Cyberlink h264 problem in 0.2.3.0 final

[bigflause]

they just realease a new patch for power dvd utlra you might want to try it...

[geov]

Originally Posted by pvkleeff

I have the same problem as well.
The strange thing is that some mkv's work but most don't (roughly 1 out of 10 will work). They simply play the file but give a black screen.
H/W accelleration on or off doesn't matter, neither does vobsub.
When I switch to ffdshow or AVIVO they work again.
For audio I use the Cyberlink Codec as well, and that still works.

Outside of MP I can use the Cyberlink Codec without any trouble.
Has this already been reported as an official bug ?

I can confirm this, I get exactly the same problem....

[homerpez]

I'm pretty amazed... but... I think I solved the problem! (At least the one I was having).

I did update to the very latest PowerDVD Ultra update... which I then tested, and discovered that it did NOT solve this problem at all.

I then began to play around with some of MediaPortal's settings, and came across "Video Rendering Mixer 9 Settings" under "DirectShow Filter Control"...

For the checkbox labeled "Use VMR 9 Exclusive Mode", it warns you that if it's checked, it will prevent tearing.

Just for kicks, I DE-ACTIVATED it. Un-checked it.

From then on, on each h.264 video I've played, it works perfectly well! This is without messing with anything else. Simply UN-CHECKING VMR 9 EXCLUSIVE MODE did the trick (for me)!

It seems counter-intuitive (especially when they warn you that to disable it will allow for tearing) but... disabling it fixed the stuttering.

PowerDVD H.264/AVC filter and subtitles even work together nicely, with no stuttering whatsoever... suddenly, I'm very happy with MediaPortal.

Hope this helps someone else...

[ThaClown]

Originally Posted by homerpez

@ ThaClown: What I'm concerned with is.. (with both your suggestion and fillerguy's).. outside of Mediaportal, things work just fine on all fronts, so making huge changes to the codecs installed, I'm worried about breaking what already works (I have done this SO many times).

I think I have the previous build of PowerDVD (not the newest yet), ffdshow (CCCP pack) and all my subtitles work great. Using the Cyberlink codec for video, ffdshow for audio and subtitles (maybe it's vobsub, I still don't know...), I can play back basically everything with H.264. ONLY in Mediaportal does this video stuttering happen using the same exact codecs.

I'm curious... was your video stuttering like this BEFORE the Cyberlink update? or are you simply stating that you don't have problems with it? Meaning, was it "problem, solution"? Or "never had that problem"?

BUT, I will try both solutions when I get back to my HTPC (at work atm)... thanks for the suggestions!

I had the same problems...
All worked fine in FLV under 'normal windows'. Just not in MP!
Many FullHD files had a green screen or no video at all and alot of stuttering...
But for all of them audio worked fine.

But now after the PowerDVD update everything works! (tried about 8 movies so far, only Kill Bill did not work but I think that it is a damaged file) so I think they really did something good at PowerDVD...

So for me it really was a fix!

[hobb]

The original problem as I understand is that nothing at all happens when you try to play a file from the playlist. In my case when I "click" on a movie in the file list nothing at all happens visually but I can tell that MP freezes for about a second since I cant navigate to another film for that short period of time. In my case this happens for most of my .mkv videos and (all?) .ogm videos.

Some people suggests that it is related to ac3 sound stream. Others think it is related to embedded subtitles. I have to do some more testing but for now I personally would suspect the subtitles. It is obviously some property or combination of properties of the affected movies that causes problems since only a subset of the movies fail to play. Since I use the same PowerDVD cyberlink h.264 decoder for HDTV playback succesfully in MP I can rule the video decoder out.

The important thing here is that the problem seem to start when people upgrade to MP 0.2.3.0 + recent snapshot and that it is not a codec / configuration problem since most people report that they can play the files in other players like MPC, GSpot etc using the same codec setup. The conclusion is that something has changed in MP that breaks an otherwise working codec configuration.

I think the following thread relates to the same problem:
h.264 / mkv problem

[pvkleeff]

I still have the same problems with the Cyberlink PowerDVD filters.
I've updated to PowerDVD 7.3.3516 (latest version), but it still doesn't work with hardware accelleration enabled on the PowerDVD configuration screen in DirectShow Filter Control.
With HW accel enabled I only get a black picture on the screen. Strange thing is the the graph builds correctly but nothing gets rendered. Turn HW accel off and everything works as normal (with more CPU power used off course).

I've tried every SVN build between the final 0.2.3 and today but not a single one works (also my mkv's have no subs so the vsfilter trick doesn't work here either). I installed 0.2.3-RC3 and there it still works. So, somewhere inbetween something got broken. I'll try to find the exact svn in which it got broken and hope someone from the dev team has the time to look into this.

[AirRulez]

I can confirm the same issue with 2400XT. I got various files perfectly working under MPC/ZoomPlayer with hardware acceleration on (confirmed activated by nearly 2/3% CPU load) that actually shutter when played under MediaPortal (720p/1080p doesn't make any significant difference).
DirectVob filter for Subs was disabled for the sake of testing, I even removed the sub files from the mkv container in order to be perfectly sure.
I tried what Homerpez suggested (dechecking "Use VMR 9 Exclusive Mode") with no significant change happening.
It's not even the "well known" 20fps bug related to h264 stream not using the standard reference frame for DXVA acceleration (as reported by AVS forum in this thread), since I used the H264info to correct the issue (and those files were actually the ones working flawlessy in MPC/Zoom player).

Any chance to have a word of advice from devs?

[bigflause]

I have to use ffdshow raw as the postproccessor for the powerdvd ultra codecs to work with mkv files. did you try that?

[ol263]

From what I saw the problem is only with MKV's containing embedded subtitles... They fail to render, except when using ffdshow...

[AirRulez]

Originally Posted by bigflause

I have to use ffdshow raw as the postproccessor for the powerdvd ultra codecs to work with mkv files. did you try that?

Haven't tried this yet, I'll give it a shot this evening.

Originally Posted by ol263

From what I saw the problem is only with MKV's containing embedded subtitles... They fail to render, except when using ffdshow...

Actually this is no more an issue, it has been resolved in the other thread forcing the Haali Media Splitter to load the VSFilter.dll, using the appropriate filter option (under Compatibility, set "Autoload VSFilter" to "yes").
Unfortunately rendering the subtitles through Direct Vob Sub will disable any kind of hardware acceleration, so this is hardly a point trying to get the Cyberlink codec working correctly.