Using ffdshow and divxg400 causes major stuttering on ac3 playback

[Scorpius]

-I'm using WMP6.4 on movies, os is win2000 sp4.
-installed: ffdshow, registerfilters2k.cmd (NOT installed mmswitch.ax) and use waveout-not-directsound.

Problem is when using ffshow filter AND divxg400 simultaneously causes MAJOR stuttering on ac3 playback. When usin only ffdshow sound is perfect!

Any idea what the problem is?

My specs are.
TB1333Mhz
250W power supply
Sblive 1024!


I have read the FAQ,s and found nothing helpful on this problem. Also tried that ac3 filter 0.63b but this filter doesen't allow me to change speaker setup!

[tiki4]

1. There is no official Windows 2000 Service Pack 4! Maybe there are some people releasing inofficial patches for Win2K but AFAIK they are not doing this for Microsoft but just for themselves. Correct me if I'm wrong with that.

2. Is it necessary for you to use ffdshow and DivXG400 at the same time? If you can't get overlay with DivX video playback I think you should first try to solve that problem before installing the very useful but only emergency tool DivXG400.

3. ffdshow is a feature beast and if you enable post-processing it may use quite a lot of CPU. Adding another filter behind may increase the CPU load significantly. AC3 decoding also is very CPU intensive. For example ffdshow tries to render the video as YV12, I don't know whether this is accepted by DivXG400 but it maybe that it is converted to YUY2. I think you really should try to find a driver that accepts the ffdshow output directly (or try another ffdshow version, you didn't mention which you are using).

4. SB Live! I own an Audigy myself and Creative drivers ARE a major pain in the ***! It maybe necessary for you to try different drivers.

5. From my own experience: Don't use the iviaudio.ax filter but try one of the other possibilities instead. There was a thread here about alternative AC3 decoders. AC3Filter is really good, but I wasn't pleased with it up to now, so I use the Elecard mlcom.ax 2.0 filter and this one works really well for me (except SP/DIF output, but I don't need it).

Hope that helped!

tiki4

[Scorpius]

Originally posted by tiki4
1. There is no official Windows 2000 Service Pack 4! Maybe there are some people releasing inofficial patches for Win2K but AFAIK they are not doing this for Microsoft but just for themselves. Correct me if I'm wrong with that.

2. Is it necessary for you to use ffdshow and DivXG400 at the same time? If you can't get overlay with DivX video playback I think you should first try to solve that problem before installing the very useful but only emergency tool DivXG400.

3. ffdshow is a feature beast and if you enable post-processing it may use quite a lot of CPU. Adding another filter behind may increase the CPU load significantly. AC3 decoding also is very CPU intensive. For example ffdshow tries to render the video as YV12, I don't know whether this is accepted by DivXG400 but it maybe that it is converted to YUY2. I think you really should try to find a driver that accepts the ffdshow output directly (or try another ffdshow version, you didn't mention which you are using).

4. SB Live! I own an Audigy myself and Creative drivers ARE a major pain in the ***! It maybe necessary for you to try different drivers.

5. From my own experience: Don't use the iviaudio.ax filter but try one of the other possibilities instead. There was a thread here about alternative AC3 decoders. AC3Filter is really good, but I wasn't pleased with it up to now, so I use the Elecard mlcom.ax 2.0 filter and this one works really well for me (except SP/DIF output, but I don't need it).

Hope that helped!

tiki4

1: Sorry, it wasn't SP4. (In add/remove programs there are numerous of updates like: Windows2000 hotfix(pre-SP4))

2: I have no problems with video overlay. I want to use them at the same time because divxg400 can view subtitles (SRT, SUB) on leftoverspace AKA black borders. This is because my tv is 4:3 and it is very handy to use that black space to view subs. Unfortunately ffdshow can't do this feature.

3: Im using version ffdshow-20030103.exe.

4: Yes they really are. I know it for sure. upgrading my "soundcard" is definitely on the project list :rolleyes:

5: I have used cyberlinc decoder: doesent give me chance to select SPDIF, used elecard: it doesent work at all (it just doesent load any filters and if I try add them with graphedit, it wont accept it and gives error message), also tried that open source 0.63b but it also didn't give me to change output to SPDIF.

Im using ffdshow ONLY to blayback all codecs nothing more. Ofcource I always can use only divxg400 and install N+1 codecs. Besides AFAIR xvid filters sucks (playback stutters). Correct me if I am wrong.

Any forther ideas? :confused:

[Scorpius]

It's gotta be some overlay or colorspace problem causing this...
Just tried ffdshow + dvobsub and sound is choppy with this combilation also!

Any idea how to start solving this type of problem. How can I see what colorspaces does these filters use and is there some interference...?

BTW: Graphics card is Ati Radeon 64M ViVo with catalyst 2.4 drivers installed. I don't use newer drivers since they have some serious tv-out issues.

P.S. I did not have any sound issues with my old craphics card Geforce2MX...

[tiki4]

Maybe something's gone crap in the meantime. About the colour space stuff: If you click on the info tab in ffdshow (WMP 6.4 -> properties -> ffdshow filter) it shows you the colour space. Make sure you can see YV12 or YUY2, RGB isn't as fast as a YV12 -> RGB conversion has to take place. In DVobSub you can find the same thing on the colo(u)rs tab.

I've got serious colour space problems with Win2K SP3, too, at the moment. I didn't solve them yet, but I think all I can do is a complete reinstall. When it's f***ed up, it's f***ed up.

Just some suggestions: Maybe you can try to go back to ffdshow alpha build 20021211. This has been very stable for me, the January build gave me some huge problems. On the other hand it is also possible that really your ATI drivers cause the problem. Maybe you can do a short search in the forum about ATI drivers. I don't own an ATI myself.

CU,

tiki4