madVR - high quality video renderer (GPU assisted)

[madshi]

Send me a PM with a link.

[mark0077]

Example file sent, thanks!

[madshi]

madshi, one of the mp4 files I'm having issues with frame drops seems to have this issue according to mkvmerge when I was trying to make an mkv from it. No remuxing so far has allowed me to get it to play without evr-cp showing jittery graphs, or madVR dropping frames. ffdshow says its 23.974fps, my display is about 23.962hz~ (nvidia).
How did you mux? Did you use eac3to for video muxing, as I suggested?

According to eac3to the video track is 24.000fps, not 23.976fps. Try muxing the video to MKV with eac3to, then add the audio track with mkvtoolnix. Finally, set your display refresh rate to 24.000Hz instead of 23.976Hz. Does that fix the problem?

[Mr Alpha]

The pagefile is managed by the OS. If madVR increases pagefile usage then probably your PC doesn't have enough RAM in it. madVR keeps 8 decoded frames in system RAM. I don't think EVR does that. Sorry, nothing I can do about it. The max I could do is to offer an option to decrease the queue size. I have that planned for a future build, but it may take some time until I get there.That would be my first guess as well, except that my commit at the time was less than half my RAM, so I wasn't in a memory constrained environment. I'll dig around more and see if I can figure anything else out.

Could you tell me briefly how to check this? I have an SSD as well but I don't think madVR is doing that on my setup.
Get Process Monitor (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645).
By default it writes its capture to the pagefile so you need to change that to something else, via File/Backing Files.
By default it also hides a lot of system events so you need to Enabled Advanced Output under the Filter menu.
The open the filter editor, crtl+L, and add two new filters:

Include Path ends with pagefile.sys
Include Operation contains write

Take care because the capture Process Monitor does very quickly becomes huge.

[mark0077]

How did you mux? Did you use eac3to for video muxing, as I suggested?

According to eac3to the video track is 24.000fps, not 23.976fps. Try muxing the video to MKV with eac3to, then add the audio track with mkvtoolnix. Finally, set your display refresh rate to 24.000Hz instead of 23.976Hz. Does that fix the problem?

I just remuxed using mkvmerge, and set the frame rate to 24. Still the same unfortunately.

I'll try eac3to again now but the "eac3to and more gui" is messed up on my machine. All the buttons are overlapping each other. The gui prompts me for certain items like a destination which I have already given it etc. I'll try to use a different gui or command line.n there.

According to ffdshow its 23.974 :(

Do you think the video renderer can improve playback of such files without having to remux, that no doubt alot of people will have. Would madVR leveling out its timestamps prevent frame drops?

[madshi]

Do you think the video renderer can improve playback of such files, that no doubt alot of people will have. Would madVR leveling out its timestamps prevent frame drops?
madVR can not magically make 24.000fps video content play smooth if your display is set to 23.976Hz.

[mark0077]

fair enough :) I guess madVR only takes its info from the incoming decoder, ie info below for this 24.000 fps clip, which in turn takes info from the file itself. Nothing that can be done...

Video: YV12 2048x1080 (16:9) 23.97fps

[madshi]

"Nothing that can be done"? I'm wondering whether you read my posts at all.

[mark0077]

"Nothing that can be done"? I'm wondering whether you read my posts at all.

Nothing that can be done without remuxing all of my files ;) No need to get snappy / cross again :)

Heres another vote for madVR showing the actual rate of the incoming video, not according to the source filter, as I learned the hard way today, they can't always be trusted if the files arn't muxed / created properly in the first place. Cheers for the help figuring out my issue.

I'll ask the ffdshow guys to have perhaps some sort of indication in their gui also to show the actual fps, not the fps listed in the video file. These problem files even at 24hz still show erratic behaviour in evr-cp graphs so I think timestamps must be erratic in these files or something like that. Nothing specific to madVR of course.

[madshi]

Nothing that can be done without remuxing all of my files ;) No need to get snappy again :)
I get snappy if I get the feeling that you don't have a problem with spending serious amounts of my free time. And that is a feeling I have right now.

Four posts ago I suggested to you to set your display to 24.000Hz. Have you tried to do that in the meanwhile? Next time please try my suggestions *first* and post your next comment only *after* you've done that. That would save me a lot of time. Thanks.

And here comes another post you're forcing me to: "Nothing that can be done without remuxing" may be wrong. Settings your refresh rate to 24.000Hz may result in the original mp4 file playing just fine. See? If you had tried setting your display to 24.000Hz before dropping another 4 posts on me, you may have saved me half an hour of time. Right now you're forcing me to speculate on what might be necessary, instead of letting me know the results of the tests I suggested.

[mark0077]

You or anyone else doesn't have to spend 1 second of their time if they don't wish reading / acting on others posts.

We had this discussion before so lets not have it again, the last time I'll say it, there is absolutely no need to have an attitude in replies to posts which you often have, because as I say, if you don't want to spend time reading them, don't, period. No need to accuse others of wasting your time etc. Thats just ridiculous. Its your time you decide what you spend it on. Lighten up a bit and don't spend time replying to posts if you feel you're wasting your time, move onto something else perhaps.

You don't seem to read peoples posts either, I told you I set the frame rate to 24 when remuxing and my display to 24.000hz.... It doesn't completely fix the issue of madVR and ffdshow taking their fps information from the decoders / incoming filters (I know this has no effect on madVRs performance), but people read this information and in this case I trusted that ffdshows detection of the frame rate in the file was correct (and in turn madVR's display of this information) so in that sense, the issue isn't fixed. I have asked the ffdshow guys for a possible improvement in that area. The graphs are still erratic in evr-cp at 24hz and I can only speculate that madVR isn't showing having any dropped frames because the timestamps seem all over the place in some of these files I have, and because my display hz is now above the rate at which the variation in the timestamps would result in a frame drop...

PS: You can ignore this post if you feel your wasting your time doing so. Turns out it's not 24hz either its vfr which neither madvr evrcp or ffdshow could tell me.

[Hypernova]

Get Process Monitor (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645).
By default it writes its capture to the pagefile so you need to change that to something else, via File/Backing Files.
By default it also hides a lot of system events so you need to Enabled Advanced Output under the Filter menu.
The open the filter editor, crtl+L, and add two new filters:

Include Path ends with pagefile.sys
Include Operation contains write

Take care because the capture Process Monitor does very quickly becomes huge.

:thanks:

I'm not sure how to look for how much write was going on, though I think I don't see much differences when madVR is running

[madshi]

You or anyone else doesn't have to spend 1 second of their time if they don't wish reading / acting on others posts.
In case you haven't noticed, I'm trying to answer every question posted in this thread. Do you want me to change that? Do you want this thread to be like every other thread here on doom9 where you have to be lucky to get a useful reply to your posts? E.g. do you think you have a good chance to get a developer reply to your post in the ffdshow thread you posted yesterday? If you like the way I treat this thread, then you have to accept that it's also *your* responsibility to not waste my time.

No need to accuse others of wasting your time etc. Thats just ridiculous.
It is? I tell you to try A (mux video with eac3to) and B (set display to 24.000Hz). Instead of doing that you report back and say you tried C (mux with mkvtoolnix again) and you claim that there's obviously nothing that can be done. Then I ask whether you read my posts. And you still don't try A nor B, but you still continue to post replies with non-correct information that I feel I have to correct. That's a first class example of doing your very best to waste my time.

If I tell you to try A and B, then *please* try A and B, and then report back on whether it worked or not. Anything else means you're wasting my time. It's really not rocket science.

You don't seem to read peoples posts either, I told you I set the frame rate to 24 when remuxing
Yes, by using mkvtoolnix again, when I told you *twice* to use eac3to for video muxing.

and my display to 24.000hz....
The first time you said that was by editing one of your posts at the same second when I made my last post yesterday.

[mark0077]

Yes I do think you should change the way you react to forum posts. No matter what anyone says it shouldn't cause the angry reactions you sometimes appear to show. Its not good for you. I edited many forum posts over the past few days. All way before any of your angry replies. End of the day dont reply to ANYONE with such accusations of wasting time and anger because its uncalled for.

I'll continue the discussion about my issue elsewhere as I seem to be getting more positive feedback and even some svn changes that might help. Just shows how one approach to forum posting results in a different outcome than others for everyone. I'm out of here anyways there's no point going on and on.

[madshi]

Yeah, sure. I'm the bad guy, and you're innocent. Alright, you'll get your wish: In the future I'll only reply to you if I feel like it. That will save me some frustration.

[mr.duck]

I'll continue the discussion about my issue elsewhere as I seem to be getting more positive feedback
*rolls eyes*

[mark0077]

Roll your eyes all you want, positive feedback on various forums including avs is now meaning updates are being looked at for mvtools, and possibly other pieces of software to better support vfr..
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1025800&page=39

ffs everyones trying their best here to contribute something good to the community... you think you'd do the same rather than making things worse by posting such stupid replies. Just leave it, this thread is getting enough unnecessary replies at this point. Will be my last anyways.

[fastplayer]

*rolls eyes*
That dispute was between madshi and mark0077.
There's zero need for you to chime in with this childish remark!

[madshi]

That dispute was between madshi and mark0077.
There's zero need for you to chime in with this childish remark!
There's no need for you to jump on mr.duck, either. All he did was taking my side (which I appreciate). Anyway, we should really drop this now.

[underzone]

Any way.... keep up the good work Madshi we all appreciate this kick ass renderer!!!

[oddball]

Any way to get screencaps working in mpc-hc? I get a GetDIB Failed error when I try to save a screencap.

[pirlouy]

Affirmative. I always had an answer and an updated great renderer, so really nothing to complain.
I'm not here to insult mark. It's just a misunderstanding. In some times it will be forgotten. Forget the "I was right and he was wrong" etc.

Funny image to change your mind.
http://i56.tinypic.com/2rzc2ef.gif (2,6 MB)

[underzone]

Affirmative. I always had an answer and an updated great renderer, so really nothing to complain.
I'm not here to insult mark. It's just a misunderstanding. In some times it will be forgotten. Forget the "I was right and he was wrong" etc.

Funny image to change your mind.
http://i56.tinypic.com/2rzc2ef.gif (2,6 MB)

Your funny image is just wierd dude...

[Astrophizz]

Nothing wrong with tickling a baby otter. Or at least thats what I tell myself... </OT>

[dansrfe]

Wow, I didn't believe people would actually start bashing on the developer of this renderer in his own thread. People need to understand what it's like to be in a developer's shoes before they start firing away at them...it's a whole different world. Although I cannot say I know anything about that world, I can definitely presume that it is WAY more involved that a guy that just downloads and utilizes.

And for heavens sake...it's free of cost. Have some respect in that aspect at least. (to all that did/plan to bash)

[leeperry]

hi madshi, was wondering...I'm having a problem with MPEG2 files in PotPlayer. They play fine in VMR9, but they don't play at all in mVR. I don't even get the OSD :o

I'm sure it used to work before as I used to open .IFO files to read DVD's directly a few months ago. Now all I get is audio w/ a black screen.

I've put screenshots of the problem here: http://cafe.daum.net/pot-tool/AZMV/6960

PotP's coder tells me that it works fine for him: http://cafe.daum.net/pot-tool/AZMV/6947

http://cfile246.uf.daum.net/R474x0/127E36354D800D970DBA1E

We used this VOB sample: http://www.dvdloc8.com/distributorclip.php?distributorid=43&clipid=1

It seems that mVR never catches ffdshow's output for MPEG2 files on my box :confused:

I've put two mVR logs here (http://www.mediafire.com/?9sua35hbub1898u), one when I use PotP's internal MPEG2 decoder and video plays fine, and one when I use either libavcodec/libmpeg2 MPEG2 decoders in ffdshow rev.3775, and all I get is a black screen.

I'm not sure wth is going on...but it used to work before. I've done everything except rolling older versions of ffdshow, now that I think of it.
EDIT: hah! if I use ffdshow rev.3533(instead of 3775), it works perfectly: http://thumbnails34.imagebam.com/12374/55cb16123739052.jpg (http://www.imagebam.com/image/55cb16123739052)

log file available here: http://www.mediafire.com/?ww145n4g4wnp0bu

Hope you can look into it, :thanks: in advance.

[ryrynz]

Wow, I didn't believe people would actually start bashing on the developer of this renderer in his own thread. People need to understand what it's like to be in a developer's shoes before they start firing away at them...it's a whole different world. Although I cannot say I know anything about that world, I can definitely presume that it is WAY more involved that a guy that just downloads and utilizes.

And for heavens sake...it's free of cost. Have some respect in that aspect at least. (to all that did/plan to bash)

dansrfe makes some very valid points, Madshi can be terse at times but I can understand his reaction.

Madshi, It's apparent that your very thorough with everything that you do, many people are less fastidious.
It may be worth applying yourself less to the issues that these people present so that you can enjoy your work to a greater degree.
Tolerance on both sides can yield rewarding results.

0.43 is working a treat for me BTW, thank you.

[nlnl]

Ok, time for some first conclusions.


surface download speeds:
ATI: catastrophic
NVidia: fantastic (newer hardware/drivers); catastrophic (XP with older hardware/drivers)
Intel: catastrophic


So there is no chance for poor ATI users :) to get hardware deinterlacing (DXVA) using Madvr (future version)?
May be new ATI drivers fix download speed...

[Mangix]

time to move to the green side :P

on a more serious note, ati seems to actually do higher bit textures properly(losslessly). i wonder what impact this will have.

[madshi]

Any way to get screencaps working in mpc-hc? I get a GetDIB Failed error when I try to save a screencap.
Currently not supported. It's on my to do list.

Wow, I didn't believe people would actually start bashing on the developer of this renderer in his own thread. People need to understand what it's like to be in a developer's shoes before they start firing away at them...it's a whole different world. Although I cannot say I know anything about that world, I can definitely presume that it is WAY more involved that a guy that just downloads and utilizes.

And for heavens sake...it's free of cost. Have some respect in that aspect at least. (to all that did/plan to bash)
Thanks, appreciate the support.

dansrfe makes some very valid points, Madshi can be terse at times but I can understand his reaction.
FWIW, to explain: I'm becoming terse only when people continue to ask for my help post after post, while at the same time refusing/failing to try my suggestions. That really gets me. Basically, if anybody asks for my help, then I expect him to strictly do all the tests I ask for and report back the results. Not doing that means wasted time for me.

hi madshi, was wondering...I'm having a problem with MPEG2 files in PotPlayer. They play fine in VMR9, but they don't play at all in mVR. I don't even get the OSD :o

I'm sure it used to work before as I used to open .IFO files to read DVD's directly a few months ago. Now all I get is audio w/ a black screen.

I've put screenshots of the problem here: http://cafe.daum.net/pot-tool/AZMV/6960

PotP's coder tells me that it works fine for him: http://cafe.daum.net/pot-tool/AZMV/6947

http://cfile246.uf.daum.net/R474x0/127E36354D800D970DBA1E

We used this VOB sample: http://www.dvdloc8.com/distributorclip.php?distributorid=43&clipid=1

It seems that mVR never catches ffdshow's output for MPEG2 files on my box :confused:

I've put two mVR logs here (http://www.mediafire.com/?9sua35hbub1898u), one when I use PotP's internal MPEG2 decoder and video plays fine, and one when I use either libavcodec/libmpeg2 MPEG2 decoders in ffdshow rev.3775, and all I get is a black screen.

I'm not sure wth is going on...but it used to work before. I've done everything except rolling older versions of ffdshow, now that I think of it.
EDIT: hah! if I use ffdshow rev.3533(instead of 3775), it works perfectly: http://thumbnails34.imagebam.com/12374/55cb16123739052.jpg (http://www.imagebam.com/image/55cb16123739052)

log file available here: http://www.mediafire.com/?ww145n4g4wnp0bu

Hope you can look into it, :thanks: in advance.
I'll have a look.

So there is no chance for poor ATI users :) to get hardware deinterlacing (DXVA) using Madvr (future version)?
I wouldn't say that. The test results show that downloading surfaces isn't feasible with ATI hardware. But downloading surfaces is only one possible solution. That was the purpose of madNV12Test: To show me which solutions are feasible on which hardware and which are not. Now thanks to all your madNV12Test reports, I know for a fact that I don't even need to bother trying to download surfaces with ATI hardware. I'll do something else instead. Virtually *all* ATI madNV12Test reports have the word "lossless" in them. That might give you a clue that there might be an alternative to downloading surfaces... ;)

[jmone]

I was not going to way into some of the recent posts but decided to post my 2 cents worth. Let me say "thanks" to madshi for his work not only with madvr but also for eac3to. I have always found him to be supportive and straight forward in his efforts to advance the "freeware" segment to which he donates his time and effort for no financial reward. I'm always worried when forum members take offense to those that take on such tasks for the simple joy of working through such a task. If we benefit from his hobby and work on the project then we should be happy. I have no issues with trying to suggest direction and development as this is how the community works... but if it is not to ones liking then please quietly move on else we run the risk of devs like madshi just deciding not to bother and we will all be poorer.

Thanks again madshi
Nathan

[chogster]

Guys,
Can somebody please offer some advice with regards to pixel settings on an ATI HD5450 (Cat 11.2) hooked up to a Panasonic G20 plasma? Reading through the forums it appears that full RGB 4:4:4 is the recommended and preferred setting, but this gives me far too much black content making dark movie scenes completely unviewable!
Having the pixel settings set to YCBCR 4:4:4 improves the PQ without washing out the black levels too much, but is this the correct setting for MADVR?

Should I be using the other options such as Limited RGB or YCBCR 4:4:2?

Cheers

[Qaq]

chogster, set Catalyst to RGB 444 and TV's black level to High (I also have to select HDMI input as PC to get RGB input on my TV).

[chogster]

chogster, set Catalyst to RGB 444 and TV's black level to High (I also have to select HDMI input as PC to get RGB input on my TV).

Qaq,

To my knowledge I don't have the facility to change my TV's black levels??

I looked through the TV menu setting's & this setting isn't listed?

[Qaq]

chogster, just read the TV's manual carefully and also check this forum Plasma Flat Panel Displays (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=167) for your model.

[dansrfe]

Guys,
Can somebody please offer some advice with regards to pixel settings on an ATI HD5450 (Cat 11.2) hooked up to a Panasonic G20 plasma? Reading through the forums it appears that full RGB 4:4:4 is the recommended and preferred setting, but this gives me far too much black content making dark movie scenes completely unviewable!
Having the pixel settings set to YCBCR 4:4:4 improves the PQ without washing out the black levels too much, but is this the correct setting for MADVR?

Should I be using the other options such as Limited RGB or YCBCR 4:4:2?

Cheers

I have a Panasonic Plasma too and I just realized that the black level setting is in the Advanced or Pro section Listed as "Light" or "Dark". I seriously wish they had a toggle switch to change the menu to have all pro terms in it instead of lame basic terms that we guys have to guess on.

Light = 16-235
Dark = 0-255

You want to always send RGB 4:4:4 to your plasma. (at least for panasonic)

[chogster]

I have a Panasonic Plasma too and I just realized that the black level setting is in the Advanced or Pro section Listed as "Light" or "Dark". I seriously wish they had a toggle switch to change the menu to have all pro terms in it instead of lame basic terms that we guys have to guess on.

Light = 16-235
Dark = 0-255

You want to always send RGB 4:4:4 to your plasma. (at least for panasonic)

Guys,

Thanks for the help, but i'm pretty sure this option only exists within the Panasonic US versions; I actually attempted to find this option setting prior to posting this problem!

I've posted a thread on a AVF Panny forum asking whether anybody knows of this option on the UK version, it maybe somthing that can be adjusted from within the service menu. For now I'll have to stick with YCBCR as RGB 4:4:4 is unwatchable!

[Qaq]

For now I'll have to stick with YCBCR as RGB 4:4:4 is unwatchable!
You better try to set RGB Limited (16-235) in CCC and madVR (until you find Full RGB in your TV, of course).

[chogster]

Qaq & Danrsfe, many thanks for your assistance today. Just had confirmation from the guys on the AVF forum that the Panasonic G20 EU model only outputs Limited RGB (16-235), so that's the setting I'll choose!

[fairchild]

Guys,
Can somebody please offer some advice with regards to pixel settings on an ATI HD5450 (Cat 11.2) hooked up to a Panasonic G20 plasma? Reading through the forums it appears that full RGB 4:4:4 is the recommended and preferred setting, but this gives me far too much black content making dark movie scenes completely unviewable!
Having the pixel settings set to YCBCR 4:4:4 improves the PQ without washing out the black levels too much, but is this the correct setting for MADVR?

Should I be using the other options such as Limited RGB or YCBCR 4:4:2?

Cheers

On my Panasonic S2, generally speaking you always want to leave the Black Level at Light for most sources/devices. For my setup, I have my Black Level at light, have my HD 5830 (also have an HD5450 that i'm not using atm) set to RGB 4:4:4 (Full) then have MadVR send video levels. (this also provides proper BTB and WTW) This allows me to not have to be switching out of Cinema mode on my set which is the most accurate mode, and is the one I have calibrated already for my Blu-Ray and TV.

The only negative to this method is that then your desktop will look too dark (blacks are crushed on the desktop), and this I fix by using a higher brightness level when I'm going to play games (which I have configured on my Game preset on my Panasonic).

You can also have it working properly by setting RGB Limited as you said but then you don't get the full dynamic range of white since you lose BTB and WTW.

[Mark_A_W]

Don't forget to adjust your brightness control after selecting the correct levels.

[bjd]

What is madVR doing that makes pagefile writes take off? Just got and SSD and was wondering if I'm making enough writes to the pagefile to make it worth moving it off the SSD. So I fired up Process Monitor, and made a long capture.

During normal desktop usage the pagefile writes were areound 5MB/h, but when watching something with MPC-HC and madVR the pagefile writes increase to over 3GB/h. This does not happen with EVR.

3GB per hour is quite a lot of writes. What is madVR doing?

The pagefile is managed by the OS. If madVR increases pagefile usage then probably your PC doesn't have enough RAM in it. madVR keeps 8 decoded frames in system RAM.

I have noticed MadVR performance on XP is affected by Pagefile settings as I changed them a couple of days ago and the delayed frames scenario is back. It is no fault of MadVR, but I have been researching the PageFile and it would seem the OS moves system ram to the page file even if you have plenty of free ram spare (OS trying to be clever and ensure you have plenty of free ram). Given that MadVr queues decoded frames in ram, is it is possible that queued frames get moved by the OS to the page file rather than remaining in ram and thus reducing the overall performance of the renderer?

It would explain why MadVR performs better on my XP system after a reboot than it does after an hour or so once memory usuage has climbed slightly and the page file gets used.

I am going to do a little tweaking and comparison this weekend, there are certain things you can do to ensure you always run Xp from system memory rather than the page file.

http://www.tweakxp.com/article37016.aspx

My 2gb HTPC only really runs Mpc-Hc and usually has well over 1gb free at any time, no Photoshop etc that needs page filing by default, so I am thinking of disabling the pagefile altogether.

[Mark_A_W]

Yes, I thinking of that too. I have 6GB of RAM and never use more than 2GB.

You can mount some of the RAM as a ramdisk and still technically have a pagefile.
http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk?

[leeperry]

I am thinking of disabling the pagefile altogether.
been doing it for years, so far so good :p

[nevcairiel]

Given that MadVr queues decoded frames in ram, is it is possible that queued frames get moved by the OS to the page file rather than remaining in ram and thus reducing the overall performance of the renderer?

Considering the frames will only be in RAM for a fraction of a second, i don't think windows would start moving it out to the pagefile, its just not long-lived enough for that. Besides, you would not only lose one frame if that happens, the slowdown would be significantly worse.


I am thinking of disabling the pagefile altogether.


Disabling the pagefile works in 90% of the cases, but there are some applications and use-cases that will just fail.

In any case, i think its highly doubtful that any part of the video decoding chain is ending up in the page file, as its the currently active process, and the data gets created/consumed way too fast to sit long enough in ram.

But then again, page-file management has always been rather weird on XP. My 7 box does not touch the pagefile ever, as long as i don't start filling up the ram above 75-80% or so

[bjd]

That does make sense really although it does not explain the high page writes that some other people are experiencing. Anyway at least i have something to keep me busy over the weekend :)

[Mr Alpha]

Windows doesn't treat RAM as a data store, but only as a cache. Everything is either backed by the files on the drive, page file, or, in case of an empty memory page, a notation in a list somewhere. This means Windows will throw things out of RAM if it think it might be more useful to cache something else.

Windows pulls memory pages from a process starting with the oldest ones. I don't think madVR caches frames in RAM long enough for Windows to bother. On the other hand the faster the working set for a process grows, the more aggressive Windows will be in tacking back RAM pages.

First I was thinking that maybe there is a memory leak of some sort in madVR and Windows is just throwing out stuff madVR forgets about, but this doesn't seem to be the case. There are lots of other things that could be misbehaving. The graphics drivers are an usual suspect.

[Razoola]

It probably is not the pagefile anyhow... Things it can be that people overlook are;

Background disk defrag setup.
Visus scanner doing background visus scan.

Either of these can become active while watching a movie as the pc thinks its idleing even though a screensaver has not kicked in.

[bjd]

Just to update:

I have disabled page filing and Paging Executive on my HTPC as well as enabling LargeSystemCache.

When playing media from a NAS drive, the hard drive light never lights up now and available memory stays constant at about 1.65gb before the mp-hc starts where as before it steadily decreased to about 1.3gb even when nothing was running other than the default services.

MadVR performance is now rock solid again, so clearly something was being swapped on the hard drive (500gb 7200prm SATAII UltraDMA) or there was a bottle neck. The SATA Drive is running in IDE mode, so it may be a SATA/IDE driver issue that I have resolved by disabling the page file.

Happy again :)

[madshi]

Can somebody please offer some advice with regards to pixel settings on an ATI HD5450 (Cat 11.2) hooked up to a Panasonic G20 plasma? Reading through the forums it appears that full RGB 4:4:4 is the recommended and preferred setting, but this gives me far too much black content making dark movie scenes completely unviewable!
You should always use Full RGB 4:4:4. If the image is too dark, set madVR to "video levels". After that use a calibration DVD/video to dial in the correct brightness and contrast values on your plasma.