LAV Filters - DirectShow Media Splitter and Decoders

[Kinjal]

nevcairiel
I found the spot where Light Alloy failed to open files when LAV 0.60 is used.

BeginEnumFilters(m_pGB, pEF, pBF);
{
if (CComQIPtr<IPropertyBag> pPB = pBF) {
CComVariant var;
m_logger->LOG_INFO(_T("IPropertyBag found, reading ROTATION data..."));
if (SUCCEEDED(pPB->Read(CComBSTR(_T("ROTATION")), &var, NULL))) { <--- here.

If I comment this line, LAV works fine. Why it is fails - I didn't figured out yet... doesn't work for ones, but work fine for others. And no problem with LAV 0.59.

[nevcairiel]

0.59 didn't have IPropertyBag yet. :)

I'm slightly confused by your code though.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa768197(v=vs.85).aspx

The Read method takes a LPCOLESTR, which is a "const WCHAR*", and not a BSTR. This may cause the issues here.

[wanezhiling]

http://files.1f0.de/tmp/LAVSplitter-e53b442.zip
http://files.1f0.de/tmp/LAVSplitter-273b52e.zip

http://i1.tietuku.com/raljyymxr.png
http://i1.tietuku.com/79qfjvdb3.png
Works fine with both :o
Hmmm... which change led to this issue.. I have no idea now..


By the way, still works in other players for you, doesn't it?

Yes, works in mpc-be/mpc-hc/potplayer etc.

[zallen]

0.60 appeared on off.page for download. LAV Splitter 0.60 does`t connect for Light Alloy 4.7.7 .
LAV Audio 0.60 connect but on Hi10P does`t working without LA int. audio switcher, nevertheless it worked in 59.1 .

:devil:

[Kinjal]

nevcairiel
>The Read method takes a LPCOLESTR, which is a "const WCHAR*", and not a BSTR. This may cause the issues here.
Nope. Problem was laying in other spot...
CComVariable var; => CComVariable var(""); -- and issue has been fixed. :) At least for me.

[nevcairiel]

Weird. Oh well. As long as it works, i guess!

[nevcairiel]

http://i1.tietuku.com/raljyymxr.png
http://i1.tietuku.com/79qfjvdb3.png
Works fine with both :o
Hmmm... which change led to this issue.. I have no idea now..

Can you try this version?
http://files.1f0.de/tmp/LAVSplitter-cc752b5.zip

I added some safety checks to try to fix it on my end for unfixed versions of LightAlloy as well.

[wanezhiling]

Can you try this version?
http://files.1f0.de/tmp/LAVSplitter-cc752b5.zip

I added some safety checks to try to fix it on my end for unfixed versions of LightAlloy as well.

Works now! :D

http://i1.tietuku.com/qsqr5ak1p.png

[zallen]

nevcairiel rebuild lav splitter and Vortex at the same time rebuild Light Alloy. Now works lav filters first version. :)

http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/3578/gee5.jpg (http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/1534/af4e.jpg)

[PetitDragon]

Nine Muse "works" for me too.:D

[DragonQ]

If you can give me a sample file where this is rather obvious, i could have a look why its happening, and possibly fix it.

Here's a sample. (http://www.aotplaza.com/Files/HTPC/Samples/Edit%20Weirdness%20-%20Sample%20(1080i).mkv) At the edit boundary (00:08) you can see the frame freeze and then the channel logo and graphics at the top half of the screen flash on and off for a bit before going back to normal when using LAV Splitter/Video/Audio in MPC-HC. The effect seems a bit different depending on whether I'm using EVR-CP or MadVR but it's there with both.

When playing the file in MediaPortal (using MediaPortal's TSReader & LAV Video/Audio), the edit is clean.

EDIT: Using DXVA2 Native by the way but I don't think it matters.

[zallen]

Can you try this version?
http://files.1f0.de/tmp/LAVSplitter-cc752b5.zip

LAV Splitter updated without problems clings to LA 4.7.7 RC

[nevcairiel]

Here's a sample. (http://www.aotplaza.com/Files/HTPC/Samples/Edit%20Weirdness%20-%20Sample%20(1080i).mkv) At the edit boundary (00:08) you can see the frame freeze and then the channel logo and graphics at the top half of the screen flash on and off for a bit before going back to normal when using LAV Splitter/Video/Audio in MPC-HC.

I can tell you why this happens (because there is no IDR frame to seperate the two scenes, so they get mixed up), but i can't fix it, because you muxed it into a MKV. TS files get a bit of special handling, where it might be able to detect it. MKVs, not so much.

[DragonQ]

I can tell you why this happens (because there is no IDR frame to seperate the two scenes, so they get mixed up), but i can't fix it, because you muxed it into a MKV. TS files get a bit of special handling, where it might be able to detect it. MKVs, not so much.
I remux most recordings to MKV mainly to save space, except for when it causes problems (A/V synch being out or duration being wrong being the two most common ones).

It must be possible to fix because it works using other software, but are you saying that there's no way to fix it in LAV because of how it's coded? MediaPortal is open source; perhaps it's possible to figure out how that handles it and why it works? Could it be something to do with the player rather than splitter/codecs?

[nevcairiel]

You said their TS reader makes it work, a TS reader can read MKV files? :p

TS files have a bit more information specific to broadcast, which is quite possibly lost when remuxing.
The MKV is read 1:1 as it was encoded, so if it doesn't play properly, its obviously muxed wrong. MKVs don't carry any metadata to signal if there was a stream break, while TS files may.

So no, I can't fix it if its in a MKV.

[DragonQ]

You said their TS reader makes it work, a TS reader can read MKV files? :p

TS files have a bit more information specific to broadcast, which is quite possibly lost when remuxing.
The MKV is read 1:1 as it was encoded, so if it doesn't play properly, its obviously muxed wrong. MKVs don't carry any metadata to signal if there was a stream break, while TS files may.

So no, I can't fix it if its in a MKV.
The "MediaPortal File Reader" uses a file called TSReader.ax, so I assumed it just read all files in MediaPortal. After doing some digging it looks like it's actually using LAV Splitter...in which case, LAV Splitter does seem to handle the edit fine in that application. Perhaps it's just MPC-HC that handles it incorrectly?

[nevcairiel]

If i use EVR-CP in MPC-HC, I also don't really see the effect. It freezes briefly, but if you don't know that its there, you wouldn't notice.
With normal EVR, you see the flashing effect.

[DragonQ]

If i use EVR-CP in MPC-HC, I also don't really see the effect. It freezes briefly, but if you don't know that its there, you wouldn't notice.
With normal EVR, you see the flashing effect.
Agreed but this happens to be a sample where barely anything changes in the video when the cut happens. The effect can be majorly obvious with other material.

Would you agree that the problem is worst with MadVR?

[romulous]

Hi Nev,

Thanks for the new version.

LAV Filters 0.60

- Additional metadata from the source file is exported through IPropertyBag (including "ROTATION" for video orientation information)



Does this mean that the video will be decoded in the correct orientation, or is support still required in the renderer (ie we're still waiting on madshi)?

Thanks!

[nevcairiel]

All it does is allow the player to read the metadata, anything else is up to the player.

[Reino]

LAV Splitter
- Support for reading embedded Cue Sheets from audio files as chaptersThanks a lot for this!
But could you please put the TRACK <ID> in front of <TITLE>? Like this: 01. Track-title, 02. Track-title, etc.

Furthermore, navigating the cue-entries goes really smooth for FLAC and APE, but not for WV, TAK and MKA. It's not as bad as MPC-BE's TAK Source Filter initially used to be, but the audio is still off. For a sample see PM from 5 sept 2013.

[nevcairiel]

Many of the sample files I had included a number in their title, and it would look rather ugly if the ID is prepended, which is why I didn't do it. But I'm open to change that, i guess. On the other hand, do normal chapters get their index added?

Regarding seeking, FFmpeg is not designed for perfect seeking in files without timestamps. I won't be able to fix that without completely re-designing how such files are handled. So its not going to happen anytime soon.

[Sebastiii]

Thanks for new version :)

[Reino]

Many of the sample files I had included a number in their title... On the other hand, do normal chapters get their index added?Imo you should treat mkv-chapters and cue-sheet entries differently.
I take it you mean all samples, because TRACK ## is an essential command in a cue-sheet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cue_sheet_%28computing%29#Essential_commands). This is what I suggested earlier in the MPC-BE thread:
Next,... at the moment "PERFORMER" (Artist) is always shown (for WavPack and FLAC as well) in the Navigate-menu as; 01. Artist-1 - Audiotrack_Titel-1. For...
REM GENRE Classical
PERFORMER "Various Artists"
TITLE "Album_name"
FILE "Sample.tak" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Audiotrack_Title-1"
PERFORMER "Artist-1"
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE "Audiotrack_Title-2"
PERFORMER "Artist-2"
INDEX 01 09:13:38
TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE "Audiotrack_Title-3"
PERFORMER "Artist-3"
INDEX 01 15:16:38...that's perfectly fine, but for most cases...
REM GENRE Rock
PERFORMER "Artist-X"
TITLE "Album-Y"
FILE "Sample.tak" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Audiotrack_Title-1"
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE "Audiotrack_Title-2"
INDEX 01 01:24:03
TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE "Audiotrack_Title-3"
INDEX 01 06:16:73...where there's only 1 artist, I'd say omit "PERFORMER"; 01. Audiotrack_Titel-1.
So, if TRACK PERFORMER "" exists, Navigate-menu entry: 01. <PERFORMER> - <TITLE>, else 01. <TITLE>.What do you say?
LAV Source being able to read cover-art would be awsome too btw! :p

Regarding seeking, FFmpeg is not designed for perfect seeking in files without timestamps.Why reinvent the wheel when MPC-BE devs have already done that? With their source filter, at least with WV and TAK, it's all smooth.

I just made a donation btw, because I really appreciate all your time and work you put into this project! Thanks a lot!

[romulous]

Hi nev,

I don't make use of the bitstreaming feature of LAV, but I understand from someone that does bitstream their audio that unlike AC3 Filter, LAV does not support automatic fallback to non-bitstreaming if bitstreaming is not supported by the audio renderer (that is, LAV Audio does not work if bitstream is enabled but the audio renderer does not support it). Is this something that could be added to LAV, to make it behave like AC3 Filter? Or is there a reason why LAV does not already do this?

Regards,

romulous

[nevcairiel]

I take it you mean all samples, because TRACK ## is an essential command in a cue-sheet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cue_sheet_%28computing%29#Essential_commands). This is what I suggested earlier in the MPC-BE thread:
What do you say?

I suppose i can change it to do it that way. I don't care much myself, I don't play music with LAV.


LAV Source being able to read cover-art would be awsome too btw! :p

It can actually read the cover art, but it doesn't tell anyone about it. Should it make it a fake video stream, or export through some metadata? I don't know.

LAV does not support automatic fallback to non-bitstreaming if bitstreaming is not supported by the audio renderer (that is, LAV Audio does not work if bitstream is enabled but the audio renderer does not support it).

I tried to do that at some point in the past, but it failed rather weirdly with some players, so i moved trying again to the distant future.
The user should know if his sound system can do bitstreaming and only turn it on when he can use it, tbh. :)

[romulous]

Ok, thanks for the answer nev.

romulous

[DarkSpace]

Thanks for the new version!

However, reading chapters from FLAC files with embedded CUE sheets doesn't appear to work any different than it did before: I get the chapters just fine, but they aren't named, and the CUE sheet does specify Titles. However, it seems to work for others, e.g. CoRoNe is even able to propose a different naming scheme. So, do I just create my FLACs the wrong way (flac.exe -8 --cuesheet "Cuesheet.cue" "infile.wav" -o "outfile.flac") or do you need a sample?
If I'm creating the files the wrong way, what is the correct way to create them?

[sebas_led]

It can actually read the cover art, but it doesn't tell anyone about it. Should it make it a fake video stream, or export through some metadata? I don't know.

Yes, a 'fake' video will be good to have. With options to define fps, size, and space color if possible :)

[nevcairiel]

Thanks for the new version!

However, reading chapters from FLAC files with embedded CUE sheets doesn't appear to work any different than it did before: I get the chapters just fine, but they aren't named, and the CUE sheet does specify Titles. However, it seems to work for others, e.g. CoRoNe is even able to propose a different naming scheme. So, do I just create my FLACs the wrong way (flac.exe -8 --cuesheet "Cuesheet.cue" "infile.wav" -o "outfile.flac") or do you need a sample?
If I'm creating the files the wrong way, what is the correct way to create them?

This only works on files which have a normal cuesheet in a "CUESHEET" metadata. I don't know how FLAC stores them, but it may be different if you create them like that.
I have a few FLAC files where it works, though.

Yes, a 'fake' video will be good to have. With options to define fps, size, and space color if possible :)

Its compressed images, they have a fixed size and codec, can't change that.

[DarkSpace]

This only works on files which have a normal cuesheet in a "CUESHEET" metadata. I don't know how FLAC stores them, but it may be different if you create them like that.
I have a few FLAC files where it works, though.
Wow, that was rather fast!
Might a sample file help? (How much do you need for a sample? Do you need the entire file, or would e.g. 10 Minutes be enough?)

[sebas_led]

Its compressed images, they have a fixed size and codec, can't change that.

You're right. I was thinking on .MP3, .OGG and .FLAC so the player can show the 'cover art' as a video.

[nevcairiel]

Wow, that was rather fast!
Might a sample file help? (How much do you need for a sample? Do you need the entire file, or would e.g. 10 Minutes be enough?)

Small sample may help, that information is usually in the file header, so it can be short-ish.

[DarkSpace]

Thanks. I prepared a small sample here (http://www.sendspace.com/file/33mhau). If you need the cuesheet as well, just tell me, please.

[nevcairiel]

Thanks. I prepared a small sample here (http://www.sendspace.com/file/33mhau). If you need the cuesheet as well, just tell me, please.

Turns out the "native" FLAC CUE SHEET doesn't have any string information. Its just the time with an optional identifier number.

See also here:
http://xiph.org/flac/faq.html#general__no_cuesheet_tags

You can however store "VORBIS COMMENT" metadata in FLAC, and if you store one with the key "CUESHEET" and the full cue sheet as text value, LAV will parse it. No idea how to create such files though.

[nevcairiel]

LAV Filters 0.60.1

LAV Splitter
- Fixed a crash when opening MPEG-2 files with Stereo3D Metadata
- Improved the format of the chapter names created from embedded cue sheets
- Fixed an incompatibility in the IPropertyBag metadata interface with a few players


Download: Installer (both x86/x64) (http://files.1f0.de/lavf/LAVFilters-0.60.1.exe) -- Zips: 32-bit (http://files.1f0.de/lavf/LAVFilters-0.60.1.zip) & 64-bit (http://files.1f0.de/lavf/LAVFilters-0.60.1-x64.zip)

In case you missed the release of LAV Filters 0.60, the release notes are here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1661777#post1661777).

This version just fixes a few small issues and adds one improvement.
Nothing to get overly excited about.

Other than those changes in this version, 0.60 has been relatively smooth so far, no huge complaints or crashes, despite my cleanup efforts.

Have fun with this version!

[DarkSpace]

Turns out the "native" FLAC CUE SHEET doesn't have any string information. Its just the time with an optional identifier number.

See also here:
http://xiph.org/flac/faq.html#general__no_cuesheet_tags

You can however store "VORBIS COMMENT" metadata in FLAC, and if you store one with the key "CUESHEET" and the full cue sheet as text value, LAV will parse it. No idea how to create such files though.
Thanks for looking into this. That means I Did It Wrong(tm), and I'll have to find out how to do it correctly.

Edit: Thanks to your link (it didn't even occur to me that something other than the full cuesheet might be stored in the flac file, but I only read the command line switches' documentation), I found a starting point and now it works. Great work!

[Reino]

Adding cuesheet to FLAC's own cuesheet metadata block:
flac.exe --cuesheet="image.cue"
metaflac.exe --import-cuesheet-from="image.cue"

Adding cuesheet as tag:
foobar2000
Mp3Tag
metaflac.exe --set-tag-from-file="CUESHEET=image.cue"


Thanks for the quick chapter-name-format-improvement! Looks a lot better.
It can actually read the cover art, but it doesn't tell anyone about it. Should it make it a fake video stream, or export through some metadata? I don't know.I don't know how MPC-BE devs did it, but without a video decoder or even a video renderer they managed to make it show cover-art.

I take it MPC-BE's TAK Source Filter, just like yours, is based on ffmpeg's revers-engineered version. Can't you 'borrow' their code for accurate time-seeking?

[DarkSpace]

Adding cuesheet to FLAC's own cuesheet metadata block:
flac.exe --cuesheet="image.cue"
metaflac.exe --import-cuesheet-from="image.cue"

Adding cuesheet as tag:
foobar2000
Mp3Tag
metaflac.exe --set-tag-from-file="CUESHEET=image.cue"
Thank you, that makes things a lot easier! So far, I inserted the cuesheet tag into the flac files after creation using mp3tag, but your way enables me to add them during creation also:
flac.exe --tag-from-file="CUESHEET"="image.cue"
Also, now that I do see the filenames ;) I agree with you that adding the track number in front of the title seems like a good idea.
Thanks for the help nev and CoRoNe!

(I'm still going to specify --cuesheet also, because the way I understand it, that option also sets seekpoints at the chapter boundaries.)

[Aleksoid1978]

I tried to do that at some point in the past, but it failed rather weirdly with some players, so i moved trying again to the distant future.
The user should know if his sound system can do bitstreaming and only turn it on when he can use it, tbh. :)

I do it in MPC-BE's Audio Decoder. I do not know about some players - but it's work with MPC-BE/MPC-HC.
This is very handy indeed :)

P.S. All you need - to find in the graph AudioRenderer, that's connect after LAV Audio Decoder, even through intermediate filters.

[bin_ch]

Actually it will if you specify favorite subtitle languages. If you don't specify sub languages then it indeed won't.
Hi,

Is this statement still supposed to stand true with recent versions?
It seems some change made between 0.58.2 and 0.59 changed this behavior.
Up to 0.58.2, the splitter works as described above, but starting with 0.59, the first subtitle track in an .mkv file gets selected even if none of them are flagged as default nor forced, and there are no preferred languages specified. Subtitle Selection Mode is set to Default.
I am wondering is this change intentional.

[PPPPark]

HI~

I've encountered jerky playback on almost all RealMedia files with latest 0.60.1 build.

PS: works fine with 0.59.

[Qotscha]

The user should know if his sound system can do bitstreaming and only turn it on when he can use it, tbh. :)

This is problematic if audio output that supports bitstreaming is used only occasionally. For example, if you watch some videos on your monitor using desktop speakers but watch movies with your big screen home theater system using bitstreaming to AV receiver.

[Aleksoid1978]

Hi nevcairiel
LAV Video(software mode) + MPC-BE's MPEGSplitter - gray screen after seeking on this sample http://aleksoid.voserver.net/Sample/H264/L5.2/jerky_playback_Level_5.2.ts
DXVA mode work fine.

Here MPC-BE - http://aleksoid.voserver.net/MPC-BE/mpc-be.exe_4262.7z

[Andy o]

ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 6.0.1.123 released.

dtsdecoderdll.dll v1.1.0.9 !!! :D

Old news, but since I don't think anybody said it, this one still doesn't fix 6.0 streams. The rear channel doesn't play. Which means that if you ever run into a DTS-HD 6.0 track, you're probably better off using the dca decoder and getting the ES 6.0 core track.

[DragonQ]

So what are the differences, if any? I assume there's no official changelog, unless the changelog for TMT itself gives us a clue?

Also, is the only reason that DTS-HD isn't decodable via ffmpeg yet just because it hasn't been "figured out", or are there other legal reasons? I'm sure there's plenty of codecs included in ffmpeg that require a licence but no-one enforces it so it doesn't matter.

[smallflightlessbird]

This may not be the place for such a simple question, but I'm trying to install the latest LAV update, and I can't figure out whether I've got the x64 or the x86 version installed already. Is there a way to determine that, before I proceed? Thanks for your help.

[DragonQ]

This may not be the place for such a simple question, but I'm trying to install the latest LAV update, and I can't figure out whether I've got the x64 or the x86 version installed already. Is there a way to determine that, before I proceed? Thanks for your help.
If you used the installer you should have both. No reason not to have both.

[DragonQ]

Can anyone confirm whether they get audible clicks and pops in this sample (http://www.aotplaza.com/Files/HTPC/Samples/DTS-HD%20MA%20Pops%20-%20Sample.mkv) when using dtsdecoderdll please? It's 7.1 DTS-HD MA and I get clicks and pops all over the place when using v1.1.0.8 or v1.1.0.9 of the dll with LAV Audio 0.60.1 (no matter whether I have mixing enabled or not). Works fine using the in-built DTS decoder. The most obvious glitch is dead centre at 00:02.

Apologies for the large file size.

[P.J]

My guess is some of the optimizations for ProRes are only available on 64-bit, which accounts for such a huge difference.

Here's Quicktime 7 x86 player that uses the same resource like LAV x64:

http://thumbnails109.imagebam.com/30221/473f2f302204746.jpg (http://www.imagebam.com/image/473f2f302204746)

But LAV x86 uses twice more CPU usage ~65% :confused: