codec guide (1 Viewer)

[Goose]

A couple of comments:

The,audio,renderer,will,be,different,for,because,you,
will,have,a,different,soundcard:,

- Should always be "Default DirectSound Device"? Other settings can cause TV-sutter, if I remember correctly

I will change to default direct sound then. Although i do not have this issue.

Resizing,video,to,your,screens,native,resolution,is,quite,resource,intensive,but,can,
significantly,improve,video,quality:,There,are,two,ways,to,do,thisC,zPU,and,8PUC,my,
preference,is,zPU:,To,allow,the,graphics,card,to,scale,the,video,for,youC,you,need,to,open,up,
ìUediaportal,configurationî,and,navigate,to,ìdirectshow,filter,controlî,and,ìvideo,mixing,
renderer,Y,settingsî,Then,select,a,filtering,mode,your,zPU,can,handle:,This,may,require,trial,
and,error:,

Where/How can one figure outh what once gfx support?

It is my understanding that all DX9 cards, will be capable of all the vmr modes. The only issue as i tried to state is that performance may not be good enough on your card.

And (not important):
- IZarc handles .rar as well (I perfer it)
- Links don't work using Foxit reader

I will not mention IZarc as i adjusted the guide to reflect the installer version of vsfilter.

But the link thing is strange, works in adobe. I will test it out.

i am currently researching the best methods for deinterlacing other than letting your video card do it.

A software based deinterlacing method is still far superior to any hardware supported one. Deinterlacing with Dscaler or other Ffdshow filters gets you better results than the Nvidia Pure Video decoder for example. Downside is the bigger utilization.

I agree

seems that there isn't really any automatic checking of interlaced content in any software. Dscaler seems to be the best, but AFAIK it isn't auto either.

Not really sure what you mean there. If you're referring to some sort of motion compensation (AKA Natural Motion Detection etc) then the deinterlacing that comes close is TomsMoComp.
If you install Ffdshow and enable the Dscaler option while installing you get a lot more deinterlacing filters to choose from in Ffdshow. I find them among the best, but cpu intensive.

Some good info about interlacing/deinterlacing is found here.

I have also read that article, it is quite good. My issue is that I can see no easy way of enabling deinterlacing on some movies and disabling it on ones that don't want/need it.

I found some avisynth scripts for deinterlacing, but as i said how would i go about applying only when they are needed.

I wonder if it is possible to expose ffdshow presets in the mediaportal gui, that way you could have a deinterlace preset, which you would select when you open up the video and notice it looks bad.

 

[Exco]

Where do one set this option interlacing/deinterlacing and what settings, would be fun to try out if it has any effects.

An issue I really have is when it´s dark, and all sceens with black looks AWFULL.

 

[einstein72]

Where do one set this option interlacing/deinterlacing and what settings, would be fun to try out if it has any effects. An issue I really have is when it´s dark, and all sceens with black looks AWFULL.

That a very basic question as quite a lot of info can be found on that topic, try searching this forum for instance.
Maybe this is an article that can help you get started: Ffdshow & DVD.

Good luck!

I wonder if it is possible to expose ffdshow presets in the mediaportal gui, that way you could have a deinterlace preset, which you would select when you open up the video and notice it looks bad.

This is possible but the presets are hard to choose if you use one screen on your kit. I use a 17" TFT and a beamer on my media center pc. On the beamer I output Media Portal full screen. On the TFT (set as primary) I have the taskbar with the Ffdshow icon(s). That enables me to change the Ffdshow settings on the fly. I could even use presets if I wanted to. So the option is there, but I don't know is you're able to use it.
To have the software decide if something looks bad seems impossible because that's a complex matter. Even between people there are a lot of different opinions.

By the way, to me the need to change deinterlacing settings is more of issue when I watch Live TV than when I watch a DVD. Some very good third party DVD viewing software is available so I don't need to use Ffdshow for that.
Live TV is a different matter. A lot of different broadcasts make life difficult: 50 Hz, 25 Hz, 23 Hz, interlaced, not interlaced only to name a few.
And as I use dvb for my tv connected to a 50 (or 60) Hz beamer output, unfortunately deinterlacing is a necessity. Especially with high paced sports broadcasting.

 

[mamachan]

Subtitles not work.

Hi Goose, i read your codec guide but i have some problems with subtitles.
I'm not be able to display subtitles with DVD and videos.

I downloaded VSFilter.dll 2.38, put it in Windows\System32 and registered it by "regsvr32 VSFilter.dll" command.
After i activate "subtitle/use vobsub" on ffdshow video configuration

I use this setting on MP:

DVD SETTING
Video Codec: nvidia pure video
Audio codec: ffdshow
PostProcessing: ffdshow raw video filter
PostProcessing: DirectVobSub

VIDEO SETTING
VideoCodec: ffdshow
AudioCodec: ffdshow
PostProcessing: ffdshow raw video filter
PostProcessing: DirectVobSub
Show subtitles checked

But when i play a DVD/OSD menu/subtitles i found "subtitles not activated".

Where is the mistake??

Thanks
massimo

 

[Goose]

Hi mamachan

Why have you added ffdshow raw to the postprocessing section of both dvd and video. If you look in the guide a point no 3 in the tips and tricks you can see how to permanently add ffdshow raw without having to configure it in Mediaportal.

If you are adding directvobsub to the movie post processing section make sure you load "directvobsub" not "directvobsub (autoloading version)"
I would completely remove directvobsub from the dvd postprocessing section. It should call direct vobsub automatically.

So basically i would try the following setup if i were you

DVD SETTING
Video Codec: nvidia pure video or if that doesn;t work try MPV
Audio codec: ffdshow
PostProcessing:
PostProcessing:

VIDEO SETTING
VideoCodec MPEG_2: MPV
VideoCodec H.264: ffdshow
AudioCodec: ffdshow
PostProcessing: ffdshow raw video filter
PostProcessing: DirectVobSub
In the post processing section add direct vobsub to the top section, tick it, click properties, select the general tab, make sure loading is set to "load when needed" and all three tick boxes are selected.
Show subtitles checked

also is

But when i play a DVD/OSD menu/subtitles i found "subtitles not activated".

an error you get when playing back a dvd and then you go to more info and select subtitles?

Also it seems that there is currently a bug in Mediportal regarding subtitle handling.
see the following threads:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/embedded_srt_subtitles_ogm_not_show_up-p197123.html#post197123
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1819497&group_id=107397&atid=647927
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/patch_fix_improve_vobsub_haali_cooperation-t30174.html

BTW i just noticed

After i activate "subtitle/use vobsub" on ffdshow video configuration

I take it you have ffdshow set to display subtitles as well. If this is the case remove the subtitles tickbox from your configuration.

I must ask, was my guide dificult for you to understand, I am assuming that english is not your first language? If so then just post the text you did not understand and i will try to explain it for you.

Also i changed the guide to reflect the installer version of direct vobsub, makes that one part a lot easier.

Where do one set this option interlacing/deinterlacing and what settings, would be fun to try out if it has any effects.

An issue I really have is when it´s dark, and all sceens with black looks AWFULL.

are you refering to the screen looking all pixelated with lots of grey color gradients. If so i would say that your movie is porrly encoded/at a low bitrate.

Try using xsharpen, as it seems to improve that quite a lot on crappy telecine's that everyone seems to get nowdays.

@einstein72
I understand with two monitors you can simply click on ffdshow and change your preset.

What i meant was a setting IN Mediaportal's playback menu say in the more info setting where you can select subtitle, audio language, aspect ratio and bookmarks. You could have a menu item to choose an ffdshow preset. That i feel would be the solution to the interlacing problem.

 

[mamachan]

Hi mamachan
Why have you added ffdshow raw to the postprocessing section of both dvd and video. If you look in the guide a point no 3 in the tips and tricks you can see how to permanently add ffdshow raw without having to configure it in Mediaportal.

OK! I try.

If you are adding directvobsub to the movie post processing section make sure you load "directvobsub" not "directvobsub (autoloading version)"

I allready add only "directvobsub"

I would completely remove directvobsub from the dvd postprocessing section. It should call direct vobsub automatically.

OK.

VIDEO SETTING
VideoCodec MPEG_2: MPV
VideoCodec H.264: ffdshow
AudioCodec: ffdshow
PostProcessing: ffdshow raw video filter
PostProcessing: DirectVobSub

my exactly VIDEO SETTING ARE:
VideoCodec MPEG_2: Nvidia PureVideo
VideoCodec H.264: PowerDVD 7 h.264
AudioCodec: ffdshow
PostProcessing: ffdshow raw video filter
PostProcessing: DirectVobSub

In the post processing section add direct vobsub to the top section, tick it, click properties, select the general tab, make sure loading is set to "load when needed" and all three tick boxes are selected.
Show subtitles checked

allready done.

Quote:
But when i play a DVD/OSD menu/subtitles i found "subtitles not activated".

an error you get when playing back a dvd and then you go to more info and select subtitles?

when i play dvd: press info button on my remorte, display subtitle, "subtitle not activated"

I take it you have ffdshow set to display subtitles as well. If this is the case remove the subtitles tickbox from your configuration.

remove from ffdshow configuration or from MediaPortal configuration??

I must ask, was my guide dificult for you to understand, I am assuming that english is not your first language? If so then just post the text you did not understand and i will try to explain it for you.

I'm italian, i don't speak english very well, but your guide is clear

Thanks for your help.
massimo

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Goose

Might be nice to just mention Filmerit just to check if you have any codec issues.

This has resolved many a problem for myself and other people, in the maze of a world called codecs (307 running stable at the moment).

Thanks

 

[Exco]

Goose.

Followed your guide so it is allready ticked.

 

[mamachan]

Hi mamachan

Why have you added ffdshow raw to the postprocessing section of both dvd and video. If you look in the guide a point no 3 in the tips and tricks you can see how to permanently add ffdshow raw without having to configure it in Mediaportal.

DVD SETTING
Video Codec: nvidia pure video or if that doesn;t work try MPV
Audio codec: ffdshow
PostProcessing:
PostProcessing:

Are you sure???
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/Postprocessing

 

[Goose]

Hi mamachan

Why have you added ffdshow raw to the postprocessing section of both dvd and video. If you look in the guide a point no 3 in the tips and tricks you can see how to permanently add ffdshow raw without having to configure it in Mediaportal.

DVD SETTING
Video Codec: nvidia pure video or if that doesn;t work try MPV
Audio codec: ffdshow
PostProcessing:
PostProcessing:

Are you sure???
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/Postprocessing

yeah i see that article. Perhaps the author was not aware of the particular options in ffdshow itself?

You can test my settings by simply enabling the ffdshow OSD, then when you play back mpeg2 files with whatever codec you prefer, nvidia or mpv, you will see the osd come up. That is if you followed tip number 3.

@paranoid delusion

Good idea. I will add it