Anyone know why FFDShow causes me encoding problems ?

[JonRead]

When I try and encode a UK satellite TV recording (direct capture, from FireDTV) in h264 HD it ends up with annoying flickering specs / blocks and marks all over the screen all of the time. If I uninstall FFDShow then the problem goes away. But even if I install FFDShow with just 1 small option ticked on install as active (like say the FLV one, which should be irrelevant to h264) it still has a problem.

This used to only happen on the few VBR h.264 HD channels, the 18mbps CBR channels were fine, but my satellite provider has now switched completely over to the VBR system so all are now affected, which really is frustrating. Oddly, if I use NeroVision to encode then it is fine, but that is the only one that seems to be okay when FFDShow is installed.

I want to use software like MainConcept, and AutoMKV, but unless I have FFDShow installed then they wont encode, even with CoreAVC installed. Although I capture in h.264 I need to encode in to h.264 to shorten the file size, so I want to use x264 and the like.

This has been a problem for me since May, so I don't hold much hope on a new version helping. If anyone can think why this may be happening then it would be much appreciated, thanks.

Here is a picture sample of the type of picture I get, just imagine it but moving all over the screen all the time : http://www.storedspace.com/ffdshowerror.png

Thanks for any advice.

[poisondeathray]

What ffdshow build are you using? Earlier ffdshow versions had issues similar to that sample picture when decoding interlaced h.264 content (e.g h.264 satellite streams, avchd footage...) , which has been fixed for a few months now.

Can you play the native footage without the distortion? What media player/decoder ?

What process are you encoding with? decoder for the source? encoder ?

[Flaarn]

If it's from where I think it's from, It's also PAFF which isnt handled well by ffdshow.

[JonRead]

I tried the latest version, and still had the same problem, I presume it was the latest one, January I think. Also yes, the source file plays okay in a player like PowerDVD, WinDVD and VLC, but it just doesn't seem to like being encoded, unless it is in Nerovision. I use CoreAVC as my decoder default, along with the usual splitter that comes with it. The encoded files never playback okay, regardless of the player. Source files are indeed interlaced, 1080i.

Flaarn, it probably is from where you think. What does PAFF mean though ? Is that a type of encoding ? As mentioned, their CBR HD channels worked fine with FFDShow, it was only when it moved to VBR and their new encoding system (from 0 to 20mbps rather then 18mbps constant) that problems started.

Is there any way I can get software to work without FFDShow ? If I try and encode in x264 with AutoMKV it just speeds through things in seconds and just finishes as though done, but it isn't. Install FFDShow and it works, but I end up with the usual messed up video file. This is not down to AutoMKV though as the same happens in Mainconcept and TMPGEnc. I can encode in some h264 formats without FFDShow installed, just not some that would be useful.

[poisondeathray]

I am unsure about the PAFF streams, but my earlier comments apply to MBAFF streams

Are you saying that CoreAVC decodes it properly? You have to use a directshow player to test this (.e.g MPC), not VLC because it uses internal codecs/splitters . Usually if you set h.264 to disabled in ffdshow, CoreAVC will become the default decoder, but double check this by rendering the source video in graphstudio to see what splitters/decoders are being using in directshow.

If it plays properly in MPC with CoreAVC, you should be able to encode it with an .avs script e.g. DirectShowSource() or DSS2() if you want frame accuracy and MeGUI (or any front end that accepts .avs scripts)

[Flaarn]

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=120317

As poisondeathray suggested try to move away from ffdshow for the time being, until it handles this content correctly.