[fixed] 4k HEVC DXVA2 not playing correctly in MP2 (1 Viewer)

[JSchuricht]

MediaPortal 2 Version: 2.1.3

Description
With more videos coming out in 4k and using HEVC 10 bit I started looking into why MP2 couldn't play them smoothly on my clients while the same client could play the file in windows 10 media player or MPCHC. Anyways it comes down to the LAV codec not using QuickSync to decode the HEVC files and a i3-7100U in the NUC not having the power for software decoding. Using MPCHC and LAV 70.2 for testing, QuicksSync greys out HEVC but DXVA2 (native) shows HEVC and works great. Below is the task manager graph of the iGPU. Left half is DXVA2 which uses Video Decode, has low CPU usage and plays smoothly. The right half is using QuickSync which uses 100% CPU, no Video Decode and can be measured in frames per minute while counting by hand. The test file is 60.5 Mbps HEVC 10 bit.



The issue comes in with using MP2 on the DXVA2 (native) setting. MP2 either displays a blank screen or can't find the file when DXVA2 is turned on. Screenshot below is the change to the hardware decoder in LAV. Nothing else was changed. Logs are attached, whats the trick to getting DXVA2 working in MP2?



Steps to Reproduce:
1) Enable DXVA2 (native) in LAV
2) Play HEVC 10 bit 4k video in MP2
3) Watch it fail

 

[HTPCSourcer]

Hi,

I just verified the LAV behavior yesterday. LAV 0.72 (-15, I am using a nightly now) is using DXVA2 native without problems. Unfortunately I can't check HEVC as my hardware is not supporting 4k. While I can also use QuickSync on my old G3220 CPU, DXVA2 is giving me a lower CPU load than QuickSync.

So I suggest that you upgrade your LAV codecs and take another look at the matter. Thank you for reporting back here.

 

[HTPCSourcer]

LAV 73.1 was published Oct 11 as an official release. Give it a try.

 

[JSchuricht]

I had been running LAV 0.72 and just tried 0.73.1. Neither help the situation. x264 plays back fine with DXVA2 enabled its just the HEVC files that fail in Mediaportal. I can get some HEVC files to work if they are lower bitrate. 12 Mb/s works with occasional issues in complex scenes, 60 Mb/s files have no chance in Mediaportal but work perfect in MPCHC.

I did change hardware from i3-7100U to i7-7700T but even that has issues with HEVC in Mediaportal.

 

[HTPCSourcer]

12 Mb/s works with occasional issues in complex scenes, 60 Mb/s files have no chance in Mediaportal but work perfect in MPCHC.

I don't know enough about the process to be able to provide a qualified assessment. However, I thought that the signal processing is a function of the codec and the renderer (EVR in this case). How does the original Windows MediaPlayer behave in this situation?

 

[HTPCSourcer]

By the way: the original starting question about DXVA2 seems resolved. I would like to mark this thread as resolved then and suggest that you open a new one in the General section that specifically deals with 4k playback.

 

[JSchuricht]

Sorry, I didn't explain that well earlier. The lower bitrate HEVC files I am able to get to work with mediaportal are using quicksync with CPU decode. DXVA2 is still not functional for HEVC files under mediaportal. The media player in windows 10 works fine for playback, just mediaportal with the issue.

 

[HTPCSourcer]

The media player in windows 10 works fine for playback, just mediaportal with the issue.

Ah, then there is indeed some kind of problem. We should maybe better rename the thread then to something like "4K not correctly playing"?

We will need full logs in DEBUG mode to continue tracking down the root cause when playing 4K material. LAV + DXVA2 should (in theory) be able to play 4K. Unfortunately it is a bit difficult to work on as there aren't that many team members who have the necessary hardware.

 

[HTPCSourcer]

The first thing to verify is whether the correct codecs are actually used by MP. Are you familiar with using GraphEdit and could you then check the playbacks for the different kinds of video material?

 

[JSchuricht]

Client and server logs attached and a screenshot of lav settings to get started. The file tested was 44.3 Mb/s. I will look into GraphEdit and see what I can gather from it.