Tearing Test and altering picture settings in MPC

[Swin]

Hi,

I did post this in the MPC-HC thread, but its more of a noob question tather than a developer one. This might be a bit of a noob question but after an hour or so of playing, I just can't figure out how to use the "Tearing Test" or adjust the picture colour/settings.

I had been using VLC, but recently I have noticed a lot of lines appear accross the screen on certain MKV file playback on slow pans. I believe this may be what is referred to as "tearing".

So I switched to MPC-HC and playback is much better, not to mention CPU usage seems a lot lower. However, I can't seem to get the "tear test" to work - at least not under all renderers. Is this normal?

In addition, how can you adjust picture settings. I can't move any of the sliders in the miscellaneous tab for VMR9 colour (even when using the VRM9 rendered) but even if they did work they are a little limited. Are there any other options for altering picture settings?

The latter would be especially helpful if you wanted to calibrate a screen. When I look up my screen (Pioneer Plasma) to the PC using VGA, I have limited options on the TV for colour adjustment. It may then be better to adjust the colours at the PC/media player to get the best result.

[Leak]

I had been using VLC, but recently I have noticed a lot of lines appear accross the screen on certain MKV file playback on slow pans. I believe this may be what is referred to as "tearing".
I'm pretty sure what you describe here is combing - just pause the video, if those lines stay it is combing, if they are gone it was tearing.

Tearing simply means that the image on screen was updated in the middle of it being displayed, i.e. the upper part of the screen shows one frame while the lower part already shows the next - there's just one "line" that splits the screen in two parts, and it usually moves up or down depending on the timing...

np: Death Cab For Cutie - Long Division (Narrow Stairs)

[Guest]

I did post this in the MPC-HC thread. Cross-posting is not allowed, per forum rule 8. In the future please ask a mod to move your post.

[Guest]

Bit pointless posting in a thread where the question wouldn't get answered and easily overlooked Post once in the correct forum. If you make a mistake ask a mod to move it. Thank you.

[Guest]

"Correct" means the forum of your choice that you consider optimal for getting your question answered. "Once" means post your issue to one forum only. If you decided to move it then the first location obviously was not the correct forum for you.

[Guest]

We're going a little off topic aren't we? I did post in this forum originally!! Your first post on this issue was in the MPCHC thread. Then you decided to cross-post it to a new thread because you didn't like it there.

Please post only once in the correct forum/thread. Thank you. And please take further pedantic quibbling to PM.

[Swin]

I wonder if there is anyone who could point me in the right direct as to picture setting alteration - is this even possible in MPC?

And does the tear test work across multiple renderers?

[Swin]

Can I take it that is is just not possible to alter any of the picture colours, brightness or contrast etc through MPC?If so, I would suggets that this is a glaring omission.

[Leak]

Can I take it that is is just not possible to alter any of the picture colours, brightness or contrast etc through MPC?If so, I would suggets that this is a glaring omission.
Well, if everything else fails you can use the "procamp" shader - it's just that you'll have to edit it's source code to configure it...

[Swin]

Well, if everything else fails you can use the "procamp" shader - it's just that you'll have to edit it's source code to configure it...

"Everything"? What everything? It would be nice if there was something, but as far as I can see there is nothing.

I see the idea behind the shaders but as you point out, if adjustments need to be made by editing code, then that makes them very difficult to use if not completely pointless. In addition, they only seem to work with specific output rendering so does not make things very user friendly.

I would say that that one of the most important features of a media player (after actually being able to play media) is to be able to make adjustments to the picture output. I can't think of another player that doesn't have at least the most basic picture adjustment properties.

Given that fact that MPC now has the "Home Cinema" tag, I think they might be overstating things a tad!

[flanger216]

Well... not really. You yourself stated that this is a noob question, and within four posts you're making grandstanding criticisms. MPC-HC doesn't support color correction, etc., because doing so at the software level is an unideal way to alter picture settings (as in, bad quality). Best case scenario, you make all the adjustments on the display device yourself. As you stated, this isn't an option for you, so the next best thing is to make all the adjustments at the driver level. Even if your graphics adapter doesn't offer picture adjustments (almost all do), then you should still be able to do it through Powerstrip or other low-level tweaking programs. You shouldn't bother with Procamp.

The tearing test only works on some renderers. Like Leak said, it really sounds like your describing 'combing,' which has nothing to do with 'tearing.' Tearing can usually be fixed; badly deinterlaced MKV files cannot.

[Swin]

Many thanks for this, i will look at the driver colour corrections as you suggest.

Certainly, the mkv file plays well on a different machine. I have managed to get it play well even on this machine with adjustment of the renderers. I may have misguided you with the line of lines across the screen. It was more like a single line where the image was disjointed. I understand the idea of combing or interlacing issues, and I'm pretty sure what I used to see weren't those.

[flanger216]

Oh sure, definitely sounds like tearing in that case. I've found that forcing v-sync and enabling 'lock back-buffer' in MPC tends to minimize tearing, but obviously your results will vary. Additionally, you might want to look into an audio renderer called Reclock (http://forum.slysoft.com/forumdisplay.php?f=85), which can also help with persistent tearing and jittering.