Suggestion for the decoder

[Affar]

As everyone knows, if you install several video decoders, the ones which have high priority will be used first and xvid, as a decoder, has a limitated priority.

It would be good if the decoder had an option to change this priority and put it even higher than ffdshow priority (i've done it with a "Merit" of 0x40000008) and then set it back to the default. This way there wouldn't be so many problems with the video decoders (especially with XviD).

The only problem of changing the priority in the decoder's source is that you can only go back installing a new version without this priotiy, that's why i suggest the option to change it easily.

Seeya

[communist]

You can easily set ffdshow to not play XviD stuff :confused:

[SeeMoreDigital]

Affar,

It's possible to do what you want without having to resort to installing ffdshow.

Most codecs come with their own 'Decoder Configuration' panel. After ticking the correct options you should have no proplems getting, XviD, DivX, 3viX, Nero etc to use their own DS filters.

If you have Media Player Classic installed, you will find it easy to check if your encode is playing with its own filter.

Besides, encodes using the latest XviD builds look much better with the XviD DS filter than with ffdshow!

Cheers

[Affar]

When i said ffdshow it was only an example to explain my question. It would be ok if the decoder had the posibility to choose priority, that way when you install the codec we could choose if we want it with high priority or not and we would skip a lot of problems when decoding. I mean, we know how to do it already but a lot of people maybe don't. Moreover with this option we wouldn't have to desactivate other decoders and the only thing we would have to do is increase the xvid decoder's priority.

In my opinion it would be an interesting option for those people who don't know and don't wanna learn about codecs/decoders.

Bye

[Soulhunter]

This idea sounds nice... :)

A simple check-box "force in-build decoder" could help to prevent some problems !!!


Bye

[Affar]

This is a small example of an installer with the chance to choose decoder (including XviD) and in wich the decoder is set as prioritary over other video decoders. XviD can be deactivated too.

http://www.divxhouse.com/test/fourcc.gif

http://www.divxhouse.com/test/XviD_Decoder_Test.zip

Seeya

[Didée]

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
Besides, encodes using the latest XviD builds look much better with the XviD DS filter than with ffdshow!

Yes, the picture quality of XviD DS is much, much better than that of ffdshow.

And the best part is: with XviD DS, you have so much time to look at every single frame!

In other words: When decoding streams that are greater than 720*576 native PAL res, and you happend to use qpel, you'll get slow-motion video unless you have the very latest and most expensive hardware! And if you even happend to use GMC, you can buy any hardware you want: no chance for realtime playback.

In comparison, ffdshow can decode all this stuff with a CPU usage almost magnitudes below.

Let's hold up the hope that ffdshow/libavcodec gets fixed in the near future. XviD's compression capabilities are constantly getting better and better - but if you try to use this high compression capabilities for producing really hiQ material at, say, HDTV 720p res, you're at a loss: there's currently no chance at all to play back your high quality streams at high quality on the monitor - at least not in realtime.

- Didée

[SeeMoreDigital]

Hi Didée,

With the new XviD (and 3viX) codec being able to support anamorphic signalling in the Mpeg4 data stream, it's now possible to make an Mpeg4 video stream (when placed in an MP4 container) behave just like an Mpeg2 video stream can, when placed in an VOB container.

Now, because I like experimenting I've been busy generating some proper 720x576 Mpeg4 anamorphic 'test' encodes.

The sad thing is, as far as I am aware, there's only one software player that can 'automatically' display 'anamorphic signalling' encodes correctly and that's Nero's ShowTime player (unless you have the newest version that is - for a fix click here (http://82.2.167.24/Uploaded_Files/Doom9_forum_files/ShowTime_Player_fix.zip)).

Another sad fact is that all standalone player users are left out too, because there's not a single player out there that can support the MP4 container (only AVI)... Which, in my opinion, is a ridiculously dumb oversight.

Anyway, us Xcard users don't suffer these problems so we can have some fun. And to that end I have generated 2No test encodes for some of you guys to try. The first uses an anamorphic frame size of 720wide x 576high - just like PAL DVD. And the second uses an anamorphic frame size of 576wide x 720high - a kind of anamorphic Hi-Def frame size.

If any of you are interested you can download both the encodes (http://82.2.167.24/Uploaded_Files/Doom9_forum_files/MP4_Anamorphic_Test_files.zip). Which I've placed in an 12,738 KB .zip folder.

Cheers

[Didée]

SeeMoreDigital,

although I cannot see how your reply is related to my post, nonetheless: Hi! ;)

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
The sad thing is, as far as I am aware, there's only one software player that can 'automatically' display 'anamorphic signalling' encodes correctly and that's Nero's ShowTime player
Erhm, with the 3ivx DS-filters installed, it's no problem to get automatic AR correction in ZoomPlayer. That makes already at least two players capable of doing that.
Now guess which player I prefer? (Tip: it's not the Nero one ...)

- Didée

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by Didée
SeeMoreDigital,

although I cannot see how your reply is related to my post, nonetheless: Hi! ;) You made mention about "HDTV 720p"

And although HiDef 720p material should use either a 'true 4:3 frame' (960x720) or 'true 16:9 frame' (1280x720). It is possible to create HiDef 720p 'anamorphic 4:3 or 16:9 frames'.

The only reason I used an 576x720 image pixel frame size, was because I did not want to exceed 414'720 pixels. Which is the maximum limit of a hardware decoders chipset - including my Xcard.

Thanks for ZoomPlayer info I'll give it a try. As I'm an Media Player Classic user myself.

Cheers