mkv mpeg4-avc files play better in MediaPlayer Classic than MediaPortal (1 Viewer)

[Zarch]

As was said before, neither ffdshow nor coreavc offload any work to the GPU, they are both purely software decoders. If you want hardware decoding, you'Ll need to buy a decoder that supports this. Be adviced though that there is a 20fps bug for mkv files, at least there was last time i checked.

Furthermore, MP uses VMR9 as its renderer, while in MPC this is configurable, so it could be you are using overlay in MPC which is slightly faster than VMR9 but has other drawbacks. The extra cpu usage could very well result from this difference, combined with the fact that other things are running in the background while MP is running.

Thanks for the reply Inker. Can i ask a few further questions and make a couple of comments?

Yes, i agree that ffdshow and coreavc are software players which further puzzles me why the gpu stats in particular are different between MP and MPC.

You say that VMR is the renderer in MP, is this in anyway configurable?
Could i be missing some settings or i've not enabled something? Please Advise.

If the renderer is configurable in MediaPlayer Classic, is it configurable in GraphEdit? (as i get the same results in both these apps)
If not, what renderer does GE use?

What are the optional renderers availalble to me?
Is there a different renderer that MP can use?

Does the renderer used show itself anywhere? ie in graphedit? (i'm not in front of my htpc at the moment to check)

Should using a different renderer really give a 50% difference in GPU usage?

With regards the comments about "footprints", if MP is BIGGER than other apps, why is the GPU usage "less" than MPC.
Surely it should be bigger if MP has to do more?
Or is that down to the renderer again?

I think i need to check what renderer is being used in GraphEdit and MediaPlayer Classic.

If i find these to be exactly the same in my config, where does the problem then lie??


Thanks for your all replies so far, they are really helping me get to the bottom of this stuff!!

 

[Spragleknas]

Overlay is no longer an option in MP, so only choices you have is VMR og EVR. EVR gives better colors, but, from what I have read, there is no real benefit of using EVR @ XP. On Vista, EVR is recommended.

 

[RanaUK]

Hi Zarch,

how are you measuring CPU and GPU usage. I would also be interested in your hardware spec: I have done some testing myself on my rig using perfmon (so I only got CPU).. with 1080p file, I am using about 75% CPU... damn.

I have done h264 testing with powerDVD, coreAVC, elecard H264 and ffdShow. PowerDVD codecs at-least in my case didn't work with 720p Pirates trailer until I used cyberlink mpeg demuxer, where 1080p shows black screen. Even with HW on, Cyberlink was slower with ATI 1550Pro than coreAVC, where elecard was just a bit faster than ffdShow.

also, graphEdit shows the final Renderer (overlay mixer/video renderer/video mixing renderer 9); by default on my pc, graphEdit uses overlay but on my player I have selected VMR9.

 

[Zarch]

I use task manager for CPU (basic i know) and RIvatuner for the GPU.

My spec is C2D E4400, 2gb ram and a ATI2600Pro.

 

[iceman2k2]

I have the same issue, i am upgrading to mp rc1 and xp sp3 to see if there is any improvement....

 

[Hi There]

The newer versions of Media Player Classic Home Theater contain the codecs for h.264 and VC-1 that take advantage of hardware acceleration on ATI/Nvidia newer cards. Somehow, I think your setup is using HA for MPC, but MP is not using same. Try specifying MPC filters in the settings screen for MP. Alternatively, you could specify MPC as the external player to use. In either case, make sure you are running the latest versions of MPC. BTW, the developer of Media Player Classic Home Theater also makes these new codecs available as separate downloads. You can register the codecs so that MP and WMP use them as well.