Guide: Perfect playback & Display calibration (3 Viewers)

[kiwijunglist]

I've created a more advanced profile for ffdshow.
I would like some feedback, I think it's quite good.

It has the following advantages:
1. Add black pixels to 1912/1916 width videos to ensure 1:1 mapping
2. Up-scales and processes SD Video (Does an amazing job of this too)
3. Applies a smart zoom to 4:3 and optionally 1.85/2.35 video
4. De-blocks DivX video

Requirements:
1. Good CPU (eg. Intel: High Spec Dual Core, or i3+ processor)
2. 1920x1080 display

For more about how smart zoom works see the wiki:
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_...bute/99_Design_Concepts/Smart_View#section_17
^ This is a concept for integrated a smart zoom mode into mediaportal, since I wrote the concept I figured out how to do it in ffdshow.


Installation Instructions:

Install latest version of ffdshow tryouts decoder
http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/
Choose to install ffdshow decoder
(Don't need to install audio decoder, ffdshow (dxva) or anything else, just the decoder)

Open FFDShow config
Remove all existing profiles except for 'default'
Save changes and close FFDShow Config
Run Smart Zoom (Ultimate V1).reg - This will insert my profiles in to ffdshow
Re-Open FFDShow Config

Make a decision, (Choose only one option):

(1) Default smart zoom settings: (RECOMMENDED)

Spoiler

It should already look exactly like the screenshot
Make sure the default profile is bold by double clicking on it

(2) I want to disable smart zoom for Full HD

Spoiler

Delete Smart Zoom (1.85 Full HD) (2)
Delete Smart Zoom (2.35 Full HD) (2)
Make sure the default profile is bold by double clicking on it

(3) I want to disable smart zoom for Full HD & HD Ready Video)

Spoiler

Delete Smart Zoom (1.85 Full HD) (3)
Delete Smart Zoom (1.85 HD Ready) (3)
Delete Smart Zoom (2.35 Full HD) (3)
Delete Smart Zoom (2.35 HD Ready) (3)
Make sure the default profile is bold by double clicking on it

(4) I want disable smart zoom for all wider than 16:9 formats (only use it for 4:3 video)

Spoiler

Delete Smart Zoom (1.85 Full HD) (4)
Delete Smart Zoom (1.85 HD Ready) (4)
Delete Smart Zoom (1.85 SD) (4)
Delete Smart Zoom (2.35 Full HD) (4)
Delete Smart Zoom (2.35 HD Ready) (4)
Delete Smart Zoom (2.35 SD) (4)
Make sure the default profile is bold by double clicking on it

What do I use? - I'm torn between option (1) and (2). I have a lot of 15+ GB Full HD videos so I don't like processing them because the quality is so perfect already.

Make your second decision:

You can either decode with ffdshow or post process with ffdshow

Decode:
Choose this if unsure

Spoiler

Set all the codecs in the video section to ffdshow.
FFDShow will use your CPU to both decode your video and process it.

Post process:
Recommend for AMD HD6XXX/7XXX and other GPUs that support DXVA w. Post processing

Spoiler

Set all the codecs in MP to LAV Video. If AMD Select DXVA (copy back)
Open FFDShow Config, and click on the codecs section (near the top)
Change raw video to "All Supported"
Save changes
Open MP Config, Videos section
Add "FFDShow Video Decoder" (NOT FFDShow RAW Decoder) to post processing

FINISHED!

More information for those interested:

Spoiler

These modes apply smart features to make the video as large as possible without much distortion or cropping

Smart Zoom (Full HD)
Apply smart zoom to Full HD Videos

Smart Zoom (HD Ready)
Apply smart zoom to HD Ready Videos

Smart Zoom (SD)
Apply smart zoom to SD Videos
It also applies debanding, blur & NR, upscaling, sharpening +/- deblocking

This is the special mode for 1912 and 1916px width video that has not been smart zoomed

No Smart Zoom (Default 1912/1916)
Add black pixels around the edge to ensure 1:1 pixel mapping with source:display.

This is the default mode for video that is not 4:3/1.85/2.35

No Smart Zoom ( )
It enlarges video to display without applying smart zoom.
If SD Video, it applies debanding, blur & NR, upscaling, sharpening +/- deblocking

Comparisons:

Xvid:

^There is slightly more detail in the hair that is directly against the roller, The skin around her eye is a little bit fuzzy in the original pic. You can also see slightly more details in the medial canthus (that's the inner corner of the eye)

DivX:

^notice the beer label is sharper as well as the edges of the jacket. There are some sharpening artifacts in my mod on the wall, but there are artifacts in the original on the wall as well.

ToDo:use ffdshow raw and post process (probably more stable)
Add deblocking/upscaling etc for SD
Remove brief OSD (currently enabled for debugging)
Tweak warp-resize for 1.85 and 2.35
Rename divX to DivX/Xvid
Tweak sharpening (?too much sharpening)
Support for 720p displays (not sure if I will do this or not)

Current Issues
need to increase crop on 2.35 HD Ready to 10% to eliminate artifact
need to enable timeout for osd on one of the SD profiles.

Changelog:

V1 - Initial release

V2 - Added a lot of SD picture quality processing. Tweaked the 2.35:1 AR correction. Fixed a couple of small mistakes. Made it easier to setup. Got rid of extra profiles.

 

[Dadeo]

I'm afraid to bring it up (everyone always yells at me ) but could you mention something about playback on a secondary monitor? In particular, IIUC DRR does not work on a secondary monitor.

 

[kiwijunglist]

I don't see understand why it is not achievable, you can change the refresh rate of extended monitor using 12noon or AMD/Nvidia profiles.

Not sure but alternatively you could have a non extended but cloned monitor (if both desktop + tv are 1080P)

My TV + Computer monitor are too far away from each other to test and write a guide. Anyone is welcome to write a complete post for this part and I can stick it into the guide, but since I don't have multi-monitor I can only guess.

 

[LJG]

I used this guide for MPAR / LAV Audio on a MediaPortal 1.4.0 client with an integrated Intel graphics / audio chip today.

Previously this machine had terrible lip sync problems, especially on DVD's. Using the settings in this guide, it is now perfect.

Thank you!

 

[kiwijunglist]

Someone asked me about DTS-HD and LAV.

I incorrectly said LAV Audio could decode DTS-HD for MPAR which will then re-encode into HD quality LPCM.

This was wrong, someone told me a partial lie
LAV can only bitstream DTS-HD, it can not decode DTS-HD for MPAR. However if you install TMT5 free trial from arcsoft then copy dtsdecoderdll.dll from the arcsoft codec directory to the LAV x86 codec directory then LAV is able to decode DTS-HD for MPAR. I just did this on my system with a DTS-HD mkv and can confirm it works.

 

[legnod]

Hi Kiwi,

i tried to make the display adjustments on weekend but MP failed to play the videos you uploaded .
Do i need some special konfiguration or codecs to play these files?
Inside VLC the files played like the should but MP freezes and showing a black screen.

 

[kiwijunglist]

Nope LAV Video codec should be enough, configuration as per guide. Make sure Auto decoder settings = off & Source splitter = on.

 

[legnod]

Nope LAV Video codec should be enough, configuration as per guide. Make sure Auto decoder settings = off & Source splitter = on.

Thanks! I think i missed these settings...will try it again!

 

[onelegend]

Good work on the guide, must have taken a long time to build up. Thanks !

I will go run through it later, I have a Samsung/Amp setup and I struggle to get the lip sync perfect - its very close now but still annoying and too hard to tell if ahead/behind. I believe its due to all the processing the TV is doing so will attempt that section of the guide.

Is there a loss in audio quality from using mpar with DTS-HD/True HD versus bit streaming to the amp?

 

[kiwijunglist]

You need to install TMT5 Trial and copy the dtsaudio decoder into the LAV directory, after that lav can properly decode dts-hd (??+/-true hd??) into a PCM stream for MPAR. AFAIK - PCM is lossless and can carry HD Audio, so it is essentially the same. It just gets decoded slightly earlier in the chain. You still need to use HDMI though. I assume that if sample rate + bit depth = auto then MPAR doesn't resample the HD Audio, but there is no system tray icon so you can't see what it is doing and I don't know if there is a way to tell what birate/sample rate is received by the AVR so you can double check the rates didn;t change.