I have never had any problem running Andy's built with my AMD3200+ oc'd to 2.52 Ghz.
I used to use ZP and PowerDVD5. But, now I am using MediaPortal with Descaler5. My ffdshow setting:
dnoise3d :fast
Resize : 2.8x
Resize setting: Lanzcos 2, luma sharpen .35
In MediaPortal I use VMR9 renderless (in ZP I used overlay).

My CPU usage is about 60% but my resize is about 1920x1360. In any case, no problem at all.

Cyberbri, actually it's the other way around. Overlay is hardware, VMR9 is software (easy to see because overlay on dual monitor systems often only works on one of the displays without clone mode, while VMR9 works without any tricks).

Ringnes, FFDShow is not very happy with dual core or even the P4 virtual dual processing, the best is a P4 in standard mode. Distributing the work isn't really functional.

Ziuck, no, no driver, motherboard. It's just that the Andy builds were made for P4, I don't even think there were any AMD 64's back then. Which is why I have a single core P4 and except to keep that for quite some time. Windows Vista will probably be old before I change hardware...

I think Andy uses an AMD3000+ and his built is optimized for AMD SSE2. I remember asking him what CPU to use when I was building mine and he advised to get one with a large cache (e.g., AMD with 1 MB L2 cache vs 500K)

I recently replaced my P4 3.8 system with an Athlon 64 Dual core X2 4600.
It works just as well, if not better then the P4 using Andys “Preview” build of FFDshow, and I am happy with it.
For the price it would want to.

At the same time I also replaced my 6600GT with a 7800.

Owen, AMD?! you are hereby a fallen! ;)

Cyberbri, actually it's the other way around. Overlay is hardware, VMR9 is software (easy to see because overlay on dual monitor systems often only works on one of the displays without clone mode, while VMR9 works without any tricks).

They are both hardware - just using different APIs.
Overlay - old standard and is supported in hardware and thats why its soo limited.
VMR9 is using DirectX Direct3D and is hardware accelerated.
I'm not sure about exact details, but i think VMR7 was using DirectX 2D APIs.

Isn't VMR9 the video card hardware? And Overlay runs on the PC's hardware (as a piece of software)?

Cyberbri, actually it's the other way around. Overlay is hardware, VMR9 is software (easy to see because overlay on dual monitor systems often only works on one of the displays without clone mode, while VMR9 works without any tricks).
VMR9 is using the 3D pipeline of the graphics processor, and as we all know VMR9 performance is highly related to the performance of the GPU being used. Also, a GPU that has hardware support for DirectX9 is needed for all VMR9 features to be enabled. This should qualify VMR9 as being at least partly "hardware".

Ziuck, no, no driver, motherboard. It's just that the Andy builds were made for P4, I don't even think there were any AMD 64's back then.
As far as I remember, Andy had an AMD64 when he was working on ffdshow, and his latest builds were optimized for SSE2 capable CPU's, not just the P4.

Owen, AMD?! you are hereby a fallen!
No, he is just not ignorant when it comes to performance of AMD processors.

I recently replaced my P4 3.8 system with an Athlon 64 Dual core X2 4600.
It works just as well, if not better then the P4 using Andys “Preview” build of FFDshow, and I am happy with it.
For the price it would want to.

At the same time I also replaced my 6600GT with a 7800.

Owen, why did you replace your 6600GT? What are the benefits for playback? Can it play 1080i material with Vmr9 (non renderless) without tearing? tha nks

Owen, AMD?! you are hereby a fallen! ;)

I was never interested in going AMD before the X2 became available, as I found Intels Hyperthreading to work very well in a HTPC eenvironment.
The last AMD system I owned was a XP 2600 Plus overclocked to 3000 Plus, and it was definitely NOT a good thing for FFDShow.

I still consider a P4 offers more performance for your dollar then an Athlon system for FFDShow use.

Owen, why did you replace your 6600GT? What are the benefits for playback? Can it play 1080i material with Vmr9 (non renderless) without tearing? tha nks


The 7800 offers a slightly cleaner and more detailed image then the 6600GT, and is even smoother for 1080i playback using TheaterTek, although the 6600GT was already very good.

Full screen renderless mode is still required with a 1080i desktop.
Other desktop resolutions may be ok.

Does anyone know why P4s perform better than A64s though? Are they better due to the higher clockspeeds, or are they better even clock for clock than the A64s? If it's the former, perhaps ffdshow operations are huge chunks of straight line code without branches? Is it more integer or FP code though?

From what I was explained, it's because FFDShow likes real clock cycles, which probably means that there has to be straight line codes.

No, he is just not ignorant when it comes to performance of AMD processors.

There's a big difference between not being ignorant and knowing and then deciding. Hey, Owen says that P4 gives more bang for the buck on FFDShow even after he has "defected". :p

There's a big difference between not being ignorant and knowing and then deciding. Hey, Owen says that P4 gives more bang for the buck on FFDShow even after he has "defected". :p
Ignorance can be funny at times.... :rolleyes:

I have never had any problem running Andy's built with my AMD3200+ oc'd to 2.52 Ghz.
I used to use ZP and PowerDVD5. But, now I am using MediaPortal with Descaler5. My ffdshow setting:
dnoise3d :fast
Resize : 2.8x
Resize setting: Lanzcos 2, luma sharpen .35
In MediaPortal I use VMR9 renderless (in ZP I used overlay).

My CPU usage is about 60% but my resize is about 1920x1360. In any case, no problem at all.

Man I have a AMD64 2800+ OC'd to 2.4 and I cant get anywhere near 60% especially with the settings you have. I am using Andy's 8/1 build. Hmmmmm..... Ponderous.

What exactly does a 2X resize mean? With a PAL resolution at 720x576, does this mean that you get a 1018x815 resolution or 1440x1152 ?

1440x1152

Man I have a AMD64 2800+ OC'd to 2.4 and I cant get anywhere near 60% especially with the settings you have. I am using Andy's 8/1 build. Hmmmmm..... Ponderous.

Here is the rest of my AMD3200+ spec:
AMD64 3200+ Newcastle CG, XP-120 HSF, 280x9 Mhz, 3X HTT, Vcor=1.5x104%,Chipset =1.6V
LanParty UT nF3 250GB
BIOS 504 (tictic 4.0V mod)
Mushkin cl2 Blue 2x512 PC3200 280Mhz@3/4 1T 2,2,2,6,9,13,01,2,2,2,3120,1, 2.8 V Bank interleave on
Celestica Radeon 9600xt with Arctic VGA Silencer.

My ram is running at pretty low latency, 1T and Bank Interleave, altho only at 210DDR(280@3/4). It gives a pretty high bandwidth.
Maybe you can try a resize of 2x to start with and see what happens.

I like 2040x204o, but of course I don't expect an AMD to be able to do that... ;)

OK, I have recently been storing DVD's on my hard drive and have given zoom player with Ffdshow a run on my 19" LCD panel. I see how you all are resizing the picture to high resolutions before having it be downsized by the video card. This is where my problems occur.

First off, here are my system specs:

Athlon64 3000+ socket 754
1GB OCZ RAM @ 2-3-3-6
Geforce 6800 128mb Non Ultra

NVDVD 3+ Video Decoder (also tried WinDVD video decoder)
AC3 Audio Decoder
Ffdshow Version September 20th

I am playin my NTSC DVD .VOB files on a 160gb hard drive and my programs and my processors are on another.

OK,

When FFdshow is not even running, my cpu load is at around 30% for zoom player.
When I just use the blur and noise reduction setting on Ffdshow my cpu load is at 40-50%. However, if I resize the DVD picture to anything other than its standard size, I get huge slowdowns. 1.1x resize give me about 75% load, 1.2x gives me about 90% and 1.5x is 100%. The bipolar luma setting (other thanlanz) in resize reduces the load just a tiny bit but nothing worth noting.

I have read through a good portion of this thread and have taken the advice to use the unsharp mask filter first and a really low setting before doing the resize. I tried this, but the cpu load was just the same.


In the codecs tab, I have everything disabled exept for RAW video which is set to YV12. Under the output tab at the bottom, everything is uncheck exept for YV12.


I have tried the VMR9 setting in the NVDVD 3+ codec and also clicked the box in the zoom player program. This seemed to give me a much better picture. I have also tried using the hardware acceleration option in the NVDVD 3+ codec but it didn't seem to matter.

Does anyone know why I am getting these slowdowns?



P.S. When choosing the additional filter in Zoom Player, you just need to choose the FFdshow Video Processor and not the FFdshow RAW Video Processor right? When I choose the RAW video processor I get a error in zoom player.

Mastiff: I don't know why you want to do 2040x2040. I use 4.0x resize which gives 2880x1920. My AMD cpu is running at 75-80% with no hint of any problem. I do not see any improvement over 2.8x resize at which the cpu runs at 60% which is what I prefer. But at 4.0x, I have to use overlay (don't know why tho). My ATI 9600xt is overclocked as well. This is all done under ZP4.05 and Powerdvd5, Andy's built.

Sweatty: can you try another codec like Powerdvd5 or WinDVD5/6, if you have access to one?

Sweatty: can you try another codec like Powerdvd5 or WinDVD5/6, if you have access to one?

They give me the same problems :(

Have you tried Andy's preview built, summer 2004? Andy used AMD64 3000+.

Have you tried Andy's preview built, summer 2004? Andy used AMD64 3000+.

can you supply me a link please?


edit, I downloaded andy's release and now it works. AWESOME THANKS BRA

http://ffdshow.leffe.dnsalias.com/andy2222/

well at least I thought it worked, I still got 100% at 1280x1024, I will try your link

Yes the preview build lowers the load. Finally

Does any one have a Socket 939 Athlon 64 working at or greater then 3x? I haven't noticed anyone who has.

sweaty, does this happen on all DVDs? I've noticed some DVDs that work great with 2X and others that don't. Also, try the celtic druid MSVC7.1 builds as they're newer and likely to be faster than the older Andy builds. I don't know how people do 3-4X resize either. Anything more than 2X pretty much eats my system.

Goi: I recall Owen or someone mentioned in the past that bandwidth matters. That is what I have, my ram is at 2,2,2,6 running at 2.8x resize.

Sweaty: have you tried to overclock your AMD64 3000+?

Does any one have a Socket 939 Athlon 64 working at or greater then 3x? I haven't noticed anyone who has.

I have a Socket 754 Athlon 64 3000+ Newcastle at 3x Resize Lanczos2, denoise3d, and then Dscaler Sharpening filter. My CPU use per perfmon averages 30%.

I upgraded from an Athlon XP1600. On that I could do denoise3d and then 2x Resize Lanczos 2. My CPU use was at about 95%. With some DVD's I was not able to use denoise3d.

I have an Athlon 64 Socket 939 working at 3x.

Goi: I recall Owen or someone mentioned in the past that bandwidth matters. That is what I have, my ram is at 2,2,2,6 running at 2.8x resize.

Sweaty: have you tried to overclock your AMD64 3000+?

yeah I had it at around 2.3 ghz. Stock for the 3000+ is 2ghz but it was summer and hot in my room so I tuned it down. I will try overclocking again.

At 2x the picture starts to get choppy, 85% cpu load

one stick of my ram failed to allow me to go to 2.2ghz but I switched both of them to 2.5 latency and then increased the clock speed to 2.2ghz. I ran the video at 2x resolution with 80% load

e268, what can you get on dScaler? I don't use PowerDVD because of the lack of detail, especially in dark scenes. But if you use a digital projector that doesn't matter that much of course since the display device iself probably limits the dark details more than the DVD decoder.

Well, I have plenty of bandwith too. I'm using DDR500 memory, albeit in single channel mode. Has anyone done a single channel vs dual channel ffdshow comparison? Anyone with a dual channel set should be able to do this, preferably on an A64 platform.

the nvdvd 3+ codec is actually the newest nvdvd codec included in the purevideo 30 day trial package correct? Is it actually nvdvd 4.0?

I'm kind of a newbie and I'm trying to grab an image from a movie using ffdshow's "grab" feature. However, in the ffdshow video decoder configuration, the only image format I can choose is a bmp. Is there something like a codec that I need to download to create *.jpg or maybe *.png images using the feature?

Well, I have plenty of bandwith too. I'm using DDR500 memory, albeit in single channel mode. Has anyone done a single channel vs dual channel ffdshow comparison? Anyone with a dual channel set should be able to do this, preferably on an A64 platform.

You would think so... But the following can not go over 2x and at 2x I get 80% CPU use!

Shuttle SN95G5 V3
AMD64 3200 @ 2400
2 - 512MB PC4000 (DDR500, Dual Channel running 1:1)
300GB Maxtor MAXLINE III (16MB cahce)
XFX 6800GT 256MB

Same here, so it might not be a memory bandwidth problem after all.

I'm kind of a newbie and I'm trying to grab an image from a movie using ffdshow's "grab" feature. However, in the ffdshow video decoder configuration, the only image format I can choose is a bmp. Is there something like a codec that I need to download to create *.jpg or maybe *.png images using the feature?


Using VMR9, you can use the Print Screen button on your keyboard, and then paste that into Paint or Photoshop or whatever.

You would think so... But the following can not go over 2x and at 2x I get 80% CPU use!

Shuttle SN95G5 V3
AMD64 3200 @ 2400
2 - 512MB PC4000 (DDR500, Dual Channel running 1:1)
300GB Maxtor MAXLINE III (16MB cahce)
XFX 6800GT 256MB

But, what latency did you set it at? Lower latency gives higher bandwidth.

e268, what can you get on dScaler? I don't use PowerDVD because of the lack of detail, especially in dark scenes. But if you use a digital projector that doesn't matter that much of course since the display device iself probably limits the dark details more than the DVD decoder.

I got the same using dscaler (part of Media Portal). 60% cpu usage at 2.8x resize. If I lower to 2.2x, cpu is at less than 50%.

I am using a 24" Dell 2405 (1920x1200) monitor and 42" plasma tv. Powerdvd or dscaler did not seem to make much difference. But, since I am using Media Portal, i am using descaler.

Astonishing! And this is of course with DeNoise3D and at least one more filter, right?

Dnoise 3D (fast setting, Andy's preview of 08-2004), followed by 2.8x resize and Lanzcos 2. I did try sharpen after it with a few % increase in CPU, but makes it too sharp, so I am not using sharpen filter. In Media Portal, I use descaler codec and VMR9 renderless.

AMD64 3200+ is oc'd to 2.52 GHz, and ram at 2,2,2,6 latency.

But, what latency did you set it at? Lower latency gives higher bandwidth.

Currently I am running at 2.5,3,2,8 but I also have some Mushkin LVL 2 black, at 2,2,2 and it didn't make any difference.

Currently I am running at 2.5,3,2,8 but I also have some Mushkin LVL 2 black, at 2,2,2 and it didn't make any difference.

Since we have the same cpu, it is certainly intriguing why you cannot get the same cpu usage as mine. Here is my complete setting. May be you can give it a try:

AMD64 3200+ Newcastle CG, XP-120 HSF, 280x9 Mhz, 3X HTT, Vcor=1.5x104%,Chipset =1.6V
LanParty UT nF3 250GB
BIOS 504 (tictic 4.0V mod)
Mushkin cl2 Blue 2x512 PC3200 280Mhz@3/4 1T 2,2,2,6,9,13,01,2,2,2,3120,1, 2.8 V Bank interleave on.

ffdshow: Aug 2004, Andy's preview
Dnoise3d: fast
Resize :2.8x
Setting: Lanzcos 2, luma sharpen 1.0

Media Portal: descaler codec, VMR9 renderless. (I have used ZP4.05 with PowerDVD5, overlay, and got the same cpu usage of 60%)

I seriously doubt that memory latencies can cause such a huge disparity in CPU usage. e268, would you mind testing slower memory latencies and see if you get a huge performance decrease? I have the same CPU as you too, A64 3200+ Newcastle CG, except I'm running at 250x10, 4x HTT, 1.65Vcore, and I'm using a Chaintech VNF3-250(same NF3-250 chipset as yours). My memory timings are 2.5-3-3-10, 2T

I seriously doubt that memory latencies can cause such a huge disparity in CPU usage. e268, would you mind testing slower memory latencies and see if you get a huge performance decrease? I have the same CPU as you too, A64 3200+ Newcastle CG, except I'm running at 250x10, 4x HTT, 1.65Vcore, and I'm using a Chaintech VNF3-250(same NF3-250 chipset as yours). My memory timings are 2.5-3-3-10, 2T

You are right. Nothing to do with bandwidth. I tried your setting:
CPU 250x10=2.5Ghz at 1.56vcore
Dram 250@5/6 2.5,3,3,10 2T (I cannot do 1:1) giving ddr416 Bandwidth (from memtest86) 1302 MB/s (my previous bandwidth was 1800)
Chipset voltage = 1.6v

Watching these movies using Media Portal (descaler, vmr9 renderless):
DVD Twin Tower: CPU @<60%
DVD Terminator 3: CPU @ <58%
HDD video file (House of flying Daggers) 55%

If I use ZP4.05 and Powerdvd5 and vmr9 windowless, cpu is at 70%. Overlay gives 55%.

I remember that I had a stick of Samsung 512 MB at 2.5,3,3,7 timing, and I cannot get over 2.2x resize.

Other than the motherboard, the other factor might be the video card. I am using Celestica Radeon 9600xt, but I doubt it.

Anyway, interesting excercise, but no conclusion.

I notice that you're using denoise3D fast. I remember when I was using Andy's preview, whenever I enable that, ZP would crash. The new Celtic Druids builds that I'm using don't have the fast option, only HQ. I went back to Andy's preview build to see if there were any improvements, but in fact I saw a slight performance drop, but I wasn't running on Fast mode though. What happens when you uncheck Fast?.

btw I'm on ZP 4.51, Dscalar and VMR9 Renderless exclusive. Also, how's your performance when playing dvix/xvid videos?

Changed dnoise3d to luma:3, chrom:1.5, time:3.5

CPU@65% using ZP4.05 overlay

Back to dnoise3d: fast

CPU @ 55%

I do not have any divx or xvid movies to try.

Overlay is much faster than VMR9 on my setup though, never really knew why, but looks like the fast option does speed things up a little. Would you mind if I send you 1-2 dvix/xvid clips(just a few seconds) and have you see if you can play them with your settings?

I have a Socket 754 Athlon 64 3000+ Newcastle at 3x Resize Lanczos2, denoise3d, and then Dscaler Sharpening filter. My CPU use per perfmon averages 30%.

I upgraded from an Athlon XP1600. On that I could do denoise3d and then 2x Resize Lanczos 2. My CPU use was at about 95%. With some DVD's I was not able to use denoise3d.

desertdome: I understand you have very high ram clock rate. Can you lower it to about 210 and see what your cpu performance is?

goi: please do send me the clips. can you do it with PM or do you need my email address?

Tried those settings and hit 100% in 2 seconds of the movie starting. I am using ZP4.51 though.

My duddy has a similar setup as I but with faster memory and the 3500+ Venice. He gets the same results as I.

I think it has to be something with a BIOS setting (CPU/Memory) that may or may not be accessable on some of these mobo's.

OK. I have been tweaking my dram this morning and was able to lower my cpu usage by 10% (60%->50%).

Here is what I did.

Old dram setting:
280x9 Htt=3x dram at 280@3/4 1T 2,2,2,6 with ddr420

new setting:
230x11 Htt=3x, dram at 230@1:1 2T 2,2,2,6 with ddr460.

Because of the jump in DDR, my cpu usage is now at 50%.

I still cannot reach desertdome's 30% usage since I cannot get my dram to run at higher rate.

Although the bandwdith is lower now (1647 vs 1858MB/s), the over is still a big 10% gain in cpu usage. So, I think I will keep this setting.

I am running my memory at 240 @ 1:1 DDR:480, 2.5,3,3 and get 70% at 2x

I need to ask a FFDShow question but I have to chime in with some overclocking help for your guys:

Command Rate > Memory Timings

Running @ 2T will produce significantly slower speeds than 1T, irrespective of timings.

Also, your HTLink (HT) can be anywhere up to but no greater than 1000. If your running your HTT(FSB) @ 230 then your can bump your HT multiplier up to 4x. Might help out with speeds some.

Finally, CPU speed is king. Memory speed is overrated so try and shoot for the fastest possible CPU before going for memory speed.

Anyways, I'm a complete FFDShow newb and have been reading around for a couple of days. I followed the HTPCNews guide for setting it up. I know that guide is a bit old so I was wondering if there have been any updates or any new settings that I should be using?

Your statement regarding oc is the general principle that oc'ers use, and that is why initially I had run my dram at the higest cpu clock rate, and dram at 210 but higher bandwidth. With my experiment, I had increased the clock rate of my dram to 230 and at 2T to keep it stable (therefore, lower bandwidth). In both cases, the cpu clock rate is at 2.5GHz. Now, the higher dram clock rate set up can do ffdshow with 10% lower cpu utilization. But at lower bandwidth, I am sure game playing will be slower, but I do not play games anyway.

With regard to ffdshow, if you have not paid for ZP or TT yet, you can save some money and use Media Portal which is totally free. I did follow HTPCnews to set up both zp and ffdshow iinitally, and it worked.

MPC is totally free too, but I kinda prefer ZP's interface. I guess I might give Media Portal a shot too. I assume it plays all sorts of files and is highly customizable?

Media Portal does not have all the options as ZP. But it comes configured so that you can use the mouse or 3 kinds or remote control, and also a gamepad. It is actually a front end to htpc, unlike zp.

That Media Portal looks more like a front end than a dedicated player.

Alright, I installed the SSE2 optimized build of FFDShow and tried setting it up. I'm using a Dell 2405 LCD and the default resolution is 1900x1200 but for DVD's it would be 1900x1050. Problem is, FFDShow won't let me set a resolution above 1600. Whenever I type in 1900 the option becomes red and resets as soon as I hit ok. Anyone know a solution for this?

It has to be divisible by 8. Try 1904 instead of 1900.

One newbie question about ffdshow. What exactly is the reason why we should try as much resize in ffdshow as possible? To me it makes more sense to resize to the screens resolution and stick with that. Any higher resize would mean that you resize the image twice. But I think I can see an increased image quality with a higher resize. Is this just my imagination or is there a technical reason for this?

Yes, there is a technical reason for it, but I can't explain it. I think Owen has explained it earlier in this short, little thread. ;) Anyway on my system I can easily spot the difference between resizing to my current resolution (1152x864) and 2040x2040. It's not night and day, but it isn't mistakeable either. It's there. So resize as high as you can go and let the graphics card scale it down again to the output resolution.

How on earth is this software used!? I'm so frustrated. I'd like to associate it with winamp so i can view HDTV.XviD-LOL.avi files. Does it automatically detect the codecs on your computer? Does it have it's own GUI. Somebody help me please. Thank you.

deadphish3

:mad:

First you have to use a ffdshow compatible DVD player like Zoom player.
Then after choosing your codecs and renderer w/ ZP, you can add ffdshow to the filter chain.
From there, you can configure ffdshow. It is mainly used for 720x480 mpeg2 like DVD's.

I've got the zoom player and it works real nice, BUT these HDTV.XviD-LOL.avi still won't go. I keep getting errors.

It's a relatively new format, isn't it? Maybe the problem lies in the decoder.

i play these files fine over ffdshow sse compiled version. you dont need zoom player it might be a bit complicated for you (no offence). try using it in windows media player. also get GSPOT codec information tool installed and post back a report on the files you are having problems with.

Please help me to understand this!

I know it's been asked before but I didn't see a straight answer so I'm asking again. Also I'm a newbie at this so please bear with me.

Why do all the posts I'm reading here make it sound like it's not possible to use Nvidia PureVideo/Hardware acceleration with ffdshow? I'm running MediaPortal 0.2 RC with a GeForce 6600 w/PureVideo. In MP I've selected the PureVideo codec -> VMR9 and enabled FFDshow post processing. It seems that the hardware acceleration is working because my CPU utilization has dropped to basically non-existant since switching to PureVideo. It also seems that post-processing is working because I have the OSD and my picture quality is noticably improved when I turn post processing on. So what am I missing?

If I am mistaken here, and FFDshow post processing is not an option with the PureVideo codec, can somebody help me understand why that is?

I don't know why you think ffdshow post processing isn't an option with purevideo. I know I'm using it as well.

Is it possible to use FFDSHOW with a TV card???

I have a AVerTV GO 007 FM Plus TV card, plugging my analogue RF cable straight into it. Is it possible to get ffdshow to work with it and improve the image quality 'live' so to speak. God it needs noise removal!

I'm using the
AVerTV Go PVR Application v5.3.0.9 software that comes with it.
Can ffdshow be used with it?

Is there a beter PVR app that will work?

Thanks in advance to all those with the knowledge!

Chris

Well, I had FFDShow working for a bit but now it's back to being a problem. I get an error in ZPlayer when it's enabled:
Filter Connection Error
DScaler Video Out -> FFDShow Video In
80040207: There is no common media between these pins.

It worked before, but as a consequence of installation I couldn't play newer AVI files. When I tried to fix that issue with codec uninstalls and reinstalls I got the avi files to work but FFDShow stopped working. Working dilligently while ill this weekend I solved the problem that only one or the other worked by getting them both to not work. Reformat, reinstall. Now it gives me the indicated error. I didn't do anything aside from default codec installs. I run Zoom Player Pro 451 , DScaler 5006, ffdshow 20040801a preview SSE2. My system is a 865PE 3.0GHz, 9700 AIW Pro GPU. Any ideas?

I don't know why you think ffdshow post processing isn't an option with purevideo. I know I'm using it as well.


Goi, it's good to hear that I'm not crazy. What I was refering to was posts such as post6122426 which specifically states that you can't use PureVideo with DXVA (which I understand to be just hardware acceleration) and post5610892 which makes a similar remark (Please forgive me for not using hyperlinks, a restriction of the forum for newbies like me). Of course those two posts were in reference to TT and ZP respectively. Are these just limitations of those players in these two cases?

At any rate, anyone with an Nvidia based card (6600 or better) should be interested to know that we're successfully using DXVA with PureVideo. As I stated in my last post I enable it with MediaPortal; which incidentally is is a very powerfull sollution that's opensource, free of charge, enables PureVideo with DXVA for both DVD's and hard-drive MPEG2 files, and enables FFDshow post processing for all video file formats as well as your TV tuner. (If it wasn't free I'd feel like I just shamelessly plugged)

What software do you use?

Have you actually enabled ffdshow for TV with MP, and does it work well? I was not able to make it work. If you did please tell me what ffdshow version, and what tv tuner.

Hello to all,

I am a newbie to zoomplayer + fddshow + dscaler user!

I am going to play all my contents including DVDs and HDTV's TS/mpeg/avi files.

Is this the best combination to play all video contents?

My PC config is:
P4 3.0E
Intel 865 PERL MB
512M X 2 266 DDR dual channel
LG 4153B DVDRW
Philips 15inch LCD
Plus U5-132 DLP XGA projector (DDR 2x wheel/1600Ansi eco mode/2000:1 contrast)
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZX 5.1 channel output to Yahama VX-430
Using HiVi Cast for basic video tuning

ZP 4.5 Final
Fddshow 20040808
Dscalar 5001

Could anybody here help me to post the most common basic setup with the above settings? Since these thread is simply to long to go thru everything.

Any advise?

Many many thanks.

For DVDs, go with as high a resize as you can. 2X is the minumum, but since you have a pretty powerful P4 3.0E you might be able to go to 3X or even more. Most people use Lanczos2 with luma sharpen ~1.0, some have denoise3d enabled to get rid of sharpening artifacts, others use asharp or dscaler sharpen. Experiment yourself to see what you like best.

For HDTV/TS/any HD content, forget about any ffdshow resizing, just view the media as is, since it's very CPU intensive to do the decoding already. If you're using a nvidia 6600 series or better, try to use the nvidia decoder instead of dscaler, it's a lot faster.

You might also want to try one of the later ICL9 ffdshow builds since those support SSE/SSE2/SSE3 that your Prescott supports and will likely be faster.

For regular xvid/divx AVI files, whatever makes you happy. The files are likely of a lower resolution and higher compression, so ffdshow post processing isn't gonna buy you much.

What is resize 2X/3x means?
resolution?

the native resolution of DVD is 720 *480 aka 480p, what is resize 2x/3x?

There is an option in ffdshow that allows you to enter a value to multiply the resolution by. Instead of specifying the size manually you can enter 2.000 or 3.000 or 2.500 or anything you like there.

I have found it, thanks Goi.

Still having the same issue. I've settled in to ATI's DVD player for now which, while lacking the 3-D of ffdshow at least works and has decent color. Without ffdshow, DScaler5 is pretty unimpressive on my system (like I said, comparable to a good DiVx file).


Well, I had FFDShow working for a bit but now it's back to being a problem. I get an error in ZPlayer when it's enabled:
Filter Connection Error
DScaler Video Out -> FFDShow Video In
80040207: There is no common media between these pins.

It worked before, but as a consequence of installation I couldn't play newer AVI files. When I tried to fix that issue with codec uninstalls and reinstalls I got the avi files to work but FFDShow stopped working. Working dilligently while ill this weekend I solved the problem that only one or the other worked by getting them both to not work. Reformat, reinstall. Now it gives me the indicated error. I didn't do anything aside from default codec installs. I run Zoom Player Pro 451 , DScaler 5006, ffdshow 20040801a preview SSE2. My system is a 865PE 3.0GHz, 9700 AIW Pro GPU. Any ideas?

Isn't that a colorspace problem? Have you got the same colorspace out of dScaler, in ZoomPlayer's color space setup and into FFDShow?

I have DScaler and ZPlayer set to a YV12 colorspace, I didn't see where to set it in FFDShow. It is checked in output.

i just tried using the latest version of ffdshow on afterdawn to play xvid avis to see if it improves the image quality. The problem is that the sound and the video become out of sync when i do this. Once i uninstall ffdshow the video and audio sync back again when it goes back to using the xvid decoder and the ac3filter i believe. I ran on wmp and mpc and get the same result.

Any help on this? Would read the older parts of the thread but 128 pages is a little too much. Thanks

Check your CPU usage. Most likely you're doing some resize or post processing that's overloading your CPU, causing video to lag audio.

I know this whole thread is a FAQ, and I can see the 2nd post of the thread mentions this is old and suggests to read the last 10 - 20 posts. With that said, I think its about time to put some kind of definitive thread dedicated to this without having the same quetions over and over and over again. Something that will keep up with all current configuration suggested practices. Is there anyway an admin can rig something like this up... or put a group of people together allowed to edit the FIRST post of this thread?

Anyway, its just a suggestion. I was trying to find some quick information about setup and find it pretty tiresome trying to find info.

Agree... are you volunteering to consolodate this for us all? ;-)

Why stop there? I suggest a forum for DVD decoder and FFDShow questions! Hey, I would assume that the amount of people using FFDShow pretty much kills the amount of people using Mac-ey Mouse and Linux computers as HTPC's! ;)

Which FFDShow version do you guys prefer? I've heard that the newer builds aren't as good as the earlier builds.

How about the SSE2/3 builds?

If you install any of the newer ffdshow releases, remember that they now also contain an ffdshow AUDIO filter.

Make sure that this filter is disabled by unchecking any and all audio processing options.

Currently using ffdshow-20051021-gcc-sse2-test with no issues in my setup.

Vern

Which FFDShow version do you guys prefer? I've heard that the newer builds aren't as good as the earlier builds. I'm using the ffdshow-20051018 build at the moment, and it works great, as they have since about May of this year. There's a development tree, if that's the right word, of several programmers that I learned about from doom9. It can be found here (http://ffdshow.faireal.net/#ffdshow), along with a bunch of mirrors.

How about the SSE2/3 builds?I was under the impression that all of these builds were now optimized for SSE2/3, but I could be wrong.

Currently using ffdshow-20051021-gcc-sse2-test with no issues in my setup.Are there differences between the regular, "icl", "gcc", and "msvc" versions that affect post-processing?

I still use Andy's last preview. No reason to change.

If you install any of the newer ffdshow releases, remember that they now also contain an ffdshow AUDIO filter.

Make sure that this filter is disabled by unchecking any and all audio processing options.

Currently using ffdshow-20051021-gcc-sse2-test with no issues in my setup.

Vern

Hi Vern,
Is there something wrong with the current audio filter?? :confused:

I use the filter to decode mp2, mp3, etc and resample them to 48000, upmix 2.0 to 5.1, then encode the stream to AC3. Everything has been working great so far. :)

how do you upmix to 5.1?

Is there something wrong with the current audio filter??

If you exclude the fact that it is of absolutely no use in playing a DVD, no there is nothing wrong with it.

Unfortunately, when many people attempt to use ffdshow with TheaterTek or Zoom Player, they find that the default ffdshow audio filters settings cause issues.

The NVidia audio decoder contains everything required to play DVD's DD, DTS or PCM audio tracks.

The installer needs to disable all video and audio filters and not preselect any functions in the installation dialog boxes, just to protect users from screwing something up.

If you, the user, checked an option and it messed something up, you have no one to blame but yourself. If the default install options mess something up, that's the fault of the software.

If a directX filter is registered, it needs to be done with the lowest priority possible so it doesn't hijack any functions of the filters that were already installed.

There are many users using 2 year old versions of ffdshow for the simple reason that the newer versions create problems related to the audio filters default install options.
Vern

how do you upmix to 5.1?

Enable the Mixer filter, and select '3/2+LFE 5.1 channels' for output speaker configuration. Make sure the 'Expand Stereo' checkbox is checked.


Vern,
Thanks for the clarification. I guess I've been using ffdshow for years now and know how to set merits and use ZP's custom graph setups.

It would be easy for beginners to mess up their configs. ;)

I've got a Radeon 9250 128 MB PCI video card in my system. Will fddshow work with that? Although the card is 9000 series, it doesn't have native DirectX9 support. I'm my PC, I've got a P4 2.8 GHz, 1 Gb ram (pc 2700). If it will work with my system, how aggressive will I be able to be?

It will work, but you will be held back in FFDShow performance. Or maybe not, the CPU is pretty low spec for FFDShow.

I am using a 9250 with a P4 3.0 512 Ram

TheaterTek
Resize to 1776x1000 (display is set to 1776x1000)
Denoise 3d
~75% CPU

What kind of resize is that with? Bicubic?

Can someone link me to Andy's settings? I'm a little lost.

Andy's ffdshow directory can be found here. (http://ffdshow.leffe.dnsalias.com/andy2222/)

I am currently running an AMD Athlon XP 2500+ OC'ed to 3200+ with 1 gig of ram and a 128MB ati radeon 9600xt.

When I turn on resize of all sizes from the native resolution (1920x1200)of my dell 2405fpw to 3x multiplier for the resolution nothing seems to change. I tried to play around with the resize filters but to no avail. I was using dscaler. I was watching a ripped version of Sin City and the picture seems really blocky at times especially in the scenes where it's raining since most of the movie is in black and white. Even with just resize on CPU load already gets pretty high...jumps between 100 and 67%. Running winxp se2.

When I try to turn on denoise 3d zoomplayer crashes with some memory write error as soon as i press play. I am using the 20051018 build of ffdshow. I also have no clue which dscaler sharpener people are talking about? Is it simply the dscaler filter that is listed under ffdshow settings?

Anybody have a similar setup they can share settings with me with? Please help. Thanks!

newb, sorry, but you need a decent CPU to get anywhere. Any AMD XP will be pretty much useless, since the real clock cycles (not the AMD "rating") is so far behind even a low spec P4, like the 2.8, that there isn't much use in it at all. (Oh, to cut the AMD fanboys off at the first corner, I know that you have pretty good results with AMD64's, but that's another thing all together.) If you're using Andy's build, that's optimized for P4, and if you're using other builds they're mainly bugfests made more for crappy DiVX/XViD playback on computer monitors for the "kidz". ;)

It will work, but you will be held back in FFDShow performance. Or maybe not, the CPU is pretty low spec for FFDShow.

I use a 2.4 P4 and a Radeon 9600xt machine that runs things just fine to a Sammy 56" DLP. When I retire my current gaming machine (3.2 P4 and 6800GT) it will hande the media playback but honestly the lower power one is working fine.

If you're using Andy's build, that's optimized for P4, and if you're using other builds they're mainly bugfests made more for crappy DiVX/XViD playback on computer monitors for the "kidz". ;)

That's nonsense. I always use Celtic_Druid's latest builds from here (http://celticdruid.no-ip.com/xvid/), and there are almost never any issues despite frequent upgrades. It's highly insulting to the authors of and contributors to ffdshow for you to imply that all their work since Andy's (prehistorically outdated) builds has been buggy, or to imply that the advancements made since then are only of use for low-resolution MPEG-4 rips. AVC support is superior to that in most commercial products, the BBC's fledgling Dirac technology has been integrated for testing and development purposes, WMV2 support is on par wth Microsoft's own, support for Quicktime codecs and H.263 teleconferencing codecs has been improved, and now that there are legal sources for MPEG-4 content and HDTV is easily converted to ASP or AVC for archiving the MPEG-4 playback capabilities you just derided can be used for legal content and for true HD playback. And of course, ffdshow has now become an all-in-one audio solution too, with the potential to replace AC3filter and countless other AC3/DTS/AAC/MP3/etc. audio codecs and audio plugins. And after Andy's build ffvfw was integrated with ffdshow, so ffdshow is now useful for encoding content and not just decoding it.

Not to mention the fact that Andy's old hand-optimized builds now only outperform a good ICL compile on a P4 in very few specific circumstances thanks to both source code and compiler optimizations made since then. And of course, most AMD users would be better off with a generic ICL or gcc build than with Andy's, but that was always the case.

Point being, I'm glad you're happy with an old feature-poor ffdshow build, but that's hardly cause to belittle (intentionally or not) ffdshow development since then, or belittle the people using new and exciting ffdshow/libavcodec features by assuming they're just using ffdshow for low-res MPEG-4 rips. And for the record, MPEG-4 ASP (that is, DivX/XviD) playback support was already complete by the time of Andy's builds, so that's hardly why people are upgrading.

I have tested CD's builds and a lot of other builds, but the results have always been the same: Back to Andy's build. Believe me, I'm an upgrade nut, and if something's newer than what I have, I'll get it. Still I haven't yet found any builds that work better than the "feature-poor" build that does what I want it to do: Make the image quality as good as possible for the limited source material that is the DVD.

ffdshow is working great in my pc, but it works very slow, the video is slower than the audio in my old pc which is only 400MHz and 64mb. any suggestion on fixing this or any other codec that can be used? :)

You mean that the audio/video comes out of sync? What build of FFDShow are you using?

i've heard many people using dscaler sharpen filters to improve IQ but i tried looking around the ffdshow filters list and i do not see dscaler sharpen anywhere. I see a dscaler filter in there but when i click on it it asks me to find the library. when i point it to the dll in the directory i installed dscaler on it shows a really lengthy list of settings but i still do not see "dscaler shaprness" anywhere. I hear about people setting this to 128 or whatever number but i just cant find it. Suggestions? i have dscaler5 installed if that makes a difference.

I have tested CD's builds and a lot of other builds, but the results have always been the same: Back to Andy's build. Believe me, I'm an upgrade nut, and if something's newer than what I have, I'll get it. Still I haven't yet found any builds that work better than the "feature-poor" build that does what I want it to do: Make the image quality as good as possible for the limited source material that is the DVD. I agree with Sergei. People, don't go by Mastiff's assertion regarding newer FFDShow builds. He assumed that it was made for the "kidz" over at Doom9, who, for the most part, are actually using FFDshow for it's original intended purpose (encoding), instead of postptocessing. Myself and many others can attest to the improvements made in the newer FFDShow code. Andy may have been the first, but SSE optimizations are now pretty universal, and SSE2 is supported as well. They work just as well, if not better than, Andy's build. In my case, CPU utilization has been cut pretty much in half, which makes a wide variety of filters usable that had previously been too CPU-intensive.

i've heard many people using dscaler sharpen filters to improve IQ but i tried looking around the ffdshow filters list and i do not see dscaler sharpen anywhere. I see a dscaler filter in there but when i click on it it asks me to find the library. when i point it to the dll in the directory i installed dscaler on it shows a really lengthy list of settings but i still do not see "dscaler shaprness" anywhere. I hear about people setting this to 128 or whatever number but i just cant find it. Suggestions? i have dscaler5 installed if that makes a difference. The file should be called something like "FLT_Sharpness.dll", and is located in the DScaler root (for me, "C:\Program Files\DScaler").

i am using the default setting. i play smoothlt on lower quality movie like those promos or whatever, but when it comes to normal video, the problem comes again. it is not only out of sycn, the video lag for a few second before it goes to the next frame. any suggestion? maybe it is the cpu's problem. :)

newb, sorry, but you need a decent CPU to get anywhere. Any AMD XP will be pretty much useless, since the real clock cycles (not the AMD "rating") is so far behind even a low spec P4, like the 2.8, that there isn't much use in it at all. (Oh, to cut the AMD fanboys off at the first corner, I know that you have pretty good results with AMD64's, but that's another thing all together.)
I don’t know what your idea of “useless” is, but I have to disagree. My Athlon XP 2500+ running @ 11x200 can do Denoise3d (0.5, 1.0, 5.0, HQ checked) and 2.5x resize (Lanczos2 and Luma Sharpen at 1) with less than 80% peak CPU utilization on film based DVDs. I consider that to be pretty useful. Just for reference, I’m using ZoomPlayer v4.51 with Dscaler5006 and FFDshow v20041012sse1.

ProofTech

@ffdshow newb

Can your system handle the settings I’m using, which I’ve listed in my previous post?

Ffdshow newb here. At my account with work email but I do not see Lanczos2 listed at all under resize in ffdshow. I guess I should roll back to a later version of ffdshow. Not exactly what the differences are or which one I should use.

@kt83

Lanczos2 means the method is set to Lanczos and the parameter is set to 2.

whenever i have denoise3d turned on it seems that i get an application error. The instruction at blahblah referenced memory at blah blah. The memory could not be "read". Should I change to another build of ffdshow? I am using a 20051018 build of ffdshow.

Should I change to another build of ffdshow?
Try using the 20041012sse version found here. (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=53761&package_id=59355&release_id=274595)

If my display/projector is 1280 x 720 should I be resizing to 2-2.5x or should I go straight to 1920x1080 or just stay with 1280 x720?

I'm just wondering if going straight to 1920x1080 will give a cleaner downsample to 1280x720 compared to an obscure number that 2-2.5x provides.

@Tukkis

What’s best for one is not best for all. You should try all of the resizing methods that you mentioned to see which one you prefer.

ProofTech

JBlacklow, I don't "assert". I just tell it like it is, at least on my systems. Believe me, I have tried several builds, also the CD builds, and they have all given me more problems and/or worse results than the "dinosaur" I'm still using.

ffdshow newb, have you tried to put another filter above DeNoise? You can use "Levels" and don't cange anything, so it doesn't do anything. That may fix your problem. I use the dScaler sharpen for the same thing.

Tukkis, you resize as high as you can. Period. What you can experiment with, is the method. I perfer Lanczos, but the results may vary, mostly from what graphics card you use and your display device.

Tukkis, you resize as high as you can. Period.
I really hate to be a pain in the you-know-what, but I’m going to disagree with you once again. If a person resizes above the point at which any increase provides no benefit that they can see, they will be wasting CPU cycles that could be put to better use on other filters like noise reduction or sharpening.

ProofTech

If you're using Andy's build, that's optimized for P4, and if you're using other builds they're mainly bugfests made more for crappy DiVX/XViD playback on computer monitors for the "kidz". That sounds like an assertion to me. Anyway, if Andy's build works better for you, then by all means use it. The newer builds work better for me and Sergei and probably many others, so that's what we're using. End of story.

JBlacklow, I was actually thinking about taking the "agree to disagree" way myself, none of us will manage to change the other guy's position anyway. ;)

ProofTech, of course it will vary after what kind of display device you have. I think I'm too used to "speaking" to people with medium to high end display devices, and I forget that there are many with plasma flatscreens, LCD flatscreens and projectors and DLP projectors. Not everybody's got the interest or space for a good CRT projector. So I'll agree: If you can't see any difference, there's no use in resizing higher. For my part I can see a distinct difference between 1600x1600 and 2040x2040 resize. Which is why I use that. With that, dScaler sharpen and DeNoise 3D I have my CPU on the verge of crying uncle, and that's where I want it! :D

I'll agree if you fly me out to that Cinema Inferno! :)

Hey guys, really new to ffdshow, is there a good tutorial on how to use it, i've used it before without much success in the past and gone back through these pages for about 20 or so with no luck in finding any tutorials. No luck in the search either, but if anyone can give me some good search terms that'd be great. I'm looking to set up ffdshow to enhance dvd's and my tv/movie collection. Running an Athlon xp 3200+ w/ 2gb corsair and a 6800 gt if that is of any consequence. Thanks a ton for any help while i continue to search around.

JBlacklow, you'd have to pay the ticket yourself, but I'll supply the beer and popcorn! Allthough you'd have to wait a few weeks since my Barco's going in for service Monday or Tuesday... After several years of faithful and mostly trouble free viewing it needs a bit of TLC.

mosmef06, you may try my norwegian guide to HTPC. It is Norwegian languague, but the page about the basic setup of dScaler 5, Zoom Player and FFDShow are with screenshots that should tell you a bit. Start on this page: http://www.hardware.no/guider/hele_maskiner/htpc_trinn_for_trinn_-_del_7/15836/7

Try using the 20041012sse version found

thanks a lot for the help! the denoise works with that version but when i try to read the FLT_sharpness.dll file from c:\program files\dscaler it has an error 'error while trying to run this "ffdshow.ax,configure" '. Any ideas?

Also, the settings you showed played fairly well for dvds but I downloaded an HR.XVID version of some tv shows and the video and audio are out of sync. Do you guys use a completely different set of settings for xvid/divx content?

I don't use any recompressed video at all, so I can't tell you about XViX/DiVX. But you must use the FLT_Sharpness_sse2.dll that FFDShow installs in it's own directory.

I don't use any recompressed video at all, so I can't tell you about XViX/DiVX. But you must use the FLT_Sharpness_sse2.dll that FFDShow installs in it's own directory.

weird, i dont see it in the ffdshow directory. when i installed ffdshow i was sure to have dscaler clicked. how can i find the dll to put into my directory?

Sorry, wrong version. I was thinking about the version I use, from august 2004 (Andy's SSE2 preview). That's the one that has this filter with it, and that's the version I know anything about.

thanks a lot for the help! the denoise works with that version but when i try to read the FLT_sharpness.dll file from c:\program files\dscaler it has an error 'error while trying to run this "ffdshow.ax,configure" '. Any ideas?
Installing Dscaler4 on your computer might solve that problem. I’m not sure though, because I don’t use the Dscaler sharpening filter.


Also, the settings you showed played fairly well for dvds but I downloaded an HR.XVID version of some tv shows and the video and audio are out of sync. Do you guys use a completely different set of settings for xvid/divx content?
Xvid and divx require more power to decode, so it’s only natural that you would have to use milder settings in ffdshow for those types of video. I never play those types of video, so I don’t have any suggestions on using ffdshow with those.

ProofTech

Make sure to turn off any resampling before running DiVx. It sounds good for mp3, sjips around for DiVx. I also increase the audio out resample rate, which limits non-digital out to the analogs but smooths DVD playback. I'm still pretty new to ZPlayer, DScaler, and FFDShow, but is there a way to easily save schemes to optimize file types? The vid settings work well, I'm running pretty close to what's recommended here.

I was hoping someone could tell me which of the new Doom9 builds works best for Athlon64's? The Andy's preview isn't getting it done any more and I was hoping that a new version would have some better coding. I looked myself but reading that site is like trying to decipher hieroglyphs.

I have a 1.7GHZ processor and 256MB of RDRAM (could upgrade to 2.4GHZ with my mobo).

Is it worth trying FFDSHOW with my 1.7GHZ processor, is it fast enough with a nVidia 6600GT card to get decent results? Is 256MB of RDRAM enough?

Thank you.

The video card doesn't really matter for ffdshow since all hardware acceleration is disabled once you enable ffdshow. I don't think ffdshow is memory dependent either, though 256MB is pretty paltry for a modern computer.
Anyway, it's a free download so why not try it out yourself? It only takes a couple of minutes to download/install/setup.

Goi, that's not completely true. You should use a graphics card that supports PS2 (Pixel Shader 2), or you'll be really watching slides! But any 6x card from Nvidia supports that, so he's all right. The memory is not a problem, all though I use 512 now it's mostly to be able to run two sticks of 256 in dual channel, which helps FFDShow a lot.

I wasn't aware that ffdshow makes use of DX9 hardware. AFAIK PS2.0 is useful only for VMR9 output, and not exclusively for ffdshow? I could be wrong though. I was using a Radeon 7000 and then a Radeon 8500 before I got my 9600Pro for my old HTPC. The former was only DX7 compliant and had fixed TnL(no pixel/vertex shaders at all) and the latter is only DX8 compliant(PS1.4 I think). Both were able to use ffdshow without it being a slideshow. Of course, that was a few years ago and I was using overlay then.

OK, I was of course exaggerating with the slide show, but the differences are there without a doubt. I know, it shouldn't be that way. But I saw it very clearly between an older graphics card (9600) that didn't support it and a newer one that did (6600).

Funny you should mention it, but the 9600 series does in fact support Pixel Shader 2.0, since it's a DX9.0 card. Perhaps it's something else you were seeing. In any case, I really don't think ffdshow actually uses much of the GPU. If it does, I'd like to know how.

See, this is the question. I noticed some artifacts during high CPU usage, decided to go back to my o/c notes and they went away. I didn't do anything with the GPU performance. It's not like a sound card where you simply pass the signal to a decoder, there are some differences in PQ. I guess what I'm getting at is play back is improved by using some instruction sets (for example, pixel shader), and it is a derived image, so it'd seem that you would potentially gain something from an o/c of the GPU unless you have a lot of overhead in the card speed. I'm sure there's something I'm misunderstanding there, but I was just trying to figure out the question of o/c'ing the GPU.

Sorry, I just checked. It was with the 7000/VE I had the significant difference. Still, the GPU seems to matter a bit. I have tried a 6800 Ultra against a 6600GT, and there's no difference at all. Period. There's actually more to gain by overclocking a 6600GT than by putting in a 6800 Ultra. My guess is that it has somethign to do with clock cycles. A mild overclock of the 6600GT made the CPU utilization of the same FFDShow settings fall by 5-10 %. Pretty good for a free tweak, I would say!

Grrr, I was hoping to not o/c my GPU. It's so hard to quantitate artifacts, unlike (say) getting a memory index from SiSandra and checking stability with MemTest. I'm not doing much as far as graphics intensive gaming, thought I might settle on just some extra CPU cycles for MM conversions. What next, playing around with my boot-block? If you see me complaining about stability issues, now you know why. Actually, my system has always run just a bit more stable when o/c'd, it seems to like it.

I overclock my HTPC's as far as I can. Running a P4 3.2 @ 3.9 will give a huge improvement in FFDShow performance!

I'm sure it would, but I'm reluctant to go too far with my current case cooling. I'm just running my 3.0C at 218 FSB, which is the highest I can go without relaxing my memory timings (2-2-3-5-4). I'm more worried about stressing components aside from the CPU (running a Zalman 7000CU which can handle higher temps than I put at it). I noticed that FFDShow doesn't run above 2.8x resize on my system, but I haven't tried it with the o/c (it just went from working to not with a 0.1x increase in resize, didn't think the processor was limiting me). It has been running the best it has in a while. It's like I always say, the first goal of an o/c is stabilty, performance is secondary. When I bought the processor, there really wasn't a need to o/c (upscaling was more what I did when I watched T2-extreme) but since I've been playing w/ ffdshow I've seen the need. I don't have my notes on o/c'ing my GPU anymore, just some memories from 2 years ago when I was racing for 3dMark scores. Are you prime stable at those speeds, cause it's a pretty impressive o/c? Is the 255 on a 1:1 or a 4:5 divider? I guess it's hard to compare technologies when I'm running an older 865 board.

By all means relax those memory timings. They mean next to nothing for FFDShow. The only thing that matters is that you're running Dual Channel. I have it Prime stable, and I'm using 1:1, anything else, and there's no point since FFDShow will take heavy hits.

Well, iirc I can only go to 224FSB on a 1:1 so I went with tighter timings even though I have a lot of head room on o/c (I've run Prime95 at 3.6GHz FSB on a 4:5, it's as high as I've tried--I called it my burn in time for the CPU). I also understand that for real world apps memory bandwidth plays a minimal role, I was just looking at a 10% o/c to take care of artifacts. I guess I'm too much of a wuss to be a real o/c'er. You see them on Anandtech, they're the sorts that blow everything in a leak in their water cooling and just call it the price of doing business. My case isn't bad (CoolerMaster ATC-60), but with 5 drives it doesn't have much room even running rounded cabling so I get some dead air. I can pop the cover easy enouh, but the noise increase defeats the HTPC concept.

EDIT: I did want to thank everyone that has supported this thread. Listening to LTE at higher resample is impressive.

I have a Stacker with water cooling, you can see it in the HTPC guide I wrote for a norwegian website (the largest norwegian computer related website): http://www.hardware.no/guider/hele_maskiner/htpc_trinn_for_trinn_-_del_3/14164/10

I figured you needed some serious cooling for that o/c, still an impressive chip that can go that high. I'm just not brave enough for water cooling, though I am intrigued by the possibilities. It did a lot to improve my ffdshow performance, those occasional flutters on recorded media do distract even when they're short duration. They were there at 2x resize as well, so it wasn't just an improvement in CPU cycles. I guess I've simply tested this conformation fairly extensively compared to stock, and my HyperX 3500 has never been completely happy with PAT. Hmmm, I should do some more testing I think.

Actually he BigWater kit isn't serious cooling. It's about as low end as you can go for watercooling. The build quality isn't the best, but when it works, it works pretty well. I bought 6 kits after testing one, and three of the pumps has died at different times, but I may just be unlucky. And no CPUs have been damaged, they just sut down. And ThermalTake have modified the kit since then as well. And you can make it pretty safe by just putting a piece of plexi glass under the CPU to make any leaks from the water block dribble to the other end of the case, not drip on the graphic's card.

Well, any water cooling should be better than air. Watching my temps fluctuate, it's not like running 2 instances of prime95 or anything but it is hotter than most other things. I have to say that ffdshow really has helped me to see the potential of HTPC. I always figured blurriness of DVD playback and the lack of range in compressed audio were just the price of the convenience.

I did have a question about mp3/wma/etc. play back. Several, in fact. I'm currently running resample to 96k (Audigy2, needs replacing I know) with very light equalization. I'm running through the analog outs to the external decoder of my receiver, with sound fields through the audigy software. My subwoofer has knobs for cross-over and volume, I set the crossover to full (input through the 0.1 channel) and volume to blend with the fronts.

I've played with a number of settings, it seems to provide the best playback but am I missing something? On the subwoofer, I have a crossover of 70Hz which is well within the specs for my mains, but I know during DD playback the crossover is more like 105Hz so matching the 2 isn't straight forward. I find myself changing the volume of the subwoofer when moving betweens sources. For now I've upped the low frequencies through the equalizer a bit on the computer, but it still seems like a weak bass response. My sub's 13 years old (JBL Cube), but I'm still clinging to the hope I can compensate.

I have read about 50 pages of this thread and have followed all the instructions for setting up ffdshow. I am using DScaler5 and Zoom Player. Everything is working great. The picture has dramatically increased. I am using 3x resize and my laptop has 1920x1200 native resolution. I thought that the movie would fill up my screen but I still have horizontal black bars. Is this normal and is the only way to get rid of these by zooming in. I was wondering because the upscaled HDTV broadcasts the networks have sometimes don't have those bars and I was trying to achieve this with ffdshow. Thanks

No way a 2.35:1 source is going to fill a 1.77:1 screen unless you chop the sides off of the original 2.35:1 image. Why anyone would want to do that is beyond me..... :)

Vern

It's what's called letterbox bars. Either that, or as Vern says, loose a lot of the image. Or even make everybody look like they're 10 feet tall.

Sorry, I just checked. It was with the 7000/VE I had the significant difference. Still, the GPU seems to matter a bit. I have tried a 6800 Ultra against a 6600GT, and there's no difference at all. Period. There's actually more to gain by overclocking a 6600GT than by putting in a 6800 Ultra. My guess is that it has somethign to do with clock cycles. A mild overclock of the 6600GT made the CPU utilization of the same FFDShow settings fall by 5-10 %. Pretty good for a free tweak, I would say!

I just did a little test by myself using RivaTuner to monitor the GPU clockspeeds, while using coolbits to adjust it, and then playing a video clip ffdshow resized to 3X. At my stock 6800GT speeds, it didn't present any trouble. CPU utilization was close to 100%, but there were no skips, stutters or freezes. I then lowered my clockspeeds to 200MHz, and even down to 150MHz, and I noticed that the video was now lagging the audio. So, you may be right to a certain extent, provided that you're at a borderline case where an increase in clockspeed would be helpful. I'm still not sure that clockspeed is the only factor here though, i.e. that a 6600GT, with it's higher clockspeeds, will beat a 6800GT, a faster card with a lower clockspeed. If clockspeeds were all that mattered, then the ATI X1800XT would be the card of choice.

Additionally, I came across an anomaly. I couldn't figure out if video playback under VMR9 constitutes as 2D mode or 3D mode. It seems that while using RivaTuner to track the GPU clockspeeds, I couldn't come up with anything conclusive. Sometimes the clockspeeds would increase when I playback video, indicating a switch to 3D mode. Other times, it stays in the 2D mode speed. The only correlation I could find was that if I decreased the 2D speed below 200MHz, it would engage 3D mode whenever I playback video(based on the few times I tried this). Any thoughts?

Goi,

Not sure on nvidia, but on the ATI front (5.11 w/9800pro) the 3d mode only seems to work when your using VMR9 Renderless.

Cheers,
Bitey

Ok all, I have been browsing through this thread for a while, and have pieced together some info... Just want to make sure I'm on the right track. I am in the process of building an HTPC, and hope to use FFDShow with Media Portal for DVD playback.

First, pertinent system specs:

2.53 GHz Pentium 4 (533 FSB)
1 GB RAM (512 MB DDR 266 x2, Dual channel)
Radeon 9700 Vid Card (128MB)
Plan to use the Nvidia DVD decoder

Now, my first question is, what build of ffdshow is recommended for this setup? Andy's latest preview seems to keep popping up in these forums - is that a good choice? Or is there somethign else that would be better?

Also, I will note in advance that I am well aware I probably won't be able to use extremely aggressive settings with these system specs, but it seems like I can at least run some of the basic filters.

Now for the settings - this is what I've pieced together, and I'd love input / corrections wherever I've got it messed up!

1) Supported Codecs -> enable RAW Video ("all supported")
2) Resize -> 2x, try going higher if CPU is okay
Lanczos -> Parameter = 2, Luma Sharpern = 1.50, Chroma Sharpen = 1.50
3) Blur & NR -> denoise3D -> luma: 0.5, chroma: 0.5, time:5:00, HQ checked.

Filter Order: Blur & NR then Resize

Anything else I need to add to this? Any changes?

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I found the intro for ZoomPlayer + ffdshow (http://htpcnews.com/main.php?id=ffdshowdvd_1), and updated this accodingly. While I won't be using zoom player, I assume that has no effect on FFDshow settings, since ZP is just a front end (just like Media Portal). He says to use parameter 10 for Lanczos, but everyone here says 2, so I put 2. I adopted the rest of his settings (with the exception of resize, where I know higher = better).

Has anyone gotten the recent versions of FFDShow working with DScaler 4.1.10 or greater and enabling the Descaler->Deinterlacing plugins?

When I tried it with Celtic Druid's 20050803 version, I can use the DScaler deinterlacers, but the resolution is cut in half vertically (ie. 240 lines instead of 480). When I use a different version of FFDShow (ie. Andy's 20040709 version, or 20050303 or the 20051105-gcc4.0 version) the performance becomes a slideshow and I'm lucky if I get any more than 10 frames per second!

Any ideas? I would really like to get DScaler's mocomp2 deinterlacing plugin working in FFDShow on my Athlon XP 3500+ HTPC w/6800GT card.

I have read about 50 pages of this thread and have followed all the instructions for setting up ffdshow. I am using DScaler5 and Zoom Player. Everything is working great. The picture has dramatically increased. I am using 3x resize and my laptop has 1920x1080 native resolution. I thought that the movie would fill up my screen but I still have horizontal black bars. Is this normal and is the only way to get rid of these by zooming in. I was wondering because the upscaled HDTV broadcasts the networks have sometimes don't have those bars and I was trying to achieve this with ffdshow. Thanks


I am not aware of any Laptop with a 1920x1080 screen.
I have a 9300 Dell with a 17” 1920x1200 screen with 6800 video system, and 1080i video has black bars top and bottom.
The solution is to use a custom aspect ratio in your player application.
I have defined 1920x1200 to be 16:9 in TT and it works perfectly.

I have defined 1920x1200 to be 16:9 in TT and it works perfectly.

Except it's not 16x9 which is 1.77:1, its 1.60:1. That means circles will no longer be round and everyone and everything on your DVD's will look taller/skinnier than normal.

If you don't mind the distortion of the image just to kill some narrow black bars, I guess that's an acceptable solution.

You are still going to have black bars on 1.85 and greater AR films, though.

Vern

jahutch, that kind of a system is what the preview was made for! :) Of course I would get a 6600, but then if you've already got the 9700 there's a certain monitary aspect.

Ok all, I have been browsing through this thread for a while, and have pieced together some info... Just want to make sure I'm on the right track. I am in the process of building an HTPC, and hope to use FFDShow with Media Portal for DVD playback.

First, pertinent system specs:

2.53 GHz Pentium 4 (533 FSB)
1 GB RAM (512 MB DDR 266 x2, Dual channel)
Radeon 9700 Vid Card (128MB)
Plan to use the Nvidia DVD decoder

Now, my first question is, what build of ffdshow is recommended for this setup? Andy's latest preview seems to keep popping up in these forums - is that a good choice? Or is there somethign else that would be better?

Also, I will note in advance that I am well aware I probably won't be able to use extremely aggressive settings with these system specs, but it seems like I can at least run some of the basic filters.

Now for the settings - this is what I've pieced together, and I'd love input / corrections wherever I've got it messed up!

1) Supported Codecs -> enable RAW Video ("all supported")
2) Resize -> 2x, try going higher if CPU is okay
Lanczos -> Parameter = 2, Luma Sharpern = 1.50, Chroma Sharpen = 1.50
3) Blur & NR -> denoise3D -> luma: 0.5, chroma: 0.5, time:5:00, HQ checked.

Filter Order: Blur & NR then Resize

Anything else I need to add to this? Any changes?

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I found the intro for ZoomPlayer + ffdshow (http://htpcnews.com/main.php?id=ffdshowdvd_1), and updated this accodingly. While I won't be using zoom player, I assume that has no effect on FFDshow settings, since ZP is just a front end (just like Media Portal). He says to use parameter 10 for Lanczos, but everyone here says 2, so I put 2. I adopted the rest of his settings (with the exception of resize, where I know higher = better).



Good call on all this. I recently found http://htpcnews.com/main.php?id=ffdshowdvd_1 as well and used those basic settings. I've had remarkable results. In addition to these settings, I'm also doing a sharpen with unsharp mask with a strength of 40.

One off the wall question, how do you disable all ffdshow settings without unchecking them when playing .ts files? I usually just go in real quick and uncheck the filters I apply and just play the video, but I'm sure theres an easier way I just don't know of.

You mention "higher" being better. You might note that there are dimishing results that drop off quickly once you reach a certain point. I've never bothered going over 2x resize.

So if I am going to install FFDshow on my new Shuttle:

- P4 (w/ HT) 3.2GHz
- 1GB RAM
- GeForce 6600GT PCI-Express

which is tied to a 50" Pioneer PDP-5060 plasma, what would be a good version to install. It seems people often try to use older versions. Do I want SSE or MMX2, etc?

Thanks.

(I use ZoomPlayer)



blakespot

Good call on all this. I recently found http://htpcnews.com/main.php?id=ffdshowdvd_1 as well and used those basic settings. I've had remarkable results. In addition to these settings, I'm also doing a sharpen with unsharp mask with a strength of 40.

One off the wall question, how do you disable all ffdshow settings without unchecking them when playing .ts files? I usually just go in real quick and uncheck the filters I apply and just play the video, but I'm sure theres an easier way I just don't know of.

You mention "higher" being better. You might note that there are dimishing results that drop off quickly once you reach a certain point. I've never bothered going over 2x resize.
like he said.

Go play a dvd and (at least in zoom player) right click and select filters. Select ffdshow.

Do live changes. There may be an option which you have to enable in ffdshow for this to work.

After playing last night, I too added some sharpening. Made a whole lot of difference. Lots of detail came out.

So if I am going to install FFDshow on my new Shuttle:

- P4 (w/ HT) 3.2GHz
- 1GB RAM
- GeForce 6600GT PCI-Express


This system is almost created for Andy's preview - with one exception: Turn off HT, by all means. If this is a HTPC you don't need it, it will actually hold you back. If this is also an office computer, where you plan to run many applications at the same time, this gets more complicated.

Mastiff,

Would you mind a brief instructional tutorial as to how one turns off Hyper Threading? I think I've read that it has to be done in the BIOS. How do you go about this? How do you get into the BIOS and if you're not careful could you royally screw things up?

Thanks,

Wayne

The BIOS is correct. You normally come into that by pressing "Delete" as a madman when you turn on the computer. Since I don't know what kind of motherboard you have, it's kind of difficult to say what the correct submenu is. Yes, you can screw things up royally in the BIOS. But is it likely? Nope. Worst thing I have managed to do (and I have done a lot of messing around there...) is to lock the computer in a too high overclock, so I had to reset the BIOS (done with a jumper mentioned in the manual). But just turning on and off HT shouldn't give you any problems.

Except: You may have to install Windows again. I have tried to just change it in the BIOS, and Windows will find new hardware when booting, but the problem is that it's not stable enough, at least not for me. I always do a fresh install when doing major changes (and going from HT to no HT is a major change). Then again if you haven't done a fresh install in a while, it's probably about time. Especially if your computer has been upgraded to SP2. If you have installed from a slipstreamed SP2 you're good on that area, but no good HTPC should be upgraded with SP2 because of the many different versions of DX9 files that may be floating around your harddrive.

Thanks Mastiff.

Have a good day! :)

Wayne

You're welcome. I'm like certain religious sects: Always ready to help people convert!

You're welcome. I'm like certain religious sects: Always ready to help people convert!

P4 3.0 @ 3.830 (FSB 255) - GeForce 6800 - ffdshow: dscaler sharpness 108, resize 2040x2040, denoise 3D Fast 4, 3, 6 - Barco Graphics 808

Is there any advantage between the 6600 and 6800 series, or for that matter, the 7 series cards when using ffdshow?

Are any of the filter calculations, or scaling being offloaded to the GPU, or is this (I suspect) being done on the CPU's dime?

I've just converted over a machine for HTPC use, with a Radeon 9700, but I've got a LOT of cobwebs to clean out before this thing stops stuttering! Actually, I think a 'raze to the ground' is in order. :)

Thanks,
Scott

So...I followed this guide exactly:

http://htpcnews.com/main.php?id=ffdshowdvd_1

On my P4 3.2 running XP w/ 1GB RAM, GF6600GT

...and I get audio playing, but the video seems to be literally 1 frame every 20 seconds or so. It's basically stopped video - title warning screen on DVD shows. I do have the OSD enabled so I know the filter is working. Otherwise (when filter disabled) I play DVDs fine using the Sonic CineMaster 2.2+ video decoder (from Cinepak I believe).

Only enabled "Blur & NR" and "Resize & aspect" as per this page (http://htpcnews.com/main.php?id=ffdshowdvd_4) of the guide above. I tried using my previous setting of VMR9 Renderless and then jumped back to Overlay Mixer (Zoom Player) - and same for either.

...what could be going on? Thanks.




blakespot

childressmd, no, that shouldn't matter. I actually got better results from a slightly overclocked 6600 than a 6800 Ultra! Haven't tried anything 7 series yet, though.

blakespot, I don't even think FFDShow is supposed to work with cinemaster! Have you tried with dScaler 5? I suggest you have a look at the guide I wrote for a norwegian computer site. There's a lot of screenshots on this page, so you don't need a norwegian-english dictionary! ;) http://www.hardware.no/guider/hele_maskiner/htpc_trinn_for_trinn_-_del_7/15836/7

Turn off HT, by all means. If this is a HTPC you don't need it, it will actually hold you back. If this is also an office computer, where you plan to run many applications at the same time, this gets more complicated.


Now this comes up!!!! I just built my new P4 630 system and didn't disable HT....I searched, but this thread is enormous....

Well, I guess I can consider the first time around as practice... :rolleyes:

Rich

Well, that's the way I feel every time I find out something new for the HTPC, because then I usually do it again from the ground up. Haven't had to do that for a year now, though. If you like looking at screenshots you can find my norwegian series of HTPC building here:

http://www.hardware.no/search.php?stringQuery=&submitButton=S%F8k%21&filterSubject=&filterJournalist=24308&filterArticleType=24&filterDateAfter=&filterDateBefore=&filterHub%5B3%5D=&advOptsHidden=&filterSiteLast=1

It would probably help you to speak norwegian, but still those screenshots show a lot of pointers. Like what processes you can/should remove.

No worries...I understand the HTPC disease...I've had it since before ffdshow even existed.

I remember when the first PCI HDTV card came out...what a revolution!!!! only $600 and it works great if your antenna can pick up the signal!

Anyway......I always have HTPC #2 as backup while I'm rebuilding this one (just replaced an amd 3700+ clawhammer that just didn't cut the mustard with ffdshow).

Cheers,

Rich

Aha, so you're a newbie? ;) My first HTPC, the first PC in my house solely dedicated to showing images on a big screen, was the AMD equivalent to the PII, if I remember correctly. Either that or a PII 300 something. Anyway, it was when Creative came with the first DVD Encore kit I found out that it worked better than a standalone DVD player on my SharpVision LCD projector, especially since the movies were mostly PAL while the projector, which I picked up on one of my trips to the US, was NTSC only. The Encore could send out PAL movies in NTSC over S-Video! You could say that the technology has developed since then... My current system is slightly better, and the SharpVision still hangs behind a wall since I really don't know anybody stupid enough to buy the old "%&#¤. :D

Hey Mastiff:
Your Norwegian guide you link to looks excellent, however I am a little rusty on my Norwegian. Is there any chance you are considering translation to English? The screen shots are very helpful but I am sure I will miss something small in the ffdshow setup and that will, of course, cause everything to come to a grinding halt.

You guide appears to be the best I have seen on ZP ffdshow so an English version might make for a wider audience.

jahutch, that kind of a system is what the preview was made for! :) Of course I would get a 6600, but then if you've already got the 9700 there's a certain monitary aspect.

I have a P4, 3.0, x700 pro, 512 RAM. WAF is giving me a 6600 GT for Christmas. I currently use 20040709_SSE2.exe.

Is the Andy's latest preview version? And if so, should I still use this version with the 6600 GT?

I noticed that my ffdshow does not go above 2.8x resize, is this common? I've tried a couple of versions... I have a lot of play in CPU usage.

DV8, thanks, but that one's owned by HW.no, and besides I have barley enough time to do the stuff I do now, so a translation would take too much time. Sorry. But I don't think there's anything in the setup that can't be seen in the screenshots, I'm pretty sure I shot everything.

therealgeno , no. The last version is from 2nd of August 2004.

Slammy1, what kind of FFDShow build do you use? I only know about Andy's builds. The rest has been tried and dumped again.

therealgeno,

I have almost exactly the same setup as you currently have (x700) and I use the August 2004 Andy's build

http://ffdshow.leffe.dnsalias.com/andy2222/

I dunno what to tell you about the 6600 upgrade, but this build works great with this hardware setup. I currently resize to 1920x1080, luma sharp .5, dscaler sharp 44 while using the NVDVD filters. Works great!

Rich

I'm running ffdshow-20041012-sse2. It's really not critical, I just upgraded to a 1080p display and wanted a little extra, it's just greed on my part. I also had the problem with build ffdshow-20040801a_preview_SSE2 which I believe is Andy's. Thanks for the heads up.

therealgeno,

I have almost exactly the same setup as you currently have (x700) and I use the August 2004 Andy's build

http://ffdshow.leffe.dnsalias.com/andy2222/

I dunno what to tell you about the 6600 upgrade, but this build works great with this hardware setup. I currently resize to 1920x1080, luma sharp .5, dscaler sharp 44 while using the NVDVD filters. Works great!

Rich

Many thanks for the link. Will install it tonight. I guess I'll have to see about the 6600 once I install it Christmas day.

Edit: OK you FFDshow gurus. I have a problem. Just installed Andy's preview August 2nd build. Runs fine - except that when I check the Fast option for denoise3d, TT freezes and I must control-alt-delete because it is "not responding." All other filters I use (denoise besides Fast option, msharpen, and Resize) all work perfectly fine. But immediately after I select Fast, boom, it freezes.

Any suggestions? SOL?

Hi All,

MY HTPC / Display are calibrated for viewing DVD with VMR9 renderless in a very dimly lit room at night, subsequently when im watching in the daytime (with less than perfect drapes) I need to bump my brightness up a few notches. I have my HTPC calibrated for daytime viewing with VMR9 (non renderless) and overlay (usually watching Live DTV through fusion HDTV).

This works fairly well generally, however ive been playing around with LimitedSharpenFaster and really like the results however its really pushing the limits of my system (getting smooth playback) and I really need to use VMR9 Renderless (to keep it smooth).

Im using zoomplayer and andy's sse2 preview ffdshow build, what im thinking is to use a different ffdshow profile for daytime that includes the levels filter to bump brightness up a few notches - however im stuggling to find a way to tell zoomplayer/ffdshow to use 'daytime' when its launched from myhtpc (eg im looking for a commandlineish way to tell ffdshow to use which profile).. I know this can be done via importing a different regsitry file for daytime/nighttime ffdshow settings however its not very elegant :-)

Im using the ATI control-panel to adjust brightness for vmr9 renderless (3d settings) vmr9 (video settings) and desktop (overlay) settings could there be a way to adjust the ati control-panel settings (on the fly) ??

Sorry for the long post - any ideas?

Cheers,
Bitey

therealgeno, do you have a filter before Denoise? You need to, even if it's just "Levels" set to no change.

Bitey, using Girder 4 you can set it to run the FFDShow day settings before sunset and night settings after sunset by importing registry files in the background.

Mastiff,

Thanks - I don thave girder (i was hoping to do it without it :).. Ive found a workaround for the different brightness settings using ATI profiles. ATI control panels let you use different profiles and will export them to a desktop shortcut which is a shortcut to cli.exe with a command line switch :-) I now have two options in myhtpc 'day' and wait for it.. 'night' - I was thinking of using the windows task sheduler to do as you'd suggested..

Now all I need is to find a easy way to switch between ffdshow profiles :-) although I think im going to be stuck with the registry for this one.

Cheers,
Bitey

Nobody should have to do without Girder! ;)

Well, wouldn't it be possible to create batchfiles? That's what we did in the bad, old days, before all these fancy GUI operating systems came along. Two batchfile that first imports the correct regfile, waits for a few seconds and then fires the DVD app shouldn't be that difficult to make. Then you'd have one shortcut to each batchfile, one for DVDs at daytime and one for DVDs at night.

You could use batch files and AT commands (holdover from NT4 but still viable..not sure what they call it now in XP)...

But, IMHO, Girder is an essential part of any true HTPC....its an indispensable tool...

Rich

Ok ive worked it out.. its not pretty, not elegent but it works heres how:

ATI profiles control the brightness settings for day/night, these are menu-items calling up CLI.exe with some command-line options from inside myhtpc.

FFDSHOW profiles for limitedsharpenfaster, lanczos4 resize or limitedsharpenfaster with some smoothing for anime. Ive duplicated my zoomplayer directory 3 times (one for each ffdshow profile) and renamed each zplayer.exe (in its corresponding directory) to ZP_LSharpen.exe, ZP_LSharpenAnime.exe and ZP_Lanczos4.exe. I have also modified each zplayer.regpath to keep the same registry location (I want them all to be common), but use a different name for zoomplayer (eg. ZP_Lsharpen) on the 2nd line of the file. In the ffdshow autoload presets thingy ive selected to autoload each profile depending on which EXE file has launched ffdshow (eg. ZP_LShhapen.exe)..

So through myhtpc, I pick if its day or night, then a sub-menu for DVD Playback lets me pick which type of DVD im going to watch (ie. which ffdshow profile to use).. Im going to add more so I can have some pre-sets from myhtpc for how much denoising/sharpening - probably on a low/normal/high...

Sounds like a lot of work, but its pretty straightforward just messy in the background - but who sees that anyway? :))

Cheers,
Bitey

Performance question: does it seem right that in order to be able to with PAL-DVD do ..

2.5x lanczos2 resize with luma sharpen 0.8
.5,1,5 denoise3d HQ

.. using ..

ZP 4.50, FFDShow (using RAW filter) from a few weeks ago, Win MCE 2005, Nvidia DVD decoder in smart/best/software mode, YV12 specified everywhere possible, WMR9 renderless
x2 3800+ (2.0GHz cores)
1GB DDR in dual-channel config
6600GT (500/1000MHz)

.. that I have to overclock? I can't achieve 2.5x lanczos2 and .5,1,5HQ-denoise3d at stock settings. Does that seem normal or do I need to search for some resource-hogging gremlin in the computer? :)

By 'achieve' I mean no 100% CPU-peak, ever. Stock clock speeds gets me there for NTSC material I think, but not PAL.

Thanks in advance.

therealgeno, do you have a filter before Denoise? You need to, even if it's just "Levels" set to no change.


Even with "Levels" before Blur/NR, it still freezes TT. And if I leave it Fast unchecked and run msharpen with HQ checked, boom it freezes. The 0709sse2 version works with HQ checked in both msharpen and Blur/NR. It just freezes when these are checked in the 0801 version.

I have all supported in the Codecs, and output to YV12.

I'm thinking I'm SOL :rolleyes: . Oh well - there are worse things to be upset about ;) .

Performance question: does it seem right that in order to be able to with PAL-DVD do ..

2.5x lanczos2 resize with luma sharpen 0.8
.5,1,5 denoise3d HQ
Thanks in advance.

More and more folks are reporting that they can't resize over 2.0 or 2.5 using AMD chips, mostly Venice cores. No solution. This is the first I've read on the X2. I'm looking to jump into the Intel camp(UGH!) on my next upgrade.
Currently, I resize to 1920x1080 w/ my XP3000+ w/ CPU headroom to spare.

Performance question: does it seem right that in order to be able to with PAL-DVD do ..

2.5x lanczos2 resize with luma sharpen 0.8
.5,1,5 denoise3d HQ

.. using ..

ZP 4.50, FFDShow (using RAW filter) from a few weeks ago, Win MCE 2005, Nvidia DVD decoder in smart/best/software mode, YV12 specified everywhere possible, WMR9 renderless
x2 3800+ (2.0GHz cores)
1GB DDR in dual-channel config
6600GT (500/1000MHz)

.. that I have to overclock? I can't achieve 2.5x lanczos2 and .5,1,5HQ-denoise3d at stock settings. Does that seem normal or do I need to search for some resource-hogging gremlin in the computer? :)

By 'achieve' I mean no 100% CPU-peak, ever. Stock clock speeds gets me there for NTSC material I think, but not PAL.

Thanks in advance.

Yes, I used these settings to play a PAL-DVD and got under 85% cpu, a little high for my liking. Also, the pictures does not look that good either. I use amd3200+ overclocked to 2.5GHz. For NTSC movies, I normally got 50% cpu with resize of 3x.

I always go as high as possible, normally the CPU stays at between 95 and 100 %. I see no reason to have unused CPU power in my HTPC. Then I could go with a cheaper and slower setup instead. So why you want to go so low? Even with my rather extreme use of it I have no problems navigating the DVD and pausing/unpausing/stopping the movie. If you want to get the most out of the movie you don't work with Word or some stuff like that at the same time!

miketech: AMD-specific resize issues? Weird. IIRC, I tried 3x without denoise, with PAL it flatlines at 100%.

e268: 85% for 2.5GHz vs a bit over 100% with my 2.0GHz .. ok, seems things are like they should then, thanks! Question: what do you mean that "it does not look that good"? I'm quite happy with the settings but I'm very new to this HTPC-thing, so tips/suggestions for better settings are only appreciated!

Mastiff: I agree completely, 99% CPU is totally OK with me, and in fact after a little OC to 2330MHz, PAL-movies takes about 95% with the mentioned settings.

Daniel: I guess my pal-dvd is not a good one. I see floating veil-like haze over some areas sometimes, even when I play it with powerdvd alone. But, if I use my plasma instead, the image is clear and sharp.

As for oc, I would go to the highest stable oc. You should be able to go higher with your setup. I am limited to 2.52 GHz by my cheap BH5 ram, and mem controller in my AMD3200+.

Mastiff: I guess it is ok to run it at 90% if it does not stutter, nothing wrong with it. I just don't like it since it gives out more heat.

Daniel,

My HTPC spec is identical to yours and I also use PAL. I prefer to use FFDSHOW with the multi-threaded version of avisynth with limitedsharpen and get 75% CPU with settings of:
- LimitedSharpen smode 3
- hq3dnoise(2)
- lanczos 4 in FFDSHOW, latest version
- Resize to panel resolution (1400x1050), I never understood why you want to software scale higher than panel resolution then have the video card scale it back.

Works fine.

Regards,
Dean

e268, heat doesn't happen in my system. Water cooled, just because of that! Which of course also is the reason that I'm able to overclock a very hot CPU from 3.2 to 3.9 100 % stable! So you could say that when I run that at 95-100 % it's really working for a much more expensive CPU.

Daniel,
- Resize to panel resolution (1400x1050), I never understood why you want to software scale higher than panel resolution then have the video card scale it back.


Me neither, the part about understanding it. It looks better to me though, so I "just do it" :). Never quite understood the need to understand in order to accept.

Is FFdshow or TheaterTek Multiprocessor aware? Will it take advantage of my second Athlon 1800 chip? I heard there was some problems with dual processor boards and jerky playback. Have those been fixed. I just got a 1080p 37" HDTV LCD for Christmas and want to upscale DVD to that resolution for playback.

Tim

Mastiff,

Thanks - I don thave girder (i was hoping to do it without it :).. Ive found a workaround for the different brightness settings using ATI profiles. ATI control panels let you use different profiles and will export them to a desktop shortcut which is a shortcut to cli.exe with a command line switch :-) I now have two options in myhtpc 'day' and wait for it.. 'night' - I was thinking of using the windows task sheduler to do as you'd suggested..

Now all I need is to find a easy way to switch between ffdshow profiles :-) although I think im going to be stuck with the registry for this one.

Cheers,
Bitey


Mastiff,

Check out AutoHotkey. It comes with a utility to compile scripts to .exe files too.

Tim

Thanks, but I don't need it. I have Girder. It's Bitey who needs it.

As for the dual CPU there's no use at all in that when it comes to any DVD programs I know about.

Daniel: I guess my pal-dvd is not a good one. I see floating veil-like haze over some areas sometimes, even when I play it with powerdvd alone. But, if I use my plasma instead, the image is clear and sharp.

I'm sorry, might be that english isn't my native tongue, but I'm not following at all. I though you were talking about my ffdshow-settings not being optimal, and now you're mentioning disks, different decoders and even displays? How .. what .. when .. *sound of exploding head*

As for the dual CPU there's no use at all in that when it comes to any DVD programs I know about.

Except when using ffdshow with avisynth, which allows you to run the avisynth filters multithreaded. Makes a difference in my dual core system, allowing extra filters or more stronger settings that were not possible on my single core system. Check out the avisynth thread.

Regards,
Dean

See? My words are still true, since I don't know anything about using avisynth! ;) Of course I've heard about it, but I have never tried it.

Mastiff, it is worth checking out avisynth, you wont go back especially if you have a dual CPU / core PC. Its like being able to script any number of filters & settings, and quite easy to setup. Check out the limitedsharpen thread, this filter is by far the best I have found.

Regards,
Dean

I have read parts of that thread, but it made my poor, stupid brain hurt too much... ;) Anyway, I don't have a dual core. What's the main advantage of using Limited sharp instead of resize sharpen and dScaler sharpen?

I'm curious how important the dvd decoder codec is in PQ. I'm using whatever decoder came with the computer somewhere (I do have theatertek), and using the standard ffdshow settings I'm not getting anything mind blowing. Would getting the Sonic dvd decoders/filters help quite a bit, or no? I'm basically seeing a lot of artifacting, do I have one of the settings too high, or can someone recommend a sharpener/setting to use to kill the artifacting?

Mastiff,

There are versions of avisynth and some of the tools that support multiple-threads - so you get a speed advantage if you have hyperthreading...

PS: Im enjoying limited sharpen faster on my HT p4 3.0 @ 3.5ish - seems to give a much nicer picture than using the tradition ffdshow resizse sharpening/denoise3d fast etc..

If anyone hasnt given it a shot yet, its worthwhile spending the time - socio has packaged it all up and documented it on his site :-)

Cheers,
Bitey

forumreader, Sonic stinks! If you have TT 2 it uses nVIDIA's codec, which is much better. Anyway you can't change decoders with TT, which is what I dislike most about it. dScaler is the best on my system.

Mr.Bitey, some day when I have time, I will check it out. I have said that for more than a year now... Anyway, I have turned off HT on my HTPC, if not I'm not able to run a 3.2 Prescott @ 3.9 totally stable.

forumreader, Sonic stinks! If you have TT 2 it uses nVIDIA's codec, which is much better. Anyway you can't change decoders with TT, which is what I dislike most about it. dScaler is the best on my system.


Thanks, I had seen Sonic's decoders mentioned in what must have been old tutorials so I didn't know if they were any good.

Basically the problem I'm having is that solid color areas seem oversharp or something so there are pixels "swimming" everywhere. It's like no area can stay one solid color, its all ultrapixlated. I've got an ATI x600 card running dvi out, are there any ATI specific fixes I need to be aware of? I'm doing a 3x resize with denoise3d at the common settings, then Lancos4 with luma sharpen at like 1.5 I believe. Anyone know an easy fix or setting to the issue I'm describing? I'm going to attempt to use avisynth and the limited sharpen and see what happens.

Buy a GeForce... ;) And yes, it has to be two years since Sonic was top of the heap. Then WinDVD 5 surpassed it, and nVIDIA and dScaler crushed them both.

This could be my total stupidity, and I'm sure it is. I've turned OSD on, is the decoder supposed to be listed as uncompressed? I'm assuming no as it looks like crap. When I change the video to nvidia vs ffdshow it looks better. I'm sure there must be a step I'm missing but where it is I don't know. Can't seem to select the nvidia codecs in ffdshow. Any help out there?

Thanks, I had seen Sonic's decoders mentioned in what must have been old tutorials so I didn't know if they were any good.

Basically the problem I'm having is that solid color areas seem oversharp or something so there are pixels "swimming" everywhere. It's like no area can stay one solid color, its all ultrapixlated. I've got an ATI x600 card running dvi out, are there any ATI specific fixes I need to be aware of? I'm doing a 3x resize with denoise3d at the common settings, then Lancos4 with luma sharpen at like 1.5 I believe. Anyone know an easy fix or setting to the issue I'm describing? I'm going to attempt to use avisynth and the limited sharpen and see what happens.
Use Dscaler5.07 codec. It's free. Set ffdshow to Lanczos2. Anything higher will give you ringing. Keep luma sharpen below .60. turn off denoise3d for now. Then check your image.
ATI cards run best using VMR9 windowed/windowless. You can adjust ffdshow on the fly for best PQ.

ATI cards run best using VMR9 windowed/windowless. You can adjust ffdshow on the fly for best PQ.

?? - Ive found VMR9 Renderless to be the best for my ATI 9800pro...

Cheers,
Bitey

same here (ati x800 pro). Also with Lanczos 4 you dont get ringing unless the dvd is full of EE.

I have read parts of that thread, but it made my poor, stupid brain hurt too much... ;) Anyway, I don't have a dual core. What's the main advantage of using Limited sharp instead of resize sharpen and dScaler sharpen?
I don't have dual core either, but LimitedSharpen works for me aswell :)
The main advantage of using it is that you get rid of halos for good.
You might not see the halos right now, but when using LS instead of resize sharpen and dScaler sharpen the pic becomes more calm and relaxing and pleasing to the eye, almost as if it's less noisy.
Try it.
Afterwards you'll never want to live without it.
Socios site has simple and good guides to it all:
http://free.hostdepartment.com/f/ffdshowGuides/index.html
Just start with the basics and move your way up to your likings.

Henrik

Takk, Henrik! I'll take a look at that if I can get some time without getting those "divorce lawyer" looks from mrs. Mastiff...

"divorce lawyer" looks..........yes, I know the feeling......
and the "HTPC HAS to, somehow, configure itself tonight" look.

Henrik

More and more folks are reporting that they can't resize over 2.0 or 2.5 using AMD chips, mostly Venice cores. No solution. This is the first I've read on the X2. I'm looking to jump into the Intel camp(UGH!) on my next upgrade.
Currently, I resize to 1920x1080 w/ my XP3000+ w/ CPU headroom to spare.

I used to believe that AMD chips had to be clocked to the moon to get FFDSHOW resize at >2.5 .....
That was until last night when I tried Celtic druid build # 20050803
I can NOW run resize at 4x with 5 tap with less than 80% utilization.
I could never even dream of running 4x at all before I tried this build, and I tried ALOT of them, including Andys builds(I have about 6 or so of them I think).

I run DFI-UltraD with a 3000+ Winchester, running at 2250, 1.5gb ram at 11-3-3-2.5 ( 2T, about 200mhz),. I would clock it higher, but I don't need to with THIS build.

I used to have to clock this chip to >2.6 to achieve stutter free at 2.5 resize, with >90% utilization.
That was also running 512 mb of ram at 5-2-2-2@ 250+mhz @ 1T

I CAN NOT believe the difference this build has made for MY setup.

Anyone else see this phenomenon?

Great find! Got a link?

Great find! Got a link?

I dont even know where I got it, I was looking for ANY build that would work better, so everywhere I went that had FFDSHOW builds I dl'd all they had!! LOL
I must have over 25 builds in a folder.
I could email to you to try it if you like.
I'll google celtic Druid first.

May wanna try here:

http://celticdruid.no-ip.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=1&

Here is a list of builds:

http://dvd.box.sk/index.php?pid=soft&prj=info&rid=8190

anyone know how i can get digital audio out of this thing? i am running the pro player but i can't get the audio out in DD5.1. it comes out stereo, even when i use my powerDVD decoder (for audio). i did change the settings thru the zoom player that should make it use SPDIF, but it still is not working. any suggestions are appreciated. i am not sure it is worth the picture improvement if it means the sound gets ruined in the process.

if i play the dvd in powerDVD directly, it works fine, but not thru zoom player. the ffdshow cleanup looks great though.

i was able to get it working.

anyone know how i can get digital audio out of this thing? i am running the pro player but i can't get the audio out in DD5.1. it comes out stereo, even when i use my powerDVD decoder (for audio). i did change the settings thru the zoom player that should make it use SPDIF, but it still is not working. any suggestions are appreciated. i am not sure it is worth the picture improvement if it means the sound gets ruined in the process.

if i play the dvd in powerDVD directly, it works fine, but not thru zoom player. the ffdshow cleanup looks great though.

In the advance mode of the config screen, under the DVD Customized tab, click on the audio decoder that you want to use, then click the little C box on the right top and config your audio decoder to spdif.

I just installed the latest SSE build yesterday (20051221-gcc4.0.2-sse-x264) and was getting ffdshow processing watching WMV video in Beyond TV, but today I'm no longer getting processing (no OSD).

Any idea why or how to enable it for WMV? Thanks...

I just installed the latest SSE build yesterday (20051221-gcc4.0.2-sse-x264) and was getting ffdshow processing watching WMV video in Beyond TV, but today I'm no longer getting processing (no OSD).

Any idea why or how to enable it for WMV? Thanks...

Ah, ffdshow works with my WMV8 recordings but not my WMV9 recordings.

So ffdshow does not handle WMV9 (yet)?

Hi,

I have a P4 3.0gig machine running at 3.45 Ghz
1 gig of ddr 400
Asus Nvidia 6600GT
SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro

When i Run FFDShow i get slowdown in some films, the version i have is Dec21 2005

The only options i run are resize running at 1360x768 using the Lanczos method and blur and nr, just the bottom options when i choose Gradual Denoise i get some weird effect that is unwatchable.

Should my machine be able to cope with this, is it something i am doing wrong, it seems a little off my machine cant handle this, is there a better version of FFDShow to use

The slowdown isnt ultra bad a panning shot will be smooth its just the odd bit now and again but it is noticable


Thanks any help would be good cant cope with slowdown

Ah, ffdshow works with my WMV8 recordings but not my WMV9 recordings.

So ffdshow does not handle WMV9 (yet)?

In ffdshow, codecs, enable raw video (choose "all supported").

Hi,

I have a P4 3.0gig machine running at 3.45 Ghz
1 gig of ddr 400
Asus Nvidia 6600GT
SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro

When i Run FFDShow i get slowdown in some films, the version i have is Dec21 2005

The only options i run are resize running at 1360x768 using the Lanczos method and blur and nr, just the bottom options when i choose Gradual Denoise i get some weird effect that is unwatchable.

Should my machine be able to cope with this, is it something i am doing wrong, it seems a little off my machine cant handle this, is there a better version of FFDShow to use

The slowdown isnt ultra bad a panning shot will be smooth its just the odd bit now and again but it is noticable


Thanks any help would be good cant cope with slowdown
what video codecs are you using?

Try dscaler or some other combination of codecs. I used the nvidia codecs but coulnt resize past 2x because of major slowdowns. Tried dscaler and can resize to 1080 with no problem.

Only problem Im having is that Blur and Denoise causes crashes when I run downloaded videos. Works good on dvds though.

Hi,

I have Powerdvd 6, Nvidia Purevideo.

If i use dscailer will i lose out on quality ?

Hi,

I have Powerdvd 6, Nvidia Purevideo.

If i use dscailer will i lose out on quality ?
Nope, actually you'll gain a (small) fraction.
But for the moment you'll loose decoder video-deinterlacing, untill one of the next versions of Dscaler 5.
This however can be done in ffdshow.

Henrik

In ffdshow, codecs, enable raw video (choose "all supported").

I did that and still don't get processing for WMV9 videos. I enabled "all supported" for for Raw video in the ffdshow video decoder configuration.

The strange part is I think it used to process WMV9 files as well.

Do I need to configure the ffdshow vfw configuration as well?

update on my crash based on blur and denoise

installed the celtic druid's version of ffdshow and now I dont have any more crashes


Question. How to do interlacing on ffdshow?
Im going to try avisync next.

Hi,

I have Powerdvd 6, Nvidia Purevideo.

If i use dscailer will i lose out on quality ?

A lot of people(myself included) prefer the DScaler codec for the video. I have no experience with the PowerDVD codec so I cannot comment on this.

If you resize with FFDShow, you need to have the video coming in YV12 format before the resize. This is easily done by either setting DScaler to output in YV12 or putting the levels filter as the first in the list and setting it to 1.

If anyone hasnt given it a shot yet, its worthwhile spending the time - socio has packaged it all up and documented it on his site :-)

Cheers,
Bitey


Hi,

Could you provide the link? The one at freehost is dead for me.

Thanks!

Hi,

Could you provide the link? The one at freehost is dead for me.

Thanks!

Heres the LSF thread: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6990604#post6990604

All is within there..

Cheers,
Bitey

Has anyone applied the patch that strips out the Intel CPU check for enabling SSE/SSE2/SSE3 extensions to see if they get a speedup on intel-optimized FFDShow builds for the AMD64 processors?

Ozy

Has anyone applied the patch that strips out the Intel CPU check for enabling SSE/SSE2/SSE3 extensions to see if they get a speedup on intel-optimized FFDShow builds for the AMD64 processors?

Ozy

I'm putting my flame suit on because I would have expected this to be asked frequently despite searching both here and on the internet in general for an answer:

has anyone got any version of ffdshow to work with x64 yet?

thanks, and flame away... :)

i had zoom player set up with nvdvd and ffdshow and everything was running fine but i did a clean format because due to conflicting driver problems (old with new) i couldn't adjust gamma in my video card.

after the reformat gamma and everything worked great, but now no matter what i try ffdshow won't work. i've tried lotsa different releases and video drivers but nothing helps. When i load up zoom player with ffdshow the moment i load the dvd it freezes. If i try using windvd instead of nvdvd the it freezes but gives me a graphedit error. all runs fine without ffdshow running.

any idea what the problem could be? i need help :(

it could be a combination of what you are using, options and codecs/plugins.

I had graphedit errors when I used vr9 windowless, or when I used certain video codecs options, and so on.

Hey all... I just installed FFDShow on my HTPC in progress. I used Andy's latest build (my PC is a Pentium 4 2.53GHz), with the following settings:

Codecs: All disabled, except Raw Video which is set to "all enabled"
Output: YB12 only

Blur/NR: denoise3D, Luma 0.58, Chroma 0.97, Time 4:08, "FAST" checked
Resize: 2.50x, Lanczos 4, Luma 0.50, Chroma 0.24

I am using this with MediaPortal and the NVIDIA Decoder. When I play a DVD or a movie file, the OSD appears, so I know FFDShow is active. Further, when I use some of the sharpen settings, I can see some drastic changes in image quality (not exactly positive), so I know that settings are being applied. I am testing this all on my 17" LCD monitor - I don't have my HDTV yet, just a nice SDTV, so its too hard to mess with settings and such with the HTPC connected to the TV.

Here's my issue - I'm really not noticing much of an improvement in image quality. Maybe I'm just not a videophile enough to tell - but it doesn't seem that much different from using the NVIDIA decoder by itself. There's maybe some difference, but certainly nothing as drastic as some of the before and after screenies I've seen online.

So, my first question is.. why might this be? Further, do my settings look okay? Are there any changes I should consider making? The CPU seems okay so far, 65-75% in most cases, so I can afford to apply maybe one more filter if it will help. Upping resize much more won't do, as the image seems to become corrupt above 2.80 or so.

My second question is - is it good to use FFDShow with movie files (xvid, etc) and with recorded TV, or are these sources too low quality to benefit enough to bother?

Thanks in advance!

I'm putting my flame suit on because I would have expected this to be asked frequently despite searching both here and on the internet in general for an answer:

has anyone got any version of ffdshow to work with x64 yet?

thanks, and flame away... :)

I'm sure I'm not the first ;)

Hey all... I just installed FFDShow on my HTPC in progress. I used Andy's latest build (my PC is a Pentium 4 2.53GHz), with the following settings:

Codecs: All disabled, except Raw Video which is set to "all enabled"
Output: YB12 only

Blur/NR: denoise3D, Luma 0.58, Chroma 0.97, Time 4:08, "FAST" checked
Resize: 2.50x, Lanczos 4, Luma 0.50, Chroma 0.24

I am using this with MediaPortal and the NVIDIA Decoder. When I play a DVD or a movie file, the OSD appears, so I know FFDShow is active. Further, when I use some of the sharpen settings, I can see some drastic changes in image quality (not exactly positive), so I know that settings are being applied. I am testing this all on my 17" LCD monitor - I don't have my HDTV yet, just a nice SDTV, so its too hard to mess with settings and such with the HTPC connected to the TV.

Here's my issue - I'm really not noticing much of an improvement in image quality. Maybe I'm just not a videophile enough to tell - but it doesn't seem that much different from using the NVIDIA decoder by itself. There's maybe some difference, but certainly nothing as drastic as some of the before and after screenies I've seen online.

So, my first question is.. why might this be? Further, do my settings look okay? Are there any changes I should consider making? The CPU seems okay so far, 65-75% in most cases, so I can afford to apply maybe one more filter if it will help. Upping resize much more won't do, as the image seems to become corrupt above 2.80 or so.

My second question is - is it good to use FFDShow with movie files (xvid, etc) and with recorded TV, or are these sources too low quality to benefit enough to bother?

Thanks in advance!
Does your DVD player give you option to configure ffdshow on the fly?

I use Zoomplayer with vmr9 settings all around, then play a DVD and configure ffd while the dvd is running. That way I can see the changes live and optimize them to what I think its best.

With the HDTV you would see more of a difference

The first error I see is using croma sharpen. Push the Luma sharpen as high as you want to (I have it to the max), but don't use croma sharpen.

Mastiff:

Thanks for the info. I will push Luma up to the max (seems to be 1.20 in this build), and kill Chroma.

vapor0n:

Unfortunately it doesn't. For reasons of ease of use once the HTPC is fully set up im using MediaPortal's built in PlayDVD function. I could always use a trial of zoomplayer to fine tune FFDShow though, so I may look into that.

Thanks again, if anyone else has comments, keep them coming!

Ok, I just got my HTPC set up, and have watched a few DVDs with vlc. However, I want to give ffdshow a shot. I started reading this thread, and got totally confused. :confused:

If someone could give me some advice on a starting point that would be great. I don't mind tweaking myself, but I have no idea where to start.

I have an Athlon X2 3800+ and Geforce 6800 GS.

My first question is: Is this possible to do totally free? Or is Zoom Player or TheaterTek required? If it can be done free, what are good free players (If I understand correctly ffdshow won't work with vlc?)?

I read a bit about dscaler, but wasn't sure what version to grab....0.7 alpha? Is dscaler, ffdshow, and some dvd player all I need to get started?

If someone could tell me what all I should download, that would be great. Like I said, I don't have any problem playing with it, but I am not sure where to start.

Thanks in advance!