GPU acceleration with LAV Filters sometimes bypassed? (1 Viewer)

[BushLin]

I have a pretty pathetic CPU in my TV box (single core Pentium M 760, 2Ghz) which is mitigated by a Geforce 9400GT to allow decoding of high bitrate 1080p using native DVXA2 & LAV Filters.

This all works great with broadcast TV in H.264 (UK Freesat) but I find I have to choose the lower quality steams with OnlineVideos to avoid stuttering (or more likely little 1 second segments repeated 3 or 4 times) with sites like BBC iPlayer yet I can play the same or higher resolution and bitrate steams from other sites like ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.

Am I somehow not using LAV Filters' GPU acceleration even though the log says it's a H.264 stream, I have LAV Filters chosen for all video types and DVXA2 native enabled and working?
If so...
Is there something I can fix software wise?
and if not...
is there the potential for GPU acceleration for what might be an unusual video format to be added later to LAV Filters/OnlineVideos?
or
Is my VP2 video card never going to be able to do this and I should look at a new low power platform like AMD's Kabini?

Here's the log of one video stuttering followed by another with smooth playback but both streams are supposedly 720p H.264

[06-27 01:15:13,102] [MPMain ] [INFO ] OnlineVideosPlayer: Play 'rtmp://iplayertokfs.fplive.net####Url=rtmp%3a%2f%2fiplayertokfs.fplive.net%3a1935%2f&RtmpApp=iplayertok%3ftoken%3dc3RhcnRfdGltZT0yMDEzMDYyNjIyMTQ1MCZlbmRfdGltZT0yMDEzMDYyNzAyMTQ1MCZkaWdlc3Q9MTUwZTc0ZGI0MTlkZGRkMGZjMzdkOTI3NTBiMWU4ZWQ%3d&RtmpPlayPath=mp4%3a3200kbps%2fb0369pk9_1372125317&RtmpSwfUrl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.bbc.co.uk%2femp%2freleases%2fiplayer%2frevisions%2f617463_618125_4%2f617463_618125_4_emp.swf&RtmpSwfVerify=1&RtmpTcUrl=rtmp%3a%2f%2fiplayertokfs.fplive.net%3a1935%2fiplayertok%3ftoken%3dc3RhcnRfdGltZT0yMDEzMDYyNjIyMTQ1MCZlbmRfdGltZT0yMDEzMDYyNzAyMTQ1MCZkaWdlc3Q9MTUwZTc0ZGI0MTlkZGRkMGZjMzdkOTI3NTBiMWU4ZWQ%3d&RtmpToken=token%3dc3RhcnRfdGltZT0yMDEzMDYyNjIyMTQ1MCZlbmRfdGltZT0yMDEzMDYyNzAyMTQ1MCZkaWdlc3Q9MTUwZTc0ZGI0MTlkZGRkMGZjMzdkOTI3NTBiMWU4ZWQ%3d'
[06-27 01:15:14,331] [MPMain ] [INFO ] OnlineVideosPlayer: Duration 1735.13 sec
[06-27 01:15:16,461] [OVPlaying ] [INFO ] Setting Video Properties for '2006 (1280x720 | 2800 kbps | level3)'
[06-27 01:16:08,992] [MPMain ] [INFO ] OnlineVideosPlayer: Stop
[06-27 01:16:09,868] [MPMain ] [INFO ] DoPageLoad with CurrentState 'videos', PreviousWindowId '4758'
[06-27 01:16:12,629] [OnlineVideos] [INFO ] Looking for dynamic categories for site 'BBC iPlayer'
[06-27 01:16:12,631] [OnlineVideos] [INFO ] Found 30 dynamic categories for site 'BBC iPlayer'
[06-27 01:16:17,741] [OnlineVideos] [INFO ] Looking for dynamic categories for site 'ThatGuyWithTheGlasses'
[06-27 01:16:19,010] [OnlineVideos] [INFO ] Found 0 dynamic categories for site 'ThatGuyWithTheGlasses'
[06-27 01:16:36,420] [MPMain ] [INFO ] Preparing graph for playback of 'http://blip.tv/file/get/NostalgiaCritic-NostalgiaCriticAreVideoGamesArt158.m4v'
[06-27 01:16:36,692] [OnlineVideos] [INFO ] Start prebuffering ...
[06-27 01:16:41,023] [OVGraph ] [INFO ] found H264 video on output pin
[06-27 01:16:41,155] [OnlineVideos] [INFO ] Prebuffering finished.
[06-27 01:16:41,169] [MPMain ] [INFO ] OnlineVideosPlayer: Play 'http://blip.tv/file/get/NostalgiaCritic-NostalgiaCriticAreVideoGamesArt158.m4v'
[06-27 01:16:41,709] [MPMain ] [INFO ] OnlineVideosPlayer: Duration 715.35 sec
[06-27 01:16:43,724] [OVPlaying ] [INFO ] Setting Video Properties for 'Nostalgia Critic - Are Video Games Art? (3 - hd720)'
[06-27 01:25:09,209] [MPMain ] [INFO ] OnlineVideosPlayer: Stop

 

[kiwijunglist]

nvidia doesn't do dxva need to use cuda . if dxva selected hardware acceleration is disabled.

 

[tourettes]

nvidia doesn't do dxva need to use cuda . if dxva selected hardware acceleration is disabled.

DXVA (2.0) is supported by LAV + Nvidia combo in general, not sure if 9400 is supported by LAV.

 

[kiwijunglist]

oh my bad i should adjust my guide to suggest that nvidia can use LAV-dxva in addition to cuvid. From what I understand cuvid is still preferred due to more compatability???

 

[Vasilich]

DXVA (2.0) is supported by LAV + Nvidia combo in general, not sure if 9400 is supported by LAV.

i use Intel Atom 330 with nVidia ION chipset. It has equivalent of nVidia 9400, that works great with LAV with only DXVA. this nvidia performs too slow for using CUDA.

nvidia doesn't do dxva need to use cuda . if dxva selected hardware acceleration is disabled.

wrong, see above.

 

[Vasilich]

@BushLin
activate "show tray icon" for LAV video, and doubleclick its icon while watching video - it will show currenty used decoder (dxva or cuda for hardware, avcodec - for software decoding).
There are some video resolutions not supported by hardware decoder of this chip, so - please check movie resolutions and post here.

 

[Vasilich]

offtopic:

oh my bad i should adjust my guide to suggest that nvidia can use LAV-dxva in addition to cuvid. From what I understand cuvid is still preferred due to more compatability???

give me link to your guide, please, and maybe i can correct it (and maybe add some screenshots) for nvidia cards.

 

[kiwijunglist]

I updated guide to:

AMD HD4XXX / HD5XXX - Choose DXVA2 (native)
AMD HD6XXX / HD7XXX - Choose DXVA2 (copy back) [If stutter problems change to native]
Low End Nvidia - Choose DXVA2 (native)
High End Nvidia - Choose Nvidia CUVID + adaptive HW deinterlacing, output: 50p/60p (or) DXVA2 (native)
Intel - Choose Intel QuickSync adaptive HW deinterlacing, output: 50p/60p
Low end GPU that doesn't do HW accleration, choose none


https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...back-display-calibration.119610/#post-1001706[DOUBLEPOST=1372317041][/DOUBLEPOST]

offtopic:

oh my bad i should adjust my guide to suggest that nvidia can use LAV-dxva in addition to cuvid. From what I understand cuvid is still preferred due to more compatability???

give me link to your guide, please, and maybe i can correct it (and maybe add some screenshots) for nvidia cards.

^ done. thank you.

 

[offbyone]

Back to the original question:
Not every h.264 stream can be hardware accelerated by every GFx card/driver combination. The hardware accelearation only kicks in, when the file's encoding is fully conforming to the specification the graphics card wants. In case of h.264 there are really many possibilities how you can envoce your video and older graphics card tend to have more tight restriction what they support hardware accelerated. Especially videos used around the web are often expected to be played via flashplayer embedded on a html page, so the creator does not care or comply to some standards in video file encoding.
So it is very well possible that many Online Videos are not going to be hardware accelerated, which is why they stutter on lower end systems.

 

[BushLin]

Thanks for all your replies, I was afraid you'd say something like that "offbyone". Given that these troublesome streams are probably flash video, what are the chances of harnessing the adobe provided flash plugin to play the content?
I don't normally have a keyboard and mouse plugged into this machine but ran one of the test videos using the iPlayer website and while motion wasn't perfect there was no skipping.

@BushLin

activate "show tray icon" for LAV video, and doubleclick its icon while watching video - it will show currenty used decoder (dxva or cuda for hardware, avcodec - for software decoding).

There are some video resolutions not supported by hardware decoder of this chip, so - please check movie resolutions and post here.

The videos tested are 1280x720 (standard 720p) and if I compare the main mediaportal log entry when stopping a video from OnlineVideos (where I get stuttering with 720p material) to broadcast video (where higher bitrate 1080p DVB-S2 plays silky smooth) the only difference is the source splitter which you'd expect.

2013-06-27 12:36:20.259765 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Disconnecting all pins from filter Default DirectSound Device
2013-06-27 12:36:20.260742 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Disconnecting all pins from filter Enhanced Video Renderer
2013-06-27 12:36:20.260742 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Disconnecting all pins from filter LAV Audio Decoder
2013-06-27 12:36:20.262695 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Disconnecting pin Output
2013-06-27 12:36:20.262695 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Not connected
2013-06-27 12:36:20.263671 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Disconnecting all pins from filter LAV Video Decoder
2013-06-27 12:36:20.263671 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Disconnecting pin Output
2013-06-27 12:36:20.263671 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Not connected
2013-06-27 12:36:20.266601 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Disconnecting all pins from filter MediaPortal Url Source Splitter

2013-06-27 12:38:15.168945 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Disconnecting all pins from filter Enhanced Video Renderer
2013-06-27 12:38:15.169921 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Disconnecting all pins from filter Default DirectSound Device
2013-06-27 12:38:15.170898 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Disconnecting all pins from filter LAV Video Decoder
2013-06-27 12:38:15.170898 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Disconnecting pin Output
2013-06-27 12:38:15.170898 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Not connected
2013-06-27 12:38:15.185546 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Disconnecting all pins from filter LAV Audio Decoder
2013-06-27 12:38:15.186523 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Disconnecting pin Output
2013-06-27 12:38:15.186523 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Not connected
2013-06-27 12:38:15.187500 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Disconnecting all pins from filter TsReader

EDIT: Just for the record, I've tried this with MP 1.2.3 and 1.4 (with the matching latest fully compatible plugins)