RealVideo 10 HFE2

[karl_lillevold]

Download : Helix Binaries (https://helixcommunity.org/beula/download/)


Changelog
2.12: 2006-01-05
Fixed problem with two reg keys not being closed.

2.11: 2004-11-28
Fixed minor bug in in threading implementation that
for very low bitrate clips could cause extra frame
drops on multi proc systems.

2.1: 2004-09-25
Significantly improved performance:
previously the HFE2 decoder DLL had worse decoding
performance than the normal decoder, even with all
features disabled. This new version has the same
performance as normal decoder, with all features
disabled. HFE2 causes only a little extra CPU use.
Sharpening causes a little more.

050704
Quality tuned.
Installer added.
Changed icon for Settings GUI.
No immediate updates planned.

050404
Better optimized.
Minor tweak to effect itself.
Finally fixed B frame problem for good.
Viz can be completely disabled real-time.
Anyone using HFE2 should switch to this
version.

050204
Fixed Win98 problem (registry reading bug)
Now allows real-time enable/disable: Use Sirber's hfe.exe

043004
Added reg keys for sharpening effect on or off
Added Sirber's GUI to enable/disable and adjust settings.

042804
Initial test release
--------------------

High-Frequency Enhancement v2

Neelesh has recently added a very nice improvement
to his HFE (High-Frequency Enhancement). Please try
it out and see the difference for yourself. Personally
I use it all the time, and it is very significant for
large high quality displays and medium to high bitrate
content. There has been some complaints that RV10
sometimes looks flat or "synthetic". This enhancement
makes the video look more natural, and even though it
is a postfilter, it takes advantage of information in
the bitstream, and hence, it does not just add a uniform
layer everywhere in the video. Mathematical analysis
between the source and the encoded video has shown that
even though PSNR is reduced from HFE2, the visual
resemblance is closer to the original. The result is
that it makes smooth surfaces, like walls, carpets,
clothing, look much more natural than before, with any
blocking tendencies, stair casing, and flat/dull areas
much improved, in many cases completely removed.

Sharpening

HFE2 has two effects, one described above. The other
is a sharpening/edge-enhancement effect.

Installation

Now done by installer. The installer does the following:
0) lets you choose install folder (should be common files/real/codecs)
1) backs up original drvc.dll
(making sure not to overwrite if two installs are performed without uninstall)
2) copies new drvc.dll to codec folder
3) creates HFE reg keys
4) copies Adjust_HFE2.exe and readme to same folder
5) creates desktop shortcut to Adjust_HFE2.exe

Uninstaller:
1) restores original drvc.dll, if it exists
2) deletes HFE reg keys
3) deletes Adjust_HFE2.exe, desktop shortcut
4) deletes uninstall info

Sirber's HFE2 GUI

I have included Sirber's GUI (Adjust_HFE2.exe) to enable or
disable HFE2 and adjust the registry values.

Registry entries

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\RealNetworks\RV10HFE]
"sharpen"=dword:00000000
Values are 0-20 decimal. The default is currently 6.


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\RealNetworks\RV10HFE]
"visualizations"=dword:00000002
levels 1, 2, and 3:
Useful values: 0 [off], 1, 2, 3
1: shows one dot to indicate HFE is enabled
2: shows a number of dots to indicate quantizer
3: way too much information

To compare side-by-side, create reg key
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\RealNetworks\RV10HFE]
"counter"=dword:00000001

Then create an Avisynth file
like this:

a = DirectShowSource("testfile.rmvb",fps=23.976)
b = DirectShowSource("testfile.rmvb",fps=23.976)
v = StackVertical(a,b)
return v

edit filename and fps to match your testfile. Then
play avs file in DirectShow player. You can enable
visualization at 1 or 2 to verify which video has
HFE enabled, but for most normal clips it should
be easy to see a difference on high quality monitors.

- Neelesh and Karl

[Sirber]

groovy! I will post feedback on anime content.

[CruNcher]

hmm better detail preservation sounds interesting :)

[RadicalEd]

No good for anime IMO, it introduced noticable halos and aliasing around edges. I am curious about the mystery feature though :|

Also, are those 6x6/6x12/12x6/12x12 blocks I see?

[Sirber]

Originally posted by RadicalEd
No good for anime IMO, it introduced noticable halos and aliasing around edges. I am curious about the mystery feature though :|

Also, are those 6x6/6x12/12x6/12x12 blocks I see? Can you post screenshots?

[karl_lillevold]

more later, but neither of the two features built into this postfilter was really meant or tuned for animation ...

[RadicalEd]

Originally posted by Sirber
Can you post screenshots?

With (http://misatokatsuragi.home.comcast.net/hfe.jpg) and without (http://misatokatsuragi.home.comcast.net/nohfe.jpg).

The blocks comment was in reference to visualization level 3.

[CruNcher]

@karl_lillevold
and thats good :D *knows he made himself alot of enemies now* ;)
hmm but looking @ RadicalEd pics this looks like somekind of smartsharpening to me hmmm

[hellfred]

@Karl_Lillevold
The Screenshots for RadicalEd look very prommissing. So i want to test the filter, too.
But I need help to get it working on Windows 98.
I cannot use the reg files (Registry Editor v5.0 <->v4.0)
So i have replaced the dll, manually edited the regitstry and added the new Key
HKey_Local_Machine/Software/RealNetworks/RV10HFE
and two new DWORD entries "strengh" (Value decimal 1) and "visualization" (Value decimal 2).
But i cannot see any dots when viewing an rmvb file in RealPlayer10 or Media Player Classic. What do i have to do to get it working with my old old OS?

Hellfred

System: Windows98, DirectX9, RealPlayer 10 Gold,

[jimmy basushi]

same, fix it so us win98 users can use it please.

[Sirber]

OT: isn't win98 like 6 years outdated?

[Shinobu]

HFE sharp a lot on all the smaple i've tested, on anime content , it's not realy good (of course if anime is very blurry it may halp).
on movie i've noticed some blocking with hfe that i have without.

i'm going to retest it to confirm that.

++

[karl_lillevold]

Re Win98: I don't know why it does not work, but I will have to see if I can find a Win98 box somewhere. None of our dev boxes have it, but QA probably has a system or two.

Re 2nd "mystery" effect: like CruNcher mentions, this is a sharpening filter, and like RadicalEd says, can lead to a slight halo effect on edges that are already very sharp, like in anime. Turn it off with this key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\RealNetworks\RV10HFE]
"sharpen"=dword:00000000

The value is adjust from 0-20 decimal. Default is 6, but we probably will not make this default.

Re the main HFE effect: Not many comments about this. That means it is very subtle, but also that no one has tried it much on natural video with the right kind of display. On LCD displays, our demo plasma display at work, as well as my 46" DLP TV at home, it is very noticable. I think I will have to post some screen shots to demonstrate in a couple of days.

[E-Male]

will this dll and the reg files also work with Easy RealMedia Producer? (it doesn't use the command line producer!)
>EDIT< or is this purely a playback feature >end of EDIT<
>EDIT2< seems like it is, sorry for posting before having a closer look >end of EDIT2<

if yes i can try my 3 test movies next week
(fight club rc1, das boot superbit rc1, m uk rc2)
[3 very different levels of grain]

can i assume that "medium to high bitrate content" means this is not for the people that use rv10 to save 1 cd per movie, but for being better competition (to xvid maybe) in the high quality 2(or more)CDs area?

[hellfred]

This is what my key looks like:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\RealNetworks\RV10HFE]
@=""
"strength"=dword:00000001
"visualizations"=dword:00000002

But nothing to be seen on the video output :(

Hellfred

[jimmy basushi]

Originally posted by Sirber
OT: isn't win98 like 6 years outdated?

yes but ive got special hardware that wont run on xp, and not just that xp is horrible for anything java intensive (sun java = slow as hell compared to msvm)

[bleo]

Wow! RealVideo just keeps getting better and better! :D Keep up the great work Karl, Neelesh and anyone else who is too shy to take credit! ;)

I just tried HFE2 on my Matrix Revolutions encode. It is full PAL DVD res 720x428 anamorphic, 2.2 Mbps, curve compression RC, inloop default (automatically off at such high bitrates?). Seems this movie is quite difficult to compress ;) (see, matrix revolutions ugly xvid encode (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=73870))

With HFE2 the details are INCREDIBLY SHARP! Sharpness was missing before when comparing to DVD, even with the relatively high bitrate and full resolution I used. Note that I am viewing on a 17" lcd.

Also there are less 'strange backgrounds' with HFE2. Previously, solid and flatly coloured backgrounds like walls would show blocks, which were worse in motion video because the blocks would move around in time and flicker... if you get what I mean...

Anyway, I might post some screenshots if I have time, but for now I am soooo happy with RealVideo that I'm just about wetting myself... :p

[Sirber]

Here's a small tool to tweak HFE2

http://sirber.no-ip.com/~sirber/HFE.PNG
http://sirber.no-ip.com/~sirber/HFE.exe
http://sirber.no-ip.com/~sirber/HFE.exe.sig

[karl_lillevold]

E-Male: HFE works well for all bitrates (1-2 CDs, both 640x and anamorphic), but I would turn the sharpening down for lower bitrates (perhaps < 500 kbps).

hellfred: Do you have Win98 as well? If not, make sure you replace the right drvc.dll, the one actually being used. Someone told me certain codec packs puts codec DLLs in windows\system32 which makes it hard for me to provide instructoins where to find the DLL, since this is not the standard location.

jimmy basushi: I have found a Win98 box and will try HFE2 there.

bleo: Thanks! You noticed one of the main improvements .. Those background effects are much improved with HFE2.

Sirber: Awesome! Note that the Sharpening effect is real-time so it would be great if the Apply button was not necessary. Seeing the sharpening change while playing is a nice feature. It would also be nice to be able to enable or disable HFE real-time, but it is currently not. For this you have to stop and start. I may fix this.

[damrod]

good idea sirber so we can desactivate it on anime or use a little sharper for very low bitrate (around 250kbits : anime look a little blurry...)

[hellfred]

Originally posted by karl_lillevold

hellfred: Do you have Win98 as well? If not, make sure you replace the right drvc.dll, the one actually being used. Someone told me certain codec packs puts codec DLLs in windows\system32 which makes it hard for me to provide instructoins where to find the DLL, since this is not the standard location.


Yes, i have also one System running Windows98 and there it looks like i can not get HFE running. I have installed RealPlayer 10 Gold and never messed with any codec packs.
I do have access to another system with WinXP, and there I can see what active HFE and its visulization levels should look like. So i am quite sure the problem is the OS, not updating the wrong dll.
(C:\Programm\Gemeinsame Dateien\Real\Codecs\drvc.dll - German Windows98 with mean "common files" is "Gemeinsame Dateien")
On Win98 i can have Sirbers GUI and regedit open parallely and see how the GUI changes the values in the registry. But still the HFE filters visulization does not show up after restarting playback.


Hellfred

P.S.: Sirber, thanks for that great tool. I was hoping that switching the filtering on/off easily would be implemented in RealPlayer v10 Gold.

[Sirber]

Thanks :D

alpha features are usualy not avalible in Real Player :)

[Sirber]

@Karl

Wasn't the "sharpen" feature already in realplayer?

[karl_lillevold]

Sirber: yes, RealPlayer has a similar, but not quite the same sharpening filter, but only in the Plus version, and not available in alternative directshow based players.

All & Win98 users: I have found the problem with the registry on Win98, and will have to make another build. However, then I also want to see if I can make HFE2 and viz adjustments 'real-time'. I should have something tomorrow, or Sunday. I think I will also disable sharpening by default, since this is a pure post-process, and not always preferable. The core HFE2 effect on the other hand does make the video appear more visually like the original in all cases we have measured so far.

Also be aware that this is alpha pre-release material, and not optimized as much as a final product. Decoding will require a little more CPU than normal.

[Sirber]

If you do realtime, I'll modify my soft to fellow your updates :)

Note: Don't forget that my softs are never optimized, and won't be final either LOL :D

[jimmy basushi]

karl : thanks for looking after us win98 users i really appreciate it. i must say i used to be an xvid only guy, but real has pleasantly suprised me on its quality.

[karl_lillevold]

Changelog:
050204
-Fixed Win98 problem (registry reading bug)
-Now allows real-time enable/disable: Use Sirber's hfe.exe
TODO: fix B frame problem, where potentially in
in certain cases, there is no HFE for B frames.

Download here (https://helixcommunity.org/beula/download/)

jimmy basushi: thanks for your feedback!

Sirber: if you could find a way to remove the Apply button from your GUI and make every change apply right away, that would be... hum... terrific! :D

EDIT: updated with latest GUI. Also, the B frame work around does not seem to always work. We will need to find the real solution for this, and update. Another bug is that it is not possible to completely disable visualizations real-time, once enabled.

[Sirber]

Updating my soft for realtime set. Now it will be... hum... terrific! :D

[edit]

Updated

http://sirber.no-ip.com/~sirber/HFE.PNG
http://sirber.no-ip.com/~sirber/HFE.exe
http://sirber.no-ip.com/~sirber/HFE.exe.sig

[Shinobu]

use the real icone i made for it and i'll update it as soon as i get back from my work ^^

++ i'm going working

[E-Male]

i'll try it some time this week

@sirber: could you also add the compare option to your tool
then we wouldn't need any of the .reg files

[Sirber]

@Shinobu

The icon is very ugly and it don't look like a real icon. At first look I thought it was QuickTime :confused:

[hellfred]

@karl_lillevold
Thank you for fixing the filter for Win98. Now everything works as expected.

Hellfred

[Shinobu]

pack updated ^^

++

[karl_lillevold]

050404
-Better optimized.
-Minor tweak to effect itself.
-Finally fixed B frame problem for good.
-Viz can be completely disabled real-time.
-Anyone using HFE2 should switch to this version.


I guess we can perhaps call this Beta then.. Download : Helix Binaries (https://helixcommunity.org/beula/download/)

Outside of this thread there has been some very good feedback. Thanks! I will perhaps check with Gabest if it is possible to include the setting of these properties (enable/disable + sharpening) via a properties page for his realmediasplitter, but in the mean-time, Sirber's GUI does the trick.

Perhaps I will make a Nullsoft installer next.

[Sirber]

Yehoo! No need to update my soft :D

[Shinobu]

If you want a nulsoft installer, ask to sirber or myself ^^, where both not bad at it ^^


++

[damrod]

just a question : with realproducer you can encode 5.1 audio...

which source format? from ac3 file ou do i need to create a 5.1 wave file??


with wma9 5.1 you need six waves
but rv10???

do i need to create a 5.1 ogg file?

[karl_lillevold]

damrod: please check the RealAudio 5.1 thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56684) (link to this found in the RealVideo sticky). Please first check there. If anything relevant is missing from my info post, please post on that thread, so I can add the missing info or correct anything that's wrong. Thanks.

[Sirber]

YS RealAnime will use AC3Filter to handle AC3s :)

[karl_lillevold]

Shinobu: I created an installer script: hfe_installer.nsi (http://www.lillevold.com/files/hfe_installer.nsi). Feel free to suggest improvements.

It currently:
-1) display Helix BEULA.
0) lets you choose install folder (should be common files/real/codecs)
1) backs up original drvc.dll (from common files/real/codecs)
(making sure not to overwrite if two installs are performed without uninstall)
2) copies new drvc.dll to common files/real/codecs
3) creates HFE reg keys
4) copies hfe.exe to same folder
5) creates desktop shortcut to hfe.exe

Uninstaller:
1) restores original drvc.dll, if it exists
2) deletes HFE reg keys
3) deletes hfe.exe, desktop shortcut
4) deletes uninstall info

TODO before "final beta" of HFE2:
-fix compare bug, the compare feature no longer works after the real-time adjustment was introduced
-compile new version with latest fine tuning from Neelesh
-replace icon in Sirber's hfe.exe

Other suggestions?

[damrod]

thx for the links

and good idea for the installer ;-))

[Sirber]

Originally posted by karl_lillevold
Other suggestions? 3DNOW! optimizations? ;)

[damrod]

euh 100 balles et un mars sirber aussi? :-p


i think a better icone would be an idea.... delphi7 default icone is...delphi7 icone ;-))

[Sirber]

I'm slaving on this. Just wait a couple of days ;)

[Sirber]

Icon updated! Thanks everybody for waiting :D

[thought]

What a LAME update :devil:

[karl_lillevold]

Please note that there is one more update coming, with some HFE tuning, and the installer, so don't worry about keeping up to date all the time until then :)

[Sirber]

Since last update, it's updated realtime :p :D

[Dark-Cracker]

does gabest will include it in the next release of the realsplitter ?

[karl_lillevold]

050704
Quality tuned.
Installer added.
Changed icon for Settings GUI.
No immediate updates planned.


Download : Helix Binaries (https://helixcommunity.org/beula/download/)

EDIT: If you are scared by installers, here is what this one is doing:
0) lets you choose install folder (should be common files/real/codecs)
1) backs up original drvc.dll
(making sure not to overwrite if two installs are performed without uninstall)
2) copies new drvc.dll to codec folder
3) creates HFE reg keys
4) copies Adjust_HFE2.exe and readme to same folder
5) creates desktop shortcut to Adjust_HFE2.exe

Uninstaller:
1) restores original drvc.dll, if it exists
2) deletes HFE reg keys
3) deletes Adjust_HFE2.exe, desktop shortcut
4) deletes uninstall info

I will ask gabest if it is possible to include the settings on the RealMediaSplitter property page.

[IgorC]

I have a problem with download from https://helixcommunity.org/beula/download/ . Does Anybody know where i can donwload REal Video 10 HFE2. igoruso@msn.com