MKV and 8500 Full Hardware Acceleration

[Trahald]

Nvidia driver == 162.22_forceware_winvista_32bit_english_whql.exe (latest on site)
powerdvd = v7.3
mpc == v1.0.9.0 'HomeCinema' edition

Mpc filters --
cyberlink avc decoder - merit to prefer
directvobsub - merit to blocked
ffdshow audio decoder - merit to prefer

EVR (vista/net3) output

[dragongodz]

BTW there is dude that has some beta nvidia drivers 163

possibly these(163.44, released for bioshock)

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_rel70betadriver.html

[TheShadowRunner]

I'm having the exact same issue.
Card is Geforce 8500GT, drivers 163.71. OS is XP SP2.
When I use the Cyberlink filter with DXVA enabled along with VMR9, i do get hardware accelaration (CPU between 0 and 2% !!) on MKV/AVC1 but I can see 20fps in VMR9 filter properties and experience stuttering.
Has anyone found a solution for this yet?
cl264dec.ax is version 2.0.0.1904, is there a newer out?
I also happen to have 720p MKVs that give a black screen, so the problem of black screen isn't only 1080p related.
I checked and each time (for working and non-working MKVs) the 4CC is AVC1 so at least that's not a problem of 4cc.
Thanks for any help.
Later,

TSR

Also, the mp4 "WG30secSport_AVC_HDTV" plays perfectly with AVC1 but the fps is 29.9..
Maybe this bug is due to compatibility issue with fps 24 for movies?
One strange thing is that for all the MKVs with the 20fps problem, the deinterlacing tab of VMR9 renderer says 47.95 Hz.. isn't that odd ?

[TheShadowRunner]

47.95Hz = 20.87FPS if im doing the math right.

oh that's quite interesting!
Are we onto a lead...?
Later,

TSR

[tommy_vercetti]

Anbody tried the new drivers, seems they support the Hardware acceleration in XP

[TheShadowRunner]

tommy, read the 2 posts above yours ;)

[TheShadowRunner]

Well i used mkv2vfr to remux the h264 stream from the MKV container to AVI.
Still on XP SP2, nvidia 163.71, vmr9 and cyberlink with hardware acceleration enabled..
It works! Solid 24 fps all the way WITH hardware acceleration enabled (CPU between 0-2%) :D

But man, remuxing isn't a real solution :/
Later,

TSR

[DrNein]

Interesting but if there is a fault with the MKV wouldn't it make more sense to remux into an MPEG-2 Program or Transport stream?

If the video is demuxed is it still accelerated or is AVI bypassing or forcing correction of a flaw somehow?

[homerpez]

Sorry to jump in here, I'm also trying to get this to work, and getting mixed results. So many options/filters (and many of which I've never heard of) have been mentioned, hopefully if I just post my situation, someone can help me...

The card is the 8600 GT... and I'm also noticing that I get hardware acceleration while in PowerDVD (no more than 30%, even for VC-1) but when I play an H.264 codec video in Media Player Classic, it doesn't accelerate at all.

The material here is H.264, 720p, with ac3 audio attached. I purposely disabled "libvacodec" in FFDShow so it would use what's left (Cyberlink PoweDVD's filter).

When I check the filter it's using, it says it's the Cyberlink filter, and the checkbox for hSorry to jump in here, I'm also trying to get this to work, and getting mixed results. So many options/filters (and many of which I've never heard of) have been mentioned, hopefully if I just post my situation, someone can help me...

The card is the 8600 GT... and I'm also noticing that I get hardware acceleration while in PowerDVD (no more than 30%, even for VC-1) but when I play an H.264 codec video in Media Player Classic, it doesn't accelerate at all.

The material here is H.264, 720p, with ac3 audio attached. I purposely disabled "libvacodec" in FFDShow so it would use what's left (Cyberlink PoweDVD's filter).

When I check the filter it's using, it says it's the Cyberlink filter, and the checkbox for hardware acceleration is checked.

So why again is it not working, when it IS supposedly using the Cyberlink filter?

I guess I've read what I could here.. seen many things mentioned, but no clarity on the issue.. I think the codecs I'm using would be simple enough to diagnose...

Using latest Nvidia driver for Vista 32 as well (169.04).

I should add this: I did try enabling EVR in Vista 32 (by using a patched MPC mod that allows for this), however, this bricks MPC altogether. There's no video OR audio output when I use EVR Vista/net. When I use the "custom", I get audio only.

Without EVR working, I'm out of options for now...

Thanks for any tips that will give me some success here!ardware acceleration is checked.

So why again is it not working, when it IS supposedly using the Cyberlink filter?

I guess I've read what I could here.. seen many things mentioned, but no clarity on the issue.. I think the codecs I'm using would be simple enough to diagnose...

Using latest Nvidia driver for Vista 32 as well (169.04).

Thanks for any tips that will give me some success here!

[Sulik]

It's quite simple: H.264 acceleration on Vista will ONLY work with DXVA2, which requires EVR (Microsoft does not provide DXVA1 support for H.264)

EVR requires specific support from the application (Sounds like EVR support is not yet fully functional in MPC).

[homerpez]

It's quite simple: H.264 acceleration on Vista will ONLY work with DXVA2, which requires EVR (Microsoft does not provide DXVA1 support for H.264)

EVR requires specific support from the application (Sounds like EVR support is not yet fully functional in MPC).

I have just tried to use the MPC "Home Cinema" Build... it allows you to activate EVR I guess, I could only bring up a picture by using "custom" (3d display, Bicubic, 5 EVR buffers)...

I think I have another problem... when I bring up the filter menu in MPC, it still only shows that it was "DXVA1"... not "DXVA2". Holding CTRL while I bring up the config, I see it's saying "SW" mode.

What would cause this now? It's an 8600 card, it's using the latest drivers from Nvidia, and it's using the Cyberlink filter... how do I get DXVA2 to activate? or does the screen look the same?

Unfortunately, I'd running an encode now, so I can't test the CPU usage... but I have a feeling it still doesn't work...

Could someone who HAS gotten this to work tell me the steps? Some other method to try maybe? :thanks:

[TheShadowRunner]

A very easy way to see if the Cyberlink decoder is in sofware or in hardware mode is the color levels on its property tab.
If color levels are locked : hardware acceleration.
if color levels can be altered : software.
Hope it helps, somehow.
See you,

TSR

[homerpez]

A very easy way to see if the Cyberlink decoder is in sofware or in hardware mode is the color levels on its property tab.
If color levels are locked : hardware acceleration.
if color levels can be altered : software.
Hope it helps, somehow.
See you,

TSR

Thanks, this actually did help some...

I just discovered that DXVA acceleration isn't working @ all with MPC Home Cinema, using EVR.

Under the "EVR Custom", I get the movie to play, but it's using software only. "SW" mode.

When I set it to use "EVR Vista / Net 3", it just hangs totally, and will not play. When I go into the Cyberlink filter options, the color bars are greyed out as you said, and it says "Bitstream" now, but does nothing else. Frozen solid.

So... looks like EVR + DXVA doesn't seem to work right...

EDIT:

I have now tried this on 2 Nvidia machines. The 8600 GT and the 8800 GTS. This behavior is the same on both machines, with DXVA1 and DXVA2.

When "EVR Vista/Net" is the output, Nvidia PureVideo 1 AND 2 choke in the same fashion. The only difference is that PureVideo 1 (8800 GTS) will say "BC" and PureVideo 2 (8600 GT) will say "Bitstream", then both freeze in place.

Once or twice (and only once or twice), PureVideo 1 began to play, but the image was pixellated and awful. Purevideo 2 won't play at all.

This seems to be in the way that "Home Cinema" + EVR Vista/Net and Purevideo 1 and 2 interact... the addition of EVR seems pointless if it doesn't bring you to the ability to accelerate with hardware...

[RaggedEdge]

I wonder if there is a filter that we could fit between the Haali file reader and the cyberlink H.264 decoder, to find out what info is being passed, and maybe to even tweak FPS values etc... without reprocessing the actual video data. Is there such a filter beast?

[hekoheko]

Any news on the 20 fps bug for ATI?

[valnar]

I don't know if this solves all the woes, but check out this thread on AVS.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12423227#post12423227
-Robert

[shon3i]

Hmm, maybe is true. It will hard to find PDVD 7.2 but sounds promising.

btw is 20fps bug presist aslo on nvidia cards or only for ati? I have 2600XT AGP, and HW acceleration work good with HDDVD and BluRay titles.

[Dark Eiri]

I don't know if it fixes the 20fps bug, but I tried PDVD 7.2 and I still got a black screen. No video at all. If I uncheck DxVA it goes without a flaw. 8600GT + XP here. Same problem with Vista.
I guess I'll have to stick with CoreAVC.

[Sulik]

The black video on 1080 content is most likely due to using num_ref_frames > 4

[Dark Eiri]

It was a 720p video. By the way, hundreds of videos. Same problem? Guess I'll just have to reencode all of them =/
Some videos play with stuttering ,though.
Thanks for warning me about this issue! I'll encode the videos with 4 Ref's now.

[NanoBot]

Hi,

I think it is neccessary to distinguish between the to problems:

The black screen when playing back 1080p streams with > 4 reference frames could be caused by a lack of memory on the video card. As more reference frames are used, as more of them must be held in the video cards memory to be able to decode a frame.

Nevertheless, the "20fps" problem IMHO is definitely a bug in the cyberlink decoder, since there is an older version where it does not occure. And as far as I could test it, the 20 fps problem is not caused by any of the x264 paramters used during the encode. I encoded a small 720p video with 23,976fps, using two reference frames, two b frames and no b-pyramids, and the problem is still there. The encoder was the newest x264 available and the decoder is the newest cl264dec.ax ( 2.1.0.1108 )

So it looks to me that cyberlink was not able to fix the problem with their latest update of powerdvd, and we will have to wait for the next update.

C.U. NanoBot

[riadmelb]

Hi all, this is my first post here, and not sure if the following information is usual

I have PowerDVD v7.3 with latest patch applied, have CCCP installed and latest nVidia drivers running on MSI 8500GT with HDMI port. My main media player is MediaPortal, but I’m using PowerDVD player for testing. These are the only components installed after fresh install of XP sitting on Intel 6120 with 1GB of ram.

When hardware acceleration is disabled I can play 1080p in PowerDVD, but when hardware acceleration is enabled I get the black screen in PowerDVD.

While I was troubleshooting MediaPortal problem playing 1080p in the latest release, a user in MediaPortal forum (thank you Atarian) mentioned that we need to configure halli splitter to autoload vsfilter in order to play 1080p in MediaPortal. Although this change fixed my MediaPortal problem, it also fixed PowerDVD playback problem (black screen) as well.

But even though I have hardware acceleration enabled, I think it’s not being utilized, because cpu usage is between 40-60% and sometimes jumps to 90%.

Hope this helps in something,
Riad

[TheShadowRunner]

As soon as vsfilter is loaded, cyberlink automatically falls back to software mode.

[TheShadowRunner]

Just to let you guys know that cl264.ax v2.2.0.527 is the new v1.99.0.1405, aka no 20fps bug on this one either. :D