LAV Filters - DirectShow Media Splitter and Decoders

[pie1394]

There it is. It does set the AR properly, and 1440x1080 at 16:9 is 1920x1080 - i'm 100% sure now that info vanishes after your decoder, resulting in playback at 1440x1080

The video decoder is LAVCUVID-0.6, and the aspect info is is 100% exactly passed through.

Just like what I mentioned last time, it works fine if the MKV demuxer is changed to use Haali Media Splitter.

After I compared what the difference is between Haali and ffmpeg, now I finally realize that Haali uses the very interesting approach.

But I still have no idea why another non 1440x1080 16:9 video source has no problem. Thus I guess MPC-HC might have some special dealing with such standard resolution...

[nevcairiel]

Attachments require ages to be approved here.

Untick "Use Stream AR" in LAV CUVID settings. Anyhow, people send me samples of that resolution and the same source, and it works just perfectly here.

What Haali does is basically cheating, it removes AR info from the H264 bitstream, to compensate for the missing configuration in the CoreAVC.

[BelowSky]

Usually I don't install or register LAV filters. I just add them to MPC-HC by ,manually, extracting "LAVFilters-0.25.zip" and adding "LAVAudio.ax" & "LAVSplitter.ax" files.
However, this time I also registered the filters, just for the sack of testing.

The scenarios:
1- If I add the ax files without registering, I get a crash.
2- If I add the ax files with registering, I also get a crash.
3- If I add the "Registered filters", I don't get a crash.

To make clear what I'm talking about, I made a pic:
http://i55.tinypic.com/oq965l.jpg

[nevcairiel]

Sounds like a MPC-HC bug. Using unregistered codecs has always been rather fragile for me ..
If some player crashes, why is it suddenly my fault? :P

However, it would be rather helpful if you say when it crashes. Directly after adding them? when trying to play something? etc.

[BelowSky]

Of course, as I said in a previous post, it crashes only when playing the next file in a playlist or when I press "Skip forward" or when I open a media file without closing the currently playing one.
Other than these issues, I don't get any problem using the filters without registering them.
It is all about closing a stream and opening another one. Otherwise, man, your filter are really really great.

A pic from the crash:

http://i54.tinypic.com/juih4n.jpg


Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BEX
Application Name: mpc-hc.exe
Application Version: 1.5.2.3098
Application Timestamp: 4dc7345f
Fault Module Name: LAVSplitter.ax_unloaded
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 4dc43cf5
Exception Offset: 6f17fed0
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Data: 00000008
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: fa66
Additional Information 2: fa6696398de2b9f98383d7a3bf5c3ea1
Additional Information 3: fa66
Additional Information 4: fa6696398de2b9f98383d7a3bf5c3ea1

[pie1394]

Attachments require ages to be approved here.

Untick "Use Stream AR" in LAV CUVID settings. Anyhow, people send me samples of that resolution and the same source, and it works just perfectly here.

What Haali does is basically cheating, it removes AR info from the H264 bitstream, to compensate for the missing configuration in the CoreAVC.

Thank you for the information!
I forgot to try this option. Please forgive me!
It is exactly the solution for LAVCUVID.

Now the output window aspect ratio is 16:9 and I see madVR receives the following information:

VIDEOINFOHEADER2:
dwInterlaceFlags: 0x00000000
dwCopyProtectFlags: 0x00000000
dwPictAspectRatioX: 16
dwPictAspectRatioY: 9
dwControlFlags: 0x00000000
dwReserved2: 0x00000000


With such option checked in LAVCUVID, it is ineed overwritten by the video decoder....

VIDEOINFOHEADER2:
dwInterlaceFlags: 0x00000000
dwCopyProtectFlags: 0x00000000
dwPictAspectRatioX: 4
dwPictAspectRatioY: 3
dwControlFlags: 0x00000000
dwReserved2: 0x00000000

[nevcairiel]

Of course, as I said in a previous post, it crashes only when playing the next file in a playlist or when I press "Skip forward" or when I open a media file without closing the currently playing one.
Other than these issues, I don't get any problem using the filters without registering them.
It is all about closing a stream and opening another one. Otherwise, man, your filter are really really great.


Ah i didn't associate your posts with each other, thats what you get from quickly reading new posts while working. I can try that and possibly fix whatever causes it, maybe.

[sneaker_ger]

What Haali does is basically cheating, it removes AR info from the H264 bitstream, to compensate for the missing configuration in the CoreAVC.

Are you sure? I always thought it would do something along the line of writing container AR into bitstream if set, but not simply remove it. :confused:

[nevcairiel]

That really has the same result in the end.

[Andy o]

Ah i didn't associate your posts with each other, thats what you get from quickly reading new posts while working. I can try that and possibly fix whatever causes it, maybe.

If you could fix this on the splitter, it could also take care of my and pankov's problems I guess. Much appreciated.

[nevcairiel]

Just register the filter, and there is no such problem.
If you had it registered, its a different issue. :p

[Andy o]

Yeah I've always registered the filters. But I was thinking if LAV splitter is the one to end the stream so MPC doesn't crash when switching files, isn't the end result the same even if the issue is technically different?

[nevcairiel]

Its a bug in MPC-HC, or some other filter (possibly reclock, seen those before as well), and if it can be fixed, then there.

[Casshern]

Thats not a "mpg" file, its a m2v file, its a raw MPEG-2 video stream. You can make it work by enabling "rawvideo" in the format options, which the "mpegvideo" type is currently folded into. I'll make it a separate option for the next version, as it seems to play just fine.

rawvideo is by default disable because it cannot deal properly with video elementary streams without timestamps, but apparently this type of file is fine.

What is weird, though, is that it doesn't try another splitter filter if LAV Splitter denys the format.

Yes, i would have expected direct show to fallback on another splitter but it just gives an error. Strange, but i hope you can fix it so it does. Making it accept rawvideo is a workaround until then.

[Andy o]

Its a bug in MPC-HC, or some other filter (possibly reclock, seen those before as well), and if it can be fixed, then there.

In my case, and I assume if pankov was using ReClock in his case too, MPC-HC only crashes 100% of the time when using ReClock, but when not using ReClock, the audio stream continues, and you get flashes of the previous video as well. I think MPC-HC is making ReClock make MPC-HC crash.

[SamuriHL]

In my case, and I assume if pankov was using ReClock in his case too, MPC-HC only crashes 100% of the time when using ReClock, but when not using ReClock, the audio stream continues, and you get flashes of the previous video as well. I think MPC-HC is making ReClock make MPC-HC crash.

Not for me. :)

[Andy o]

Yeah, who knows why MPC only does it in some cases with specific decoders, but if the LAV splitter could put an end to the stream it might be a workaround.

[miroslav22]

Hi,

Many thanks for your work on this project. The latest version is excellent and plays all my ripped hd content (almost!) perfectly!

My only issue is I get a small amount of judder for around 10 seconds on one of my interlaced VC-1 mkvs. During this time the video bitrate spikes very high to 39.5mbps. The rest of the video (and all other interlaced VC-1 content i've tried) plays flawlessly.

I've tried with both the Arcsoft and Cyberlink codecs and the result is exactly the same.

Thanks for any help

[nevcairiel]

You can try the latest version, it has some small enhancement for VC-1 in MKV, not sure though.

http://files.1f0.de/lavf/LAVFilters-0.25-20-g0ee9d6c.zip

[skingery]

You can try the latest version, it has some small enhancement for VC-1 in MKV, not sure though.

http://files.1f0.de/lavf/LAVFilters-0.25-20-g0ee9d6c.zip

I think the latest is here: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1499503#post1499503

[Portioli]

hello nevcariel,
may i ask you something. I am using your LAV Splitter which works great.
I had never problem or crash or sth like that.
I have read here that you have LAV Audio Decoder ,too (if intall the install_audio.bat.)
Does your filter Decodes DTS-MA without DOwnsampling?
Right Know i am using ArcSoft Audio Decoder HD & Reclock (Wasapi)

I want to ask you one more Question,
I have an ATI 5770, Which Video decoder is you fav one with your LAV Splitter?
I dont care if its DXVA or not.
I know you got LAV CUVID but this is for nVidia only.
I am using MPC internal filter & MadVR

Thanks In Advance
Continue this great work!

[nevcairiel]

It does not decode DTS-HD MA.

Also, since all my PCs are NVIDIA, i dont really have any other favorite, i guess ffdshow is the easiest bet, or MPC-HC internals.

[Mark_A_W]

Nev, is there anyway you could "package" the Arcsoft decoder under your LAV Audio decoder for DTS-MA? The way ffdshow packages wmv9 as a VC-1 decoder - available in the codecs section.

This way people would only need to set up one audio decoder, rather than different ones for different audio types.

(Actually I'd like ffdshow to do this too.)

[nevcairiel]

The ArcSoft decoder is not free, and not freely available. Its only available in TMT3/5, and you should buy it if you use it. I do not feel like getting into legal issues by redistributing a dll from their package.

I do know that madshi apparently accesses the ArcSoft decoder directly in eac3to, but i do not know if he does so using the DirectShow component, or the dtsdecoderdll.dll directly, or where he got the APIs to do so.

wmv9 is a freely available component on Windows, and its documented. You cannot really compare that.

[jmone]

I agree that nevcairiel should not distibute the ArcSoft decoder even though it is freely available for those who install the trial (just too much grey area). That said it would be good if the Arcsoft decoder was already registered, or is placed in the same directory as the LAVAudio that it could be recognised / used / configured by LAVAudio (eg getting away from the need for the win.ini settings). Just an idea....

[nevcairiel]

Well like i said, its not that simple to use a foreign dll that you know nothing about.
I know the names of the functions in the dll, but i would need some extensive debugging and information gathering to figure out which parameters they actually take, and how they work. Maybe i one day feel like that.. or madshi feels like sharing, maybe i should ask him.

[jmone]

Not a biggie as we can get it working perfectly anyway.....that said it would make newbies life easier.....so madshi what do you recon, is this an easy add on for nevcairiel as it would provide a complete audio soln?

[Mark_A_W]

The ArcSoft decoder is not free, and not freely available. Its only available in TMT3/5, and you should buy it if you use it. I do not feel like getting into legal issues by redistributing a dll from their package.

I do know that madshi apparently accesses the ArcSoft decoder directly in eac3to, but i do not know if he does so using the DirectShow component, or the dtsdecoderdll.dll directly, or where he got the APIs to do so.

wmv9 is a freely available component on Windows, and its documented. You cannot really compare that.


Perhaps I should have used the word "accessed", not "packaged".

Ffdshow doesn't actually contain wmv9, will fail if you have an earlier version of WMP than 9 (from memory).

Obviously you can't distribute it, but connecting to it directly, in a similar fashion to eac3to. Actually, with the checkactivate.dll file floating around you can connect to it via directshow, just hidden from the user.

Anyway, just an idea to make a "complete" decoder.

(And I own a legal copy of Arcsoft TMT3 - it came with my Xonar soundcard, one of the reasons I bought it.)

[mkanet]

At the risk of sounding very ignorant, I'm hoping someone can explain if the new LAV audio decoder will support native "HD audio decoding" (with 24bit audio/96Khz) for sound cards with analog 5.1 outputs (my 5.1 audio amplifier does NOT decode bitstream audio), it just plays what is decoded in the PC. Hopefully someone can explain nicely without making me feel like an dummy.

I have been using arcsoft HD audio decoder. But I would prefer to support the open source community. All I want to do is decoder DTS-MA (not just DTS core) and TrueHD both builtin to the lav audio decoder. As far as I know, there is no opensource audio decoder that can decode DTS-MA and True-HD.. and of course ac3, standard DTS, flac.

Thanks for all your hard work!
MKANET
LAV Filters 0.25

LAV Splitter
- Added the ability to filter Blu-ray PGS subtitles, so only frames flagged as "forced" are delivered
- Either through a new "Forced Subtitles" stream (default)
- Or, filtering for every PGS stream (configurable)
- Improved support for H264 in AVI
- Improved timings for TrueHD in MKV
- m2ts files directly openend inside a Blu-ray structure should now properly display stream languages
- Alot of fixes and enhancements for format compatibility (especially MPEG-TS)
- Support using the ArcSoft HD Audio Decoder for E-AC3

LAV Audio
- Audio bitstreaming (pass-through) for HDMI and S/PDIF
- Support for AC3, E-AC3, TrueHD, DTS and DTS-HD
- Use the float decoders for mp1/mp2
- Added official support for WMAv1, WMAv2 and WMA Pro
- Fixed an issue that caused sync issues with FLAC audio, and FLAC is once again enabled by default


Download: Installer (both x86/x64) (http://files.1f0.de/lavf/LAVFilters-0.25.exe) -- Zips: 32-bit (http://files.1f0.de/lavf/LAVFilters-0.25.zip) & 64-bit (http://files.1f0.de/lavf/LAVFilters-0.25-x64.zip)

Lets have a quick look at the stats..

48 files changed, 1695 insertions(+), 331 deletions(-)

Overall, nearly 2000 lines of code touched. 1700 new ones, 300 old ones removed/changed.

New Features!

Audio Bitstreaming
Another shiny new feature to be excited about!
LAV Audio now supports bitstreaming of HD audio through S/PDIF and HDMI.
Supported are AC-3, E-AC3, TrueHD, DTS and DTS-HD. (S/PDIF is limited to AC-3 and DTS, of course)

There may still be minor kinks to be worked out in the bitstreaming code, especially in combination with some receivers, but overall it has proven to already work really well.

In addition to those two big changes, there is also the list of usual fixes and improvements, summarized above.

Have Fun!
I already had mine, developing of 0.25 was awesome. So many great features, and all worked out so well. You guys also were a great help.

PS:
I have purged most of the 0.24-xx snapshot builds from my file server.

[nevcairiel]

At the risk of sounding very ignorant, I'm hoping someone can explain if the new LAV audio decoder will support native "HD audio decoding" (with 24bit audio/96Khz) for sound cards with analog 5.1 outputs (my 5.1 audio amplifier does NOT decode bitstream audio), it just plays what is decoded in the PC.

It cannot decode DTS-HD.
Also, the question was answered just a few posts above (7 if i counted right).

[mkanet]

Oh okay.. sorry I missed that. This thread goes forward so quickly (which is a great thing)! I realize DTS-HD decoding is extremely hard to do. Currently, I've only been able to use arcsoft decoder HD.

It cannot decode DTS-HD.
Also, the question was answered just a few posts above (7 if i counted right).

[Andy o]

Oh okay.. sorry I missed that. This thread goes forward so quickly (which is a great thing)! I realize DTS-HD decoding is extremely hard to do. Currently, I've only been able to use arcsoft decoder HD.

It's the only one that works externally from its own player, but it works pretty well for DTS-HD anyway.

[Village Guy]

Should we expect LAV Splitter / Decoder to work without DirectVobSub being installed? I was surprised to find that MKV files that included subtitles would not play without DirectVobSub being present!

The graph shows a connection to 'Internal Script Command Renderer' and then crashes. I have no idea what that filter is but its obviously not good :eek:

Needless to say, everything is just dandy after installing the subtitle filter.

[Portioli]

i have an issue with a TrueHD .m2ts file.
Is there a way to have output Stereo and not 5.1?
All the dialogs are in the Center Channel i dont hear the actors voices

I dont know if this helps
Here is my LAV Audio Status and Reclock`s Configuration
http://i.imgur.com/0Pqbq.jpg

my graphstudio

http://i.imgur.com/duZM6.jpg

&

media info

http://i.imgur.com/rSJid.jpg

[nevcairiel]

The graph shows a connection to 'Internal Script Command Renderer' and then crashes. I have no idea what that filter is but its obviously not good :eek:

Yah the ISCR is a joke of a filter. I should probably add some trick to make it at least not crash. Whatever player you're using, just block that filter.


Is there a way to have output Stereo and not 5.1?

No, downmixing is currently not supported. Its planned for the future, however.

[Portioli]

No, downmixing is currently not supported. Its planned for the future, however.

ok man thanks!

[mkanet]

Is DTS-MA decoding planned for the future?

Currently, like most people, I am using Arcsoft Audio HD decoder for DTS-MA/DTS and LAV audio for TrueHD. Based on the posts I see here, it seems many people prefer to just have one standalone free HD Audio decoder that decodes both DTS-MA and TrueHD in addition to DTS/AC3/Flac. There are a few free standalone decoders that support TrueHD audio; but none of them support real DTS-MA decoding (even though DTS-MA is a much, much more popular HD audio format for bluray).

Is this because it is harder to develop DTS-MA decoding support than TrueHD?

Thanks,
MKANET


No, downmixing is currently not supported. Its planned for the future, however.

[Casshern]

Most Criterion Bluray titles have an lpcm mono 24 bit track - these do not work with lav splitter (they do with haali). The splitter seems to pass the audio stream wrongly to the audio decoder (e.g. ffdshow) so that it plays garbled or at half speed. I uploaded a sample here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?kq9fx5l5ld2m6pi

[nevcairiel]

Thats mostly the audio decoders fault, use LAV Audio and mono tracks play just perfectly.

[SamuriHL]

@mkanet - You won't see an open source dts-hd ma decoder. The spec is not publicly available and as such would require an insane reverse engineering effort to figure out. So you're stuck with the solution we have out there if you want full decoding.

[Andy o]

i have an issue with a TrueHD .m2ts file.
Is there a way to have output Stereo and not 5.1?
All the dialogs are in the Center Channel i dont hear the actors voices
. If you don't have a multichannel setup, don't use WASAPI, just set your Windows mixer to stereo and it will downmix everything to stereo. Right now you're not only losing the center channel, but also the surrounds, which do contain discrete information, sometimes even other voices.

Alternatively, you can probably set up the Arcsoft decoder to stereo output. ffdshow also has a mixer that can downmix the audio.

[SamuriHL]

I use ffdshow audio processor's mixer on my laptop for that very purpose.

[Andy o]

Ah, right, if you must decode with LAV audio you can apply ffdshow's downmix only for the raw stream afterwards. Plenty of choices. Personally I'd probably go with either setting Windows to stereo (which would work with all players) or using the Arcsoft decoder (which presumably uses the metadata TrueHD carries for downmixing).

[mkanet]

Hey SamuriHL! Thanks for the straightfoward answer. Well, I'm okay with using TMT HD audio decoder. I actually have all audio formats supported by it without having to install the player on my HTPC. At least I have a fully working solution.

I wonder if Slyplayer wont have a standalone DS audio decoder/filter with DTS-MA/TrueHD audio filter either.

@mkanet - You won't see an open source dts-hd ma decoder. The spec is not publicly available and as such would require an insane reverse engineering effort to figure out. So you're stuck with the solution we have out there if you want full decoding.

[SamuriHL]

It seems unlikely that SlyPlayer will have DTS-HD MA decoding. I honestly don't know, but, I would doubt it. We'll see. But at least we have a useful decoder for it. The ArcSoft decoder is really the only one I trust anyway, so, I'm glad it works for us.

[jmone]

Yah the ISCR is a joke of a filter. I should probably add some trick to make it at least not crash. Whatever player you're using, just block that filter.


I actually had to deregister the ISCR filter all together on one of my PC's (Win 7 64-Bit Ultimate) - it keep grabbing the SUB stream for all it was worth. So far no downside to removing it!

[andyvt]

Is LAVAudio HD bit streaming support with other splitters on the road map? If not, do you have any guidance for where someone could start looking for the cause?

[nevcairiel]

The latest development version should already improve that situation, at least for DTS-HD. However, TrueHD might just not work, because many splitters (especially the gabest ones) mark it as AC3, and i do not feel like correcting other splitters mistakes when you could be using mine instead.. :)
If you cannot trust the media type, everything is lost. I cannot probe every format if its really what its claiming to be..

Maybe when i get bored one day, i might make an exception for the AC3/TrueHD situation, but don't hold your breath for now.

[Casshern]

Thats mostly the audio decoders fault, use LAV Audio and mono tracks play just perfectly.

I do not know if that is really true. At the moment the situation on this sample is like this:

Working: Haali + ffdshow audio
Working: Haali + mpc audio decoder

Basically Haali works with all audio filters

Fail: Lav Splitter + ffdshow audio
Fail: Lav Splitter + mpc audio decoder
Working: Lav Splitter + Lav audio

So it is somehow splitter related.... Interestingly the mpc splitter also fails with all audio filters (including the internal mpc audio filter) except lav. Is there any explanation? At the momemt haalis way of fixing it in the splitter seems better as it is compatible with all audio filters---

[andyvt]

TBH, I'm really only interested in making it work with the Sage demux; it uses the right subtype ({EB27CEC4-163E-4CA3-8B74-8E25F91B517E}) :)