Why won't WMP play my MPEG2s?

[phædrus]

Sorry if this is a newbie question, but I want to understand what is happening on my various computers, because the results are not consistent.

I make 720x480 MPEG2 files from HDTV broadcast captures, with AC3 soundtracks kept from the original broadcast stream. The AC3 tracks are muxed to the re-encoded video with mplex.exe.

On the computer I use to record, reencode, and remux the video (i.e. shrink the video from native HDTV resolution down to SD size and remux audio), the resulting files play perfectly with Windows Media Player 6.4. (This computer uses Win2K Pro SP4.)

When I burned these files and played them on a newer computer running WinXP, I found that WMP6.4 would play them, but with no sound or intermittent dropouts in the sound. Since taking all files and running them through VideoReDo (doing nothing but remuxing with no edits) I have not encountered this problem again. The files played fine with WinDVD, however, even without the VideoReDo treatment.

I thought all was well, but two weeks ago I bought a new Dell computer (also with WinXP) and this morning I tried to play my MPEG2 videos on that computer using WMP9 and WMP6.4. It seeks a codec or other file on the net, apparently fails to find it, and then plays the file with video but no sound.

Can someone suggest to me what the WMPlayers on my new computer are lacking to play the MPEG2s?

I appears I may have to try other software on the new computer. I'd like to think that all my troubles will go away if I try MPClassic or VLC. I guess it just bothers me that I can't understand why my new computer has trouble playing perfectly good MPEG2 files.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

WMPlayer itself does not play anything. Instead WMPlayer totally relies on the DirectShow Framework to provide suitable splitters and decoders. AFAIK Windows ships with decoders for WMV and MPEG-1, that's it! So you will need to install the required DirectShow filters: Basically you will need a MPEG PS splitter and a MPEG-2 video decoder. I'd recommend to use Media Player Classic (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=205650&package_id=245753), which has it's won built-in MPEG PS splitter and MPEG-2 decoder. Also you you might want to install ffdshow (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=173941&package_id=199416) as a video decoder (don't forget to enable MPEG-2 support during install). The ffdshow filter will also be able to decode dozens of other audio/video format. It's a really powerfull piece of software!

Another option of course is MPlayer (not WMPlayer!), which is the ultimate "all-in-one" playback solution :)
http://mulder.dummwiedeutsch.de/home/?page=projects#mplayer

[Kado]

Well you need a decoder for the mpeg2 video stream like nvidia purevideo decoder, cyberlink's, intervideo or ffdshow etc. And for the ac3 audio stream you'll need something like ac3filter, ffdshow etc.
Both MPC and VLC have built-in decoders for those streams. Windows Media Player 6.4 or later need external directshow decoders like the ones I said before.

[setarip_old]

@phaedrus

Hi!The files played fine with WinDVDJust use DVD Genie to "register" the WinDVD video and audio codecs with Windows (then reboot)...

[phædrus]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I have been making DivX encodes for years, and that has been very simple and truoble-free for me. I only used MPEG2 for DVDs, and I never had to deal with any technical issues since I used programs like Shrink or DVD-RB. Now that I am doing everything manually, it takes time to learn the ropes and get the bugs worked out.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I have been making DivX encodes for years, and that has been very simple and truoble-free for me. I only used MPEG2 for DVDs, and I never had to deal with any technical issues since I used programs like Shrink or DVD-RB. Now that I am doing everything manually, it takes time to learn the ropes and get the bugs worked out.

Well, WMPlayer won't play DivX (MPEG-4 ASP) videos without additional DirectShow filters...

[setarip_old]

@phaedrus

And ave you tried any of the suggestions offered - and did any resolve your problem?

If so, which one(s)?

[phædrus]

@phaedrus

And ave you tried any of the suggestions offered - and did any resolve your problem?

If so, which one(s)?

Today I looked at the DVD Genie page and DL'd the software, and yesterday I was perusing the VLC page. It has been literally years since I tried MPC -- it didn't work for me then, but I'm sure it is a mature software now, or maybe I just didn't know what I was doing then.

For DivX files, I will simply install the codec, and use WindowsMP. That's what I've always done, and it works fine for me.

For MPEG2 files, I'm not sure what the advantages/disadvantages of MPC or VLC player might be. I do not like the PowerDVD software that came with my new PC, so I will definitely be looking for a different way to play DVDs and ordinary MPEG2 files. Zoom player?

I'm looking at all the options suggested. The number of features and formats is confusing. I only need DivX, Xvid, MPEG2 and DVD. On my video files, audio track is always MP3 or AC3. It looks like VLC will do it all. (For DVD, do I need to install libdvdcss separately, or does it come with VLC?)

I understand that this is a do-it-yourself community, and so many people have their favorite audio and video codecs and containers, even if they are unpopular ones. :) And the media players try to accomodate all these options. It sort of makes my eyes glaze over. I like to use something common and time-tested. I don't need too many options, as I noted.

[setarip_old]

I like to use something common and time-tested. I don't need too many options, as I noted.Then, for your stated needs, by all means use VLC (You don't have to separately install the library. Just download and install the Windows executable)...

BTW, if you had followed my suggestion regarding "DVD Genie", you'd find that, as a result of "registering" the WinDVD codecs to Windows, ALL players that don't have their own audio codec libraries would play your .AC3 audiostreams (And the same re: MPEG-2/DVD video codecs)

[foxyshadis]

You might appreciate SMplayer as an alternative to VLC - same backend, stripped down and simpler interface. GOM Player and MPUI are other all-in-one, drop-in players. (GOM uses directshow but has what seems to be ffmpeg built-in, so it hardly ever needs DS.)

[setarip_old]

@foxyshadis

"Angel of Death"?

[phædrus]

@setarip_old

I looked at the homepage for DVD Genie, and they did not discuss the program's registering the WinDVD codecs to Windows. But I assume this program will do the same for PowerDVD?

Let's say I run DVD Genie, and it registers PowerDVD (or WinDVD, depending on the computer) codecs to Windows. And then I install VLC. Will this change the previous action and register VLC's codecs to Windows instead? (I guess I do not understand what occurs exactly when a codec is registered to Windows. I am guessing that in the registry used by WMP or other windows programs there is an instruction to direct the program to this or that .dll whenever a certain codec is found, and this can be modified by DVD Genie, or done manually if you know what you're doing.)

[setarip_old]

Let's say I run DVD Genie, and it registers PowerDVD (or WinDVD, depending on the computer) codecs to Windows. And then I install VLC. Will this change the previous action and register VLC's codecs to Windows instead?No...

[Shakey_Jake33]

No because VLC uses it's own internal codecs, and are completely separate from the directshow codecs.

[phædrus]

Thanks guys. That means I can have my cake and eat it too. :) I can get Windows programs to use the WinDVD/PowerDVD codecs if I should for some reason want to use WMP. And also use VLC with no interaction or interference. That sounds good.

[setarip_old]

Thanks guys.You're quite welcome!That means I can have my cake and eat it too.Yes...

[phædrus]

I seem to be a little stumped with the DVD Genie. I installed it, and on the PowerDVD tab, there is a button for "register" and "unregister" but it can't seem to find the filters to register them. I know it is recognizing the program, because it displays the product registration code. But on the "filters" button, there are no audio or video filters found. I thought perhaps it was because of the new software that came with the computer, so I uninstalled it, and put on an old PowerDVD 5.0 program. Still no dice. I didn't find a lot of documentation for this program (Genie). What should I do?

[setarip_old]

Since, as I'm sure you noticed, DVD Genie hasn't been updated in quite a while, changes to more recent versions of PowerDVD may make DVD Genie ineffectual regarding PowerDVD.

**EDIT** If you know the name of the PowerDVD .AC3 filter/codec, you can register it with Windows yourself, by entering the following in either a DOS box or in the "Run" command line from the desktop (Desktop>>Start>>Run):

c:\windows\system32\regsvr32 iviaudio.ax (Replace "iviaudio.ax" with the actual name of the PowerDVD .AC3 filter/codec)

[phædrus]

[Color=Blue]Since, as I'm sure you noticed, DVD Genie hasn't been updated in quite a while, changes to more recent versions of PowerDVD may make DVD Genie ineffectual regarding PowerDVD.



I was afraid of that. I have an old old version of WinDVD (1999 vintage, I think). I'll use that if I get desperate. Or perhaps I can find the ac3 codec by other means and register it manually.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Why not use ffdshow-tryouts (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=173941&package_id=199416) ???
It provides MPEG-2 decoder, AC-3 decoder and dozens of video/audio decoders more. And it's OpenSource!
Simply download and run the installer. Tada...

[helms]

To summarize the most well known options:

www.cccp-project.net - (common and time tested by the anime community) Includes media player classic, zoom player and ffdshow. Once installed it will allow windows media player to play some files that it couldn't play previously. Using mpc/zoom player it will play probably all files except for apple quick time and real media files. "It is usually recommended that you uninstall all other codecs when you install this, as installing multiple codecs which do the same job can cause problems."

k-lite codec pack - (common - NOT RECOMMENDED) Probably can play everything but because its just a pack of almost every codec the people who put this pack together could find it may cause problems as stated above.

vlc - (common and time tested by a lot of people) Uses its own codecs which do not interfere with other media players such as windows media player, therefore it won't cause problems in other players. Probably can play everything.

mplayer - (probably the top player for linux) (linux version is common and time tested, windows versions are not) http://mulder.dummwiedeutsch.de/home/?page=projects#mplayer (link to windows version - even though the windows versions are not common and time tested there are very few problems with the ones included in the link) Same as vlc uses its own codecs which do not interfere with other players. Probably can play everything. Personally I recommend this above vlc, however its not better or worse than vlc.

[Kado]

I really don't recommend codec packs. cccp project uses a custom made ffdshow based on the original and not in the try-outs.
Just get ffdshow try-outs and WiMP will decode mpeg2.

[Sharktooth]

cccp is a codec pack as well, in my dictionary cccp is synonymous of $h!t as well as other codec packs.
also they sport explicit political symbols in their pages and that makes them the #1 entry on my $h!t list...

[foxyshadis]

k-lite is like cccp with a few extra commercial codecs (which is why I can't recommend it). k-lite mega is the real abomination.

cccp tends to be behind on ffdshow bugfixes and features... but then again they're also behind on the new bugs, so it sometimes evens out. =p

[helms]

I don't think cccp uses ffdshow for everything, I think they disable the stuff that ffdshow is not good for. Most likely the buggy stuff in ffdshow is the stuff its not good for.

As for features in ffdshow the average user will probably never touch them. It is debatable whether the features that change how the image appears really improves image quality. It may improve image quality in some way and make the image worse in other ways. Not to mention those image changing features will increase cpu usage and you may end up with dropped frames, slow playback if your cpu usage is constantly at 100%.

The average user doesn't update every time a new update comes out so its really a non issue that cccp will always be behind ffdshow in updates. Since it needs a new update of ffdshow to come out first since cccp is a codec pack containing ffdshow. Not to mention that updates can create bugs as well as fix them. The avg user will just leave it as is if it works and not worry about updating.

Not recommending codec packs is a double edged sword. On the one hand you have a codec pack which installs everything you need. On the other hand the user finds all the codecs that he or she needs. If the avg user finds all the codecs he or she needs himself/herself there is a high chance the avg user will install multiple codecs which do the same thing leading to problems. Or the avg user installing an extremely buggy crap codec leading to fatal problems. A codec pack on the other hand is not put together by the avg user but hopefully a professional (probably not the case with k-lite).

Nothing is with out its problems for example I found vlc to be extremely buggy when I last used it probably a year and a half ago. The developers probably fixed it already and I'm sure it's a non issue now.

The reason I put k-lite is not because I recommend it but because I am listing the most common/well known all in one solutions to video playback. I even put beside it (NOT RECOMMENDED). In fact I was going to list PowerDVD and WinDVD since the graphic card makers nvidia and ati seem to use only these 2 programs to introduce new features, before I got lazy. The 4 alternatives , 6 if you add PowerDVD/WinDVD, 11 if you list Apple quick time / real player / divx player / winamp / windows media player are the most commonly used video playback solutions. Everything else is not as commonly used on windows xp.

[setarip_old]

@phaedrusI have an old old version of WinDVD (1999 vintage, I think). I'll use that if I get desperate.I can tell you with absolute certainty that DVD Genie will "do its thing" with that version...

[Kado]

Well looks like I'm not the average user because I like to have the latest version always, I don't care if it's alpha, beta, rc, rtm/final... As long it's the latest version. And I go and tweak the options as hell as well to get maximum performance and quality! :D

Again... My recommendation is MPC HC and ffdshow try-outs.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

I think they disable the stuff that ffdshow is not good for.

Which is ??? :confused:

[helms]

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/5673/ffdshowlj9.th.jpg (http://img148.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ffdshowlj9.jpg)

Well they disable its wmv decoding, since its most likely better to use windows media players default decoder anyway.

They seem to disable it for mpeg2 as well.

[Sharktooth]

decoding WMV thru ffdshow is faster... also ffdshow is perfectly able to decode mpeg2 and it does it perfectly.
so, once again, cccp is total crap.

[sheppaul]

Isn't cccp a simple package of ffdshow, vsfilter and haali's splitter? What's more? I've even heard someone mentioning it as crap combined codec pack. What's wrong?

[KoD]

So many 'experts', so little sense of humor, so little understanding for the target audience of codec packs...

[phædrus]

I really only need one codec. Well two, if you count DivX, but I installed that last week. So, I went to the folder C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD\AudioFilter. There are six .ax files and a few .dll files in it. So, we have

cladr.ax
CLaud.ax
claudfx.ax
CLAudioCD.ax
CLAudSpa.ax
clauts.ax

I'm not sure which is what here. I think we can rule out CLAudioCD.ax. Which is the AC3 filter? And, just for curiosity, what are the others for?

Also, before I run the command line command to register the filter, do I need to place a copy of it in another directory?

Why don't I install a codec pack? I like to keep it simple. I recall a line in a Star Trek movie from Scotty, "The more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain." That's mostly my philosophy with computers. I use a few programs that I am well familiar with. If it works, don't "fix" it. I don't download movies or TV shows that come in all different formats with all different kinds of codecs. I create my own video files in either MPEG2 or DivX. This suits my needs.

[helms]

So many 'experts', so little sense of humor, so little understanding for the target audience of codec packs...

I think sharktooth is offended by the name cccp and its logo that is why he doesn't like it.

In reply to phaedrus: to keep it simple: just use vlc.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

I really only need one codec. Well two, if you count DivX, but I installed that last week. So, I went to the folder C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD\AudioFilter. There are six .ax files and a few .dll files in it. So, we have

cladr.ax
CLaud.ax
claudfx.ax
CLAudioCD.ax
CLAudSpa.ax
clauts.ax

I'm not sure which is what here. I think we can rule out CLAudioCD.ax. Which is the AC3 filter? And, just for curiosity, what are the others for?

Also, before I run the command line command to register the filter, do I need to place a copy of it in another directory?

Why don't I install a codec pack? I like to keep it simple. I recall a line in a Star Trek movie from Scotty, "The more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain." That's mostly my philosophy with computers. I use a few programs that I am well familiar with. If it works, don't "fix" it. I don't download movies or TV shows that come in all different formats with all different kinds of codecs. I create my own video files in either MPEG2 or DivX. This suits my needs.

So once again: Install ffdshow-tryouts :)
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=173941&package_id=199416&release_id=439904

It's only one Codec (one DirectShow filter, called "ffdshow.ax", to be precise), but it is able to decode many many Video and Audio formats - including all those you need. Of course you can select which Audio/Video formats you want to be handled by ffdshow. Also ffdshow is OpenSource and it's under active development - see the ffdshow-tryouts development thread on Doom9...


If you don't need to do it the "DirectShow way", then get MPlayer and you won't have to care about Codecs and stuff at all! :cool:
http://mulder.dummwiedeutsch.de/home/?page=projects#mplayer

[phædrus]

In reply to phaedrus: to keep it simple: just use vlc.

Yes, I've downloaded VLC. I will install it soon. I just wanted to learn a little about the codecs that came with the PowerDVD and learn how to register/unregister them. It's as much for curiosity as anything else -- not a pressing need.

On this page (http://www.free-codecs.com/guides/How_to_install_uninstall_DLL_and_AX_files.htm), if I'm reading correctly, claud.ax is the one I should register, but I should copy it to the system32 folder first? That's the way I understood it.

@LoRd_MuldeR
If installing the ffdshow.ax (instead of the PowerDVD filter), I'm a little unclear on something. Does ffdshow.ax then become the default audio/video filter for appropriate files when using Windows Media Player, even superceding the currently installed MPEG2 video filter? (As I mentioned before, on the computer in question, it will play the video on MPEG2 files but without sound, which on those files is AC3.) Someone mentioned earlier in the thread that having multiple codecs for decoding can sometimes cause problems. I wouldn't expect a problem, but I'm wondering how Windows Media Player chooses which filter(s) to use.

If this is too many questions, then just disregard. This is slightly over my head, but I can fiddle around and find one way or another to set up one codec or the other. I suspect there are others reading who might want to learn a little more, as I do.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

phædrus, when Windows Media Player (or any other DirectShow-based player) tries to playback a file, it searches for a suitable DirectShow decoder filter. It will consider all the DirectShow filters that are registered on your system and it will automatically choose the filter(s) that can decode the current file. To be more precise: DirectShow will try to build a filter chain that connects the input file with the video renderer. For example: File Reader -> AVI Splitter -> MPEG-4 Decoder -> Video Renderer. (see screenshot below)

Sometimes there are several filters available that can do the same job, yes. E.g. MPEG-2 streams could be decoded using ffdshow or Power DVD's MPEG-2 decoder - assuming both of them are installed. In this case DirectShow will choose the filter that has the higher "Merit" value. Ffdshow's configuration menu allows you to edit ffdshow's merit value. So you can choose between different behavior easily: Low Merit (use ffdshow only when no other filter can do the job), medium merit (use ffdshow with "standard" priority) or high merit (always try to use ffdshow first).

Last but not least ffdshow's configuration menu allows you to enable/disable all supported video/audio formats individually! So if you don't want ffdshow to handle a certain format, you can simply disable that format in ffdshow's configuartion menu. Then DirectShow will no longer use ffdshow to decode that format. Hence another filter will be used for that format instead of ffdshow. Of course you can re-enable disabled formats in ffdshow's configuration menu at any time. See my screenshot below, that should make it clear...


DirectShow graph:

http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/1750/filedshowdu1.png


ffdshow config menu:

http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/4006/fileffdshowxi4.png

[foxyshadis]

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/5673/ffdshowlj9.th.jpg (http://img148.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ffdshowlj9.jpg)

Well they disable its wmv decoding, since its most likely better to use windows media players default decoder anyway.

They seem to disable it for mpeg2 as well.

This might be a bit pedantic, but that's actually the default setting for the standard installer. The screenshot isn't CCCP or default ffdshow, though. (I'm sure you know, just clarifying for the audience.)

[helms]

It's cccp (guess cccp just uses the settings used by the standard/default ffdshow installer and didn't change anything - maybe sharktooth is correct)

I just moved all the filters that I thought were relevant to image quality to the top of the filters. I tested the options but in the end I didn't notice an improvement in image quality except when using ssp deblocking and denoise 3d. They both seemed to get rid of some of the blockiness in the xvid version of a particular anime episode. In the end I decided to use spp deblocking since they both seemed to do the same thing and I don't have the cpu for it. Maybe I have bad eyesight but the other settings just didn't seem to improve the image quality of a low quality encode.

I increased the saturation since I don't mind the increased saturation in anime. I also adjusted the levels filter (curve) because for some reason by doing so in a particular way I think it can actually hide poor image quality (extremely technically wrong by I like to call it gamma correct AA for video).

Maybe sharktooth is correct about CCCP since I don't use it for mpeg video I record with my TV card, I use mplayer for that. My computer isn't going to be able to do spp deblocking on 1920*1080 HD video and the video doesn't need it. Anyway I tried opening one of those files with media player classic (cccp install) and the program froze, had to end task with task manager. Well even if sharktooth is correct he seems extremely biased for some reason.

[Sharktooth]

... :p

[LoRd_MuldeR]

The thing I do not quite understand is that you said, [ffdshow tryouts] is "only one Codec (one DirectShow filter, called "ffdshow.ax", to be precise), but it is able to decode many many Video and Audio formats - including all those you need. Of course you can select which Audio/Video formats you want to be handled by ffdshow." But in the screenshot you posted the decoder listed for most file formats is "libavcodec." So am I to assume that ffdshow.ax is built on libavcodec then? Sorry if that is a dumb question.

libavcodec is a Codec library, which is able to decode/encode a great number audio/video formats. It is part of the "ffmpeg" project and it is released under LGPL. A lot of OpenSource programs make use of libavcodec, because it's only one single library which gives native support for almost any audio/video format in existence! Programs that use libavcodec are for example MPlayer, VLC Player, Avidemux, Xine and ffdshow of course...

The idea of ffdshow is: Why install dozens of separate DirectShow filters, when we have libavcodec available, which could do it all-in-one and free? Unfortunately libavcodec's internal interfaces are not compatible with DirectShow. That's because libavcodec was never designed to be a DirectShow filter. DirectShow is a proprietary technology by M$ and it's limited to Windows - libavcodec was designed to be free and cross-platform! So ffdshow basically is a Wrapper, that allows DirectShow applications on Windows to make use of libavcodec - which they couldn't do without ffdshow! Of course ffdshow is much more than a simple libavcodec-wrapper: It incorporates other libraries apart from libavcodec (e.g. libmpeg2, libtheora, xvidcore, etc.) in order to support even more formats and it includes a powerful suite of video/audio filters!

Although most formats supported by ffdshow are decoded via libavcodec's decoders, there are some formats which have different decoders available: e.g. for "MPEG-2" you can choose between "libavcodec" and "libmpeg2" as decoder. Right. But in the end it doesn't really matter for the user which libraries were used to build ffdshow or which library ffdshow uses internally to decode a specific format. That's something the developers worry about! You simply install ffdshow and it will enable all DirectShow-based players (Windows Media Player, Media Player Classic, ZoomPlayer, etc) to playback almost every audio/video format in existence! During ffdshow Setup you can already choose which formats you want to be handled by ffdshow. So usually you don't need to mess around with ffdshow's Codec settings at all! I only included that screenshot in my previous post to illustrate that you can disable/re-enable individual formats in ffdshow - if needed. And of course you do not need to install libavcodec (or anything else) separately to make ffdshow work! Libavcodec is an inherent part of ffdshow and as such it is included in the ffdshow installer (http://downloads.sourceforge.net/ffdshow-tryout/ffdshow_rev1578_20071025_clsid.exe?modtime=1193334929&big_mirror=0) of course! And, although it incorporates various libraries (which actually every application does), ffdshow is still only one "all-in-one" DirectShow filter...


http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/1808/fileffdshowinterdb4.png

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/6382/fileffdshowversionstm0.th.png (http://img85.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fileffdshowversionstm0.png)


BTW: I still highly recommend you give MPlayer (http://mulder.dummwiedeutsch.de/home/?page=projects#mplayer) a try ;)

[phædrus]

This is getting to be a very educational thread for those like me who are using different tools, but not really understanding a lot of what's going on "under the hood." Thanks, LoRd_MuldeR.

The bigger question in my mind is a comparison between the decoding of, say PowerDVD or WinDVD video .ax filters (or are they .av filters, I forget) versus libavcodec. We are not allowed to ask what is best. But do many consider the filters used by the proprietary software to be superior? I will compare for myself and form my own opinion. Still, I am curious if others have any thoughts. I say this because as an example there are so many who extoll XviD over DivX, and when I tried it on an old black and white movie -- Casablanca -- it looked really sucky in spots, even at high bitrates. It was artificially sharp at clear borders, but the borders of more subtle shadings in the background seemed to shift around unnaturally. So one man's meat is another man's non-ideal codec, if I may mix a metaphor. Maybe I could ask it this way: What are the weak points of libavcodec for decoding MPEG2? What does it handle less well than some other codecs?

I see shootouts for the avi formats, but I'm not aware of any fresh MPEG2 playback shootouts, or codec shootouts.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Basically there is absolutely no reason, why an OpenSource MPEG-2 decoder should be any worse than a proprietary one!
So as long as there is an OpenSource alternative available, I'd always go with that one instead of the commercial solution.
OpenSource software usually is much more flexible and configurable. Also support from the community is usually great...

BTW: I think the default decoder for "MPEG-2" in ffdshow is libmpeg2, not libavcodec - though both seem to work 100% fine here.

[phædrus]

Forgive me, but one last question here. Where does deinterlacing occur in this diagram? Is it part of the libmpeg2.dll or internal some where in the big green box you have marked "ffdshow.ax"?

[Leak]

Forgive me, but one last question here. Where does deinterlacing occur in this diagram? Is it part of the libmpeg2.dll or internal some where in the big green box you have marked "ffdshow.ax"?
All libmpeg2 does is decode MPEG2, no matter if it's interlaced or not. All other filtering is done in ffdshow.ax, except for the kernel deinterlacer, which has it's own DLL that is used by ffdshow.ax...

np: Prefuse 73 - Storm Returns (Prefuse & Tommy Guerrero) (One Word Extinguisher)

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Note that ffdshow has various Deinterlacing filters to choose:

http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/53/fileffdshowdeintjq3.png

Those work with all video formats, no matter which decoder library is involved for the individual format...

[helms]

The bigger question in my mind is a comparison between the decoding of, say PowerDVD or WinDVD video .ax filters (or are they .av filters, I forget) versus libavcodec. We are not allowed to ask what is best. But do many consider the filters used by the proprietary software to be superior? I will compare for myself and form my own opinion. Still, I am curious if others have any thoughts.

Despite the fact that WMV is probably decoded faster with libavcodec if you search around the web you will find that some users experience problematic playback of certain WMV files when using libavcodec. To play real media and quick time files without using their official players (or vlc/mplayer) it is probably best to use "real alternative lite" and "quick time alternative lite" (media player classic downloaded separately).




So as long as there is an OpenSource alternative available, I'd always go with that one instead of the commercial solution.
OpenSource software usually is much more flexible and configurable. Also support from the community is usually great...


Sometimes commercial solutions are ahead of open source solutions such as in the case of AAC encoders where some commercial solutions such as iTunes are considered better than FAAC for bit rates of 128 kbps or lower.

At other times open source alternatives are better. They also have the positive in instances where it applies of not containing spyware/adware (bloatware) whereas a commercial solution does.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Sometimes commercial solutions are ahead of open source solutions such as in the case of AAC encoders where some commercial solutions such as iTunes are considered better than FAAC for bit rates of 128 kbps or lower.
Just a matter of time :)

Give some time to the developers and the community and the OpenSource solution will get to the same level as the commercial one, or even higher! Best example: Look at x264 or Xvid. Also OpenSource projects usually have a different release strategy: Release as soon as possible, so the community can test it out and give feedback. Then improve/fix it incrementally with every release. Commercial products usually have one public release and that's it. Once they have released and sold their product, companies don't support "old" projects any more nor do they waste any resources on further development. Maybe they come up with the brand-new "Version 2.0" at a later time, so you have to pay again... The lifetime of OpenSource software is much longer, so it has a great chance to constantly improve over the years...

[DigitalDeviant]

Give some time to the developers and the community and the OpenSource solution will get to the same level as the commercial one, or even higher!

That's not always true (http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=376) since a lot of opensource projects are hobbies and don't have a whole team of programmers with a lot of time on their hands. Commercial software has dedicated people who are paid (sometimes well) to develop code. Back to the mpeg-2 decoder situation, ffdshow works fine for me in some situations but PureVideo still vastly outperforms it since it can handle DXVA.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

That's not always true (http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=376) since a lot of opensource projects are hobbies and don't have a whole team of programmers with a lot of time on their hands. Commercial software has dedicated people who are paid (sometimes well) to develop code.
Exceptions proof the rule :)

And of course proprietary interfaces, such as DXVA, are a big problem for every OpenSource project ...