CoreCodec/H.264 Codec "CoreAVC"

[Ronin-7]

Another new article with CoreAVC vs. Cyberlink + GPU's and CoreAVC comes out top;

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/video/video_dec.html

Apologies if this was already asked but do you have an estimate betaboy when your account/purchasing system will be up & running and no longer relying on Paypal ?

[iwod]

Was the new version supposed to come out in 2nd of Nov version 1.2?
Or is it a version 1.1.x?

And since those benchmark are all tested on 1.1 i suppose those scores are no longer accurate :D

[BetaBoy]

LOL.... Nice pic ;-)... We are closer.... so close now I can post the changelog:
Version 1.2.0.0 (200611xx):
- Fix: Interlaced decoding
- Fix: Interlaced reference b-frame
- Fix: Mbaff & paff combination
- Fix: Mbaff deblocking
- Fix: Multiple multithreading issues
- Fix: Directshow: Changed property pages to IPropertyBag (internal change, the
only user visible effect is the page works from remote graphedit now)
- Fix: Directshow: Issue when video format changes on the fly (dshow, happens on some files)
- Fix: Directshow: Improperly initialized output sample length (dhow/internal, coreavc output
can now be properly muxed to avi, etc)
- Fix: Directshow: Windows Media Center (MCE) Freezing
- Fix: Splitter:
[Matroska] Fixed a compatibility issue with files having BlockDuration inside \
a laced BlockGroup (those were produced by mkvmerge around v0.6).
[TS] Fixed a serious bug in mpeg-ts parser that discarded valid audio frames.
[TS] Fix in ts parser
[General] Various small splitter bugfixes and improvements. Added support for cuesheets
and subtitles to dsmux (requires Gabest's Subtitle Source filter). Added an option to
disable error messages, the splitter will silently fail on invalid/unsupported files.
Thumbnails are now extracted in a separate process, so buggy codecs should no
longer affect the host application.
[Matroska] Much improved mkv2vfr utility now handles AVC video and correctly writes
AVI files larger than 2GB, it is now included in the splitter package.
[OGM] Added support for a couple of other ancient versions of the format.
[DXR] A couple of bugfixes.
- Fix: Splitter: [General] Muxer fixes and improvements. Renderer bugfixes and improvements.
Added an MPEG-TS splitter. Fixed some issues with ACM Wrapper. Other splitter bugfixes.
- Fix: Splitter: [Avi] Set track language to undetermined. [MP4] Use proper timescale for elst
records. Added a simple MP4 muxer. [General] Muxer improvements, video renderer
bugfixes and improvements.
- Fix: Various smaller bugs from the bugtracker
- Add: Official Multi-monitor support
- Add: Initial CoreNumber registration
- Add: Username for corenumber is now shown in about dialog
- Add: New CoreAVC logo in the installer and filter properties
- Add: New CoreAVC v2.0 website (sure it is not code related... but we are proud of it!)

[Hans Ohlo]

LOL.... Nice pic ;-)... We are closer.... so close now I can post the changelog:
nice to know... :) but i can't see the the 'Add: GPU acceleration...'

for 1.2.0.1 please don't forget the info page (bitrate, number of ref frames etc.)...

[BetaBoy]

nice to know... :) but i can't see the the 'Add: GPU acceleration...'

for 1.2.0.1 please don't forget the info page (bitrate, number of ref frames etc.)...

No GPU... and info like bitrate is on the todo list.

[maxleung]

Has the color level problem been fixed? And did you get my email? I guess it is too late now. :rolleyes:

(I'm not very happy with the level of support - I've seen much better from other small developers.)

[BetaBoy]

Color works as it should... we however still have scheduled some RGB work that will be done after 1.2 is released and prior to the initial GPU release.

[Eeknay]

Beta, I think he means the black level problem (that as I can see only affects PAFF streams... unless you're saying it's fixed).

[Jay Bee]

Does close mean I should check my emails every five minutes, every hour or every day? :D

[AmbKosh]

This is good news. Lets hope, that pressing the reload button for the CoreAVC web page will soon show some differences...

[Jay Bee]

That's why I asked, don't want to cause unnecessary suffering for my F5 key.

[ajp_anton]

What about x64?
Is it the codec or the player that can/should be 64-bit?

[JohnnyFu]

Very good news Betaboy. I will auto-check my e-mail account every minute from now on.

[Disabled]

/me breathes... Now back OT... Here comes a New CoreAVC, New Splitter, New Website, new Server, Lower Price, a slew of fixes... and the now even faster H.264 goodness ;-)

So it is supposed to be faster is it? Why does it not get stated in the changelog?
I think I'm staying 1.1 then, no registration and same decoding speed...
Sad sad sad... I'm not in need for a personal firewall, but I'm not trusting CoreAVC anymore if it phones home...

[bob0r]

- Fix: Multiple multithreading issues

Sounds like at least one possible speed up.

[oddball]

Any reason GPU support has been dropped from 1.2?

[BetaBoy]

Any reason GPU support has been dropped from 1.2?

Not dropped... just in a later 1.2.x release... although our roadmap may bump it to a 1.3 release but the time period would be the same.

[BetaBoy]

- Fix: Multiple multithreading issues

Sounds like at least one possible speed up.
Its one... there are other things that just did not warrant adding it to the changelog... Let the users tell us if this version is faster ;-)

[BetaBoy]

So it is supposed to be faster is it? Why does it not get stated in the changelog?
I think I'm staying 1.1 then, no registration and same decoding speed...
Sad sad sad... I'm not in need for a personal firewall, but I'm not trusting CoreAVC anymore if it phones home...
Its your choice entirely... we have been upfront 100% of the way in what we are doing. You are clearly wrong and way off base on your pre-judgement of both the decoder (which is faster) and what we are doing with the registration process before we even launch it.

Speak facts and not speculations... our intent is true... we want to prove the value of providing for the future growth of all of our products many of which I have yet to announce... In the end the better we can support them the better they will be... and it is the end user that benefits.

[Romario]

If I decide to pay for CoreAVC 1.2, I want 64-bit version, BetaBoy. Don't you think that 64-bit version is necessary?

[Shinigami-Sama]

If I decide to pay for CoreAVC 1.2, I want 64-bit version, BetaBoy. Don't you think that 64-bit version is necessary?

64bit for what?
*nix?
xp64?
vista?

they dont even have a *nix port yet I dont think

[Sirber]

What's that "call home" BS?

[BetaBoy]

64bit for what?
*nix?
xp64?
vista?

they dont even have a *nix port yet I dont think

In our SDK we have an CoreAVC reference that supports the following platforms:

CE, Windows Mobile, Smartphone, Palm, Symbian, Windows, Linux, OS X (Universal and PPC).

[Shinigami-Sama]

In your SDK, ok, so porting over wouldn't be that bad.
but I was speaking of public ports
or should I try the site again to see how out of date I am?

[Romario]

I think on xp64 and Vista64 versions of CoreAVC 1.2

BetaBoy, you avoided to answer directly on my question!

[Hans Ohlo]

oh man now i am sad again. what stays from the prior much hyped 1.2 is... calling home and some minor speed improvements. sorry, but this is way to much to pay (the new licensing model) for what we do not get (foremost GPU).

[wiak]

I think on xp64 and Vista64 versions of CoreAVC 1.2

BetaBoy, you avoided to answer directly on my question!
XP64 & Vista64 uses the same model
and you can easly port a win32 software to win64 software
just look at xvid there is a 64bit port of that one
http://nwgat.net/mirrors/okejl.dk/dunstan/

[Disabled]

What's that "call home" BS?

That call home BS is that you have to activate 1.2 like you have to activate Norton Antivirus or Adobe Acrobat or MS Office and such. The program is then tied to your computer and you can't easily move your legally bought program to another computer and such. Its like DRM but for Software.

I feel very sorry for Core. I initially bought the pro version to support the devs and because GPU accel would be great, but I would never have done so if i knew how CoreAVC would evolve. I'm pretty sure you could be sued over here in germany for advertising features you do not deliver and for incorporating constraints I did not know before I bought it in a software that still not does what it was supposed to do as I bought the software.
This is what I bought:
Baseline Profile Support, Main Profile Support, High Profile Support, Interlaced (PAFF), Interlaced (MBAFF), SMP (multi-processor) Support, GPU (video card) Acceleration Support
Where does it say stupid activation process? Nowhere! And I don't call the activation a feature that would fall under the "features subject to change" line.

Then there is this refund policy. I would say change it to "refund is possible 30days until you received the software", as that would still not be the case and I would have time to force the refund until GPU support is added! I'm pretty sure that would be a clause that would not stand in our courts either.

[BetaBoy]

I think on xp64 and Vista64 versions of CoreAVC 1.2

BetaBoy, you avoided to answer directly on my question!

I did not avoid it... I think I have spoken about x64 a few times in this thread...

Answer: likely yes, but not till later.

[giandrea]

Do you have plans for a QuickTime component for Mac OS X?
It would be great to have H264 high profile decoding at such speeds built into QuickTime.

[celtic_druid]

Are there even any decent 64bit dshow based players? Not too much use having a 64bit filter without a player to use it in.

[Inventive Software]

Why do people bitch and moan about GPU support? CoreAVC can whip and bitchslap any other codec using GPU acceleration, just with ordinary clean software code. GPU acceleration isn't necessary yet, therefore as far as I'm concerned it can wait. :)

[toytown]

Why do people bitch and moan about GPU support? CoreAVC can whip and bitchslap any other codec using GPU acceleration, just with ordinary clean software code

I think its because its maybe the user purchased COREAVC in the first place, that they would get GPU acceleration in the near future (at least thats why i purchased my version), however it looks like the GPU acceleration probably will not happen this year from COREAVC.

Yes maybe COREAVC is the fastest, but as far as i can see thats the only advantage this software has anymore (at least for the type of content i view), they do not seem to have good customer relations, bugs do not seem to be fixed in a timely manner and now we have the phone home feature. I havent received a single email from CORE with an update to my product since i purchased it in May 2006.

Being fastest is great, its the one think BetaBoy likes to bang on about, however as each month passes, as software catches up and as hardware gets cheaper, it also becomes the feature which is less and less needed. Do i really care if my system uses 55%cpu instead of 40% cpu as long as my h264 movies are playing back.......no absolutely not (others may, of course).

Do i care that my software phones home, support from the DEVS is quite low and bugs take ages to fix..........yes i absolutely do, will i buy another CORE product again.......probably not.

[bob0r]

Why do people bitch and moan about GPU support? CoreAVC can whip and bitchslap any other codec using GPU acceleration, just with ordinary clean software code. GPU acceleration isn't necessary yet, therefore as far as I'm concerned it can wait. :)

They want all that PLUS GPU support, extra fast :D
More More More thats what we all want, cus H.264 is king! :cool:



.... i think CoreAVC 1.2 will RTM the same time windows vista will .... :sly:

[KoD]

To all those concerned about having being cheated with promises of GPU support: please stop using CoreAVC right now and use your favourite Cyberlink/Intervideo solution with "full" GPU support. The rest of us will continue using CoreAVC for what it is - the fastest h264 software decoder available - and we don't really need to see your laments.

After all, if you have the money to buy a card that can really show some h264 GPU acceleration, I don't believe the 20$ you paid for CoreAVC is the end of the world and you're still left with the best software h264 decoder to fall back to when that fancy hardware acceleration might choke.

[maxleung]

GPU Support? What about standard *customer* support? I emailed Betaboy twice from two email accounts - no reply. One from gmail, another from shaw cable.

So we have shipshod email support and now we have phone home registration - what a horrible combination! If I get 1.2, and have trouble activating it, I will be screwed because Betaboy will not answer my emails - and he ASKED me to email him in a previous post.

He has the gall to answer one of my technical questions, but ignore the second question directly related to the lack of email response.

This is unacceptable. Shame on you. Fix it. Make me happy.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Is there any possibility of splitting all the Q&A's regarding proposed GPU support into a separate "CoreAVC GPU Support" thread?

[fenomeno83]

When I set GPU mode in software I switch the decoding from software to video drivers(similar to spdif for audio decoding)?for example if I set gpu in cyberlink and I have a video card that accelerate h264 the decoding of a h264 video is do by my video card and not by software decoder(as cyberlink),all right?So Get I the same quality in all software that support the GPU,because decoding is do by my video card?(Is the same use gpu mode in cyberlink or intervideo for example)?

ps:is better hardware decoding(gpu mode in cyberlink for example)or Coreavc software decoding?
thanks

[DeepBeepMeep]

I don't think think that the lack of GPU support is a big deal beside the vaporware side of it. I think that people shouldn't have very high expectations regarding it unless they have a very bad CPU and a good graphic card.

Indeed, when it is released we will be probably disapointed because either it will be as slow as current hardware decoders such as Cyberlink H264 decoder or it will won't allow us to have any post processor such as ffdshow without losing the hardware decoding (like existing DXVA filters).

I think that 20$ for a such a fast H264 decoder is quite a good deal given the other alternatives that are slower and more expensive.

However, the big issue here is really poor customer support. Fixing bugs such as the color space problem, or crashes shouldn't take months. Small companies are supposed to be much more responsive. I have also sent inquiries by email or posted questions on the official forum which had either no answers or very vague ones.

I regret also that Betaboy has used too many times the "announcement effect" to try to calm us down. The release was due first a couple months ago then last saturday. The release log was published yesterday and we still have nothing.

I am sure they are probably going to announce tons of products and partnerships that will bring big bucks to them (and they deserve them), but come on guys you should be a little transparent and available to the people who have trusted you in the beginning.

[Inventive Software]

They're (CoreCodec) like any company just trying to manage deadlines and customers. Think Microsoft on a much smaller (but more efficient and useful) scale.

And this issue of phoning home? What's the big deal? We've had it since XP, and now Adobe Photoshop and Norton AV/Firewall have it, it's almost de-rigeur for new commercial products to protect their rights and money. CoreAVC is slightly different in that it's a smaller company and when something needs re-activating, the customer support are probably more used to the general user's problems, but that's just my $0.02 in this thorny issue.

Yes, customer support can be bad, but accept the product for what it is at the moment (arguably the best pure software decoder out there ;)) and accept that features you really need / want might not be implemented as quickly as you'd like (i.e GPU support for the braggers amongst you). GPU support is not easy to implement efficiently (one need only look at Purevideo as a hideous example in it's infancy), but once it's into the codec and/or the frameworks / SDKs / APIs, streamlining it's efficiency shouldn't be too hard.

Bottom line: Patience really does have a virtue. :)

[maxleung]

They're (CoreCodec) like any company just trying to manage deadlines and customers. Think Microsoft on a much smaller (but more efficient and useful) scale.

That is no excuse IMHO - look at how responsive the customer support is for TheaterTek, Zoomplayer, and Powerstrip are. Rik Wang at Powerstrip deals with hundreds of technical support questions every month. Andrew at TheaterTek responds very quickly, and so does Blight for Zoomplayer. Those are very popular products too - perhaps as popular or more so than CoreAVC.

And right here in this very forum there is very good support from the guys maintaining the FFDShow builds - and it is opensource!

I guess if you never dealt with the great guys mentioned above you would not expect much from Core support - but hey, I suppose I'm spoiled! ;)

[BetaBoy]

That is no excuse IMHO - look at how responsive the customer support is for TheaterTek, Zoomplayer, and Powerstrip are. Rik Wang at Powerstrip deals with hundreds of technical support questions every month. Andrew at TheaterTek responds very quickly, and so does Blight for Zoomplayer. Those are very popular products too - perhaps as popular or more so than CoreAVC.

And right here in this very forum there is very good support from the guys maintaining the FFDShow builds - and it is opensource!

I guess if you never dealt with the great guys mentioned above you would not expect much from Core support - but hey, I suppose I'm spoiled! ;)

Why troll in this manner? How long have you been with the D9 community? Keep it OT.. I have stated for you to PM here on D9 and as far I can you you have not but instead out of your 21 posts you choose to continue to OT banter bash from a 'personal' perspective.

Are you upset we did not let you betatest? Are you mad about our registration process? I am not going to re-hash this to you over and over again... but as I have indicated before that everone here at CoreCodec including me is easily reachable and here to help... support@corecodec.com or to reach me betaboy@corecodec.com

/me puts this to bed and stops the feeding

[toytown]

Why troll in this manner? How long have you been with the D9 community? Keep it OT.. I have stated for you to PM here on D9 and as far I can you you have not but instead out of your 21 posts you choose to continue to OT banter bash from a 'personal' perspective.

What has the length of time with the D9 community have to do with absolutely anything? If that and his post count is the best think you have to attack in his post, then you really have sunk to low levels.

He quite correctly mentioned that the other products enjoy a good community and support with the devs, and that CORE are very quite on some issues. Instead of critising and trying to attack his post, i would have taken this as constructive critisim and realised that whilst people may be generally happy with the product you have purchased, there very unhappy with the levels of support being offered. If this was my company i would be trying to rectify the issues internally and try best to respond to my customers, instead you attack them by how many posts and how long they signed up.

[Shinigami-Sama]

Is there any possibility of splitting all the Q&A's regarding proposed GPU support into a separate "CoreAVC GPU Support" thread?

seconded

[JohnnyFu]

Betaboy, you should really stop to blame people for beeing D9 newbies because they criticised you or your support.
I you feel provoked than go and drink a tee or something like that, then come back and answer friendly or not at all :)
It doesnt looks good if you blame people or even your own customers in this way.....

Whoever is criticsing your support/products or yourself, you should never become unfriendly, dispute or blame them.
As Corecodec founder you should always be friendly and nice to your customers. In germany we say "the customer is the king".

Think about the fact the people complain about the support. I mean.. this is just an example... but if you request e-mails you should answer them too. Dont wonder if people like maxleung getting upset if you dont answer.


To all the other guys who are upset. I can understand you, there was a long down-time in CoreAVC development. But now we finally get a bug fix version, we should be happy about that. We have to accept that GPU support is delayed and we can not change the support level. Corecodec is a young firm, we have to be patient.

[BetaBoy]

J FU... thats not the intent at all... you and I have both had our issues and we have worked past them. I am not negating the issues to point... we all here agree and we have listened. From CoreAVC 1.2/CorePlayer 1.05 forward we have now added a support ticket to the core account system. This way if you have an issue you simply submit a support ticket for it. This way there is accountability.

[sillKotscha]

What has the length of time with the D9 community have to do with absolutely anything?

in general you are right... a post count does not reflect the knowledge of a user... BUT nonetheless BetaBoy is right.

Look through this thread and what you will see is that most unqualified comments are from user with a low post count. In this context it does mean users with really low knowledge complaining about everything above all complaining about things replied over and over again... they should get warned because of refusing to search at least reading this single thread here...

they do know very little about video encoding/ editing, software development, software maintenance but they are the ones shouting out, complaining, etc. everyone else here knows (maybe not in person) the members of the CC team and shows respect to their work or at least show social skills in terms of waiting/ asking patiently.

I don't know what you are all complaining about... you paid for CoreAVC... so what. Did you pay for the product or did you pay for a right shouting at the devs? Where do you read that future enhancements are assured? It is an added value that software products are kept updated...

stop yelling!!

[maxleung]

Actually, my post count was reset recetly. I don't know when it happened. I've been signed up for 8 months or so. I probably had 20 more posts. Not high by any means, but I have been lurking for a couple of years.

Betaboy, I appreciate your stance, and I am sorry if you interpreted my posts as trollish. However, I did try emailing you twice and got no response. I've also seen similar posts in this and your own forum on lack of response, and felt that my criticism was warranted.

Enough said on that subject - no trace of my emails betaboy? I'll send it again tonight.

[BetaBoy]

Actually, my post count was reset recetly. I don't know when it happened. I've been signed up for 8 months or so. I probably had 20 more posts. Not high by any means, but I have been lurking for a couple of years.

Betaboy, I appreciate your stance, and I am sorry if you interpreted my posts as trollish. However, I did try emailing you twice and got no response. I've also seen similar posts in this and your own forum on lack of response, and felt that my criticism was warranted.

Enough said on that subject - no trace of my emails betaboy? I'll send it again tonight.

You can even CC corecodec@comcast.net too ;-)

[Rectal Prolapse]

Thanks! Seems to be working now - I don't know which one worked, but who cares? :D