RaggedEdge
26th June 2007, 09:39
Having enabled H.264 FULL HARDWARE acceleration on a virgin install of Windows Vista 32Bit, PowerDVD Ultra Build 2911(full Install, not patch), latest Haali Splitter and NVidia BETA drivers 158.45, I'm seeing problems with x264 MKV files with 720P and 1080P content.
720P x264 MKV files that should playback at 24FPS playback perfectly for a few seconds and then start stuttering, and the frame rate is limited to 20FPS.
I can overcome this problem by converting the MKV to and AVI file using the mkv2vfr.exe.
In AVI form, the very same x264 data plays back perfectly i.e. at a constant 24 FPS. This would suggest that the Haali Splitter is doing something differently to the AVI Splitter.
Here is a graphedit graph demonstrating the 20 FPS limit in effect:
24 FPS x264 Content Playing Back at 20 FPS (http://www.rav.talktalk.net/jitter.tif)
The problem with the MKV to AVI conversion is you lose the audio track, so I create the following graph to playback 720p x264 content to get perfect playback performance:
Perfect Playback Hack! (http://www.rav.talktalk.net/smooth.tif)
1080p x264 MKV files simply refuse to play using the Haali Splitter, and the AVI splitter produces a green screen.
And for the record, I've confirmed full hardware acceleration is enabled because if I replace the EVR with VMR9, the CPU usage goes from 5% to almost 100%. With EVR the video playsback liquid smooth for a while, until the 20FPS kicks in. Software only H.264 acceleration is just constantly stalling, because my CPU is a P4 3Ghz Prescott.
I'm hoping that a software update to the Haali Splitter will get 720P content playing back smoothly with PureVideo2, and possibly get 1080p content working too.
Getting Cyberlink to make changes in their H.264 decoder will by an uphill climb, but I have started the climb, and one of their tech support people have agreed to forward all the details described here to their R&D team.
720P x264 MKV files that should playback at 24FPS playback perfectly for a few seconds and then start stuttering, and the frame rate is limited to 20FPS.
I can overcome this problem by converting the MKV to and AVI file using the mkv2vfr.exe.
In AVI form, the very same x264 data plays back perfectly i.e. at a constant 24 FPS. This would suggest that the Haali Splitter is doing something differently to the AVI Splitter.
Here is a graphedit graph demonstrating the 20 FPS limit in effect:
24 FPS x264 Content Playing Back at 20 FPS (http://www.rav.talktalk.net/jitter.tif)
The problem with the MKV to AVI conversion is you lose the audio track, so I create the following graph to playback 720p x264 content to get perfect playback performance:
Perfect Playback Hack! (http://www.rav.talktalk.net/smooth.tif)
1080p x264 MKV files simply refuse to play using the Haali Splitter, and the AVI splitter produces a green screen.
And for the record, I've confirmed full hardware acceleration is enabled because if I replace the EVR with VMR9, the CPU usage goes from 5% to almost 100%. With EVR the video playsback liquid smooth for a while, until the 20FPS kicks in. Software only H.264 acceleration is just constantly stalling, because my CPU is a P4 3Ghz Prescott.
I'm hoping that a software update to the Haali Splitter will get 720P content playing back smoothly with PureVideo2, and possibly get 1080p content working too.
Getting Cyberlink to make changes in their H.264 decoder will by an uphill climb, but I have started the climb, and one of their tech support people have agreed to forward all the details described here to their R&D team.