LAV Filters - DirectShow Media Splitter and Decoders

[sneaker_ger]

Is there a way to set the seeking behavior to the ways Gabest and Haali work? Right now it will only seek to the nearest preceding keyframe and not to arbitrary frames (using Matroska). I didn't find any option to change this.

[nevcairiel]

Why would you want to seek to a non-keyframe? You can't decode them properly anyway.

[SamuriHL]

Nev, you were right. I fixed my subtitle issue by changing the default setting. Man I am SO happy with this setup right now! Once title changing is in there I'm very likely to drop my commercial players and just use this now. WELL DONE!

[CruNcher]

I have to say Amazing .ts .m2ts splitter 98% of test clips play even the ones that MPC-HC Splitter chokes on or Haalis Crash ;)
The Hillary Sample works flawless in switching between the different PIDs though only with Cyberlinks Demuxer 2.0 (the switching is also super fast (instant), MPC-HC Splitter seems to need to get to the next Keyframe first before it switches). Also the DXVA to YUY2 switching for 4:2:2 Mpeg-2 Studio Profile works flawless so supporting decoder use Software Decoding instead of DXVA when getting MEDIASUBTYPE_YUY2 instead of some splitter MEDIASUBTYPE_MPEG2 great :)

[sneaker_ger]

Why would you want to seek to a non-keyframe? You can't decode them properly anyway.

Works just fine with Gabest and Haali. The decoder gets all the frames it needs to decode the desired frame. Of course seeking can take longer in case the GOP is really long.

[nevcairiel]

As you said, it actually seeks to the previous I-Frame. By doing this, all timestamps will actually be negative until the desired timestamp is reached. Negative timestamps in DirectShow indicate "Preroll", which should not be shown, but is required to init the decoder.

The alternative would be to simply disable this and seek to any frame directly, not looking for keyframes, GOPs and whatnot. This would not have any benefit to me, as it would only result in broken playback until the next I-Frame. I don't see the point offering this option.

I also don't really care what others do. I do what i think is right, and works. :)

[sneaker_ger]

I don't know the technical details, although I understand that the decoder needs the previous frames in case I'm not seeking to an I-Frame. But this works just fine using Haali and Gabest. If I seek to the end of a 10 second GOP with Haali, seeking might take a fraction of a second on my quad core. With your splitter I have to watch the entire GOP from start. This also means that you can't seek to chapter starts exactly if they don't start on an I-Frame (for whatever reason).

[CruNcher]

All the samples that have this *.ts VC-1 setup in order work too http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1489582&postcount=16791
and all *.ts ADTS AAC playback flawless with lav audio also something not so common currently :)

[nevcairiel]

I don't know the technical details, although I understand that the decoder needs the previous frames in case I'm not seeking to an I-Frame. But this works just fine using Haali and Gabest. If I seek to the end of a 10 second GOP with Haali, seeking might take a fraction of a second on my quad core. With your splitter I have to watch the entire GOP from start. This also means that you can't seek to chapter starts exactly if they don't start on an I-Frame (for whatever reason).


I have looked over the Gabest MPEG-TS splitter numerous times, and it really doesn't do anything special, it just seeks to the time requested.
If you really insist, i can add an option to allow frame accurate seeks instead of fast/fluid seeks, but i don't think its what most people want.

All the samples that have this VC-1 setup in order work too http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1489582&postcount=16791

You know, its much more interesting to know what does not work, so it can be improved upon.

[CruNcher]

I have looked over the Gabest MPEG-TS splitter numerous times, and it really doesn't do anything special, it just seeks to the time requested.
If you really insist, i can add an option to allow frame accurate seeks instead of fast/fluid seeks, but i don't think its what most people want.



You know, its much more interesting to know what does not work, so it can be improved upon.

hehe sample above i still look @ some audio issues with some hdpvr Haupauge Recorded streams (doesn't seem to be in sync) i upload those too :)
yep seems to be a issue other splitter work fine and keep it sync also that it goes out of sync with LAV CUVID seems to make it clear it's an valid issue (i mostly carefully check before i see something as a bug or a problem)

so here my problem samples are
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?4k8lluvvvkxvyuz <- Goes out of sync
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?3xjrymbaigi9mpl <- No Audio and Crash when entering Lav Audio Status display

also again both of V0lt samples which show issues not only in LAV Splitter
http://www.multiupload.com/PYBILYB30E <- Freezes
http://www.multiupload.com/MNHNZJKDOP <- Freezes

(all of them work flawless in Cyberlinks Demuxer 2.0 it has 100% success rate on all streams (yet to find a stream that doesn't work), also stream switching is instant for the Hilary sample with it)

http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/872/instantstreamswitch.png

Though it has the MEDIASUBTYPE_MPEG2 issue with DXVA and 4:2:2 streams i guess they dont care anyways about other streams they don't support and it would make no sense going to their support with that ;) :( (so currently you have to manually switch of DXVA for those streams :p)

Which btw is also a issue for LAV CUVID see LAV CUVID thread (trying to playback every Bitstream without checking if it would work @ all) ;)

[sneaker_ger]

I'd appreciate such an option, although I will continue to use Haali for mkv until you support fonts and file linking/ordered chapters. I'm kinda surprised I'm the only one asking because I remember people preferring MPC (or any DS player) over VLC because of the accurate seeking. I guess if you really integrate them into MPC-HC some day more people will ask for it.

One thing where Haali is superior:
You can enter a "combined" priority list for audio and subtitles. That way you can set the player to deactivate subs when there's an audio track with your mother tongue, but activate for a language that's unknown to you for example.

[robpdotcom]

I will continue to use Haali for mkv until you support fonts and file linking/ordered chapters.

I'm holding out for file linking/ordered chapters as well. I have far too much media that uses it to not be able to take advantage of it.

[clsid]

I would always vote for keeping the filters seperate, but in the past the MPC-HC team (especially Casimir) always blocked any attempts at splitting it. Apparently having one single .exe that does everything is somehow "better".

In any case, LAV Splitter is not designed to run "embedded", and i won't modify it to do so. Additionally its also not designed to use an embedded ffmpeg. So, yeah, unless the MPC-HC guys change their mind about this, nothing to see here.

I like the idea of simply having the filters in some directory. Although this requires some haxery for source filters, you can't simply figure out which formats they support like you can with a transform filter, so MPC-HC would have to know all the details about them. (Thats why source filters can't be used unregistered in MPC-HC right now)

Making it fully dynamic (like, drop in filter and it gets used) might not be 100% viable, but doing it at least for the "known" filters would work (original internal filters, LAV Filters, some other common filters)

You know, redesigning a key part of MPC-HC like this, could be easier to just write a new player and steal some stuff from MPC-HC. :P
I think the MPC-HC team can be persuaded when they realize the benefits this change would bring. Filters don't need to be registered, so portability is not an issue, which was the main argument for having a single exe.

The functionality will of course be limited to known source filters, so their capabilities are known, and adding new ones like LAVSplitter would be easy. Almost copy/paste work.

The only real new code that would be needed is to detect presence of the filter files. Plus some GUI changes to conditionally show the "internal" filters in the list. Both not very difficult either. Maybe use dropdown menus instead of checkboxes for the time that both old and new filters are included.

One issue that needs to be handled by any multi-format filter is the ability to override any format handling configurations. Meaning the internally loaded one accepts all formats it supports, while the registered filter uses its regular configuration. This is also doable, and already done by the current internal decoders.

[Kaotech]

Fixed in MPC-HC r3012

I didn't actually test it, but it should work now. You should be able to use the shortcuts to switch between audio and sub tracks.

The shortcut work fine, but the vidéo block when i change audio track.

Did you have an idea ? :o

http://i52.tinypic.com/2rgyiyx.jpg

[nightfly]

I have looked over the Gabest MPEG-TS splitter numerous times, and it really doesn't do anything special, it just seeks to the time requested.
If you really insist, i can add an option to allow frame accurate seeks instead of fast/fluid seeks, but i don't think its what most people want.


I concur. I want a simple fast and accurate seeking that retains lip sync. Gabest simply isn't able to do this - even on seemingly "problem free" test clips. LAV? no issue what-so-ever with any clip I've thrown at it.

Also, can I convince someone to post the latest filter for download somewhere? I haven't got the dev envr setup yet and am dieing to try the mpls support.

[nevcairiel]

The shortcut work fine, but the vidéo block when i change audio track.


What do you mean with "block"? Its normal that it'll freeze for a second when you switch track, thats just how the changing is done, but it should continue playing directly after.

[Matching_Mole]

Hi nevcairiel,

It seems that several people has compiled their own "pre-version" of the next release of your splitter, isn't it? If you need help to test it maybe you can post this "pre-version" and so several other people as me can help you to test the new BD features.

[Mercury_22]

Hi nevcairiel,

It seems that several people has compiled their own "pre-version" of the next release of your splitter, isn't it? If you need help to test it maybe you can post this "pre-version" and so several other people as me can help you to test the new BD features.

Here you are
Update Nevcairiel-LAVFSplitter-e1f31a5 ("http://www.multiupload.com/MELI8HGPYD)

[Matching_Mole]

Thanks Mercury_22!

[nevcairiel]

LAV DirectShow Filters 0.20

LAV Splitter
- Added first BluRay support (see Release Notes or README for more details)

LAV Audio
- Removed static jitter check which caused corruptions in some audio streams
- Improved error resilience - broken streams should now play in many more cases


Download: 32-bit (http://files.1f0.de/lavf/LAVFilters-0.20.zip) & 64-bit (http://files.1f0.de/lavf/LAVFilters-0.20-x64.zip)

Somehow the changelog seems so short, but the first point is quite massive, i suppose. Before i start, to use LAV Splitter for BluRays in MPC-HC, you need at least MPC-HC r2980, and turn the internal MPEG Splitter off. That said, here goes.

BluRay support.
There is currently two ways to play a BluRay using LAV Splitter.
1) Open the index.bdmv. This causes LAV Splitter to try to detect the main movie (longest title without loops or duplicate clips). On some collectors edition BluRays this might end up being a title with additional commentary in between (I have one of those, Terminator: Salvation). Sadly there is no way to detect the difference between titles.
2) Open a .mpls file. From the outside, you can't really know which .mpls file is which, unless you use some crafty little tool, like BDInfo or eac3to to figure out which .mpls is what. In any case, just open one, and the title represented by it will be played.

Selecting the title from within the player is up for the next feature release, but this can already fully replace the MPC-HC internal MPEG Splitter.

Seamless playback should be fully supported, and thanks to some more arcane test samples provided by Sebastiii, i was able to make it work in every case. If you have some Seamless BluRay that does not seem to work properly, well .. its not easy to figure out why, but maybe we can work it out.

Seeking on BluRays is currently sadly not as smooth as it is on normal file media, but thats on the list for future improvements.

Last but not least, i took some time today to improve the error resilience in the audio decoder, which should result in it playing samples that seemed broken before. It could however happen, that this introduces new bugs, so please report any regressions.

I also finally updated ffmpeg (yes, i'm sticking to ffmpeg, not libav), which should fix some bugs, improve performance, and all that.

Have fun, and lets hear those bug reports.

Edit:
I forgot to mention, this can only play back unencrypted discs. If you have an encrypted disc, you need to get AnyDVD HD or some other tool that can decrypt them before!

[SamuriHL]

Thanks, Nev! I've already got it built and will be testing it after work today. :) So far I've had lots of success with the pre-release code.

[Snowknight26]

Can you build a debug version of the filters? The splitter crashes MPC-HC when trying to open the Blu-ray "9"s index.bdmv.

No video stream is detected for this m2ts: http://stfcc.org/misc/aita.sample.m2ts
Crash with this m2ts: http://stfcc.org/misc/amergang.sample.m2ts

[SamuriHL]

Darn we just sent that one back to Netflix yesterday. I watched it with my wife on TMT5. That's a shame.

[Kaotech]

What do you mean with "block"? Its normal that it'll freeze for a second when you switch track, thats just how the changing is done, but it should continue playing directly after.

It's Ok, i've forgotten to register LAVAudio.ax

[nevcairiel]

Can you build a debug version of the 64-bit filters? The splitter crashes MPC-HC when trying to open the Blu-ray "9"s index.bdmv.

What module does it say it crashes in?
Does it crash with 32-bit? I usually don't test 64-bit much, i just assume it works. ;)

One thing i noticed on some BluRays, ffdshow likes to crash when there is subtitle data before the first video data.
If its crashing, first order of business, try other decoders. Second, try starting the m2ts file itself directly.

I also forgot to mention, this can only play unencrypted discs. I actually have no idea what happens when it hits a still encrypted disc.

[Snowknight26]

Crashes with both 32- and 64-bit versions. Faulting module is LAVSplitter.ax in each case. Also updated my post with more troublesome samples.

[nevcairiel]

LAVSplitter.ax. Also updated my post with more troublesome samples.

I fixed the crash issue, although the stream that caused the crash can probably not be played either way - at least the others work fine.

For the other file .. MediaInfo doesn't show any streams either. Thats a weird file...

Edit: nvm, i figured out where the streams are, how silly.

Thanks for the samples, both issues are fixed.

[CruNcher]

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?fhrjql6jn453dv5 <- Crashes MPC-HC right after load (seek some seconds) happens with 0.19/0.20

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/8493/crashafterload.png

[nevcairiel]

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?fhrjql6jn453dv5 <- Crashes MPC-HC right after load (seek some seconds) happens with 0.19/0.20


This is not a LAV Splitter issue. It also crashes with the MPC-HC internal Splitter.
The crash is actually because of the subtitles. Configure LAV Splitter to not select any subtitles by default (Subtitle selection Mode to "No Subtitles"), and that file plays just perfectly.
Seems to be a problem with the internal sub renderer.

Sadly ffdshow does not support dvbsubs, so we cannot test it against them for comparison.

[CruNcher]

I thought something like that as the crash happened when he began to talk and seeing the subtitle being default hehe ;)
http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1489996&postcount=1260

the first sample still goes out of sync
the audio plays and the crash is gone with the 2nd sample (it though goes out of sync as well) :)
For V0lts samples both freeze issues reside (though the canal hd sample now plays 1 frame before freezing audio continues for it)

so 1 (partial) out of 4 fixed :)

[jmone]

Great stuff on the BD support (cross post from the JR Media Center Forum): While I am away with work and can not test, I'm pretty excited about the direct MPLS support as you could in MC, import multiple MPLS from the same stored disc structure, eg the one for the Std Theatrical Release, One for the EE, One for Alternative ending etc depending on your preference. I guess you could also import one for each epesode etc for a disc with multipleTV Shows etc.

If the above is correct you could then just backup your BD collection in folder structures and import what MPLS you want. They will appear as individual titles in MC so from theaterview you can then commence playback of the correct title etc from the existing GUI.

Thanks
Nathan

[CruNcher]

http://stfcc.org/misc/aita.sample.m2ts <- hehe funny stream

Cyberlink = fails
Arcsoft = works
mplayer = works
vlc = fails
MPC-HC = works
Lav splitter = fails

[Snowknight26]

Another issue I've noticed is that some films (doesn't matter if it's a single M2TS file or multiple seamlessly-branched ones) go slowly out of sync. I think the desynchronization compounds as you seek more and more, but I've only had the audio be out by +-200ms so it's hard to say whether that's what's causing it.

Providing a large enough sample to reproduce this might be an issue too..

And finally, this sample causes all renderers (tested EVR, VMR9 renderless, etc) but EVR-CP to stutter/play at a half speed: http://stfcc.org/misc/bolt.sample.m2ts

http://stfcc.org/misc/aita.sample.m2ts <- hehe funny stream

Complain to the studios about their apparently superb authoring. :p
Oh and ironically, ffplay plays it fine.

[SamuriHL]

http://stfcc.org/misc/aita.sample.m2ts <- hehe funny stream

Cyberlink = fails
Arcsoft = works
mplayer = works
vlc = fails
MPC-HC = works
Lav splitter = fails

That's a messed up stream you got there! :D I just tried with the latest code from the repository on my laptop using ArcSoft decoder (DXVA) with EVR-CP....it really doesn't play nicely. :)

EDIT: If I play it on my main HTPC it plays perfect. MPC-HC 3015 MSVC2010(compiled by me), LAV Splitter (also compiled by me in MSVC2010), Cyberlink Video Decoder (HAM on an AMD 5870), and madVR. No issue at all.

EDIT2: I fixed the laptop. I had full floating point processing turned on in the EVR-CP renderer and it didn't like that very much. Turned it to half floating point and it's working nicely now.

[CruNcher]

Another issue I've noticed is that some films (doesn't matter if it's a single M2TS file or multiple seamlessly-branched ones) go slowly out of sync. I think the desynchronization compounds as you seek more and more, but I've only had the audio be out by +-200ms so it's hard to say whether that's what's causing it.

Providing a large enough sample to reproduce this might be an issue too..

And finally, this sample causes every all renderers (tested EVR, VMR9 renderless, etc) but EVR-CP to stutter/play at a half speed: http://stfcc.org/misc/bolt.sample.m2ts


Complain to the studios about their apparently superb authoring. :p
Oh and ironically, ffplay plays it fine.

That bolt sample works flawless here on VMR9 renderless XP Nvidia Forceware 270.51 G92 VP2 (Lav splitter 0.20)

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/5370/boltsampledxva.png

[Snowknight26]

My renderer properties window looks very similar to yours but it's clearly dropping more than half the frames. With EVR-CP and frame time correction off (yes, off), it plays at the less than half the framerate. With it on, EVR-CP is fine. I thought LAVSplitter had some auto detection going on for incorrect timestamps, but the real kicker is that this is H.264, not VC-1 (unless EVR-CP's frame time correction and LAVSplitte's timestamp correction are different things or I'm not fully understanding the matter). As soon as I set Haali Media Splitter to preferred and reopen the video, the issue disappears on all renderers.

When opening a video, the framerate is wrong for about half a second before the video is played at the correct framerate. When the issue occurs, it seems like the timing calculation going on forgets to kick in after half a second is up.

Edit: Confirmed in my VM with default MPC-HC settings. Only EVR-CP with frame time correction on plays the video properly.

[CruNcher]

ATI/AMD or Nvidia ?
and yeah you can only half trust that status information though the MPC-HC OSD you can trust :)

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/2844/boltsampledxvaosd.png

here is another problem sample

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?kvww3jetblg2120 <- No audio its latm

[Snowknight26]

ATI/AMD or Nvidia ?

AMD on my desktop, but I doubt it's relevant as it occured in a VM, too.

and yeah you can only half trust that status information though the MPC-HC OSD you can trust :)

If only regular EVR had the OSD..

But I digress. I don't want to go too off-topic so I'll wait and see what nevcairiel says.

[nevcairiel]

The problem is that some decoders, especially hardware based decoders or commercial decoders like Cyberlink/ArcSoft do timestamp fixing/package merging, and LAV Splitter does that too. Now, when its done twice, it can result in funny issues, like you see there.

Interesting fact: Its 100% fine in madVR, go switch already. =)
In a future version, i'll add an option to disable the stream processing in LAV Splitter (similar to the VC-1 option right now, just for all streams). This might cause issues with some of the weirder decoders, but overall it should work better with commercial and hardware decoders.
As a result, the output from LAV Splitter will pretty much match the output of the MPC-HC splitters, and rely on the codecs to do all the heavy lifting.
I will keep the VC-1 option separate, so it'll be like "Enable processing for VC-1" and "Enable processing for all other (video) streams". I don't think doing this kind of processing on audio streams actually hurts, and is actually required for some formats, like aac_latm.

I'll see about adding this in the next version.

I'm quite amazed by the lack of "real" bug reports. That timing thing is nothing new and has been around before, although it mostly manifests with m2ts files, so i guess now with BD support people notice it more often, eh.

In any case, i'll take a look at the other samples provided here and see what there is to be done, and then try to push out 0.21 with the bugfixes, before i start working on new stuff.

[Snowknight26]

Interesting fact: Its 100% fine in madVR, go switch already. =)
DXVA can be useful at times. :p
I'll see about adding this in the next version.

Glad to hear it.

On a darker note:

Audio stream switching on that bolt.sample.m2ts file causes visible corruption until the next I frame.

[nevcairiel]

Audio stream switching on that bolt.sample.m2ts file causes visible corruption until the next I frame.
I didn't want to seek back or ahead to the next I-Frame, and if you keep constantly switching audio, you're doing it wrong anyway. =)
Yes, its unfortunate, but it doesn't affect all movies, and i don't know from the top of my head how to fix it properly. Seeking in that situation would most likely cause alot of pain.

[Mercury_22]

@ nevcairiel since you complain of "the lack of "real" bug reports" here is one :) :
I have a index.bdmv which LAV can't play it at all = MPC-HC : "can't render the file " the BD is BBC's MADAGASCAR UK version
With the same settings and decoders (Arc...) LAV can play the m2ts files and MPC-HC internal splitters can play even the index.bdmv beside the m2ts files

P.S. If you need I can up the index.bdmv and mpls files

[nevcairiel]

Do other BDs work?

[Mercury_22]

Do other BDs work?

Yes This is the only one not working (so far :))

[adam777]

Thanks for 0.20, nevcairiel.
Just a small heads up - you link to 0.19 in the first post (changelog is for 0.20).

[nevcairiel]

Just a small heads up - you link to 0.19 in the first post
Fixed, thanks.

Yes This is the only one not working (so far :))

This one?
http://www.bbcshop.com/science+nature/madagascar-blu-ray/invt/bbcbd0136/

Too bad it doesn't seem to available on amazon.de yet, they only have the older BBC documentaries.
You wouldn't happen to have one of the older ones, and could test if maybe the error appears there as well?
(Wild China, South Pacific, Galapagos, Nature's Great Events)

Sadly only the bdmv and mpls files don't really help me much. I need to work on an easier way to do debug logging. I should focus on that some time soon.

[Mercury_22]

Fixed, thanks.



This one?
http://www.bbcshop.com/science+nature/madagascar-blu-ray/invt/bbcbd0136/

Too bad it doesn't seem to available on amazon.de yet, they only have the older BBC documentaries.

YES! That one and two more BBC's Adventures in Architecture DAN CRUICKSHANK & Beyoncé: I Am... Yours - An Intimate Performance at Wynn Las Vegas

EDIT Nature's Great Events & South Pacific are working the other two can't test them now I'll try later if you still want me to

Edit 2: Can't you replace the m2ts files with some random m2ts files if I send you the bdmv and mpls files without the m2ts files ?

[nevcairiel]

What happens if you try to open a .mpls file directly?

[Mercury_22]

What happens if you try to open a .mpls file directly?

Same problem! "cannot render the file " but working with MPC-HC's internal splitter

EDIT Galapagos it's working too

[Matching_Mole]

I have the same issue than Kaotech described : when I changed audio the video seems blocked. Clearly it is linked to Arcsoft Audio decoder.

I used a french BR with two French audio tracks, one in DTS HD and the other in regular DTS (the commentaries of the director). LAV Splitter choose by default the regular DTS track (by the way here maybe you can improve the behavior of you slitter and choose, as the MPC internal Splitter does, the "better track" format so here by default the DTS HD track). I changed it to DTS HD and I got a black screen so I seek in another part of the movies and the video play again correctly but with no more sound except if I choose back the regular DTS track.

If I use LAV Audio, this issue is not present so clearly it is due to Arcsoft Audio Decoder.