LAV Filters - DirectShow Media Splitter and Decoders

[NikosD]

Haswell's and probably onwards Intel's HW H.264 is the fastest (even from Turing) and I have already tested 4K H.264 L5.2 Ref 16 with huge bandwidth (1Gbps) and with success And I have to correct myself, as 4K H.264 L5.2 samples of my test, had Ref 5 and 1080p H.264 L5.2 samples had Ref 16.

[alleway]

hi i would like to know is there a way lav is able to decode dts:x. if i set atmos to bitstream my avr will indicate atmos is playing but for dts:x when i set it to bitstream my avr doesnt indicate it is playing dts:x. my avr is atmos and dts:x capable.

[nevcairiel]

And I have to correct myself, as 4K H.264 L5.2 samples of my test, had Ref 5 and 1080p H.264 L5.2 samples had Ref 16.

Thats the big limit there, more then 5 ref frames at 4K is going over the L5.2 limit and likely causing these issues.

[nevcairiel]

hi i would like to know is there a way lav is able to decode dts:x. if i set atmos to bitstream my avr will indicate atmos is playing but for dts:x when i set it to bitstream my avr doesnt indicate it is playing dts:x. my avr is atmos and dts:x capable.

No, LAV does not decode DTS:X, but if its present in the bitstream then the full bitstream is being send untouched to your receiver. LAV does not modify it at all.

[alleway]

No, LAV does not decode DTS:X, but if its present in the bitstream then the full bitstream is being send untouched to your receiver. LAV does not modify it at all.

thanks nev for the info. so dts:x audio will still be present if i set it to bitstream right?

[nevcairiel]

It should be. LAV does not modify it at all.

[alleway]

It should be. LAV does not modify it at all.

got it. thanks nev👍👍

[NikosD]

Thats the big limit there, more then 5 ref frames at 4K is going over the L5.2 limit and likely causing these issues. The first HW decoders of H.264 could properly decode 1080p up to L4.1 with maximum number of ReF 4, which was the level used by Blu-ray.
It took years for HW decoders to support properly H.264 1080p L5.1 Ref 16, due to very limited commercial support.
I still remember that 1080p H.264 L5.1 Ref 16 Samsung demo clip with something like an aquarium, which was a nightmare to decode for HW H.264 decoders of that time.
Likewise, due to very limited commercial support of beyond UHD use of H.264 codec, I don't expect companies to revise their HW H.264 decoder soon (or ever) in order to support L6.x

[clsid]

HEVC sample (https://www.sendspace.com/file/4we5kx) that decodes wrong with DXVA2. Playback is ok with software decoding or CUVID.

Problem seems to be that main10 dxva2 decoder is used, while this video is 8bit. MediaInfo indicates profile "Main 10@L4.1@Main".

[VBB]

Nev, just wanted to let you know that the cert to 1f0.de has expired again, which you probably already know :)

[nevcairiel]

It was supposed to have moved to a new server by now, but I haven't had the time to finish the move... But i updated the old certificates in the meantime.

[chainik_svp]

nevcairiel
Could you please give a small hint regarding DirectShow magic?
https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=180424 - a DS transform filter running Avisynth script. We want to pass-through HDR meta-data from LAV to madVR. What could be the easiest way to do this?
AFAIU IMediaSideData must be attached to the media sample. But when I simply trying to QueryInterface() on the received IMediaSample - it doesn't work. What am I doing wrong? o_O
Probably there's another way to simply copy that "attached" data block from the input sample to output, w/o "parsing" it?

[nevcairiel]

If you are implementing your own sample allocator, you need to make sure that it implements IMediaSideData on the samples, otherwise it wouldn't come from anywhere. I don't think LAV actually implements it on a normal sample allocator, since in practically every normal case its provided by the renderer. So if you want to sit between LAV and madVR, you would either pass the madVR allocator to LAV, or implement IMediaSideData on a new one.

[chainik_svp]

Ah! indeed the IMediaSideData interface is available for the output samples. The picture begins to take shape...

[vosya]

In the PotPlayer's settings of the built-in video decoder there is an option "Use output queue". Activating it seems to result a more stable FPS on heavy videos. Is there something similar in LAV Video Decoder and is such functionality generally useful?

[huhn]

it's in the lav splitter part but except for streaming or in slow local networks this shouldn't help you. render queue like in madVR or EVR should do what you ask for but that's not lav filters job.

[vosya]

render queue like in madVR or EVR should do what you ask for but that's not lav filters job.
Don't you think that the video decoder and the video renderer are different entities, and the queues in them are also different, independently controlled? This is obviously observed in the mentioned PotPlayer.

[huhn]

no because it was possible to break hardware decoding with to big queue in madVR.

[nevcairiel]

There is no functional difference on which side the queue is.

[vosya]

There is no functional difference on which side the queue is.
The video renderer I use, Overlay Mixer - it seems to me has no queue at all. Therefore, there is no alternative to a queue in a video decoder.

[nevcairiel]

Use a better video renderer. There are no plans to add something like this.

[vosya]

There are no plans to add something like this.
Not critical, the last couple of years the built-in PotPlayer filters have reached the level that suits me and there is a constant positive dynamics. The need to use LAV Filters, previously absolutely necessary, is constantly decreasing.

[foxyshadis]

Overlay Mixer has been deprecated since 2001; it's now 2020, it's long since time to move on. Overlay is great because you hardly have to do anything, the driver takes care of everything. But Overlay means you can't customize anything, because the driver takes care of everything.

Plus, you know, high bit depth? HDR? Shaders? Things that people might like to have in 2020, that Overlay won't give you.

[vosya]

Things that people might like to have in 2020, that Overlay won't give you.
There are a lot of things that I personally don't need. Including the redundant capabilities of modern video renderers, as well as advice on their choice.

[PCU]

Why MPEG-4 HW acceleration is unavailable in D3D11? (i5 5th Gen)

[nevcairiel]

MPEG-4 acceleration is rather buggy, and any modern CPU can decode it without even breaking a sweat, so simply because its easier not to allow it.

[PCU]

:thanks:

[huhn]

madVR get's kinda nuts with progressive decoded 23p dvds.
the file still get's reported as 29p. with film mode it is switching to 23p "correctly" but according to the OSD it doesn't get a deinterlaced flag so why would it even care about film mode or video mode is it maybe present for 1 frame?
so i just want to make sure the frame times are not wrong or something else in the first place before i bring this up to madshi.
there doesn't seem to be a difference between hardware and software decode.

this doesn't happen when the DVD navigator is used the file is then decoded to 29i with hard telecine.
the file has been tested with direct vob file play DVD structure(DVDnavigator) and MKV remux.

[nevcairiel]

nev, can you please add AV1 hardware decoding to LAV Filters?

Hey, that idea never occured to me. :rolleyes:

[VictorLS]

GTPVHD
Thanks for link, it seems news about hardware acceleration of AV1 in future releases of Ampere-based nVIDIA videocards can be true.

[huhn]

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/rtx-30-series-av1-decoding/

it's been confirmed.

[NikosD]

And for AMD Radeon RX 6000 series of course:
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AV1-Decode-For-AMD-VCN-3.0

[DMU]

No, this would be a terrible experience. "I changed the stream but audio was still the wrong language for several seconds", yeah, not wasting my time on that, sorry.
Is it possible to implement this only for subtitles? That is, there will be no such issues with audio.

[nevcairiel]

The same thing would happen with subtitles, and potentially even more pronounced since subtitles themselves can show for a longer time. You would switch it and only see the switch after several seconds of playback.
The current solution is the best compromise available. A tiny playback glitch when the user presses a button is not very disruptive.

[PCU]

I hope someone could develop LAV Filters plug-in for Adobe Audition 2020. Audition doesn't import Dolby, DTS, Bink Media & old QuickTime format & the only plug-in that can do all of this is LAV Filters. Also, what MP3 & AAC decoder FFmpeg uses?

[LigH]

Its own OpenSource decoders; ffmpeg is a CLI frontend for the libavcodec core library.

[NanoBot]

I hope someone could develop LAV Filters plug-in for Adobe Audition 2020. Audition doesn't import Dolby, DTS, Bink Media & old QuickTime format & the only plug-in that can do all of this is LAV Filters. Also, what MP3 & AAC decoder FFmpeg use?

I don't know if such plug-in filters for Audition can and will be developed, but perhaps you might give Audacity a try, which in my option is a very good free and open-source alternative for Audition. And for Audacity, you can get a ffmeg based plugin, which allows the use of some of the formats you mentioned.

https://www.audacityteam.org/ and https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/installing_ffmpeg_for_windows.html

[PCU]

Its own OpenSource decoders; ffmpeg is a CLI frontend for the libavcodec core library.
:thanks: Reversed or original code?
I don't know if such plug-in filters for Audition can and will be developed, but perhaps you might give Audacity a try, which in my option is a very good free and open-source alternative for Audition. And for Audacity, you can get a ffmeg based plugin, which allows the use of some of the formats you mentioned.

https://www.audacityteam.org/ and https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/installing_ffmpeg_for_windows.html

Thank you so much for suggestion, but did you check this site:
https://src.infinitewave.ca/
Quality of Audition is so much higher than any editor in that list, even Pro Tools! Pro Tools & Audition are standard in the world like Photoshop!

[LigH]

MP3 and AAC specifications (and reference software in source) are available and detailed enough to enable developers to write their own code. For these formats, there was certainly no need to disassemble binaries.

And regarding your "standard software hype" ... Premiere used to convert YUV to RGB before applying filters; advantage to AviSynth. Your mentioned site tells little without understanding the mathematical backgrounds of each implementation. Free software can use correct and precise implementations too. And be more user friendly at the same time by not chaining the user to a sadistic payment model.

[PCU]

MP3 and AAC specifications (and reference software in source) are available and detailed enough to enable developers to write their own code. For these formats, there was certainly no need to disassemble binaries.

And regarding your "standard software hype" ... Premiere used to convert YUV to RGB before applying filters; advantage to AviSynth. Your mentioned site tells little without understanding the mathematical backgrounds of each implementation. Free software can use correct and precise implementations too. And be more user friendly at the same time by not chaining the user to a sadistic payment model.

:thanks:
What software do you recommend for editing, ripping & converting audio files, free or commercial.

[el Filou]

Even when comparing Audition 2019 to Audacity (Best Quality) on that SRC comparison site, there are no audible differences between them (differences only above 20500 Hz), Audacity is just as good.

[LigH]

Wrong thread, @PCU... this is about LAV Filters. Please stay on topic here, and create a new thread for all the unrelated audio questions.

[PCU]

:thanks:

[aufkrawall]

Does Windows 10 offer native AV1 D3D11VA hardware decoding apart from Media Foundation?

[nevcairiel]

Microsoft of course doesn't provide anything out of the box anymore except Media Foundation. But any software, such as LAV, can of course make use of D3D11VA to decode AV1. Once I get access to any hardware, of course.

[DMU]

The current solution is the best compromise available. A tiny playback glitch when the user presses a button is not very disruptive.

Why don't I see such a playback glitch when playing DVD content? Both audio and subtitles are switched without stopping the video stream.

[nevcairiel]

That topic is done. I will not waste countless hours redesigning something that spans potentially multiple components and may not even work fully since third-party components are involved (renders), which I do not perceive as a problem.

[clsid]

AAC ltp decoding issue: sample file (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kO7ynnZS8AvjlleLRhTCIr2BLLwKIXUH/view?usp=sharing)
Plays ok with VLC.

[manolito]

Downloaded the sample just for fun. Of course no source filter would play it, but I was a bit surprised to see MediaInfo reporting 10 audio channels.

Does this madness ever stop? Will the next generation videos have 20 audio channels so users need a home theater setup with this number of speakers?

I think that 8 channels are already overkill, more than 6 audio channels are just a bloody hype...

Just my 2 cents... :devil:

[LigH]

And then count in the different interference preferences of furniture and closet contents ... better you have a separate home cinema room in your basement. :sly: