Strange vertical 1px line

[skryabin]

Hi, I have this problem playing any file with MPC+ffdshow (latest versions, and olders too):

(it's a jpeg at 1680x1050, follow the link and click on the image to see at its original size, than you'll clearly find the lines)
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/3084/linessr1.th.jpg (http://img205.imageshack.us/my.php?image=linessr1.jpg)

The video renderer is directx 9 renderless and ffdshow output is set on RGB32 (with high quality conversion selected).
The "transparent lines" (usually 1, in the screenshot you can see 2 of them highlighted with red arrows) seem to appear when I change the pan&scan setting (numpad 1 and 9) to fit the native resolution of my monitor (1680x1050).
The source is ok, if I save the image with MPC (File->Save Image...) I don't get the strange lines, but if I press Print Screen and then I paste into Paint I can see them and this is also what I see on my monitor with my eyes (disturbing :( ). This happens on all the files; sometimes, with a particular pan&scan setting they seem to disappear misteriously.
Who knows why I have this strange lines?
Thanks in advance :thanks:

EDIT: the line is fixed, it doesn't move
Other usefull info about my config:
"lock back-buffer...." is checked
In the VMR settings I've selected "Use texture surfaces and render video in 3D", resizer Bicubic A=-1.00 (PS 2.0)
The graphic card is a nvidia 7800 GT with latest forceware available (but it doesn't change anything switching to older forceware versions)

[Kado]

Well that problem used to happen to me as well some times but is not happening now. since you have a dx9 card i would recommend using haali renderer or evr if you can, i use haali because it's better than vmr9 anyways. you can use yuv2 with haali and get the correct luma levels and save some cpu time!

[skryabin]

Well that problem used to happen to me as well some times but is not happening now. since you have a dx9 card i would recommend using haali renderer or evr if you can, i use haali because it's better than vmr9 anyways. you can use yuv2 with haali and get the correct luma levels and save some cpu time!

With haali+yuy2 it works, no lines ;)
Still curious what is that strange semi-transparent vertical line in vmr9 when panning/scanning...

[Casimir666]

This bug have something to do with video width : if you enlarge slightly with right arrow the line will disapeared.
At the moment i don't know how to fix it :(

[skryabin]

This bug have something to do with video width : if you enlarge slightly with right arrow the line will disapeared.
At the moment i don't know how to fix it :(

So this is a known defect of vmr9; the line disappear for certain pan/scan settings but you have to find the right one for every video you wanna play.
I prefer haali then...

OT: this is off topic but I need good instructions on how to correctly set up che color range ( I mean PC or TV )
I have a test avi file found somewhere with a color pattern and three grey vertical band on the bottom. The instructions say that for a correct fidelity I should see only 1 grey band (the right one) but if I change the Haali renderer setting for PC-TV conversion I either see no vertical band at all (all black, and the same happens with RGB32 output) or three of them (one brighter and two slighlty visible, that means I'm brightning too much I think, washing effect)
Can't find a config to see only 1 grey vertical band

[Casimir666]

It's not a defect of VMR9 but of bicubic pixel shader resizer use by MPC ;-) I think bilinear have not this problem.
This bug happen also on EVR Custom because it's the same resize code.

[skryabin]

It's not a defect of VMR9 but of bicubic pixel shader resizer use by MPC ;-) I think bilinear have not this problem.
This bug happen also on EVR Custom because it's the same resize code.

...and doesn't happen with haali because it uses an its own resizer I suppose (configurable by the slider for the sharpness)

[Kado]

@skryabin
to get optimal video results tweak both the monitor and the graphics card settings and then the renderer luma range.

[skryabin]

@skryabin
to get optimal video results tweak both the monitor and the graphics card settings and then the renderer luma range.

I got it working, brightness of the lcd monitor maybe was set too low.
Checking the 16-235 option in haali renderer in the test video I can see only 1 vertical band (instructions say it's correct, if I want to play my movies on the pc monitor only 1 vertical grey band should be visible, 3 means I'll have a washed effect and none means I will be missing some colors):
http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/4975/snapshot20070916000023uk5.th.png (http://img505.imageshack.us/my.php?image=snapshot20070916000023uk5.png) (of course you need a good calibrated monitor to see that)

If I leave 0-255 range I can see all the three grey vertical bands obviously:
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/6621/threebandsxi4.th.png (http://img443.imageshack.us/my.php?image=threebandsxi4.png)

[Shakey_Jake33]

@skryabin
to get optimal video results tweak both the monitor and the graphics card settings and then the renderer luma range.
Do you know where to get any test images or videos to help customise settings?

btw I get the same 1px line bug, had to switch over to bilinear resize.

[skryabin]

Do you know where to get any test images or videos to help customise settings?

btw I get the same 1px line bug, had to switch over to bilinear resize.

I've switched to Haali renderer with its configurable resize (more or less sharpen with a slider) and I see no more vertical 1px wide lines.

The test I was talking about discovers if the colors are showed correctly in the video rendering. You can find the file here: http://rapidshare.com/files/61545411/vmr9_test.zip.html

Assuming you have a calibrated monitor you can see 3 different things:
1) In the right bottom side appear three different grey vertical bars (look screen in my previous post). The color range is incorrect, too bright configuration (washed effect, typical of vmr9)
2) No grey vertical bars appear: too dark, the color range is incorrect, you are missing some colors (filtering too much the darker ones).
3) Only a vertical grey bar appears: that's the right config, the color range is correct.

Color range is not directly linked to the monitor: you DO NOT have to play with monitor settings to obtain case "3". The test discovers if you are RENDERING the right colors, not if you are SEEING the right ones. The rendering process is affected by the codecs, the colorspaces they use (YUY,RGB,...) and internal conversions: in one word, the software. Of course the final product of the rendering is showed on the monitor and the test is useless if you're not sure that the monitor is in well conditions. For the monitor calibration you can use the gamma correction utility that comes along with photoshop software, but the best way is to buy a dedicated hardware/software kit and attach it on the monitor.

Speaking about the rendering test in my case I can obtain the case 3 (the correct one) in two ways:
1) Using vmr9 as the renderer: in this case I need to set the output on RGB32 to avoid the washed effect (but bicubic resize is bugged, as I've discovered in this topic);
2) Using Haali renderer I can mantain the YUY2 as the output colorspace, and I can adjust the range of colors through the Haali proprerties (the Luma range setting, PC or TV)

[Kado]

In my case the vertical line appears if the video has a custom aspect ratio(the video has 4:3 res but has a 16:9 ar). So if you use "keep aspect ratio" in mpc with a video like that the line will probably appear for evr and vmr9.

[Shakey_Jake33]

Excellent, thanks! I actually have scenario 3 with no tweaking! Using EVR Custom, Bilinear (PS2.0) resizing.
I am using VGA connected to my 32" Bravia @ 1360x768, I think people are having more issues getting the right levels over DVI.

Main issue with Haali Renderer for me is that you cannot use the Cyberlink Mpeg2 decoder on DVD's (brings up Macrovision error). ffshows works, but I've never found a deinerlacing method in ffdshow that looks as good as Cyberlink for me. So I stuck with EVR Custom.

Would be nice to be able to use Bicubic resize, but I'd be lying if I said I could visibly see the difference anyway.

[skryabin]

In my case the vertical line appears if the video has a custom aspect ratio(the video has 4:3 res but has a 16:9 ar). So if you use "keep aspect ratio" in mpc with a video like that the line will probably appear for evr and vmr9.

The 1px line appears if I start using pan/scan...but if I don't use pan/scan the line doesn't appear at all, and this happens for every video file I have, it's not related to a particular file or AR.

Excellent, thanks! I actually have scenario 3 with no tweaking! Using EVR Custom, Bilinear (PS2.0) resizing.
I am using VGA connected to my 32" Bravia @ 1360x768, I think people are having more issues getting the right levels over DVI.

Main issue with Haali Renderer for me is that you cannot use the Cyberlink Mpeg2 decoder on DVD's (brings up Macrovision error). ffshows works, but I've never found a deinerlacing method in ffdshow that looks as good as Cyberlink for me. So I stuck with EVR Custom.

Would be nice to be able to use Bicubic resize, but I'd be lying if I said I could visibly see the difference anyway.

Nice ^^

[iron2000]

It's not a defect of VMR9 but of bicubic pixel shader resizer use by MPC ;-) I think bilinear have not this problem.
This bug happen also on EVR Custom because it's the same resize code.

I got horizontal lines in billinear (PS2.0).
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/8058/u7xxs7.th.jpg (http://img100.imageshack.us/my.php?image=u7xxs7.jpg)

Haali Renderer doesn't do too, I got a grid pattern with it.
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/8172/badim0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)