madVR - high quality video renderer (GPU assisted)

[namaiki]

To make it simple, make sure that you only have one monitor enabled at a time. Also, what you have installed is fine. Just make sure that you are using the MPC-HC that CCCP installs (32-bit).

23.976Hz refresh rate is good if your videos are also 23.976fps. For smoothness, you can try use ReClock, but do not necessarily make this your first option.

[pankov]

bulaboy,
do have in mind that PowerStrip won't work with 5xxx ATI cards so don't bother trying it.
Also it's possible that RGB 4:4:4 Pixel Format (Full RGB) is broken on your ATI like it's on most 5xxx cards. Look for my previous posts on the topic and check if you are actually getting real Full RGB - you should get different picture on your TV when using Limited RGB. If you don't see any difference you're unlucky like most of us 57xx users
If you have a DVI output on your laptop you can try using it with a DVI-HDMI cable/convertor - this way you'll get real Full RGB ... but you might loose sound sorry

[bulaboy]

Thanks for the prompt reply namaiki! Yes, I do ensure I output only to the TV...my laptop screen is off. The videos i watch are 23.976fps (when I press Ctrl-J the info that comes up does confirm that also). And i agree, i don't want to use reclock unless i really have to. Just wish I knew how to make motion/playback butter smooth....

[madshi]

Originally Posted by Gser

Yes.

Ok, will think about how to find out what's going wrong...

Originally Posted by bulaboy

i.e. Do I JUST need MPC-HC and MadVR. Or do I need more?

Depends a bit. Personally, I'm using madFlac for FLAC decoding, CoreAVC for h264 decoding, the MS VC-1 decoder for VC-1 decoding, the DScaler IVTC mod for MPEG2 decoding, the Haali splitter for MKV splitting and the internal MPC-HC splitter for TS/m2ts splitting. These are the filters that work best for me, personally. If you have motion smoothness problems, they can be the fault of madVR, or of "bad" madVR settings, or it's also possible that some other filters on your PC are not working as they should. It could also be a fault of Aero, if you're not going into fullscreen exclusive mode.

For a start, I'd suggest that you post a small screenshot of the madVR OSD when watching a movie, so we can see the rendering times, whether the queues are full etc. If you have fun to play around a bit, try setting all madVR flush settings to "don't flush" or to "flush & wait (loop)" to see if either one of them makes things better for you. Also try a different Luma rescaling algorithm. The default is rather demanding, although your GPU should be up to the task, I think.

Do you use exclusive mode? Meaning: Do you maximize the MPC HC window so that no MPC HC GUI is visible, anymore, and does madVR then show an "exclusive" message for a short time?

[bulaboy]

Thanks pankov. Will try to switch between Full RGB and Limited RGB and see if theres any diff. If it is broken then should I leave the pixel format to the default of "YCbCr 4:4:4" or just leave it on Full RGB anyway?

[Thunderbolt8]

Originally Posted by madshi

Personally, I'm using CoreAVC for h264 decoding, the MS VC-1 decoder for VC-1 decoding, the DScaler IVTC mod for MPEG2 decoding

whats the reason for not using ffdshow in all these cases (ffmpeg-mt for h264, wmv9 for VC-1 and libavcodec for mpeg2)? just performance?

[madshi]

Originally Posted by Thunderbolt8

whats the reason for not using ffdshow in all these cases (ffmpeg-mt for h264, wmv9 for VC-1 and libavcodec for mpeg2)? just performance?

CoreAVC: Performs well and without problems. So I see no reason to switch to ffmpeg-mt. A long time ago I tried the ffmpeg decoders and had graphical corruption with some broadcasts. Probably these problems have been fixed in the meanwhile, but I never had such trouble with CoreAVC. Also CoreAVC with deinterlacing set to "weave" produces perfect progressive results for the 1080i50 broadcasts here in Germany. Don't know if ffmpeg-mt can do that, too. Maybe yes.

MS VC-1: Last time I checked, it performed a lot better than the ffmpeg decoder. Also it's from MS (the VC-1 inventor), so it's expected to produce no corruption in any case. Also it's free. So why use anything else?

DScaler IVTC mod: Very reliable IVTC (60i -> 24p) for all NTSC/ATSC broadcasts and DVDs. No other MPEG2 decoder can do that.

[ajp_anton]

Originally Posted by madshi

I can't reproduce it. Tried on both my XPSP3 dev PC and on my win7 x64 HTPC. Can you please check pin connection info before and after the exclusive switch? Does the pin connection info change? Also a log might be helpful...

How to use the debug build?

Pin info changes (5 bolded lines are different):
Before exclusive mode:

Filter : madVR - CLSID : {E1A8B82A-32CE-4B0D-BE0D-AA68C772E423}

- Connected to:

CLSID: {008BAC12-FBAF-497B-9670-BC6F6FBAE2C4}
Filter: MPC Video Decoder
Pin: Output

- Connection media type:

Video: YV12 720x568 (1424:781) 25.00fps

AM_MEDIA_TYPE: 
majortype: MEDIATYPE_Video {73646976-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
subtype: MEDIASUBTYPE_YV12 {32315659-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
formattype: FORMAT_VideoInfo2 {F72A76A0-EB0A-11D0-ACE4-0000C0CC16BA}
bFixedSizeSamples: 1
bTemporalCompression: 0
lSampleSize: 613440
cbFormat: 112

VIDEOINFOHEADER:
rcSource: (0,0)-(712,568)
rcTarget: (0,0)-(712,568)
dwBitRate: 0
dwBitErrorRate: 0
AvgTimePerFrame: 400000

VIDEOINFOHEADER2:
dwInterlaceFlags: 0x00000081
dwCopyProtectFlags: 0x00000000
dwPictAspectRatioX: 1424
dwPictAspectRatioY: 781
dwControlFlags: 0x00000000
dwReserved2: 0x00000000

BITMAPINFOHEADER:
biSize: 40
biWidth: 720
biHeight: 568
biPlanes: 1
biBitCount: 12
biCompression: YV12
biSizeImage: 613440
biXPelsPerMeter: 0
biYPelsPerMeter: 0
biClrUsed: 0
biClrImportant: 0

pbFormat:
0000: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 c8 02 00 00 38 02 00 00 ........È...8...
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 c8 02 00 00 38 02 00 00 ........È...8...
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 1a 06 00 00 00 00 00 ........€.......
0030: 81 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 90 05 00 00 0d 03 00 00 �.......�.......
0040: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 28 00 00 00 d0 02 00 00 ........(...Ð...
0050: 38 02 00 00 01 00 0c 00 59 56 31 32 40 5c 09 00 8.......YV12@\..
0060: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

After exclusive mode:

Filter : madVR - CLSID : {E1A8B82A-32CE-4B0D-BE0D-AA68C772E423}

- Connected to:

CLSID: {008BAC12-FBAF-497B-9670-BC6F6FBAE2C4}
Filter: MPC Video Decoder
Pin: Output

- Connection media type:

Video: YV12 720x576 (1424:781) 25.00fps

AM_MEDIA_TYPE: 
majortype: MEDIATYPE_Video {73646976-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
subtype: MEDIASUBTYPE_YV12 {32315659-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
formattype: FORMAT_VideoInfo2 {F72A76A0-EB0A-11D0-ACE4-0000C0CC16BA}
bFixedSizeSamples: 1
bTemporalCompression: 0
lSampleSize: 622080
cbFormat: 112

VIDEOINFOHEADER:
rcSource: (0,0)-(712,568)
rcTarget: (0,0)-(712,568)
dwBitRate: 0
dwBitErrorRate: 0
AvgTimePerFrame: 400000

VIDEOINFOHEADER2:
dwInterlaceFlags: 0x00000081
dwCopyProtectFlags: 0x00000000
dwPictAspectRatioX: 1424
dwPictAspectRatioY: 781
dwControlFlags: 0x00000000
dwReserved2: 0x00000000

BITMAPINFOHEADER:
biSize: 40
biWidth: 720
biHeight: 576
biPlanes: 1
biBitCount: 12
biCompression: YV12
biSizeImage: 622080
biXPelsPerMeter: 0
biYPelsPerMeter: 0
biClrUsed: 0
biClrImportant: 0

pbFormat:
0000: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 c8 02 00 00 38 02 00 00 ........È...8...
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 c8 02 00 00 38 02 00 00 ........È...8...
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 1a 06 00 00 00 00 00 ........€.......
0030: 81 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 90 05 00 00 0d 03 00 00 �.......�.......
0040: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 28 00 00 00 d0 02 00 00 ........(...Ð...
0050: 40 02 00 00 01 00 0c 00 59 56 31 32 00 7e 09 00 @.......YV12.~..
0060: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

[mark0077]

Originally Posted by madshi

At the *start* of movies? How do you define "start"? First 3 seconds? Or a longer time frame? Is this with v0.26 or does it still occur with v0.27? FWIW, I was hoping that the new frame drop/delay logic in v0.27 would help madVR getting smooth quicker at the start of a movie, compared to v0.26.


Remind me, which is your hardware/software setup? Is v0.27 behaving better, worse or about equal compared to v0.26 for you? Is there any difference between windowed and exclusive mode for you? Do you also have those frame drops in exclusive mode?

Hi Madshi. By start, I have sent you two logs that were approx 10/15 seconds into a video clip, when 0 frame drops were occuring... and all of a sudden maybe 20 or 30 frames got dropped.. This is with 0.27. This happened twice and I gathered logs, one in exclusive, one in non exclusive. This is with 0.27.

Hardware is Core i7 920 @ 3.7ghz, GTX 295, Windows 7 64bit, mpc-hc 32bit, reclock with its vysync stuff off. I can't compare to 0.26 as I didn't do so much testing / reporting. Freezes and frame drops are so random its hard to compare. And I get drops in exclusive and non exclusive. Its not a major problem but like others I am a perfectionist so when I see...10.... 50..... 100 frame drops per movie I report it as I do here. Definitely a bad sign when the gf says... "oh no its gone jumpy again"... im like .... haha Let me know if I can perform any tests. I love seeing the improvement of this renderer, its going really great places.

PS: Another slight error that only effects the red display stats output. When playing back a 30fps telicine content that is correctly converted to 24fps by the decoder... madVR still says 30fps (says source filter)... not a biggie but worth noting.

[madshi]

@ajp_anton, I have a hard time believing the switching out of exclusive mode can make a difference. Maybe by chance you happened to drop out of exclusive mode at the same time when the media type changed? Or does the media type change really occur directly when going out of exclusive mode? The thing is: The splitter and decoder do not even know when madVR enters or leaves the exclusive mode! Not even MPC HC knows that! So how could that possibly affect the media type!? Makes no sense to me...

@mark0077, you haven't answered all my questions yet.

[mark0077]

All should be answered.... now... If any more let me know.

[madshi]

Originally Posted by mark0077

All should be answered.... now...

Do I really have to spell it out another time? You know, if I ask a question, then I have a good reason for that. I asked:

> Is v0.27 behaving better, worse or about
> equal compared to v0.26 for you?

I changed the frame drop/delay logic in v0.27, so I need to know whether those big number of frame drops you got are new to v0.27 or whether you had similar behaviour in v0.26. If they're new to v0.27 then obviously the new frame drop/delay logic isn't working well for you. If you had the same problems with v0.26 then the new frame drop logic is not at fault. That's crucial for me to know.

See, I just wasted several minutes of my free time because you didn't properly answer all my questions. I asked you via PM to answer my questions in the forum. Then I'm now asking you in the forum for the 2nd time. That makes 3 times I had to ask you to answer all my questions...

[mark0077]

Attitude!! Well if you read my reply you'll see that i said that frame drops are so random......... oh I'm not going to type it all out again... read if you like... not going to repeat myself now

Heres the post........... The least you can do when people put time into trying to help is to be patient......... Now you wasted both your own and my time. Puts people off trying to help tbh.
http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?...postcount=4238

[Luv]

Madshi,you just made me remind of something about 1080i/25fp/avc with coreavc set to weave and 0.27:
I noticed many delayed frames (And much less dropped frames) when I watch this kind of material.Is it because my display refresh rate is @85Hz ? All I can see is that the three queues keep oscillating between 6 and 7-8 instead of being at 7-8 constantly.
This question comes late but what's the distinction between "Delayed" and "Dropped" and what are the consequences when there are a lot of delayed frames ?

[madshi]

Originally Posted by mark0077

Attitude!! Well if you read my reply you'll see that i said that frame drops are so random......... oh I'm not going to type it all out again... read if you like... not going to repeat myself now

Heres the post........... The least you can do when people put time into trying to help is to be patient......... Now you wasted both your own and my time. Puts people off trying to help tbh.

Pfffffff... I'm sorry. You're right, I should be thankful that you are so kind to let me spend thousands of hours of my free time to develop a free software for you.

You are dangerously close to getting on my ignore list.

[mark0077]

Everyone appreciates the work you put in madshi, hence the fact I get up in the middle of movies to collect debug logs etc.... we are all trying our best here... a bit of patience goes a long way. Keep up the good work no hard feelings.

[madshi]

Originally Posted by Luv

you just made me remind of something about 1080i/25fp/avc with coreavc set to weave and 0.27:
I noticed many delayed frames (And much less dropped frames) when I watch this kind of material.Is it because my display refresh rate is @85Hz ? All I can see is that the three queues keep oscillating between 6 and 7-8 instead of being at 7-8 constantly.
This question comes late but what's the distinction between "Delayed" and "Dropped" and what are the consequences when there are a lot of delayed frames ?

Delayed frames happen when due to unexpected PC "unresponsiveness" madVR is not able to present a frame at the vsync it was originally planned for. The frame is then displayed one or multiple vsyncs later. A dropped frame is a frame which is not displayed *at all*. This should all get better when the final exclusive mode rendering path is implemented (it isn't yet).

[madshi]

Originally Posted by mark0077

Everyone appreciates the work you put in madshi, hence the fact I get up in the middle of movies to collect debug logs etc.... we are all trying our best here... a bit of patience goes a long way. Keep up the good work no hard feelings.

My patience ends when I have to ask the same thing over and over again without getting a proper answer. That makes me feel that you don't respect the value of my time.

It doesn't help, btw, that when you finally do answer my question, that you "hide" the answer in an edited older post without clearly saying so...

Ok, so you can't compare to v0.26. How about older versions? Is your impression that frame drops got worse with v0.27? Or can't you say at all?

[Luv]

Okidoki ! I just tried with default resizers (I'm only using Spline64 right now) and the delayed/dropped frames don't occur so often.Wait and see.By the way,wich version of Haali's media splitter are you using for your tests ?

[ajp_anton]

Originally Posted by madshi

@ajp_anton, I have a hard time believing the switching out of exclusive mode can make a difference. Maybe by chance you happened to drop out of exclusive mode at the same time when the media type changed? Or does the media type change really occur directly when going out of exclusive mode? The thing is: The splitter and decoder do not even know when madVR enters or leaves the exclusive mode! Not even MPC HC knows that! So how could that possibly affect the media type!? Makes no sense to me...

The video doesn't even have to be playing. I can pause and double-click alt+Enter and the chroma plane will shift instantly when getting back to windowed mode.

The change from 712x568 to 712x576 happens in the MPC Video Decoder output (not input) pin also, so I tried ffdshow and there it works fine.
If EVR exclusive mode = enabling "D3D fullscreen", there are no problems there with MPC decoder.