LAV Filters - DirectShow Media Splitter and Decoders

[jmone]

Too true tetsuo55 and thanks for the link - good read.

nevcairiel - Sorry to be vague, I was trying to articulate two things over the last few posts
1) that DTS-MA was growing ever more popular on Blu (looks like it is becoming the defacto std for the main track) and
2) that the best solution may be to wait till you have the On/Off support by Codec instead of hacking the filter manually (so as to use the TMT Filter for DTS-MA)

Thanks
Nathan

[SamuriHL]

Hey, Nev....the ArcSoft video decoder. Is it possible to use that? I ask cause when I put that in the external filters list in MPC-HC and set it to prefer. I never see it used on either h.264 or vc-1 content. I can get the PDVD10 video decoder to work but I don't think it's ever actually doing DXVA on my 450. CPU utilization is REALLY high if it is. On that machine I NEED to offload everything to the GPU as the base X2 4200+ just isn't up to handling software decoding. I was wanting to compare how the ArcSoft decoder stood up but it doesn't seem to work for me. When I bring up the properties from the external filters screen in MPC-HC, I get the ArcSoft decoder properties page, but, then it never gets used. Any thoughts?

[robpdotcom]

Hey, Nev....the ArcSoft video decoder. Is it possible to use that? .....When I bring up the properties from the external filters screen in MPC-HC, I get the ArcSoft decoder properties page, but, then it never gets used. Any thoughts?

Depending on the splitter, you may need one of the VC-1 tweaks.

Also, have you registered the ASVid.ax? I believe that is necessary.

[jmone]

Also keep in mind, that the lossless audio tracks can losslessly be converted, although this will not help for playback from bluray disc.
I've heard that some flac encoders can create smaller files than the dts-hd track itself.

Thats true and what I was doing but I think I'll just go for full ISO (or stucture) backups to HDD as:
1) Disc is cheap
2) You get all the alt endings, EE vs Std editions etc
3) No need to transcode anything any more as all formats of Video, Audio, and Subs are now doable.
4) Easy to backup and then easy to burn if you need to

[SamuriHL]

Depending on the splitter, you may need one of the VC-1 tweaks.

Also, have you registered the ASVid.ax? I believe that is necessary.

The splitter I'm using should be obvious. :D And it doesn't work for h.264 or VC-1, so, something else is wrong.

Yes, I've registered asvid.ax. Otherwise you can't even add it to the external filters. I'm really not sure what's going on there. I haven't had time to try to build a manual graph to see if it works. I'm leaving for a few days in the morning so I won't have time to troubleshoot it, but, I was just wondering if anyone had any brilliant thoughts. Even a "of course that doesn't work you idiot" would be fine as long as I know it's not just me. :)

[bjd]

TBH, 90% of people don't have a sound system anyway where they would hear the difference between DTS Core and DTS-HD.

Even with the very best sound system., the differences between 24/48 DTS-HD and full rate DTS-Core (which is what you get on movies) are so minute (and usually inaudible) on a reference decoder. 24/96 DTS-HD material is a different kettle of fish though.

ArcSoft video decoder. Is it possible to use that?

Should work fine with the LAV splitter. Tested before with no issues and no need for a VC-1 tweaker, but prefer FFDshow personally for sub support with MadVR

I would guess your DTS hacking disabled
....Ooops :)

[SamuriHL]

Should work fine with the LAV splitter. Tested before with no issues and no need for a VC-1 tweaker, but prefer FFDshow personally for sub support with MadVR


I prefer ffdshow with pdvd10 software decoding pumped into madVR, as well. However, that no workie on such a low end machine. Maxes the CPU and starts breaking up badly. So, offloading everything to the GPU is the only way to get it stable on that machine, especially considering I use 24Hz on it. In any case, I can't even get it to load. :(

[jmone]

Yup - bjd, your hack instructions for the NAVaudio decoder works great for DTS-MA - perfect, ... except it broke the loading of it for some PCM types.

[Mercury_22]

The splitter I'm using should be obvious. :D And it doesn't work for h.264 or VC-1, so, something else is wrong.

Yes, I've registered asvid.ax. Otherwise you can't even add it to the external filters. I'm really not sure what's going on there. I haven't had time to try to build a manual graph to see if it works. I'm leaving for a few days in the morning so I won't have time to troubleshoot it, but, I was just wondering if anyone had any brilliant thoughts. Even a "of course that doesn't work you idiot" would be fine as long as I know it's not just me. :)

Maybe you're in the same situation I was = do you have the checkactivate.dll (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1392750#post1392750) ?If you care to use it, here is a guide how to get the codec working outside of TMT3

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=19420488#post19420488

The next version will have proper VC-1 support in conjunction with both the Cyberlink and the ArcSoft decoders.

[SamuriHL]

Maybe you're in the same situation I was = do you have the checkactivate.dll ?

I have TMT5 installed properly so I don't need to hack anything. I just registered the decoder. It SHOULD work. I can get the properties page up.

[bjd]

I can't even get it to load.

Have you TMT installed are you using a standalone filter install?
Are you using Shard's unlocker?

As well as the asdvid.ax, you need the right .dlls such as ASVC1Vid.dll for VC1. The Arcsoft decoder when working should support DXVA with MPEG2, H264 and VC1.

[Mercury_22]

I have TMT5 installed properly so I don't need to hack anything. I just registered the decoder. It SHOULD work. I can get the properties page up.

I was in the same situation (except it was TMT3)! you still need the checkactivate.dll

[jmone]

SamuriHL are you using the 7KB "checkactivate.dll" or the real arcsoft one? - https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1470148#post1470148

Eg and FYI for me on the Audio Side to get DTS-HD decoding all I need are:
* AsAudioHD.ax (from TMT 3.0.1.185 register this filter)
* dtsdecoderdll.dll (from TMT 3.0.1.185)
* checkactivate.dll (the 7KB version)

I then add the following to Win.Ini as the settings are not retained by the filter and need to be set up front:


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ArcSoft\MPEG Codec\Decoder Setting\]
AudioOutputMode=5
AudioDynamicRange=1

The above works for me to get 5.1 at full bitrate and depth but "apparently" the settings should be
================ where ===================
Audio Output Mode is:
0,1,2,5: Stereo
6,13: 5.1 Channels
17: 7.1 Channels
16: S/PDIF

EDIT: Other TMT filters (eg Video etc) from 3.0.1.185 should also work after registering them in the same folder as checkactivate.dll. I've seen no conflict between these filters and later versions of TMT installed on the same PC.

[SamuriHL]

I was in the same situation (except it was TMT3)! you still need the checkactivate.dll

I'll give this a try. Thanks, guys!

[nevcairiel]

Just a small heads up.

I decided to implement the configuration of which formats to decode in LAV Audio next, and will be working on that this evening. Once its done, i'll release it as 0.19. There have already alot of fixes and enhancements piled up, and i don't want to keep them from you until i merge the BluRay support in (which is developing quite nicely, btw).

So, this weekend, 0.19 with fixes and codec configuration, after that 0.20 with BluRay support, hopefully soon.

[bjd]

@nevcairiel - top effort, Jmone will be happy.

[Plutotype]

amazing progress here, good community

[Kotik]

Great news!

Thanx for the info Nev.

[jmone]

How good is this! Just like Christmas with LOTS of new presents...

@nevcairiel - top effort, Jmone will be happy.

:)

after that 0.20 with BluRay support, hopefully soon

:) :)

There have already allot of fixes and enhancements piled up

Looking forward to this to see if any of them help the stability issue I'm seeing on the splitter - will test and report back!

[jmone]

OT - what freeware tools allow you to view detailed video info in x264 streams? FYI I have an 1080/50p x264 clip from my camcoder that plays fine but if I add say a title in the middle (using Cyberlinks PD9) something odd is happening in the new file at the tranistion point from the end of the title (eg the PD9 rendered segment) back to the original segment (eg LAV Spliter stutters on the Video at the point but MS Media Play is fine).

[Mercury_22]

I'll give this a try. Thanks, guys!

Please let us know if it works with TMT5 too and if you can test the audio dec too :)

[SamuriHL]

Please let us know if it works with TMT5 too and if you can test the audio dec too :)

Currenly on vacation. Will try it tuesday when I get home and let you know.

[nevcairiel]

It does work with TMT5, but on the audio side, it never likes outputting more then 48Khz/16Bit. The TMT3 .185 version is perfect for me. (And i own both TMT3 and TMT5)

[nevcairiel]

LAV DirectShow Filters 0.19

General
- Version Information has been added to the filter .ax files, as well as shown on the property pages.

LAV Splitter
- Redesigned stream name generations
- Codec profiles are now shown (if known - supported are H264, VC1, MPEG2 and DTS)
- Audio bit-depth is no longer shown for lossy codecs, as it doesn't apply there
- Improved logic that parses the stream flags
- Names for the subtitle codecs have been added
- If the language is "Undetermined", it'll no longer be shown
- Size of the packet queue has been increased (solves subtitle issues, as well as improves playback stability)
- Redesigned the way the splitter registers for formats in the registry for better compatibility
- Changed the stream change handling for better compatibility with certain players (Media Portal, and others)
- Improved handling of unknown streams (no codec information present)
- Added a new option that controls if substreams should be exposed in the stream selector (Only AC3 in TrueHD supported)

LAV Audio
- Added a new configuration panel which allows to configure which formats the decoder should handle


Download: 32-bit (http://files.1f0.de/lavf/LAVFilters-0.19.zip) & 64-bit (http://files.1f0.de/lavf/LAVFilters-0.19-x64.zip)

On the configuration in the audio decoder, i added all "major" formats that i could think of (and that i have media types setup for), but adding new ones is pretty easy, so if you think you should be able to turn off another format, just tell me which, and i'll add it to the list.

One thing:
I recommend uninstalling the old version before installing this one, because the way the registry format/media type data is written changed, and if you don't uninstall the old version, you'll have double entries in the registry.
So, simply run the uninstall.bat file, unpack the new version and run the install.bat again (of course all with admin privs)

Have fun.

[Sebastiii]

Nice Work :)
Will going to test.
Thank you.

[Ger]

Many nice changes in 0.19, and no regressions found so far.

Tried disabling an audio format and it worked fine here (other decoder is used).

Also noticed the visual impaired audio track from the UK DVB-T2 Star Wars sample is tagged as such now. :thanks:

[jmone]

Great update and thanks for the selectable support for Audio Formats - this is working very well :)

I've done a bunch of testing on what makes the splitter crash (still doing it) and have updated the J.River thread.

Thanks
Nathan

[Ger]

May have found a regression anyway. I can now hear a crackling sound in all(?) my LATM AAC samples.
Example (I've posted this link/sample before so you probably have it already): The_Gift_-_DR_HD_-_2009-12-23.ts (http://www.multiupload.com/O17QVRTW8N)

I also see occasional huge (as in off the screen huge) spikes in the MPC-HC EVR-CP stats graph with those samples, with short picture freezes (using MS DTV-DVD decoder for video and MPC-HC trunk r2989).

I don't follow the ffmpeg/lav development, but using avcodec-52.dll from v0.18 seems to fix the issue, so maybe some LATM stuff got messed up upstream in the last 20 or so days?

[Plutotype]

Tested with madVR 0.45 and MPC-HC 2988, everything looks good.
Thanks for the stream naming in filter properties (MPC-HC) and format selector in LAVaudio.

[nevcairiel]

May have found a regression anyway. I can now hear a crackling sound in all(?) my LATM AAC samples.
Example (I've posted this link/sample before so you probably have it already): The_Gift_-_DR_HD_-_2009-12-23.ts (http://www.multiupload.com/O17QVRTW8N)

I also see occasional huge (as in off the screen huge) spikes in the MPC-HC EVR-CP stats graph with those samples, with short picture freezes (using MS DTV-DVD decoder for video and MPC-HC trunk r2989).

I don't follow the ffmpeg/lav development, but using avcodec-52.dll from v0.18 seems to fix the issue, so maybe some LATM stuff got messed up upstream in the last 20 or so days?

I can reproduce the problem, lets see if i can pin it on a specific change in ffmpeg.

[jmone]

It does work with TMT5, but on the audio side, it never likes outputting more then 48Khz/16Bit. The TMT3 .185 version is perfect for me. (And i own both TMT3 and TMT5)

+1 I can confirm if you want full bit rate and depth then TMT3 .185 is the way to go (I also own both)

[Ger]

Thanks for looking into the LATM issue.

Also noticed the visual impaired audio track from the UK DVB-T2 Star Wars sample is tagged as such now.

Actually, both hearing impaired DVB subtitles (The Gift sample) and visual impaired audio tracks (Star Wars sample) in MPEG-TS are now tagged correctly running a recent ffprobe.exe. I guess that means this patch (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1428791#post1428791), or at least part of it may no longer be needed, if you're still applying it?

[nevcairiel]

Actually, both hearing impaired DVB subtitles (The Gift sample) and visual impaired audio tracks (Star Wars sample) in MPEG-TS are now tagged correctly running a recent ffprobe.exe. I guess that means this patch (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1428791#post1428791), or at least part of it may no longer be needed, if you're still applying it?

I actually got that applied upstream. :)

[Ger]

Nice. :)

[nevcairiel]

I found the offending commit that broke LATM decoding. I'll revert it and upload a new 0.19 zip with a fixed ffmpeg. I will also try to bring it up with the ffmpeg devs, but from past experience, responding to regressions on old commits never really worked too well..

[nevcairiel]

Ok, same URLs as before

Download: 32-bit (http://files.1f0.de/lavf/LAVFilters-0.19.zip) & 64-bit (http://files.1f0.de/lavf/LAVFilters-0.19-x64.zip)

Just that one commit reverted. I'll do a full update on ffmpeg tomorrow, and see if its maybe fixed (doubt it, from skimming the commit list since then), and try to get some attention on the mailing list, somehow. For some reason getting some change commited just by saying it works is easy, reporting a bug requires more then saying "it doesn't work". <.<

Please confirm that the issue is indeed fixed for you as well.

[Ger]

Yes, I can confirm it's fixed for me as well with avcodec-52.dll dated 20.03.2011 01:25.

[jmone]

mpg.coruption.mpg
ffdshow-libavcodec - corruptions on begining
ffdshow-libmpeg2 - crash while seeking
mpc-hc MPEG-2 Video, Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder (system) - no problem

mpg.mpeg-1-not_working.mpg
ffdshow-libavcodec - gray screen
ffdshow-libmpeg2 - crash while seeking
mpc-hc MPEG-1 Video, MPEG 1 Video Decoder (system) - no problem

Yeah, there is that crash bug in ffdshow libmpeg2 .. blame them, its their fault afterall! :)

I'll try to fix the libavcodec mode.

Here is hoping this is what was causing my MPEG-2 Seek Crashes with LAVSplitter. Changed from libmpeg2 to libavcodec and all so far (fingers crossed) is good!

[nevcairiel]

That old problem, eh. I still blame ffdshow for the crash, not sure why it doesn't happen with any other splitter, but it also doesn't happen with any other decoder, including the MPC-HC decoder which also uses libmpeg2.

Personally, i like the MS DTV Decoder for MPEG-2 content. :)

[jmone]

Yeah no idea either..... Anyway, I'm trying to keep the number of Filters down to a minimum and FFDSHOW's Subs and deinterlacing (YADIF Double Frame rate) is pretty good IMHO. So for me the ideal set of filters is looking like:
- LAVSplitter
- LAVAudio for all but DTS + Arcsoft HD Audio for DTS (thanks again for this config option!)
- FFDSHOW for Video (ffmpeg-mt for 264/AVC as handles 50p content without stuttering, libavocdec for the rest) + "MS WMVideo Deocder DMO" for VC-1 as it handles Interlaced VC-1 well (mmm I have not tried the Arcsoft decoder.....)
- madVR for the Video Renderer
- Reclock for the Audio Renderer (at least until J.River add auto frame rate changing to their renderer which should be soonish)

[madshi]

ffdshow? MS DTV Decoder? Are you guys watching that much native video content? If not, I wonder how you could *not* use the DScaler5 IVTC Mod MPEG2 decoder.

[nevcairiel]

I don't really watch any interlaced or TC'ed content, but if i do (got some DVDs that are TC'ed), i usually prefer hardware deinterlacing/ivtc, never got any software work as smooth as that (even when that means not using madVR for that few DVDs)

[noee]

ffdshow? MS DTV Decoder? Are you guys watching that much native video content? If not, I wonder how you could *not* use the DScaler5 IVTC Mod MPEG2 decoder.

I cannot get Dscalar (with updated dlls) to work on Win7 x64 with any player. What OS are you using?

[madshi]

I don't really watch any interlaced or TC'ed content, but if i do (got some DVDs that are TC'ed), i usually prefer hardware deinterlacing/ivtc, never got any software work as smooth as that (even when that means not using madVR for that few DVDs)
Are that PAL or NTSC DVDs? AFAIK, for NTSC movies hardware IVTC gives you 30p or 60p for movie content, which will result in the typical 3:2 motion judder. The DScaler IVTC mod should give you perfect 24p output instead. For PAL content the situation is different, though.

I cannot get Dscalar (with updated dlls) to work on Win7 x64 with any player. What OS are you using?
Works just fine on my win7 x64 HTPC. Anyway, this is out of topic, I guess. Was just wondering why you guys didn't use the DScaler IVTC mod.

[nevcairiel]

Are that PAL or NTSC DVDs? AFAIK, for NTSC movies hardware IVTC gives you 30p or 60p for movie content, which will result in the typical 3:2 motion judder. The DScaler IVTC mod should give you perfect 24p output instead. For PAL content the situation is different, though.

NTSC. From what i experienced, if you use DXVA decoding and do IVTC in the same step, it actually reduces it to 24p properly.

In any case, can't use madVR for DVDs anyway. Screw you macrovision :(

[madshi]

NTSC. From what i experienced, if you use DXVA decoding and do IVTC in the same step, it actually reduces it to 24p properly.
Weird. Looking at the DXVA deinterlacing APIs, I don't see how that works. Anyway...

[robpdotcom]

Now that madVR is working with the MPC-HC internal sub renderer (thanks Madshi :cool:), I started playing around with it.

I noticed that LAVS does not work with the MPC-HC keyboard shortcut for switching streams ("S" and "Shift+S" are default, I believe).

Is this something that can be added?

[madshi]

now that madvr is working with the mpc-hc internal sub renderer (thanks madshi :cool:), i started playing around with it.
:) ...

[SamuriHL]

Sweet. Can't wait to try it when I get home tuesday!

[hoborg]

Hi.

I am posting this problem here too, becouse i would like to found the source of this issue - i just tested LAVF v.19 audio decoder + splitter.

DTS + EVR custom renderer = stuttering

I noticed there is a stuttering/droped frames in videos with DTS track if custom EVR renderer is in use (like MPC-HC/MediaPortal one). If i use simple EVR/VMR9 - no problem.
It can be fixed by disabling jitter correction (in fffshow).

Here is a video sample (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1484682#post1484682). (more info (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1484243#post1484243)).

I have this problem in nearly all videos with DTS audio.