AVC Decoders in MCE

[Difatoni]

I'm confused on how to choose which decoder is used in Windows Media Center. I have Nero 7 Ultra Enhanced installed, but also VLC, Quicktime, and PowerDVD. Which decoder do you'll prefer for use in Media Center, and how can I tell which one is the default for AVC and DVD as well. Thanks.

[Difatoni]

I found a utility called dvd decoder that tells you what dvd decoder is set for default. Is there anything like this for avc decoders? I just want to know how to set the default decoder in XP. Thanks

[Ronin-7]

Just use ffdshow (http://x264.nl/) as the decoder for AVC in MCE. Install the matroska splitter linked to on that page as well.

Some of those players you listed are not directshow compatible so you would not be able to use them to play back content in MCE.

[ehushagen]

I was using ffdshow as my h.264 decoder in MCE until I went out and treated myself to an HDTV. Playing standard definition video, I had absolutely no problems at all - even with my postprocessing settings. Even stepping up to 720p didn't give me any grief. 1080p, however, was an entirely different story. Any sort of remotely fast action scenes, and I'd start dropping frames like a fiend, and this with an Athlon X2 4200.

I purchased the latest Pro edition of CoreAVC, and my problems disappeared. Unlike ffdshow, CoreAVC Pro takes advantage of both cores and powers through 1080p content with no problems at all.

Something to think about for you anyways.

[Difatoni]

Now I'm pretty sure that MCE is using the Nero Video Decoder and the Nero DVD decoder for mpeg2. I might switch the DVD to the Cyberlink decoder. Coreavc has weird activation limits, so I think I'll wait and see how they deal with upgrades etc for a while.

[morph166955]

ehushagun:

got a few questions for ya that may help ya out with this once i see your answers.

first off...what hdtv did you get?

is it a native 1080p set (if so...NIIIIIICEEE)?

where is your source video coming from and do you know the settings that was used for the encoder when it was done?

what are the specs on your media center?


I myself am running a less then special media center (P4 2.4HT w/ 512M ram and an NVidia 6600GT w/256M...nothing to write home about) and have that piped via a DVI connection to a ScreenPlay 5000 HD projector (1280x720p native resolution). The reason I ask this is because I pipe 720p content to that via ffdshow with absolutely no problem on a daily basis from the media center, and i have piped 1080p to it with out issues either (for the most part, i think one or two files may have had issues but i blame it on the way it was encoded).

[morph166955]

Difatoni:

is this the tool you spoke of?:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=DE1491AC-0AB6-4990-943D-627E6ADE9FCB&displaylang=en

[ehushagen]

Hey Morph,

I ended up purchasing a Sony KF46E2000. It's a 720p set, and I'm really, really happy with it. I couldn't afford the step up to a full 1080p set and I really don't think that I'd be able to see the difference b/w the two with the size of TV that I wanted. At least thats what I'm telling myself, ha!

The specs on my HTPC are pretty decent, I suppose. An AMD 4200 X2, a gig of DDR400, and an ATI X800GTO. I'm making the connection to the TV with a DVI to HDMI cable, and I'm thrilled with the quality and upscaling that MCE does with 480i/p content.

The only h.264 content that was making ffdshow cry was a 1080p encode of the 24 season 6 preview. It was dropping frames during any fast motion scenes and losing sync with the audio when doing so. I'm assuming that it was because ffdshow wasn't taking advantage of the dual core processor, or the post-processing that ffdshow was doing, but I'm not really sure. 720p and even 1080i content seemed to play back perfectly, though.

Going to the CoreAVC decoder made a world of difference for me though. That particular encode played back perfectly, with no dropped frames or audio sync issues.

I'm not sure what encoding settings were used. I haven't got an HD signal at home, and a friend of mine did the actual encode for me.

[morph166955]

ok then...have a theory or two. first (as you probably realize) playing 1080p content on a 720p set will look no different then 720p content on that set simply because you dont have the pixels to reproduce everything. that being said, the software decoder that ffdshow/mce uses to convert 1080p to 720p is probably better then the one in your tv so it has the potential to look better since its doing a better job at the scaling. my suggestion to you is this. on the rare chance you get 1080p content, reconvert it to 720p before watching it. yes, it will take extra time but you will then be given the ability to have it be 720p "natively" so ffdshow wont have to grunt to push it through.

remember, 720p and 1080i in theory use the exact same amount of bandwidth to play their data so in theory (neglecting the work ffdshow has to do to convert the 1080i to 720p so it can display it) they should work the same. 1080p uses much more bandwidth then these and it could be enough that its causing the problem.

something else to consider is the media that the data is stored on. is it a newer sata drive or an older ide drive? how are the seek times on the drive? if the drive is too slow to transfer the data to the computer then this can obviously cause a problem. normally i see this if im streaming something over my lan when the fileserver is doing something else on the drive causing it to not be able to output data fast enough.

[ehushagen]

Thanks for all the info - there were a few bits of information in there that I wasn't aware of. As for the encode, yeah, I know I won't see a quality difference between the 1080p and the 720p content - he encoded it from his recording to watch on his 1080p set, and I didn't want to put the time into re-encoding just to watch a 10 minute clip. When I invest in an HD-capable STB, I'll be encoding into 720p, personally.

The drive that all of my media is on is an ATA-133 in a USB2 enclosure which I realize is one of my problems when playing back HD content. I'll be purchasing an SATA-2 drive in the near future, but it just won't be in the cards for a couple of months. Until that time, I'm re-experiencing all my favourite DVDs on the new TV, ha!

Thanks for all the info and tips, its greatly appreciated.

[morph166955]

what external enclosure do you use? i have an external ata133 in a bytecc usb2 enclosure that i do notice has a little bit of lag in comparison to a sata drive i have in another bytecc usb2 enclosure.

[ehushagen]

Its a Vantec something-or-other. I notice a distinct 'judder' whenever I watch anything with a super-high bitrate (I've got an HD demo clip that approaches 45mpbs), but for the most part I'm fairly happy with it. I'm looking forward to making the switch to an internal SATA drive, though.