Intel QuickSync Decoder - HW accelerated FFDShow decoder with video processing

[egur]

QuickSync doesn't decode 10 bit H264 (HW limitation). ffdshow will fallback to libavcodec.
So QuickSync will play what it can and libavcodec will do the rest.

[Pulp Catalyst]

have a small question about getting quicksync decoding working with LAV decoder using Directsource in MeGUI.

extended desktop doesn't work for me, it causes stutter with my mouse, and some other things.

now i have used virtu MVP, i have added MeGUI executable & added Xvid encraw, for x264 i have added the x264 executable along with avs2x264mod (or what ever that is)

now when i load up a project in megui, i access the source using direct, LAV decoder is reporting that Quicksync is working and available.... i'm concerned that this.... hack if you will shouldn't be used to get around quicksync not being available.

[egur]

Using Virtu MVP to get QS to work is not a hack. That's perfectly fine.
Virtu directs DX9/DXVA2 calls to the Intel GPU (iGPU) so QS decoder can enumarate the iGPU and create the relevant HW devices.

[Pulp Catalyst]

excellent, didn't even think it would work, but it has worked really well, i can finally dump the extended desktop.... causes so many issues for me, especially when playing games!

[egur]

Good for you.
Personally I don't have any issues with extended desktop. Never had.

[Pulp Catalyst]

The mouse issue for me was a nightmare when using extended desktop, especially in Firefox, although done some looking,
http://www.eightforums.com/general-support/12526-insanely-annoying-mouse-lag-two-monitors-attached.html

http://superuser.com/questions/492685/cursor-lag-when-mouse-cursor-changes

These two links is what I found that does match the experience I had with extended desktop a few months ago, haven’t tried since.

although the above only shows the issues with the mouse, for example using Firefox (browser) really exaggerated the issue because the mouse pointer changes constantly when you float over links and such things (elements) inside a webpage, so the lagging was awful to see, it was like seeing huge CPU spiking behaviour, yet the cpu was fine. however like I said, a few games were misbehaving though as well because the top right corner wasn't working like it should within a game context, and having to keep turning extended desktop on/off although worked, was getting a little tedious.

Although, VirtuMVP technology is still quite early in its form, in time (assuming they can stay in the business), it will get better. Version 2.0 has just come out now, although it's not hardware based, which is quite.... well it's different.

although by attaching the executable that calls on the decoders seems to work OK for the example above, MeGUI, I have found that it also works attaching Media player classic, although there is a big problem with this, the image seems to have strange artefacts that are put on the screen, it's a bit like only having 16bit colours instead of the full 32bit (I'm not explaining that properly I know), but there definitely is an issue with the display, but it's hard to pin such things down due the complicated path (Intel, VirtuMVP drivers or the decoders themselves). Although some GUI's don't play nice, for example Handbrake definitely is not compatible (at present) as the GUI shows strange behaviour (GUI buttons highlight but they stay on even when mouse pointer is no longer floating over them), and in one instance I actually had a BSOD (I know, very bad.... definitely an issue that is driver related, but again which one), but in fairness VirtuMVP does warn you when your about to attach an unverified executable to it's system, downside to this however is that handbrake is going to introduce (officially) OpenCL in the next several months (assuming they can work out the bottlenecks they're having at the moment), I would very much like it to have access to the iGPU, but i'm getting way of topic here.

anyway I have waffled on I know, but I wrote this post to share my experience with VirtuMVP - Extended Desktop - alternative, in case anyone does a search for it, and for those who may also not want to use the extended desktop option and yet wishes to have the monitor connected to the discrete GPU but also want to open up the Intel HD2500/4000 for assistance in (de)encoding. Hopefully the posted links above can help those with the mouse lag effect with Extended desktop in use (although haven't verified they actually work, and only few seem to be experiencing that problem).

When using programs like MeGUI, Xvid4psp, fortunately the tools that need attaching to VirtuMVP can easily be found in there relevant directory somewhere, however programs like Hanbrake that are self-contained, things obviously now get tricky (hit and miss)

[nevcairiel]

I reported the mouse cursor lag with extended Desktop to Intel a while ago: http://communities.intel.com/thread/33324
Just a few days ago an Intel rep commented in that thread saying it was fixed for an upcoming driver, so i can only hope that is true. As a workaround for me i stuck with the 2761 driver, any newer drivers started the issue.

Now more waiting until the new driver appears ;)

[Pulp Catalyst]

how weird is that, i mean the timing....

the artifacts i was refering to i looked at more closely, they are actually already present in the image, however they are very difficult to see (dark scenes, compression artifacts i believe), but when going through quicksync decoding (LAV Video), the artifacts are brought out much more, to the point where they now become a focal point, turn off Quicksync (avcodec) and the artifacts become background (hard to see).

So correcting what i said above post, the artificats that are present in the image already, especially in dark scenes, seems to be emphasized "if you will" when using quicksync LAV Video decoder over the avcodec.

[egur]

If a specific clip looks wrong, please share.
Also check your driver setting - turn off adaptive contrast. That could emphasize such artifacts.

Edit
Nev, nice catch on the mouse lag bug. How did you root cause it?

[nevcairiel]

I just noticed that the problem started after updating the Intel driver, so i gave it a shot downgrading it, wasn't much magic involved to figure it out, considering it also only happens on my desktop with multiple GPUs.

[NikosD]

It's been very quite last months from Intel's driver team.

Latest driver is 2932 from December 2012.

Is there something big for the next release ?

No need for a new driver ? :confused:

[egur]

I'll be on family vacation till April 11th starting Marth 17th. Expect a slow response.
Happy Easter and Passover.

[egur]

It's been very quite last months from Intel's driver team.

Latest driver is 2932 from December 2012.

Is there something big for the next release ?

No need for a new driver ? :confused:

A new driver will probably be available soon from the 15.28 line (IVB/SNB).

When Haswell will launch, the 15.31 driver that comes with it is more Windows 8 oriented and has a few new features. When it's released, the features are listed in the release notes.
I don't think it will support SNB though.

[GTPVHD]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-4770k-haswell-performance,3461.html

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

Hope AVX2 can be used to improve performance some more.

[wanezhiling]

I am a bit disappointed for Haswell...

Maybe its just AMDs fault (cant create an equal product)...

[nevcairiel]

Haswell seems to improve performance quite a bit. Compared to SNB, the GPU is almost twice as fast, and general CPU performance seems to increase more than the SNB->IVB upgrade did, and not to mention how AVX2 will greatly boost integer operations that are still using SSE2 today. :)

[NikosD]

Very slow progress from SNB -> IVB -> HAS due to AMD's bullshitdozer

Haswell is 7% to 13% faster than IvyBridge.
GT2 HD4600 (desktop fastest) is slower than AMD Trinity A10-5800.

No GT3 for the Desktop ? Not even in BGA form ? Why ?

[ryrynz]

'Cos they don't care about graphics performance for the desktop. It's all about mobile these days.

[wanezhiling]

Because Intel wanna the low-end Nvidia/AMD mobile cards to die forever.:p

[andyvt]

'Cos they don't care about graphics performance for the desktop. It's all about mobile these days.

My understanding is that it comes down to what the large PC OEMs ask for. There is very low demand for high-end IPG on the desktop, those users are going to buy dGPU anyway (and OEMs have incentives to push that direction as well). The niche of users who want more go from the GPU, but don't want a dGPU (i.e. us) is so small that there's not much point in building it.

[ryrynz]

My understanding is that it comes down to what the large PC OEMs ask for. There is very low demand for high-end IPG on the desktop, those users are going to buy dGPU anyway (and OEMs have incentives to push that direction as well). The niche of users who want more go from the GPU, but don't want a dGPU (i.e. us) is so small that there's not much point in building it.

Exactly, the mobile space is much more lucrative and there's a fair amount of systems I'm selling that have GT 630/635s or HD 7670s inside that Intel would be trying to target with the GT3.
Of course there's still the issue with drivers but thankfully they're not as bad as they used to be.

As much as I would love a desktop CPU with GT3 it looks like we'll just have to wait another year for that level of performance with the release of Broadwell which is set to give us a 40% increase over GT2. I'm definitely looking forward to that although the BGA only restriction may put some off but who upgrades just their CPU these days? We don't have a top to bottom range on a single socket any more.

Because Intel wanna the low-end Nvidia/AMD mobile cards to die forever.:p

That too and they're doing a fairly good job of it so far. I think we'll continue to see very strong performance increases in GPU performance every generation, AMD & Nvidia watch out, especially AMD.

[NikosD]

As an owner of a Samsung Galaxy Note II the last 4 months, I believe like you that the future of personal computing is consolidation in a single portable device; most likely a smartphone.

But that's completely different than putting GT3 inside Desktop or raising the performance bar between CPU generations.

Those kind of decisions are based on the fact that noone pushes Intel for anything.
No real competition means slow progress and business oriented decision s with mininum benefits for the users.

IBM is the only CPU competitor of Intel but in a different level - big systems.
Maybe IBM should come down to PCs or even better, should buy AMD.

Tapatalk από Galaxy Note II

[hajj_3]

haswell improvements:
cpu - 2-7%
gpu - 20%

Pretty poor to be honest :(

[nevcairiel]

All tests i've seen show a consistently higher CPU gain there, but until there are tests on actual retail chips on retail platforms, the tests may be of limited value.

[NikosD]

Besides specific instructions use like AVX2 and FMA3 which needs recompilation of existing software with Intel compiler, for every other general purpose use, Haswell will be faster than Ivy about 10% on average.

Let's hope that will not be slower on some tasks, like Tom's hardware silicon shows clearly.

[huhn]

i got an error with quicksync.

my mpc hc crashes when 4k content is played with lavfilter quicksync.

dxva works fine and dxva cp does not work with 4 k but it falls back to software decoding. so i'm pretty sure the problem is in the quicksync decoder.

i'm using a i7 3770k.

my aim is to run 4k vids throw quicksync on my display with is connected to my amd graphic card which can't handle 4k at all.

1080p works fine with quicksync.

i think i need the error log but is not in the mpc hc folder...

[TEB]

hi. Is there a list/table of cpu models that infact supports Quicksync? Im defining a new spec for large scale CCTV workstations wich is rackmounted and i only can seem to find Xeon E5-26xx series cpu's.. and i cant seem to figure out if they support quicksync.


br TE

[wanezhiling]

I reported the mouse cursor lag with extended Desktop to Intel a while ago: http://communities.intel.com/thread/33324
Just a few days ago an Intel rep commented in that thread saying it was fixed for an upcoming driver, so i can only hope that is true. As a workaround for me i stuck with the 2761 driver, any newer drivers started the issue.

Now more waiting until the new driver appears ;)

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=22627&lang=eng&wapkw=15.28.15.64.3062

The driver seems only support snb o.O
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/22627/eng/releasenotes_gfx_3062_64.pdf

[wanezhiling]

http://file2.mydrivers.com/display/intel_Graphics_15.31.2-3055-w7-8-64.zip
a leaked haswell/ivb driver.

[NikosD]

It seems they have resolved a lot in this release..
No 4K of course in the horizon.

Sent from my Galaxy Note II

[huhn]

so 4k quicksync is a know issue?

[nevcairiel]

4K works just fine on Ivy Bridge, but its not supported on Sandy Bridge, and will never be.

Also, apparently the issue i had with the mouse pointer lag was not fixed in the new driver.

[huhn]

i got a 3770k and my mpc hc crashes with lavfilter quicksync


tested with these samples http://xhmikosr.1f0.de/samples/2160p/
no problem with dxva but with quicksync the player crash without crash log...

maybe quicksync can't handle 50 fps 4k?

[foxyshadis]

hi. Is there a list/table of cpu models that infact supports Quicksync? Im defining a new spec for large scale CCTV workstations wich is rackmounted and i only can seem to find Xeon E5-26xx series cpu's.. and i cant seem to figure out if they support quicksync.


br TE

Only CPUs with a GPU have quicksync. That pretty much rules out all of the E5 series, as far as I can tell.

[GTPVHD]

http://www.legitreviews.com/news/15333/

http://i.imgur.com/oy4tCHx.jpg

New major driver release for IVB this week.

[ryrynz]

Yet another reason to ditch my 2600K for the 4770S. Can't wait for these things to be released so I can grab one and benchmark it's media handling capabilities, check it's temp and listen to that sweet sweet silence.

[NikosD]

I've just seen at Xbitlabs.com an interesting comparison between Trinity and IvyBridge.

CPU of Ivy is a tad faster but GPU of Trinity is a lot faster.

The most interesting part of the review is that they claim they enabled DXVA HW accelerated 4K content with AMD Trinity APU.

And it's faster than Ivy Bridge 4K!

They say:

"For example, we used in our test a widescreen 4096x1744p@24fps clip encoded in H.264 format with a bitrate of about 34 Mbps. If played via DXVA with enabled hardware decoding, we have dropped frames"

Look here for benchmark results of 4K decoding:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/trinity-vs-ivy-bridge_11.html#sect0

[nevcairiel]

No current ATI GPU supports 4K decoding properly, maybe they didn't notice and accidentally used CPU or some shit. They even claim the FPS is tied to the CPUs capability in their tests, which may enforce that point.
Never blindly trust some weird review site.

[wanezhiling]

They didn't give any proof that the dxva is active.

I am probably sure Trinity is in sw mode becasue mpc-hc only offers 4k dxva ability to vp5 and ivb.

PS: they used mpc-hc 1.6.5, funny, 1.6.5 didn't enable 4k dxva on all cards....

[NikosD]

Before I even write here, I had already asked them in the comments, how did they managed to even enable 4K decoding with drivers limited resolution to 1080p.

I believe the same. The decoding was pure software for both platforms because it is strange that QuickSync didn't manage to keep the frame rate.

By the way, is someone willing to provide some benchmark results of 4K decoding of Ivy QuickSync on let's say XhmikosR 4K samples with DXVA Checker ?

I would do that if I had an Ivy :D

Eric, Nev, Wanez ?

[nevcairiel]

DXVA Checker has stopped working for me since some version, i can't get it to do benchmarks anymore, crap software is crap.

[NikosD]

For me it's working, I don't remember having problems with that.
Latest version 2.9.1 is stable and accurate.

GraphStudio Next then. But is it possible to benchmark DXVA native with GraphStudio Next ?

Or any other benchmark app I don't know.

If you are planning to do so, use your decoder of course :D but in both versions if it's possible - DXVA native and Eric's QuickSync.

[wanezhiling]

DXVA Checker has stopped working for me since some version, i can't get it to do benchmarks anymore
Same here, no any normal clips can be tested in dxva checker, dont know why.

With lav dxva + evr-cp, that 50fps ducks cilp works fine, not like vp5 (vp5 only 30fps)

I have no interest in 4K benchmarks anymore, meaningless, at least in 2013.

[huhn]

If you are planning to do so, use your decoder of course but in both versions if it's possible - DXVA native and Eric's QuickSync.
you are looking for things like that ? http://s3.imgimg.de/uploads/dxvaivy4kd7e22f1bpng.png this is the DucksTakeOff_2160p50.x264.CRF24 sample

i can't test this with quicksync only 1080p. 4k didn't work for me. sry i have to ask egur for help first.

i can do the check with the 1080p samples you got on your thread but i can't download them https://rapidshare.com/files/632074993/8.Birds_1080p24fpsRef4-112Mbps.mkv

cpu is an i7 3770k the igpu is at stock clock

[NikosD]

you are looking for things like that ? http://s3.imgimg.de/uploads/dxvaivy4kd7e22f1bpng.png this is the DucksTakeOff_2160p50.x264.CRF24 sample


Nice! That is exactly what I was looking for.
Thanks.


i can do the check with the 1080p samples you got on your thread but i can't download them https://rapidshare.com/files/632074993/8.Birds_1080p24fpsRef4-112Mbps.mkv


You can find every 1080p sample at the ftp link below, along with many 2160p clips.

Try the most difficult of both resolutions, if it's possible.

ftp://helpedia.com/pub/multimedia/x264/testvideos/

[huhn]

i post the results in your dxva post

[ryrynz]

http://www.legitreviews.com/news/15333/

http://i.imgur.com/oy4tCHx.jpg

New major driver release for IVB this week.

Quick OT post regarding this.

The GUI has been Windows 8ified, which I'm okay with but you gotta do it right and some of the graphics and design choices are pretty bad. The right click menu has been expanded on the left more to fit Intel's logo which doesn't look good, also why keep the white background around the logo? The Tiles have images that are clearly stretched and well, don't get me started on those info ? circles...

I feel like the clock has been turned back couple of decades, the previous UI was a lot more visually appealing, also my WEI scores didn't go up! Disappointed. :P

[huhn]

this fixed my 4k issue

[nevcairiel]

From the above driver..

Support for features like Intel® Quick Sync Video and OpenCL* in systems with discrete graphics on Windows 8
o Now, one can use both Intel Quick Sync Video and OpenCL even when Intel® HD Graphics is not the primary display adapter
o This requires Intel Graphics driver to be installed and will work only on Windows 8 platforms.


Does this mean what i think it does? Using QuickSync even if the Intel GPU has no attached screen?
Anything else wouldn't make any sense, because it worked before, right?

Too bad its only Win8, i won't get to test that anytime soon.

[fano]

A question guys this board or better the integrated processor supports QuickSync or not?

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-board-dn2800mt.html

Or is only for Intel Core?

There's a list of processors that support it?

Thanks ;)