Xvid display quality difference problem

[brucedickinson_gr]

I've searched this forum a lot but I still haven't found the right answers for my questions.Please redirect me if I'm wrong!
I've encoded some videos (from tv) with xvid a long time ago (single pass 100% if I remember correct but that's not important).These avis play great (no flaws) on my home (desktop) system (PIII 450 MHz , 256 MB RAM , Voodoo 3 2000 , Philips TFT 17").But when I use my notebook the avis' display is problematic. Pixelation , blocking and weird colours on the background (especially in dark areas) are often.My notebook is Sony VGN-FS215S [Pentium Centrino 1,86 GHz , 512 MB RAM , GeForce 6200 Go Turbocache (32 MB on board + 96 ΜΒ shared from RAM) , 15,4'' WXGA (X-Black)].
On both systems I use ffdshow 2005 , gordian knot 0.23 , the newest xvid and audio codecs and BSPlayer (same versions and configurations).The only software difference is that I have PowerDVD on my desktop system and WinDVD on my laptop (but I don't use them to display avis).
What do you think the problem is?
Can you offer me any solutions?
Is it GeForce's fault and if it is are there certain ffdshow settings that match this kind of cards better?
Thank you in advance!If you think you should redirect me please do so.
:confused:

[Elic]

IMHO you must dig in two directions:
1) too old LCD on your notebook (early LCDs cannot display more than 256 colors simultaneously);
2) insufficient color depth (must be 24-bit or higher).

[brucedickinson_gr]

IMHO you must dig in two directions:
1) too old LCD on your notebook (early LCDs cannot display more than 256 colors simultaneously);
2) insufficient color depth (must be 24-bit or higher).

The LCD is brand new (sony vgn-fs215s was released in 2005).I've checked the notebook with other screens-same problem.I use 32 bit (natural colours).

[Pookie]

I think it is XVID decoder on the machine with the LCD monitor. Try the latest ffdshow and see if the blocks go away.

[Smile2]

I'd say...try to disable hardware acceleration.

[xDrJx]

I've had this problem in dark areas too and fixed it by lowering the XviD Brightnes setting. This sounds stupid and simple but helped me :)

[brucedickinson_gr]

1)I use the same xvid decoder and ffdshow versions on both systems (latest releases)
2)I moved the hardware acceleration bar to all posible positions (from "none" to "full") but that worsened the problem (more blocking-pixelation). Comparatively , I get the best image with full accelaration (which is what I used anyway)
3)Lowering xvid brightness setting didn't help much.

Recently I noticed the same kind of problems with divx avis , but they are not so visible and irritating as in xvid.

Another difference between the two systems (that I forgot to mention) is that my notebook runs on WinXP service pack 2 while my home system runs on WinXP service pack 1.

At my first post I mentioned weird colours on the background.To be more specific I notice 1)strange lines of coloured reflections hopping around or 2)a very lively coloured background in a way that I can't see the details.But the pixelation-blocking is really my main problem.It's awful.

I can't in any way understand why a 7-year old system can display xvid or divx files better than a brand new one.

Please continue posting any helpful ideas.
Thank you all for your interest.
:scared:

[powerslave]

brucedickinson_gr: In BS Player, you can check too see which video codec is decoding the video? Also are the settings in FFDshow the same for both systems? The only thing i can think of is some other codec is trying to play the file on your laptop.

[DigitalDeviant]

Is it GeForce's fault and if it is are there certain ffdshow settings that match this kind of cards better?

Certainly certain cards and systems performind differently with similar settings. I don't know if this is your problem but I would try changing some of BSPlayers settings first, specificly the Video Rendering. Try disabling/enabling YV12 and play with the rendering modes. From there I'd work my way back through ffdshows settings.

[kilg0r3]

What happens if you open the video in vdub on your sony?

Also I'd try the following:

1. reinstall dx

2. install latest / other graphics driver version

3. check cpu usage (is mysteriously hogged at 100%?)

4. use yuy2 as colorspace in ffdshow

5. disable yv12 in bsplayer ( because that would conflict with yuy2 selectionin ffdshow)

6. Try vlc (videolan client player) or mplayer just for diagnostics. These do not use the directshow framework, decoding the stream all by themselves. If it plays fine in either of them, it is less likely that the problem is caused by your system (display, driver etc.) but rather by ffdshow or another interfering codec.

7. Check your display properties, especially those for the video overlay.

My numbering just reflects the sequence the ideas came to my mind ...

[brucedickinson_gr]

There is no difference with vlc.Reinstalled dx 9.0c no difference , cpu usage 3-10%.Tried everything else that you all mention - no difference.In vdub the video has less vibrant colours (like using divx5 instead of xvid) but the problems still remain.I have the latest graphics driver version - forceware 77,72 Go - (came with laptop's default configuration) and the system doesn't let me to roll back or install previous versions.

For the past month I've been changing the settings in ffdshow.Recently I managed to get significant quality improvement using spp deblocking with automatic quality postprocessing.Mplayer with all features (deblocking , brightness , full luma range and full postprocessing) gives me very vibrant colours but the pixelation-blocking-weird colours are worse than spp deblocking.So I'm stuck with spp deblocking for now.I think something that compines the vibrant colours of mplayer with all above features and deblocking of spp deblocking would be very close to what I want.

In any way (even with the above ffdshow settings) the result still remains inferior comparing it to my home system's xvid display.

It would be very helpful to hear from anyone who has Sony Vaio vgn-fs215s or any Vaio of the fs series.

Thank you all for your help.Please continue posting.Eventually we'll find a solution.

Thanks!

[TonyMo]

I have a Sony Vaio VGN A217S and I've been trying to create XVID files at 100% transparancy for the past 4 months or so.. I have to say that on my system, I get very close to 95 percent transparency, but not close enough to call XVID 100% transparent... and am about to give up on backing up my dvd collection to XVID....

I believe the problem is simply to do with the VAIO being simply too bright, and nothing to do with any inadequacies of the XVID codec, which does an amazing job, far better than AVC in my opinion at higher bitrates. I did get the blocking down to a bare minimum using sharktooths ultra high resolution matrix, but then the video sizes went through the roof... fantastic picture quality though...

Using Didees 6of9 matrix, I was able to get my rips down to about 70% of the original size, but in a darkened room, the VAIO exposes too much of the XVID compression techniques. Latest VAIO screens are very vibrant and very bright by nature, and as XVID tends to saves data on dark and/or smooth scene etc, I believe that our machines are painfully exposing blocking artifacts for all to see. Make sure your brightness is set to minimum and see how the xvids look again.

I cannot report any weird colouring artifacts at all, but I can confirm that wacking all my graphic card settings to the right and maximing all performance parameters does seem to calm down the blocking a little bit, but nothing to get excited about in my case, sadly...