LAV Filters - DirectShow Media Splitter and Decoders

[RBG]

CruNcher
Oh my! I need to sleep more, I reread what clsid wrote and understood, that I misread it somehow, shame on me. Of course using one splitter for one container format and another for everything else is not a problem at all. I just wanted to say, that there is no universal solution for one format, mkv for example. Haali is relatively stable has linked video support, but has its own cons, about them you have already wrote in the post above, also it has no graph builder, which is a noticeable disadvantage for me. AV has a lot of advanced features, including linked video support, graph builder, but it has some bugs, as I use it most of the time, sometimes I am just forced to switch to another splitter to get correct video playback. LAV is relatively stable too, its open sourse, which is great, compatible decoders pack included, but has no linked video support at all.

[CruNcher]

Yeah i know in what for a situation you are exactly for example something just came up a second ago going through my database finally moved forward from .ts to .mov now i came up to a streams with ima4_adapcm_qt the problem i want to use MPC-HCs Mp4 splitter for .mov because of the (freeze) problems above and now i just found out that tada ima4 is not compatible with MPC-HCs splitter and Lav Audio only MPC-HCs audio splitter connects (so solutions would be have both registered and lower the others merit and hope it wont interfere with anything else, try to make them interoperable or try to fix the mp4/mov freeze)
Linked segment is something i don't use myself also graph building is not really that interesting it's a nice advanced feature same for the mediatype changer the only really interesting thing in AV splitter compared to Lav Splitter for me personally are Programm switching support and proper working raw .(h)264 parsing

[Zachs]

Originally Posted by ryrynz

You can do both those things with ffdshow's audio processor under the volume and equalizer settings if you enable output to it via your media player.

Ahh iSunrise beat me to it while I was playing around.

Most sound card drivers tend to a configuration with equalizer settings, you could look into that and play with the DRC option in LAV.

Ah my sound card driver used to have equalizer in XP but it's no longer available in Win7.

How would one go about setting up ffdshow to use with LAV Audio? I'm using MPC-HC.

Edit: nevermind. Found out I could use AC3Filter (select PCM only under "Use AC3Filter for:") as the audio post processor for LAV Audio. I'm using it for EQ and DRC. I could even use it to downmix / upmix! Don't think Nev needs to add post processing capabilities to his filters at all.

[CruNcher]

@Nev
going through the database for .mov i experienced something odd with Lav Audio ?
@ Decoding PCM sowt Lav Audio showed considerably higher CPU utilization then compared to the MPC-HC Audio Decoder also tried to disable 32 bit floating point and also 32 bit in general and enabled same for MPC-HC Audio no difference (was rendering with the default 16 for both from the start)
i wonder where that difference of Lav Audio = 5%, MPC-HC Audio = 2% (3% Utilization difference) comes from in this decoding case ?

Audio
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Little
Format settings, Sign : Signed
Codec ID : sowt
Duration : 3mn 30s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 536 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 38.6 MiB (16%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2010-01-22 22:09:41
Tagged date : UTC 2010-01-22 22:13:16
Material_Duration : 211064
Material_StreamSize : 40524192

same difference visible for this twos

Audio
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Format settings, Sign : Signed
Codec ID : twos
Duration : 3mn 55s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 411.2 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 39.6 MiB (14%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2011-02-12 13:05:33
Tagged date : UTC 2011-02-12 13:08:10

AAC Decoding doesn't show such a huge difference

[nevcairiel]

The raw PCM "decoders" are more designed for readability and clarity then for speed.
There are also some features that are only activated with PCM, like the detection of DTS-in-WAV, which might take a bit processing power.

Its no CPU load to worry about.

Originally Posted by CruNcher

proper working raw .(h)264 parsing

raw h264 streams play fine for me, they just don't allow seeking, like all raw streams.
Those streams are only intermediates between encodes/muxings, and i don't think its that crucial to be able to seek in them.

Its more something that ffmpeg would need to support, not me, anyway.

Originally Posted by CruNcher

Nope the MP4/MOV (H.264 only so far) problem isn't fixed

Can you dig up a link to such a broken file? I cannot find the one i downloaded.

[nevcairiel]

Originally Posted by zmaster

A small question about the splitter. It is theoretically possible that the splitter can ignore certain parts with a certain name (the chapter name)?

No, thats not possible.
Chapters are just markers on the stream, like bookmarks, they are no logical units.

In theory you could try to jump to the next chapter of course, but it wouldn't be accurate or seamless.

[e-t172]

Originally Posted by Zachs

Ah my sound card driver used to have equalizer in XP but it's no longer available in Win7.

Sounds like you have a Creative card. In that case you can get back equalization and a bunch of other features by installing the unofficial drivers by Daniel_K.

[zmaster]

Originally Posted by nevcairiel

No, thats not possible.
Chapters are just markers on the stream, like bookmarks, they are no logical units.

In theory you could try to jump to the next chapter of course, but it wouldn't be accurate or seamless.

Thanks for reply.

[Midzuki]

Hummm, LAV Splitter apparently does not use "MEDIASUBTYPE_MPEG1AudioPayload". As a consequence, it cannot connect to the MPG123 decoder (mpg123dsf.ax), for example.

[CruNcher]

Originally Posted by nevcairiel

The raw PCM "decoders" are more designed for readability and clarity then for speed.
There are also some features that are only activated with PCM, like the detection of DTS-in-WAV, which might take a bit processing power.

Its no CPU load to worry about.



raw h264 streams play fine for me, they just don't allow seeking, like all raw streams.
Those streams are only intermediates between encodes/muxings, and i don't think its that crucial to be able to seek in them.

Its more something that ffmpeg would need to support, not me, anyway.



Can you dig up a link to such a broken file? I cannot find the one i downloaded.

This is strange i can definitely seek with AV Splitter in any raw file (ffmpeg), with Lav Splitter (ffmpeg) the seek bar is just grey (disabled) so i doubt Kytmanov fixed it in ffmpeg though i guess he has the ability todo it and then it would be really sad if he didn't contributed that back

Av Splitter



Lav Splitter



http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?...3&postcount=15
http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?...postcount=6567

On the yahoo trailer its @ the cut point (introduction,cut,trailer) seems to be always @ a cut (Finalcut) point on the sample in my video its also @ a cut point (first scene,cut,next scene) (Finalcut)

here is the issue propagated to .mp4 http://www.mediafire.com/?yx92afb8mrn7r3r (mp4box) it looks identical in what happens @ least (freeze)

Originally Posted by Pat357

I thought these issues were fixed in the latest Lav version(s)
Can you upload a mov/mp4 that still freezes with LAV 0.44 ?
Thanks !
PS: just to quickly rule out the core : do these mp4/mov's also crash in FFplay ? Output FFprobe ? Also freeze in Mplayer / Mplayer2 / Avplay (libav only) ?

yes they freeze several 3rd party applications based on ffmpeg (many of the all in one converters, video editors ect)
though i have to admit i didn't tried it with the latest trunks of libav or ffmpeg libav alone yet but earlier freezed since i first reported it way back, though what i hoped for is that feedback finds it way back to ffmpeg through lav splitter as well (dynamically) this is why i didn't reported it directly yet i agree that most probably was wishful thinking and in retrospect a mistake (i really hoped for it). Also since the project splitt it got more chaotic as you knew that these software was using ffmpeg now you need to make sure first what it uses

http://win32.libav.org/win32/libav-win32-20110318.7z <- still freezes

http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/win...in32-static.7z <- yep also freezes

just to make sure

ffmpeg:

G:\aero-solveig-all-60fps.264: error while seekingsq= 0B f=0/0 0/0

libav:

also fails with seeking raw

So it seems Kytmanov indeed did some own fix here or uses some experimental fix in Av Splitter that works really well

[aufkrawall]

Will it be possible to use QuickSync to accelerate decoding of 4k video also with Sandy Bridge? Or just with Ivy Bridge?

[CruNcher]

most probably only with Ivy Bridge even if it would be possible with SB i doubt Intel would disable the Software Restriction because of certain implications
It's rare when Restrictions are disabled last time i remember it was for the Sony PSP when UMD wasn't as commercial successful as Sony imagined it so they finally removed the resolution limit from 640 to the full capable full SD (UMD) for any Stream (though before hackers circumvented this already it was a little adventurous workaround anyways creating a own file format hehe), also after many users where unhappy that they couldn't playback their Apple Quicktime Movs and only being restricted to Sonys .mp4 they reacted after the protest was heavy enough to hurt their sales

So don't hope for it especially for 64bit it's not easy anymore manipulating a driver anymore or you endup in a F8 session every time (though for how long this will still work is also not clear)
With Secureboot on ARM (though also different ARM Firmware protection schemes are already broken) and upcoming devices it will be even much harder and devices fully under control of who developed them those will be hard times. and only the smartest of the smartest low level geniuses that know up to the Bios (Uefi,TPM) level with cryptography experience will survive (and i don't speak about the new .Net or Java zombie Generation growing up or better been grown up ), though this started already with (Pay TV, though companies weren't low level getting sued is still the nice way if you make something public, they even killed genius people in the past to protect their protection schemes and systems) moved to the Xbox,PSP,PS3 and moved on to Smartphones and its continuing to the Desktop PC.

Of course we will benefit in Security from it but also Device Restrictions will get secured with it more and more and Open Source will get threatened by it even if everyone says we will allow it it is a major problem in this new future, it will tough also open up new interesting ways see Intels Chip Research you buy only 1 Chip and later you enable what you need with a code and get more performance for extra money this will also have a major impact on the Economy itself as yields get better it will help to avoid to much production costs developing a line of 30 different chips instead their will be only 1 chip where you decide what you want to pay for extra you can virtualy build your own chip deciding if you need VC-1,H.264,Mpeg-2 whatever any instruction (SSE, AVX) could be restricted Cores Mhz you name it it could be done in the future, and evaluation wise it is already being done by Intel)
So everything will be on the Chip allready only 1 production line 1 time the cost but due to the restrictions it will allow to create a tremendous efficient Ecosystem, of course there need to be evaluated how do these products will look like and how do you market certain features to costumers (will there be base configs,do i need certain instructions and for what, where does it help me in my current usage ect) but all this is currently researched on as we speak

[aufkrawall]

Originally Posted by CruNcher

most probably only with Ivy Bridge even if it would be possible with SB i doubt Intel would disable the Software Restriction because of certain implications

Maybe just a patched version of the ffdshow QuickSync decoder would be needed.
Since it's open source I don't see any legal conflicts.

[CruNcher]

Nope also Egur can only do what others allow him todo

[Zachs]

Originally Posted by e-t172

Sounds like you have a Creative card. In that case you can get back equalization and a bunch of other features by installing the unofficial drivers by Daniel_K.

Actually it's Realtek crap that comes with the mobo.
I've looked around but Realtek said EQ is no longer supported under Win7.

[ranpha]

Originally Posted by Zachs

Actually it's Realtek crap that comes with the mobo.
I've looked around but Realtek said EQ is no longer supported under Win7.

There is an EQ in Realtek drivers in Windows 7. Your hardware probably doesn't support it?

[CruNcher]

Originally Posted by ranpha

There is an EQ in Realtek drivers in Windows 7. Your hardware probably doesn't support it?

yep though its made for the avg joe so you are first greeted with the user friendly GUI which is basically the choice of some presets (there are more in the drop down menu) on the side of that dropdown is a little Equalizer button pushing that makes the EQ visible.

[Pat357]

Originally Posted by nevcairiel

raw h264 streams play fine for me, they just don't allow seeking, like all raw streams.
Those streams are only intermediates between encodes/muxings, and i don't think its that crucial to be able to seek in them.

I could use some advise concerning playback from raw .264/h264/x264 streams. Please give me good tip guys.
This is wat I have : playback from raw h264 streams using Lav-filter + lav video gives me a black screen in MPC-HC.
(File async, lav-spiltter, lav-audio and lav-video as "prefered", all internal stuff disabled)

I also created a graph in Graphstudio like :
asyn file -> lav-splitter-> lav-video -> EVR. Very simple and should work, but it doesn't, again the same black screen.
The info about the source (fps, higth, width, ratio,..) is properly passed from the source -> lav-splitter -> lav video -> evr.
Oh, I have enabled "raw video" in the lavsplitter tab after the lavfilter installation, not during installation.

I'm starting pulling out my hair because every time I create a raw .x264, I want to have a look at it before I start muxing the rest, and I bump against this issue.
If I put a .x264 that gives only a black screen in a container (MKV, MP4, whatever) it plays normal ! So the stream itself is OK, I guess.
If I replace lav-splitter with for ex. AVsplitter, Sonic HD demuxer or any other capable splitter, everything plays fine (still using Lav-video !).
The problem I have seems somehow related to Lav-spliiter, maybe in combination with something else.
All Lav-filters have their original merit (80000, 80004) and no other filter has a higher merrit in Dshow. (others or all below lav-video/audio).

How can it be that a raw x264 file does not play, but as soon as I put it in a container (which doesn't matter, mkv, mp4,..are all ok) it plays perfect !
It seems that something (filter with a lower merit) is highjacking all extensions for raw x264 files....
Your advise please.
System : Lav-filters 0.44, MPC-HC v3970, Nvidia gtx-570, Intel 970 @ 3.6 , Win 7 prof x64 (all updates).

[mindbomb]

i have a question.

I'm playing around with dxva copy back and rgb 32 output in lav video.

I'm noticing that interlaced video is being deinterlaced. How is this happening? I don't have yadif enabled. Is lav video doing it or can evr cp deinterlace rgb32 video?

[goldie]

@mindbomb
You can check whether it's deinterlaced in renderer or not by temporarily switch renderer from EVR to VMR or something else (overlay?).
Then check if there is a another deinterlaced-feature-enabled filter in your directshow filter chain (mayde is ffdshow).