SAF v4.00 ''stable'' (StandAlone Filters) - DXVA ready (H.264 and VC-1). (8 Viewers)

[akajester]

Why you changed your graficcard? Is there another problem with the HD3200?

Well, Phenom price is hight, and 4core CPU for HTPC? Why? That is waste of money. So i choosed GPU upgrade.

My BE-2300 is fast enough I think! So why should I upgrade to a phenom?

As long as you have DXVA working and your files are encoded right, then you shouldn't need anything faster right? I'm running a p4-2.8ghz with ATI 3450 and I might hit 5% cpu when running 1080p movies. Thanks to SAF!

 

[WhyTea]

As long as you have DXVA working and your files are encoded right, then you shouldn't need anything faster right? I'm running a p4-2.8ghz with ATI 3450 and I might hit 5% cpu when running 1080p movies. Thanks to SAF!

Yes thats my opinion, too. Thats the reason I wonder about that hoborg switched from hd3200 to hd4550.

 

[hoborg]

Problem of 4550 GPU is that there are no support in 8.5 catalyst for this card. I hope ATI will fix broken DXVA with PowerDVD MPEG2 under XP in Cat. 9.1...

 

[Nazgulled]

I have a couple of questions about SAF if you don't mind:

1) To use PowerDVD decoder we need to place "CLVsd.ax" on the root of the main HDD. My question is, do we need to leave this file there or is it going to be copied somewhere (like "System32" for instance) and registered from there? If we need to leave the file on "C:" root, could you consider not too? I like my system organized and that's no place for such a file. Just a suggestion though...

2) Have you consider to add support for more filters/codecs/decoders from the PowerDVD 8 package? For instance, the audio decoder and the DVD Navigator? I just don't feel very comfortable by using Microsoft DVD Navigator, PowerDVD 8 video decoder and some other audio decoder, I would like to use all from PDVD 8.

3) Why exactly do we need to use some "on-the-fly" DVD Decrypter? Currently, I'm using Microsoft DVD Navigator and Microsoft MPEG2 Video Decoder (comes with Windows) and ffdshow for audio decoding and so far, all my original DVDs (which I supposed are protected?) played just fine. Why do you suggest the decrypter? Is it really needed?

4) What happens if I have some H.264 file compatible with DXVA in .mkv container without any internal subtitles but with an external subtitle file which as the same name as the .mkv file. Does this subtitle file is loaded and DXVA is not used or does the video player with DXVA but without any subtitles?

5) What about .avi (XviD) files with external subtitles? Yes, I know .mkv has lots of advantages (I read the whole first post) but I don't want to bother "converting" the avis into mkvs and since there's no really benefit in using DXVA with XviD (I don't even know if it's possible), I just leave them like that. So, typical avi files with XviD video and external subtitles, they play fine with subtitles?

6) You suggest to reinstall SAF on MP's re installation or new SVN installation, what about a simple update? For instance, in the upcoming v1.0.1? Why exactly do we need to install SAF every time? It can become annoying, can't something be done to prevent this?

I suppose I don't have any more questions for now...

 

[edterbak]

2) Have you consider to add support for more filters/codecs/decoders from the PowerDVD 8 package? For instance, the audio decoder and the DVD Navigator? I just don't feel very comfortable by using Microsoft DVD Navigator, PowerDVD 8 video decoder and some other audio decoder, I would like to use all from PDVD 8.

As far as I know this navigator used to be available in MP v0.2.3. Because of compatibility issues it was removed.

 

[hoborg]

I have a couple of questions about SAF if you don't mind:

1) To use PowerDVD decoder we need to place "CLVsd.ax" on the root of the main HDD. My question is, do we need to leave this file there or is it going to be copied somewhere (like "System32" for instance) and registered from there? If we need to leave the file on "C:" root, could you consider not too? I like my system organized and that's no place for such a file. Just a suggestion though...

2) Have you consider to add support for more filters/codecs/decoders from the PowerDVD 8 package? For instance, the audio decoder and the DVD Navigator? I just don't feel very comfortable by using Microsoft DVD Navigator, PowerDVD 8 video decoder and some other audio decoder, I would like to use all from PDVD 8.

3) Why exactly do we need to use some "on-the-fly" DVD Decrypter? Currently, I'm using Microsoft DVD Navigator and Microsoft MPEG2 Video Decoder (comes with Windows) and ffdshow for audio decoding and so far, all my original DVDs (which I supposed are protected?) played just fine. Why do you suggest the decrypter? Is it really needed?

4) What happens if I have some H.264 file compatible with DXVA in .mkv container without any internal subtitles but with an external subtitle file which as the same name as the .mkv file. Does this subtitle file is loaded and DXVA is not used or does the video player with DXVA but without any subtitles?

5) What about .avi (XviD) files with external subtitles? Yes, I know .mkv has lots of advantages (I read the whole first post) but I don't want to bother "converting" the avis into mkvs and since there's no really benefit in using DXVA with XviD (I don't even know if it's possible), I just leave them like that. So, typical avi files with XviD video and external subtitles, they play fine with subtitles?

6) You suggest to reinstall SAF on MP's re installation or new SVN installation, what about a simple update? For instance, in the upcoming v1.0.1? Why exactly do we need to install SAF every time? It can become annoying, can't something be done to prevent this?

I suppose I don't have any more questions for now...

Hello.
1) "CLVsd.ax" is copied to windows\system32 folder. Leave this file in root too, becouse if you will reinstall/update SAF, you will need this file again. I think this is easist way how to do it. Well, best way will be add this file directly to SAF, but i have no permission for that...

2) Well, upcoming MP version now allows to use PDVD8 DVD navigator again, so i will test it and compare with MS DVD navigator for better compatibility. If PDVD navigator will be beter then MS one, i will add support to SAF for sure. Audio decoder? No, MPC-HC audio decoder is working perfectly (and will be added in new MP version as default decoder - this mean i will remove it from SAF). You should use only one audio decoder in MP...

3) "on-the-fly" DVD Decrypter removes protection from protected DVD's. This is only way how to make protected DVD's working in MP using PowerDVD navigator (at last versiom 7.3) MS DVD navigator have some kind of decryption integrated, so that is reason why your DVD's are working.

4) If you are using MP 1.0 + SVN + SAF, MKV external subtitles will be loaded, but i thing you will see only black screen in MP. To make your MKV working correctly, place subtitles inside MKV. DXVA will be turn off for all subtitles combination.

5) Yes, avi + subtitles will play fine im MP 1.0 + SVN + SAF. DivX&Xvid are no DXVA compatible video formats. You can leave your avis as they are, just make sure yor subtitleas have same filename as avi.

6) If you update MP, you need to reinstall/update SAF too, becouse MP using same (but older) audio and MPEG2 decoder. So by reinstalling/updating SAF you will replace old ones by new ones.

 

[etheesdad]

Hello, just want to ask - is there any special reason that you are using Vista? Vista is not very good choice fot HTPC...

Initially I ran XP, and was pretty happy with it. At that stage I was using a 2.4ghz p4 cpu, and so vista wasnt really a consideration.

I had heard that EVR was good and several people in various forums had said their playback quality was better in Vista. When I upgraded the machine to current specs (see at side of post) I figured it would be a good chance to run Vista and see if it looked any better. Cant say as I can see any difference in picture quality but apart from that its stable and it actually boots pretty fast (have trimmed many of the services to decrease mem useage and tweaked a number of settings on it).

Ive never really seen anyone raise any reason /not/ to use vista for HTPC. Are you saying it was a bad idea?

 

[hoborg]

Hello, just want to ask - is there any special reason that you are using Vista? Vista is not very good choice fot HTPC...

Initially I ran XP, and was pretty happy with it. At that stage I was using a 2.4ghz p4 cpu, and so vista wasnt really a consideration.

I had heard that EVR was good and several people in various forums had said their playback quality was better in Vista. When I upgraded the machine to current specs (see at side of post) I figured it would be a good chance to run Vista and see if it looked any better. Cant say as I can see any difference in picture quality but apart from that its stable and it actually boots pretty fast (have trimmed many of the services to decrease mem useage and tweaked a number of settings on it).

Ive never really seen anyone raise any reason /not/ to use vista for HTPC. Are you saying it was a bad idea?

Well, this is my own experience:
Comparing Vista EVR and XP VMR9 - same picture quality, on vista a had some flickering GUI, DVD playback was "hanging" - stops to response to remote commands (i have same issue if i choose EVR in XP as renderer but becouse i a m using VMR9, i dont care about this anymore).
In Vista, i have problems with my remote after wake up from S3, i must click on mouse in MP to make remote working - no idea why.
Boot in Vista takes ~90s for me, in XP ~30s (time from turn on HTPC power buton to MP starts to response to remote command)s.
After Vista boot and MP start, Vista using harddisk a lot, no idea why, maybe some caching service, this slows MP a lot - XP didnt do such a thing.
I modified XP boot and remove all signs of Windows. So now if i boot, there are no one windows logo, no windows message box, only "loading Media portal", then black screen, then starting Media Portal I think such tweek is not possible under Vista.
I had Vista 64 SP1 on my working computer (original DVD). After ~90days i got BSOD when booting (same in safe mode), repair from DVD didnt work, so i decided to "upgrade" back to XP SP3.
I think there were more thinks i hate about Vista, but i cannot remember just now...

I am using "modified" Windows XP version from torrent (my original are dusty forgotten somewhere ) - this version have integrated all updates from '08, WMP11, frameworks, latest DirectX, etc. Install such system is really piece of cake, just install XP (+registry tweeks to autologin, remove some screens, etc...), drivers, MP, SAF and here we go). 45min and HTPC is ready for use.

Again, all this is my own experience.
Right now i am really happy with XP setup.

SAF v.3.30 out:
* MPC-HC filters updated to v.1.2.977.0
* MPC-HC Xvid&DivX decoder replaced by xvid.ax decoder (DIVX,DX50 and mp4v only) = better video quality thanks to postprocessing
* added possibility to choose DXVA when using PowerDVD CLVsd.ax. Note: DXVA mode doesn't working witch Catalyst 8.12 on XP.
* inside "saf330.zip" you can found "Gray.to.black.gama.fix.reg" file. Double click on it and press yes to apply gama fix for PowerDVD MPEG2 decoder (DVD's, LiveTV - not h264). This will change gray to black color. It is working only in software mode.


Please, post your experience with 3.30 release. Thanks.

 

[edterbak]

Thanks Hoborg will try it tonight

 

[Furox]

1) "CLVsd.ax" is copied to windows\system32 folder. Leave this file in root too, becouse if you will reinstall/update SAF, you will need this file again. I think this is easist way how to do it. Well, best way will be add this file directly to SAF, but i have no permission for that...

the easiest way would be taking it from the same path (drive independent) as the SAF setup file is in!?

6) If you update MP, you need to reinstall/update SAF too, becouse MP using same (but older) audio and MPEG2 decoder. So by reinstalling/updating SAF you will replace old ones by new ones.

and how to restore the old files again after uninstalling SAF? everytime i removed SAF the MPV and MPA codecs weren't available inside MP config anymore had to reinstall MP again! how can i backup these files (and which) so that a reinstallation isn't necessary after trying out SAF the next time?