HTPC Codecs & Players,Help & Configuration Thread (ffdshow, CoreAVC, MediaPortal etc)

I might not've been clear - I've seen the "resize only if..." bit, that that only applies to resizing.

I'd like to try deblocking SD as it seems to make quite a nice difference, but if I have it on HD gets twitchy - one core practically maxes out.

BTW, I did actually read that far!
 
I might not've been clear - I've seen the "resize only if..." bit, that that only applies to resizing.

I'd like to try deblocking SD as it seems to make quite a nice difference, but if I have it on HD gets twitchy - one core practically maxes out.

BTW, I did actually read that far!

Ensure you are using the very latest version of ffdshow (look in my build thread to see where i got the latest from) as early version do have problems with multi-threading certain elements.
 
I might not've been clear - I've seen the "resize only if..." bit, that that only applies to resizing.

I'd like to try deblocking SD as it seems to make quite a nice difference, but if I have it on HD gets twitchy - one core practically maxes out.

BTW, I did actually read that far!

yes, but if you turn off scaling for hd sources you'll save cpu cycles that might allow the deblocking to work. i have sever post processors working for all input types, and scaling only working for material with vertical resolutions of <720 lines, and no problems.
 
Ensure you are using the very latest version of ffdshow (look in my build thread to see where i got the latest from) as early version do have problems with multi-threading certain elements.

Yeah, I picked up from one of your posts that this was "fixed" in a later version, I thought I'd got the latest version but TBH I'm a bit confused by all this "tryout" business.

I've just been on sourceforge and downloaded the 24th December 2007 "Generic Build (Stable)", I'll check when I get home what I've got.

BTW - the sourceforge link in the first post is broken.

yes, but if you turn off scaling for hd sources you'll save cpu cycles that might allow the deblocking to work. i have sever post processors working for all input types, and scaling only working for material with vertical resolutions of <720 lines, and no problems.

I never thunk of it like that :D. Still, it'd be good if you had explicit control...
 
Right, I had 2nd June version on, and one core was definitely maxing out with post processing turned on, on a HD source and I get a stutter. If I turn the Fast SP option on (which gives best results on SD) I get "jitter".

I tried the 24th December version and while one core is used much more than the other1, it's not 100% I don't get the stutter, even with resize turned on. It looks like with resize off on HD it's running at 1080i, with it turned on I get 1360x768 it looks better - quality looks the same, but there are less lines (interlacing?).

If I turn Fast SP on, I get stuttering, even with the Christmas version.
 
Although looking at it some more, I think I might settle on the June 2 version with post processing off, there just doesn't seem to be enough control on when it is and isn't used.

Can anyone help on getting ffdshow to be used for DVDs on MCE2005?
 
Cafe Racer: As I understand it, what you need is Profiles! ffdshow makes it really simple to define different profiles which employ different filters.

Go to the tab "Profiles / Preset Settings" in ffdshow, check "automatic preset loading" and click "New - from default". Make sure that your new profile is highlighted in the list, and go about to make all the configurations you want with filters and so on. Don't forget to configure the load conditions under "Preset autoload conditions".

I myself have two different profiles, one for SD and one for HD. I have set the HD profile to engage when the resolution of the video material exceeds certain numbers, but there's alot of other conditions that you can set it to respond to. Fiddle around a bit and see if you like it, it's pretty self explanatory!
 
Cheers mate - but I just coudn't get it work. Both SD and HD formats are listed as 704 x 480 Input size so I can't get it t differentiate.

I've done some experimenting and ffdshow set to always resize to screen reslution gives me a better picture and better functionality (No Aspect Correction, so the picture is always stretched to fit the screen, so no zooming in MCE) than with Purevideo - so I'm happy to live with that.

For some reason, though, I have no sound on some channels (Discovery Turbo, Animal Planet and some other Disco channels) :confused: I thought I had sound on all channels, but I don't now. I've had a little play and the ffdshow audio codec is being used, I had a quick look at Graphedit but I can't see if those channels have a different format...

...any pointers?

Also, some of my channels have different audio PIDs for different languages, Audi Narrative, AC3 etc - could ffdshow beused to output the one that I want?
 
I've got a LG combo blu-ray hd/dvd drive and i've used it inthe past for blu-rays which are fine, with the clearouts and good prices on the HD-DVDs lately i picked up a few, i cant get them to play with any program, the latest "PowerDVD" doesnt support HD-DVD anymore and the one that did v7 doesnt recognise the media format.

My LG combo drive recognises the disks fine just nothing will play it, any ideas?

I'm using vista ultimate 64bit and have ffdshow, k-lite codec pack (full), haali's media spliter installed and have tried the following players:

PowerDVD Ultra v8
PowerDVD v7
Windows Media Classic
WinDVD 9
VLC
Zoom Player

any help is much appreciated, thanks.
 
I think you should get in touch Cyberlinks technical support. Looking at the their website theres nothing regarding PowerDVD "dropping" HD-DVD support. Quite the opposite by the looks of it.

Especially as none of the other non PowerDVD methods you have are capable of playing HD-DVD discs.
 
PowerDVD 8 Ultra plays both HD-DVD/Blu-Ray, standard only plays Blu-Ray but there is a way to enable HD-DVD playback via some sort of patch or registry hack.
 
For some reason, though, I have no sound on some channels (Discovery Turbo, Animal Planet and some other Disco channels) :confused: I thought I had sound on all channels, but I don't now. I've had a little play and the ffdshow audio codec is being used, I had a quick look at Graphedit but I can't see if those channels have a different format...

...any pointers?

Also, some of my channels have different audio PIDs for different languages, Audi Narrative, AC3 etc - could ffdshow beused to output the one that I want?

I must've changed the codec used for MPEG1/MPEG2 at some oint - changed it to m3lib and it works fine.
 
I think you should get in touch Cyberlinks technical support. Looking at the their website theres nothing regarding PowerDVD "dropping" HD-DVD support. Quite the opposite by the looks of it.

Especially as none of the other non PowerDVD methods you have are capable of playing HD-DVD discs.

PowerDVD have indeed dropped HD-DVD support for Version 8 of their product. You could get round this with removing files from a version 7 installation and dropping them into the version 8 folder. The only reason to edit the registry was to enable PowerDVD to autoplay with a HD-DVD in Vista.

I have HD-DVD playback with PowerDVD8 working, and instructions are in my thread.

Unfortunatley, PowerDVD updated their product with a new patch, which then stopped people from playing HD-DVDs once more. You again can get round this, but it requires you to uninstall 8, install 7, and a patch from 7, install 8, add the 'hack' and then update. PITA really, I am waiting for the instructions on how to do it without the installation of version 7 myself...
 
.....and have tried the following players:

PowerDVD Ultra v8
PowerDVD v7
Windows Media Classic
WinDVD 9
VLC
Zoom Player

any help is much appreciated, thanks.

I have the LG combi drive, and could play HD-DVDs with no problems. I did not use the OEM product I had with the drive however, and I had PowerDVD7 Ultra, and I think thats what you need - Ultra version 7.
 
Hi again,

I still get some interesting resutls sometimes - it seems after a few sleeps or resumes or something, I get some stutter. Not really a problem at the minute.

On some channels, though, things like Eurosport that are low res/4:3 I get some horizontal lines mostly on the moving parts of the image, they are almot like gaps in the image.

Obviously something to do with resizing the image, but I wondered if there's something I can play with to lessen the effect?
 
My spec:
- Intel Core 2 Duo E4500
- Asus P5K Motherboard (latest bios 1006)
- Asus HD3650 GPU (latest ATI drivers 8.6)
- Vista Home Premium (up to date via windows update)
- 2GB Ram

My questions:

I have ripped my standard DVD's (movie only, no compression) to my harddrive using DVDShrink. I have also enabled DVD Library in Vista Media Center, and use this to playback my DVD's via windows media player 11 from my hard drive through the MCE interface.

I have downloaded AC3 filter which is getting me sound via my Onkyo 605 amp with zero issues, however my picture sometimes stutters. I have also installed ffdshow (& hali), however do not see this running when media player 11 is playing back the movie.

When I checked with graphedit I seen initially the Cyberlink PowerDVD MPEG 2 decoder was being used, however I then set the MPEG 2 Codec entry in ffdshow to libmpeg2, and re-ran graphedit which then showed ffdshow as the video decoder (see attachment), however WMP 11 still does not appear to use it?

Also, if I run WMP 11 outside of Media Center for the VOB file directly, it does not appear to stutter ? Any ideas ? :confused:
 

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When I checked with graphedit I seen initially the Cyberlink PowerDVD MPEG 2 decoder was being used, however I then set the MPEG 2 Codec entry in ffdshow to libmpeg2, and re-ran graphedit which then showed ffdshow as the video decoder (see attachment), however WMP 11 still does not appear to use it?

Also, if I run WMP 11 outside of Media Center for the VOB file directly, it does not appear to stutter ? Any ideas ? :confused:

I'm fairly new to all this, but I was having a similar issue with Audio rather than Video:
Although AC3Filter was set as the audio codec, and graphedit displayed that it was being used, when a file was played back in Media Portal, the MPA decoder was somehow also being used, overriding the settings and causing stuttering of the audio.

After reading through this thread, in the end I unregistered MPA Decoder which totally removed it from the equation and stopped the stuttering.

It may be that Media Center is somehow still trying to use the Cyberlink PowerDVD MPEG 2 decoder. Have you tried lowering its merit using Radlight?

If you are playing a vob in Media Center, can you get into the WMP11 Tools, Options, DVD Tab, Advanced menu? Does it open a configuration for the Cyberlink PowerDVD MPEG 2 decoder or FFDShow?

Hopefully someone with a bit more knowledge will come up with some other suggestions too ;)
 
@ eddiem74

Get yourself a copy of Filmerit and check the merits that are used. This is the priority used to determine which decoder is used for each codec.
 
@ eddiem74

Get yourself a copy of Filmerit and check the merits that are used. This is the priority used to determine which decoder is used for each codec.

I find radlight filter manager easier to use than filmerit. Plus, remember to do a reboot after each merit change. (theres a link at the front of this thread showing the basics of merits!!) :smashin:
 
If you are playing a vob in Media Center, can you get into the WMP11 Tools, Options, DVD Tab, Advanced menu? Does it open a configuration for the Cyberlink PowerDVD MPEG 2 decoder or FFDShow?

I can't get into Tools -> Options via Media Center, however I can with just WMP 11 on its own, however I need to have nothing playing to be able to access the Advanced Menu.

I find radlight filter manager easier to use than filmerit. Plus, remember to do a reboot after each merit change. (theres a link at the front of this thread showing the basics of merits!!) :smashin:
@ eddiem74

Get yourself a copy of Filmerit and check the merits that are used. This is the priority used to determine which decoder is used for each codec.

Had used radlight to view filters, and now also took a look at filmert. I have set AC3 & ffdshow as preferred and rebooted. GraphEdit before and after shows AC3 & ffdshow being used.

I watched Transformers last night just using WMP 11 and opening the VOB file directly, and had no stutters. It only seems to happen when I play back the VOB file via Media Center? A bug maybe ? :confused:

Also, when I am playing a VOB via WMP 11 I do not see ffdshow running still ? Is there anything I can use to determine exactly what is being used while playing ?
 
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Ok, so used radlight again to set the AC3 & ffdshow filters as most preferred. I also enabled the tray icons for both, and OSD in ffdshow. I also set most other mpeg2 filters as unlikely.

When I used graphedit I see tray icons, along with the graphical display confirming what is being used. When I rip a disk via DVDShrink I also see this.

However when I play the file via WMP 11 and I now have also tried PowerDVD, I see no sign AC3 or ffdshow is being used, although I do get DD/DTS via my amp.
 
Mick, I've stickied this thread as it appears to complement the other HTPC stickies and is obviously quite popular. :thumbsup:
 
Hi,

I've been gently playing with ffdshow and picture resizing to 1080. I don't think my machine is man enough for the job as I always get occasional jerkiness, it feels to me like it's falling behind. I'm using the latest ffdshow tryout and no matter what the settings the machine starts falling behind. The results are incredible though and I'd love to get it stable.


I thought I'd lay out my intended upgrade path and invite comments:

My main aim is to go blu-ray. I am planning to get an ATI 3470 and the LG combo drive. I understand that this card supports UVD so it's decoding h264 formats in hardware.

Am I right in thinking that this will not give me a better picture when upscaling normal dvds?
I currently don't compress my movies, I just rip them whole. Can I compress them to something that the card will support and the do the hard work? I've used handbrake for compressing for ipod so I've experience there.

Maybe it's the case that I need a more manly processor as well. Any thoughts or should I get the graphics card in first and see what happens?

I know. Lots of questions!
The hardware should be in my profile
 
GVH,

The 3470 card will only decode blu-ray and hd-dvd original material. All file based material(*) is decoded by CPU regardless of what graphics card you are using.

Also, all resizing and upscaling is again, CPU only. So the faster the CPU the better for those activities. Although CPU power for the SD stuff won't be anywhere near as much as resizing HD material.

If you take a look in the HTPC Sticky, you'll see the link to the performance thread which shows how both my HTPC mk1 and mk2 got on with various HD media formats.

Also see my HTPC mk2 build which plays all HD material fine. Although you might wanna up the CPU a little if you want to start resizing and playing about the video stream!

Why not start a new thread with your intentions and i'm sure everyone will help our speccing the thing up! :smashin:


(*) only h264 encodes that specifically adhere to the h264 specifications will get relief from a HD card such as the ATI range when used in conjunction with the Cyberlink PowerDVD h264 codec. All other codecs and filetypes are software and CPU based.
 

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