Choppy playback in media players, VDub fine?

[mch]

I've tried twice now to encode a video with the new .8 GKnot and Koepi's "Hola!" build of XviD1.0. Both times have produced a video with noticably choppy/jerky video when played back in Windows Media Player, Media Player Classic, and other video players.

For some reason, looking at the input stream in VirtualDub, though, shows the video playing correctly.

What's going on? I encode from an AVI file and an MP3 made in BeSweet (yes, I have the absolute latest build), use 29.97fps for my original recording and have GKnot set to that also, use Neutral Bicubic for resizing and TomsMoComp for deinterlacing (TV show, so it needs to be.)

I don't have ffdshow installed, only codecs. Has anyone seen anything like this before? Can something be done? I'll just downgrade back down if I can't do anything about it.

[mch]

Update: I've given up on 28.8 and gone back to 28.7 and Koepi 24062003. Would be glad to try it again when this issue gets figured out. Perhaps old settings retained through the upgrade and were causing this stutter?

[Tuning]

Can you check which decoder is used for decoding your videos?
( In MPC, while playing right click and go to filters. ) :)

[TheSeeker]

<Edited per Rule 6>

[mch]

Figured the problem out. Upgraded the codec by simply removing the old one in Device Manager -> Video codecs.

Needed to run the uninstaller in Add/Remove.

Update again: Nope, that didn't help after all. Although I do see two different processes in the Job window (first pass, second pass) where previously I only saw one even when setting the second pass and all, the video still plays back choppy. Old xvid videos being decoded by the same codec don't have this problem. It's like the framerate just suddently dips down at times.

[mch]

Okay, I hate to post after myself, but a number of hours later I've found the following out: The newest GKnot works fine with the pre-1.0 Koepi's XviD, and it encodes video fine with no stutter. Making files in VirtualDub and encoding them myself makes the same problem occur with stuttering scenes.

This seems to no longer be a GKnot problem but an XviD problem. If I can request a moderator or someone move it to that forum? I think it might be better served there.:thanks:

[jggimi]

Moved to XviD forum.

[bond]

tick "compatibility renderer" in the xvid decoder and report back if it solves the problem

the xvid decoder uses "overlay mixer2" by default, which causes choppy playback on my system, om2 can be disabled with the comp renderer option

[Smoke85]

I have the same problem, please read my post Choppy XViD for more info...

I use latest ffdshow for XViD playback. Movies encoded with an old XViD version play perfect, the ones encoded with the RC4 play choppy.

Where can I find that "compatibility renderer" option exactely ?

[Edit]: I can't use older XViD version, that gives me a video compression error... See other post...

[Smoke85]

Okay, after browsing this and other forums I've solved the problem: it seems to be a ffdshow decoding problem, ffdshow can't handle Packed Bitstream from the lastest XViD codecs...

DISABLING Packed Bitstream in XViD settings solved the problem and gave me a perfect looking movie !

I hope this helps for you too !


P.S. Can anyone explain me what Packed Bitstream does, and what happens if I disable it ?

[Leak]

Originally posted by Smoke85
Okay, after browsing this and other forums I've solved the problem: it seems to be a ffdshow decoding problem, ffdshow can't handle Packed Bitstream from the lastest XViD codecs...

I guess you don't really have the latest version of ffdshow (which is from today actually) - get it here:

http://athos.leffe.dnsalias.com/


DISABLING Packed Bitstream in XViD settings solved the problem and gave me a perfect looking movie !

While I never use packed bitstream myself (my Elta 8883 doesn't like it), it's been working in ffdshow for quite some time; even if libavcodec couldn't handle it you can always switch XviD-decoding in ffdshow to "XviD v1", which will use XviD's routines for decoding...

[b]
P.S. Can anyone explain me what Packed Bitstream does, and what happens if I disable it ?

It's a hack to store the frames in the file in a slightly different order so the decoder doesn't have to wait one frame when starting to decode a file - that's what's the "b-frame decoder lag" message you'll see without it in VDub is all about. Use it or don't use it, whatever floats your boat, but since it's a hack it has to be supported by the decoder...

np: Juergen Paape - So Weit Wie Noch Nie (Erlend Oye - DJ-Kicks)

[bond]

Originally posted by Leak
It's a hack to store the frames in the file in a slightly different order so the decoder doesn't have to wait one frame when starting to decode a file - that's what's the "b-frame decoder lag" message you'll see without it in VDub is all about.not really
packed bitstream packs different frames together
so a non packed bitstream stream would look like this: [I] [P] [B] [B]
the packed bitstream would look like this [I] [PB] [B] [N], with N being a placeholder not coded frame (some devs, like the one from ffmpeg, claim that packed bitstream breaks compatibility with the mpeg-4 standard btw...)

packed bitstream is created because AVI cant handle B-frames on its own, in fact avi doesnt even know that b-frames exist, yeah avi is outdated technology not able to handle new coding technologies (like b-frames or vbr mp3) without hacks

the b-frame decoder lag is not caused by avi (or packed bitstream), but caused by the "video for windows" codec interface, which is used in virtualdub(mod)
as avi, vfw is outdated technology and also not able to handle b-frames, which causes the decoder lag message. you will not get the decoder lag message if you open the stream with newer interfaces like directshow, which is able to handle b-frames correctly

[Smoke85]

This maybe a stupid question... but what u're saying is that if I disable packed bitstream, B-Frames are disabled as well ? :confused:

[bond]

no, if you disable packed bistream you dont disable b-frames

[Smoke85]

Thankx m8, XVid encoding works fine now with GK and the result looks great ! I don't want anything else anymore !

[mpolitick]

I've been batteling with the same problem for 2 weeks,

I don't quite understand if it was fixed by:
a) DISABLING Packed Bitstream in XViD settings
b) using an other format then AVI, like OGM or
other format that better supports [B] frames.
c) By using an other filter of option called "GK"
which I'm unfamiliar with.

I was mutted from this thread because of the 5 days rule:devil:,
but had time to put this together:
http://wwww.politick.ca:88/martin/xvid/index.htm
I've also noticed that the playback from my office computer
is better then my home computer although my video card at work
is not as good.

[Smoke85]

The problem was fixed by disabling packed bitstream. I don't use any other format than AVI and GK means Gordian Knot.

U can disable packed bitstream in the codec properties.