Question about Resize and Fullscreen

[Peuj]

I'm using MPC as player with render video in 3D and resizer Bilinear (PS 2.0).

My question is about "Resize & aspect" from ffdshow, I think I understand what it does but I don't understand the use of. If I switch in fullscreen from MPC the resize from ffdshow is useless no ?

Thanks

[LoRd_MuldeR]

ffdshow's software resizer (if enabled) will resize the video to whatever you tell it. Then ffdshow will output the decoded and resized video. The video will be passed to the renderer, which will resize it to the final size. So if you click "Zoom -> 100%" in MPC, then you will see the video as resized by ffdshow (and no further resizing by the renderer). Any changes to the size of the MPC window (this includes the fullscreen mode) will result in further resizing by the renderer.

Example: Your video is 320x240, the ffdshow resizer is set to 640x480, your screen's resolution is 1024x768 and you go to full-screen mode. Then ffdshow will resize the video from 320x240 -> 640x480 and the renderer will resize the video from 640x480 -> 1024x768.

To prevent the renderer from doing any resize in fullscreen-mode, just set ffdshow's resizer to the same resolution as your screen. But this might be very slow on screens whith high resolution...

[joelancer]

Im also new to ffdshows settings, so a question...

Is there any image quality or performance gain from using ffdshows image resize feature? instead of just resizing it in whatever player your using?

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Im also new to ffdshows settings, so a question...

Is there any image quality or performance gain from using ffdshows image resize feature? instead of just resizing it in whatever player your using?

ffdshow's software resizer can use different methods. If you use the "Lanczos3" method, then you will get pretty good results, because it's very sharp and preserves a lot of details. Overlay render will usually use a "Bilinear" resize, which might blur the image a bit more. However software resize in ffdshow will need a lot of CPU power, especially when working with high resolution (for example resizing to fullscreen-resolution or processing HD content). There are renderers available like "Haali's Renderer" or "VMR9 (renderless)" in "Direct3D/Bicubic" mode, that give similar results at much higher performance. So before you use software resize, try those renderes first. Another plus for ffdshow's software resize is, that it can (optionally) sharpen the image during resize ("Luma/Chroma sharpen"). I persoanlly use VMR9 renderer and don't need software resize, but I need to force YUV -> RGB conversion in ffdshow. Haali's looks very good too, but needs to long for startup on my machine...

If you use MPC keep software-resize disabled and give those (http://img177.imageshack.us/my.php?image=namenlosuf3.gif) settings a try ;)

[foxyshadis]

Note that Haali's works fine in any software that supports custom renderers, like Zoomplayer, also.

[joelancer]

Thx, thats good info.

i tested the "Lanczos3" resize with sharpening as you mentioned with a misc non-anime rip, and though the difference is small to the untrained eye(i use a CRT), it is definatly better.

So far i have no performance issue with ffdshows resize, i only have Xvid/divx/aac/vorbis/etc rips though to test it on, no HD stuff.(im not a encoder). i will try out the said options if i ever run into trouble.

just outa curiosity, for a performance guage of ffd's resize filter, what system specs do you have and witch type of files/resolution cause you to lagg using ffdshows resize filter?

thx again though people for the info.

EDIT: just to explain a little: i like using Overlay cause i dont play vid in Fullscreen all the time, cause i like to beable to keep my desktop/applications dark(low brightnes/contrast) and use overlay to turn the video back to normal bright/contrast/saturation, so the vid can stay at its normal colors while anything i do on desktop/apps remains darker (zoomplayers minimalistic user interface)

[LoRd_MuldeR]

just outa curiosity, for a performance guage of ffd's resize filter, what system specs do you have and witch type of files/resolution cause you to lagg using ffdshows resize filter?

My CPU is: AMD Athlon XP 2800+
If I use ffdshow to resize to fullscreen-res, which is 1280x960 in my case, then I get 100% CPU usage and 1 fps playback.
But I don't mind, VMR9 gives very good results, so I don't need software resize in ffdshow :D

[arfster]

just outa curiosity, for a performance guage of ffd's resize filter, what system specs do you have and witch type of files/resolution cause you to lagg using ffdshows resize filter?



With a Pentium D 3.8Ghz, Lanczos tap2 resize on a 720*576 resize:


2.0x: 21% (10% one core, 30% the other)
2.5x: 30% (15/45)
3.0x: 42% (20/60)
3.5x: 49% (20/80)
4.0x: 65% (35/95)
4.5x: crashed <--- 4.5x is 3240*2592, and either being >3000 or >2500 crashes my drivers.


All figures pretty approx. These are on a PAL DVD btw, so 720*576. NTSC discs have 25% fewer pixels to deal with.

FFDshow's resize is noticeably better than VMR9 renderless or Haali imo, particularly in scenes with lots of sharp edges, and especially on large screens. Also, a little luma sharpening (say 1.0) helps further, and has minimal processor hit. Blur/denoise is a good filter as well on some discs, and costs about 10% of one core.