FFDshow - am I doing it wrong?

[themanwithapc]

Recently I've come across this forum and found the joys of using my PC as a HTPC for DVD playback, and TBH I've been blown away by the quality. However, 2 things seem to bother me about FFDshow.

1. Firstly, under FFDshow, there is a 'blur & NR' tab, which houses a setting called gradual denoise. Now a few guides/users tweaking FFDshow use this, but when I try it, all I can see with my DVD's is an absolute blurry mess. Surely these people tweaking their setups can't be seeing this, so is it me doing something wrong? Pic below


2. A lot of people recommend using the 'Resize & Aspect' settings under FFDshow too, to improve the quality of the picture. However, I've had nothing but trouble with this setting. I have an Athlon 2800+ with 1GB of Ram, and resizing (even if only to 1280x720 or 2x) reduces the movie to a stutter. This is with only Lanczos 2 turned on. Not only this but I also get huge borders all around the screen. I can't help feeling I'm doing something wrong here too.....

Lastly, I have more a general question. Whilst FFDshow is fine for DVD's, is there something similar which can be used for AVIs, WMVs etc.?

Thanks

 

[arfster]

FFDshow can process just about anything low res - it starts to struggle above about 500k pixels though (eg a 960*540 xvid). You need to go into codecs to tell it what stuff to apply itself to.

As for blur/denoise, use the denoise3d setting, not gradual denoise. It's only worth it imo for obviously noisy stuff though, which usually means older poorly transferred DVDs. For low-res stuff you tend to lose more in depth and detail than you gain from denoising though.

Resize: I think with a 2800+ you should be able to run a resize to 720p, but there are many settings in ffdshow that need to be optimised for it to perform properly. Do a search on the forums, and experiment.

 

[dan1979]

I resize to 1280x720 and above with that same chip, ffdshow does work with avi files, hit the OSD tab and you'll see exactly which files it's working with.

 

[KraGorn]

Just using Resize what CPU usage are you getting sizing to 1280x720 at 2x Lanczos?

Bear in mind FFDSHOW runs the filters 'top down', meaning if you have Resize above Denoise in the filter list you'll be denoising the upscaled image, you need to do it before, move the filters up and down the list to achieve the order you want. It's silly really that the default is to put Resize high up the list.

 

[themanwithapc]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

I do infact use denoise3d for some stuff I watch (poorly transferred non-english movies) and it's great, but I don't understand why the gradual deonise gives this unwatchable picture, especially as so many other people seem to leave it on.

As for the resize, I was actually talking about using the resize on it's own (no blur/nr etc.) Yet, I still have problems upscaling to anything, and the cpu load remains at 100% constantly. Any ideas?

 

[Melkor]

As for the resize, I was actually talking about using the resize on it's own (no blur/nr etc.) Yet, I still have problems upscaling to anything, and the cpu load remains at 100% constantly. Any ideas?

Getting the same problem as you, a simple resize max's out my A64 3700+

 

[KraGorn]

I'm at a loss, on my 3.0 P4 I resize to 1920x1080 Lanczos 2 and don't use more than 80% CPU. All I can suggest is trying different versions, many release are problematic it seems from reading forums like this, I use the famous 'Andy' version, very old but works fine for me.