Ongoing H.264 1080i/1080p Playback high CPU usage (2 Viewers)

[phertiker]

purevideo is a great mpeg2 codec. i personally use the mpv/mpa codecs that come with mediaportal because otherwise my dvd menu navigation is screwy, but i use purevideo on all my other computers.

don't bother installing windvd or powerdvd, i mentioned them only as an example.

here's what i'd do:

- windows xp pro sp2
- purevideo
- ffdshow for d*mn near everything (with h.264 decoding set to disabled)
- coreavc for h.264

i only have a lowly athlon xp 2800+ with a gig of ram and a geforce 6600gt, and i can decode 1080p xvid's and 720p h.264's.
considering yours is a dual-core monster it should handle 1080p h.264 just fine.

 

[phertiker]

i've just bought core avc pro, disabled h.264 in ffdshow and now both mkv + .ts 1080i/1080p play smooth as glass with no frame loss or audio synch issues.

woo hoo! that's great news, you lucky dog.

my computer wants to die if i even play a b-frame heavy 720p encode in h.264.

i only use ffdshow, coreavc, an mkv pack with haali media splitter, and, uh, oh yeah, the built-in mpeg2 decoders that come with mediaportal.

again, though, if you have purevideo and you don't have dvd navigation issues in mediaportal, use it cuz it rocks.

just for fun, i tried temporarily disabling coreavc and installing windvd to try out this hardware accelerated h.264 nonsense. i dunno how ati's solution does, but within 5 minutes i was ditching windvd and reenabling coreavc.
plus, i don't think you can tell windows/mediaportal to use the windvd codecs for video playback anyway unless you use the windvd player itself. and who the heck wants to do that?!

 

[erik070]

I'm trying to playback h.264 material smooth in Mediaportal, but how do I use CoreAVC in Mediaportal? In Configuration I can't choose CoreAVC in neither DVD or Movie (which one is the setup for H.264 .ts or .mkv material). But this should be possible right?

phertiker: where did you enable and disable CoreAVC (or do you mean install and de-install).

 

[phertiker]

@phertiker: where did you enable and disable CoreAVC (or do you mean install and de-install).

When you install CoreAVC it SHOULD take priority over any other h.264 decoder, but of course nothing is ever that easy.

The easiest way to tell what decoder is handling h.264 video on your pc is to run the video file through mediainfo, or play the file in something like Media Player Classic or another player that will show you a list of the active filters.

Something I can tell you right now is that if you have ffdshow installed, you need to open the "Video decoder configuration", select "codecs" from the list on the left, and select "Disabled" in the decoder column for H.264.

*ignore graphedit, it can't handle any container other than avi, unless there's a new version I don't know about...

 

[erik070]

Just figured out that Radlight filter manager can help figure out which decoder has priority. Gonna try this when I get home.

 

[matelot]

phertiker if I could just pick your brains once again (see what happens when you're helpfull )

When I installed CoreAVC, it asked me to install the haali media splitter. Now I installed it anyway without thinking but is it required? what does it do?

Last question, honest

 

[Flerbizky]

264.

*ignore graphedit, it can't handle any container other than avi, unless there's a new version I don't know about...

My version is 9.04.78.00000 - It handles both .ts and .mkv just fine... Don't know if it's because I have both the Haali splitter as well as PowerDVD and PureVideo installed though..

Cheers,
Steff

 

[phertiker]

phertiker if I could just pick your brains once again (see what happens when you're helpfull )

When I installed CoreAVC, it asked me to install the haali media splitter. Now I installed it anyway without thinking but is it required? what does it do?

Last question, honest

no problem, i'm glad i can be of assistance for once, instead of my usual not-knowing-what-the-heck-is-going-on...

the haali media splitter basically just lets your media player read out the various video, audio, subtitle, etc streams in a container like mkv, avi, ts... i think it's the best splitter available, and it shouldn't hurt anything to have it installed.

 

[matelot]

Ahh, the subtitles. King Kong HD H.264 has french and english audio but since installing coreavc the french subtitles are forced on. Is there a way to disable the subtitles in the splitter or should it be done in MP??

 

[phertiker]

to be honest, i suck at getting subtitles and mediaportal to play nice... to be fair to myself, it's usually with a softsub file that, say, has subs in english even though only a few lines are in another language, etc, but it's still a pain.

haali will throw an icon into the system tray that you can disable subs with, but i've also noticed that other "things" that can handle subs may also run automatically and so you may need to disable them multiple times: vobsub, haali, and the player itself for example.