LAV CUVID Decoder - High Quality Hardware decoding for NVIDIA

[nevcairiel]

All post-processing settings the Hardware is capable of has to be controled through the NVIDIA control panel. This is limited to Edge Enhancement (basically sharpness), Noise Reduction, and some color processing options.

[JarrettH]

So by usable with madvr did you mean dxva works? I noticed if I switch to EVR-CP it shows the Playing [DXVA] in the seek bar, but when I switch back to madvr it does not show [DXVA]

:confused: :thanks:

[nevcairiel]

The display of DXVA in that bar in MPC-HC is irrelevant, LAV CUVID functions the same no matter which renderer is used.

[ney2x]

I saw something weird. Can someone explain the "p" and "i" from the images. Regarding ffdshow, does it do its job like deinterlacing, deband, sharpen, etc. if LAV CUVID already deinterlace the video? Sorry for lot of questions. :devil:

External Filters:
File Source (Async.)
LAV Splitter
LAV CUVID Decoder
LAV Audio Decoder
- madvr reports xxx minutes frame repeat

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/4417/1080pp.jpg


External Filters:
File Source (Async.)
LAV Splitter
LAV CUVID Decoder
ffdshow raw video filter (1080p/720p=deinterlacing, deband, sharpen | DivX=deinterlacing, postprocessing, deband, blur and nr, sharpen)
LAV Audio Decoder
- madvr reports xxx hours/days frame repeat

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/6513/1080iv.jpg

Note: Images got from Reclock's Media Info.

[JarrettH]

Driver 275.33 is significantly faster with CUDA 4.0 like it says on the front page :cool:

[ryrynz]

Now if that wasn't a hint, what else could be ;)

Hilarious, it seems like no matter what Madshi says it's a hint at some new software he's developing or an upcoming feature. It's almost become a meme on Doom9.

[nevcairiel]

I saw something weird. Can someone explain the "p" and "i" from the images. Regarding ffdshow, does it do its job like deinterlacing, deband, sharpen, etc. if LAV CUVID already deinterlace the video?

Well ffdshow obviously doesn't deinterlace anymore, because its already done.
The difference in "i" and "p" can be ignored, its just something ffdshow sets in the media type, but makes no difference for the resulting images.

[tormento]

Win7DSFilterTweaker_4.2 allows to choose the Lav Cuvid too but only the x86! Do you think it is a Win7DSFilterTweaker_4.2 problem or Lav Cuvid?

[clsid]

Will be added in next version.

[tormento]

If you meant 4.3 it doesn't work yet.

[pankov]

The only issue is that channel changes seem to take quite long, maybe i can improve that somehow.DVBViewer option "Fast Channel Switching" produces this effect (Settings -> TV+Radio -> Fast Channel Switching).
Nev,
actually the problem is not only when changing channels. If for some reason there is a drop in the transmission (week signal / not enough bandwidth of the network between DVBViewer and DVB Recording Service) the picture will get stuck while the audio will continue. After some time the picture will start again. This doesn't happen with other decoders I've tried (MS/CoreAVC/Dscaler/FFDShow)
I guess the reason is some kind of buffering done by LAV CUVID Decoder but I hope you'll be able to skip it for live streams, cause for me, and I believe many others LAV CUVID is the best decoder for NVidia and I really would like to use it for Live TV.

[jmone]

I've been trialling a move from ATI to a GTS 450 to use LAV CUVID to get access to high quality deinterlacing of HD Content that my CPU (Q6600) can not handle without maxing out. I'm struggling with a few things and I'm hoping all you nvidia types can help out:
1) When madVR changes the freq sometime the playback is all "stuttery / out of sync" and drops frames till I do a STOP/PLAY cycle at which point it is perfect (a pause/play does not help). I used to also see this issue with Intel GPU's but ATI GPUs seem to be immune to this. Is there a setting in the nvidia control panel for this or any other setting I'm missing as this is a big issue for me. (sorry for the double post in the madVR thread but I don't know if it is a madVR issue, CUVID or just a nvidia "feature")
2) I've not tried to set / change / tweak any other settings yet in the nvidia control panel so what should I look at changing, turning off, etc (eg colour space etc).

Thanks
Nathan

EDIT: Two other more minor issues are:
1) Silent Stream bug: it drops the audio connection when nothing is being played then reestablish it so you lose the first bit of the audio stream
2) Resetting the Windows resolution when losing EDID data when the AVR changes source (thank heavens for the DVI Detective Plus to solve this one!)

[CruNcher]

You should be only careful with Nvidias IVTC in the Control Panel depending on the Decoder side implementation and on the used Renderer it can backfire, other issue aren't known to me that can cause severe problems (unwanted playback behavior). So if you experience strange playback like unwanted dropped frames in some content turning of Nvidias IVTC can fix that for now.

[JarrettH]

Is there some reason why the XviD decoder in ffdshow would look visually better than using CUVID? It just seems to have a clearer appearance and less banding noticeable. Are there any technical differences which could contribute? :cool:

[CruNcher]

yep idct/fdct differences it's not like with H.264 where it's standardized for the Encoder for Mpeg-2 and 4 part 2 if the idct doesn't match it can result in what you describe :)

[jmone]

Thanks for the suggestions. In the nvidia control panel I've left it all as std except under
Adjust Desktop Colour Settings:
- Colour Format --> RGB
- Content Type Reported to Display --> Desktop Programs (???0-255???)
Video - Adjust Video Colour Settings
- Check On nvidia Setting
- Under Advanced --> Full 0-255 & Turn OFF all the "Digital Picture Improvement"
- Under Adjust Video Image Settings --> Unckeck "use Inverse Telecline"

The trouble is I can not get a reliably stable output with madVR and LAV CUVID (it was fine with ATI, or just using EVR) - any advise on setting to try would be welcome as I've played with the most and can make it worse but not better. I'm still getting:
1) With madVR in Exclusive sometime the playback is all "stuttery / out of sync" and drops frames till I do a STOP/PLAY cycle at which point it is perfect (a pause/play does not help). This seems to can happen both when changing clips with different fps and the refresh rate changer kicks in but I can also get it just doing a seek in one file (eg advancing a chapter in a blu-ray file).
2) With madVR in Full Windowed mode I just get dropped frames on native 1920x1080/60i/50i material no matter what combination of settings I try but it is fine in exclusive mode.

Unless anyone has any ideas or tweaks to try I seem to be stuck with a range of poor choices at this stage of:
* madVR the odd frame presentation / stuttering prob in Exclusive Mode or dropped frames with 1920x1080/50p/60i/50i material in windowed mode OR
* use EVR (and lose madVR's rendering quality)
* go back to ATI (and lose the high quality deinterlacing of 1920x1080/50p/60i/50i material)

Thanks
Nathan

[jmone]

FYI - after more playing the following seems OK so far in madVR
* General Settings: All unchecked except "Use a Separate Device for Presentation" and "use D3D11 for Presentation"
* Windowed Mode Settings: Back buffers = 8, and then "flush", "Flush & Wait (Sleep)", "Flush", "Flush & Wait (Loop)"

There is still issues with dropping frames (Backbuffer Q os 0-7) when changing refresh rate at the start of playback but I need to play some more (may also be due to the interaction of JR's Video Clock code)

[Aegwyn11]

So I went ahead and replaced my GT430 with a GTS450 figuring that would fix this problem, but it didn't, so allow me to describe. Not sure if this is a LAV CUVID question or a madVR question so I thought I'd post here first.

Using MPC-HC, LAV CUVID, and madVR, output resolution 1080p, I get smooth playback using the "Film mode" deinterlacing setting. If I try "Video mode", I only get smooth playback when madVR is in windowed mode. As soon as madVR switches to exclusive mode, the video gets stuttery. Its a very consistent stutter that looks (to me) like droppped frames, which is what made me think the GT430 just wasn't fast enough to do madVR at 1080p60 resolutions along with VA deinterlacing, leading me to swap to the GTS450 (based on recommendations in this thread).

The video I'm using to test with is "Human Planet", which is encoded as 1080i. I've also tried disabling the IVTC setting in the Nvidia control panel and that didn't do anything.

Any thoughts?

[ney2x]

So I went ahead and replaced my GT430 with a GTS450 figuring that would fix this problem, but it didn't, so allow me to describe. Not sure if this is a LAV CUVID question or a madVR question so I thought I'd post here first.

Using MPC-HC, LAV CUVID, and madVR, output resolution 1080p, I get smooth playback using the "Film mode" deinterlacing setting. If I try "Video mode", I only get smooth playback when madVR is in windowed mode. As soon as madVR switches to exclusive mode, the video gets stuttery. Its a very consistent stutter that looks (to me) like droppped frames, which is what made me think the GT430 just wasn't fast enough to do madVR at 1080p60 resolutions along with VA deinterlacing, leading me to swap to the GTS450 (based on recommendations in this thread).

The video I'm using to test with is "Human Planet", which is encoded as 1080i. I've also tried disabling the IVTC setting in the Nvidia control panel and that didn't do anything.

Any thoughts?

First, please describe and tell us your current configurations, like what TV/Monitor are you using, if it is capable of 24 or 48 refresh rate. Sometimes, stuttering are TV/monitor fault.

[mark0077]

nev, I have a feature request, not sure if it was requested before or if its too difficult, ignore if so.

About 40% of my content is 25fps PAL dvds, about 40% blu-rays and about 20% PAL music dvds.
Of the 40% pal dvds, about 90% of those don't need de-interlacing however they are badly marked as requiring de-interlacing. About 30% of my music dvds don't need de-interlacing but again are badly marked as requiring it.

This remains one of the only parts of my HTPC that I can't automate without having a bat script and lists of content that fits into each category which I can then use to set various registry keys to enable / disable de-interlacing in for example ffdshow.

Today I notice two problems using this old method of mine, when LAVCUVID is the decoder.

1) Pass interlaced flags onto the next filter:
I can't get LAVCUVID to output the interlaced flag to filters further down the chain like ffdshow, when it itself is set to "Deinterlacing : None (Weave)". Therefore I cannot use ffdshows yadif de-interlacer on / off via registry keys. Is it possible to have lavacuvid pass down the interlaced flag at present or can it be made possible in future versions perhaps?

2) Change lavcuvid settings on the fly:
If I use lavcuvids own de-interlacing settings and set them to None or Adaptive via registry keys, this would be one workaround for the above issue and give me even better de-interlacing than yadif when needs be, but I often play new content that I havn't yet added to my list of content requiring de-interlacing or not, so I like to be able to change the settings on the fly, which is possible in ffdshow for example, ie de-interlacing on or off tickbox. Can lavcuvid's filter settings dialog be made to take settings changes on the fly without requiring a restart of any content?

None of these are absolutely huge issues for me, but would be great improvements none the less for myself and maybe others if you believe they arn't too much work.

Thanks!

[Aegwyn11]

First, please describe and tell us your current configurations, like what TV/Monitor are you using, if it is capable of 24 or 48 refresh rate. Sometimes, stuttering are TV/monitor fault.

The TV is a Panasonic ST30 plasma, supports input of all the NTSC framerates, not sure about the PAL ones (don't care about the PAL ones anyway). I've got MPC-HC set up to change the refresh rate dependant on frame rate. 24p (23.976) auto configures to 23.976 output and both the "Default/Other" and the 29.97 (NTSC) settings are set to 59Hz.

I have no problems with movies (24p). Interlaced works fine and dandy if I set the setting in LAV CUVID to "Film mode". Set it to "Video mode" and it gets stuttery. Also, I just tried it with an episode of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" (the cartoon, not the crappy movie), which is 480i, and the results seem to be the same.

[ney2x]

The TV is a Panasonic ST30 plasma, supports input of all the NTSC framerates, not sure about the PAL ones (don't care about the PAL ones anyway). I've got MPC-HC set up to change the refresh rate dependant on frame rate. 24p (23.976) auto configures to 23.976 output and both the "Default/Other" and the 29.97 (NTSC) settings are set to 59Hz.

I have no problems with movies (24p). Interlaced works fine and dandy if I set the setting in LAV CUVID to "Film mode". Set it to "Video mode" and it gets stuttery. Also, I just tried it with an episode of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" (the cartoon, not the crappy movie), which is 480i, and the results seem to be the same.

Oh well, let's wait for nev or some expert here... I have Samsung LED TV and Sony Plasma and even Dell Monitor here and my playback of any kind of movies are flawless. My setup: LAV CUVID, LAV Filters, madvr, ffdshow raw video filter and Reclock -- all latest version/rev/build. Oh, do you use Reclock?

[jmone]

Did you try first changing the refresh rate then commencing playback? There is certainly something Odd (have yet to get to the bottom of it) where using madVR's refresh rate changer I can not keep the final queue from dropping to Zero and hence then dropping frames in conjunction with LAVCUVID/nvidia.....

[jmone]

Getting Closer to smooth playback! - I found one issue in that J.Rivers MC's "Video Clock" (aka reclock) is causing most (not all) dropped frames when ON with this combo of filters when madVR changes the refresh rate - I've posted over there.

[Aegwyn11]

Oh well, let's wait for nev or some expert here... I have Samsung LED TV and Sony Plasma and even Dell Monitor here and my playback of any kind of movies are flawless. My setup: LAV CUVID, LAV Filters, madvr, ffdshow raw video filter and Reclock -- all latest version/rev/build. Oh, do you use Reclock?

I'm not using Reclock and previously I was using the MPC-HC built in splitter.

Okay so I'm not sure what the heck was going on, but the problem seems to be solved. I was trying some things and started getting some ODD operation from MPC-HC where it would always stay on top and full screen, preventing me from accessing menus (like the LAV CUVID setup menu) and causing other headaches like closing MPC-HC! I had to uninstall MPC-HC (deleting all settings), reinstall, and get everything set back up. Once I got everything set back up, I changed over to LAV splitter. Now I get smooth playback with deinterlacing set to "video mode". Yay.

In short tests, it seems that I still get a hiccup here and there, so I might give Reclock a try later and see what happens, but the original problem I asked about seems to be solved.

[Bryanhoop]

Oh well, let's wait for nev or some expert here... I have Samsung LED TV and Sony Plasma and even Dell Monitor here and my playback of any kind of movies are flawless. My setup: LAV CUVID, LAV Filters, madvr, ffdshow raw video filter and Reclock -- all latest version/rev/build. Oh, do you use Reclock?

What is the ffdshow raw filter used for? Subtitles?

[SamuriHL]

What is the ffdshow raw filter used for? Subtitles?

Yea, that's what I'm using it for anyway. Don't know about the OP.

[robpdotcom]

You can use the regular video decoder as well, and I believe it's basically the same. Just set it to accept raw formats, and disable decoding of whichever formats you don't want decoded.

[ney2x]

What is the ffdshow raw filter used for? Subtitles?

Yeah, subtitles, deband, sharpen. I follow the guides here (http://www.homecinema-hd.com/ffdshow-video-introduction_en.html)

[sixor]

hi i have been using this for some time now, working perfect so far (with mad vr)

but my question is about quality, which should give me the best quality? core avc, lav cuvid or mpchc dxva? or they are just the same?

[ney2x]

hi i have been using this for some time now, working perfect so far (with mad vr)

but my question is about quality, which should give me the best quality? core avc, lav cuvid or mpchc dxva? or they are just the same?

From my own experience:
MPC-HC DXVA = not so smooth.
LAV CUVID = perfect if pair with ffdshow filters.
CoreAVC = fine, but seeking problem and not so nice support :devil:

Edit: For me, there's no difference when watching with smaller screens (22" - 32"), but with large screens (42" - above) I see some pixelation.

[roozhou]

hi i have been using this for some time now, working perfect so far (with mad vr)

but my question is about quality, which should give me the best quality? core avc, lav cuvid or mpchc dxva? or they are just the same?
Are you talking about image quality? You cannot judge video decoders by quality. There is only two kinds of decoders, correct and incorrect. All correct decoders have exactly the same "quality".

[sixor]

thanks ney2x,roozhou

then i guess will keep using lav cuvid since i like the divx support, for h264 i just can´t see a difference

[jmone]

FYI from the madVR thread: after some quick testing with the latest MC V121 (with a clean install / default settings of madVR V66) it seems to have addressed the presentation/stuttering issues! :)

[nussman]

After some test with dvbviewer pro and LiveTV i recognized some problems with format changes and channel changes (mpeg2 and h.264).
On format (channel) changes the pictures freezes several seconds or stopped until I rebuild the graph.
Dvbviewer does not rebuild the graph by format/channel changes.
LAV CUVID doesnt like on the fly format changes?

By the way LAV CUVID works very well here with correct deinterlacing (576i50 and 1080i). Thanks for your good work!
GPU= GT430
Driver= 275.33 (win7 32bit, evr custom renderer)

[RedDwarf1]

After some test with dvbviewer pro and LiveTV i recognized some problems with format changes and channel changes (mpeg2 and h.264).
On format (channel) changes the pictures freezes several seconds or stopped until I rebuild the graph.
Dvbviewer does not rebuild the graph by format/channel changes.
LAV CUVID doesnt like on the fly format changes?

By the way LAV CUVID works very well here with correct deinterlacing (576i50 and 1080i). Thanks for your good work!
GPU= GT430
Driver= 275.33 (win7 32bit, evr custom renderer)

Just been testing this with DVBViewer and it doesn't do too well with H.264 1920 video.

It constantly stuttering, pausing, freezing and shows a black screen and doesn't play smoothly. It uses quite a bit of the GPU, I'm getting around 57 to 71% while it's decoding but that drops to zero when it is failing to decode the stream.

I believe it is meant to be the Video Engine that does decoding. That is what gets used when neuron's DGDecodeNV is decoding H.264 video. Comparing with CoreAVC using CUDA, the GPU load is much higher although the video engine load is a little lower than CoreAVC at around 25%.

With Mpeg2 everything works fine.

I'm using a 1GB GT 240 with the latest 275.33 drivers on Win XP SP3.

Therefore, it seems that some more work is needed to get this working correctly. I look forward to trying it when it is working better.

[nussman]

I'm using a 1GB GT 240 with the latest 275.33 drivers on Win XP SP3.

Did you try vmr9 custom renderer?

[nevcairiel]

LAV CUVID Decoder 0.9

0.9 - 2011/07/05
- Slightly faster seeking
- Improvements to dynamic format changes
- Safe-Guards against crashes inside the NVIDIA decoding functions

Download: Installer (32/64-bit, CUDA 4.0+) (http://files.1f0.de/cuvid/LAVCUVID-0.9.exe) - 32-bit (CUDA 4.0+) (http://files.1f0.de/cuvid/LAVCUVID-0.9.zip) - 64-bit (CUDA 4.0+) (http://files.1f0.de/cuvid/LAVCUVID-0.9-x64.zip) -- 32-bit (Older CUDA) (http://files.1f0.de/cuvid/LAVCUVID-0.9-LegacyCUDA.zip)

This is a pretty minor release, but i wanted to get those fixes out before they rot on my disc for much longer while i work on other things. So here it is!

Have fun!

[Sebastiii]

Thanks :)

[jmone]

All good for me...

[RedDwarf1]

Did you try vmr9 custom renderer?

Yes and it doesn't alter anything.

v0.9 is a tiny bit better in that it displays video for longer without the long black screen pauses but it is certainly not smooth playback.

[Volfield]

few bugs in v0.9:
- render madvr, haali splitter, MPCHC or Potplayer. When unpause movie image back to a few frames. This bug does not occur on EVRCP.
- any render, haali splitter, MPCHC or Potplayer. When change audio stream picture stops for a few seconds and then catches up with the current frame. This bug does not occur with Your splitter.

My pc: CPu: Intel i5. GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT 320M 275.33 drivers, Win7 x64 SP1

[mindbomb]

minor problem here:

I changed to an ati graphics card in one of my computers, and i cant uninstall this filter now.

[andyvt]

minor problem here:

I changed to an ati graphics card in one of my computers, and i cant uninstall this filter now.

regsvr32 /u

[mindbomb]

also, does lav cuvid work with dvd's if you use EVR CP?

[JarrettH]

also, does lav cuvid work with dvd's if you use EVR CP?

It doesn't support the menu navigation to get the movie started :p

[madshi]

What does the decoder have to do with the menu navigation? I thought the menu navigation would be a separate subtitle pin in the *navigation* filter? I don't really know, though, just wondering...

[nevcairiel]

The decoder has nothing to do with the menu navigation. TBH, i have no idea how menus are rendered in DirectShow, but i do know that it has nothing to do with the decoder. :)
Anyhow, LAV CUVID is not compatible with the MS DVD Navigator at this time. It might be added later.

[madshi]

Macrovision once again?

[nevcairiel]

Yeah, the DVD Navigator sends the streams encrypted, and the decryption is just not integrated in LAV CUVID. I do have it in LAV Audio, so it would just be a matter of moving it over, but meh. I r teh busy.