Why Core AVC?

[eddiek156]

Hi there. I am very new to MP. I have installed ffdshow and am able to watch HD movies (.mkv) without any problems. I have noticed elsewhere on this forum that you recommend using Core AVC as well.

What are the benefits of using Core AVC compared to my current setup which is working fine for me?

Thanks
Ed



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[ryan20021982]

I would say if you video card can handle the h.64 encoding then leave it the way it is, coreavc
is for cards that dont support it and use the cpu to do it, coreavc can decode the h264 content
without maxing out your cpu, in a nut shell just runs more efficient if cpu has to do all the decoding.

[eddiek156]

I am using the onboard graphics on my Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H. To me the HD videos seem to run OK. Although perhaps my eye isn't as keen as some. Taking into account my motherboard, do you thing the picture quality would improve if I use Core AVC. Sometimes I feel there may be a very slight judder in the picture.

[ryan20021982]

You might because the onbaord video does not support h.264 decoding which nvidia calls PureVideo

Check your cpu usage when playing a hd movie and see how high it is

[Inker]

Hmm, ffdshow does not use your videocard to decode h264.

CoreAVC is, just like ffdshow, a software based decoder, which means you're cpu does all the work. CoreAVC is, however, much more efficient than ffdshow, so it doesn't stutter on high bitrates quite as easily, this all depends on youre hardware though. If ffdshow runs fine then the only thing you will gain by using coreavc is lower cpu usage, which could mean lower heat/lower noise. But this is heavily dependend on your system.

The H264 standard dictates the exact decoding result, so both should output the exact (bitwise exact) same output, so there is zero quality difference. If there is, it is a bug. ffdshow of course offers some post-processing that coreavc does not, but you can still chain ffdshow as a raw decoder after coreavc and get the best of both worlds.

[eddiek156]

I checked my cpu and it runs well below full capacity when playing a 1080p mkv file. I installed the trial of doreavc anyway just to see what might happen. I couldnt see any difference is quality, still a slight stutter.

My system has a e7200 core2duo processor running at 2.53 ghz and has 2gb ram. Its xp sp2 too.

I would like to get rid of the stutter somehow. do i need a better seperate gpu?

[ryan20021982]

I would recommend one the 7100 isnt up to par for playing hd content smoothly

[Paranoid Delusion]

If its the motherboard you quoted with a 7100 gpu, it will struggle graphically, make sure in Bios, video memory is not set to auto, change to 128 or 256mb.

To be sure you have the best chance of everything working together, get SP3, make sure WMP11 is installed (certain updates only come with this installed), latest drivers for motherboard\gpu, see if that changes anything, if not your in the market for a upgrade