Slight Fps Issue When Playing DTS .mkv Files (1 Viewer)

[Benneh]

How do!

New to this MediaPortal thing, most stuff working, but I have come across a slight issue.

When playing .mkv files with DTS audio tracks, the video goes ever so slightly choppy and then zooms forward a very small amount every so often as if its catching up.

Any ideas what is causing this, I only have the ffdshow and Halai matroskasplitter codecs installed, aswell as the Alternative QT stuff (sound in QT files doesnt play properly either but I havent started to look at that yet). Iuse the optical out on the m/b to send the sound to my amplifier which does DTS/Dolby Digital etc etc...

Any ideas what is causing tthe video in the dts mkv files to do this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[damaster]

Can you be more specific:
- what resolution is the video you are trying to play?
- what are your system specs?
- which OS?
- what audio and video codecs have you configured for video playback in MediaPortal?

I suspect it has nothing to do with the fact that this video has DTS. Audio decoding has a very small impact on video playback. If you're getting choppy video, then it is likely due to your system not being able to handle the video resolution or bitrate.

 

[Benneh]

Its not really choppy, probably not a good description, its just jumps forward a tiny tiny amount every now and again but I have only noticed it on mkv files that have DTS.

its a 1080p mkv file being played at 720p, on Vista Ultimate, system is a Athlon Dual Core 4850e @ 2.5GHz with 2gig ram and a ATI HD3200 on board gfx card, more than enough, i have installed ffdshow and matroska splitter only.

Its plays everything fine, ive just noticed this little speed up in the playback on these specific files, I have watched a few Dolby Digital files and not noticed the same thing happening...

 

[damaster]

ffdshow is a software decoder and does absolutely nothing to leverage the H.264 hardware decoding capabilities of your on-board ATI HD3200. Set your system up properly by using MPC Video Decoder or Cyberlink PowerDVD 7/8 decoders. Read my post here for more details: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...ck-type-srt-utf8-31833/index4.html#post302572

 

[Benneh]

Cheers for replying mate, sorry you will have to excuse my ignorance, this is all a bit new to me. Are you saying Ishould un-install ffdshow and install MPC Video Decoder?

Thanks in advance.

 

[damaster]

No need to uninstall ffdshow, since they can co-exist on your system without conflict. Here's what you should do:
- Download the latest MPC Video Decoder stand-alone filter from here: SourceForge.net: Downloading ...
- From the zip file you downloaded above, extract MPCVideoDec.ax (the actual decoder) to some folder on your system, e.g. C:\Program Files\MPCVideoDecoder.
- Then from the Start menu select Run and type in the following command: regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\MPCVideoDecoder\MPCVideoDec.ax". You should get a pop-up message telling you the filter/file was registered successfully. That means the decoder is installed and registered on your system.
- Now in MediaPortalConfiguration, under Movies -> Player select MPC Video Decoder for H.264 videos.
- Also make sure you've set Haali Media Splitter to not auto-load VsFilter as in my post linked earlier.

To test out if what you've done has worked: open up Task Manager, launch MediaPortal. Play any 720p/1080p H.264/AVC file (your MKVs), and watch your CPU usage. If you've managed to set all of this up right, then you should now be leveraging your GPU for hardware decoding and your CPU usage should be 10% or below. For the fun of it, go back to MediaPortalConfiguration and set ffdshow to be your H.264 video decoder again, and watch your CPU usage this time while playing that 1080p file. It should be rather high, thus explaining the choppiness.

Good luck.

 

[Benneh]

Alright,

Not the best start, tried to regsiter the .ax file and gor an error code:

The Module "C:\Program Files\MPCVideoDecoder\MPCVideoDec.ax" was loaded but the call to DllRegisterServer failed with error code 0x80070005.

Any ideas?

EDIT: nvm fixed it.

Right ive run the MPC codec, and its the same.

Just to clarify, its not really choppy, its perfectly watchable really, but there is a definate decrease (if only slight) in fps which is noticable and a tiny (and I mean tiny) rush forward of video every 10 seconds or so. Its only really noticable on panning shots although it does seem to be doing it all the time.

Could this have something to do with my display?

 

[Benneh]

OK I ran a test this evening, I downloaded 2 videos, one with a DTS soundtrack and one with a Dolby 5.1 soundtrack.

Played them both, the one with the DTS has the symptoms described (slight laggy feel with tiny speed up every 10 secs or so), the with with Dolby played perfectly smooth.

I am now completely confused, both are being processed by ffd and being sent out straight to my amp via optical.

Anyone have any idea what is causing this???

 

[damaster]

OK I ran a test this evening, I downloaded 2 videos, one with a DTS soundtrack and one with a Dolby 5.1 soundtrack.

Played them both, the one with the DTS has the symptoms described (slight laggy feel with tiny speed up every 10 secs or so), the with with Dolby played perfectly smooth.

I am now completely confused, both are being processed by ffd and being sent out straight to my amp via optical.

Anyone have any idea what is causing this???

Going back to my original question: what is your CPU usage when playing the DTS file? Are you 100% certain that you've managed to set things up right such that you're doing hardware acceleration?

Other than that I can only suggest you try AC3Filter as your audio decoder instead of ffdshow and set it to passthrough everything to SPDIF. Good luck!

 

[Benneh]

OK I ran a test this evening, I downloaded 2 videos, one with a DTS soundtrack and one with a Dolby 5.1 soundtrack.

Played them both, the one with the DTS has the symptoms described (slight laggy feel with tiny speed up every 10 secs or so), the with with Dolby played perfectly smooth.

I am now completely confused, both are being processed by ffd and being sent out straight to my amp via optical.

Anyone have any idea what is causing this???

Going back to my original question: what is your CPU usage when playing the DTS file? Are you 100% certain that you've managed to set things up right such that you're doing hardware acceleration?

Other than that I can only suggest you try AC3Filter as your audio decoder instead of ffdshow and set it to passthrough everything to SPDIF. Good luck!

CPU usgae is fine, never maxed out.

BUT, i installed AC3Filter as you suggested, and its perfect, well kinda.

The video and sound on HD stuff and normal .avi stuff with an AC3 signal is fine.

But anything without a AC3 signal is very very quiet and I cant seem to get it output normally. If I play stuff through Windows Media Player it plays fine, correct volume etc etc but in MediaPortal its practically silent, even turning my amp up all the way does little to increase the sound and I just get a load of hiss.

Any ideas what is going on with the AC3Filter regarding non AC3 feeds?