Codecs Lav filters now support DXVA2 (2 Viewers)

[mamachan]

I just tried it out and saw that I have lots of framedrops (about 50%) with both decoders on my single-seat system when playing live tv or tv recordings (hd and sd) with a 1920x1080 resolution (HDMI). I did have hardly any frame drops in the past with the MS decoder and a 1360x768 screen resolution (VGA). The frame drops are also much less (but not 0) when playing the same tv recordings in high resolution as a video.
The latter would lead to the conclusion that the source of the problem is the streaming process from tvservice to tvclient. But the same hd recordings perform much better with a lower screen resolution, which obviously indicates a decoder problem. How can I find out what is really wrong or is this the best I can get out of my ati 4200 onboard graphics? Then I would like to know what hardware configuration is really suited for HD tv on a large screen?

Michael

try to enable "Enforce Smooth Video Playback" in CCC setting.
4200 onboard graphics is not the best solution fo HD live TV (i use the integrated GPU AMD 880G/HD4250 too)

 

[michael_t]

Resetting the AMD VISION Engine Control Center settings to the factory default brought an enormous effect. Now the frame drops are about 2 -5 per second which is no real problem.

Michael

 

[DragonQ]

CUVID does indeed use more power than DXVA but it's also more flexible. Native DXVA2 is restricted in terms of what files are compatible. Copy-Back DXVA2 (as Nev calls it) doesn't have this restriction but it uses more CPU. I also think that neither DXVA2 mode can use hardware deinterlacing, which is the best method if you have a newer card (400 series or newer).

You can force MediaPortal to only use the P8 power state (designed for video playback) of your nVidia GPU using nVidia Inspector, rather than the P12 power state (full power, designed for gaming). That way you can use CUVID with vector adaptive deinterlacing and use the same amount of power as DXVA2. However, depending on your card's abilities, this may stop you being able to play some high bit rate 1080p files.

 

[Spooky]

Cool, good to know. Didn't know you can force the power state .

 

[tourettes]

CUVID does indeed use more power than DXVA but it's also more flexible. Native DXVA2 is restricted in terms of what files are compatible. Copy-Back DXVA2 (as Nev calls it) doesn't have this restriction but it uses more CPU.

Both DXVA2 and Copy-Back DXVA2 are using the same HW implementation for video decoding so both will share exactly the same restrictions (as far as I know). Copy-Back DXVA2 will require more GPU & CPU power since it will be copying the decoded texture back to the main RAM while the DXVA2 is able to leave the decoded video texture to the GPU memory and it can be directly rendered from there with the EVR renderer.

I also think that neither DXVA2 mode can use hardware deinterlacing, which is the best method if you have a newer card (400 series or newer).

I guess you ment "either" instead of "neither" as both DXVA2 modes in LAV video decoder are able to use the HW deinterlacing.

 

[DragonQ]

Hmm, I don't remember seeing the options for hardware deinterlacing within the LAV Video configuration window when DXVA2 is selected. Maybe I'm remembering wrongly, in which case the only realy disadvantage of DXVA2 is the file format limitations and the only real disadvantage of CUVID is power usage (although like I said you can sometimes alleviate this with nVidia Inspector, depending on hardware and requirements). I for one am forced to stick with CUVID because any TS files made from TV recordings in MediaPortal do not play back correctly in DXVA2 mode for me (on Intel or nVidia). Presumably this means live TV won't work either.

If I'm remembering rightly though and there are no deinterlacing options for DVXA2 then you're basically relying on the renderer (EVR) to do it for you and I don't know if it uses the best method available (which can be chosen when using CUVID).

EDIT: Nev himself says here that DXVA2 hardware deinterlacing isn't done with LAV (although he may be referring just to Intel/AMD): http://code.google.com/p/lavfilters/issues/detail?id=194

 

[Spooky]

You do have deinterlacing with DXVA2, you just cannot control it via the codec. You have to control it via the driver of the GPU. This applies to any codec using DXVA, not just LAV.

 

[DragonQ]

So what if your nVidia Control Panel has no options for method of deinterlacing, like mine?

 

[Spooky]

So what if your nVidia Control Panel has no options for method of deinterlacing, like mine?

In case of NVidia cards you cannot control the deinterlacing method yourself. The driver chooses it automatically (as does the AMD driver, but there you are at least able to switch to a lower deinterlacing method, if you want to).

 

[DragonQ]

Has anyone actually tried LAV DXVA2 using MediaPortal? For me, HD channels don't work. See this list of power usage results I get with a GT 430 + Intel Celeron G530 when watching UK TV:

CUVID, 576i25: 61 W (perfect playback)
CUVID, 1080i25: 65 W (perfect playback)
DXVA2 Native, 576i25: 48 W (playback is fine but deinterlacing is poor)
DXVA2 Native, 1080i25: 54 W (playback is broken, picture freezes then catches up every second or two)

I also tried using nVidia Inspector to put my GT 430 into the P8 power state (designed for video) using when using CUVID. However, it's obvious that the P8 state of this card isn't anywhere near powerful enough for HD. So, for a GT 430, it seems there's no way to reduce power usage when using CUVID.

DXVA2 would be nice as it's clear it does use less power, but since it's broken (for me) there isn't much of a choice!