Efficient h264 software decoders for 4K

[fenomeno83]

Hi. What is best decoder for 2160p h264 videos?

Actually the best combination that I found is:
coreavc 3.0.1 (with deblocking on skip always) + mpc hc 32 bit + video render haali.

I some cases works very good, but with others 4k videos it lost several frames (but cpu is about 50% only).

I've an intel core i5 m430 2.27GHZ.

Is it possibile force coreavc to use more cpu?

Or is there a h264 decoder better than coreavc? (i've tried lav, but coreavc performs much better on my pc)

Thanks!!

[amayra]

how about LAVFilters i think is the best decoder ?

[amayra]

wait is CoreAVC is dead

[fenomeno83]

In my case old coreavc(with skip deblocking) is faster than lavfilter on 4k

[amayra]

im not recommended haali try EVR/EVR-CP with dxva2 i think this well help
and what gpu do you have ?
and why mpc 32 bit not 64bit ?

[fenomeno83]

I've intel i5 m430 with ati mobility radeon 5650 hd. Windows 10.
I don't think that my video card can accelerate h264 4k, so i need to use software decoding.
Coreavc works only on mpc 32 bit..and in this case seems that haali works better than evr.

Any suggestion?
Thanks

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Hi. What is best decoder for 2160p h264 videos?

Please edit your title in accordance with rule #12:
http://forum.doom9.org/forum-rules.htm

coreavc 3.0.1 (with deblocking on skip always) + mpc hc 32 bit + video render haali.

As amayra said, CoreAVC decoder is long dead.

At some point in the past, CoreAVC used to be faster than the libavcodec/FFmpeg decoder (as used by LAVFilters). But it's been years now that the libavcodec/FFmpeg decoder has become faster.

So, I'd recommend to just use an up-to-date MPC-HC with its built-in LAVFilters (libavcodec/FFmpeg) decoder.

[vivan]

At some point in the past, CoreAVC used to be faster than the libavcodec/FFmpeg decoder (as used by LAVFilters). But it's been years now that the libavcodec/FFmpeg decoder has become faster.Well, the point is that he is using it with deblocking disabled. This hack gives noticeable speed boost (around 20-40%) at the cost of not being correct.
LAV just doesn't allow that.

[fenomeno83]

Exactly vivan..i can't found disabled deblocking option in lav filter.
So, in this case coreavc is the only decoder that can manage h264 2160p contents in my pc.

For this reason i asked:
1)because in some 4k movies also coreavc isn't able to decode without lose frames (but i saw that used intel i5 cpu is just 50÷; so is there a way to force to use more cpu so that coreavc can manage these contents?)
2)or exists another decoder than give me more benefits of coreavc in software decoding?

About renderer in my pc haali works better than others (maybe i can use others renderer and configure them?)

[ajp_anton]

You could try LAV again and increase the number of threads. Also try the 64-bit version, might be a bit faster. Other than that, there's not much you can do with LAV.
Does CoreAVC have an thread number option?

If nothing helps, you might just have to accept the fact that your PC can't do 4k. Some videos might "work" by disabling deblocking, but as you said even that isn't guaranteed.
You could try to (re-)encode your videos using settings that are easier to decode, like skipping CABAC, use slice-based threads, and skip declocking (so you don't need the CoreAVC hack which reduces quality). And resize to 1080p if you're not outputting to a 4k monitor.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Well, the point is that he is using it with deblocking disabled. This hack gives noticeable speed boost (around 20-40%) at the cost of not being correct.
LAV just doesn't allow that.

Maybe LAVFilter doesn't expose this option, but I think the libavcodec/FFmpeg decoder does support it. MPlayer, for example, does exose the option:
http://i.imgur.com/gPjtoC5.png

ffdshow does too, but because development of ffdshow is pretty much halted, its decoder libraries may not be up-to-date anymore:
http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/images/front1.png

[fenomeno83]

thanks all!
How can I set libavc in mpc hc and set deblocking to "skip always"?
thanks

[filler56789]

thanks all!
How can I set libavc in mpc hc and set deblocking to "skip always"?
thanks

First you must set MPC-HC to use ffdshow for H.264 decoding.

[fenomeno83]

Ok thanks!!!and where can I find "skip always" in ffdshow configuration?

[filler56789]

Ok thanks!!!and where can I find "skip always" in ffdshow configuration?

LoRd_MuldeR already showed you ;)

http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/images/front1.png

[fenomeno83]

thanks!
seems that ffdshow64bit + skip deblocking always and mpc hc 64 + haali renderer are best settings for my pc :)

[benwaggoner]

Well, the point is that he is using it with deblocking disabled. This hack gives noticeable speed boost (around 20-40%) at the cost of not being correct.
LAV just doesn't allow that.
And for long GOPs with medium-high QPs, deblocking disabled can cause some significant visual artifacts. Playing back at 4K will hide that some, but with a lot of motion at moderate bitrates, you'll get worse quality as the GOP goes on, and bad keyframe strobing.

That's going to be a challenging CPU to do UHD on. Only two cores, only SSE 4.2. Original flavor Intel HD Graphics with only 12 500 MHz execution units, so not much OpenCL help there. And it certainly wouldn't have a UHD screen, and probably not a video output that can do UHD (HDMI 1.4+).

I doubt there's any feasible way to correctly decode arbitrary 4K H.264 streams on that hardware. If you're doing your own encoding, ajp_anton's suggestions would help a lot.

f it was a desktop, you could get a new-in-box GeForce 730 for ~$65 that supports full 4K H.264 hardware decode.

[mariush]

Or wait a few days for an RX 460 at around $100 for hdmi 2.0 (with 4k support) , hardware decoding of h264 and hevc etc