FFdshow

D

duracell

Guest
Hi

After installing and configuring FFDshow and Theatertek I get a great picture but it stutters. If I disable the FFD show post processing it's as smooth as Silk. Obviously the re-sizing and Blur and Denoise are requiring too much Horsepower.

However.............. The machine is an Intel 3.2Ghz P4 with 1Gb ram on a Shuttle 915 chipset MoBo, with an ATI 9550 (256 Mb) outputting via DVI. Personally I would have thought this powerfull enough but go figure. :confused:

I was really impressed with the results, between stutters, and would like to press on and build a purpose made HTPC. Anybody know where the above machine falls down on performance?

Could I stop the stutters with a new MoBo and CPU (maybe dual core) or does the Graphics card have to be upgraded to PCI Xpress, or both?

Regards, Dura. :)
 
I know this isn't an answer to your problem, but I use FFDshow with with TheaterTek using the Lanczos scaling algorithm (very CPU intensive), re-size to 1920x1080 and Blur NR, and it runs smooth as silk.
My hardware is a Pentium 4 3.0GHz (HT), 1Gb RAM, Intel 925 motherboard, ATI X300 video card, so it appears your PC is more powerful than mine.
Goto TheaterTeks homepage and have a look in their forums for more information. Perhaps you have more settings selected in FFDshow than you need.
 
My system too is a 3.2 P4, I size to 1920x1080 and output at 720.

I suspect you had the settings cranked up too high in the scaler. Using Lanczos scaling never go above 'paramater 2', doing so degrades the image by introducing noticeable ringing and green shift (both inherent in the algorithm).

Try just using the scaler with these settings, on my system I also set Chroma Sharpening to 1.0 but that's a personal taste, and I run at around 80% CPU.
 
Thanks folks.

Very interesting. I was running this on my home machine with loads of other stuff on it and ready for the annual wipe, format and reinstall. Looks as if there may have been some other nasties running in the background.

I think perhaps a dedicated HTPC is in order. Some suggestions have been to use an ASUS mobo.

Any thoughts on Intel or AMD?

Dura.
 
Try different versions of FFDSHOW too, I've read that some of the newer ones are more CPU intensive.

I can't remember which I use, but I have an AMD 2800+, use Resize Lanczos 2, luma sharpen 1.5 (or 2.0) and I get no stutters when using VMR9 renderless through a 5700ULTRA.

It's about 85% CPU at the moment, this has gone up for some unknown reason since I installed a new DVD rewriter and NERO 6.

I also use reclock, but the jury is out whether it makes a difference.
 
Agreed about version .. I still use the 20041012 version since nothing added later seemed of use to me and several later versions reportedly had 'issues' concerning excessive processor usage.

Dura, if you still have problems tell us what filters you're using and what settings you have.


As for Intel vs. AMD .. if one ignores the 'religious' nature of the debate I think it's pretty academic personally, I have 2 P4 based systems and one AMD-based one and you'd never tell the difference when used for HTPC duties. That said, if I were to build a new PC from scratch I'd probably go AMD but really only because I like the nForce4 chipset's sound capabilities .. I'm no audiophile and it feeds my 3803 receiver to my satisfaction at least. :)

I see no virture in going 64-bit per se either, many disagree.
 
Hi again.

The settings were pretty much the same as you guys are using (as shown on the rough setup guide). Lanczos with resize and denoise and blur, and those settings as per your posts. Must have been something going on in the background I guess. A nice clean install of MCE and my movies etc on a dedicated HTPC should help no end.

Now I come to think of it though, the machine was also running AVG Antivirus and Spyware Doctor (although they were not active at the time).

What are you folks running to protect against the net?? :rolleyes:

Dura. :)
 
TheaterTek recommend using FFDshow version 20050303-sse. This is the version they use in-house for all of their testing (refer to their forum for more information)
 
OK.

Downloaded that.

Any thoughts on which version of Theater Tek to use?? Or even Zoom Player?

Dura. :)
 
Duracell
I've had another idea why you maybe getting stuttering problems.
In FFDshow make sure you have Blur set above Resize in the left hand list (Drag it up). I'm sure FFDshow executes each function in order so if resize is first the Blur will work on the resized picture, in my case this would be 1920x1080. To run the Blur routine on this size picture would require a very powerful CPU. I temporarily moved mine last night to test this theory and guess what, I got stutter.
BTW, use the latest release of TheaterTek which you can download from their web site.
 
I alwys use the latest versions of TT and ZP, never had problems that I can recall.

And Norman is right, the order of filters is very important, it works top-down in the list and sometimes a bit of experimentation can yield interesting results. And please, turn off all the other filters except for Resize to begin with, I know that 'how to' shows use of Blur but IMX that is very rarely useful. :)

If you have performance problems, enable to the Trat Icon and run TT windowed, then open Task Manager's Performance tab and look to see who's using the CPU and what peak usage you're getting.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom