MPEG-4 directshow Decoders speed competition

[dimzon]

competitors:
XviD 1.0 RC3
DivX 5.1.1
3ivX 4.5.1
ffdshow-20030523
ffdshow-20040405
NeroDigital (NeVideo.ax 1.1.7.35) - thanx to bond and seemoredigital
dicas mpegable MPEG4 Decoder


I've got 30000frames length clip from my recent SPR backup (XviD1.0 RC3 BFRAMES=YES, GMC=NO, QPEL=NO, 576*320). It's part of beach episode (heavy motion and details). I assume fps=180 in order to decrease overall test time duration.

For each decoders listed above I create such graph into graphedit:
[Clip]->[AviSplitter]->[Decoder]->[Null Renderer]
I disable any PP into all decoders and play those graphs. When playback finished i used Windows Task Manager to estimate Decoding CPU Cost in form of CPU Time. I've got such results on my AthlonXP2000+ 512RAM WinXP Prof SP1:

mpegable ~ 200sec
ffdshow-20040405 (XviD 1.0 for decoding) ~170sec
DivX ~156sec
3ivX ~155sec
XviD ~154sec
NeroDigital ~145sec
ffdshow-20030523 (iDCT=XviD) ~104sec
ffdshow-20030523 (iDCT=simple) ~103sec
ffdshow-20040405 (iDCT=autoselect) ~94sec

[bond]

interesting results
beaware everyone to use xvid idct if you use qpel!

but wrong forum, overall mpeg-4 things belong to this forum (http://forum.doom9.org/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=54) ("divx" doesnt stand for every mpeg-4 encoder/decoder) ;)

[dimzon]

Originally posted by bond
interesting results
beaware everyone to use xvid idct if you use qpel!

but wrong forum, overall mpeg-4 things belong to this forum (http://forum.doom9.org/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=54) ("divx" doesnt stand for every mpeg-4 encoder/decoder) ;)
Sorry, but i think that MPEG4 is NOT "New A/V Formats - Codecs".
What I must do now, how to move this thread into another forum?

[bond]

Originally posted by dimzon
Sorry, but i think that MPEG4 is NOT "New A/V Formats - Codecs".so nerodigital (mpeg-4) for example is not a new a/v codec?

i know the name of the forum is not really good, but we decided that all mpeg-4 stuff which actually isnt xvid or divx4/5 (like ffvfw, ffdshow, 3ivx, nerodigital aso...) should be discussed in the codec forum. they dont belong to the xvid or divx forum as they arent directly related to the xvid or divx4/5 codecs, but are totally independent/difference mpeg-4 implementations

What I must do now, how to move this thread into another forum?maybe a divx mod will move it

[dimzon]

Originally posted by bond
so nerodigital (mpeg-4) for example is not a new a/v codec?
Oh, sorry, I'm so stupid :stupid:



So does anybody have nerodigital directshow decoder only (i have not enought internet traffic to download trial Nero). Can you send me this *.ax file (not for regular use, not for warez, just for performance test)

[bond]

Originally posted by dimzon
So does anybody have nerodigital directshow decoder only (i have not enought internet traffic to download trial Nero). Can you send me this *.ax file (not for regular use, not for warez, just for performance test)seemoredigital once linked to a nero decoder only download location

[dimzon]

Originally posted by bond
seemoredigital once linked to a nero decoder only download location
Can't find at all
:stupid:

[bond]

when searching for seemoredigital and nero and decoder i found this (http://82.2.167.24/Uploaded_Files/Doom9_Forum_files/Nero_DSFilter.zip)

would be great if you could include that in your test too :)

[dimzon]

Originally posted by bond
when searching for seemoredigital and nero and decoder i found this (http://82.2.167.24/Uploaded_Files/Doom9_Forum_files/Nero_DSFilter.zip)

would be great if you could include that in your test too :)

Oh, great thanx. I will test it (at my home PC) and publish result tomorrow!

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by dimzon
Oh, great thanx. I will test it (at my home PC) and publish result tomorrow! Please note that this version of Nero's NeVideo.ax is the only one they've released (to date) that can display anamorphicly signalled Mpeg4 avi's correctly!

Works very well with the ShowTime Player and Windows Media Player 9...

Cheers

[bond]

heya dimzon

it would be also nice if you could also test the speed of the different vfw decoders
these vfw decoders can be used in dshow via the "avi decompressor" filter

would be interesting maybe to analyse if they are faster/slower or the same as the dshow ones


also you could try the enviviotv dshow decoder (only works with .mp4 files)

[dimzon]

Originally posted by bond
heya dimzon

it would be also nice if you could also test the speed of the different vfw decoders
these vfw decoders can be used in dshow via the "avi decompressor" filter

would be interesting maybe to analyse if they are faster/slower or the same as the dshow ones
no reason:
xvid vfw and xvid dshow uses same xvidcore.dll so there will be only vfw->dshow wrapper overhead

i'm trust that divx vfw and divx dshow has same source so there will be same vfw->dshow wrapper overhead

so i don't know any MPEG4 vfw without DirectShow decoder

[SeeMoreDigital]

How are you getting on with the testing?

With regard to Nero's NeVideo decoder filter. If you work out how to get it to function outside of of Nero's ShowTime player, please let me know... I can't!

Cheers

[dimzon]

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
With regard to Nero's NeVideo decoder filter. If you work out how to get it to function outside of of Nero's ShowTime player, please let me know... I can't!

Create such graph into GraphEdit:
[AviSplitter]->[NeroDigital decoder]->[FFDShow]->[Renderer]
I can't connect NeroDigital directly to Renderer except NullRenderer

[bond]

Originally posted by dimzon
Create such graph into GraphEdit:
[AviSplitter]->[NeroDigital decoder]->[FFDShow]->[Renderer]
I can't connect NeroDigital directly to Renderer except NullRenderer you run the nero test with ffdshow in the graph? than your results arent really valid

try decoding a .mp4 file together with the nero parser and nero decoder (should work without ffdshow in the graph)
with the same .mp4 you can also measure the speed enviviotv needs

[dimzon]

Originally posted by bond
you run the nero test with ffdshow in the graph? than your results arent really valid
No, it's valid.
I can't connect NeroDigital directly to any Renderer except NullRenderer BUT I used [Splitter]->[Decoder]->[NullRenderer] in tests :)

[bond]

ok than its good :)

[SeeMoreDigital]

Actually I was hoping NeVideo.ax might work outside of GraphEdit.

Anyway I must get round to finishing the swap round of my PC's, as I can't even get GraphEdit (v9.0.0.400) to fire up on this PC anymore.

But all is not lost as (v4.2.0.500) seems to work OK though!

Cheers

[bond]

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
Actually I was hoping NeVideo.ax might work outside of GraphEdit.if it works in grapehdit, it should work everywhere (unless the player is buggy)

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by bond
if it works in grapehdit, it should work everywhere (unless the player is buggy) That's what I thought would happen.

However, this morning, using another PC, I installed/registered just the filter but MediaPlayer Classic was unable to hook up to my Video Only Mpeg4 .mp4 file.

Cheers

[Stux]

The filter could be restricted to certain applications... say showtime and graphedit

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally posted by Stux
The filter could be restricted to certain applications... say showtime and graphedit Bummer!

[dvdmonger]

@dimzon

You might want to include some more formats in your tests. Just playing an xvid with qpel doesn't necessarily mean ffdshow is the fastest under all circumstances. Would be interesting to see maybe some divx3 sbc, divx3 fast motion only, divx3 slow motion only, divx4 one pass, divx4 two pass, etc. to really work out the codecs and make the differences much more apparent.

[bond]

Originally posted by dvdmonger
Would be interesting to see maybe some divx3 sbc, divx3 fast motion only, divx3 slow motion onlyhm, divx3 is not mpeg-4 compatible, therefore you cant expect from any mpeg-4 decoder to handle it (only ffdshow and divx5 can do this)
edit: 3ivx handles divx3 decoding too

divx4 one pass, divx4 two pass, etc. to really work out the codecs and make the differences much more apparent.i dont think that 1paas or 2pass makes a difference, whats more important are the more advanced coding options, like qpel, gmc, b-frames, quantisation (h.264/mpeg) aso...

[SeeMoreDigital]

I must admit I am very interested to learn of dimzon's findings.

With my current 800MHz P3 set up I've noticed that some Mpeg4 decoders indeed work faster than others. I base my findings by first, generating 720x576 Mpeg4 'video only' streams from the same source using different Mpeg4 codecs and then viewing them via different players. And second, changing the 4CC of the Mpeg4 streams, forcing them to play via other decoder filters.

Strangely for me I seem to have trouble with 3viX's DS filter.

DivX's DS filter seems to be very particular about the way it's installed (and configured) and works best for me when installed separately from the encoder.

Nero seems to work well for Mpeg4 when it's in either an AVI container or an MP4 container.

But I find XviD's decoder works best of all for Mpeg4 streams in AVI.

Anyway I guess that's just me...

Cheers

[Stux]

Originally posted by bond
hm, divx3 is not mpeg-4 compatible, therefore you can expect from any mpeg-4 decoder to handle it (only ffdshow and divx5 can do this)

And 3ivx

[bond]

Originally posted by Stux
And 3ivx sorry i forgot it :)

[dimzon]

Originally posted by bond
hm, divx3 is not mpeg-4 compatible, therefore you cant expect from any mpeg-4 decoder to handle it (only ffdshow and divx5 can do this)
edit: 3ivx handles divx3 decoding too

Quick DivX3.11 Decoding Speed Cometition.

WARNING! Since I have no any expirience in SBC compression I got test clip from my friend. So avoid to compare XviD vs DivX3.11 decoding speed.

DivX 3.11 ~84sec
DivX 5.11 ~82sec
3ivX 4.5.1 ~72sec
ffdshow-20040405 54sec .. 58sec (depending on iDCT)

[Ice =A=]

Hm, very interesting!
What's missing is a comparison on a system with more then one cpu/core.
As far as I know, DivX6.1 and Quicktime 7 decoder are multithreaded...

[lamer_de]

Please note that those comparisons were done nearly 2 years ago...

CU,
lamer_de

[j7n]

Is there a more recent comparision of MPEG-4 ASP decoders? All google says is stuff about AVC.

[bond]

the only decoder that might have gotten faster is divx', so you might want to compare its speed against ffdshow and see if divx is able to beat it

[CruNcher]

CoreASP should be even a tad faster ;)

[bond]

CoreASP should be even a tad faster ;)where can i download it?

[IgorC]

CoreASP should be even a tad faster ;)
Did CoreASP support postprocesing?