ffdshow problem on Win7 + MP 1.0.2 (1 Viewer)

[velis]

Note that I'm still in the process of selecting the codec pack that will do my bidding. I've also just upgraded the vid card from 6600GT to HD 4350 so I may need to re-test lots of stuff.

I want to use ffdshow for non H264 content (IPTV, DVDs) for it's decoding/postprocessing options.
Mostly, I need the following filters:

Good deinterlacer (and somewhat fast too, since my Athlon X2 isn't the most powerful beast on the planet any more)
Resize (lanczos or spline or better)
Sharpen - something that would try to hide the fact that source image is rather low res
Something that would detect 16:9 black borders in 4:3 signal - lots of shows are being broadcast in 16:9 with black borders on top and bottom lately and I'd like to clip that since my TV is 16:9

I have searched all around the net for a solution, but it doesn't seem to be readily available.
I managed to get MPC and WMP to use ffdshow both for audio and for video, but not MP. It still uses some other codec and it seems all other codecs on my HTPC play video jerky, especially if it's H264. I have set all the codecs to ffdshow in MP settings app for all media types.

I have read the sticky thread above and will try it, although I'm sure I'll still use ffdshow for audio. I haven't found anything else that would do mixing and encoding to AC3 (I have Z-5500 speaker system). Transmitting a nicely upmixed stream through SPDIF is pretty much mandatory since the onboard analog audio has lots of noise. Also since I have the SPDIF option I will not consider a better sound card.

Also, can someone tell me how to enable avivo? The CCC's control panel has some really nice looking options (especially the deinterlacer), but I can't figure out how to enable the said decoder.

Can anyone help me with this? Any specific advice would be greatly appreciated. I've pretty much tried everything else I could find on the net already (except for avivo, the card came to life only yesterday).

Thanks,
Jure

 

[chemelli]

Please use 1.1.0Alpha on Windows7.

Simone

 

[velis]

Of course I will. I hear you included the IPTV mod which rocks for me
I'm currently on 1.0.2 only because there was no 1.1. at the time of my last clean install (some 3 weeks back).

But will this (moving to 1.1) help with my ffdshow problem?
I was kind of hoping that somebody else with similar requirements would tell me how he set up his HTPC

 

[chemelli]

Of course I will. I hear you included the IPTV mod which rocks for me
I'm currently on 1.0.2 only because there was no 1.1. at the time of my last clean install (some 3 weeks back).

But will this (moving to 1.1) help with my ffdshow problem?
I was kind of hoping that somebody else with similar requirements would tell me how he set up his HTPC

• ffdshow should be ffdshow-tryouts, build I'm running is 3020.
• ffdshow is banned in TsReader for MPEG2/h264
• best video codecs are: avivo, pdvd8/9, coreavc
• best audio codecs are: ffdshow-tryouts, mpa ( both with SPDIF/AC3 passtrough )

EDIT: For black bar detection please check VideoModeSwitcher plugin. Works like a charm here

Simone

 

[velis]

Thanks for the info.
I assume by "avivo" codec you mean the Cyberlink decoder or is there a codec installed automatically with Catalyst and I was just blind when I was looking for it?

Also, do I need tsreader if I already have Haali's? I thought Haali's splitter will do MPEG2 just fine.

Sorry again for the dumb questions, I've always used codec packs till now and they (CCCP mostly) worked fine for me.

 

[Owlsroost]

Thanks for the info.
I assume by "avivo" codec you mean the Cyberlink decoder or is there a codec installed automatically with Catalyst and I was just blind when I was looking for it?

The Avivo pack is an extra download from AMD - the Vista 32 version is at the bottom of the page here Drivers & Tools | GAME.AMD.COM

Also, do I need tsreader if I already have Haali's? I thought Haali's splitter will do MPEG2 just fine.

He means FFDshow video codecs are not allowed in MP when playing live/recorded TV (because of problems).

Tony

 

[velis]

Thanks for the info.
I assume by "avivo" codec you mean the Cyberlink decoder or is there a codec installed automatically with Catalyst and I was just blind when I was looking for it?

The Avivo pack is an extra download from AMD - the Vista 32 version is at the bottom of the page here Drivers & Tools | GAME.AMD.COM

Ah, that's why I didn't see it. For Win7 driver, this optional download isn't shown at all. It's been a while since I had an ATI in my system. It just so happened that each time I was buying, Nvidia had the upper hand

Also, do I need tsreader if I already have Haali's? I thought Haali's splitter will do MPEG2 just fine.

He means FFDshow video codecs are not allowed in MP when playing live/recorded TV (because of problems).

Tony

Uf, this is a bit unfortunate. Although Avivo handles deinterlacing quite well, it lacks resize and sharpening filters which I need *exactly* for live TV: SD signal - scales quite poorly to 1080p.
I'll check it out and see what can be done about it...
Can I use ffdshow as a postprocessing filter or is exactly the resolution changing that causes problems with it?

 

[velis]

Hm,

I've made the planned modifications on my HTPC, but I got into a bit of trouble:
First, I had to manually install the avivo package and then manually register the filter dlls (the installer package didn't try to register them as an admin)
Now I can't seem to make the Avivo codec play H264 content.
I've set all the merits, etc. It plays DivX / XVid just fine (some 5-8% CPU utilization). Though ffdshow uses about the same CPU for the same video.
However, H264 doesn't work at all.

I tried to set the filter manually in graphedit, but when I try to make a connection, it says:
These filters cannot agree on a connection. Verify type compatibility of input pin and output pin.
No combination of intermediate filters could be found to make the connection (Return code: 0x80040217)

Also CCC doesn't show the avivo transcoder in the tree.

I also downloaded Cyberlink's trial: http://www.cyberlink.com/cinema/ati/h264_decoder/enu/index.jsp
But this one can't seem to find a suitable output renderer.

Tried CoreAVC too, but it's worse than ffdshow.

Please help.

 

[booris]

This is an interesting thread - please let us know if you find working solution!

I would like to use ffdshow too since it has given me a lot better picture quality than any other codec. That's because it can resize image to fit screen resolution. However, I just can't understand the logic how codecs are used in MediaPortal. There's no matter what I choose from MediaPortal configuration - for some videos MP uses ffdshow and for some it doesn't.

It's sad that ffdshow isn't allowed in tv. In some previous version tv was able to use it and picture quality was much better than now - with any other codec tv picture is really ugly and I don't use Mediaportal's tv anymore on anything else than record programs.

 

[robyf]

I want to use ffdshow for non H264 content (IPTV, DVDs) for it's decoding/postprocessing options.
Mostly, I need the following filters:

Good deinterlacer (and somewhat fast too, since my Athlon X2 isn't the most powerful beast on the planet any more)
Resize (lanczos or spline or better)
Sharpen - something that would try to hide the fact that source image is rather low res
Something that would detect 16:9 black borders in 4:3 signal - lots of shows are being broadcast in 16:9 with black borders on top and bottom lately and I'd like to clip that since my TV is 16:9

I have searched all around the net for a solution, but it doesn't seem to be readily available.
I managed to get MPC and WMP to use ffdshow both for audio and for video, but not MP. It still uses some other codec and it seems all other codecs on my HTPC play video jerky, especially if it's H264. I have set all the codecs to ffdshow in MP settings app for all media types.

The (known) problem is the following: http://www.hack7mc.com/2009/02/using-ffdshow-audio-in-media-center.html

That is windows 7 will always use his internal codec for divx unless the filter is specifically called by the player (this is not the case with mediaportal that for divx uses the codec with the highest merit). You can follow the instructions in the above thread and you will have ffdshow playing your content but after many tests I found a better solution to install this codec pack Shark007.net - Windows 7 Codecs

Normally I don't like and use codec packs but believe me this one has solved all my problems and it has a good interface where you can select which codecs are to be used for every media type and override the problem with microsoft codecs.

Let me know.