DXVA 2 and 8800gt + x264 generated H.264

[Blue_MiSfit]

Hey folks,

I'm wondering if it's possible to do hardware accelerated decoding of H.264 in an ordinary DirectShow media player. Specifically, I'm wondering can self generated content benefit from hardware acceleration?

I'm curious, because I know there were issues with this in the past. What's the current status?

I'm getting an 8800gt (and an HD-DVD drive) soon, and want to test its H.264 decoding muscle!

~MiSfit

[Kado]

You need a directshow h264 decoder that supports hardware decoding of h264 like the cyberlink's one, and use evr for vista and vmr9 for xp. or something like it.
That card supports Purevideo HD and I think it can do both decoding and deblocking.

[arfster]

I'm wondering if it's possible to do hardware accelerated decoding of H.264 in an ordinary DirectShow media player. Specifically, I'm wondering can self generated content benefit from hardware acceleration?


It's not so much h264 that's the problem, but h264 created by x264 (+using the cyberlink decoder, + a VLD acceleration card like your NVidia or the ATI 2400/2600). It's probably possible to get this to work if you fiddle with encode settings enough, but it might be a pain.

At some point in the future there will be other VLD-compatible h264 decoders and the problem will go away, but until then you're probably best experimenting with other h264 encoders.

[arfster]

Out of curiosity, just encoded some HD into h264 with latest nero recode. Using haali > cyberlink > EVR, it accelerates perfectly, with near zero CPU. I had to use perfmon to even notice any effect on the processor at all: 16mbit 1080p takes 0.5% of my 2.4ghz C2D+2600xt (Vista32, Catalyst7.7).

[Blue_MiSfit]

w00t then :)

I will try it out when I get my new card!

[Scurra]

Out of curiosity, just encoded some HD into h264 with latest nero recode. Using haali > cyberlink > EVR, it accelerates perfectly, with near zero CPU. I had to use perfmon to even notice any effect on the processor at all: 16mbit 1080p takes 0.5% of my 2.4ghz C2D+2600xt (Vista32, Catalyst7.7).

Did you try some x264 encodes? On my 8800 GT none of them gets accellerated...

[aiyunyi]

For nearly all H264 Encoded Movie in Blueray or HDDVD, Cyberlink+HD2400+Catalyst 7.10 works fine for me. But when it goes to x264 encoded mkvs, some of them give you a green face on my screen. I think it is due to x264 is not well supported by Catalyst driver.

[kutjong]

For nearly all H264 Encoded Movie in Blueray or HDDVD, Cyberlink+HD2400+Catalyst 7.10 works fine for me. But when it goes to x264 encoded mkvs, some of them give you a green face on my screen. I think it is due to x264 is not well supported by Catalyst driver.
No, it's due to the mkv container. It's not compatible for HW acceleration at present. You can rip the material from mkv and put in an avi and it'll be HW accelerated.
I think the incompatibility is due to the mkv splitter...

[Kado]

Actually streams encoded by x264 don't get accelerated unless some specific settings are chosen in the encoder, or something like that.

[Dark Shikari]

Actually streams encoded by x264 don't get accelerated unless some specific settings are chosen in the encoder, or something like that.I assume what you mean is that the correct --level flag needs to be applied.

[NanoBot]

Hi,

I am using a 8600gts and I am able to play back h.264/ac3 streams in mkv, which I recorded from DVB-C, with full GPU decoding without problems. Nevertheless I got one x264 encoded stream in mkv which causes the framerate to drop, when I play it with dxva on. This does not happen when dxva is disabled in the cyberlink decoder.

I think that I can remember that the use of "b-pyramids" when encoding with x264 is responsible for this behavior. I will check this out within the next days if I find time for it.

C.U. NanoBot

[arfster]

Seems to be 2 different issues: 720p content running at 20fps (approx) when accelerated, and 1080p stuff not starting at all. One can be fixed by not using mkv as the container, one can't.

[TheShadowRunner]

not exactly.
The 20fps bug problem can be avoided by using a specific version of cl264dec.ax and certain nvidia drivers.
720p accelerated MKV work now perfectly here.
1080p still give a black screen though.
Please see my post on another forum:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12291586
(i hope it's not a problem linking there)
See you,

TSR

[Blue_MiSfit]

Interesting.

I had everything working PERFECTLY with a Radeon 2400 pro that I bought in the interim of getting my eVGA step-up processed. I switched to the 8800gt and now my HD-DVDs still play perfectly accelerated (XP Pro, latest Beta drivers for Crysis, and latest PowerDVD).

However, re-encoded content doesn't play with any acceleration in media player classic, where it did before perfectly with the Radeon. I'm guessing its a driver specific thing... Man oh man - hopefully I can get this sorted soon, because software decoding HD-DVD quality x264 on a 3800+ X2 is a no-go!

~MiSfit

[arfster]

not exactly.
The 20fps bug problem can be avoided by using a specific version of cl264dec.ax and certain nvidia drivers.


Yeah, that seems to work too - but not very practical if you want to run hddvd/Bluray, which need up to date versions of PDVD.

I found remuxxing to .avi worked OK for some files btw. The problem doesn't really bother me enough to experiment though - my main machine can run them in software easily, and it only really affects my thoughts of making a low power silent HTPC with no moving parts.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Yeah my CPU isn't good enough!

Any ideas?

[metalmania]

not exactly.
The 20fps bug problem can be avoided by using a specific version of cl264dec.ax and certain nvidia drivers.
720p accelerated MKV work now perfectly here.
1080p still give a black screen though.
Please see my post on another forum:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12291586
(i hope it's not a problem linking there)
See you,

TSR

Thanks man. I tried 163.75 +1.99.1405 on my eVGA 8500GT, it did work! The only problem now is the output screen resolution. For example if I play a 1280x540 video, the output will be 1194x480. The CPU load is always below 5% though. What is this "vertical downgrade" then, I wondered.

[arfster]

Over on avsforum someone's saying >4 ref frames is the problem, and acceleration works fine with less:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12402455#post12402455


Haven't tested myself yet.