MP Refusing to use ffdshow for TV

[domb]

MPEG2 Video Codec:

MP just will not use ffdshow to decode MPEG-2. I have uninstalled most other codecs barring a Pinacle codec for the tuner and the MIcrosoft Vista one still no go. It is set to use FFDSHOW in the MP configuration, still nothing. I have even set other MPEG2 codecs with Radlight to disable and it still refuses to use ffdshow! The priority of FFDSHOW is also much higher than any others. PLease help! It is going through FFDSHOW for processing but it is not decoding the MPEG stream itself.

USing:

MediaPortal RC2
Vista Home Premium 32bit SP1
FFDshow Beta 5

[Paranoid Delusion]

FFDShow is not a good mpeg2 codec, M$ codec is by far your best choice (PowerDVD gives similar quality but with hw acceleration) and add FFSDShow for postprocessing if needed.

[domb]

i still do not know why i cannot use it to decode if i wish? any other filter works...

[tourettes]

Originally Posted by domb

i still do not know why i cannot use it to decode if i wish? any other filter works...

Are you using Tv server? If yes then TsReader wont allow to use ffdshow as MPEG2 (post processing should be ok). This is done because of some compatibility issues between ffdshow and TsReader when processing MPEG2 SD & HD channels.

Maybe the limitation can be removed someday when the actualy incompatibility is fixed.

[charli181]

Originally Posted by tourettes

Are you using Tv server? If yes then TsReader wont allow to use ffdshow as MPEG2 (post processing should be ok). This is done because of some compatibility issues between ffdshow and TsReader when processing MPEG2 SD & HD channels.

Maybe the limitation can be removed someday when the actualy incompatibility is fixed.

Thats strange as my system seems to be using ffdshow for video on Mpeg2 SD & HD - I am running Vista though and TV Server is a standalone.

TV-Server Version: TVServer RC2
MediaPortal Version: MP1 RC2
MediaPortal Skin: XFace 1.6
Windows Version: WIN XP SP2 (Client)/Win 2003 Server (TVServer)
CPU Type: AMD 64 +4800 (Client)/Intel DualCore 2150(Server)
HDD:
Memory: IGB DDR2 800(Client)/1GB DDR2 667 (Server)
Motherboard: Asus M2A VM-HDMI(Client)/GigaByte GA-VM900M (Server)
Video Card: Integrated ATI Radeon X1250-based graphics
Video Card Driver: Catalyst 7.11
Sound Card: ALC883 High Definition Audio 6-channel
Sound Card AC3: Coax out
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card: Twinhann DVB-T
1. TV Card Type: DVB-T
1. TV Card Driver:
2. TV Card: Leadtek DTV-1000T
2. TV Card Type: DVB-T
2. TV Card Driver:
3. TV Card:
3. TV Card Type:
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec: FFDShow
MPEG2 Audio Codec: AC3Filter
h.264 Video Codec:
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case:
Cooling:
Power Supply:
Remote:
TV: Sony 40" LCD
TV - HTPC Connection: Sub-d & HDMI

[tourettes]

Originally Posted by charli181

Thats strange as my system seems to be using ffdshow for video on Mpeg2 SD & HD - I am running Vista though and TV Server is a standalone.

Odd as TsReader code is pretty straight forward:

  if (mpeg2Video)
  {
    //dont accept FFDShow for mpeg1/2 video playback
    if (wcscmp(filterInfo.achName,L"ffdshow Video Decoder")==0)
    {
      return E_FAIL;
    }
    if (wcscmp(filterInfo.achName,L"ffdshow raw video Decoder")==0)
    {
      return E_FAIL;
    }

Maybe the ffdshow filter name has changed?
}

[charli181]

I will check again tonight and post my version of ffdshow.

[tourettes]

If someone has the HD & SD channels (both in MPEG2 format) it would be nice to see if we still need that ffdshow blacklisting in TsReader as the dynamic output pin change has been introduced. It could fix the issue we had previously with ffdshow. Maybe its not as robust as for example Cyberlink when it comes to the stream analysis (or maybe its not even doing it at all and relies completely on the source filters information).

[domb]

ok, so ffdshow is basically blacklisted from decoding mpeg2 completely? Is this in the documentation as I would not have bothered mucking around uninstalling decoders, changing priorities of filters etc if I had known this before!

thanks for the help anyway.

[tourettes]

Originally Posted by domb

ok, so ffdshow is basically blacklisted from decoding mpeg2 completely? Is this in the documentation as I would not have bothered mucking around uninstalling decoders, changing priorities of filters etc if I had known this before!

Unfortunately its not documented anywhere. But its not the only thing that is missing from MP documentation.