x264 mkv strange playback problem

PurpleMan · 20th January 2008, 08:44

Hello all,

I'm running a Core 2 Quad Q6600, 4gb of RAM and 8800GT card.

Playing 1080p x264 files in MKV container doesn't play smooth (using ffdshow). Unsyncing audio, frame-lags, etc.

The mkv contains the x264 video, ac3 audio and flac audio. CPU usage is on ~40% during playback, and I refuse to believe that my HD (250gb sata2) is having problems keeping up the data rate.

Does anyone have any idea what else could be the problem?

Thanks in advance,
-PurpleMan

Dark Shikari · 20th January 2008, 09:00

Your CPU is too slow. FFDshow doesn't support multithreaded H.264 decoding. Get CoreAVC.

Razorholt · 20th January 2008, 09:07

Try Mplayer

Atak_Snajpera · 20th January 2008, 11:39

Quote:

FFDshow doesn't support multithreaded H.264 decoding

yes it does. It's not perfect but at least gives 30%

Dark Shikari · 20th January 2008, 14:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atak_Snajpera

yes it does. It's not perfect but at least gives 30%

The latest FFDshow-Tryouts has a patch that supports multithreaded CABAC decoding. FFDshow itself does not have frame-based threading, yet, as far as I know.

lexor · 20th January 2008, 14:53

PurpleMan, when you said CPU usage is 40% did you mean total or of a single core? If the later than you CPU is handling it well and the problem is somewhere else; if the former you should find out what each core's usage is (if one core is maxing out, then you probably need either CoreAVC or one of the players that use video card to help decode, PowerDVD?).

PurpleMan · 20th January 2008, 17:27

It seems that all 4 cores are in use during playback

(using Media Player Classic)

The total (of all cores) shows 40% usage.

So I don't think it's a CPU problem, or am I wrong?

Any more ideas? and by the way - I appreciate the help so far!

Rodger · 21st January 2008, 00:40

DAMN! 4 Cores and 40% usage.
That would be 80%+ on a dualcore same speed.

That´s completely out of bounce!!!
Clean up your codecs.

Use the following:
Haali Media Splitter
CoreAVC (or Cyberlink) Codec
AC3-Filter

Playing MKV-File I created myself containing x264 576p + 5.1AC3 in VLC uses less than 5% of a 3,1Ghz Core2Duo.
Playing a TS-File (from PremiereHD german TV-Station) containing h264 + 5.1 ac3 in FullHD uses no more than 20% of the cpu.

PurpleMan · 21st January 2008, 08:42

Hi.

I was wrong, one my cores was indeed maxing using ffdshow. I downloaded the XXL build of ffdshow (which supposed to be patched to multithread h264 decoding). plays better, but still stutters at high bitrates (although I don't see any of the cores maxing).

So I installed CoreAVC, which seems to work great.. but only in overlay mode (damnit!). Using VMR9 it stutters even tho none of the cores are maxing.

This is VERY frustrating. Any idea anyone?

Thanks in advance,
-PurpleMan

Dark Shikari · 21st January 2008, 08:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by PurpleMan

Hi.

I was wrong, one my cores was indeed maxing using ffdshow. I downloaded the XXL build of ffdshow (which supposed to be patched to multithread h264 decoding). plays better, but still stutters at high bitrates (although I don't see any of the cores maxing).

So I installed CoreAVC, which seems to work great.. but only in overlay mode (damnit!). Using VMR9 it stutters even tho none of the cores are maxing.

This is VERY frustrating. Any idea anyone?

Thanks in advance,
-PurpleMan

This is because VMR9 is basically a broken renderer. Use Overlay or Haali's.

PurpleMan · 21st January 2008, 08:56

But then I lose integrated subtitles support in media player classic

and it still doesn't explain why the patched ffdshow is stuttering at high bitrates even tho none of the cores are maxing.

foxyshadis · 21st January 2008, 09:58

Task manager is not an effective instrument for measuring threading. 25% means a single maxed out thread whether it's all in one core or spread between all four, because of how the windows thread scheduler works.

If ffdshow can't handle your video, well, not much choice there. Try EVR mode with CoreAVC as well, if you use MPC Homecinema.

PurpleMan · 21st January 2008, 10:46

in Task Manager I have 4 graphs (one per core), and none of them are maxing during playback.

Could you elaborate more on "EVR Mode" ?

Rodger · 21st January 2008, 12:21

Pupleman already made it clear, that it wasn´t a lack of SMP-Ability.
Second please don´t tell us, that MS own "Task-Manager" isn´t capable of monitoring the cpu correct.

Dark Shikari · 21st January 2008, 12:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rodger

Pupleman already made it clear, that it wasn´t a lack of SMP-Ability.
Second please don´t tell us, that MS own "Task-Manager" isn´t capable of monitoring the cpu correct.

His point is that a single-threaded application that is maxing out can show as 1/4 on each core, because windows swaps that thread among all 4 cores many many times per second.

PurpleMan · 21st January 2008, 12:55

Even if it swaps cores, shouldn't the graph jump to 100% on a single core even for a split second?

regular ffdshow showed 100% on one of the cores
the patched XXL one showed 20% on each one of the cores, and you're saying that it doesn't actually mean that no core is maxing?

I'm confused.

toytown · 21st January 2008, 13:53

Quote:

Even if it swaps cores, shouldn't the graph jump to 100% on a single core even for a split second?

No, it could spent half of the second on core1 and half of the second on core3. So in taskmanager if its updating its results every second, it would show 50% on cores 1 and 3.

As already mentioned the task scheduler can switch cores many times a second.

Rodger · 21st January 2008, 15:01

This is absolut non-sense!
I´ve never heard of such behaviour!

Before I get to believe that this is the Problem, I believe that a misconfiguration of codecs or similar is the problem.

Sharktooth · 21st January 2008, 15:23

believe it or not, it can happen (say tnx to M$...).
However CoreAVC should work. Can you tell us what version you have?

PurpleMan · 21st January 2008, 17:31

Sure, I got the 1.6.0.0 professional edition.

Again, playing it using overlay works perfectly, but playing using VMR9 stutters.

Thanks for all the help!

Trahald · 21st January 2008, 20:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by PurpleMan

in Task Manager I have 4 graphs (one per core), and none of them are maxing during playback.

Could you elaborate more on "EVR Mode" ?

EVR is a replacement for overlay and vmr9. it is available on mpc home cinema if you are using stock Vista... or xp if you have .net 3

Danisan · 22nd January 2008, 00:04

Have you tried setting the affinity to just one of the cores to see how it plays? Right click on the "mplayerc" process in task manager and "set affinity..." then de-select all but one core.

foxyshadis · 22nd January 2008, 04:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rodger

This is absolut non-sense!
I´ve never heard of such behaviour!

Before I get to believe that this is the Problem, I believe that a misconfiguration of codecs or similar is the problem.

What part of "Task manager is not an effective instrument for measuring threading." is hard to understand? You don't have any idea how windows thread scheduling works (educate yourself), and you don't really know how task manager's usage reporting works, but you're adamant that your interpretation of the data must be correct? It's not. Look at the total %, ignore the pretty graphs entirely unless you want to be misled.

bigcat · 25th January 2008, 15:26

I also have problems with h264 video in mkv. ffmpeg cannot decode it correctly (video becomes jerky) and it prints many lines of smth like "unknown track header 0x....., ignoring". Plus, video encoded with x264 (-q 30) in mkv container is about 1..3% bigger in size than the same video in mp4 container. This is strange.

20th January 2008, 08:44	#1 \| Link
PurpleMan Registered User Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 257	x264 mkv strange playback problem Hello all, I'm running a Core 2 Quad Q6600, 4gb of RAM and 8800GT card. Playing 1080p x264 files in MKV container doesn't play smooth (using ffdshow). Unsyncing audio, frame-lags, etc. The mkv contains the x264 video, ac3 audio and flac audio. CPU usage is on ~40% during playback, and I refuse to believe that my HD (250gb sata2) is having problems keeping up the data rate. Does anyone have any idea what else could be the problem? Thanks in advance, -PurpleMan

20th January 2008, 14:53	#6 \| Link
lexor Registered User Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 849	PurpleMan, when you said CPU usage is 40% did you mean total or of a single core? If the later than you CPU is handling it well and the problem is somewhere else; if the former you should find out what each core's usage is (if one core is maxing out, then you probably need either CoreAVC or one of the players that use video card to help decode, PowerDVD?). __________________ Geforce GTX 260 Windows 7, 64bit, Core i7 MPC-HC, Foobar2000

21st January 2008, 00:40	#8 \| Link
Rodger Registered User Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Viersen, Germany Posts: 270	DAMN! 4 Cores and 40% usage. That would be 80%+ on a dualcore same speed. That´s completely out of bounce!!! Clean up your codecs. Use the following: Haali Media Splitter CoreAVC (or Cyberlink) Codec AC3-Filter Playing MKV-File I created myself containing x264 576p + 5.1AC3 in VLC uses less than 5% of a 3,1Ghz Core2Duo. Playing a TS-File (from PremiereHD german TV-Station) containing h264 + 5.1 ac3 in FullHD uses no more than 20% of the cpu. Last edited by Rodger; 21st January 2008 at 00:47.

21st January 2008, 08:56	#11 \| Link
PurpleMan Registered User Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 257	But then I lose integrated subtitles support in media player classic and it still doesn't explain why the patched ffdshow is stuttering at high bitrates even tho none of the cores are maxing. Last edited by PurpleMan; 21st January 2008 at 08:59.

21st January 2008, 15:23	#19 \| Link
Sharktooth Mr. Sandman Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Haddonfield, IL Posts: 11,768	believe it or not, it can happen (say tnx to M$...). However CoreAVC should work. Can you tell us what version you have? __________________ MPEG-4 ASP Custom Matrices: EQM V1(old), EQM AutoGK Sharpmatrix (aka EQM V2), EQM V3HR (updated 01/10/2004), EQM V3LR, EQM V3ULR (updated 04/02/2005), EQM V3UHR (updated 17/12/2004) and EQM V3EHR (updated 05/10/2004) Info about my ASP matrices. MPEG-4 AVC Custom Matrices: EQM AVC-HR Info about my AVC matrices My x264 builds. Mooo!!!

20th January 2008, 09:00	#2 \| Link
Dark Shikari x264 developer Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 8,664	Your CPU is too slow. FFDshow doesn't support multithreaded H.264 decoding. Get CoreAVC.

20th January 2008, 09:07	#3 \| Link
Razorholt Cyberspace Citizen Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 457	Try Mplayer

20th January 2008, 17:27	#7 \| Link
PurpleMan Registered User Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 257	It seems that all 4 cores are in use during playback (using Media Player Classic) The total (of all cores) shows 40% usage. So I don't think it's a CPU problem, or am I wrong? Any more ideas? and by the way - I appreciate the help so far!

21st January 2008, 08:42	#9 \| Link
PurpleMan Registered User Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 257	Hi. I was wrong, one my cores was indeed maxing using ffdshow. I downloaded the XXL build of ffdshow (which supposed to be patched to multithread h264 decoding). plays better, but still stutters at high bitrates (although I don't see any of the cores maxing). So I installed CoreAVC, which seems to work great.. but only in overlay mode (damnit!). Using VMR9 it stutters even tho none of the cores are maxing. This is VERY frustrating. Any idea anyone? Thanks in advance, -PurpleMan

21st January 2008, 09:58	#12 \| Link
foxyshadis Angel of Night Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Tangled in the silks Posts: 9,549	Task manager is not an effective instrument for measuring threading. 25% means a single maxed out thread whether it's all in one core or spread between all four, because of how the windows thread scheduler works. If ffdshow can't handle your video, well, not much choice there. Try EVR mode with CoreAVC as well, if you use MPC Homecinema.

21st January 2008, 10:46	#13 \| Link
PurpleMan Registered User Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 257	in Task Manager I have 4 graphs (one per core), and none of them are maxing during playback. Could you elaborate more on "EVR Mode" ?

21st January 2008, 12:21	#14 \| Link
Rodger Registered User Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Viersen, Germany Posts: 270	Pupleman already made it clear, that it wasn´t a lack of SMP-Ability. Second please don´t tell us, that MS own "Task-Manager" isn´t capable of monitoring the cpu correct.

21st January 2008, 12:55	#16 \| Link
PurpleMan Registered User Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 257	Even if it swaps cores, shouldn't the graph jump to 100% on a single core even for a split second? regular ffdshow showed 100% on one of the cores the patched XXL one showed 20% on each one of the cores, and you're saying that it doesn't actually mean that no core is maxing? I'm confused.

21st January 2008, 15:01	#18 \| Link
Rodger Registered User Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Viersen, Germany Posts: 270	This is absolut non-sense! I´ve never heard of such behaviour! Before I get to believe that this is the Problem, I believe that a misconfiguration of codecs or similar is the problem.

21st January 2008, 17:31	#20 \| Link
PurpleMan Registered User Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 257	Sure, I got the 1.6.0.0 professional edition. Again, playing it using overlay works perfectly, but playing using VMR9 stutters. Thanks for all the help!

22nd January 2008, 00:04	#22 \| Link
Danisan Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Craggy Island Posts: 66	Have you tried setting the affinity to just one of the cores to see how it plays? Right click on the "mplayerc" process in task manager and "set affinity..." then de-select all but one core.

25th January 2008, 15:26	#24 \| Link
bigcat Registered User Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 23	I also have problems with h264 video in mkv. ffmpeg cannot decode it correctly (video becomes jerky) and it prints many lines of smth like "unknown track header 0x....., ignoring". Plus, video encoded with x264 (-q 30) in mkv container is about 1..3% bigger in size than the same video in mp4 container. This is strange. Last edited by bigcat; 25th January 2008 at 15:34.