LAV Video Decoder Hardware Acceleration Issues!!

[Númenórean]

Hi all!! I am in desperate need of help with "LAV Video Decoder" issues I'm having.
Recently I upgraded my video card to "GIGABYTE GV-N550D5-1GI GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB" to take advantage of NVIDEA CUVID decoder.

My System Hardware are the following:

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-H55M-USB3 REV 1.0
CPU: Intel Core i3-530 Clarkdale 2.93GHz LGA 1156
Memory: ADATA XPG Gaming Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Video: GIGABYTE GV-N550D5-1GI GeForce GTX 550 Ti
GeForce 296.10 Driver

I am using the latest version of MPC-HC and have updated all the drivers on my system, including Bios,
I want to use the following filters:
LAV Audio Decoder
LAV Video Decoder
madVR

Here is my Issue:
In MPC-HC, I have set the following External Filters to use LAV Splitter,LAV Video Decoder, LAV Audio Decoder and all set to "Prefer”, and on the Output I have set “madVR” as the renderer.
Essentially I have followed the Hi10P guide @ http://haruhichan.com/wpblog/index.php/205/hi10p-info-guide.html

If I enable hardware acceleration in LAV Video Decoder and then open a mkv file to play, the movie opens but the screen flashes back and forth in a grey hazy flash, back and forth intermittently.
When I say the screen flashes,I don't mean my TV screen, just the MPC-HC player, its a quick millisecond flash...
The picture is crystal clear in one minute and the next its hazy! really weird!
If I disable the hardware acceleration, the movie plays fine.

I cant imagine my hardware is not powerful enough for this kind of decoding!

I have followed various guides and the result is the same. I have re-formatted my pc for clean installs half a dozen times(getting old fast) to no avail, never had this kind of issues with Radeon HD setup, I figured to try and see what’s the hoopla with NVIDEA CUVID/LAV/madVR was all about(superior picture they say).

btw... I'm not playing 10bit anime , just regular mkv ripped blu-ray movies...


Can someone please help!! I'm running out of patience...:(
:thanks:Thanks!!!

[Númenórean]

C'mon Guys!! nobody has an opinion? a starting point? ...something!

Nevcairiel, I at least expected to hear from you for some help...... If my information is not enough to make a judgement, please let me know what you need...

Thanks again to ALL !!
http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa408/Numenoreans/Forums/b2-thanks-for-adding-me-comments-info50.gif

[dukey]

hardware acceleration doesn't work with 10bit video.

[Númenórean]

hardware acceleration doesn't work with 10bit video.

Thanks dukey!! but I'm not playing 10bit anime , just regular mkv ripped movies.....

Just used Hi10P guide...that's all

:thanks:

[Superb]

a. Remove all codecs and players (including their settings).
b. Install LAV Filters using all the defaults. Don't turn off LAV Splitter or anything else during the installation. After it installs, configure LAV Video to decode using CUVID.
c. Install the latest DirectX end user runtime update.
d. Install the latest MPC-HC from: http://xhmikosr.1f0.de/mpc-hc/ (use the installer)
e. Turn off all MPC-HC's internal filters under Settings -> Internal Filters (=both columns). Turn off the Internal stream switcher as well (under Settings -> Audio Switcher).
f. Restart MPC-HC and check if everything plays correctly. Give us a screenshot of the right click -> Filters menu while playing.
g. Install madVR (+configure MPC-HC to use it). At the first time it runs (when playing a video), turn off its internal video decoding and restart the player.

I think this thread should be moved to the newbies forum. You shouldn't just follow guides w/o knowing what each step means.

[Númenórean]

a. Remove all codecs and players (including their settings).
b. Install LAV Filters using all the defaults. Don't turn off LAV Splitter or anything else during the installation. After it installs, configure LAV Video to decode using CUVID.
c. Install the latest DirectX end user runtime update.
d. Install the latest MPC-HC from: http://xhmikosr.1f0.de/mpc-hc/ (use the installer)
e. Turn off all MPC-HC's internal filters under Settings -> Internal Filters (=both columns). Turn off the Internal stream switcher as well (under Settings -> Audio Switcher).
f. Restart MPC-HC and check if everything plays correctly. Give us a screenshot of the right click -> Filters menu while playing.
g. Install madVR (+configure MPC-HC to use it). At the first time it runs (when playing a video), turn off its internal video decoding and restart the player.

I think this thread should be moved to the newbies forum. You shouldn't just follow guides w/o knowing what each step means.



Thanks Superb!! ....and yes compared to you I am a newbie...

Thank You for your response!!!

nonetheless, I took your advice and did everything to a T as we say...
I even went a step further and reformatted the hard drive to make sure is was a clean start. I did exactly as you said.

but.... the problem continues...

after step
"f. Restart MPC-HC and check if everything plays correctly. Give us a screenshot of the right click -> Filters menu while playing."

I restarted MPC-HC and without installing madVR the movie still flashed.

I did some additional investigation.
Earlier in the post i said "When I say the screen flashes,I don't mean my TV screen, just the MPC-HC player, its a quick millisecond flash..." but that is not true.

Because my desktop background on Plasma TV Panasonic TH-42PZ85U had a bright desktop background, I did not see it Flash.
I then installed a black desktop background and played a movie with MPC-HC. I re-sized MPC-HC to the center of the TV and sure enough the whole screen flashed not just the movie within MPC-HC.

Also what I noticed, while MPC-HC was re-sized to the center of the TV and a movie was playing, the black desktop background was noticeably clearer and brighter, if I minimized MPC-HC to the taskbar the black desktop background turned back to its dull hue.I did this back and forth and the clarity of the desktop would change.
Is this normal??

In addition, I thought I record the screen, post it in this forum, so I could show you exactly what was happening.
I used FastStone Screen capture to video record the entire screen while the movie was playing and flashing.
I recorded about 1-2 minutes. I then took that video file and played it back on my "tour de force" PC, not the HTPC, and to my amazement there was no flashing what so ever!!

So what the hell is going on here???

Could it be that my TV is flashing? or FastStone Screen capture is not able to capture what really is happening on the screen?

Is it my TV reacting to the HDMI output? is it out of synch? what could it be?

Additional Info: HTPC > VSX-1019AH > TH-42PZ85U all connections via HDMI.

Here are the pictures you requested in your guide.
http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa408/Numenoreans/Stepf.pnghttp://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa408/Numenoreans/Stepg.pnghttp://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa408/Numenoreans/Steph.png

[Superb]

What is the refresh rate for the TV? (Hz)
What content are you playing? (fps)
Did you turn CUVID on in LAV Video?

[Númenórean]

What is the refresh rate for the TV? (Hz)
What content are you playing? (fps)
Did you turn CUVID on in LAV Video?

What is the refresh rate for the TV?
I believe its 480Hz.
http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa408/Numenoreans/Forums/TH-42PZ85U.png

What content are you playing?
General
Unique ID : 244000383534948404722718063197898826996 (0xB790C3B6DFDC4F40B3BE8157DD9264F4)
Complete name : I:\Blu-ray\Man on a Ledge\Man on a Ledge 1080p DTS.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 13.7 GiB
Duration : 1h 42mn
Overall bit rate : 19.1 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2012-05-11 12:48:50
Writing application : mkvmerge v5.3.0 ('I could have danced') built on Feb 9 2012 10:38:07
Writing library : libebml v1.2.3 + libmatroska v1.3.0
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1h 42mn
Bit rate : 17.6 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 800 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.40:1
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.478
Stream size : 12.3 GiB (90%)
Writing library : x264 core 124 r2197 69a0443
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:-3:-3 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=11 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.15:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=48 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=18 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=0 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=8 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=240 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=17600 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.70 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Did you turn CUVID on in LAV Video?
Yes I did.

[Superb]

It's not 480Hz, heh.
http://i.imgur.com/cEEyW.png
Try changing to a different refresh rate.

[Númenórean]

It's not 480Hz, heh.
http://i.imgur.com/cEEyW.png
Try changing to a different refresh rate.

You are correct!!
According to some other site quote:
"Your TV doesn't actually have a 480Hz refresh rate. What the TV does is take a 60Hz signal and shows each frame 8 times. If you tried to feed it a signal higher than 60 Hz, you'd likely just get a black screen...maybe even an error message."

so it is 60HZ!!

I will go and change refresh rate and let you know asap..

[Númenórean]

Ok what a mess!! sorry took so long...

anything between 60-50HZ, if I could get it in 50Hz, screen would flicker.
At 23-24HZ it would not flicker but I would loose LAV Audio decoder and mouse movement was a bit choppy , not as smooth..

Here is a real stupid question, b4 all this fiasco I was running on a WD 7200rpm Black drive with Radeon HD 5670 with no problems, this new build is running on a 2.5" hybrid drive from Seagate, hybrid is part SSD and part hard disk.
I wonder if it has anything to do with it??

[Númenórean]

Fixed!!! for those who give a DAMN, GeForce 275.33 Driver did the trick......

[Superb]

Nice to hear you've found the problem. You could also try the new 301.41 WHQL drivers.

[kitame]

thats some really old drivers you have there...
306.23 WHQL currently is the latest

also get your drivers straight from nvidia http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

i can't say which is the most stable but you can experiment on them, do note that later drivers gets more perks since some issues gets ironed out and performance tweaks gets implemented.

edit: damn i didnt see this was a really old thread =/