Media Player Classic Home Cinema (MPC-HC) - DXVA!

[v0lt]

I'm not going to remove anything (my english is bad). I propose to make renderer VMR-7 (windowed) by default for Windows XP.

[LigH]

So far I was used to the myth that "Hardware Overlay" is the fastest renderer. Is there any reason not to use this one as default? Where has VMR-7 an advantage?

In fact, I never even tried to use VMR-7, not since the MPC family supported VMR-9 (and who does not yet use DirectX 9+?).

[v0lt]

VMR-7 (windowed) is very stable.
Overlay Mixer is buggy, if the video has a width or height not divisible by 16. It is observed on the integrated video decoder in software mode.
VMR-9 (renderless) sometimes has problems. Wrong to do by default.

[pirlouy]

What do you think about replacing the default Overlay Mixer to VMR-7 (windowed) for Windiws XP?
Overlay Mixer is my second choice. Ok, now I don't have any reason to use something else than madVR, but before madVR exclusive mode, I used Overlay Mixer in order not to have tearing.

Overlay Mixer is buggy, if the video has a width or height not divisible by 16. It is observed on the integrated video decoder in software mode.
Not sure to understand. From what you said, it can be a decoder problem, no ?
With ffdshow, problem is still here ?
By the way, no need to remove a renderer, and WMR-7 is already default one.

[clsid]

It is a bug in the internal decoder. ffdshow works fine.

[DMD]

Good evening

I ask, if possible, insert graphics during playback Audio Files

Thanks

[neoufo51]

I have a question:

Is this playback settings guide as helpful as it can be?

http://files.nyaa.eu/HOW_DID_I_PLAYED_BACK.txt

[KornX]

make the buffer adjustable!
sometimes i have ongoing IO on the hdd
but many GBs of free RAM...
so i wanna buffer the file (or parts of it)
(like mplayer -cache N)

KornX

so no one else has the same scenario sometimes???
:(

KornX

[sneaker_ger]

so no one else has the same scenario sometimes???
:(

KornX

I don't know if that could be a solution and how large you can set it, but Haali's Splitter has an option to set the input buffer size.

[pirlouy]

I ask, if possible, insert graphics during playback Audio Files
You mean Winamp visualisation style ?

I guess you'll prefer a dedicated audio player. I mean I don't think there will ever be a developer to transform MPC into an Audio Player reference.

Is this playback settings guide as helpful as it can be?

http://files.nyaa.eu/HOW_DID_I_PLAYED_BACK.txt
Is it a guide for beginners ? Because honestly, no it's not the best settings...
Haali Media Splitter seems to be less good than LAV Filters (for me).
madVR is the reference video renderer; EVR Sync is not developed anymore I think (?).
I would also recommend to disable all internal filters until Nevcairiel's one are merged in MPC-HC Core.
There's also new decoder from Nevcairiel (GPU accelerated for nvidia cards);
Some people would also mention reclock, powerstrip, autofrequency, coreAVC,etc.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=157897 worths reading even if it's not perfect.

[KornX]

@sneaker_ger

thx, i know...
but i was hoping for a "portable version"...
and I still hope sb wants to integrate it
cause there seems to be some buffering...

[JanWillem32]

@darkw1zard: Dxdiag.exe usually gives a good impression on the status of DirectX components. It's usually a combination of outdated audio and video drivers that give this type of problem. Dxdiag can indicate errors, the build date of components and most importantly, the video DDI version of the installed hardware and software. DDI level 9.0 is the bare minimum for the current renderers. Both x86 and x64 executables will have to be checked on x64 systems.

@KornX: EVR renderers can use larger buffers, but the EVR mixer, the OSD renderer and the subtitle renderer generally store images in video memory. Increasing the buffers to more than 4 will generally lower performance a lot.
System memory is rather unsuitable for video, so it's avoided as much as possible. Ffdshow can buffer a few frames if you enable it in the options, but I doubt it has any positive impact at all.

@neoufo51: I hope you can use this.
Notes about the discriptions in the playback advice list:
-Using a fresh, recent installation of MPC-HC, decoders and splitters is of course a good thing. The popular decoders and splitters have been discussed a lot in this thread. I can only advise people to consider them, and of course update the software once in a while.
-Rebooting for software installation/removal is for changing core system files used during boot time (such as security updates from Windows Update), or the system-mode hardware abstraction layer (low-level hardware drivers). Regular software doesn't require rebooting, it doesn't have any advantages since Windows 2000.
-EVR Sync isn't the best choice in all cases. It's actually quite a bit behind the renderer used by EVR CP and VMR-9 (renderless) (these two are only different in terms of mixers). It's worth it to try the different renderers with different rendering settings, to see what works well for you. I must note we coud use some developers to get EVR Sync updated, as I don't have enough time to work on it and there are no active developers to even check for math or typing errors.
-I might be able to get other resizers integrated soon. I've already written some better multi-pass resizers. I just need to find a way to make rotation work properly with those.
-The advice for the subtitle items is completely correct. It might be worth noting that some animated subtitles are too much for the heavily outdated subtitle renderer. Even on my main PC I have to disable subtitle animation with some sample files.
-I disagree on the DXVA part. DXVA is perfectly fine for AVC and VC-1 to reduce the processing load on the CPU, as long as you feed it 8-bit 4:2:0 chroma down-sampled video. (Higher quality video data seems to be very difficult to decode properly by software decoders, too.)

-The screenshot functions in the main trunk build are broken in combination with 10-bit, half floating point and full floating point processing. I added a dirty fix for it in my builds some time ago, but BMP saving is still broken, and there's no option to save images processed by the renderer.
-I personally prefer to convert a saved PNG screenshot to a final image with external tools (I use GIMP and OptiPNG), so I can select compression options myself. I really don't advise to use JPEG compression with the common 4:2:0 chroma down-sampling for snapshots. As the images are down-scaled a lot, chroma (color difference to the reference grayscale) detail will almost always become an important factor in the perceived image quality. For regular saved images it matters a lot less, as the source is usually 4:2:0 chroma down-sampled too.
The only way to save a processed image is to press "print Screen" on the keyboard during rendering, and paste the resulting image in an image editor (even Paint suffices).

-Audio is certainly a lot easier. (Unless you are into multi-channel mastering, VST chain filtering, live work, et cetera, like me.) It's nice that the text also mentions the less common (but excellent) lossless audio formats.

[KornX]

@JanWillem

i am not talking about the decoded stuff
i am talking about the file itself.... :)

[mr.duck]

KornX, what would be the point of the large buffer? What will it achieve?


MPC-HC should start dropping some of it's internal filters. Starting with the TS splitter, to be replaced with the LAVfilter one.

Would be nice if the MPC-HC audio switcher could support VSTs. Then I could install a proper compressor to normalize the volume output a bit.

[KornX]

expl:
ongoin IO > buffer empty, nothing to decode > framelag
bigger buffer > ongoin io > still data to decode and display
(like the purpose of every buffer)

[v0lt]

It is a bug in the internal decoder. ffdshow works fine.
Can you fix it?

[neoufo51]

Is it a guide for beginners ? Because honestly, no it's not the best settings...
Can you tell me what you think are the best settings? I'd like to create a text file like the one I posted for people who want the very best quality.

[shaolin95]

OK I am trying 10bit again after upgrading to the latest drivers for my ATI HD2400 and the latest ffdshow and mpc-hc builds.
STill cannot get it to work.
I am connected to my Project via HDMI. I have aero set to disable when running MPC-HC and Fullscreen enabled yet this is what I get:
http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/5023/img20110327142116.jpg (http://img844.imageshack.us/i/img20110327142116.jpg/)

[tetsuo55]

Please post a new screenshot with "CTRL+J" statistics active.

[pirlouy]

Can you fix it?
I guess he already tries to maintain ffdshow project. He can't do fixes for all ffmpeg projects... You can use ffdshow if you don't want this issue.

Can you tell me what you think are the best settings? I'd like to create a text file like the one I posted for people who want the very best quality.
Unfortunately, I'm not the one who knows a lot of things on subjects. More, everybody has his opinion on topic.
But you can google what I said in my previous post. JanWillem32 gave you some hints too.
But using a text file is not the best support today for beginners. :)
You can try to make a thread on the subject here; maybe some people will help...

[JanWillem32]

@KornX: http://forum.doom9.org/archive/index.php/t-100668.html A read-ahead buffer... I guess splitters and decoders could take care of a larger buffer of undecoded data. It's already common practice for streaming media. You might want to open a ticket for this and ask a developer to add a simple option to the GUI that allows changing the default read-ahead buffer value.

@shaolin95: Y'CbCr mode for output on HDMI or DisplayPort could cause this.
If the connection is made by converting a legacy DVI port to HDMI mode, it might fail, too. Does the card offer a physical HDMI port on the card or emulation over DVI? HDMI capability on ATI hardware is exposed by the audio over HDMI device for the video card in the device panel and sound panel of the Windows configuration screen. If it isn't there, it means that the card is limited to single-link or sometimes dual-link DVI data transport, which isn't completely compatible with the more advanced data transport types used by HDMI.

[shaolin95]

Please post a new screenshot with "CTRL+J" statistics active.
I left it full size and tried to tweak the color in B&W to make it a bit readable since the letters are red and the background is also red.
Let me know if that works please.
After you get the info you need , I can delete the file cause is huge I know.
Thanks
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/8708/10biterror.th.jpg (http://img163.imageshack.us/i/10biterror.jpg/)

[pankov]

shaolin95,
please, use the Thumbnail preview option of ImageShak - "Embeded thumbnails of this image"
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/8708/10biterror.th.jpg (http://img163.imageshack.us/i/10biterror.jpg/)

[Ger]

I have a question:

Is this playback settings guide as helpful as it can be?

http://files.nyaa.eu/HOW_DID_I_PLAYED_BACK.txt

I also prefer LAV Splitter, but maybe it's not ready for newbies yet due to lack of installer etc, if that's your target audience.

I guess the renderer/DXVA choice will always be controversial as you can see from previous comments. There is no one-size-fits-all renderer at the moment IMHO. Depends on the user's hardware/content/needs.

FWIW, I understand it works for other people, but your chosen resizer "Bicubic A=-0.60 (PS 2.0)" is completely broken (http://i.imgur.com/2oGpH.png) for both EVR Sync and EVR CP for me, as is A=-0.75.

I don't really care since since A=-1.00 works fine, but if you want a safer setting for more systems in your guide A=-1.00 is preferable based on my personal experience.

The above fullscreen screenshot is with JanWillem's r2993 tester build, but I'm 99% sure the trunk builds are the same and have been for a long time. I can double check with a recent trunk rev later if someone really wants to know.

[shaolin95]

@shaolin95: Y'CbCr mode for output on HDMI or DisplayPort could cause this.
If the connection is made by converting a legacy DVI port to HDMI mode, it might fail, too. Does the card offer a physical HDMI port on the card or emulation over DVI? HDMI capability on ATI hardware is exposed by the audio over HDMI device for the video card in the device panel and sound panel of the Windows configuration screen. If it isn't there, it means that the card is limited to single-link or sometimes dual-link DVI data transport, which isn't completely compatible with the more advanced data transport types used by HDMI.
It is aHD2600 Pro so it only has DVI ports on the back, is that then my issue?

[neoufo51]

I also prefer LAV Splitter, but maybe it's not ready for newbies yet due to lack of installer etc, if that's your target audience.

I guess the renderer/DXVA choice will always be controversial as you can see from previous comments. There is no one-size-fits-all renderer at the moment IMHO. Depends on the user's hardware/content/needs.

FWIW, I understand it works for other people, but your chosen resizer "Bicubic A=-0.60 (PS 2.0)" is completely broken (http://i.imgur.com/2oGpH.png) for both EVR Sync and EVR CP for me, as is A=-0.75.

I don't really care since since A=-1.00 works fine, but if you want a safer setting for more systems in your guide A=-1.00 is preferable based on my personal experience.
Thanks, I've deleted Haali and went with LAV Splitter and changed it to A=-1.00 and so far I see an improvement with MKV files performancewise.

[JanWillem32]

@Ger: I haven't really changed the default scalers yet, so I might need to do that. I don't exactly like the bicubic 0.75 scaler anyway (it was broken, so it was changed to 0.751). Do you know of any other pixel shaders that won't work in your setup (especially custom scalers)?

@shaolin95: I looked up the HD2600 pro, it can use correct HDMI signals over DVI links. In your screenshot the stats screen reports only 8-bit output, so you might need to change rendering settings. "Reset To Optimal Renderer Settings" + "Enable D3D Fullscreen" is often a good start. If that's too heavy, you can switch to "Half Floating Point Processing". (It's not always lighter on the video card, as HFPP is only lighter on the GPU memory controller, not the GPU itself.)
In the Catalyst Control Center, make sure you use a RGB full range output and while you're there, disable the stupid (unfortunately default) overscan compensation. In the "Video Settings" tab, disable all filters except automatic deinterlacing and pulldown detection. Some of those filters can result in a black screen when the video output of the mixer isn't 8-bit RGB.
That should probably clear up some problems. I've had some problems in the past with my setup, too. It's a pretty steep leaning curve to get things working. On top of that it's safe to assume that all the default settings of all software, drivers and hardware are wrong and sub-optimal.

[shaolin95]

@shaolin95: I looked up the HD2600 pro, it can use correct HDMI signals over DVI links. In your screenshot the stats screen reports only 8-bit output, so you might need to change rendering settings. "Reset To Optimal Renderer Settings" + "Enable D3D Fullscreen" is often a good start. If that's too heavy, you can switch to "Half Floating Point Processing". (It's not always lighter on the video card, as HFPP is only lighter on the GPU memory controller, not the GPU itself.)
In the Catalyst Control Center, make sure you use a RGB full range output and while you're there, disable the stupid (unfortunately default) overscan compensation. In the "Video Settings" tab, disable all filters except automatic deinterlacing and pulldown detection. Some of those filters can result in a black screen when the video output of the mixer isn't 8-bit RGB.
That should probably clear up some problems. I've had some problems in the past with my setup, too. It's a pretty steep leaning curve to get things working. On top of that it's safe to assume that all the default settings of all software, drivers and hardware are wrong and sub-optimal.
Wow that is some awesome explanation and cant thank you enough for taking the time to look this up amigo! :)
Just to confirm I am doing some changes to the ATI Control Center even though I am using ffdshow decoder and not AVIVO or whatever that is called, right?
I will work on that as soon as I get home.
BTW, in ffdshow I have it set to RGB32 high quality conversion and full range input then Computer display output.
Sorry if that is too vague..I can get the details later if that helps you.
Also, is there a particular HTPC card you recommend as an upgrade if mine is not up to par?
Thanks again!! :thanks:

[v0lt]

1. Why are two types of shaders in the player (Pixel Shaders and Screen Space Pixel Shaders)?
I found the answer to the first question. (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1345093#post1345093)

2. Why have two options "Shaders Disabled" and "Toggle Pixel Shaders"? :confused:

[Ger]

@Ger: I haven't really changed the default scalers yet, so I might need to do that. I don't exactly like the bicubic 0.75 scaler anyway (it was broken, so it was changed to 0.751). Do you know of any other pixel shaders that won't work in your setup (especially custom scalers)?


AFAIK, no scalers/shaders are broken on my system apart from the two bicubic variants I mentioned (A=-0.60 and A=-0.75). AFAIR they have been broken for a long time on my system, months/years. If you make some changes to them and want me to test, just let me know. All default shaders work (at least nothing is garbled).

As you know, one of the bilinear resizers produced similar garbled results in one of your previous test builds, but that is fixed in your 2993 build.

I briefly tried a couple of resizers from your shader pack, and they seemed OK as well.

I have a some more EVR-CP questions/issues I want to ask you about as well, but I think I'll send a PM some other day about those issues if that's OK. I need to remind myself what these issues were and write some stuff down first anyway, and I don't think it will be very interesting for anyone else.

2. Why have two options "Shaders Disabled" and "Toggle Pixel Shaders"? :confused:

I think because you can use CTRL-P to toggle shaders on/off and still remember which shaders were last used (it will still be selected, just not enabled).

I never understood why checked means disabled and unchecked means enabled though. Seems like inverted logic to me.

[namaiki]

AFAIK, no scalers/shaders are broken on my system apart from the two bicubic variants I mentioned (A=-0.60 and A=-0.75). AFAIR they have been broken for a long time on my system, months/years.

What GPU/driver version/version of Windows on that PC?

[Ger]

ATI 5770, Cat 11.2, Win7 SP1 x64, Dell 2709W 1920x1200 59.95 Hz connected through DVI as primary monitor.

[kasper93]

I have problem with red object, it looks blocky. Can you help me with this? :)
I'll take screen shot later.

HD5870, win7 64bit, 11.4pre (march 23) drivers.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16282309/MPC-HC/red.png
(look at the lights)
In low quality video it looks worse.

[Polcius]

I have problem with red object, it looks blocky. Can you help me with this? :)
I'll take screen shot later.

HD5870, win7 64bit, 11.4pre (march 23) drivers.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16282309/MPC-HC/red.png
(look at the lights)
In low quality video it looks worse.

Yeah, same here.

Red looks "blocky" or "lower resolution". I think it has something to do with the chroma. ATI HD4350, Win7 32bit, Catalyst 11.2.

[Damien147]

Me too.I posted a few days ago about this but never got an answer:(
Happens with every build I've tried since february.

OS and driver same as kasper93's with hd4850.

YV12 chroma upsampling shader(I don't know if it's the best option) or change to evr or do rgb conversion with ffdshow if you're using it.

1.5.1.2903 (http://sourceforge.net/projects/mpc-hc/files/) also works fine.

[Ger]

Try enabling the "YV12 Chroma Upsampling" shader (Play -> Shaders). You can then pause the video when you see problematic red areas and press CTRL-P to see the difference instantly with the shader on/off, even with a paused image.

IIRC Leak wrote this a few years ago to combat blocky reds with YV12 and ATI, but it seems to have spread to NV12 at some point. Don't know if MPC-HC changes or driver changes is the reason.

Actually, from a quick test the blocking is far worse in EVR-CP than in EVR Sync. With EVR Sync the difference with the shader on/off is very small. With EVR-CP it is noticeably better with the shader on.

EDIT: Damien147 beat me to it. The above work-around was written for kasper93. Maybe JanWillem can fix it in EVR-CP then, since it apparently was broken not so long ago.

[shaolin95]

@shaolin95: I looked up the HD2600 pro, it can use correct HDMI signals over DVI links. In your screenshot the stats screen reports only 8-bit output, so you might need to change rendering settings. "Reset To Optimal Renderer Settings" + "Enable D3D Fullscreen" is often a good start. If that's too heavy, you can switch to "Half Floating Point Processing". (It's not always lighter on the video card, as HFPP is only lighter on the GPU memory controller, not the GPU itself.)
In the Catalyst Control Center, make sure you use a RGB full range output and while you're there, disable the stupid (unfortunately default) overscan compensation. In the "Video Settings" tab, disable all filters except automatic deinterlacing and pulldown detection. Some of those filters can result in a black screen when the video output of the mixer isn't 8-bit RGB.
That should probably clear up some problems. I've had some problems in the past with my setup, too. It's a pretty steep leaning curve to get things working. On top of that it's safe to assume that all the default settings of all software, drivers and hardware are wrong and sub-optimal.
OK I could not find where to change the RGB to full range in the Control Center nor the overscan unless it is that panel scaling option which is unchecked already.
The others I was able to find but I still get the same redish image. :confused:
Also where can you tell my previous screenshot shows 8bits...I cannot see it anywhere.
Thanks!

[JanWillem32]

@shaolin95: Good luck in getting it to work, even I had some problems in setting everything up. (I mostly had audio initialization delay problems. I solved it with ASIO audio software.)
The EVR and VMR-9 mixers are still influenced by the video settings in the contol panel. Most settings in the control center matter, because a lot of them are applied for the whole system.
http://www.aoclarkejr.com/ati-catalyst-9-9-overcan-and-underscan-options.html This is with the older CCC, the newer version has the items listed under the "My ~ Displays" tab.
RGB32 input for the mixer is a legacy compatibilty fix for graphics cards that can't use Y'CbCr surfaces. In your case, with the common 8-bit 4:2:0 chroma down-sampled video input, NV12 would be correct. When using ffdshow tryouts, it's usually best to let the mixer do a lot of the conversion work. In the output tab of the video decoder, use "Set pixel aspect ratio in output media type", "Set interlace flag in output media type" and "Allow output format changes during playback".
HTPC video cards come in various kinds. I generally prefer a performance model (one that scores well in 3D benchmarks) over silent models. It completely depends on your budget, filter chain/rendering settings and need for a silent setup what would be ideal for you. (In addition to the performance needs for the more recent 3D games, 3D designing, et cetera.)
A reddish image can be caused by white-point compensation. Enabling the "Use ~ (EDID)" item in the "Desktop Management", "Display Color" tab often solves this problem.
Your screenshot mentions "Display: R8G8B8A8" in the top center part.

@Ger: I've made corrections to the default scalers. It will be integrated in the next tester build, but I don't know for sure it will solve the problem.

About the chroma up-sampling: I've written several shaders that work wonders on raw chroma data. It's currently available in the flavors blur (simple bilinear), Spline4 and Spline5. http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=157634
The "optimized path for up-sampling floating point surfaces" folder contains an optimized chain of up-sampling shaders to use in combination with FFPP or HFPP.
I still need to write a proper OP with a guide how to add and use shaders...

[shaolin95]

@shaolin95: Good luck in getting it to work, even I had some problems in setting everything up. (I mostly had audio initialization delay problems. I solved it with ASIO audio software.)
The EVR and VMR-9 mixers are still influenced by the video settings in the contol panel. Most settings in the control center matter, because a lot of them are applied for the whole system.
http://www.aoclarkejr.com/ati-catalyst-9-9-overcan-and-underscan-options.html This is with the older CCC, the newer version has the items listed under the "My ~ Displays" tab.
RGB32 input for the mixer is a legacy compatibilty fix for graphics cards that can't use Y'CbCr surfaces. In your case, with the common 8-bit 4:2:0 chroma down-sampled video input, NV12 would be correct. When using ffdshow tryouts, it's usually best to let the mixer do a lot of the conversion work. In the output tab of the video decoder, use "Set pixel aspect ratio in output media type", "Set interlace flag in output media type" and "Allow output format changes during playback".
HTPC video cards come in various kinds. I generally prefer a performance model (one that scores well in 3D benchmarks) over silent models. It completely depends on your budget, filter chain/rendering settings and need for a silent setup what would be ideal for you. (In addition to the performance needs for the more recent 3D games, 3D designing, et cetera.)
A reddish image can be caused by white-point compensation. Enabling the "Use ~ (EDID)" item in the "Desktop Management", "Display Color" tab often solves this problem.
Your screenshot mentions "Display: R8G8B8A8" in the top center part.

Thanks again for that. I am thinking on getting a newer 5700 series HTPC. I dont user this for gaming but I will look for decent power just in case.
I will keep playing with it.
Does it make a really good difference in banding or something going with 10bit?
Thanks for all your help mate! :)

[Mercury_22]

For those with SDK 7.1 & VC2010SP1 problems : Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Service Pack 1 Compiler Update for the Windows SDK 7.1 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=689655b4-c55d-4f9b-9665-2c547e637b70)2.1.3. Recommended Installation Order

To ensure that your system has a supported configuration, uninstall the following products and then reinstall them in the order listed:

1.Visual Studio 2010
2. Windows SDK 7.1
3. Visual Studio 2010 SP1
4. Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Compiler Update for the Windows SDK 7.1

[ceb]

In a custom installation of the AMD Catalyst drivers, there's an option called "wmv9/vc-1 video playback", is it of any use to MPC-HC? My video card is an ATI 5770.
In the description it says it's hardware acceleration, but I don't use DXVA because my CPU is powerful enough (Intel Core i5 2500), and anyway, even if I wanted to it doesn't work properly.

[Ger]

@Ger: I've made corrections to the default scalers. It will be integrated in the next tester build, but I don't know for sure it will solve the problem.

OK. As I said it's not important to me as long as A=-1.00 is working, but I'm happy to test the other two anyway, and will report back once the next tester build is released.

About the chroma up-sampling: I've written several shaders that work wonders on raw chroma data. It's currently available in the flavors blur (simple bilinear), Spline4 and Spline5. http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=157634
The "optimized path for up-sampling floating point surfaces" folder contains an optimized chain of up-sampling shaders to use in combination with FFPP or HFPP.
I still need to write a proper OP with a guide how to add and use shaders...

Understood, but as you can see from the last three posts before my last one, people are noticing a regression in EVR-CP when no shaders are used (which will surely be the case for most EVR-CP users out there).

This comment made me start looking through the archives to figure out when the problem started:
1.5.1.2903 (http://sourceforge.net/projects/mpc-hc/files/) also works fine.

@JanWillem
While it's true that the above build is fine, it's actually a bit misleading though, since that particular official/stable build is missing some commits that a trunk r2903 would have, as you can see from the blue OSD background color that was changed in r2863. So I used alexins' archive (xvidvideo.ru) and narrowed the regression down to the revision range 2834-2840 (http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/mpc-hc/log/trunk?action=stop_on_copy&mode=stop_on_copy&rev=2840&stop_rev=2834&limit=100&verbose=on). In other words, r2833 is fine, but r2840 and later have very blocky reds. Tested up to and including r2994, and also your r2993 tester build. There are no archived trunk builds available between r2833 and r2840 from either alexins or xhmikosr, so I can't narrow it down further.

In that range I think r2837 (http://mpc-hc.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/mpc-hc?view=revision&revision=2837) and r2839 (http://mpc-hc.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/mpc-hc?view=revision&revision=2839) are the most likely culprits, both are AFAICS mostly your patches, so I think you would be the guy to talk to for the people hoping to get it fixed (without having to resort to shaders or another renderer).

With a relatively low res red logo upscaled to fullscreen I can clearly see the difference between r2833 and r2840 (http://i.imgur.com/1k7SI.png) (old default 8-bit chain used, but the problem is not limited to 8-bit). As you can see the logo in the middle has noticeably uglier/blockier reds than the other two, proving it was broken between those two revisions.

I stole the red/black/letters idea from madshi's second post in the madVR thread and found a usable logo in a low res xvid upscaled to fullscreen with Bicubic A=-1.00.

For anyone interested I also uploaded all original fullscreen screenshots (http://www.multiupload.com/UF2PP3U826), including some with other renderers for reference/curiosity reasons (madVR, EVR Sync, EVR) and a couple from the 2993 tester build with some additional options like HFPP, 10bOut and dithering in addition to one with the three shaders from "optimized path for up-sampling chroma on floating point surfaces" in shader pack 24. All four MPC-HC builds used during these tests are also included in that archive, in case xvidvideo.ru goes down again (was down for a while yesterday).

All tests done with ATI 5770, Win7 x64 SP1, 32-bit MPC-HC.

[Damien147]

Ger has a point about the ''~when the osd color changed''(I thought it was a problem too:p).I don't know if it's intended but now when using ffdshow(with default settings) I get different output(and different bad chroma result),NV12 instead of rgb32 when using internal decoder.This doesn't happen with 1.5.1.2903,stays rgb32.In general thumbs up for the changes,can't wait for the final result.
Screenshot (http://i.imgur.com/YPy3B.png) with default settings.

Looks the same as described in Ticket #915 (http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/mpc-hc/ticket/915)(I don't know with nvidia) but without the necessity of dxva usage.

evr cp,win7 64bit sp1,ati 4850(11.4 preview),mpc-hc 32bit

[bobdynlan]

Test-drive this build (http://cid-d561cc7d122f3f32.office.live.com/browse.aspx/Shared/MPCHC%5E_SWSCALER%5E_MOD) featuring some new internal software decoder options.
More info in the readme. Also see ticket 719 (http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/mpc-hc/ticket/719).

http://public.sn2.livefilestore.com/y1p0zCeMT3iqjbz83hAB4ctETpL_fM5vaUJt1gG6NT7lowch9VgTX8vj1X5mNUtmFzzXNADVagu0ayI2Hbag1lvUg/whatsnew.png?psid=1

[pdanpdan]

@bobdynlan
It seems it's working fine here (win7 64, ATI HD2400Pro, Cat 11.4) - now it's working for non DXVA also.
Thank you.

[fastplayer]

Test-drive this build (http://cid-d561cc7d122f3f32.office.live.com/browse.aspx/Shared/MPCHC%5E_SWSCALER%5E_MOD) featuring some new internal software decoder options.
More info in the readme. Also see ticket 719 (http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/mpc-hc/ticket/719).
Is BT.601/BT.709 detection done automagically like in ffdshow's HQRGB32 (http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/wiki/video:rgb_conversion#auto)?

[Mercury_22]

@bobdynlan
Working fine so far !
Why isn't your other patch, (for the GUI, AKA BE Mod (http://www.xvidvideo.ru/media-player-classic-home-cinema-x86-x64/media-player-classic-homecinema-x86-x64-1-5-2-2999.html)) in the SVN cause is working fine here?

[bobdynlan]

Is BT.601/BT.709 detection done automagically like in ffdshow's HQRGB32 (http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/wiki/video:rgb_conversion#auto)? For now it's not, just dumb resolution enforced, but it could be improved.
YV12/NV12 are still the recommended output formats, RGB32 only gets there quality wise if Chroma to RGB is on 'Full' (with the huge performance drops). At least now there are some options, and as a side effect can overcome some issues until the renderer patches of JanWillem32 get stable. Reading the readme it's a must.
@bobdynlan
Why isn't your other patch, (for the GUI, AKA BE Mod (http://www.xvidvideo.ru/media-player-classic-home-cinema-x86-x64/media-player-classic-homecinema-x86-x64-1-5-2-2999.html)) in the SVN cause is working fine here? That's based on a old sketch source and I do not support it. I will reboot that mod soon - and now I mean it :)

[Mercury_22]

For now it's not, just dumb resolution enforced, but it could be improved.
YV12/NV12 are still the recommended output formats, RGB32 only gets there quality wise if Chroma to RGB is on 'Full' (with the huge performance drops). At least now there are some options, and as a side effect can overcome some issues until the renderer patches of JanWillem32 get stable. Reading the readme it's a must.
That's based on a old sketch source and I do not support it. I will reboot that mod soon - and now I mean it :)
Ok Can't Wait ! :thanks:

P.S. Cum e vremea la mare ( de 1 mai :) ) ?

[fastplayer]

For now it's not, just dumb resolution enforced, but it could be improved.
YV12/NV12 are still the recommended output formats, RGB32 only gets there quality wise if Chroma to RGB is on 'Full' (with the huge performance drops). At least now there are some options, and as a side effect can overcome some issues until the renderer patches of JanWillem32 get stable. Reading the readme it's a must.
What's the purpose of RGB15/16? If anything, RGB24 would make more sense IMO.
Anyway, I like the idea of taking more advantage of swscale and overcoming some of the deficiencies of the internal renderers. :)