CoreCodec/H.264 Codec "CoreAVC"

[dk75]

This is tougher than I thought - I could not get Zoomplayer or MPC to report any dropped frames, even if I do something insane like run Cinema Craft Encoder at the same time (at a higher priority too!). It looks like the video will slow down and the audio will stutter - hence, no dropped frames!
I think it's bycause H264 DS filter. I've seen already few times a dropped frames but never with H264. It's always slowmotion.
And as for slower playback than timeCodec - are You sure that You 're using CoreAVC to playback with Your player?

[maxleung]

dk75, sorry, the playback I did today was on my work PC which is a P4. I was running the Timecodec test on my home machine, which apparently is a lot faster. :)

[ACrowley]

Icx, is it the same prob i have where the audio is always playing around 250ms too early?

same problem here with DirectShow CoreAVC

But only with "some" h264 720p Files

No dropped Frames so far and stable framerate on A64 3400/2gig RAm/x800xt-pe

But theres the audioDelay-Audio async,how subscribed from the others here!

Nevermind what Container is used ,or what for a DirectShow Player is used!
Also nevermind if i use Haali Spliter or something else.

Problems with ALL CoreAVC Versions (0001-1.0)

And i know lot of People with CoreAVC and a Audio delay,async, Problem too

So its a bigger Problem...

With the CorePlayer ,tcpmpW32, and the AVC Plugin theres NO Audio async !
So ,theres only the Bug with the DirtectShow Versions of CoreAVC

BetaBoy...i hope we can get a bugfix for that !

As is say only with some h264-HD Files..

Heres a sample with async Audio on (only) CoreAVC :
http://rapidshare.de/files/17432320/sample_h264_mkv.mkv.html

Greetz

[tomos]

weird, happens with all of mine. whether 720, or 1080. if i add 250ms to my players delay then its all fine for every single file.

this didnt happen during older releases tho, just 1 beta.

[BetaBoy]

same problem here with DirectShow CoreAVC

But only with "some" h264 720p Files

No dropped Frames so far and stable framerate on A64 3400/2gig RAm/x800xt-pe

But theres the audioDelay-Audio async,how subscribed from the others here!

Nevermind what Container is used ,or what for a DirectShow Player is used!
Also nevermind if i use Haali Spliter or something else.

Problems with ALL CoreAVC Versions (0001-1.0)

And i know lot of People with CoreAVC and a Audio delay,async, Problem too

So its a bigger Problem...

With the CorePlayer ,tcpmpW32, and the AVC Plugin theres NO Audio async !
So ,theres only the Bug with the DirtectShow Versions of CoreAVC

BetaBoy...i hope we can get a bugfix for that !

As is say only with some h264-HD Files..

Heres a sample with async Audio on (only) CoreAVC :
http://rapidshare.de/files/17432320/sample_h264_mkv.mkv.html

Greetz

I am still trying to determine what the actual issue is... 4 systems I test on here do not have the issue. I have asked 3 beta testers to test the sample MKV so i'll report what they tell me.

I'll ping Haali and Toff on this.

[tomos]

do you want an example of an AVI that has this problem?

[HookedOnTV]

I played the above sample on two machines and they were both in sync (atleast as close as you could expect being a foreign language dub).

[net1999]

Had a quick test, the avi which is encoded with vfw mode x264 had the sync problem when I tried to do the fast searching. MKV which is done by MeGUI was acting perfect...

[jeffhuge]

Had a quick test, the avi which is encoded with vfw mode x264 had the sync problem when I tried to do the fast searching. MKV which is done by MeGUI was acting perfect...
momo net1999 sama
:)

[BlackSharkfr]

www.hardware.fr did a small review of Core AVC
They tested it with an Athon FX 55 and they compared CoreAVC with Cyberlink and Nero, with and without graphics card acceleration :
link to the article (french) (http://www.hardware.fr/news/8117/coreavc-plus-fort-qu-avivo-purevideo.html)
http://www.hardware.fr/medias/photos_news/00/16/IMG0016450.gif
http://www.hardware.fr/medias/photos_news/00/16/IMG0016453.gif

[maxleung]

Betaboy says:

I am still trying to determine what the actual issue is... 4 systems I test on here do not have the issue. I have asked 3 beta testers to test the sample MKV so i'll report what they tell me.

This one plays strange on my system - audio is garbage because Zoomplayer picked the DScaler Audio Filter and I get massive static. Hmmm...what is the audio format anyways?

EDIT: Well, I don't know why it picked DScaler, but when I told it to pass the MPEG audio through SPDIF it started to work. THe audio is out of sync.

[BetaBoy]

do you want an example of an AVI that has this problem?
yes... send it via yousendit.com and use betaboy@corecodec.com . .thx

[tomos]

uploading via that site now. 3 mins left at this point

while doing this i found something tho. i cut out a speech from a movie i have encoded. playing the movie straight away and it seems fine. the audio is perfectly in sync. now if i seek at all within the clip, start/middle/end, then the audio is 250ms out of sync.

same in mpc/zplayer etc. just playing the clip and not seeking at all leaves the audio percetly in sync.

hopefully you can confirm this on your end with this clip Dan :)

[anisota]

I thought someone on this forum might be interested in work I've done using the CoreAVCCodec in Linux. Specifically, I have hacked up the win32 filter loader in mplayer to handle CorAVCDecoder.ax. I initially got it working with 0.0.4, but that was only 2 days before 1.0 was released. After 1.0 was released, I had to do a lot more work to get it working again due to a lot more checking of data integrity inside the DLL itself. But I have now succeeded in doing so. Of course, I was informed by CoreCodec support that they'll be releasing a linux version in a couple of weeks, so this may not be useful to anyone, but my main goal is actually to use this filter with mythtv (which I have succeeded in as well), and I don't have any indication that their linux release will support that.

The code is still very crude, and I can't gaurantee it will work for anyone else, but it should. Also, it was built for a 32-bit pentium-4. I have no idea what will happen if it is compiled for 64bit, or on anything but gcc/linux. Specifically, I had to implement some nasty assembly stack manipulation to implement a Windows-style exception handler, and that is certainly very non portable. Also, the code probably won't play nicely with any other win32 filters. you've been warned.

Also, because the official codec does a key-validation, you need to supply your key to mplayer. I am not aware of any way to edit the registry file, so it is currently hardcoded (of course I didn't provide my key, you'll need to provide your own)

for mplayer:
apply the patch, then edit loader/dshow/DS_VideoDecoder.c
Search for 'Joe User' and replace the key/user-id from what is in your registry after installing the codec (luckily enough, the installer works great with wine, so no windows system is required)
run configure and make as usual
place the CoreAVCDecoder.ax file into /usr/lib/win32 (or wherever you configured mplayer to look for it)

append the following to the end of your codecs.conf file:

videocodec coreavc
info "CoreAVC DShow H264 decoder for x86 - http://corecodec.org/"
status untested
format 0x10000005
; format 0x31637661 ; avc1
fourcc H264,h264
fourcc X264,x264
fourcc avc1
fourcc davc,DAVC
driver dshow
dll "CoreAVCDecoder.ax"
guid 0x09571a4b, 0xf1fe, 0x4c60, 0x97, 0x60, 0xde, 0x6d, 0x31, 0x0c, 0x7c, 0x31
out YV12,IYUV,I420,YUY2


you should be ready to go.

for mythtv:
install the patch
cd libs/libdshowloader
make
cd dshow
make
cd ../../..

make and install as usual
copy CoreAVCDecoder.ax to /usr/lib/win32
copy the dshowcodecs file to ~/.mythtv/ (of the user you run mythfrontend as)
edit dshowcodecs and change the key and user id to the one from your registry (no need to edit the source for mythtv)
You should be good to go.

I have only tried the above with the 'Pro' version. It may or may-not work with any other version.
http://www.files.bz/files/9309/Mythtv/mplayer_coreavc.patch.20060413.bz2
http://www.files.bz/files/9309/Mythtv/directshow.patch.20060413.bz2
http://www.files.bz/files/9309/Mythtv/dshowcodecs

Here is some performance comparison I did (with 0.0.4) on linux:

for a 54 second 1280x720 video on a P4 2.8GHz (on linux)

using ffmpeg:
mplayer -vo null -nosound -benchmark h264.mpg
BENCHMARKs: VC: 47.711s VO: 0.038s A: 0.000s Sys: 0.732s = 48.481s
BENCHMARK%: VC: 98.4132% VO: 0.0779% A: 0.0000% Sys: 1.5089% = 100.0000%

using coreAVC:
mplayer -vo null -nosound -benchmark -vc coreavc h264.mpg
BENCHMARKs: VC: 35.498s VO: 0.040s A: 0.000s Sys: 0.750s = 36.288s
BENCHMARK%: VC: 97.8222% VO: 0.1109% A: 0.0000% Sys: 2.0669% = 100.0000%

[BetaBoy]

uploading via that site now. 3 mins left at this point

while doing this i found something tho. i cut out a speech from a movie i have encoded. playing the movie straight away and it seems fine. the audio is perfectly in sync. now if i seek at all within the clip, start/middle/end, then the audio is 250ms out of sync.

same in mpc/zplayer etc. just playing the clip and not seeking at all leaves the audio percetly in sync.

hopefully you can confirm this on your end with this clip Dan :)

This is a known bug and has already been fixed and will be in the next release.

[ACrowley]

@BetaBoy

Something new about the Audio async Bug ?

I think i will upload a new sample which is only with CoreAVC Async later.

[soresu]

Has anyone else here ordered CoreAVC and not been sent a download link email yet? Ive been waiting a week already.

[BetaBoy]

soresu... there are a handlful of ppl that seem to have not gotten their orders. You can email me betaboy@gmail.com or betaboy@corecodec.com to take care of it.

[BetaBoy]

@BetaBoy

Something new about the Audio async Bug ?

I think i will upload a new sample which is only with CoreAVC Async later.
Pls upload a clip... so far all of us that have tested, have not had any of the audio sync issues that have been reported. The demos ppl have sent us do not point to any issue with the decoder at all, but a local config issue.

[Shazam]

Hi guys !

I'm downloading HD trailers in 1080p (*.hdmov).

I'm using coreavc, MPC and zoomplayer with ffdshow.

My pb is that hdmov files, according to graphedit, are associated with coreavc AND ffdshow mpeg-4 video decoder, which jeopardizes the playback quality

http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/5725/graph1xs.jpg

When I remove ffdshow in graphedit , everything's fine !!

So how to get the right association to playback hasslefree in media player ?

http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/5171/graph10yf.jpg

Thanks for your help !

PS : h.264 has been deactivated in ffdshow...

[breez]

Deactivate "raw video" from ffdshow.

[Shazam]

Deactivate "raw video" from ffdshow.

Thanks for the advice : works !

...and why this has to be done ?

[[)370|\|470!2]

Because it has higher merit in dshow.

[Shazam]

Thanks !

[ravemax]

@anisota: Sweet.
- Is the hardcoded 1280x720 only a default-case, only used when the resolution was not specified?
- Still got the 0.04 .patch?
Thanks.

[ACrowley]

Pls upload a clip... so far all of us that have tested, have not had any of the audio sync issues that have been reported. The demos ppl have sent us do not point to any issue with the decoder at all, but a local config issue.

http://rapidshare.de/files/18167628/test.mkv.html

Here another sample where i (and others) have Problems with Audio async. only with CoreAVC DirectShow Version

TCPMPW32 CoreAVC .PLG plays it 100% in sync!

Greetz

[BetaBoy]

ok... 4 PC's here and this tests fine both via DS and CorePlayer Pro (win32)...... tell me specifically what audio codec you are using for DS AC-3 playback?

[sillKotscha]

ok... 4 PC's here and this tests fine [...] via DS

up to 5 ;)

[bob0r]

http://rapidshare.de/files/18167628/test.mkv.html

Here another sample where i (and others) have Problems with Audio async. only with CoreAVC DirectShow Version

TCPMPW32 CoreAVC .PLG plays it 100% in sync!

Greetz

It plays here very out of sync also.
Even tho media player classic is not dropping any frames, i think i have found MY problem: 1-AMD XP, 1530MHz, 256KB
What's yours?

[welew]

When coreavc (1.0.0.0 Pro) is installed in a non-english direcory (chinese directory for example), then CoreAVCDecoder.ax would not be called.

Solution: unrar the patch file to the same directory containing CoreAVCDecoder.ax, then run it. Done!

welew 2006-4-17
http://corecodec.org/tracker/download.php/64/313/727/32/CoreAVC_Patch.rar

[kirkers]

The latest FFDShow build (2006-04-13) by Milan Cutka posted on the x264.nl site has solved a huge problem with C++ assertion error crashes in Winamp streams and files using H/x264.

I don't know if this is exactly the right place, but I wanted to acknowledge the tremendous improvement in quality.

(Moderators: please post this in other thread(s) based on your best judgment)

[BetaBoy]

The latest FFDShow build (2006-04-13) by Milan Cutka posted on the x264.nl site has solved a huge problem with C++ assertion error crashes in Winamp streams and files using H/x264.

I don't know if this is exactly the right place, but I wanted to acknowledge the tremendous improvement in quality.

(Moderators: please post this in other thread(s) based on your best judgment)

Way OT ;-)

[BetaBoy]

When coreavc (1.0.0.0 Pro) is installed in a non-english direcory (chinese directory for example), then CoreAVCDecoder.ax would not be called.

Solution: unrar the patch file to the same directory containing CoreAVCDecoder.ax, then run it. Done!

welew 2006-4-17
http://corecodec.org/tracker/download.php/64/313/727/32/CoreAVC_Patch.rar
EDIT: NM... I see it was added to the tracker... thx

[ACrowley]

It plays here very out of sync also.
Even tho media player classic is not dropping any frames, i think i have found MY problem: 1-AMD XP, 1530MHz, 256KB
What's yours?

No...mine is strong enough for 720p h264!

A64 3400/2gb ram/x800xt-pe/audigy2zs/Wxp Pro

My DirectShow Interface is working fine!
CoreAVC ,Haali or all other Decoder/filter for each MediaFiles are used proberly in each Dshow player.
Graphedit shows me too..


As i say CorePlayer is playing theses problamtic Files 100% in sync!
Only Dshow CoreAVC not.. No dropped Frames, 21,50 average frames

All other HDTV Content like mpeg2(ts) wmv-9 ..no async


@betaBoy
I use AC3 FIlter for decoding AC3 or DTS !
Also test ffdshow or other AC3 decoder like cyberlink, nero...all the same!
And i test these Files without any Audio stream too...the same!

With the Samples i have a CPU load of 98-100% with CoreAVC ..
Whats you CPU load with the samples ??

[BetaBoy]

With the Samples i have a CPU load of 98-100% with CoreAVC ..
Whats you CPU load with the samples ??
32%... using cyberlink and it plays fine... can you specifically show me captures of graphedit? Can you uninstall FFDShow and see if this changes anything?

[ACrowley]

32% ....hardware accel. ??

i know absolutly no User who has only 32% with it on around 3,2gig CPU?? 100% not!
Are you sure ?
What for a CPU are you using ? DualCore?

And no..ffdshow unin. didnt change anything!

As i say only HaaliSplitter/CoreAVC/AC3Filter is used for those h264 Files!
In every DirectShowPlayer , also in Graphedit (with Video/AudioRenderer at the End)

So its 100% not a Problem with my Dshow Interface and with wrong used Decoders

Its CoreAVC himself ,because tcpmp or other Decoders play it in sync.
And only "some" h264- htv Files (other codes=no Problem) are not in sync..so it must be CoreAVC only

[BetaBoy]

32% ....hardware accel. ??

i know absolutly no User who has only 32% with it on around 3,2gig CPU?? 100% not!
Are you sure ?
What for a CPU are you using ? DualCore?

And no..ffdshow unin. didnt change anything!

As i say only HaaliSplitter/CoreAVC/AC3Filter is used for those h264 Files!
In every DirectShowPlayer , also in Graphedit (with Video/AudioRenderer at the End)

So its 100% not a Problem with my Dshow Interface and with wrong used Decoders

Its CoreAVC himself ,because tcpmp or other Decoders play it in sync.
And only "some" h264- htv Files (other codes=no Problem) are not in sync..so it must be CoreAVC only

Yes Dual Core T2600 Inspiron... we will continue to look into the issue.

[emmel]

No...mine is strong enough for 720p h264!

A64 3400/2gb ram/x800xt-pe/audigy2zs/Wxp Pro

With the Samples i have a CPU load of 98-100% with CoreAVC ..


Just tried your test.mkv with my A64 3200/512M/X600/XP Pro and HaaliSplitter/CoreAVC 1.0.0.0. I get 60% load with overlay renderer and 80% with vmr9. All n'sync.

[soresu]

Still no reply to my e-mail about missing CoreAVC pro download link. Gettin desperate now! :scared:

[ChronoCross]

Still no reply to my e-mail about missing CoreAVC pro download link. Gettin desperate now! :scared:'

check your spam folder....

[soresu]

Nope, ive got the purchase notification from service@paypal.co.uk - but no download link e-mail

[BetaBoy]

Nope, ive got the purchase notification from service@paypal.co.uk - but no download link e-mail

PM me your PP transaction # and i'll resend the email.

[KoD]

AC3Filter <- that's the problem usually when desync happens. How about uninstalling it ?

[BetaBoy]

Note ACrowley stated he was not using AC3Filter and got the same results... Maybe uninstalling it?

[emmel]

Hi,

I would like to ask a small question considering the timing of interlaced h264 when played with CoreAVC.

I have a couple of mp4-files containing interlaced h264. The content is obtained from a local satellite test transmission, demultiplexed into h264, and finally wrapped in a mp4 container with fps=25.

The h264 contains two kinds of 1-2 min sets following each other in a loop. According to the in picture timing sei message the sets consist of a) pict_type=1 and pict_type=2 and b) pict_type=3. In both sets, the clock_timestamp_flag is set to zero. In both cases the vui params num_units_in_tick=1 and timescale=50. Thats all timing info I can find from the data by using h264_parse.

Now, my problem is: The video plays smooth with correct frame rate only for picture of type a). For type b), the playback slows down by a factor of two. So, I have a video which is either perfect or in slow motion in any dshow player.

My question is, is there something I could take into account when trying to fix the case? I'm not sure if I have provided sufficiently information, or if this eventually has got anything to do with CoreAVC - it happens to be the only sufficiently powerful decorer I have capable of reveiling this timing issue anyways.

Thanks and br,
emmel

[BetaBoy]

Hi,

I would like to ask a small question considering the timing of interlaced h264 when played with CoreAVC.

I have a couple of mp4-files containing interlaced h264. The content is obtained from a local satellite test transmission, demultiplexed into h264, and finally wrapped in a mp4 container with fps=25.

The h264 contains two kinds of 1-2 min sets following each other in a loop. According to the in picture timing sei message the sets consist of a) pict_type=1 and pict_type=2 and b) pict_type=3. In both sets, the clock_timestamp_flag is set to zero. In both cases the vui params num_units_in_tick=1 and timescale=50. Thats all timing info I can find from the data by using h264_parse.

Now, my problem is: The video plays smooth with correct frame rate only for picture of type a). For type b), the playback slows down by a factor of two. So, I have a video which is either perfect or in slow motion in any dshow player.

My question is, is there something I could take into account when trying to fix the case? I'm not sure if I have provided sufficiently information, or if this eventually has got anything to do with CoreAVC - it happens to be the only sufficiently powerful decorer I have capable of reveiling this timing issue anyways.

Thanks and br,
emmel

Are you using the Haali splitter? or another third party one?

[emmel]

It is the Haali splitter (and no, "force fake 25 fps" in the splitter options does not fix the issue).

[ravemax]

@anisota: I build an XBMC mplayer.dll with your patch applied, but doesn't work on the Xbox. That's probably because I had to remove the "//" before "#ifdef WIN32_LOADER / #endif".
Guess I have to wait for a Linux version.

[Inventive Software]

Hey there! I'm really interested in this, as I downloaded one of the very early betas for TCPMP. However, my question is simple. Is there a free version of the DirectShow decoder? I read something about it earlier in the thread, and I don't have time to read 500 odd posts to see what! All I wanna do is play standard definition non-interlaced AVC content on my not-brilliant PC. CoreAVC does that (miraculously!) Can you gimme any info please?

[Eretria-chan]

No free version available...
But they aren't expensive. Check the homepage...