CoreCodec/H.264 Codec "CoreAVC"

[thuan]

I was disappointed to encounter the two mentioned problem (speed up after seek and lower case avc1 4cc with mkv h264 stream) but I'm happy that now my poor AMD 1.5GHz T-bread can play 720p AVC content.

Thanks Corecodec.

[remlap]

Hey guys id like to be able to get the MBAFF beta to, I have BBC HD via satellite.

Thanks

[popper]

Ok... PM sent... we need to test MBAFF so when you can... see if you can get us some samples.

Thx

BetaBoy, you should pop over to the UK digitalspy thread were there are many people with access to the BBC HD trial transmitters and would get you any No. of MBAFF samples as required/want, and they would be glad to see you post there, as many cant post directly here due to the grace period after registering, driving them mad LOL. :rolleyes:

http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=348897&page=39&pp=25

[BetaBoy]

BetaBoy, you should pop over to the UK digitalspy thread were there are many people with access to the BBC HD trial transmitters and would get you any No. of MBAFF samples as required/want, and they would be glad to see you post there, as many cant post directly here due to the grace period after registering, driving them mad LOL. :rolleyes:

http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=348897&page=39&pp=25
Thx... I registered... lets see how long before I can post.

[popper]

vB']No problem, there are some small MBAFF samples here:
[Edit snip]
http://www.uknova.com/details.php?id=25927
There are a few torrents about that don't need to be registered, I'll try and find them.

I hope they help :)
Cheers,
Nick
Nick.
i just tryed to sign up for that uknova and get just a blank screen when clicking register, so it looks like they arnt accepting new registrations right now, so BetaBoy might be getting the same problem, shame............

perhaps he'll pop over DS anyway and we can grab whatever as he and the team requires.

[popper]

Thx... I registered... lets see how long before I can post.

should be within minutes to sent you an email etc.

[lineman]

Can you use CoreAVC with mplayerc? If so can you throw me a hint....I seem to be lost? Thanks

Lineman

[Oline 61]

Can you use CoreAVC with mplayerc? If so can you throw me a hint....I seem to be lost? Thanks

Lineman
Install CoreAVC, then open Mplayerc -> View -> Options -> External Filters -> Add Filter -> Find CoreAVC -> Make sure it is set to "prefer" -> Hit Apply -> Hit Ok

[W3ird_N3rd]

I also have access to the BBC Trial, have some gigabytes of it recorded already, and I also have access to h.264 streams on cable, one of them is 1080i at the moment. Although the 720p streams don't work with CoreAVC (with MplayerC to handle the TS). Some do, some don't.. With Cyberlink all work.

But my computer is not yet powerful enough for realtime decoding (3000+). Ik expect my 4200+ today.

I'll post if I get my CPU, I might also be able to run some tests in that case (if I don't have to reinstall Windows, if changing HAL doesn't work I won't get everything running soon enough).

So anyway, some questions. These 720p samples should work, I think. How can I help you fix CoreAVC so they work?

And I heard there would be a CoreAVC for Linux. When is it expected?

[blubberbirne]

Ok... World Cup fans get ready to rejoice!

We are predicting a launch of CoreAVC 1.1 with MBAFF on June 7-8th. Anyone that has the hardware capable of handling Interlaced content like MBAFF. Please PM me here at D9 w/your email address and if you have the time between June 4-6 for testing. You must have the time/hardware to test so please only SERIOUS testers.

Also 1.1 does feature many bug fixes, new online authentication and I am hoping Haali has time to add TS timestamp support as well.

Wow, thats sounds good.

[eggtimer]

@BetaBoy - I sent you 650MB of samples as discussed. I see Nick (D)vB has given you links to more. As he says, pretty much all the enthusiasts trying to decode the BBC HD trials are participating in the DigitalSpy forum thread.

[lordx]

Hi

I've make some tests yesterday for BBC HD playback.
I was very very surprised 'cause I've installed last PowerDVD7 to play them.
On my Athlon X2 3800+ 2Go RAM Radeon 9800pro, no dx acceleration, playback was .. great .. and the most surprising :
I was encoding HDTV to x264 with Megui at the same moment wth 2 thread on low mode ... amazing !!
But I 'm waiting for CoreAVC with MBAFF to 'cause your work is so great , I'll buy it just for that :)

[Morte66]

Hi

On my Athlon X2 3800+ 2Go RAM Radeon 9800pro, no dx acceleration, playback was .. great .. and the most surprising :
I was encoding HDTV to x264 with Megui at the same moment wth 2 thread on low mode ... amazing !!


I had exactly the same experience, same CPU, also running X264 ion two threads, my video card is an ATI1800 but GPU acceleration was disabled (Catalyst 6.4).

Here's an email sent a friend of mine about it (we've both pondered getting HDTV):
My thoughts...

- They are better than 99.n% of the video I've seen. I've got a handful of demo clips that are better. For a TV broadcast, they're phenomenal. In particular, they slaughter MPEG2 HDTV transport streams I've got. There's just way less crud.

- They are not perfect. They could be sharper. They could be progressive. PowerDVD 7 demo infuriatingly refuses to say what resolution they are, but I'm not so sure they're 1920x1080. I see noise that looks like resizer noise rather than camera/encoder noise. I've noticed a few screenies on that DigitalSpy thread that are 1440x1088. I did screen dumps from PowerDVD and it gave me 720x1088 bitmaps (might be a crippleware demo thing).

[My friend mucked around with them in photoshop, he thinks they started as 720x1088 and were resized to 1440x1088 somewehre in the broadcast/receive chain, then resized again to 1920x1088 in PowerDVD.]

- Despite what I said earlier, they're reported as VBR in PowerDVD with bitrates ranging from about 8mbps in the credits (white on black) up to about 23mps peak.

- The picture quality isn't actually that special for the bitrate, so I don't think they're using all the features of h264. I could make a better/smaller encode [using high profile unrestricted], but it would encode at about 1fps and no set top box could play it.

[popper]

anyone have some pointers to AVC .ts cutters that work with
the BBC HD streams yet?.

preferably free and cross platform.

HDTVtoMPEG appears to be free and works for mpeg2 .ts
streams but not the AVC/H.264 .ts samples so far.
http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~balazer/...PEG2/index.html

[bond]

you can use any file cutter you want for .ts files, eg also a hexeditor

[Nick [D]vB]

Popper I replied about editing in the DS thread:

If you can't get Xmuxer to work you could fork out for VideoVegas or one of the Sonic mastering tools.

Personaly I would load the TS into TSReader or DVBSE's file source input and "record" the sections you want to another file.

Or just hack the demuxed streams up with a hex editor, because they are CBR you can guestimate the times from the file size.

Use the "Record Program" feature in TSR or the PID / AVPES demux features in DVBSE.

You can stream to the patched version of VLC to see where your at.

I forgot to mention this before but if you have paid for DVBViewer Pro then Griga's TSPlayer

[from the H.264 Kit] has a really great TS editing feature that works with most H.264 transport streams.

[BetaBoy]

I also have access to the BBC Trial, have some gigabytes of it recorded already, and I also have access to h.264 streams on cable, one of them is 1080i at the moment. Although the 720p streams don't work with CoreAVC (with MplayerC to handle the TS). Some do, some don't.. With Cyberlink all work.

But my computer is not yet powerful enough for realtime decoding (3000+). Ik expect my 4200+ today.

I'll post if I get my CPU, I might also be able to run some tests in that case (if I don't have to reinstall Windows, if changing HAL doesn't work I won't get everything running soon enough).

So anyway, some questions. These 720p samples should work, I think. How can I help you fix CoreAVC so they work?

And I heard there would be a CoreAVC for Linux. When is it expected?
Can you provide us with a link to any samples that do not work like you have stated?

Thx

[W3ird_N3rd]

Can you provide us with a link to any samples that do not work like you have stated?

Thx
Sure: http://crew.tweakers.net/W3ird_N3rd/HDTV_samples/film1hd.ts

This is a small promo for Film1, a Dutch paytv-moviechannel (pretty expensive, but no advertising, and will probably be the only "legal" way of watching HD movies for the next months, as long as Blu-ray/HD-DVD don't hit the market..).

And my 4200+ is installed and seems to be working.. Although my system doesn't "feel" entirely stable, I'm going to do some tests to see how CoreAVC performs now, with the 3000+ it didn't play everything smooth.. So I can probably also run some tests on the interlaced thingie with the next version, I should have some more interlaced content laying around..

I'm also wondering if CoreAVC will someday be compatible with GlobeTV?

[edit]
I did a short test. On my X2 4200+ and PCIe 6600GT, another 720p .ts sample (from Prosieben, also comes from cable.. they even use Astra promos, they probably have no idea the competitor is up there :p), gives the same iq and about the same CPU usage with CoreAVC compared to Cyberlink. Both decoders run it smooth. Only lots of samples don't run with CoreAVC (like the one I posted), and I can't select CoreAVC in GlobeTV, so the possibilities are limited.

But for Windows, I already have Cyberlink, so no direct need for CoreAVC since my computer is fast enough now. But I still want to know if/when CoreAVC comes to Linux, and if it will be usable with DVB programs.

[JoeBG]

@ Beta Boy

I´m always watching my videos with zoomplayer and have no problems with CoreAVC CoreAAC and other filters. They are all used by zoomplayer.

Today I installed tcmp4.exe and I only get a dark screen. When I disable CoreAVC and enable h264 support in ffdshow I can watch the video in tcmp.

First thing I did was uneinstalling every Haali Media Splitter and installing again. Nothing helps. I can´t watch h264 videos in tcmp with core filters. Does the player of core not support core filters?

[BetaBoy]

Sure: http://crew.tweakers.net/W3ird_N3rd/HDTV_samples/film1hd.ts

This is a small promo for Film1, a Dutch paytv-moviechannel (pretty expensive, but no advertising, and will probably be the only "legal" way of watching HD movies for the next months, as long as Blu-ray/HD-DVD don't hit the market..).

And my 4200+ is installed and seems to be working.. Although my system doesn't "feel" entirely stable, I'm going to do some tests to see how CoreAVC performs now, with the 3000+ it didn't play everything smooth.. So I can probably also run some tests on the interlaced thingie with the next version, I should have some more interlaced content laying around..

I'm also wondering if CoreAVC will someday be compatible with GlobeTV?

[edit]
I did a short test. On my X2 4200+ and PCIe 6600GT, another 720p .ts sample (from Prosieben, also comes from cable.. they even use Astra promos, they probably have no idea the competitor is up there :p), gives the same iq and about the same CPU usage with CoreAVC compared to Cyberlink. Both decoders run it smooth. Only lots of samples don't run with CoreAVC (like the one I posted), and I can't select CoreAVC in GlobeTV, so the possibilities are limited.

But for Windows, I already have Cyberlink, so no direct need for CoreAVC since my computer is fast enough now. But I still want to know if/when CoreAVC comes to Linux, and if it will be usable with DVB programs.

Thx for the link... we will look into the issue.

I will comment on Linux/OSX in a few weeks when a few things are ready to talk about. Till then....

[BetaBoy]

@ Beta Boy

I´m always watching my videos with zoomplayer and have no problems with CoreAVC CoreAAC and other filters. They are all used by zoomplayer.

Today I installed tcmp4.exe and I only get a dark screen. When I disable CoreAVC and enable h264 support in ffdshow I can watch the video in tcmp.

First thing I did was uneinstalling every Haali Media Splitter and installing again. Nothing helps. I can´t watch h264 videos in tcmp with core filters. Does the player of core not support core filters?

Does this happen with all H.264 videos? Do you have FFMPEG installed? LMK

[JoeBG]

Does this happen with all H.264 videos? Do you have FFMPEG installed? LMK

Both yes.

[BetaBoy]

Ok... testers.... please have your various MBAFF content ready to test against CoreAVC 1.1.... specifically:

- Standard MBAFF
- 'live' SAT broadcasts
- MBAFF with PAFF frames interlaced
- Software deinterlacing
- Online registration

We will also be including Haali's latest splitter with TS support so look for any issues related to it.

Look for an email from me tomorrow.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Sounds very cool ;)

[hakujin]

CoreAVC does use both cores.

As far as BBC transmissions go, CoreAVC currently cant help you even decode them yet because CoreAVC lacks support for MBAFF interlacing. Without MBAFF support, the video can't be decoded. Only PAFF interlacing is supported.

MBAFF is currently being worked on.

Hi Revgen,

Any interim solutions now... the best I can get to watchable with MBAFF is Cyberlink 7, which isn't fluid frames and 100% CPU utilization (on a 3.0ghz P4)... vlc 0.8.5 freehd will just freeze as well. Of course Nividia purevideo is not good because afaik it only supports mpeg2 acceleration anyway (at least on my rusty agp 6800)

I know that coreAVC will be the answer (or at least I hope) but any idea when this will be supported and/or anything that works peachy now?


Also, Chainmax mentioned XBMC... now that'd be a dream come true if xbmc (on antiquated xbox) could support coreAVC. I s'pose it's doable due to how efficient coreAVC is...
To anyone:
is that going to be a reality that we might be able to watch native 1080i on the xbmc thanks to this codec?

Thanks in advance!

[bakerpr]

I would like the chance to be a beta tester for coreavc 1.1 .
Using the latest Powerdvd7 trial I have smooth playback both with live and recorded BBCHD content using Pentium D 930 dual and nvidia 7600GS card.
How do I PM betaboy?

[Morte66]

I got smooth playback on the 1440x1080i BBC samples with PDVD7 using about 90% CPU over both cores on my A64 X2 3800+. For reference, CoreAVC uses about 50% to play 1920x1080p encoded with Sharktooth's HDDVD profile. I'm looking forward to seeing it on interlaced.

[hakujin]

I would like the chance to be a beta tester for coreavc 1.1 .
Using the latest Powerdvd7 trial I have smooth playback both with live and recorded BBCHD content using Pentium D 930 dual and nvidia 7600GS card.
How do I PM betaboy?

I should elaborate... I'm using Northwood, not dual core, hence our slightly different results. Plus, perhaps you're utilizing gpu acceleration? I can't fathom buying a new rig just for this. Should be possible to achieve much better efficiency with coreAVC (fingers crossed!).

[Revgen]

Hi Revgen,

Any interim solutions now... the best I can get to watchable with MBAFF is Cyberlink 7, which isn't fluid frames and 100% CPU utilization (on a 3.0ghz P4)... vlc 0.8.5 freehd will just freeze as well. Of course Nividia purevideo is not good because afaik it only supports mpeg2 acceleration anyway (at least on my rusty agp 6800)

The 6800's only support MPEG-2 acceleration. The 7900's support AVC acceleration. Special versions of PowerDVD7 are bundled with these cards to support this acceleration.


I know that coreAVC will be the answer (or at least I hope) but any idea when this will be supported and/or anything that works peachy now?

Betaboy said it'll be released on June 7th.


Also, Chainmax mentioned XBMC... now that'd be a dream come true if xbmc (on antiquated xbox) could support coreAVC. I s'pose it's doable due to how efficient coreAVC is...
To anyone:
is that going to be a reality that we might be able to watch native 1080i on the xbmc thanks to this codec?

Thanks in advance!

The original X-BOX's use 733Mhz CPU's. I doubt they'll be playing 1080i content even with CoreAVC.

[remlap]

I did PM Betaboy to be a member of the trail since I asked for MBAFF support first as well, yet have recieved no reply.

Ill guess Ill just wait till the release date for my update.

[bakerpr]

I did the same looks like I'll have to wait also.

[BetaBoy]

We are limiting our testing range atm... i'll let you guys know if/when we can expand it. Thanx for offering to help... We really appreciate it!

[hakujin]

T
The original X-BOX's use 733Mhz CPU's. I doubt they'll be playing 1080i content even with CoreAVC.

Maybe not, though, I know there's a team of ppl. working on it at the XBMC forums and I can (as of right now) play native 720p on XBMC so with a little more efficiency.... who knows!

Though I don't expect it to play anything too CPU intensive (thus excluding much of native HD in mpeg4... though a great deal of HD content is still in mpeg2.

[PicardGK]

is that going to be a reality that we might be able to watch native 1080i on the xbmc thanks to this codec?

Highly unlikely. The BBC samples I tried are major CPU killers compared to example Apple 1080p trailers. It's not just because of MBAFF (that slows things down too), but the high 20MBit CABAC bitrate and the always turned on deblocking (which can eat quite a lot of cpu).

Also my guess CoreAVC's first MBAFF verison will have less speed advantage compared to other decoder (I couldn't compare speed yet..). I was happy to finally have a working byte correct decoder, didn't focus on optimizing MBAFF yet.

[crypto]

Regarding TS file playback, I want to inform you, that the next version of hdtvpump will support AVC streams in push mode and can connect to CoreAVC and CyberLink AVC filters. A preview version is available on request, just let me know. The release version will be ready soon.

[BetaBoy]

Anyone have any HD MBAFF mp4 samples? If you do if you can PM me a link or send the files by www.yousendit.com i'd appreciate it...

So here is what has made it into CoreAVC Professional Edition 1.1

Changes are:
- MBAFF added to CoreAVC Professional Edition
- PAFF frames in MBAFF
- New Haali Media Splitter with full MPEG TS stream support
- Deblocking options
- Software deinterlacing options
- Various bug fixes

MBAFF works quite well...... as picard indicated we still have optimizations to go on it. So look for speed improvements in 1.2 and 1.3 versions.

[futurex]

sorry to annoy you betaboy, but i am contemplating purchasing coreAVC. i tried the 0.0.0.4 version but i experienced seeking problem, where the video is way behind the audio, then plays in fast forwad and takes several seconds to catch up. there were still complaints of it in this thread with 1.0 and thats why i didn't purchase it yet. has that bug been fixed? :)

[ern]

Ok... testers.... please have your various MBAFF content ready to test against CoreAVC 1.1.... specifically:

- Standard MBAFF
- 'live' SAT broadcasts
- MBAFF with PAFF frames interlaced
- Software deinterlacing
- Online registration

We will also be including Haali's latest splitter with TS support so look for any issues related to it.

Look for an email from me tomorrow.

what about "live" DVB-T Treestial broadcasts, are the being tested ?


ern

[adapter]

People who are testing Coreavc 1.1 with BBC HD live preview,What are the first impressions regarding Coreavc 1.1. Is it able to play live BBC HD previews smoothly.

With my set up using Cyberlink PDVD7 decoder,I am unable to play live previews, as the video is jerky, but I have recorded a sample BBC HD ts stream and that plays perfectly.

I am considering purchasing the Coreavc 1.1 pro for the sole purpose of viewing BBC HD (World Cup). Will Coreavc allow me to view live BBC HD broadcasts?

My set up is as follows:

AMD 64x2 3800 (clocked@2500)
2GB Ram
Nvidia 6800 PCI-E graphics card
Skystar 2 Pci DVB-S card
Using Cyberlink Powerdvd 7 H264 codec

[BetaBoy]

ppl with 'jerky' playback with Cyberlink are seeing smooth playback with CoreAVC 1.1. We are on the final day of QA testing and i'll be able to post more results and answer more questions in a few more hours.

[lordx]

Cool !!
Need to purchase it to play smoothly some BBC HD Videos !!

[Revgen]

@FutureX

The audio sync bug has been fixed in the 1.1 beta version at least for me anyway. Colorspace issues in 1.0 have also been addressed in this version.

I don't know if this is true for other beta testers.

[BetaBoy]

Revgen.... give me a lil bit and i'll send you and the testers the latest build actually this will be 1.1.0.2 as we have fixed a bunch of smaller issues:

- TS stream AR bug
- Green screen bug fixed

and we are working on the first decoder bug reported as well as an issue with the Haali splitter being installed and set as the default TS muxer but still having third party ones cause issues.

Also SMD reported software de-interlace artifacts we are looking into. So deinterlaced needs to be work on a bit more.

Here is a screenshot of the latest CoreAVC 1.1 filter properties page.
http://cc.serveftp.org:8884/images/coreavc.gif

[Ice =A=]

I'm no beta tester, but those deblocking options look most interresting! Can't wait for the update! :)

[PicardGK]

I'm no beta tester, but those deblocking options look most interresting! Can't wait for the update! :)

It's nothing serious. Just lets you disable the standard AVC deblocking to gain speed on slower machines. So no additional deblocking stuff.

[futurex]

thanks revgen!

[remlap]

Im looking forward to egerly getting the update, how will the update be done mailed to me via email, how will it activated?

Cheers

[BetaBoy]

While we were at it... we added:
- double frame mode (50fps will look better now ;-)

and are looking at adding BOB Deinterlaced... will will push to get this out tomorrow.... but as indicated may go as late as thursday the 8th to allow for further QA testing which has gone very well! Thx to all the testers!

[jblade]

Well I woudlnt mind a public beta release, and then an update on thursday or something.

[hakujin]

Highly unlikely. The BBC samples I tried are major CPU killers compared to example Apple 1080p trailers. It's not just because of MBAFF (that slows things down too), but the high 20MBit CABAC bitrate and the always turned on deblocking (which can eat quite a lot of cpu).


Again, I'm speaking purely for mpeg2. If I'm not mistaken those BBC samples are mpeg4 no? Simply, Smarter codec algorithm, higher utilization no?

Related to what you said, what would be the best codecs around right now? I thought CoreAVC was bar non for cpu cycles vs. playback of native HD. FFDShow even better + MBAFF? If so, I'll have to give it a whirl!

EDIT: I don't mean to start "whose better" or anything like that... just would like whatever is available now that will play Planet Earth smoothly on my rig.

3.0Ghz Northwood
1 GB DDR
Nividia 6800 (AGP)