LAV Filters - DirectShow Media Splitter and Decoders

[Aleksoid1978]

Hi nevcairiel

Latest version LAV Video Decoder crash in DXVA Native mode on this MPEG2 clip http://aleksoid.tosei.ru/Test/Sample/FirstField.mpg when in MPC-HC press Ctrl+E(Reopen) - sometimes at first press, sometimes at second.

LAV settings:
http://s55.radikal.ru/i149/1207/c2/c2b9f7e09d22t.jpg (http://radikal.ru/F/s55.radikal.ru/i149/1207/c2/c2b9f7e09d22.png.html)

crash in avcodec-lav-54.dll

[RealSnoopyDog]

Hi nev, thanks for the update 0.53.1. Now LAV behaves again like version 0.50.5 when i switch channels in DVBViewer. On my laptop with nVidia and on another desktop PC with ATI i had a delay of ~5 seconds until the picture was displayed after zapping when there is a format change (e.g. 720p => 1080i).

With 0.53.1 this is completely gone now! Everything is good. On my HTPC (ATI) i never had problems with any version.

[SamuriHL]

Hey Nev,

Probably a long shot, but might as well ask: Would you consider adding support for TiVo files to the splitter? Currently, they can be moved from the DVR to the pc, but can only be played through WMP (or by converting to another container).

To play them in WMP, you need TiVo Desktop software (free). I can provide samples if needed

J river mc17 supports tivo file playback with lav filters.

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2

[nevcairiel]

I think it just uses the TiVo DirectShow filter, which should probably work in every player, i just never owned such a device.

[SamuriHL]

It uses a combination of things yes.

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2

[mini-moose]

I'm not entirely sure if this is the right place to ask but I'll give it a try.
I'm trying to encode an h264/AVC with x264.exe using lavf decoder.

I get all sorts of notifications/warnings:

1) using m2ts source it gives this message at the beginning of the encode:

[NULL @ 01538d80] start time is not set in estimate_timings_from_pts
[NULL @ 0153abc0] start time is not set in estimate_timings_from_pts

cmd used:
x264.exe --level 4.1 --crf 19 --preset slow --keyint 240 --min-keyint 24 --demuxer lavf --fps 24000/1001 --frames 10001 --vf crop:left=0,top=132,right=0,bottom=132/resize:width=1280,height=544,method=spline,sar=1:1 -o test1.mkv "00012.m2ts"

2) using mkv (basically just the video from an m2ts demuxed to mkv - different one than the first) - constant msgs :

[matroska,webm @ 014b2a40] Unknown entry 0x1654AE6B01 0:04:32
[matroska,webm @ 014b2a40] Unknown entry 0x1654AE6B02 0:03:08
[matroska,webm @ 014b2a40] Unknown entry 0x1654AE6B04 0:02:30

at some point it turns to red msgs:

[h264 @ 03079f80] number of reference frames (0+4) exceeds max (2; probably corrupt input), discarding one
[h264 @ 03b64000] number of reference frames (0+4) exceeds max (2; probably corrupt input), discarding one
[h264 @ 0156d0a0] number of reference frames (0+4) exceeds max (2; probably corrupt input), discarding one

and then back to the firs unuknow entry msgs.

cmd used:
x264.exe --level 4.1 --crf 19 --preset slow --keyint 240 --min-keyint 24 --demuxer lavf --fps 24000/1001 --frames 10001 --vf crop:left=6,top=0,right=0,bottom=0/resize:width=1280,height=720,method=spline,sar=1:1 -o test2.mkv "avc_vid.mkv"

I have no idea what any of that means - I'm not really an expert.

[nevcairiel]

I'm not entirely sure if this is the right place to ask but I'll give it a try.
I'm trying to encode an h264/AVC with x264.exe using lavf decoder.

This was not the right place to ask.
This project is a DirectShow Splitter/Decoder which is based on the ffmpeg libraries, but support for ffmpeg itself or x264 should be directed to those projects respectively.

[mini-moose]

This was not the right place to ask.
This project is a DirectShow Splitter/Decoder which is based on the ffmpeg libraries, but support for ffmpeg itself or x264 should be directed to those projects respectively.

thanks, I assumed I might be in the wrong place :)

[RealSnoopyDog]

Sorry, i exchanged the digits of the version number in my last post :rolleyes: I meant 0.51.3 - not 0.53.1

[DragonQ]

I notice a little blip in the frame rate about two seconds after video starts when tuning to a channel in MediaPortal. Not sure if this existed in previous versions though because I had to put the graph up to see it!

Otherwise, using LAV Audio looks good so far. Now my SD and HD channels have the same volume!! :D

[Pat357]

Hi nevcairiel

Latest version LAV Video Decoder crash in DXVA Native mode on this MPEG2 clip http://aleksoid.tosei.ru/Test/Sample/FirstField.mpg when in MPC-HC press Ctrl+E(Reopen) - sometimes at first press, sometimes at second.

Indeed, I can reproduce this crash.
I've tried different MPC-HC versions : recent, older and much older version -> all crash

Here's what "the W7 doctor" says :

Faulting application name: mpc-hc.exe, version: 1.6.3.5511, time stamp: 0x50048e33
Faulting module name: avcodec-lav-54.dll, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x50084a30
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00149d87
Faulting process id: 0x1460
Faulting application start time: 0x01cd66b1c839643e
Faulting application path: K:\programs\MPC-Homecinema-Lite.1.6.2.4691\x86\mpc-hc.exe
Faulting module path: k:\programs\LAV Filters-0.51\x86\avcodec-lav-54.dll
Report Id: 3dbb4341-d2a5-11e1-9a78-005056c00008


system : i7-970@3.9GHz, 24GB RAM, NVIDIA GTX-570 (301.42 WHQL drivers).
W7 Prof x64 (auto updates) using LAV 32 bit on MPC-HC 32 bit

[nevcairiel]

Latest version LAV Video Decoder crash in DXVA Native mode on this MPEG2 clip http://aleksoid.tosei.ru/Test/Sample/FirstField.mpg when in MPC-HC press Ctrl+E(Reopen) - sometimes at first press, sometimes at second.

Fixed

[shimaflarex]

Is there any way to avoid the clipping protection reseting when you seek the video?

[nevcairiel]

Is there any way to avoid the clipping protection reseting when you seek the video?

I could just not make it do that, but i thought it might make sense, because when you re-open the file and immediately seek somewhere, it'll also be reset.

Opinions?

[shimaflarex]

I could just not make it do that, but i thought it might make sense, because when you re-open the file and immediately seek somewhere, it'll also be reset.

Opinions?
The reason I'm asking is that I use the left arrow button on MPC-HC to replay the last 5 seconds or so of the video, mainly because sometimes I can't understand what was said or couldn't read the subtitles.
And when I do that, the clipping protection resets and the audio gets way too loud for a while...

I think a checkbox to prevent this would be good.

[kitame]

how about making it more responsive temporarily after reset? like after seeking/reset it'll analyze the audio more frequently for a few seconds and then stabilize to the normal timing.

edit: i guess the consequence of this would be the CPU usage spikes after seeking.

[nevcairiel]

It always analyzes every single audio sample and immediately adjusts if a sample would overflow.

The question is quite simply if it should reset the limit after seeking, or not and on a seek the volume remains constant

[red5goahead]

Talking about interfaces resources, I've some problem to interface my application with audio codec.
This is my Delphi interface

for audio:
http://goo.gl/DHHf4

for video:
http://goo.gl/hfG3V

I got some kind of random errors on some user system.
Instead I've not problem at all using video interface and I use it since a long time to set the hw acceleration

What do you think about it? Do anyone use the audio interface in other applications?

[CiNcH]

nev, can you elaborate a bit on how A/V sync correction works inside LAV Audio?

[nevcairiel]

I remember now, i wanted to remove that option and make it always on to avoid questions.

It does nothing special, it just checks that the timestamps from the source don't diverge with the timestamps LAV Audio creates for the decoded audio.
You see, to avoid jitter in the audio timestamps, LAV Audio calculates the timestamps for the decoded audio based on the duration of the audio. To ensure that input time and output time don't drift apart, there is a check for that. This can usually only happen when there is a gap in the audio because a stream is damaged.
It doesn't perform any magic.

[JustinChase]

The question is quite simply if it should reset the limit after seeking, or not and on a seek the volume remains constant

I would suggest that it should not reset after seeking. It seems that the limit is 'meant' to be a per video thing, and since you're still in the same video, resetting it seems 'bad' to me.

[andyvt]

Support for Streaming Protocols
I added experimental support for a few streaming protocols, specifically RTSP, RTP and MMS.
I tested the feature on alot of streams i could find around the web, as well as against VLC streaming over my local network, and it was working OK'ish (better for some formats, worse for others). I still consider this feature highly experimental, so try it if you wish, but don't expect too much. ;)

Is this feature still experimental? I've been playing with it in an attempt to workaround some limitations in other demuxer, but I can't get it to work (fails in the code block below).


//fileName = "rtp://192.168.0.134:5004"
ret = avformat_open_input(&m_avFormat, fileName, NULL, NULL); // ret = -5
if (ret < 0) {
DbgLog((LOG_ERROR, 0, TEXT("::OpenInputStream(): avformat_open_input failed (%d)"), ret));
goto done;
}


Thanks

[nevcairiel]

RTP alone is a stupid protocol, i suggest to find a RTSP wrapper around it, works generally much better ;)
I have no real interest in working on that, i only expose whatever streaming functions ffmpeg offers. RTSP and MMS seemed to work fine, RTP without a RTSP descriptor on the other hand was a bit weird at times.

[andyvt]

RTP alone is a stupid protocol, i suggest to find a RTSP wrapper around it, works generally much better ;)
I have no real interest in working on that, i only expose whatever streaming functions ffmpeg offers. RTSP and MMS seemed to work fine, RTP without a RTSP descriptor on the other hand was a bit weird at times.

Unfortunately, I don't have a choice in the protocol; just how to consume it.

[ryrynz]

Nev, I have an MKV (http://uploading.com/files/get/9636f83m/1.mkv) (350MB) that has no picture after 26.04 and is detected as being that long by LAV splitter (seekbar hits the end at 26.04 and file keeps playing till 26.56) Mediainfo and MPC MKV source detect it as 26.56.

[mr.duck]

http is a good one to support if you are going to support streaming protocols. If I were setting up the stream (like over LAN), then http would be my first choice.


As for clipping protection, my view would be it can make the volume go down only. Every time there is a loud enough sample, the volume gets lower and lower until no samples are loud enough to make it clip. Nothing should make the volume go back up unless you restart the player (or load a new file if that's the same from LAV filter's point of view?). This way you don't get a jump in volume after seeking.

[NikosD]

Latest LAV (0.51.3) with latest Intel drivers (2792) broke H.264 HW acceleration for QS, it falls back to software for every H.264 file I tried.

HW acceleration for MPEG2, VC-1, WMV3 works good, as always.

[nevcairiel]

Your setup must be broken, works just fine here with the latest official release driver. Also nothing changed for several versions in the QuickSync decoder.

For the record, 2761 is the latest official driver, if you use beta drivers, you get what you get. :)

[egur]

Your setup must be broken, works just fine here with the latest official release driver. Also nothing changed for several versions in the QuickSync decoder.

For the record, 2761 is the latest official driver, if you use beta drivers, you get what you get. :)

Driver (2792 beta) is broken with H264 playback.

[alexrose1uk]

Thanks for all your hardwork on this Nevcariel, I use almost solely use LAV now with both an XBMC DSplayer build (I'm using the latest unofficial builds) and with MPC-HC. Working great :)

[RealSnoopyDog]

Hi nev, would it be possible to add the Option "Mono" to the "Output Speaker Configuration" at the "Mixing" sheet in LAV audio? This would be great because i often watch TV without having my surround amplifiers switched on (downmix 5.1 => mono) and when i watch movies i use full audio without mixing. I can easily turn mixing on/off with my remote control in DVBViewer but right now i have to switch between LAV audio and another codec that supports mixing to mono.

[kitame]

i don't know whats causing this but on my laptop i'm getting screen tearing when playing back videos.
stuffs:
i5-2450m
intel IGP (default) / GT555M (main, doesn't seem to activate during playback)
4GB ram
screen refresh rate clamped to 60FPS, unchangeable.
--------
MPC-HC 1.6.2.4902
LAVFilters 1.51.0 (software decode mode)
MadVR 0.82.5

i'm betting its the clamped screen refresh rate, but anyway anyone know solutions?

also kind of off topic but... is there any barebone player that supports both LAV and MadVR other than MPC out there? i'm kinda searching for a really light one.

[sneaker_ger]

Try madVR in fullscreen exclusive mode (and direct subsequent questions to the madVR thread).

[chros]

I have a question about the latest file association.
I disabled mkv format in the Lav Splitter config, so I can use Haali's media splitter. Then I installed the latest Lav package (exe file), then I tried to reenable mkv in the Splitter config, but always Haali's splitter is used.
If I "block" Haali Splitter in MPC-HC external filters section, then Lav Splitter is used but another "File Source (Async.)" filter is in the Filters ...
Is it normal??? (I don't remember if I've ever seen it ...)

Thanks

[nevcairiel]

If you disable it in the installer, it will not register the source filter for the .mkv extension, and the config dialog cannot do these changes. In that case, the File Source filter will read the file, and LAV Splitter will demux it, nothing bad about that setup either.

[chros]

If you disable it in the installer, it will not register the source filter for the .mkv extension, and the config dialog cannot do these changes. In that case, the File Source filter will read the file, and LAV Splitter will demux it, nothing bad about that setup either.
Thanks for your quick explanation, I wouldn't think if it's the problem! Thanks!

[mindz]

My question is about the new mixing option.

I have 4 speakers, no sub and no center channel. I like the sound Windows gives me when i configure my speaker setup in the windows mixer to 7.1, it gives more room to the sound as opposed to the other options (Stereo, Quadraphonic and 5.1). Is this what the Mixing in LAV does aswell? Is the mixing in LAV only suitable when using wasapi and bypassing the windows mixer - because then we get LAV and then Windows to mix the channels? Im clueless on this subject :).

Logical thinking tells me mixing is mixing 2 channels (stereo) in to 7.1 sound and sending it to speakers (4 in my case), correct?

Final question, Windows automatically upsamples everything that passes the mixer. Ive put the format to 24 bit, 96000Khz(wasapi was better in this regard) - is this degrading the sound quality, or stays it the same? Its just a lazy thing because the DTS-HD MA gets downsampled to 16 bit 48000 Khz with windows default.

[SassBot]

Final question, Windows automatically upsamples everything that passes the mixer. Ive put the format to 24 bit, 96000Khz(wasapi was better in this regard) - is this degrading the sound quality, or stays it the same? Its just a lazy thing because the DTS-HD MA gets downsampled to 16 bit 48000 Khz with windows default.

Sure it's degrading the quality. Whether or not you can actually hear the difference (especially after you take into account that your speakers have a far larger effect on the audio output quality) is a completely different matter.

[DragonQ]

The only way to not degrade the quality is to use ASIO/WASAPI output in exclusive mode, which bypasses the Windows Mixer altogether and outputs in the native format of whatever audio stream you want to play. This means you can only have one audio source at a time though, which'd normally be your media player so you can't have any Windows sounds.

Again though, it's unlikely you'll hear any difference when Windows resamples audio. There's even a hotfix for Windows 7 x64 SP1 that improves the algorithm used for resampling audio:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2653312

According to that article, the default algorithm is linear interpolation. :eek:

[e-t172]

There's even a hotfix for Windows 7 x64 SP1 that improves the algorithm used for resampling audio:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2653312

According to that article, the default algorithm is linear interpolation. :eek:

Please check your facts:

The audio file sounds distorted when you play it on any audio record, capture, or encoder application if the following conditions are true:

The application uses the Multimedia Extensions (MME) Wave I/O API.

There are very few applications which still use MME. Applications related to video or audio playback switched to DirectSound ages ago.

One explanation for this bug could be that MME was still using some resampler from the old days instead of just passing down the audio to WASAPI for resampling in the new Windows audio engine.

[Andy o]

That doesn't apply for DirectSound though:
The application uses the Multimedia Extensions (MME) Wave I/O API.That's the reason for most people this has gone unnoticed for all this time.

The whole issue of "quality degradation" by resampling, has been beaten to death really. While technically correct if you mean absolute quality, if you mean audible quality, which is what matters, it's usually not degraded. Only way is to do a double blind test, but who has time for that. One thing to be suspicious regarding these matters is when people swear so-and-so is "like night and day" difference (especially in reference to upsampling audiophile equipment) or vague, meaningless qualifications such as the classic "like lifting a veil", or the infamous "danceable" sound.

edit: oops e-t172 beat me to it.

[Andy o]

My question is about the new mixing option.

I have 4 speakers, no sub and no center channel. I like the sound Windows gives me when i configure my speaker setup in the windows mixer to 7.1, it gives more room to the sound as opposed to the other options (Stereo, Quadraphonic and 5.1).
How do you have your speakers wired, and how have you set your receiver (which receiver, # of speakers set in receiver, etc.). Typically, this should give you lost channels, like the center and LFE with 5.1 content, and two additional ones with 7.1 content. You would use a mixer like LAV mixer to mix these channels into 4 channels. Basically what the Windows mixer would do if you set it to quadraphonic. I'm guessing you're using an ATI/AMD HDMI device, which is just fine, but with an NV device for instance which last time I checked doesn't offer quadraphonic (maybe that's changed by now), you would need a mixer between the player and Windows. The mixer is usually used for downmixing. It can be used for upmixing, but you'd usually apply apply some algorithm for expansion first, such as Dolby Pro Logic II(x), but those usually have as target speaker setups like 5.1 or 7.1, or even 9.1 with DPLIIz.

BTW, your receiver can also do the downmixing, and most probably is doing it if you're not getting lost channels.

Is this what the Mixing in LAV does aswell? Is the mixing in LAV only suitable when using wasapi and bypassing the windows mixer - because then we get LAV and then Windows to mix the channels? Im clueless on this subject :).You can use the mixing in LAV whenever you want. The difference that it can be used with WASAPI exclusive is an advantage, also that it offers more control over how you want to mix the sound. But again, its usual use is with downmixing, i.e. you have fewer speakers than the number of channels of your content, which is actually your case for most modern movies.

Logical thinking tells me mixing is mixing 2 channels (stereo) in to 7.1 sound and sending it to speakers (4 in my case), correct?Usually it's the opposite (more->fewer).

Final question, Windows automatically upsamples everything that passes the mixer. Ive put the format to 24 bit, 96000Khz(wasapi was better in this regard) - is this degrading the sound quality, or stays it the same? Its just a lazy thing because the DTS-HD MA gets downsampled to 16 bit 48000 Khz with windows default.
Read previous posts for the "degradation" question. DTS-HD MA doesn't get downsampled to 16/48 if you are using LAV filters with the Arcsoft dll for DTS-HD decoding.

[dansrfe]

How will 3D decoding work with respect to LAV Video Decoder? Also how will madVR handle it?

[nevcairiel]

Nev, I have an MKV (http://uploading.com/files/get/9636f83m/1.mkv) (350MB) that has no picture after 26.04 and is detected as being that long by LAV splitter (seekbar hits the end at 26.04 and file keeps playing till 26.56) Mediainfo and MPC MKV source detect it as 26.56.

I created a Ticket for this on the issue tracker, so i don't forget to look into it when i work on the next push.

http://code.google.com/p/lavfilters/issues/detail?id=250

How will 3D decoding work with respect to LAV Video Decoder? Also how will madVR handle it?

If 3D decoding is ever supported, it'll most likely either end up being output as SBS video, or in a new format that has yet to be defined which the renderer needs to support then.

[CruNcher]

Driver (2792 beta) is broken with H264 playback.

would it be enough to replace the beta Media SDK .dll with the older one (official driver, or just put the older into the lav splitter dir instead directly) to get it back working or is it a deeper issue ;) ?

[kalston]

Please check your facts:



There are very few applications which still use MME. Applications related to video or audio playback switched to DirectSound ages ago.

One explanation for this bug could be that MME was still using some resampler from the old days instead of just passing down the audio to WASAPI for resampling in the new Windows audio engine.

Actually the resampling issue was easily noticeable (by just opening up a browser and playing a Youtube vid for example). However it was mostly high frequencies that were butchered by this bug so not many people noticed.

How did I find out about this myself? Simply because according to audio files that I played in my browsers (not just youtube ones) I could hear extremely well up to 22khz.
Yeah, downloading those files and listening to them through ASIO (or changing the sampling rate in the windows audio settings) I, of course, couldn't hear past 19khz. The lowest frequencies also sounded horribly wrong but it was only noticeable with great audio gear.

[SassBot]

Actually the resampling issue was easily noticeable (by just opening up a browser and playing a Youtube vid for example). However it was mostly high frequencies that were butchered by this bug so not many people noticed.

How did I find out about this myself? Simply because according to audio files that I played in my browsers (not just youtube ones) I could hear extremely well up to 22khz.
Yeah, downloading those files and listening to them through ASIO (or changing the sampling rate in the windows audio settings) I, of course, couldn't hear past 19khz. The lowest frequencies also sounded horribly wrong but it was only noticeable with great audio gear.

It's highly doubtful it was doing that because of that bug since neither any current version of Flash player nor any browser HTML5 video player uses MME.

[kalston]

And yet it was that and the hotfix (or manually changing the sampling rate to avoid resampling) fixed it. It's clearly resampling artefacts that I was hearing. I can reproduce it 100% on my machine.

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=86676

http://www.head-fi.org/t/590632/poll-can-you-hear-sound-over-20khz those files on the first post are where I first spotted the issue. With the sampling rate at 48khz in Windows and without the hotfix I can clearly hear nasty things going on on the 22khz file.

[SassBot]

And yet it was that and the hotfix (or manually changing the sampling rate to avoid resampling) fixed it.

Most likely the latter since, again, neither Flash player nor any HTML5 video player (whichever was being used to play the youtube video) uses MME.

It's clearly resampling artefacts that I was hearing. I can reproduce it 100% on my machine.

I'm sure it was, but it had nothing to do with MME.

[kalston]

Most likely the latter since, again, neither Flash player nor any HTML5 video player (whichever was being used to play the youtube video) uses MME.


Then you didn't understand me clearly: by keeping my settings and ONLY applying the hotfix, the issue is resolved. By NOT applying the hotfix and keeping my settings, the issue remains unless I change the sampling rate setting.