LAV Filters - DirectShow Media Splitter and Decoders

[arrgh]

Hi
after having posted these requests where they don't belong (madVR thread), I'm finally coming over here...:)

I have a rather weak HTPC but the machine is able to do everything I need, including recording simultaneously 2 payTV-HD-Sat-channels while playing back a HD-recording...

But it fails on playing back 3D-MVC (lots of dropped frames). I know that the Hardware is good enough because PowerDVD and StereoscopicPlayer don't have these Problems...

therefore my feature request (1) : Hardware Decoding for MVC-mkv files

I’m of the opinion : let the Hardware do what it is payed for; more maneuvering room for software/CPU to do other things

I was using up to now MPC-BE with its internal codecs; all my movies are mkv with aac-audio; MPC-BE audio codec allows for on-the-fly aac->ac3 transcoding, which my receiver understands (aac not);

therefore my feature request (2) : on the fly transcoding of aac to ac3 and streaming through SPDIF or HDMI
Thanks

PS: why am I using aac?
- E.g in the case of a BR and DTS-audio (2 languages: original and my language), I safe easily 2GB disk-space
- Very often the audio dynamic is so extreme (“speech” vs. “plane crash”) that it becomes impractical (my neighbors are not interested to know which movie I’m watching)
- In the case of DVD (PAL) I can do during the conversion also a slowdown to 23,976 (original framerate) without any later trouble with third party tools like Reclock…everything is 23,976

[nevcairiel]

H.264 MVC Hardware decoding is not likely to appear anytime soon, and even then likely only for Intel GPUs, anything else will probably take a looong time.
For audio transcoding, LAV Audio will never offer that, sorry.

[gpower2]

Hi nev, I am using latest stable version 0.68 with MPC-HC and madVR 0.90.13 with DXVA2 native on NVidia GTX 560 Ti and it works like a charm!

However I am having serious desync issues with ProgDVB (http://www.progdvb.com/) when watching live DVB-T 1080p H264 video stream with MPEG Audio as stated here (http://forum2.progdvb.com/viewtopic.php?p=67264&sid=6136dfce9351322c4af3439b3714c7dd#p67264).
Since ProgDVB's author didn't continue with this issue, I decided to try my luck here. :p

I wouldn't bother you with this issue here, unless Microsoft's DTV codec performed greatly with no desync issues.

Is there anything I could try to test if this is indeed a problem with LAV Filter? Is there anything you could suggest me to do in order to help me pinpoint the issue and perhaps any bugs (if there are) in LAV filter's code?

Thanks for your great work all these years! :)

[balkerman]

How often did you get Dolby TrueHD glitches before you fine-tuned your timing? I get them every minute or so ...
It's been a few years but it started at every few minutes at or so at 24hz then 1-2 per movie at 23.?hz, now doesn't happen anymore. My current refresh rate is a close as can get to the third decimal. [emoji41]

When I adjusted the tv refresh rate my ps4 couldn't recognise the display resolution and reset itself to default screen resolution. I had to manually set it back...

[GCRaistlin]

I'm trying to play 2160p video downscaled to 1080p: LAV Video with software decoding + madVR + MPC-HC, WinXP SP3. The decoding speed is too slow - madVR reports: "decoder queue 1-3/16". Though MPC-HC takes only 30% of CPU so more than half of my Intel Xeon E5430 resources are unused. I tried to manually set number of threads to 4 - the same result. What can be done about it?

[nevcairiel]

If your system is too slow, there is nothing I can do about that. Your CPU is extremely old, I wouldn't expect much from a 9 year old model when handling 4K content.
Multi-threading can only work when the individual threads work fast enough on their own, because most frames depend on the previous frames, and if those don't get done, no number of cores is going to make it run faster.

Even more so, you are running 32-bit, wasting half of the speed already. A top of the line CPU can barely manage to decode HEVC 4K content in 32-bit, because its just so much slower than 64-bit for the HEVC decoder.

[GCRaistlin]

What is the minimal hardware requirements to play 2160p downscaled to 1080p? Will it help if I just change HD5770 to HD7770? Will migrating to LAV x64 help?

[nevcairiel]

What is the minimal hardware requirements to play 2160p downscaled to 1080p? Will it help if I just change HD5770 to HD7770? Will migrating to LAV x64 help?

I don't provide hardware advice, it usually greatly depends on the video in question more than anything. Resolution is not everything.

That GPU upgrade would not help anything, though.

[sneaker_ger]

Will it help if I just change HD5770 to HD7770?
No. You need something like a GTX960 that has a pure hardware decoder capable of crunching 4K HEVC. You must be able to decode faster than real-time before you worry about downscaling. And you will probably have to update to a newer Windows version as well to make use of LAV DXVA2 decoding.

Will migrating to LAV x64 help?
It will be much faster but maybe even that is not fast enough. Like nevcairiel said 4K can be extremely demanding. If you are bound to 32 bit try Lentoid HEVC decoder (http://xhevc.com/en/hevc/decoder/download.jsp), it's much faster than LAV for 32 bit.

We have a separate thread for HEVC decoder performance comparison:
https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=171219

[GCRaistlin]

If you are bound to 32 bit try Lentoid HEVC decoder, it's much faster than LAV for 32 bit
The video I try to play is H.264, Lentoid HEVC Decoder doesn't support it.

[huhn]

for 8 bit UHD h264 you can try a geforce card.

UHD was a long term problem of AMD.

but you are not getting far with this if you care about decoding UHD you will need a HEVC 10 bit decoder sooner or later.

UHD h264 decoding is usually doable with a beefy CPU.

and 32 bit could be a real problem. decoded UHD frames are huge!

[mzso]

The video I try to play is H.264, Lentoid HEVC Decoder doesn't support it.

I could decode a 2016p30 AVC video (http://bbb3d.renderfarming.net/download.html) real time with a not much faster E5450.

Of course I'm not on obsolete XP, and I'm using the x64 version.

[GCRaistlin]

with a not much faster E5450
My CPU is overclocked to 3.71 GHz so I believe it's even faster than yours (if you haven't done the same trick of course). Thanks for the info, will try Win8.1 x64.

[jebediah]

I was trying to watch a 4K movie for the first time and noticed severe lags.
Opened up GPU-Z and the GPU usage stayed at 12-22% the whole time, so i gave Hardware Acceleration a try for the first time but still the GPU usage says at max 22%.
Any idea what i'm doing wrong?

MPC-HC
LAV filters as external filter
madVR
@
i3 4330
ASUS GTX 960 4GB

[P.J]

I was trying to watch a 4K movie for the first time and noticed severe lags.
Opened up GPU-Z and the GPU usage stayed at 12-22% the whole time, so i gave Hardware Acceleration a try for the first time but still the GPU usage says at max 22%.
Any idea what i'm doing wrong?

MPC-HC
LAV filters as external filter
madVR
@
i3 4330
ASUS GTX 960 4GB

HEVC or H.264? Try EVR and watch for Video Engine Load in GPU-Z
Make sure you have enabled HEVC and H.264 in LAV

[jebediah]

HEVC or H.264? Try EVR and watch for Video Engine Load in GPU-Z
Make sure you have enabled HEVC and H.264 in LAV

What do you mean by EVR?
It's a 4K demo in H.264 and here's some screens while playing the movie.

http://s9.postimg.org/59uw956hr/Namnl_s1.jpg

http://s9.postimg.org/8s6w5j7dr/Namnl_s2.png

[huhn]

most likely 10 bit H264. and that's not supported.
can you post media info information?
if this file is h265 10 bit (HEVC) than CUVID can't deal with it.
but DXVA can decode 10 bit HEVC.

[jebediah]

most likely 10 bit H264. and that's not supported.
can you post media info information?
if this file is h265 10 bit (HEVC) than CUVID can't deal with it.
but DXVA can decode 10 bit HEVC.

http://s12.postimg.org/4mmiol5gd/Namnl_s.jpg

Should i choose Copy-back or Native?

[P.J]

Should i choose Copy-back or Native?

Yes..

[huhn]

http://s12.postimg.org/4mmiol5gd/Namnl_s.jpg

Should i choose Copy-back or Native?
this isn't media info at all.

but look at the picture i guess it is HEVC not h264. madVR usually detects h264 and shows this in the OSD.

with madVR i would use copyback for better picture quality.

[jebediah]

this isn't media info at all.

but look at the picture i guess it is HEVC not h264. madVR usually detects h264 and shows this in the OSD.

with madVR i would use copyback for better picture quality.

Sorry, my bad.
The 4K demo is in .ts but copy back seems to work with it.
I still have some lags time to time and GPU usage stays at 55-60%

Think it's time to OC the CPU soon :)

[P.J]

Sorry, my bad.
The 4K demo is in .ts but copy back seems to work with it.
I still have some lags time to time and GPU usage stays at 55-60%

Think it's time to OC the CPU soon :)

Why? :scared:

GPU usage should be very low, maybe due to MadVR.
Also check your Video Engine Load.
And put the report of video file information with MediaInfo here.

[NikosD]

Do we know something about this .encm video format ?

http://demo-uhd3d.com/fiche.php?cat=uhd&id=141

It looks like it's working only on Panasonic TVs.

LAV (ffmpeg) seems to not recognize it.

[LigH]

I would read "ENCM" as "Encrypted movie" and conclude: "You don't want to, you don't have to."

[chros]

Cosmetic bug regarding to the new hardware accelerator device selection in LAV video decoder?
- MPC-HC latest nightly (1.7.10.130, lav filters 0.68.0.5)
- optimus sytem (see my signature)
- I'm using nvidia for hardware acceleration (I can confirm it using gpu-z or nvidiainspector)
Properties page shows:
- Active Hardware Accelerator: Intel HD Graphics 4000
- Hardware device to use: (available selections)
-- Automatic
-- NVIDIA Geforce GT 650m
-- NVIDIA Geforce GT 650m

[nevcairiel]

It just lists all devices that D3D9 enumerates, if Optimus is being funky, then thats just how it is.

[jebediah]

Why? :scared:

GPU usage should be very low, maybe due to MadVR.
Also check your Video Engine Load.
And put the report of video file information with MediaInfo here.

http://s12.postimg.org/9lqizc6ot/image.jpg

http://s12.postimg.org/meemz9ial/image.jpg

[mzso]

What do you mean by EVR?
It's a 4K demo in H.264 and here's some screens while playing the movie.

Sorry, my bad.
The 4K demo is in .ts but copy back seems to work with it.
I still have some lags time to time and GPU usage stays at 55-60%

Think it's time to OC the CPU soon :)

You don't know what EVR is? That's the renderer you replaced with madVR...
Anyway I'd guess that you chose too brutal algorithms for scaling in madVR and your system can't handle the downscaling from 4k. It's also evidenced by the fact that on your screenshot the decoder queue is full and the render queue is low.
CPU is usually maxed out when your system can't handle the decoding. So OC-ing the CPU won't help you at all.

Disable all image enhancements (and other fancy things) and set scaling algorithms to nearest neighbor to test.

[P.J]

What do you mean by EVR?

Try EVR/EVR-CP:

http://i.imgur.com/eOteowf.png

Are you using madVR?

[huhn]

try to lower the GPU queue to 5 this should be all you need.

at least for that file in question.

[hubblec4]

Hi nevcairiel

Before I start with tests, a short question.
Is LAV able to handle the ChapterSegementEditionUID entry? If so, will then played all chapters from the linked editon?

[DragonQ]

Which cards support full hardware HEVC decoding nowadays? Is it just the GTX 750 Ti, 950, and 960?

Thinking of upgrading my GT 430 since it's useless for anything in MadVR beyond Bicubic and Lanczos, and I may as well ensure I can play UHD video encoded as HEVC whilst I'm at it.

[nevcairiel]

Those, but only the second version of the 750Ti, too, the original one didn't, which shops may not mark clearly (NVIDIA ran out of the chip the original was build from, so they silently replaced it)

[DragonQ]

I see, thanks. Anyone know a reliable way of distinguishing the second editions of 750 Ti from the originals? I see "750 SE" listed on Wikipedia but pretty much nowhere else on the internet...

[ryrynz]

I see, thanks. Anyone know a reliable way of distinguishing the second editions of 750 Ti from the originals? I see "750 SE" listed on Wikipedia but pretty much nowhere else on the internet...

OEM only card? Don't bother, get something that's actually available. Get the Asus GTX 950 Mini (http://wccftech.com/asuss-latest-geforce-gtx-950-graphics-card-requires-6pin-connector-features-1228-mhz-boost-clocks/) if you must get something that fits into the 75W envelope.

[3421]

The decoder uses SSE4.2 or AVX1 command by decoding the video on CPU?

[hubblec4]

Hi nevcairiel

I think there is an issue in LAV Video Filter.

I have StarTrek TNG (Bluray) series with ordered chapters.
A part of the series should not play, the new timeline is correct but when play the next ordered chapter, the video freeze for 5 seconds(audio play fine).
Then I disabled the LAV Video Decoder in the MPC-HC settings and all plays fine.
As video decoder is Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder in use.
Then I try CoreAVC-Decoder, the video don't freeze but stuttering for 5 seconds.

[nevcairiel]

Sounds to me like your video has a gap in the middle. Don't do that if you want fluent playback everywhere.

[hubblec4]

Sounds to me like your video has a gap in the middle. Don't do that if you want fluent playback everywhere.

a gap??

You mean ordered chapters like this:
00:00.00.000 - 00:02:00.000
00:04:00.000 - 00:10:00.000

The gap are the 2 minutes (after 2 minutes), that is the reason for playing is broken?

[oddball]

I cannot find an answer by searching this thread.

I am playing back a Prores trailer with 8 channel audio.

I am unable to get all 8 channels sent to the correct speakers at the same time to my Denon AVR via HDMI. When I right click on LAV Splitter it shows 8 audio channels but only 1 is selected. This equates with me being able to hear only the center channel being played. If I switch to one of the other channels it plays that to the center channel instead. LAV Splitter and audio decoder only seems to send one channel at a time and only to the center channel from what I can tell.

I have tested with some other files and they send multi channel audio to all speakers over HDMI fine (bitstreamed or just decoded depending how I have LAV audio set).

Screencap provided.

Any ideas?

[nevcairiel]

Some "pro" files have every channel as an individual audio track. LAV does not offer anything to combine them into one, sorry. Such files are honestly not mean for consumer consumption.

[Qaq]

Yeah, I have similar prores too. In case someone would want to provide a patch, what would be correct order to join tracks?

[AngelGraves13]

Yeah, I have similar prores too. In case someone would want to provide a patch, what would be correct order to join tracks?

You can use eac3to to extract to individual wavs and then re-encode to FLAC.

[Aegwyn11]

I have a very high bitrate (~1.4 Gbps) UHDp59.94 Prores422 HQ file that I'm having trouble getting to play smooth. I think it has something to do with the decoder...if I pull up the MadVR stats, I can watch the decoder queue drop and drop until it gets really low (around 2), at which point frames start dropping like crazy. If I increase the CPU queue size, it takes longer for frames to start dropping (since there's more decoder queue to deplete), but it doesn't prevent the issue. It seems to happen with high complexity scenes. I never see my CPU go past 70-80% utilization (i7-5930K), usually in the mid 70's at the complex scenes.

If I take the file and decode/re-encode it to UTvideo in FFmpeg, it plays back smooth (but i lose the 10 bit-ness of the source since UTvideo in FFmpeg only supports 8 bit).

Also, if I decode/re-encode the file as UHDp29.97 Prores 422 HQ (half frame rate, 30p), it plays back smooth....

EVR-CP acts a bit differently...if I display the stats, I can see it plays back at a fairly constant 49-50 frames per second (dropping ~10 frames a second), and the green line in the lower right corner graph climbs at about a 30-40 degree angle out of the screen then drops back to the red line for a bit before climbing again. Increasing the EVR buffers delays the climb but doesn't stop it from happening.

Any ideas? My main goal is to be able to play back pristine quality UHDp60 4:2:2 10 bit content. I don't have to stay Prores if there are other good options, but it doesn't seem there are. I tried just going to v210, but my SSD isn't quite fast enough to handle that much throughput without some frame drops here and there (although not nearly as many as with Prores...).

[sneaker_ger]

Are you using 32 bit or 64 bit LAV? The 64 bit prores decoder seems to be much faster.

[Aegwyn11]

I believe 64 bit....I installed using the installer that installs both. I'm using MPC-HC 64 bit, so I'm assuming that forces all the filters to also be 64 bit.

Could I be running into a max number of threads issue? In other words, I've got spare juice left in my CPU, but the decoder isn't able to take advantage of it?

[AngelGraves13]

I believe 64 bit....I installed using the installer that installs both. I'm using MPC-HC 64 bit, so I'm assuming that forces all the filters to also be 64 bit.

Could I be running into a max number of threads issue? In other words, I've got spare juice left in my CPU, but the decoder isn't able to take advantage of it?

There is currently no hardware capable of playing back 60p at that resolution smoothly. We'll need a new generation of video cards for that.

[Vasilich]

There is currently no hardware capable of playing back 60p at that resolution smoothly
according to intel specs http://ark.intel.com/products/88185/Intel-Core-i5-6400-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz
Max Resolution (HDMI 1.4)‡ 4096x2304@24Hz
Max Resolution (DP)‡ 4096x2304@60Hz
so if the monitor is connected via displayPort, then it supports 4k@60Hz. SOme MoBo manufacturers can install external HDMI 2.0 transmitter using DP lines, but that is still rare now.
according to HW decoding - all testing web sites (anandtech, tomshardware etc.) writing that it supports smooth decoding for 4k@60Hz (while using 2% of CPU only), but ONLY 8Bit.

[Aegwyn11]

Guys - thanks for the responses. Please note that in my original ask for help, I said that I'm able to do UHDp60 just dandy if I reencode using UTvideo. It also seems that raw playback (v210) would work as well if my SSD had just a bit more throughput. RAID nVME drives would probably do it, but that isn't a tenable solution for me. I'm 100% confident my hardware has the capability to do this (after all, I can decode two Prores UHDp30 files simultaneously with no problems and CPU to spare), just not sure if the software decoder is optimized for this yet (hence my questions).

[Aegwyn11]

Also, FWIW, I'm using an i7-5930K (Haswell-E, no onboard video) and GTX 950. I can use either the HDMI 2.0 output or a Club3d DP 1.2 to HDMI 2.0 adapter to get UHDp60 RGB to the TV. Either works fine.