How to get Mediaportal to use ffdshow for DVD (1 Viewer)

[osen]

Hi all, my first post here

I just got a Samsung Q97 42" plasma with a resolution of 1024x768. I've set aspect ratio to 4:3 in ffdshow to correct the non-square pixel problem on plasmas with this resolution. It works just fine with .mkv and .avi etc, but when I choose ffdshow for DVD playback Mediaportal won't use it. I know this because I use the TV as secondary screen connected to my 8800GT, and the ffdshow icon does not appear in the system tray when playing DVDs. This results in wrong aspect ratio in MP. The only solution I've found is to use "Stretch" aspect ratio in MP, but that results in bad quality. I've added ffdshow under DVD Postprocessing in MP Config, but that doesn't help. Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[Dubyahjay]

Under codecs set Decoder MPEG2 to libmpeg2 then check DVD decoding (not working yet)

Set up a profile for DVD
check autoload profiles
load on decode: libmpeg2

Then you can mess around with whatever settings you want for DVD. I have personally gone overboard with stuff like avisynth and reclock with massive resizing and sharpening/denoise filters and my opinion is that a standard upconvert is all you need. All the other tutorials posted on the web tend to give me an artificially boosted picture that I do not like. Granted, some see it as the holy grail and you might also. If you feel like getting to the real meat of it check here for an in depth discussion http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=719041

Hope that helps,

 

[osen]

Hey, thanks for the reply Dubyahjay

I've got a couple of questions though. I don't have that option (libmpeg2) available. I did a search on google and all I found was some codec for linux. Also, what do you mean with set up DVD profile?

 

[Dubyahjay]

Osen np,
I am sorry that I gave you the short answer, I assumed that you have played with FFdshow for awhile

I can take pictures of my setup when I get home, but will not be able to post them until tomorrow.

Profiles: FFdshow can be set up to automatically load profiles for many different file types, everything from decoder presence to file type to resolution. You can utilize these under the "profiles" section by creating a new profile and naming it. I have three as follows:
10 HD No processing
20 DVD full
30 DVD wide
40 AVI High
50 AVI Low

As you can see, I split my media type by quality and resolution. That way I can have different filters (and resizes) running depending on need. Plus I can tweak individual profiles without worry of borking another. Profiles are also helpful because you can see which one loads with FFdshow when you play a file. When you are making your rules for the autoload, I use Media Player Classic as the player. That way I can see real time what changes I make to the picture with different settings and also that my profiles load correctly to the right file type.

libmpeg2:
Under the codec heading, you should have a list of file types. Right click in the window and set "all stable codecs" (it is something along those lines, I am doing this from memory) Find MPEG2, click on the box in the codec field there should be a drop down menu that lists libmpeg2. If you do not have this available then it is possible that you have an old version of FFdshow and need to update from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=173941

That should get you started, let me know if you need help. Also, the thread on AVSforum about FFdshow is a much greater source of information about this topic than I am. Unfortunately, it is 60 pages and over 1700 posts long (and ive read it all )

 

[osen]

Thanks again Dubyahjay

No, I'm all new to ffdsshow actually I will try and update my ffdshow. Didn't see the profiles before, seems like a very good tool!

It seems that no matter what decoder I choose in Mediaportal, I get a very dull picture. I've tried DScaler, Cyberlink, CineMaster and MPA, same result. When playing in MPC or Cyberlink PowerDVD I get a very sharp picture on my Q97, what could be causing this? I'm not using any postprocessing filter in MP. I've tried using ffdshow for this, and it activates, but doesn't seem to do anything.

I will take a look at that thread, thanks

UPDATE:

Works fine after updating to latest ffdshow, thanks a lot! Now my only problem is that I have to force 1024x1080 to get correct aspect ratio on my 16:9 plasma with 4:3 resolution, heh.