Controlling system-default filter ordering on Windows -- Graphedit?

[stormy1777]

two Win2K PCs, on one .AVI plays OK, on the other doesn't, just blocks of video and snow.

good PC I look at Graphedit of that AVI and see:

avi splitter -> 3ivx D4 Video Decoder -> Video Renderer

on BAD PC I see using graphedit:

avi splitter -> DivX Decoder Filter -> Video Renderer

On the BAD PC I can edit that graph to look the same as the good PC, and then from within graphedit the video shows up OK, however I can't find a way to apply that change system-wide...

If I choose "save" it saves as a .grf file that later correctly plays the video, again, from within graphedit.

I'd like that new graph to be used for bsplayer and other players.

also using gspot shows the incorrect video ordering graph.

any tip would be highly appreciated.

[stormy1777]

a) I do not want to uninstall the DivX decoder, it might be needed for other things.
b) I've tried reinstalling Xvid as well as 3ivx and rebooted several times, still the DivX sticks..
c) I run 3ivxConfig but can not find anything that says it should be the 'default filter'
d) the AVI shows up as Xvid coded using gspot.

[Stux]

In the 3ivx Config app, Choose "DirectShow Priority" and slide the slider to the right.

BTW, 3ivx 5.0 is out now,

http://www.3ivx.com/download

[stegre]

I propose a different solution - to bring the DivX decoder's priority "down" into the realm of reality.

http://www.ftyps.com/unrelated/merit3.png

DirectShow priorities, or "merit values" as they are officially called are shown on GSpot's "System > List Codecs and Other Filters", and you can also right click on them and change them. Before I continue, I should mention that this semi-obscure feature should be used with some caution - in fact, I'd advise against fooling with any filters that either aren't DirectShow decoders (e.g., renderers, splitters, etc. and/or aren't DirectShow (e.g. VFW & ACM codecs). Nor would I fool with anything installed by the O/S itself.

That being said, it's quite useful for "third party" DirectShow decoders, and for those GSpot also has a "re-register" function which should easily restore any changes back to the installation defaults. And in a worst case scenario, you simply re-install the decoder.

With that said, I'll now start my rant ;) I had really meant to start a thread about this, but this seems like a good a place as any, as long as someone brought it up. If it was a new thread, I'd call it something "Merit Wars" or something, because - to further the metaphor - "escalation" has brought it completely out of control.

Stux's suggestion will work in this case, but only if the highest setting is used on the 3ivx config util. The latest 3ivx appears to offer seven priority settings, marked Normal thru High, and here's how they seem to map to Microsoft's official definition of "merit":

3ivx Name Hex Value Microsoft Name
========= ========== ===============================================
"Normal" 0x00800000: "Preferred" - the highest MS "named" setting
. 0x00800000: (this next click is identical to above [bug?])
. 0x00800001: "Preferred" + 1
"Preferred" 0x00800002: "Preferred" + 2
. 0x00800003: "Preferred" + 3
. 0x00800004 "Preferred" + 4
"High" 0xffffffff "Preferred" + 4 billion (give or take a few hundred million)

Now I'm not really railing against 3ivx. The slight "name shift" (their "Normal" is Microsoft's "Preferred", is just a minor marketing to make their codec a little more likely to come up than the average "Joe Codec". And 6 of the 7 values themselves, while technically above Microsoft's "highest named value", are certainly well within reason, as you'll see in a moment. The "ridiculous" value for "High" selection was probably put in to help consumers who are in exactly stormy777's predicament. So they needed to add at least one that would "override" DivX.

There are are at least two other codecs that use "ridiculous" values: DivX and ffdshow. The type of values I'm talking about are around 511 times higher than Microsoft's maximum defined merit. If it was DivX that did it first, it seems a pretty absurd and inexcusable marketing move. For its part, ffdshow has a relatively legitimate excuse for "wanting" to be the highest. Because it decodes many, many different formats and provides extensive configuration menus for exactly which ones you want it to use; the thinking was, no doubt, to make the whole process a "digital choice" rather than a priority thing. You set ffdshow itself so it's the highest priority codec in your system. Then you go into its config. Any format you don't tick the checkbox for it ignores, while any one you do select it'll be "guaranteed" to use. So that's pretty logical; indeed, I always make sure ffdshow has the highest merit setting in my own personal setup.

But that ridiculous "511 X" jump - I don't know which of the above two codecs made the huge jump first. Currently, on my setup - and I'll use decimal versions here for emphasis: my DivX has a "merit" 4,286,578,689 and my ffdshow has a "merit" of "4,286,578,692" (3 higher, lol). Whatever units "merit" is measured in, I don't think either of them are that good.

Whoever made that first "jump" at least had enough sense to leave around 8 million higher values beyond the 4 billion. But 3ivx took care of that. Their current "high" setting is the highest possible 32-bit value, 4,294,967,295, so the best anyone else can do is match it. Then it'll be a crap shoot which one DirectShow chooses when you play a file in GraphEdit, WMP, or whatever.

While Microsoft's original definitions only had four "named values", they were spaced 8 million apart, so you'd think that'd leave enough room for someone to tweak their system! I've created the diagram at the top of the post to put into visual perspective exactly where we stand now. This diagram is to scale. The "spectrum" of six million or so merit values, "X" thru "P" all fit in less than half if the 2 pixel wide magenta line in the upper left labeled "0 - 16 million". The next 98% of the gray bar are a few billion values no one's ever used, and the thin yellow and red lines at the right are the ridiculous battle area.

I'm not "blaming" anyone nor am I offering any solutions; I created this post for general interest purposes and to point that I think is a rather chaotic situation has developed.

----------------
@ stormy777: Here's what I'd do: Leave 3ivx at its installation defaults, and leave ffdshow (if you have that installed) alone as well. Using GSpot, list the codecs as mentioned above, right click on DivX Decoder Filter (driver filename should be divxdec.ax) and choose "Set Merit". Bring the slider down to "Normal" or something, maybe one click above. Then it'll always choose 3ivX over DivX even at 3ivx's default settings. But if you have ffdshow, any format you check will override both, so if you do have that make sure to deselect the ffdshow config to deselect the formats you want to decode with 3iVX. To me that seems like your perfect solution. And you'll be doing your part to restore some sanity to the world. AND you'll still have those 8 million higher priorities above ffdshow left for "emergencies" ;)

Vista users take note: You'd have to select "run as administrator" (even if logged in as admin) to change codec priorities - same with 3ivx util and I imagine other similar utils. Otherwise the 3ivx util will silently fail. GSpot should inform you that it failed. Also note that any such changes don't show up on GSpot's list until you either run the "reload codecs" menu option or simply restart GSpot.
http://www.ftyps.com/unrelated/setpri.png

[stormy1777]

WOW! you guys are amazing! Tried both ways, but still no go, video won't play from within bsplayer (other AVI files play OK).. but I got a lot further so I'll start a new thread that's focused on the current progress...

I seem to have some corrupt/missing keys on this PC, after applying these 4 registry files (from a working PC, see attachment) I'm no longer getting an error that the codec is not installed, but still there is no video showing from bsplayer...

Thanks!

[KoD]

Try testing with another player. See if you still have no video.

[stormy1777]

Thanks.. already tried.. i'm really puzzlled...

this is the new thread: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1012669