madVR - high quality video renderer (GPU assisted)

[mambans]

Did you try MPC-BE or MPC-HC instead of Potplayer as Potplayer is known to have issues with madVR in some cases.Even though it is working fine in my system. I have MPC-HC, MPC-BE, Potplayer, Jriver MC and Zoom player installed in my two HTPCs. Every player is configured to use madVR and LAVfilters and I have all these players working fine with madVR. If one player has issues, any one of the other always works.

I haven't tried them now but I did try them when I decided media player in the beginning and I didn't quite like them but I might try them again if I can't solve my Potplayer+Madvr problem. But since Potplayer have been working fine for years I do think my problem is fixable somehow :)

[mambans]

It seems that 'Philips hue Sync' causes some presentation glitches. So far I've gotten no glitches when Hue Sync is turn off but I will test it a bit more before I'm sure it's fixed.

[juanej]

Hi, my player has been crashing lately when I try to play movies from my laptop connected via hdmi to my onkyo receiver, this is my madvr crash report:

Any thoughts on this? I can't even use MPC now

[madjock]

The attachments are still awaiting approval, so no one will be able to help with that. Maybe try another upload site and share links, then I am sure the experts here can help you.

It would be good if you shared your full setup as well.

[SirMaster]

Also, 8bit RGB 2160p60 is better quality than 12 bit YCbCr 4:2:2. This is not true if watching via a bluray player but it is when using madVR. I use 8bit RGB 2160p60 most of the time, over HDMI 2.0, on a LG C7 and now a C9.

HDMI 2.1 allows RGB 2160p120, which I am very much looking forward to when a GPU with HDMI 2.1 comes out. :D

You won't even need a new GPU.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/14535/realtek-demonstrates-rtd2173-displayport-14-to-hdmi-21-converter

[svengun]

Yeah, I've updated all my cables in the chain to 48Gbps versions too.

Why would you do that ? 18GB calbes are 100% capable of the requirements with HDMI 2.0b

48GB cables are intended for HDMI 2.1 (8K / 120hz)

Am I missing something ?

[svengun]

just use 2 cables.

was thinking exactly the same thing

2 cables from GPU (one to TV, other to Amp)

Or if the cable is long and you don't wanna run 2 cables, then you could use ARC from the TV to the Amp

[oldpainlesskodi]

Why would you do that ? 18GB calbes are 100% capable of the requirements with HDMI 2.0b

48GB cables are intended for HDMI 2.1 (8K / 120hz)

Am I missing something ?

I'm sure by the book you are correct...odd though, when I swapped the new cables in, my card recognized it as a brand new connection, and I had to redo all my nvidia settings...never seen that before swapping cables....

[madjock]

This definitely works, but it can be troublesome.

I have gotten used to it now, but you end up with a phantom 2nd screen which does not sound to problematic, but in reality it is a bit. For example you end up with 2nd screen off the main screen no matter what you do, so you cant snap to all corners as the 2nd screen that does not exist is always there. Had real issues at some points with how I powered things off, and it all going to a screen I could not get to.

I wanted to go back to Win 8, but that would not play nice at all due to this, so there is that as well.

I bought a live DP Adapter (PC to AMP) which seems to have helped things I reckon, but it was not as plain sailing as you think it will be.

I also cant get the TV output to work as I wanted either, ARC is a pain in the ass for some reason, it works but thew CEC always seemed to want to do its own thing when the TV or AMP went on and off, so yeah 2 cables does work, but it adds new problems, manageable but annoying in some ways.

[svengun]

I'm sure by the book you are correct...odd though, when I swapped the new cables in, my card recognized it as a brand new connection, and I had to redo all my nvidia settings...never seen that before swapping cables....

Me neither, that IS strange. Are they 'active cables' perhaps ? (or did you use a different HDMI port?)

That's only reasoning that would sense to me

[svengun]

This definitely works, but it can be troublesome.

my setup is PC via DP to monitor , via HDMI to Amp (Marantz SR6010)

Toslink from TV to Amp. Works flawless for me (But I only use ARC when I watch Netflix / Prime via the LG WEBOS app)

[ryrynz]

was thinking exactly the same thing
2 cables from GPU (one to TV, other to Amp)
Or if the cable is long and you don't wanna run 2 cables, then you could use ARC from the TV to the Amp

Nah, got a HDMI and a DP, so one to TV and one from TV to amp via ARC. Good quality cables, so zero issues. Only twice as expensive as good Ultra high speed cables, so why not, hopefully won't need to upgrade them when I change the TV out many years from now.

[madjock]

Surely you can't get HD Audio with that setup tho ?

[ryrynz]

You are correct. Dolby TrueHD/Atmos and DTS-HD Master Audio/X are a no go. Only a temporary thing.. I don't mind.
Better to have the screen in 4K.. The image quality increase for lower quality 1080 animated content to 4K was surprising.. even encoding artifacts have been removed.. and all these post processing settings have been disabled.. Crazy.

[oldpainlesskodi]

Me neither, that IS strange. Are they 'active cables' perhaps ? (or did you use a different HDMI port?)

That's only reasoning that would sense to me

Same port, and not that I am aware of.

[SirMaster]

This definitely works, but it can be troublesome.

I have gotten used to it now, but you end up with a phantom 2nd screen which does not sound to problematic, but in reality it is a bit. For example you end up with 2nd screen off the main screen no matter what you do, so you cant snap to all corners as the 2nd screen that does not exist is always there. Had real issues at some points with how I powered things off, and it all going to a screen I could not get to.



Place the extra screen in the corner of your main screen in the screen layout in Display Settings.

You wont ever be able to actually move anything to it, even your mouse, and it wont interfere with any window snapping.

As far as windows opening on it, well once you get them all back on your primary monitor that wont be a problem.

You could use something like VNC or Teamviewer temporarily to reclaim windows that are stuck on it for now.

[madjock]

Thanks

Yeah tried all that.

For some reason nVidia and or Windows kept on moving the screen about, it seemed dependent on luck and certain drivers. Had real issues with KODI dropping to a small window etc and on and on.

I tried all the different apps, paid and free, a lot crashed or did not help at all, I am used to it now and it is manageable, at one point I was going to get a proper 4K amp, I think the Active DP adapter to the AMP helped.

[el Filou]

Ideally, an 'audio-only display' should be a feature Microsoft adds to Windows.
I have no interest in changing my AVR so I would also need the dual output solution when I eventually upgrade to 4K.
From browsing forums, there are also some gamers that would like that in order to use gaming monitors along with an AVR for sound.
I guess it would not be difficult for MS to implement that.
Anyone know if it's possible to file a feature request with Windows' Insider Program?

[madjock]

I did a lot of reading but it was a few months ago, there was lots of talk, but the majority basically says as long as you use HDMI/DP then just by design it will always send a video signal to support the audio.

There were threads talking about splitters, but in the end I think it is something that has to be endured just by design I am afraid.

"There is no way to transmit only audio data via HDMI.

The HDMI white paper (page 10) notes that the signal is sent in HDMI packets consisting of both audio and video. Despite all the pins, there are no separate audio and video signals, so there are also no HDMI A/V splitter cables.

https://www.hdmi.org/pdf/whitepaper/SilicaonImageHDMIWhitePaperv73(2).pdf

[huhn]

you can suggest features in the insider hub/feedback hub.

just write it here and i will copypaste it in.
i need a short summery and an optional description.

the category displays and graphics -> multi display is pretty accurate too.

i shouldn't write this myself for obvious reasons but feel free to create your own windows account you may need in insider account.

edit:
HDMI with audio "only" is a normal feature. high end BD payer usual support this but you have to send an black 720p video or something like this with it microsoft should be able to handle all this without driver support. it's been done so it works.

[madjock]

I cant see how that can help, if the audio is send in the video packets, black screen, pretend 2nd screen, whatever, it will always be seen as a 2nd monitor. You can disable it but you lose the sound.

So unsure what you think Microsoft will do since this is a well known issue for many years.

[huhn]

that's the point he want to connect microsoft so the add it properly without a second screen by just sending a black image to the GPU.

you select an HDMI audio device if it isn't an active screen it just creates one without the end user even noticing.

[madjock]

I think it will be more like a nVidia issue to be honest, and there are literally hundreds of threads, saying use Pin 19 trick (nope), buy a splitter etc etc. But hey its worth asking.

[huhn]

i don't think it will happen but if microsoft does this it will work for sure and there is "nothing" nvdiia or what ever can do to break it because they simply don't know. if microsoft tells an GPU render A on display B it will do it if it is an desktop or not.

it's a lot of work and needs a lot of testing.

[el Filou]

OK I've installed Feedback Hub, I had an insider account before but I'm not using it anymore and it says it's better to sign in but I don't want to link my PCs to my MS account, does anyone know if it's safe to just sign in inside the Feedback Hub app itself, or will it link my whole Windows with my MS account if I do that?

Here's what I would submit, if anyone has any remarks I'd be happy to consider themSummary: allow a video output that can also output audio to be set up as audio-only, creating a 'ghost display' that does not participate in the desktop *

Detailed explanation:

Use cases:
- AVR supporting a lower video bandwidth/fewer features than display, and user wants to benefit from all the display capabilities
- user wants to power off display when playing music via AVR **
- user wants to use gaming monitor for FreeSync/GSync/high refresh rate/low latency, and use AVR only for high quality audio

Problems of current Windows support that this would solve:
* using a separate video output only for audio causes UX issues, as the non-visible display that the user doesn't need to access is included anyway in the Windows Desktop
** powering off a display connected to an AVR while audio is playing usually causes problems, stopping/crashing audio playback

Implementation details:
- the 'audio-only display' still needs to be configurable by the user wrt resolution and refresh rate (see http://www.oppodigital.co.uk/Understanding-the-HDMI-Audio-Jitter-Reduction-Circuit-OPPO-UDP-205.html , recommends 1080p50/60)

Category: as suggested by huhn, Displays & Graphics => Multiple Displays

[brad86]

Is there any way of making Blu ray PSG subtitles sharper ?
They look so blurry a lot of the time and was hoping there are better bitmap scaling methods I could use to improve this as it is jarring going from my chosen srt font setup to whatever terrible choice the studio has chosen for their blu ray.

[juanej]

The attachments are still awaiting approval, so no one will be able to help with that. Maybe try another upload site and share links, then I am sure the experts here can help you.

It would be good if you shared your full setup as well.

This is the crash report:

https://pastebin.com/EA8At1gp

My setup is a LG Gram laptop with i5-7200U CPU, using MPC-HC connected via HDMI to an ONKYO Receiver

[mambans]

Hello again, I'm wondering if there are any setting to automatically disable upscaling when playing 2160p(4k) content?

When I play normal 1080p content I want all my upscaling ON but when I'm playing 2160p(4k) + HDR It lags so I then want to disable it since its not really necessary anyway at that resolution.

[Jacob b]

Hi
I have serious problems with 4K HDR pass through on my WIN7 64pro HTPC sourcing a 4K LG OLED; on my Win 10 HTPC sourcing my 4K projector HDR pass though works fine...

I have had MadVR running for half a year upscaling 720P and 1080P to my 4K LG OLED, with no problems. I recently started to play Blu-ray UHD as well, after buying a UHD friendly drive.
They play fine on both HTPCs, but when I pause or skip (30 sec, 1 min etc), the win7 HTPC breaks down: the movie turns 95 % white. The black cinemascope bars remain black. It continues to play the movie with sound and all. It does not happen every time I skip or pause in all movies; some more than others. However, I can make them all "break" by skipping long enough. When I STOP playback of the movie, 50-70 % of the time, Windows changes from 3840 x 2160 to 600 x 600 and displays a "madVR has stopped working" box.

I have the exactly same settings in madVR on the two HTPCs, except I have full screen exclusive mode checked on the Win7 HTPC and not on the Win 10. That is the only difference.
They have the exact same settings in Nvidia control panel: 23hz: RGB, 12 bit, full; 50 hz: RGB, 8 bit, full. Desktop is set to 23 hz to avoid the Nvidia 12 bit reset bug.
HOWEVER; the Nvidia driver is not the same. My win7 has a GTX 1050 card and uses 385.28, but my win10 HTPC has a RTX 2060 card and needs min. 411.63 (I use 417.71 currently, will try 430.53 soon iot get correct HDR meta data pass through)

WHAT I HAVE TRIED SO FAR:
1) Tested the Win10 HTPC on the OLED TV - It works there as well...
2) Changed the win7 HTPC settings to 8 bit in NCP as well as madVR, i.e. unchecked exclussive full screen mode, changed display settings to 8 bit not 10 or higher
3) Keeping NCP set to 12 bit and unchecking full screen exclusive mode
4) Keeping NCP set to 12 bit, unchecking full screen exclusive mode and checked the windowed mode just above
5) Changed madVR from pass through to tonemap using pixelshading. Aside form the GTX 1050 not being fast enough for that, it actually also crashed when stop or skip. Except not with the whiteout, just with the resize to 800 x 600 and madVR "stopped working" message. I will eventually try this on my win10 / RTX2060 HTPC and projector combo, but I prefer pass through for the OLED.
6) a lot more....

Bonus info: I use Mediaportal 1.22 on both machines, along with madVR. LAV filter is 0.74.1, using DXVA copy back.

I am currentlu considering:
A) updating Nvidia driver on the win7 HTPC to the same driver as on the win10 HTPC (417.71)
B) Doing a clean win10 install on the win7 HTPC...
C) Hanging myself in a garden three

Any one had similar issues or heard of some who had?
Help appriciated!! ;-)

[el Filou]

@mambans I understand you're using a 4K display? How exactly have you configured your upscaling? Normally madVR doesn't scale when you're playing source material that matches the display definition.
On the OSD, if the line just after 'movie 3840x...' says 'draw 0,0,3840,...' then it's not doing any scaling.

@jacob Have you checked if the problem can be reproduced with another player like MPC-HC? To know if it's linked to MP or if it's between madVR and the graphics driver.

[ryrynz]

Hello again, I'm wondering if there are any setting to automatically disable upscaling when playing 2160p(4k) content?


You probably aren't upscaling 4k but are applying post processing and or high chroma settings. I assume you have not created any profiles and you need to.

[hotripper]

You are correct. Dolby TrueHD/Atmos and DTS-HD Master Audio/X are a no go. Only a temporary thing.. I don't mind.


Maybe I dont understand...

But why dont you have one go from hdmi nvidia to tv for 4k picture, and one going from dp nvidia to receiver, and then one ARC tv to receiver? I use this setup and it works perfectly and will carry DTS HD master DD+ etc.

[ryrynz]

Would rather not deal with display quirks doing that and plus I'd need another cable specifically for this, which I'm not prepared to purchase. Will upgrade the amp sometime.

[hotripper]

I dont know what display quirks you mean. It is fine. But yes youll need a Fosmon DP to HDMI cable as this is the only one that works correctly $9 on amazon. Or like you said upgrade the amp so u can passthrough 4k60. I did the former as 9 bucks was better than hundreds on a new receiver.

[mambans]

@mambans I understand you're using a 4K display? How exactly have you configured your upscaling? Normally madVR doesn't scale when you're playing source material that matches the display definition.
On the OSD, if the line just after 'movie 3840x...' says 'draw 0,0,3840,...' then it's not doing any scaling.

@jacob Have you checked if the problem can be reproduced with another player like MPC-HC? To know if it's linked to MP or if it's between madVR and the graphics driver.

Hello, no I'm not using a 4k display, atm I'm using a 1440p but wanna prepare for my ultrawide (3440 x 1440 + HDR), its not 4k but it has HDR.
Madvr stats -> https://i.imgur.com/jblTPaZ.png

Madvr scaling settings ->
https://i.imgur.com/5MnmzkJ.png
https://i.imgur.com/jf1cCjp.png
https://i.imgur.com/nqvovtL.png
https://i.imgur.com/Y9TnTSr.png

[ryrynz]

Hello, no I'm not using a 4k display, atm

You need profiles set up.
Turn off superRes, try Bicubic 150 as a downscaler, better?

[oldpainlesskodi]

MS just pushed out build 18922 on fast-ring, and banding errors are gone (on my rig), without having to use the workaround.

[el Filou]

You need profiles set up.
Turn off superRes, try Bicubic 150 as a downscaler, better?Also sharpen edges and soften edges enabled at the same time sound counter-intuitive to me, and if using the AR filter integrated with some upscalers you shouldn't need to activate anti-ringing in refinement.
Anyway, rendering times of 24 ms for 24 fps movie shouldn't cause any problems so I'm wondering why it "lags".

[ryrynz]

Yeah I wasn't about to critizise his entire setup but things are looking overkill and there's something there doing it. Don't always trust the render times..

[el Filou]

Here's what I would submit, if anyone has any remarks I'd be happy to consider themHere's the link to the feature suggestion for 'audio-only HDMI/DP output' in MS Feedback Hub, if anyone wants to upvote: https://aka.ms/AA5emb3

[mambans]

You need profiles set up.
Turn off superRes, try Bicubic 150 as a downscaler, better?

Didn't help much, but I totally forgot about profiles. Can play around with that instead and set a different profile for my HDR (4k) content.

[mambans]

Also sharpen edges and soften edges enabled at the same time sound counter-intuitive to me, and if using the AR filter integrated with some upscalers you shouldn't need to activate anti-ringing in refinement.
Anyway, rendering times of 24 ms for 24 fps movie shouldn't cause any problems so I'm wondering why it "lags".

I'm not that good with Madvr but I have now turned of soften edges and anti-ringing :)

And I just found out what caused the 'lagging', it was 'reduce compression artifact's under artifact removal.

Btw, just found out about Profiles. Is there anyway to see that profiles is activated? and will this auto profile work:
if (HDR) or (srcWidth >= 3840) "Profile 2"
else "Profile 1"

Thanks so far and in advance.

[madjock]

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=259188&pid=2238942#pid2238942

A wealth of info here :)

[mambans]

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=259188&pid=2238942#pid2238942

A wealth of info here :)

Thanks, will definitely read trough it. I was just skimming through it about profiles but found nothing about seeing the activated profile.

[el Filou]

No way to see it in the OSD (yet), but if you open madVR settings during playback, the folder(s) associated with the active profile will be in bold

[mambans]

No way to see it in the OSD (yet), but if you open madVR settings during playback, the folder(s) associated with the active profile will be in bold

Ah oke, that works. Thanks!

[Djfe]

madVR sadly doesn't seem to support 1440p and 120Hz for 3D playback, yet.
(and the display mode settings don't seem to honored, it switches to 1080p60 and doesn't return to the original display setting once I leave fullscreen; my settings set/unset display mode upon entering/leaving fullscreen, since the display still stays in 1080p60 upon leaving fullscreen, it doesn't reset to original display mode upon leaving the application either :/ ; I might actually report that as a bug later on)

Are there any infos why 3D is limited to 1080p60? Displayport/Nvidia 3D Vision definitely support 3D for more than 1080p and 60Hz (unlike HDMI maybe)

Is there any interest in working on supporting side-by-side/top-bottom/field-sequential/frame-sequential 3D? (I have mostly seen the first two so far)
3D channels on broadcast I have access to are only side-by-side and I don't know of any MVC encoder that is freely available sadly. (If you know of one that is free or has a fair price, pls tell me)
The only way to watch these movies for me so far, is the NVIDIA 3D Vision Video Player. (I'm actually unsure whether I can combine the player with madVR, I'll take a look at this now and update this post later)

Anyways I'm very greatful for madVR, I just started using it and I'm amazed at the results I'm getting on my 1440p monitor, especially the scaling looks way better now! :)

[Asmodian]

-madVR's 3D support is currently limited to 1080p23.

It has been this way for a while now too. I do not expect madVR to improve its 3D support anytime soon. With 3D being removed from recent Nvidia drivers and the last few generations of TVs it seems like the user base for improved 3D will only decrease in the future. Sorry. :(

MS just pushed out build 18922 on fast-ring, and banding errors are gone (on my rig), without having to use the workaround.

This is really good news! Now to decide if I should install the fast ring...

[Djfe]

It has been this way for a while now too. I do not expect madVR to improve its 3D support anytime soon. With 3D being removed from recent Nvidia drivers and the last few generations of TVs it seems like the user base for improved 3D will only decrease in the future. Sorry. :(


cool, thx for the info and linking me to your options thread. My searches didn't bring it up.

What leaves me wondering/confused: Nvidia's control panel shows, that (madVR) set my display to 60Hz (not 23,xxx) and mpc-hc shows with STRG+J that my display runs at 100Hz and everything is synced to 49,xxx
But atleast it works ^^

It's kinda sad to me that 3D is dying but it is how it is.
Though 3D might not be completely dead because you can watch 3D with VR headsets and use madVR for that.
Though only mvc or side-by-side would work. Other 3D formats (like the ones I mentioned) wouldn't work with madVR, yet.

[Alexkral]

Are there any infos why 3D is limited to 1080p60? Displayport/Nvidia 3D Vision definitely support 3D for more than 1080p and 60Hz (unlike HDMI maybe)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think 3D Vision is limited to 1080p@24hz or 720p@60hz, although there are some solutions like an EDID override to get 1080p@60hz, but no more.
3D channels on broadcast I have access to are only side-by-side and I don't know of any MVC encoder that is freely available sadly. (If you know of one that is free or has a fair price, pls tell me)
There's FRIM, I use FRIM source to encode MVC to 3D over-under and it works flawlessly.

https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=169651