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 2GHz and ABIT Fatal1ty F-I90HD mobo. This mobo was bought in 2007 but I think it is listed as outputting 1080p.

I will use the Samsung N510 as the testing ground and last night installed CoreAVC on it and then went to play Top Gear in HD over BBC iPlayer - not sure if that's 720p or 1080p. I was suprised to see the CPU at close to 100%, suggesting hardware accleration was not in use. Investigating with Performance Monitor showed two processes hogging CPU: MsMpEng.exe (which seems to be related to a Microsoft Security Essentials issue) and wmpnetwk.exe (which this thread suggests is caused by a corrupt .avi file (which I'm not sure how to find) causing issues when Media Sharing is set to on.

I had thought that resolving those two issues would allow me to playback hardware accelerated HD with low CPU usage given that CoreAVC would do the trick. However, the guru3d article suggests that CoreAVC doesn't actually use hardware acceleration - is that outdated information now that CoreAVC 2 is out (which I have)?

With Windows 7, is there actually any need to install any extra codecs and/or change any settings to get Windows Media Center to use hardware acceleration for h.264,x.264,.mkv files?

This Hack7MC blog shows a reg edit is needed to make WMC display MKV files, so the focus here is on what is needed to make WMC play those files with hardware acceleration.

The image sharepening features the Guru3d article describes sound fantastic, and though I wouldn't expect to achieve these with onboard graphics, it would be interesting to see if there's any way to set this feature up for native playback in WMC (i.e. not having to use Media Player Classic Home Cinema externally).
 
A little more info req

Q: Had you previously downloaded the HD content or were you streaming?

Q: Is your web connection capable of streaming HD content

Q: Have you tried HD content from your loacl HDD
 
With Windows 7, is there actually any need to install any extra codecs and/or change any settings to get Windows Media Center to use hardware acceleration for h.264,x.264,.mkv files?
The codec guide in my sig still roughly holds for WMF (will update it once I get hold of a copy of Win7)

X264 and H264 are just implementations of MPEG4 part 10 so the same decoder will do them both. Hardware acceleration depends on how they are encoded, with physical media it is encoded to one of the profiles that will get hardware acceleration but doing your own encoding or obtaining files from others has the possibility of them being encoded with a profile that will not get accelerated.

AIUI Win7 does include a H264 decoder which will do hardware acceleration out the box.
 
Sorry, should have given more info from the start!

A little more info req

Q: Had you previously downloaded the HD content or were you streaming?
I was streaming

Q: Is your web connection capable of streaming HD content
Should be - 20Mbps cable connection that downloads files at around 2.5 megabytes per second

Q: Have you tried HD content from your loacl HDD
Not yet (since installing CoreAVC 2) - will try tonight

I'll download the GraphEdit app mentioned in jameson_uk's codecs FAQ thread and confirm what codec it usese and then try that out and post up the results.
 
The codec guide in my sig still roughly holds for WMF (will update it once I get hold of a copy of Win7)

My word man that is one damn informative thread - it should be on Wikipedia! I've never previously been able to get my head around even the concept of how all that stuff works, but that's been very helpful and I think I get much of it now.

I've actually never felt like I really got my audio setup working properly in that the DD/DTS light on my amp rarely lights up, but from your Audio section and I right in thinking that what might have been happening was that it was being decoded on the mobo before being outputted to the optical cable to take it to the amp, so I might actually have been getting proper 5.1 (which I could only really notice at times). I'll try the SPDIFer app you mention to force it to passthrough DD/DTS to SPDIF to make that amp earn its crust.

X264 and H264 are just implementations of MPEG4 part 10 so the same decoder will do them both. Hardware acceleration depends on how they are encoded, with physical media it is encoded to one of the profiles that will get hardware acceleration but doing your own encoding or obtaining files from others has the possibility of them being encoded with a profile that will not get accelerated.

AIUI Win7 does include a H264 decoder which will do hardware acceleration out the box.

I'll try that GraphEdit app you mention to verify how the test file I'll use is encoded (actually will probably try out the well known Killa Sampla files).

CoreAVC 2 site does say that it 'fully supports GPU hardware acceleration with NVIDIA CUDA Technology, and works with other compatible NVIDIA Platforms like ION running on Windows XP, Vista, or 7.'. Is it worth uninstalling it or should it be doing as least as good a job as Win 7 would be doing natively?

I'm testing this on my N510 which has max res of 13xx x 768 - do I need to hook it up to a 1080p monitor (TV is only 720p - for now!) to verify it is outputting 1080p or is there a way to confirm this on the machine itself?

Thanks for the pointers, much appreciated.
 

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