pmd918, I have two computers with close to identical setups (same everything except for that one's got a Radeon 9800, the other one's got a Radeon 7000, but I can still see the differences when I try out filters.

Mastiff,

Thanks for the info. I haven't really tried to optimize settings yet. I am more interested in getting the HTPC running smoothly, and then I'll start evaluating the picture.

I'm sure that there will be a tangible improvement in PQ, otherwise all of you wouldn't be wasting so much time talking about ffdshow.

I just haven't had the time/inclination to get into it. After all, I am currently stuck with my old 35" NTSC TV. I might be a bit more motivated if I had an HDTV to play with, but that's a few months away, unfortunately.

Thanks,
Phil

Me again -

Things have changed somewhat :-)

I bought a plasma today, will have it Friday, just in time for the Superbowl. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited. It's a Panny 42" EDTV, resolution is 852x480.

My new question is whether it's still a good idea to resize to a higher resolution in ffdshow and let the video card or TV scale it down.

Reading other posts, the latest recommendations for digital TVs seems to be to resize to native resolution of the display. But most displays that are discussed are genuine HD resolution. Since the 852 isn't divisible by 16, I can't do 1:1 pixel to pixel in ffdshow anyway. I am running Powerstrip, so I assume I can get the video card to give close to 1:1.

So the question is: what should I resize to in ffdshow, and what desktop resolution should I use?

Thanks,
Phil

Oddly enough the ffdshow OSD CPU load indicator on my HTPC does not show a constant number. Instead it jumps all the time so it is really difficult to see what it is actually showing. I have no problem with freezing or stuttering, but just curious why this happens?

That's what it normally does. It takes the load in realtime (or at leas close to it) while the Windows task manager is more of an approximate and very unreliable. The only time you'll see it standing still is when it's on 100 % all the time, and then you'll see stutter.

Does anyone have any tips/suggestions on how to set up ffdshow with WinDVD 5? I have a Samsung 61" and have download the Cinemaster codecs. I have PowerDVD 5.0 and Zoom Player but would prefer to use WinDVD5 as I've already got it configured for my remote.

Sorry Marc,
You cant use FFDShow with the WinDVD application. Only the filters in Zoom Player.

Owen

Owen,

Why do you recommend the 20030927 version over the later ones?

________
Rick

Originally posted by millerrj
Owen,

Why do you recommend the 20030927 version over the later ones?

________
Rick


Newer versions have known bugs (the much talked about resize green color bug) and some are also slower.
No new features have been added to date so there is no reason to use a newer version at this stage.


Owen

___________________________
The ffdshow resize-sharpen dude.

Originally posted by Owen
Newer versions have known bugs (the much talked about resize green color bug) and some are also slower.
No new features have been added to date so there is no reason to use a newer version at this stage.


Owen

___________________________
The ffdshow resize-sharpen dude.

little note the "add green" bug is added since the 05/2003 version, but is more visible in the 10-11/2003 version.

All the main bugs will be fixed in my upcoming release including that green.

Hi All,

Sorry to be too lazy thru the thread but could I get some input on what my settings should / could be?

Here is my system:

Athlon 2500 xp
Radeon 9600 128mb NP
1gb PC2700 Samsung DDR

I have my Htpc connected to my displays via VGA.
Displays are Infocus X1 and Monivision 30"

I have the PowerDVD, ATI & Sonic Filters.. Possibly the same filters, right?

I followed the media setup guide and installed the other filters via zoom instructions.

What settings would you recommend that would have the biggest impact on image quality? I read alot about FFDSHOW, VMR9 but get kinda lost with all the options in FFDSHOW.

There are so many threads to read and I am very short on time to get this stuff setup so any input would be greatly appreciated.

At the moment I am using VMR9, Sonic Filters, w/ zoomplayer. Input on FFDSHOW would be extremely helpful.



Thanks,

MM


Source material is HD and DVD.

oki first disable VMR9 and use overlay mode, or VMR7

Setting up and getting VMR9 working is kinda hard and for normal users it just make 2 things, makes your movie green if u output in yuv mode and get your image blured/smoothes. Its still kinda buggy also color controls dont work on many systems in VMR9 mode.

I still dotn understand why every1 want use VMR9 + ffdshow.. maybe it has some good stuff in hardware DXVA?

Overlay is faster than VMR9 and if u resize with ffdshow u also pass by the crappy overlay scaler, also if i compare vmr9 to overlay movies the colors look better in overlay mode...

Oki to ffdshow.

1: Level (set Input to 32 and 238, enable "full range", keep "..only lum.." disabled, set Gamme correction to 1.15-1.25 (test what u like) -> effect better looking colors and removes the green in bad encoded movies just try it.

2: Postprocessing (set to custom mode and disable all except "Dering Luma/Chrome" and "Mplayer" set the slider to 100 -> effect removes ringing without removing to much details (be sure everything else is disabled no nic no deblock !!)

3: Resize: (set to "Specify size" and enter 1440x730 aka just multiply your dvd (PAL/NTSC) x 2 or 1.5) rezise settings (set to Spline or Lanczos test what u like more or need lower cpu power, set L/C Sharpen to values beetwen 0.5-1.0 -> just what u like)
-> alternative scale to the native resolution of your output device!

Those only if u have enuff CPU power

4: Sharpen (asharp, high quality -> slider values (2/3/0)) -> if used lower the reziser sharpen values

5: Blur&NR (denoise3D, slider values(left to right) 2/2/3 and enable HQ
-> sometimes its needed to lower to 1.5/1.5 and 2 -> try play a movie with rain and enable disable to see the "bad" sideeffect

6: Noise: (new noise values from 10-25 work try if u like it

Filter direction ->Level->picture props->Postproc->Blur&NR->rezise->sharpen->noise(noise must be always last image filter)

hope this helps :)

thanks for the instructions....

just tried True Romance (1st gen DVD) the light scenes were very bright and drown out so I will adjust while during movie. Do adjustments take place real time?

thanks again,

mm


Of course I just put in Nemo and it looked fabulous. :)

for most filters chages are applyed on the fly yes

if stuff is to bright go to the overlay controls and try set brightness to 400-650 and contrast to 8500-9600
I had to change those values to pass the THX testpattern on my alien dvd.



For dvd playback u should not need/use postprocessing/denoise3d or noise filters.

Postprocessing will slightly reduce the visible details, just enable it with dvd rips/media files.

Denoise3d helps mainly with bad encoded divx files or very noisy dvd's.

Noise is already added to many dvd's, for rips it gets removed often to lower the bitusage, so we just add it again for rips later :)

Hi all,

I need some help regarding FFdshow installed with Theatertek.

I've installed everything correctly with this software during the last days.

For some reason, Theatertek crashes after playing it for about an hour with ffdshow.

The picture looks fine with ffdshow but I cannot understand what it is causing this problem.

I have a P4 2.0Ghz CPU which seems enough for this software. I am using the ffdshow version suggested in the Theatertek Forum.

Am I doing something wrong or maybe the software is not compatible with Theatertek.

Did anybody experienced the same problem?

I appreciate some feedback from you guys.

Thanks a lot.

Rgald

Maybe a conflict about hibernate or sleep state. Disable all screensavers and/or powercontrol.

Hi all.

There are new versions of Zoom Player, ffdshow, Intervideo and other stuff but still i can't understand how to use FFDShow for PAL (25fps) DVDs.

With NTSCs everything is fine... with Abstract filter.
But with PAL DVDs only BLACK screen :(...

Now i have AXP 2800+. Thanks Kyrill ;)

All the time i use NVDVD+ffdshow for it, but nvdvd use alot of cpu power, so i can't enable all post-processing i need.

How do you watch PAL dvds with ffdshow?

Madsly: That's an issue separate from ffdshow. You need to run both a region-free tool, and run separate registry keys for PAL and NTSC. In other words, search the forum for the registry keys, and each time you run a PAL DVD, you run the PAL registry, and run the NTSC registry when you run an NTSC DVD.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the most stable ffdshow version is still the 20030927 version. Also, the registry keys depend on which video filter you're using. I know there are ones for Sonic and WinDVD.

Hi MAdsly

glad you can play now : )

I have send the needed registry keys by mail. So check yr mailbox
K.

aargh.. Now I read you use NVDVD I ve sended the ones from cineplayer and WinDVD

Well open the keys with notepad (edit) and learn from the content what the difference is. then search for the nvdvd the entries in the registry and apply (copy) the same principle. If all is well, it should not be that dificult

Hi AndyIEG (and associates)

I want you to know how F U L L Y AND GRATEFULLY I am that you take the trouble and all those hours in developping a program which gives so much more enjoyment in watching my movies on the big screen. To be scharp or not to be scharp (with no or minimal artifacts) makes such a difference

I cannot imagine that I did not make such a statement to Blight some time ago and I am happy that I could do something in return for him by buying ZP.
If it would be possible to paypal you to donate some I would do it.

Thanks JBlacklow and Kyrill, now i understand what i did wrong with DXVAPAL!

Long time ago i made reg file with this key _only_ :
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\InterVideo\Common\VideoDec
and no HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key :(....

ps This is no topic question but still - How can i automatic this launch? and where do you talk about stuff like this ? i mean automatic settings (separate profiles ) for DVD movies?

Hey guys,
Thank you so much for all the helpful hints! I spent a whole afternoon a couple of weeks ago reading this entire thing, but I apologize if I missed a similar issue to this one previously on the thread....

I was able to configure ffdshow (92703 release) to work with TheaterTek 1.5.23. I had it using DScaler sharpen to 40, Gradual Denoise to 35, and resized to 960x540 (lanczos (sp?) - 0.4 luma sharpen, 0.15 chroma sharpen) in that order, raw video support selected under Codecs. I am also using DVDIdle Pro. After getting excellent results with the Spiderman DVD, I did not touch it for about a week.

Now whenever I start TT, it gets past the initial splash screen, but then I get a "Theater Tek has caused an error and will need to close" message. I have tried going back to the January 2003 release of ffdshow, as well as the latest and greatest (3/4/04), but no joy. The last thing I tried was re-installing Theater Tek completely.

I can get TT to work normally, only if I disabe ffdshow use from the registry, as explained earlier in a thread on the TT forums. When I click on the details for the error, under "mod name," I see "ffdshow.ax." Any ideas?

My system specs (briefly):
Athlon XP 2400
XP Pro SP1
Radeon 9600XT, res. to 1280x720
SB Audigy2
500MB RAM
Output to Samsung HLN507 through DVI.
No changes at all since last time TT worked with ffdshow.

Thanks in advance, and also for all the information in this thread to date.

Junfan

I'm having kind of a hard time configuring FDDShow (May 23 2003) with ZP.

Stuff:
X1, HTPC with Radeon 9600 Pro AIW, P4 2,4Ghz 533, 512MB ram

I did as told in the first post in this tread, but i chose 1440x1152(PAL). DVD doesn't run smootly though, and I tried "experimental" instead of "bicubic". -Didn't help!

I have also tried out lower resolutions (1024x720 works fine), but the picture seems to be smaller. :-( Which resolution do you recommend? PowerStrip is set to 800x600-62Hz. OK, right?

What should I do? Am I suppose to use several sharpen oppertunities as asharp and DScaler filter in addition?! CPU should be quick enough so I do not understand..

Maybe Bayas your cpu is not quick enough.
You have to adapt to what your rig is capable of. So if you notice things go much smoother with a less "big" resolution..

I cannot do with my AMD 3200+ clocked at 2.2 gig what you expect from yr setup, while AMDXP is (much) faster than Intel at the same clockspeed . (not rating)

I do not understand that yr picture is smaller at lesser resolution.
IS yr screen a pc monitor or a tv setup or a screen with a front projector?

OK, first post said "over 1,8Hgz' or something so I thought it would work.

Which resolution do you recommend? Remember, I use PAL only (with few exceptions). It seems to me, that vertical and horisontal doesn't always 'fit', if you see what I mean.

I have also noticed language text looking kind of ugly, is this because of resize? Do I have to choose between resize and texting?

Edit: I use InFocus X1 as I said, VGA. Doesn't quite understand what you mean...

I have no experience with yr projector.

you must setup in ffdshow under resize:
Aspect ratio: "no aspect ratio correction"

Then under zoom dvd mode you Rclick the mouse to get the many different "menu's"

choose "Wheel function" (is for the f(x) of the mouse wheel)
Zoom : choose height or width

choose
Aspect ratio: Disabled (fit to window)

Now you can play with the form of the picture with the mouse wheel

WHat is the max resolution of yr X1 projector (?)

What do you mean by: "texting"? Don't use that propertie of ffdshow

I'm new to ffdshow... I have read each and every message in this thread, and made notes. Then went to try it.

I have ffdshow 20030927
Recently purchased sonic filters
power dvd for audio filters
have added allowallrenderers dword=1 to registry for sonic
ATI 9000 with Catalyst 4.2
Zoomplayer Pro 3.2
Have configured ffdshow as per this thread
raw video=all
no aspect ratio correction
overlay mixer off in ffdshow
filters graph verified OK in ZP
playing PAL material from disk or ripped to HDD with DVD shrink
using overlay display mode

etc

without ffdshow all is fine, running 1280 x 720 on Panasonic L300

select ffdshow in ZP DVD config...

start play get green screen, then video plays, but screen is a patchwork of multiple rectangular images with broad scan line type disturbance all over them.

Doesn't matter if I have no processing selected in ffdshow, or say just resize.

Anyone been here and know the way out?

There is a PAL registry value you have to set as well, I can't remember it offhand, sorry.

Everything else seems correct - the green screen is the symptom of it assuming NTSC, so you need to set the PAL registry value in Sonic.

Start searching!

I believe the PAL registry entry is for the WinDVD filter. I haven't seen any mention of it for Sonic.

No, there's one for Sonic as well. If nobody else does, I will post it when I get home, in 3 hours or so.

It'll be documented near the start of this thread, only 780 replies ago or so...

I may have found it here...

Cinemaster & ffdShow (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=226357&highlight=ffdshow)

It's this

"HardCodeForPAL"=dword:00000001

0 for NTSC

yes you need this
take notepad
copy the coloured text
enter it in notepad
and give it a name ending in .reg ( i did: Sonic enable PAL.reg)
you will see the icon change .

WHen you change from NTSC to PAL you doubleclick the icon
when you change back use the other icon: Sonic NTSC.reg

Sonic enable pal.reg
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sonic\CineMaster DS DVD\2.5\VideoDecoder]
"AllowAllRenderers"=dword:00000001
"HardCodeForPAL"=dword:00000001

Sonic enable NTSC.reg
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sonic\CineMaster DS DVD\2.5\VideoDecoder]
"AllowAllRenderers"=dword:00000001
"HardCodeForPAL"=dword:00000000

Success

Originally posted by kyrill
I do not understand that yr picture is smaller at lesser resolution.
IS yr screen a pc monitor or a tv setup or a screen with a front projector?

With 1280x720 (works smooth), cars and people look kind of funny (not wide enough).

Witch resolution do you recommend for my setup (2,4Ghz)? X1=800x600. Powerstrip is set to 800x600@62Hz.

Remember, I use PAL 'only'! :-)

Hi

doubling the resolution to 1600x 1200 is too much for your cpu
So I would choose 1,5x --> 1200x 900 and your video card will scale it back to 800x600.

The advantage is that the ffdshow will do the signal processing in the higher resolution domain and this will give less perceptable unwanted digital artefacts. As windows/videodrivers have a standard 800x600 resolution, I am not sure why you need Powerstrip.
For Pal I would choose 75hz and not 62 hz. But the fun is in the trying

Powerstrip@62Hz trigges X1 to give the best picture! DLP-colourwheel(what's the english word?) increses in speed :-)

720x1,5 = 1080
576x1,5 = 864

1200/720 = 1,6667
900/576 = 1,5625

Sure, 1200x900 ?

Ah I see what you mean

Do you take multiple numbers of the dvd resolution or of the X1?
I choose the X1 with its 800x600 resolution
If you take one, you will "loose" the other.

Try out what looks the best. Maybe multiplying the dvd resolution will look better.

Originally posted by kyrill
Ah I see what you mean

Do you take multiple numbers of the dvd resolution or of the X1?
I choose the X1 with its 800x600 resolution
If you take one, you will "loose" the other.

Try out what looks the best. Maybe multiplying the dvd resolution will look better.

Doesn't quite follow you on that one.. I read that PAL DVD is 720x576. You recommended 1,5x, therefore 1080x864. But you said 1200(which is 1,6667x)x900(which is 1,5625x) , so I'm a bit confused! You see?

don't you see a "link" between the resolution of the X1 (800x600) and my proposal of 1200x 900?

Got it! :)

But, why not 1,5 PAL DVD resolution? Perhaps I'm stupid now, but I don't see why I don't should do this instead...

1600x1200 is for my 2.2 gig cpu too much

when you watch dvd in that resolution (first on the PC, for finding out how much CPU load you have)
push CTR+ALT+DELETE altogether and then go to tab "performances" you see roughly how much the "load" for yr cpu.
I use a ctraltdelete average of 90% unless I see some freezing or stottering of the movie. then I go lower.In fdshow you can activate it too but it "looks"very nervous. On the other hand it is more truthful

As filters I use
1) picture processing (for the rgb gamma correction)
2) resize and aspect 1280x900
3) no aspect ratio corection
4) Spline
5) Luma and chroma at 1.6 (vary from .8 to 1.6 depending on the movie's subjective grain . The more grain, the less )
6) Sharpen Asharp default
6) Blur and NR Gradual Denoise 40 I use the may 23 05 2003 version)

Originally posted by kyrill

As filters I use
1) picture processing (for the rgb gamma correction)
2) resize and aspect 1280x900
3) no aspect ratio corection
4) Spline
5) Luma and chroma at 1.6 (vary from .8 to 1.6 depending on the movie's subjective grain . The more grain, the less )
6) Sharpen Asharp default
6) Blur and NR Gradual Denoise 40 I use the may 23 05 2003 version)

Thanks!

Which settings in picture processing?
What's Spline?
Asharp: checked 'high quality block filtering'?

Originally posted by Bayas
Thanks!

Which settings in picture processing? the rgb gamma as you can see ;) But my settings are very personal and work for a LCD projector like a D-ILA. Very very different from yr X1. So you will find eventually different settings
This will make the picture showing more shadows in the dark but not too much brighten what is already clear. the settings are unique for each setup. You have to try.
What's Spline? you need to choose a filter method under resize, settings. Spline is the best but very cpu consuming.
Asharp: checked 'high quality block filtering'? yes

Picture looks kind of stupid in 1200x900, not wide enough! :-(

bayas
what are yr settings in ZP?

Try Rclick mouse on ZP while in dvd mode
choose Aspect ratio "Source Aspect Ratio"

my first suggestion : Disabled ( fit to windows) makes only sense if you correct the picture with yr mousewheel.
Since you don't do that
ZP needs the above settings

And if you do this, what happens?

I see what you mean now! :-)

But with zoom I loose some part of the picture on left and right side. What do you do about this?

Should I choose the automatic way or what?

Thanks guys for the help, I'll try it tomorrow night...


Originally posted by kyrill
yes you need this
take notepad
copy the coloured text
enter it in notepad
and give it a name ending in .reg ( i did: Sonic enable PAL.reg)
you will see the icon change .

WHen you change from NTSC to PAL you doubleclick the icon
when you change back use the other icon: Sonic NTSA.reg

Sonic enable pal.reg
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sonic\CineMaster DS DVD\2.5\VideoDecoder]
"AllowAllRenderers"=dword:00000001
"HardCodeForPAL"=dword:00000001

Sonic enable NTSC.reg
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sonic\CineMaster DS DVD\2.5\VideoDecoder]
"AllowAllRenderers"=dword:00000001
"HardCodeForPAL"=dword:00000000

Success

OK, finally it works. BUT it wasn't easy.

Added the registry stuff for Sonic PAL. Now had a pin connection error between sonic and ffdshow. Spent an hour trying everything, removing & reinstalling ffdshow etc etc. Almost gave up. Last thing I did was to click on the button at the bottom of the "Supported Codecs" list, with Raw Video highlighted. That button says "Re-register to selected only"

After that it worked. WTF? Zoomplayer already reported everything was registered fine.

I have spent 10 years running a small IT company doing support for business clients and dealing with all sorts of tricky stuff. Installing ffdshow for zoomplayer has to be the biggest PITA I have ever experienced.

To the developer, yeah I know its free, and its great. But do us all a favour. Give us an install option at setup to install and register for Zoomplayer, or a button in the program interface to do the same. The whole reason this long thread exists is because its so damned obscure.

Whew!

And I thought kiwis were supposed to be gentle, calm and polite... :D I did fight a bit with it as well, but not that much. Believe me I have had a lot bigger problems with crappy OS in my time (from Win95 through to Me - they're all shxtty). None of them where free. Not to mention the early drivers to the Radeon cards! Scary stuff. As long as ffdshow gives the great results it does on a CRT projector I can forgive the lacking user friendliness. In fact I prefer that they spend their time making the functions better rather than making it easier to configure and use. You want a plug and play system, buy a standalone DVD player. :cool:

Thats alot of vinyl stacked up on those shelves...

In my HT, you mean? Yes, I was a DJ for almost ten years, so I have quite a few albums and maxi singles.

I seem to be having issues with my Aspect Ratio settings despite following the previous posts in this thread.

I have enabled "no aspect ratio correction" in ffdshow resize settings as suggested, and ZoomPlayer AR is set to "source".

I would like to achieve maximum automation when playing a video - whether it be an Xvid or DVD.

So, when I want to play an Xvid, myHTPC sends the command to start Zoom Player in 'ZOOM MODE' using the following command line params:
/Queue:%files| /Queue:|"||% /Z:1 /PLAY /Q

But, for some reason I still have to use my mouse-wheel (or remote setup via girder) to manually zoom-in to make the picture fill the screen.
Shouldn't ZoomPlayer / ffdshow automatically get the picture to fill the width?

I have also tried using "keep original aspect ratio" in ffdshow resize settings - this correctly makes the image-width fill the screen-width, but unfortunately I have to set the AR manually with the mouse-wheel or a 'custom' AR.

So basically, if I use one of these settings I get the AR working but have to manually adjust the Zoom; if I use the other setting then vice versa.

I have a dual-monitor setup and want to be able to play my movies on either...
Monitor 1: Loewe CRT TV with VGAmodule via VGA. Desktop set to 856x480p @60Hz
Monitor 2: NEC HT1000 Projector via DVI. Desktop set to 1024x768p @60Hz

If it helps, I'm using hyperthreaded P2.4c 800FSB, 512Mb memory @2,2,3,6,8, Asus P8P800Deluxe mobo, ATI Radeon 9600XT, WinXPProSP1, ZoomPlayer v3.30, VMR9 (not 'overlay' because ffdshow causes frequent hangs on dual-monitor setups)

My FFDSHOW 20040304 settings...
1) Codecs: Xvid libavcodec, Raw Video YUY2
2) Dscaler filter FLT_sharpness.dll, 66
3) resize to 1024x768 (my projector native resolution)
- no aspect ratio correction
- lanczos
- param 10
- luma/chrm sharp 1.5
4) Blur & NR Grad Denoise 40

Thanks for your time,
Marc.

-bump-
So basically, if I use one of these settings I get the AR working but have to manually adjust the Zoom; if I use the other setting then vice versa.
Is noone else out there experiencies the same as me?

Is this manual zoom/AR procedure THE way everyone sets up their DVDs/Xvids/DivXs at the start of play? If this is 'the norm' then I can stop worrying. ;)


Marc.

I just leave FFDShow set at "no aspect ratio correction" and use either 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio in Zoom Player and have no problems.
I don’t play DIVX or Xvid video that has had the black bars cropped off and therefore is in some strange aspect ratio.

Owen,
____________________________
The FFDShow resize sharpen dude.

Owen, Thanks for your input. Seeing as you and most people probably just play DVDs with a standard resolution, I'm sure this setting works well for you.

But what do the rest of you do when playing vids encoded in different resolutions (DivX, Xvid, DVDs, etc.) ?

Marc.

Originally posted by mholgate
Owen, Thanks for your input. Seeing as you and most people probably just play DVDs with a standard resolution, I'm sure this setting works well for you.

But what do the rest of you do when playing vids encoded in different resolutions (DivX, Xvid, DVDs, etc.) ?

Marc.

I did not read all the latest post's, but is this question about ffdshow messes the AR up in resize mode? Aka u resize to 1024x768 (4:3) while the org. has a 16:9 AR and after the resize the movie play's in 4:3? Wich only happens in media playback mode of xvid/divx not dvd or anamorphic encodes.

If so the next ffdshow version has this finaly fixed with "use org. AR settings" it's working again and use the correct org. AR of the movie after resize, so no more need to set the AR in zoomplayer manualy.

I did not read all the latest post's, but is this question about ffdshow messes the AR up in resize mode?

...sure is!

If so the next ffdshow version has this finaly fixed with "use org. AR settings" it's working again and use the correct org.

...if it solves this issue, then.... I can't wait!

Thanks,

Marc.

Will the settings in FDDShow effect the picture in any way considering 'speed'? Do you have to set latenzy on the sound?

I have a question a lot along the lines of mholgate's.

I use ZP and ffdshow to play Xvid movies to my 27' analog TV via TV-Out. I currently have the TV-Out from my GF4 set to 720x480 which produces quite a bit of overscan but I get around this by having myHTPC open ZP, which uses .df files to set the size and AR on the TV

EX (for 2.35:1)
SetAspectRatio(0)
SetPlacement(28,100,672,256)

(for 4:3)
SetAspectRatio(0)
SetPlacement(28,2,672,448)


This works great, but my question is: Should I set the Resize in ffDshow to 673x450 and just leave it there? If so will this produce a lower quality picture when I watch a 2.35:1 vs. resetting ffDshow's resize to 673x258?

I would prefer to just leave ffDshow at one setting then have ZP set the right preset when it opens vs. having to manually set ffdshow anytime I switch aspect ratios.

Originally posted by Bayas
Will the settings in FDDShow effect the picture in any way considering 'speed'? Do you have to set latenzy on the sound?

No not normally.
Heavy FFDShow processing uses a great deal of CPU power and can cause dropped frames and sound sync issues.

Regards,

Owen

Suntan,
Unless you want to resize up to improve quality, or use resize sharpening you should not use it.

Regards,

Owen

What? Ffdshow using Resize messes up the AR. Any size of Resize that I use in Ffdshow only plays back the movie in a bordered boxed window in the middle of the screen. Resize is completely unusable on mine and my buddies system. Now your all saying that the next version of Ffdshow will fix this huge problem?

stylinlp: Are you using ZoomPlayer? If so, you might not have the AR in Zoom set to "Source" or "Derived". I've been using the ZP+ffdshow with resize combo for almost 7 months now, and the only AR problem I had was either with another media player (i.e. WMP didn't correct AR for mpg and avi), incorrect settings for ZP, and incorrect AR correction in Resize. Try switching to either the baseline ffdshow (09272003) or the most recent alpha.

Nope I use Theater Tek. I started a thread on this last week and no one was able to help beyond wanting more information. I need to write down all the settings that the OSD displays in Ffdshow while using it at each resolution then post the results on here to further track this problem down. I hope ffdshow fixes this with next patch.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=3539379#post3539379

JBlacklow,

What video format do you play in ZP - DVD's only, or DVDs AND AVI's too? (Xvids, etc.)

Marc.

About lanczos resize and parameter, do we really know what this does ?
Should I use parameter default or 10 ?? :confused:

@owen

I do want to use resize and sharpening as I find it does help. I have found that ffdshow with Lancoz to resize to the output res gives better pq than without.

However, before I embark on a lengthy quest to check many different types of movies to see if changing the ffdshow settings everytime the AR of the next movie is different gives better results than just leaving ffdshow at the max res of the TV-out and letting ZP adjust the AR, I wanted to get peoples opinions.

-Suntan

Theater Tek user. Resize using Lancos in ffdshow 2004 March version doesn't work. Will the next version of ffdshow fix this?

I've posted threads on this before with no results.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/show...379#post3539379

Last night I followed up and wrote down the AR on screen numbers.
In ffdshow I have RESIZE at 1280x720 with LANCOS, Chroma Sharpen 1.0
Luma Sharpen 2.0
CORRECT CAPTURE ASPECT CONTROL in RESIZE is set at NONE.
The 1.85:1 Anormophic movie plays as a small window inside my 1.85:1 screen. In TT under the EDIT menu the OSD reads:
W: 1440
H: 960
AR: 1.50:1
LOCK ASPECT RATIO is UNCHECKED.

If I stretch the movie (in TT) to fit the sides of the screen the picture is zoomed in(very poor resolution, soft looking):
AR: 1.85:1
W: 2650
H: 1492

If I turn OFF ffdshow that movie plays perfectly fitting the screen:
AR 1.50:1
W: 1440 H: 960

PowerStrip is set at 1440x960 this whole time. If I resize in ffdshow to 1440x960 the image on the projector screen is even SMALLER!

In case some of you havnt read my previous thread:
WInXP, AMD 2000, 256meg, RAdeon 9600se (Cat 4.2), PowerStrip (Newest), ffshow (march2004), DIrectX 9.0b,
Electrohome Marquee 8500 crt projector, 1.85:1 AR screen.

Originally posted by stylinlp
What? Ffdshow using Resize messes up the AR. Any size of Resize that I use in Ffdshow only plays back the movie in a bordered boxed window in the middle of the screen. Resize is completely unusable on mine and my buddies system. Now your all saying that the next version of Ffdshow will fix this huge problem?

Make certain that “No aspect ratio correction” is checked under “Resize and aspect” in FFDShow.
Even if you are not enabling resize, this with stuff up your aspect ratio and give the problem you describe.


Owen
_____________________________
The FFDSHow resize - sharpen dude.

What's the recommended FDDShow version now a days?

I currently use 20030523, any point in updating?

“No aspect ratio correction”
I know. Thats the only advice I've been getting. SOmething is wrong here.
From the very beginning I've done that. I gave up and tried changing my AR in ffdshow and did get the image to fit the screen but at the expense of ALOT of cpu power. Thats why I started that other thread. I desperately need help! ;(
Ffdshow does NOT work.

Suntan,
To get the best out of resize and sharpen you should set FFDShow to resize to double DVD resolution or you desktop resolution, whichever is the GREATER.
People using standard TV out (Svideo) should still resize up to double DVD res and let the video card resize back down to desktop res for display.

If your CPU can’t handle double DVD resolution then just resize up as much as you can get away with. Try 1.5 DVD resolution. The res will need to be divisible by 16 for FFDShow to accept it.


Owen
_____________________________
The FFDSHow resize - sharpen dude.

Yes Owen. Thats why I choose 1280x720. Thats 1.5x. My desktop resolution is 1440x960 which is 2x. Unfortunately, my AMD 2000 can't handle Resize of 1440x960 but can handle 1280x960.

I need help with my screen size problem. It doesn't fit the screen. Not unless I use the AR control of Ffdshow to do it. Its like its not passing the video on to my Radeon video card for further resizing. Ffdshow is playing a movie at 1280x720 in the middle of a 1440x960 desktop. This is crazy. I need help.

Stylinlp,

The above post was intended for Suntan.

As for your problem, I frankly have no idea what is going on, sorry.

Does the same problem show on a PC monitor as on the projector?

Owen

Im not sure. I guess I can find out today. Thank you for the help.

Owen,

I understand the idea of scaling up to 2x with lancoz then doing sharpening then allowing vid card to scale down. Mine is a little different question.

I have Xvid movies that I have converted from my DVDs. Their default resolutions vary as I crop out all of the black bars, but for a 4:3 movie I have ZP output it to a res of roughly 672x448 (which fills my TV screen with almost no overscan when I feed the TV a 720x480 60hz signal from the GF4) when I want to watch a 2.35:1 movie I have ZP output it to a res of roughly 672x288 (which gives me full width on the TV with almost perfict AR) ZP does this automatically for my because I have set up a simple .cf file for each movie. I use vmr9 fwiw.

My question is (assuming my comp can handle it) should ffdshow be outputting 1344x896 (for 4:3 movies 2*672x2*448) then switch ffdshow manually to output 1344x576 (for 2.35:1 movies 2*672x2*288)?

Or just leave ffdshow set to 1344x896 all the time?

Will there be a noticable difference?

Thanks a lot

i have tried my zp3 + cineplayer video + powerdvd audio + ffdshow,but it just didn't work out ,can you show me how to make them work step by step,i will appreciate it very much.

Originally posted by coldhill
i have tried my zp3 + cineplayer video + powerdvd audio + ffdshow,but it just didn't work out ,can you show me how to make them work step by step,i will appreciate it very much.

I have exactly this running... read up a few pages and see my questions and answers. I got it working eventually.

Does anybody know how to make ffdshow work ONLY with TheaterTek? Widows Media Player always crashes when I try to play Xvid/Divx files. I've tried disabling the relevant codecs in ffdshow configuration, but it has not worked. I am using the latest version (3/24). Thanks,
Junfan

You can use Zoomplayer to lower the filter merit of ffdshow so it won't load with mediaplayer.

It's in the zoomplayer filters section.

Ok, I had to go to Theater Tek forum to find out what is up with this bad Aspect Ratio problem that the march ffdshow has. Sure enough its messed up. I just confirmed with two other users that Resize in ffdshow does not work properly. I guess there is a new ffdshow verrsion out and I hope to god they fixed this problem in that version.

The other users of TT had to revert to January alpha version 20030103 to get Aspect Ratio's working like normal again.

I didn't have any problems with resize in the 20030927 version.

stylinlp,
FWIW, I finally seem to have gotten TT to work with the 3/25 release, but ran into the aspect ratio deal. In my case, "no aspect ratio correction" in ffdshow solved it, don't know why it doesn't for you. Try the 3/25 release, if you haven't already?
Mark_A_W, thanks so much, I'll give this a try as soon as I get home.
Thanks guys,
Junfan

THank Junfan. I will try 20040325 tonight. I think im using the 1st one in March. 20040307. SOmething like that. Hope it fixes things! :)

If so the next ffdshow version has this finaly fixed with "use org. AR settings" it's working again and use the correct org.

Just upgraded to the latest build (20040325) and it appears the Aspect Ratio problem is now solved for AVI's!
I am now using "keep original aspect ratio" despite Owen's suggestion stating otherwise. AFAIK I need to use this option as I play AVI's with differing resolutions and AR's in ZoomPlayer.

Marc.
-----
see my previous post above for my current setup.

Originally posted by mholgate
Just upgraded to the latest build (20040325) and it appears the Aspect Ratio problem is now solved for AVI's!
I am now using "keep original aspect ratio" despite Owen's suggestion stating otherwise. AFAIK I need to use this option as I play AVI's with differing resolutions and AR's in ZoomPlayer.

Marc.
-----
see my previous post above for my current setup.

yes like i sayed for media playback "keep org. AR" should now always used with the 20040325 version.
The AR problem just happend with resizing to resolutions wich did not match the org. AR/resolution. But since most used it only for dvd playback and choosed like 1,5x or 2x org resolution for the resize the AR was the org. AR. Many also used the player to set standard AR like 2.35 or 1.85 wich work if "no AR correction" in ffdshow was set. But for crazy dvd rips with none standard AR the AR got messed.

A little notice to all ffdshow versions after 09/2003 those version's got a chroma rounding fix in the mplayer resizer wich solved the add "greenish" bug and produce a correct colored and resized image. For all version's before 09/2003 u can add red/blue in the picture prop's or just set the green to 97% as a fix, wich isnt alway's 100% correct.
But this fix introduced a new chrome bug in the resizer... wich is only visible if u resize to resolutions wich arnt direct multipler's of the org., for example i resize all to my desktop resolution wich is not a direct multipler for sure and i got that bug always (looks like vertical chroma banding artefacts) but this can be fixed by using the "bicublin" mode. In spline or lanczos mode the bug is often visible in flat colored areas (wall's/door's).

PS: the next ffdshow version will also include a fix to solve choppy playback in overlay modes for some files/player's

Continuing with my evaluation of ffdshow for improvement on DVD replay I played with the Dscaler flt_sharpness.dll filter.

I am surprised it has been recommended in the past. It must only be useful with substandard or compromised displays? On my L300U PJ, watching an indie film shot on 16mm, the grain structure, which is part of the "experience" with films like this, was turned into a sort of crosshatch pattern with the dscaler filter operating. It looked much better without it.

Now I'm using resize only, with a small amount of luma sharpening.

Update: Well it worked! I updated my ffdshow version to 20040325 and I no long have any Resize Apsoect Ratio issues. FInnally! Thanks all for the help.
Resize of 1280x720 Lancoz with Denoise Filter at 40 looks MUCH better and sharper than without using ffdshow. Im a happy camper untill I can upgrade my hardware to get a Resize of 1440x960 :)

Wow, great thread. I've been avoiding using ffdshow and zoomplayer for a while now as I just couldn't seem to put together the scheme of things on how to make it work.

After reading this thread, I not only understand what is actually being accomplished using these peices of software, but I actually got them installed and working for the first time.

I'm using the windvd drivers for audio and video right now as I have windvd 5 platinum installed and that's the dvd player I've been using up until now. The quality is ok and the program is easy, but once you start playing with this stuff, the search for quality begins. (I don't need to tell anyone on this forum that!)

After setting up ffdshow to resize and sharpen as per the thread's instructions, my comp would play for a few seconds and the picture would just freeze with the audio still playing in the background. Processor at 96-100 percent. I figured this was too heavy for my now old p4 1.8 so I switched the resampling to "experimental" and the load went down to about 76- 85 percent average.

The first thing I noticed? AMAZING improvement in picture quality!!!!! I can't beleive how sharp and defined the image is!

This is just the beginning, I fear now I will spend more time playing around with picture quality than actually watching movies now. Can't wait to try it on my projector.

Thanks for a great thread everyone! very informative for newbs like me. Another zoomplayer convert in the works here I think.....

One question: Can zoomplayer be used to adjust the color/brightness/contrast of the picture like many of the regular software dvd players? WinDVD has one nice point and click feature called "cinema enhancement" that really improves the picture's color and overall "pizazz" on my projector. If I could use all this and still turn on that feature I think I would be set for movie heaven haha.



Cheers all
paulblack

Gazzagazza,

As you have found Descaler sharpness, like most filter works work differently with various displays and source video. What works well for one display can look dreadful on another. Thats why there can be no “Best setting” for FFDShow. Only the user can judge what works best for there display and personal taste with the source video they are playing.
Descaler sharpness would defiantly not be a wise choice for grainy video or with some displays.

Stylinlp,

You may want to try Denoise3d. It is more effective and has less side affects then “Gradual denoise”


Paulblack,

Sounds like you are not using the Abstract DMO filter to prevent freezing with WinDVD filters in Zoom Player. Do a search.

Color, Brightness Contrast etc can be adjusted in Zoom Player.
Just right click in the video window and select “Color controls”.

Regards,

Owen

___________________________
The FFDShow resize-sharpen dude.

Has anyone any definitive info for CPU usage vs ffdshow version?

I have a 2.4GHz P4 w 512M RAM. With just resize to 960 x 540 (projector / desktop res) I get CPU usage in ffdshow onscreen stats of 50-75% average and peaks hitting 100%. This is Lanzcos and with bicubic its not much lower. I cannot run any other processing, ie any denoise etc without choking it.

Ok, thanks to a great and HUGE thread, I have this thing working. FFDShow is doing its thing, the OSD is working and reporting the size, the windvd filters I wanted are working as well. All seems well except that zoomplayer is reporting that my resolution is 720x540! Does it just always say that? My ffdshow resize is 1440x960 and my desktop resolution is 1024x768 (which is also my projector's native resolution.) FFdshow is properly reporting in the OSD the 1440x960 resolution. So is there some setting I'm missing in zoomplayer to allow it to display the dvd at my native resolution??????

Sooooo close here haha. Can't seem to find an option and don't want to mess up what I've already got working well here. Please tell me if this is normal and then it won't bother me. I certainly don't like seeing that 720x540 there after all this effort!!!!

thanks all
paulblack

Whew! What a post, took me 2 weeks to get through all of it (off and on obviously). Owen you are awesome. Good to see you're still hanging around here after some nasty disrespect and endless repeated answers. I also appreciate your hard work and worthwhile input.

Before I dig in (got some other PC issues to work out still) I think this is an easy question and one I kept thinking about but was never really addressed (I hope it hasn't after my comments above:)).

When you're running Zoomplayer with ffdshow, do you click on the run in Full screen mode, or does the resize in ffdshow adjust the size of the video window and you're left with a floating window you can still move around. So you'll always have a border around the video window, surely this isn't what everyone's doing is it?

Cheers,

Scott

I start with full screen mode (which is correct for me since I resize to the desktop reslution of 1024x768). Then I move the picture up to the top of my screen and pull the screen up to the botton of the picture. If you use another resolution than your desktop resolution, you will need to either shrink or blow up the picture with the appropriate hotkeys in Zoom. That's all there is to it.

Thanks for the kind words Scott.
I commend you for reading the entire thread. It is now very long and full of repeated info as you have found but it’s the only way to really get a good insight into the workings of FFDShow.

Now to your question.
You would normally use full screen mode but some people may want to zoom in to better fill the screen hight with wide aspect (2.35:1) DVD's.

FFDShow will resize the video to the resolution you set and then send it to your player. If the player is using full screen output the video card will scale the video to full desktop resolution, or not scale if the FFDShow resize res is the same as the desktop resolution.
If the player is displaying in a window the video card must scale the video down to fit inside the window and therefore it is lower resolution then the desktop and lower then the FFDShow resize resolution.

I hope that clears things up for you.

Owen
___________________________
The FFDShow resize-sharpen dude.

Yes, that makes sense, I understand now.

Thanks guys.

I've followed all of these directions to the "T". I am able to view movies with out any error messages or anything.

My problem is that I don't notice any difference when I make adjustments in FFDSHOW no matter how radical. It leads me to believe that I may not have something cofigured right. I registered the graph that was posted and everything appears fine. Shouldn't I notice quality differences as I move the different sliders back and forth?

Thanks

Turn on the OSD (On screen display) in ffdshow config and it will display what is happening, if it is working.


Originally posted by Chuckaroo
I've followed all of these directions to the "T". I am able to view movies with out any error messages or anything.

My problem is that I don't notice any difference when I make adjustments in FFDSHOW no matter how radical. It leads me to believe that I may not have something cofigured right. I registered the graph that was posted and everything appears fine. Shouldn't I notice quality differences as I move the different sliders back and forth?

Thanks

Changes don't take effect untill the movie is STOPPED and then STARTED again. I thought it was all done on the fly?

I am able to get Dolby Digital with playback in POWER DVD...I can't seem to enable it in ZOOM PLAYER....Is there something I am overlooking??

Originally posted by Chuckaroo
I am able to get Dolby Digital with playback in POWER DVD...I can't seem to enable it in ZOOM PLAYER....Is there something I am overlooking??

While DVD is playing in Zoomplayer right click and go to 'filter properties' then 'Cyberlink audio decoder' and make sure 'use SPDIF' is selected. Works for me.

Or get the freeware AC3 filter. It works better when it comes to microstutter as well. And most changes should come on the fly, but not if the movie is paused. It has to be playing. Older versions of ffdshow won't change the resize on the fly, though.

What is the sound quality of this like? PowerDVD is supposed to be the best sound of the commercial ones (I use analog out from a Revo). Does AC3 filter measure up?

Whats its status regards Dolby's intellectual property? I assume it infringes it? (Not that I am concerned)


Originally posted by Mastiff
Or get the freeware AC3 filter. It works better when it comes to microstutter as well. And most changes should come on the fly, but not if the movie is paused. It has to be playing. Older versions of ffdshow won't change the resize on the fly, though.

Sorry, I assumed that you used SPDIF pass-through. But I would say that it's worth trying. As for copyright I don't know, but this is an official project, so I would guess that they have it in the clear.

Hey thanks guys. I just downloaded the Sonic dvd decoder pack and couldn't get it to work with ffdshow. This is exatly what I needed. I Just needed the ntsc fix. You guys are awesome.


Originally posted by kyrill
yes you need this
take notepad
copy the coloured text
enter it in notepad
and give it a name ending in .reg ( i did: Sonic enable PAL.reg)
you will see the icon change .

WHen you change from NTSC to PAL you doubleclick the icon
when you change back use the other icon: Sonic NTSC.reg

Sonic enable pal.reg
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sonic\CineMaster DS DVD\2.5\VideoDecoder]
"AllowAllRenderers"=dword:00000001
"HardCodeForPAL"=dword:00000001

Sonic enable NTSC.reg
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sonic\CineMaster DS DVD\2.5\VideoDecoder]
"AllowAllRenderers"=dword:00000001
"HardCodeForPAL"=dword:00000000

Success

hi all

i use dvdp component out to dscaler then to powerstrip and to projector

i wonder,can it be done by ffdshow >dscaler>powerstrip>projector

because ffdshow can convert to higher resolution right?
after it convert dvd to 1080i/p to dscaler >powerstrip convert to 960*540>projector,would this get better image?\
btw what is zoomplayer?
thanks

OMG.. Was this Thread long..

So now I got everything up and running. I have downloaded the newest ffdshow dated 05-apr-2004.

But when resizing to more than 1024x768 and with a-sharp on, movie will stutter.

Which version of ffdshow would be the fastes for me? And where to get?

Using Zoomplayer with WinDVD 5.0 on WinXP

AMD XP 2000
256 MB PC2700
Radeon 9000pro
Infocus LP750

Im running FFDShow version 23 May 2003.

I have tried the latest, initially using my graph (for DTV captures) it worked but DVD playback would crash Zoomplayer (ver 3.31). I tried again and now i get an "exception" error in Zoomplayer so im back to the version above.

I orignally was using a simple "unsharp" filter before reading, well most of this massive thread :)

I've tried a resize to 1440 x 1080 (we run PAL here) with a denose (15) after.

The only way i can get it to run smooth is with some other "effect" happening before the resize. Ie if i run "unsharp" at 1 (or anyother sharpness for that matter) then it plays smooth. Due to this is obviously not a CPU issue as in running a effect before im adding CPU. Obviously i'd prefer not to have to run the "unsharp" before the resize, even though set to 1 it probably has near nil effect.

CPU is 90%, i think without the "before sharp" and just the resize and denose it would be lower? That is i can work it out.

Any ideas would be great

PowerDVD 5 codec is used
Athlon 2400+
A7V333 Asus MB
1GB 333mhz
9600 Pro

PS: I read a while back i this thread that Power DVD 5 with FFDShow does not work with PAL!. Seems to for me.

Greetings Spoonfed,
I recommend you try the 25th March 2004 version.
1440x1080 is an unusual resolution. Is that your desktop resolution?
Normally you should resize to your desktop res or double DVD res (1440x1152 for PAL) which ever is the greater.
If you are using Gradual denoise after resize you should be using a higher setting like 30-40. 15-25 would be appropriate for use before resize.
Resizing to 1440x1152 with Gradual denoise after is a big ask for an Athlon 2400. If you cant go that high you can try something like 1024x768 or what ever you can run smoothly

I can’t help with Power DVD as I have never used it in FFDShow.

Owen,
____________________________
The FFDShow resize sharpen dude.

Owen,

Thanks for the input. I will try and source the version you recommend and see how I go. At least I can go back to my current version after the others don't work without a problem.

1440 x 1080 was a mistake on my part, but 1440 x 1152 with the additional flitering is a little to much for the 2400+, the res you recommend is fine.

My desktop resolution is 1024 x 576 feeding an Infocus X1 which is 800 x 600 native.

The scaling in the X1 is very good, prior to FFDShow there was no noticable degredation running 1024 x 576 (non native), but this may have changed so i'll test.

Thanks

Owen, where do you see the 3/25/04 version? It's not on sourceforge.

It can be found at http://athos.leffe.dnsalias.com/ along with all other recent releases.

Thanks man! :)

That one still gives me the same error, oh well i'll stay with the 03
version, seems to work

I found that the 2004-04-05 version is a bit faster for me. It allows me to use A-Sharp HQ, NR and resize to 1440x960 Lanzcos in that order.
This will use 95-99% CPU on my XP2000, if I change any of these filter settings movie/sound will stutter.

Thank you everyone for so much useful information. I have been playing with ffdshow for the past week now and it's going great-guns. Couldn't have done it without all of the posts here.

I have a question though! (before you ask no I have not read them ALL). Do the chroma and luminance sharpen settings in the resize area work if you have resize at the desktop resolution?

There were some posts earlier in the forum that suggested that these settings only come into play if you have your graphics card downscaling your ffdshow resized resolution.

Currently I am having ffdshow upscale to 1280*720 which is what the graphics card and display are running at. There's not enough headroom in my pc (amd2600+ with 256mb on radeon 6200) to go any higher - the result is so much stutter that It's hard to test the increase in these settings. From what I can tell they don't have an effect if you are running ffdshow resize at the same res as your desktop - is this correct?

Thanks in advance
Rod

Resize sharpening works as long as you are resizing to a higher resolution then the source.
Double DVD res or greater is best but 1280x720 will work fine.
Resize sharpening is very subtle on some displays so you may no notice it working at first.

Owen
___________________________
The FFDShow resize-sharpen dude.

Originally posted by leecher
I found that the 2004-04-05 version is a bit faster for me. It allows me to use A-Sharp HQ, NR and resize to 1440x960 Lanzcos in that order.
This will use 95-99% CPU on my XP2000, if I change any of these filter settings movie/sound will stutter.

Just curious what your settings for Asharp are? I have the same ffdshow settings and order on my 2500, it uses about 80-85% cpu. I can get resize up to 1776x1000 but I cannot see any benefit on my Hitachi CRT rptv. My desktop is set to 1280x960 (using ATI dongle so 1440x960 = virtual desktop :( )

Originally posted by Owen
Resize sharpening works as long as you are resizing to a higher resolution then the source.
Double DVD res or greater is best but 1280x720 will work fine.
Resize sharpening is very subtle on some displays so you may no notice it working at first.

Owen
___________________________
The FFDShow resize-sharpen dude.

Thanks mate.

I realise that a pc's resources are a relative thing, I must admit that I'm surprised that I can't achieve 1440x1152 with a 2600+ AMD chip. Might be the ram (only 256mb). I think I'll fiddle with some different versions as suggested.

moble, ahh a local :)

I wonder if pal sources being hire res to start with take more CPU effort when resizing and sharpening etc etc?

Hello All,
First- thanks to everyone for their contributions, reading this thread has helped a lot. Now heres my stupid question, which Im sure has an easy answer but Ive been unable to search through the thread and find one, nor find anything on gooogle, or on dscaler page.
I see lots of posts (mainly Owens) reporting using Dscaler3d with the "Sharpen.dll" filter. Where is this filter at? it didnt appear in my d3d directory, I cant find it through google, and my understanding is that it should have ot be a DI_Sharpen.dll to work? any help is greatly appriciated, Im going to be trying all the presets offered on this board later today to see what kind of an image i can get through my htpc.
Thanks!
-Mal

Originally posted by Malaclypse5
Hello All,
First- thanks to everyone for their contributions, reading this thread has helped a lot. Now heres my stupid question, which Im sure has an easy answer but Ive been unable to search through the thread and find one, nor find anything on gooogle, or on dscaler page.
I see lots of posts (mainly Owens) reporting using Dscaler3d with the "Sharpen.dll" filter. Where is this filter at? it didnt appear in my d3d directory, I cant find it through google, and my understanding is that it should have ot be a DI_Sharpen.dll to work? any help is greatly appriciated, Im going to be trying all the presets offered on this board later today to see what kind of an image i can get through my htpc.
Thanks!
-Mal

It's the sharpness filter that comes with Dscaler. If you have Dscaler installed it will be in the dscaler directory C:\Program Files\DScaler\. I use asharp myself because it doesn't seem to use any additonal cpu power, may even reduce it.

I just did a test . This is with my Athlon 2500+ @ 2170, Radeon 9600se. Resizing to 1280x720 then sharpening with asharp, dscaler sharpness and then no sharpening filters.

Asharp ~ 66% cpu
Dscaler ~ 85% cpu
no sharpening filter ~ 72%

interesting...

speaking of ffdshow..how do i get it to work with zoom player, it always gives me errors

read the FAQ

It's only 44 pages :D

I just wish I could find a simple "do these first, then tweak it from here" guide for FFDShow ;)

Amen brother!

you are right.. this thread is way to confusing.
I'm not an expert on this, but I am a newbie on this so my memory of my own difficulties is still here ;-)

I can only explain this with my own setup, so here we go:

first install WinDVD5
Then you install ffdshow and zoomplayer.
Get the latest version of both. I'm using a ffdshow version of 2004-04-05

go into regedit and change this:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\InterVideo]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\InterVideo\DVD5]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\InterVideo\DVD5\Pasteurization]
"Scale"=dword:00000064
"Intensity"=dword:00000000

Add this if you use PAL (If it's not there):

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\InterVideo\Common\VideoDec]
"DXVAPAL"=dword:00000001

In zoomplayer choose WinDVD (Intervideo) as video.

You also need to play a DVD in the normal WinDVD player so you can open the filters control panel and set the "abstract filter" to zero. Then you can select the "Abstract" filter in Zoom Player along with ffdshow. This stops the lockup problems often experienced.
You must also enable "All supported" for "RAW video" in the codecs page of ffdshow.

Now it should work and you can begin resizing and filtering your heart out :D

leecher,

in zoomplayer, I setup ffdshow as additional filter - I'm not quite sure if I was using the WinDVD or PowerDVD video decoders, but Iknow for sure that I didn't modify or add anything to the registry.

Yet it seemed to work - I used the 'noise' filter maxed out for testing, and the picture when I played the DVD reflected that :)

Sooo.... what's this regsitry stuff all about? :)

Thanks!

If you use PAL zoomplayer crashes using ffdshow

Originally posted by leecher
If you use PAL zoomplayer crashes using ffdshow Not for me, it doesn't. Don't forget, you have to do three things to play PAL DVDs in an NTSC region (or vice versa):

1) Make your DVD drive region-free (usually with firmware)
2) Install a region-free utility scuh as DVD RegionFree or Region Killer
3) Run a registry file for the appropriate decoder (WinDVD in my case, but I know there's one for Sonic as well) that tells it to play either NTSC or PAL.

If Zoom crashes, it might be a problem other than NTSC or PAL playing incorrectly. Usually if it's just the registry that hasn't been run, I get audio but not video.

So the registry tweaking only has to do with PAL enabling?

The registry changes I described, do the same thing as your files..

Like I said, I can only explain what my own settings are..

Without registry changes, Zoomplayer crashes or I get black screen.

Originally posted by leecher
The registry changes I described, do the same thing as your files..Sorry man, this sentence doesn't make sense to me :(

quoting JBlacklow:

"Run a registry file for the appropriate decoder (WinDVD in my case, but I know there's one for Sonic as well) that tells it to play either NTSC or PAL.

If Zoom crashes, it might be a problem other than NTSC or PAL playing incorrectly. Usually if it's just the registry that hasn't been run, I get audio but not video"

These files he talks about is the same registry tweaks I mentioned.
If you have no problem don't change anything..

I get it - thanks for your patience :)

Another question for those who have played with ffdshow a lot; I'm mostly interested in dscaler deinterlacing filters to watch video based dvd. The poor performance of the default deinterlacer drives me nuts (seems to be jumping from film to video to film to... ad nauseam). What is the best (or let's say the best compromise) filter for this? I'm talking TV series (X-Files, Sex & The City, Buffy...), and making of features and such on movie dvds.
Thanks!

OWEN Please Help!

Or any other FFdshow genius! I have finally achieved a stunning DVD picture using FFDshow and TT. Unfortunatley I am getting stuttering with the menu's, which I don't care about, but ALL music DVD's as well, which I DO care about.

I am using the Jan 3, 03 build of FFDShow. My settings are:

DScaler filter with 128
Resize 1280x720
Lanczos Luma Sharpen 1.70

OWEN Please Help!

Or any other FFdshow genius! I have finally achieved a stunning DVD picture using FFDshow and TT. Unfortunatley I am getting stuttering with the menu's, which I don't care about, but ALL music DVD's as well, which I DO care about.

I am using the Jan 3, 03 build of FFDShow. My settings are:

DScaler filter with 128
Resize 1280x720
Lanczos Luma Sharpen 1.70
Chroma Sharpen 1.70
Gradual Denoise 25

I have read the entire post as well as those on the TT forum, and these settings produse a stunning picture. My little ole AMD 2400+, overclocked to 2800+, just cannot keep up. 512K pc2700 ram.
Is there a better version that would work better or am I just going to have to get a better chip.

Any Help would be a appreciated from anyone in the know.

Mark

AceMT, those 3 settings(dscaler sharpness filter, resize sharpen and gradual denoise) are a particularly CPU intensive combination. I don't think there's much you can do to reduce the CPU load, except maybe to do the resize after you apply the other 2 filters. That however kinda defeats the purpose.

Even on my P4 2.8C clocked to 3.4GHz I'm unable to use this combo properly.

Goi,

Wow,

you are running a @ 3.4 and it still doesn't work! that doesn't bode well for me, does it. Maybe ther is a better build? As far as DVD's, minus the menus, they are amazing. Why would the music DVD's have the problem, and what CPU would make it right?

Mark

Goi,

Wow,

you are running a @ 3.4 and it still doesn't work! that doesn't bode well for me, does it. Maybe ther is a better build? As far as DVD's, minus the menus, they are amazing. Why would the music DVD's have the problem, and what CPU would make it right?

Mark

Goi,
I’m sorry to say this but there seems to be something wrong with your system.
I am running a P4 2.8C @ 3.5 on a 1 G FSB (PC4000 RAM) and have no problem with much more demanding FFDshow settings then those quoted by AceMT like:

DScaler sharpen
Denoise3d
Resize Lanczos 1776x1000
Luma Sharpen
Chroma Sharpen
With VMR9 and have CPU spare to run even more filters.

I no longer need all these filters but the P4 can run them without any problems.

I also have an Athlon XP 2600+ system clocked to 2900+ which is virtually useless for FFDShow work.
There is more to effective FFDShow operation then CPU clock speed alone.


AceMT,
I think your system should be able to run that filter setup but only just.
Some versions of FFDShow are optimized better for Athlon CPU’s but I don’t know which. Just test some of the newer builds like 20040425.
As for you DVD audio problems I have no answer.
Audio playback is not very demanding of your system so it is probably an audio decoder problem.
What audio decoder are you using and have you tried any others?
Are you having problems with normal DVD sound tracks or just DVD audio disks?

Regards,

Owen

___________________________
The FFDShow resize-sharpen dude.

Originally posted by AceMT
OWEN Please Help!

Or any other FFdshow genius! I have finally achieved a stunning DVD picture using FFDshow and TT. Unfortunatley I am getting stuttering with the menu's, which I don't care about, but ALL music DVD's as well, which I DO care about.



Don't forget that a lot of music video DVDs are 30 fps, as are many menus.

Movies are 24 fps so you're dealing with a 33% increase in frame rate for video compared to film.

I usually tweak/test with 30 fps material so that I know the CPU is OK.

Nobody has any advice re: deinterlacing filters? :(

Sorry Dave G,
The Descaler deinterlace filters never worked well for me in FFDShow.
I use FFDShows ffmpeg deinterlacer and it works great for me on PAL.
I can’t test on NTSC source as I don’t have any, but it should be just as good.
Give it a go.

Regards,

Owen

___________________________
The FFDShow resize-sharpen dude.

Thanks, I'll try that.

rnoble, I have a 2600+, and I can barely resize to 1024x768 and use dScaler sharpen at the same time. No othe filters are possible if I don't want a slide show instead of a movie. This fall I'm going to get a fast dual channel P4!

Jvincent,

Didn't know that Music Dvd's were 30fps. that certainly explaines a lot. Thanks for the info.


Owen,

Good to know that I may be able to get this up to speed with a different version. I will try some of the newer versions and try to find one more optimized for the AMD processor. It seems though, that you favor the P4 for your post processing needs. Is this true? What about the Athalon 64?

Mark

AceMT,

Yes I would recommend a dual channel P4 system over an Athlon at the moment.
Almost all P4 2.8C chips can run at 3.3 or faster with standard cooling. Used with an ASUS P4P800 or similar Intel 865 or 875 main board they provide a guarantee of excellent DVD decoder-FFDShow performance.

There is only a small amount of feed back from Athlon 64 HTPC users but it would seem that the Athon 64 systems have no advantage over cheaper Intel systems at this time.

Owen

___________________________
The FFDShow resize-sharpen dude.

Owen,

Yes, I tried the newer version, 4/05 of FFDshow. No luck. Still stutters on 30fps video. Do you have a motherboard chip combo that you would recommend, Intel wise. Thanks.

Also would menory config would you use? Could I still use my pc2700?


Mark

AceMT,

My Xp2400+ (not over clocked)
Asus A7V333 MB
1gb 333mhz
Radeon 9600 Pro

Can do the following using PAL source DVD's

Picture properties (1 increase in saturation, i needed to have some processing BEFORE the resize or else it would stutter for some stupid reason, perhaps try doing this?)
Resize to 1024 x 768 (bicubic)
With luma & chroma sharp at 2.00
Unsharp filter (suttle after the resize)
Then a gradual Denoise

This works fine using a 03 version (had trouble with the later ones)

Perhaps try what i suggested, adding a "process" before the resize, even if its just a 1 step up of colour saturation, before i did this ANY resize caused suttering.

Spoonfed,

I appreciate the idea, however, I know that the dscaler filter is causing my woes. Everything worked okay before I added that prior to resize. The problem is, the picture is so much better with it, I could never go back. I wonder if adding another 512 memory would help, but I know I probably just need to go to a P4.

Mark

I plan on getting a computer to run ffdshow from my fta sattelite card. Running ffdshow with tv will it be more demanding or less demanding then some of the dvd problems listed above regarding cpu ussage?

i would say more demanding.

my system if "on the limit" for dvd playback cannot manage the same processing for SD DTV live

Why this is im not sure, maybe due to mpeg "splitter" filters involved plus the "redunancy" in a live broadcast stream, error correction etc etc.

Im trying to get any of the versions of FFDshow from 25 feb 04 on to work with zoomplayer 3.31 user cyberlink powerdvd5 codec and DVD playback.

It works fine (as did the much older version) for file playback using a customer filter file (with mpeg spliter etc for DTV stream captures) BUT using zoomplayer DVD "customised" dvd setting and choosing the filters (adding FFDshow) DVD playback crashes zoomplayer.

I am using the exact same cyberlink codec for file playback, so there is NO problem with it working with the latest FFDshow version, it seems more of an issue with how zoomplayer works with FFDshow for DVD playback.

If i use the elecard filters zoomplayer doesn't crash but the pictures is big blocks of moving pink and black etc, with the old version of FFDshow (may 03) both cyberlink and elecard filters work fine.

Im trying to upgrade as i have noticed with the amount of resize+sharpen and unsharp (after resize) i wish to add the 03 FFDshow version seems to introduce faint little horizontal lines across the screen, mainly noticable say on a background inside room wall that is a bit out of focus, its not apparent without FFDshow enabled.

I've tried using WinDVD filters (WinDVD 5 is installed) but with no luck, i get the "failed to connect pins" zoomplayer error.

secondly, the de-interlacing in ffdshow, how does on get it to work. my understanding is ffdshow works AFTER the codec, in which case the codec already has done the deinterlacing. DTV here has MASSIVE motion blur issues unless DxVA is enabled, which with FFDshow in action seems to be "disabled" even if checked, im thinking perhaps if i can get an FFDshow de-interlacer to work instead of the "codecs" one which is not up to scratch it may solve this issue?

thanks

D

EDIT: Of note the "lines" across the screen i mention above seem to only occur on DVD's (not sure if all yet) and not when playing back DTV captures which are also PAL and the same resolution and simliar bitrate.

Originally posted by Spoonfed

EDIT: Of note the "lines" across the screen i mention above seem to only occur on DVD's (not sure if all yet) and not when playing back DTV captures which are also PAL and the same resolution and simliar bitrate.

Those "lines" are most visible in lanczos & spline resize mode if u do not resize to a direct multipler of the org. pixel resolution. Use "bicublin" resize mode to fix it for media playback or none direct resized dvd playback. So if u playback & resize a 640x368 movie just calc both values x2 and enter 1280x736 in ffdshow resize and the lines are gone for lanczos & spline.

Originally posted by AceMT
Jvincent,

Didn't know that Music Dvd's were 30fps. that certainly explaines a lot. Thanks for the info.


Owen,

Good to know that I may be able to get this up to speed with a different version. I will try some of the newer versions and try to find one more optimized for the AMD processor. It seems though, that you favor the P4 for your post processing needs. Is this true? What about the Athalon 64?

Mark

Just a little tip, there are NO special AMD or P4 ffdshow version's. The latest compiles from athos are /G6 (pentium pro) compiles wich might give some little speed over the older "blend" compiles. In general some of the asm optimized code runs "better" on AMD cpu's and P3 since the P4 has some very strange cpu cycles and would need special P4 code to run optimal. How fast ffdshow run's depends on the filter's used since some are heavy asm and mmx/mmx2/sse optimized and some arnt. So all mplayer filters are very fast and also the asharp filter is full asm optimized.

I have a 3.2 gig machine , so resizing is not a problem 1440 by 960 , Im using power dvd . How do I know ffd is working is really working , the picture looks the same . Im using a BG808 running at 720P . Thanks for any help.

Regards

I don't think it will work using PowerDVD application it self. My understanding is PowerDVD has very tight control of the filters/graph used, unless someone knows a registry hack?

Zoomplayer with Cyberlink Codecs (powerDVD) work fine, i use powerDVD ver 5 codecs.

To check that FFDshow is working, you could enable its OSD feature and see if it shows on screen

While we are on the 'trick' topic, I discovered that it is possible to have multiple settings (for instance for NTSC and PAL DVDs) with automatic switching between them... neat!

Eiffel

Eiffel,
While we are on the 'trick' topic, I discovered that it is possible to have multiple settings (for instance for NTSC and PAL DVDs) with automatic switching between them... neat
How do you do that? I use WinDVD filters with FFDSHOW in ZP with success, but find it a pain to have to double-click the correct .REG file for when I want to switch from a PAL to a NTSC DVD and vice-versa. Are you saying that it is possible to automate this reg tweak?

**From memory**

you can define profiles from the ffdshow configure application (it's one of the first few box in the long list).

The standard profile is called 'default', but you can define and save different ones. Once this is done you can set the conditions under which a given profile should be applied.

PAL DVDs can be detected as having a 720*576 resolution, so you can have ffdshow apply the correspondings when vertical resolution is between 576 and 576 AND when horizontal resolution is between 720 and 720... The same logic can be applied for NTSC DVDs.

Let me know if you need more detailed instructions

"so you can have ffdshow apply the correspondings"

..So just to clarify, I can make ffdshow run the corresponding .REG file depending on whether the DVD is PAL or NTSC?

Maybe you should start a new thread? 46 pages is a monster....

DVDautorefresh will do this also.

How big an improvement is ffdshow over PowerDVD 5 with its
contrast/picture enhancement feature turned on? It is hard to
imagine my picture getting much better.

ok, I am ready to try to tackle this beast and was wondering if I can get some tips based on my setup as I am still lost on how to setup ffdshow for my display (as well as powerstrip):

I have a 4:3 aspect ratio 36" Sony XBR800 television that the HTPC hooks up to via a transcoder (component video). What resolution should I set ffdshow (to resize) and the desktop resolution to for best performace? Should I try 1920x1080i on both if I can and if it does not work, what would you try? I don't have the option to use 1440x960p (I do believe 1440x940i is an option though).
Those are my main concerns (above) as it gets kinda tricky.
What filters would you suggest at about what levels on a CRT? Am I wasting my time trying this stuff on a 36"? I hope not.
Could I apply a rule so that anything that is not 4:3 uses one ffdshow setup and if it is uses another?

Thanks.

Hi all,

Just put together a new 'backup' HTPC using a Shuttle SB61G2R Reflexion XPC after winning a free 3 GHz CPU last week. While installing I decided to check for newer versions of my commonly installed apps. Looks like there is a new build of FFDShow as of yesterday (2004-04-18) at the Athos site.

Anyone tried it yet? Any concerns or should I just go for it?

Originally posted by Spoonfed
. DTV here has MASSIVE motion blur issues unless DxVA is enabled, which with FFDshow in action seems to be "disabled" even if checked, im thinking perhaps if i can get an FFDshow de-interlacer to work instead of the "codecs" one which is not up to scratch it may solve this issue?


Mate the only reliability I got was through using Digivision and keeping the codecs completely separate. I.e cyberlink for DTV and windvd for ZP/FFD or vice verse.

This worked but only if you have a VP card of course :)

Can someone explain if it is possible (and how) to load ffdshow profiles via commandline? Is there a command to unload it as well or would one have to create a profile with no filtering? Thanks.

Also, I would like to figure out if what I am using and experiencing is "proper" or not:
I am using a desktop resolution on 1776x1000i, using that res at resize seems to not be an option however on my HTPC as is (P4 2.4Ghz (533FSB), 1GB PC2700, Radeon 9600, etc). It aspect ratio when using this DOES seem to be close to correct though (shouldn't it be?). I ended up try 3/4 of this res and had to round off a little to be able to input it (1344x750) and am using Lanczos method and luma and chroma sharp at 1.7. I have Gradual Denoise preceding resize at a subtle 10. Am I going about this the right way? The reason I ask is that MOST of what I will be doing will be playing back divx, xvid, and the like that is fairly compressed (700MB-1.4GB for a feature-length movie usually). Sometimes, I might playback DVD, but that is why the first question in my post. SHould I try another res? I like how well the desktop resolution works out on my TV (Sony 36XBR800) but I'm not sure if the aspect ratio on my current resize is proper or not. Also, should I be expecting more from my PC or are my findings of 1776x1000i being too much for my system correct? Any input on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Originally posted by coolmo
I just did a test . This is with my Athlon 2500+ @ 2170, Radeon 9600se. Resizing to 1280x720 then sharpening with asharp, dscaler sharpness and then no sharpening filters.

Asharp ~ 66% cpu
Dscaler ~ 85% cpu
no sharpening filter ~ 72%

Attention AMD users. If you turn 'levels' on it lowers the cpu usage even more ~ 60%. So if you have an AMD cpu I recommend turnig on 'levels' even if you just change one to 1/255, and also running asharp.

Turning 'levels' on resizing to 1440x960 lanczos w/luma&chroma sharpening and then sharpening with 'asharp' my AMD cpu is only running at ~70%. Without 'levels and 'asharp' cpu is ~95% sometimes hitting 100%!

Here are a couple of screenshots from my first "successful" attempt at using ffdshow, These screenshots are taken from a 700MB Xvid file (full feature-length movie at 700MB). I wanted to see how well ffdshow resize could help out in this type of scenario. I am using rather odd settings (at least I think they may be odd)with a 1776x1000i desktop res and resize set to 1328x750 (almost perfect 16:9 or as close as I can get). These numbers are just something I came up with trying to back off a little bit at a time to avoid spiking the CPU. sharp is set to 1.3 on both chroma and luma and gradeual denoise is set to a subtle 10. ONe of the screenshots is without ffshow and the other is with the above settings. I resized the image of the resized screenshot to equal that of the untouched version. Let me know if you can tell the difference. Thanks.

http://65.25.12.184:1338/images/screen1.jpg

http://65.25.12.184:1338/images/screen2.jpg

Oh, a guessing game! I love those! Although I suck at them... But I would say the bottom one is with ffdshow, it looks clearer and sharper, at least on my monitor.

you are the 4th person I have asked and have all guessed correctly. Good!

How do I get FFDSHOW to work with DScaler so that what I'm viewing in DScaler is filtered by FFDShow settings?

Bump

Originally posted by JoeFigueiredo
How do I get FFDSHOW to work with DScaler so that what I'm viewing in DScaler is filtered by FFDShow settings?

Come on man, do your homework.
This has been discussed to death around here.
I also find your impatient bumping here and in other threads aggravating.
I don’t mind helping people out, that’s why I am here. But you are testing my patients dude.


You can load Descalers filters inside FFDShow.
You cannot use FFDShow in the Descaler application.


Owen
___________________________
The FFDShow resize-sharpen dude.

Owen,
Sorry for the constant bumping. I assure you I have done extensive research, but being a newbie to this HTPC thing I'm just confirming what I read, as sometimes it's difficult to ensure what I am doing is correct (information overload).

Thanks for the feedback on my question.

Would resizing over my desktop rez provide better pq?

Again this depends on your setup. If you run desktop res of 800 x 600 then yes going further with resize will be better. If you run 1600 x 1200 then there is no point going higher than this (not to mention your PC probably wont be able to do it anyways).

Kind of an odd problem... I was playing around with FFDShow and ZP for the first time. I was originally resizing to double DVD, but was seeing some stutters. So I exited ZP, changed the resize to 1280x720 which is my projector's native mode, and went back in. Now I have a very odd picture... almost like a window at 1280x720 within a larger res. Any ideas what on earth I did wrong?

-MP

I'm having some STRANGE issues myself. Here is the scenario..maybe someone else has the same issue nad has worked through it:

1) If I use ffdshow build from 04xx04, I cannot get TT to recognize ffdshow as existing. If I use 032904, it does and works just fine. HOWEVER, the sonic decoder takes over in wmp and whathaveyou as the default decoder for mpeg files rather than the elecard decoder that i prefer to use. Sonic crashed WMP (or whatever) if I try to play these mpeg files. Once the sonic decoder is uninstalled, normal playback resumes.

2) No matter what version I hae tried of ffdshow, ZP does not seem to care. I have ZP setup to use the ffdshow filter and I get no errors when starting a movie...it just isn't doing anyhting (ffdshow that is) as my CPU usage is nothing. I hadn;t checked via locally and was using remote admin to test a few things from work today but WMP DOES use it for normal video file playback and my CPU spikes to the expected 90-percentile most of the time.

3) It seems as though ffdhow, although I am only using raw mode, hijacks my video players for mpeg file playback instead of elecard. This poses are problem as ffdshow does not handle exotic resolutions well like elecard does.

any observations? any ideas? Thanks!

Wow, yours is in fact even stranger than mine ;). Still haven't quite figured out what I did wrong.

Well, for osme reason few of my problems have disappeared. I just totally eliminated the need to try TT anymore and have concentrated on ZP only. I have ZP (4.0 beta3) working now with ffdshow (032904 release) and can suprisingly use pretty high settings on resize and sharpen on my 2.4Ghz P4 with 1GB RAM. I have verified that ffdshow is working with the osd in ffdshow as well. The problem now is with sizing. My desktop resolution that I use with ffdshow is 1776x1000i. If I resize to THAT resolution in ZP, I get black bars on the left and right. Normal file playback in WMP(i.e. avi and the like) resize as they should (the full width). If I resize to 1440x960, I do not get the black bars on the sides in ZP but do for normal file playback in WMP (have side bars). That is the problem I am trying to address right now.

Of course, the mpeg files through wmp are still all goofy since they are, for some reason, using ffshow decoders rather than the elecard decoder....very mysterious at best.

Heh, still puzzeled myself. My desktop runs at 1280x720. When I resize with FFDShow to the same and play in ZP, I get left and right bars.

-MP

Originally posted by debennett2
My desktop resolution that I use with ffdshow is 1776x1000i. If I resize to THAT resolution in ZP, I get black bars on the left and right. In Ffdshow, in the resize and aspect properties, under aspect ratio, do you have “keep original aspect ratio” checked? If so, try checking “no aspect ratio correction” instead.

help please, i'm a newbie at ffdshow. i am using ZP and PowerDVD codecs. I tried resize to 1440 x 960. Video playback is not smooth. Do I need a good video card, my current card is a Geforce 256 (really old). thanks in advance.

food4shots:
Maybe it is not yr old videocard. How old is yr. processor?

1440x960 you need at least a Pentuim of >2.2 gig or an AMD beyond 2000+.
I doubt that considering the Geforce I

thanks for the reply. my processor is an AMD 2500+

AMD 2500 + is big enough

The proof is in eating the puddig. Try, borrow a better video card. Although I have an AMDO 2500+ too and o clocked to 2170 MHz and I can't reach 1440x960 with two filters:
Spline with luma and chroma sharpen, and
sharpen (after resizing) adaptive sharpening 4
my resolution is 1280x960.

Try to monitor with CTR+ALT+DEL (windows task man) how much the cpu is working. under options you can choose "always on top"so you see it while playing a movie

with my setup I have an avarage of 90 %, but more important indiscernable skipping

it's not really skipping. The video seems to be moving in a fast jerky motion. audio and video seems to be in sync. when i compare the quality to my normal PowerDVD settings, it seems to be a bit too grainy. do i need the latest direct x drivers?

I figure being as I've used this thread extensively to ffdshow up and running I'd add a tip (which hopefully isn't already listed on here...)

If like me you switch out between PAL and NTSC a lot, you will have made up your own registry entry files to quickly change the settings for PAL and NTSC. I also have my HTPC run from the myHTPC frontend, and I didn't like that whenever you run the PAL or NTSC reg file it would pop up confirmations.

You can make up a small batch file that contains:

regedit.exe /s <path to reg file here e.g. c:\ntsc.reg>

The /s removes all the warning and confirmations, which can help make the change seemless.

For example in myHTPC when select "DVD player PAL" myHTPC first does the change to the registry, then loads zoomplayer. I have the same configuration for NTSC.

- Rick

Thanks Rick! Can this be applied somehow to custom presets? I'd like to be able to jump from one to the other without having to bring out the mouse or use the limited abilities that ffdshow has to switch back and forth internally. Thanks!

Sorry Dan, I don't know that. I've not played round with the presets in ffdshow yet, I just run one general ffdshow configuration, and two installs of zoomplayer wmv pro, one with ffdshow, one without, both with separate registry entries (for ZP, not FFDshow).

I don't know how ffdshow stores it's configurations, but if it's just a file somewhere, or registry settings it should be possible from a simple batch file to do that... maybe!

Unfortunately documentation is thin on the ground for FFDshow, so it's hard to know where to begin.

- Rick

Unfortunately documentation is thin on the ground for FFDshow, so it's hard to know where to begin.

You've got that right! The configs are stored (or can be stored rather) in a file form. Not sure how to load them though.....

debennett2,
Can this be applied somehow to custom presets?
IMHO NO, its a problem of windvd... so you can use NVDVD.
In ffdshow you can use different presets for PAL/NTSC DVDs (Autoload conditions by image size). Why not to use special program which can identify inserted DVD and run .bat file in silent mode?

New Version - http://athos.leffe.dnsalias.com/ffdshow-20040501.exe

Sweet Mary Mother of G...!

I feel quite a sense of accomplishment making it all the way through this thread. My wife does not understand.

First, thanks to everyone here for making this thread such a great resource. Owen your a star.

Using 20040424 version of ffdshow, WinDVD Plat v4.5, and Simplevideo. I realize that Simplevideo may be part of the problem here, but many of the issues that are keeping this from working for me seem to be exhibited in other players also, thus possibly the fixes will work for me.

Problems
1) Playing DVD from disk or HD playback will freeze after playing for a short time. I tried to apply the "pasteurization filter" registry settings for WinDVD as suggested, but this seems to have no affect. It seems I can't get the setting to stick. Even when I open WinDVD and change the setting by hand (while a DVD is playing), close then re-open the program, it's been reset to "off". Granted this is not a problem with ffdshow, but hopefully others here have an answer for me.

Also I thought somone mentioned you could apply this filter in ffdshow, I could not find where? Simplevideo does not have an option to apply external filters other than to use ffdshow.

2) My machine is P4 2.8c with 1Gig of dual channel PC3200, with resize set to 1280x720, blure&NR before resize, Grad Den at 30, and Denoise3d at .58, .58, 1.07. My desktop is set at 1024x768, simplevideo set to use either "software" or VRM9. I get visible stutter during playback (after restarting video). From what I've read this should be enough HP to run at these settings.

From my limited viewing opportunities it seems I have quite a bit of tweaking to do before the PQ is acceptable. My output devices are a 4x3 XGA LCD projector, and a couple 19" LCD displays.

Cheers

Hi From NZ also!

With Zoomplayer and WinDVD you have to add the Abstract DMO filter to the Zoomplayer configuration to overcome the freezes. I don't know how you achieve that with your software player. D/L Zoom and have a play, its fully functional and you should get there easily. I have a P4 2.4 overclocked to 3G and it all works smoothly and stutter free.

Thanks gazzagazza,

I really like the integration of Simplevideo into myHTPC, and that it gives little indication of an underlying application. I have my HTPC setup much like a set-top box and I hide anything that looks like a program window.

Seems though that it's about time to try Zoomplayer if just for the configurability. I'll download and give it a shot, is there a way to have it open ripped DVD's from command line, and pop full screen without interaction or showing any program windows or interface?

I know I'll find out for myself, but I'm still curious!

BTW, I'm in Auckland. you getting the serious wind in your neck of the woods? I watched a boat sink out the back window yesterday, got swamped!

The release from April don't work for most people i have talked to (including myself). Try the 0325 or 0329..I can't remember which. There's a new version in May but I haven't got enough nerve to try it yet...

I just tested the release dated 1st May 2004.

It works fine with PAL DVD's using WinDVD 5 codec

It works fine using a filter file for .mpg DTV captures and Cyberlink PowerDVD 5 codec.


Of note for me using PowerDVD 5 codec and DVD's crashes Zoomplayer, but so has every version tested since May 2003 version.

I use the Intervideo codecs now i think anyway? Which should achieve better PQ Cyberlink 5 or Intervideo 5 codecs?

debennett2,

Your AR problems could be due to using the Elecard decoder. I had the same problems and then changed to a different decoder and the AR was fine.

Spoonfed,

Did you remove your previous release of ffdshow, or install on top of it?

Did I understand you correctly that you use WinDVD/ffdshow/zoomplayer like many people following this thread?

Have you tried Simplevideo (download from myHTPC.net plugins pages)?

Cheers

Welcome aboard bh285,

You put in a good effort to get to the end of this mammoth thread.

I have never used Simplevideo so I can help you with that.
Zoom Player can do just about anything so definitely give it a try.

The Abstract DMO filter (set to zero so as not to affect video) will solve the freeze problem as gazzagazza has stated. I don’t know if this is possible with Simplevideo.

I recommend you overclock that 2.8C if you can. You will need all the power you can get.
You should be resizing to 1440x1152 for PAL DVD’s if you can. Or 1024x768 if your CPU cant handle it.
Denoise3d is a truly great filter and should be used before resize due to its high CPU requirements. Luma and Chroma set to 0.5 is fine but Time set to 1.07 will be useless.
Time is what governs the amount of noise reduction and 1.07 is effectively off.
I recommend 5.0 for time. So the full setup would be Luma 0.5, Chroma 0.5, Time 5.0, HQ.
This setting will not remove detail and will greatly reduce noise.

Gradual noise is now obsolete IMHO so you should disable it or reduce the setting to 20 or less as it produces visible motion artifacts at 20+. Denoise3d does everything better then Gradual Noise and does not cause motion artifacts.

Regards,

Owen
___________________________
The FFDShow resize-sharpen dude.

Originally posted by bh285
Spoonfed,

Did you remove your previous release of ffdshow, or install on top of it?

Did I understand you correctly that you use WinDVD/ffdshow/zoomplayer like many people following this thread?

Have you tried Simplevideo (download from myHTPC.net plugins pages)?

Cheers


I installed over the top, kept all settings. Old version was May 03

Yep WinDVD 5, FFDShow and Zoomplayer 3.31

Nope having tried Simplvideo (whats it do?)

Don't really have a HTPC front end, all apps operate indivdually via a remote. As i use the PC for net on the PJ inbetween adds etc etc :)

THe remote app i use by the way was written by a local (australia) initially for use with our DTV cards etc etc but now supports IRman, IR output etc etc and i find quite good, not to mention his open to input and suggestions
http://www.byremote.com.au/Hip/download.htm

Excellent suggestions Owen, making those changes is quite an improvement (I've got it testing on the screen next to me as I type this).

Most of my DVD's are NTSC actually, though I do have some PAL mixed in there (this does present issues I'll tackle later)

My next step is to get rid of the freezing situation, then I'll work on tweaking ffdshow, and possibly OC my processor as you suggest. I did give it a quick OC test at well over 3Ghz, my uber-cool CPU cooler seemed to do the task well. It's the 5 HD's in the case that are really heating things up!

I've contacted the progammer of Simplevideo to see if he'll address the issue with ffdshow/windvd. In the meantime I'll be trying out zoomplayer.

Cheers

Spoonfed,

I'll follow your lead and install the latest ffdshow.

Simplevideo is, well, a very simple DVD/Video player. It's originally designed for integration into myHTPC (a great HTPC front end), but it works as a stand alone ap also.

I like it because it hides itself very well. When you start the application, or have it start when opening a DVD or file, it opens with a "Starting Movie" screen (customizable), then launches your file or DVD in full screen. No buttons to click etc. In the setup (right click background or hit backspace) you can specify which decoder to use (windvd, powerdvd, etc), if you want to use VMR9, hardware, software, or have it use default decoders on your system. Very simple, and works with ffdshow by selecting a checkbox.

My problem is the ffdshow/WinDVD freeze issue, and not being able to get the necessary WinDVD filter to run using simplevideo. I was hoping there was a registry tweak I could do to force the filter into use.

You should try out myHTPC, it's free (the new version Medio is not) and it's very flexible.

bh285,

I use myHTPC too. It would be nice if we could get ZoomPlayer actually integrated (playing windowed) into the frontend, and simply select it to get it to play fullscreen. Let us know how you get on.

Marc.

Question:
Does denoise3d at the above recommended settings really churn on a processor A LOT? I wonder because I am just using gradual and then resize to 1776x1000 with chromaand luma sharp up around 1.5 with still breathing room on my P4 2.4Ghz. My motherboard does not allow for overclocking (Fujitsu-Siemens D1522) so i am stuck for now with 2.4Ghz. Just wanted to ask before I got home and tried it out tonight sometime.

As far as CPU usage goes, I found that one of the later march releases provides MUCH less CPU usage than ANY other I have tried.

Denoise3d is a big consumer of CPU. I could never get it to run well on my 2.5G P4.

While I have not tried this on my HTPC with DVD material, on my main computer with a P4 2.8C@3.4GHz, denoise3D and a Lanczos resize to 1600x1200 is unusable on my xvid encoded movies. My CPU utilization goes up to 50%, somehow Zoomplayer isn't using my other virtual CPU.

I'll try the myHTPC thingy and see what its like

Originally posted by mholgate
It would be nice if we could get ZoomPlayer actually integrated (playing windowed) into the frontend, and simply select it to get it to play fullscreen.

Agreed. That simpleplayer sucks. (good try, but not quite there)

At 2.4 I could not resize higher than my PJ / desktop res (960 x 540) - Panasonic L300. Couldn't run denoise 3D. Had to use bicubic on resize

Overclocked to 3G and now I resize to 1440 x 540 (still can't go to full 2 x DVD) and I can use some denoise 3D but don't because it stutters now and then and in my opinion it removes detail, even at modest settings. I now have resize (still bicubic) as above, a small amount of luma sharpening, and gradual denoise at about 15-20 AFTER resize. Picture quality is the best I've had it and there is no stutter. I am only interested in DVD playback, not DivX or any of the other low quality options. At present using WinDVD5.1 decoder.


Originally posted by debennett2
Question:
Does denoise3d at the above recommended settings really churn on a processor A LOT? I wonder because I am just using gradual and then resize to 1776x1000 with chromaand luma sharp up around 1.5 with still breathing room on my P4 2.4Ghz. My motherboard does not allow for overclocking (Fujitsu-Siemens D1522) so i am stuck for now with 2.4Ghz. Just wanted to ask before I got home and tried it out tonight sometime.

As far as CPU usage goes, I found that one of the later march releases provides MUCH less CPU usage than ANY other I have tried.

At 2.4 I could not resize higher than my PJ / desktop res (960 x 540) - Panasonic L300. Couldn't run denoise 3D. Had to use bicubic on resize...


You might want to try using the 0325/0329 ffdshow. I think it is the 0325 that you want. I have tried A LOT of them including all the latest (except 0501) and could not do anything with my setup. I am doing this in this order on a stock 2.4Ghz P4:

gradual denoise at 20
resize to 1776x1000 using lanzcos or however you spell it (have tried 1440x960 as well) with chroma and luma sharp at 1.4-1.5

Not a full spike in CPU usage once with that. Of course, I have verified it is working through the OSD just in case you were wondering. Since I have a lower-than-par CPU for the job, I went through several attempts to get things to work...removing ffdshow, rebooting, installing a new ffdshow, rebooting, and finally found this lovely version to work VERY well. I will try denoise3d tonight out of curiousity. Who know!

By the way, all other version wouldn't let me get even CLOSE to 1440x960 (let alone 1776x1000) . I think the best I had was something like 1328x750 or something like that with all other versions I tried.

Just looked at the ffdshow d/l site and almost all 2003 versions seem to have gone.

If u got to the sourceforge site there is a 2003 and i think 2002 version there.

I was referring to 0325 as in month and day..not year if that is what you are looking for...it is from this year.

OK, I'm actually using 20040325, which is the one you are referring to I think.

Oops! It actually is the 20040329 that i am using. I just verified that on my HTPC. Sorry.

Ta. Will try and report. What output colorspace are you using?

Mine are all checked aside from the first one. I never found a good resource that explained what each exactly is and what it all means in the end. Thanks.

Well, this may not make any sense to anyone, but I have no problems whatsoever running Denoise 3d with Luma 0.5, Chroma 0.5, Time 5.0, HQ
and then resizing to 1776x1000 (lanczos) with luma and chroma sharper at 1.55 on both. Works fine with DVD as well as my divx, xvid, etc....

Kinda strange being as I am using a 2.4Ghz.

Dan, I have tried the 0329 and no difference. It pegs at 100% if I try to resize to 2 x DVD and decoding fps in the OSD shows only 12fps. This is a 2.4 overclocked to 3G. Radeon 9000 pro. I tried the various output colourspaces and no speed benefit, just the same or poorer video quality. YV12 is reported by ffdshow as the input format so that is what I'm outputting too.

Whats your hardware, and what video decoder are you using?

Not directly relevant to any of the ongoing discussion, but I want to get the following information into this thread.

I was experiencing a nasty crash ("zplayer.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." box, with "Send Error Report" and "Dont send" buttons) whenever playing a PAL DVD with ffdshow using the CineMaster codec.

The fix for this problem is outlined below:

ffdshow does not support DFC's (Dynamic Format Changes) that the video decoder normally sends to the Overlay Mixer to resize the video surfaces from 720x480 NTSC to 720x576 PAL.

For PAL, add a DWORD registry value named "HardCodeForPal" in the HKLM\Software\Sonic\Cinemaster DS DVD\2.5\VideoDecoder directory and set it 0x00000001 and this will hardwire the video decoder to instruct ffdshow that PAL size surfaces are what it needs to allocate from the get go.

Im wondering if it is better to adjust the "picture properties" using FFDshow or using the player, which in turn i guess is using the overlay?

It seems if i add gamma using FFDShow it raises my black flaw, yet i don't think this happens using Zoomplayer/overlay gamma increase. It is hard to tell as FFDshow has the "half screen" option where Zoomplayer/overlay does not.

What im trying to achieve is add a little more shadow detail to dark seens (like gamma 1.1 does) but without raising full black.

Im trying luminance gain at a suttle 142 at present, which doesn't really help to much with the dark scene blacks but does add i guees "highlights" to the image, giving it a little more punch i guess.

Any suggestions.

Originally posted by Spoonfed
Im wondering if it is better to adjust the "picture properties" using FFDshow or using the player, which in turn i guess is using the overlay?

It seems if i add gamma using FFDShow it raises my black flaw, yet i don't think this happens using Zoomplayer/overlay gamma increase. It is hard to tell as FFDshow has the "half screen" option where Zoomplayer/overlay does not.

What im trying to achieve is add a little more shadow detail to dark seens (like gamma 1.1 does) but without raising full black.

Im trying luminance gain at a suttle 142 at present, which doesn't really help to much with the dark scene blacks but does add i guees "highlights" to the image, giving it a little more punch i guess.

Any suggestions.

i would suggest to use the player overlay controls or the "overlay" controls in ffdshow to adjust stuff. If u need something special done wich cant be done this way use the "pic. props".

Yeah, thats the way i have got it setup, using the "overlay" controls in FFDshow. Perhaps the "black floor" is increased with gamma from using the "pic props" adjustement as it is all in software, where the "overlay" option perhaps uses some hardware on the card (and hence why there are only gamma steps for overlay where pic props are "infinite" in adjustment). Overlay gamma maybe knows what/when full black is an leaves it at the full black floor.

So many little tweaks :) FDDShow is certainly one awsome little app.

Need advice on a motherboard/cpu purchase for ffdshow.

Fry's has a special for a AMD 2600 333mz with ECS 333mz motherboard. Only 4x AGP. I would buy 512megs PC2700 ram.
Radeon 9600se 128meg right now but was thinking of getting the Radeon 9600 pro instead.

How would this combo perform using 20040329 ffshow Lancos 1440x960 @72hz Chroma 1.5 Luma 1.5, denoise3d before or after resize. WinXP with Theater Tek. Directx9

stylinlp, unfortunately AMD Athlon XPs aren't as good as intel P4s as far as ffdshow performance goes.

Anyway, there's no reason to get the 9600Pro over the SE inless you're playing games on the HTPC. In fact, if the SE has a fanless cooling solution it may be better suited for HTPC usage.

I consider an Athlon XP 2600+ system a bit marginal.
I have a Athon XP running at 2900+ and it is very limited for FFDShow.

If you want to use VMR9 at HD resolution, the 9600SE could cause you problems. A 9600 Pro or XT is a safer bet.
I use a case fan running on 7 Volts to cool mine and its silent.

Regards,

Owen
___________________________
The FFDShow resize-sharpen dude.

Well I've downloaded the latest Zoomplayer final, installed and configured it. Seems I still have the stuttering issue that I had with the Simplevideo player.

I made sure to select the Intervideo Abstract DMO filter. The movie seems to play fine until you pause or otherwise affect the playback or overlay. Therafter it will stutter and "catch", audio is affected also.

I'm using Intervideo video and audio decoders with ffdshow. CPU usage is hovering around 30-40%. My ffdshow settings are not very demanding. The problem does not seem to occur if ffdshow is not in the mix

Anyone have a suggestion?

Does it matter if I have the Abstract filter before or after the ffdshow video processor in the Additional filters section?

I also have had several exception crashes with Zoomplayer while fiddling around with settings.

Can someone look at the attached graph info from Zoomplayer, anything look wrong?

Abstract should be before FFDShow.

I use WinDVD 5 also with FFDshow and Zoomplayer 3.31
DVD's work fine on pause/skip etc but DTV playback just shows 'freeze frame" if interupt playback at all, and hence i have gone back to cyberlink for file playback.

Have you added the reg entry DXVAPAL and set to =1 in the "video codec" section of the intervideo reg entry?

Also ensure that teh Abstract filter is actually registered, even though WinDVD was working, on my system i had to manually register it.

It doesn't sound like the above, give you can get playback to start. hmmm

Thanks for the tip on abstract filter.

When you refer to DTV are you refering to recorded files?

Most of my DVD's are NTSC, though some are PAL. I've been testing with NTSC so far. I'll tackle the registry switching for formats at some point.

When I have ffdshow check if the abstract filter is properly registered it claims that it is. Is there a reason you know not to trust it?

When I remove ffdshow from the mix, it plays without problems. Maybe I'll remove all options from ffdshow and put it back into the working zoomplayer profile. If that works I'll start adding filters in ffdshow until it breaks.

Thanks again for the info.

DTV, yes .mpg digital TV captures.

I haven't tried any NTSC disc's as i don't have any, i just figured being in NZ u'd also be PAL?

Ensure you have FFDShow set in the "Raw video" section to "all supported".

Try re-registering the Abstract

Spoonfed,

I'll try re-registering the Abstract filter tonight.
Raw Video is set to "all supported"

I have about 300 DVD's currently maybe 3-4 of them are PAL. I'm origionally from the states, so I still buy most of my DVD's online from there. I find better prices and more obscure titles there. Sometimes I'll come back with a suitcase full if I take a trip!

Anyway, back on topic.

Zoomplayer seems to be the way to go over simplevideo due the the extreme filter tweakability (is that a word?)

I have a pretty good feeling that I'll be able to integrate zoomplayer into the myHTPC front end with some of the display settings in zoom.

Thanks for the help.

[Edit] Original message removed!

Doh! LOL, apologies. I had two threads open in different screens and posted the wrong message here.

Umm dude, this it the FFDShow FAQ thread. :confused:

What is the current ffdshow of choice for DVD playback only?

TIA!

(I am hoping that somebody is kind enough of giving me this quick answer so I do not have to browse through 50 pages (50! What a thread!).
_____
Axel

I use 20040329 with the best success right now. I haven't tried the 05 releases though....

There's a May 8 build out now, and also one that's presumably optimized for the P3 architecture from it's filename.

Originally posted by Axel
What is the current ffdshow of choice for DVD playback only?

TIA!

(I am hoping that somebody is kind enough of giving me this quick answer so I do not have to browse through 50 pages (50! What a thread!).
_____
Axel


Looks like I need to specify at bit further: for a P4 system with a) around 2 GHz or b) around 3 GHz (thinking about upgrading.. ;))
______
Axe

All the new builds seem to be fine.
None are significantly different for speed so just get an 05 build.

Owen
___________________________
The FFDShow resize-sharpen dude.

All the new builds seem to be fine.

Are you refering to all the 04 builds as well? If so, I have to disagree with you on that. In fact, they don't even work in Theatertek AFAIK.

05 like in May 2005 / 04 like in April 2004?
____
Axel

05 = may 04 = april the 2004 is assumed since we are referrign to "newer" builds

Owen, et all,
Doh! LOL, apologies. I had two threads open in different screens and posted the wrong message here. I'm sure I'll get a similar response from my post in the zoomplayer forum ;)

For this thread my question is:

Is it standard practice for most people here to

A) Install ffdshow over your previous installation
B) Install new builds in a separate location (how would this work with filter registration?)
C) Uninstall current version, Install new build.

Does the ffdshow install allow an older version to be installed over a newer version to back-rev?

1.Checking levels -show histograph -full range the histograph doesn't work till i move levels filter below an other active filter during dvd playback
Is that normal ?

2.DVD disks are they encoded in 0-255 or 16-235 range?

3.When the output is set to YV12 i see the black level at 16
When the output is set to YUY2 i see the black level at 0
Should i adjust the input level to 16 at the first case to have the correct black level to my projector?

Please advice

debennett2,

I don’t have TT, I only use Zoom Player.
FFDShow has always worked with Zoom.
I am aware that there have been problems with TT but I don’t follow the TT forums and so I am never up to date on TT issues.
Do any 2004 builds of FFDShow work with TT, and if so which.
Since FFDShow always works with Zoom, what is going on with TT.
I am interested to know what changed in FFDshow or TT to break TT support. :confused:

Owen
___________________________
The FFDShow resize-sharpen dude.

Originally posted by bh285
Owen, et all,
Doh! LOL, apologies. I had two threads open in different screens and posted the wrong message here. I'm sure I'll get a similar response from my post in the zoomplayer forum ;)

For this thread my question is:

Is it standard practice for most people here to

A) Install ffdshow over your previous installation
B) Install new builds in a separate location (how would this work with filter registration?)
C) Uninstall current version, Install new build.

Does the ffdshow install allow an older version to be installed over a newer version to back-rev?

C is the correct method.

To be more precise, restart Windows to ensure that no FFDShow files are locked and immediately uninstall FFDShow. You can then install a new version, enable “All supported” under “Raw video”” in the “codec” page, adjust your settings and off you go.

I have fallen into the trap of not enabling “All supported” for “Raw video” when installing a new build and wasted quit and a lot of time and cause much aggravation before I figured out what I have done wrong.

Owen
___________________________
The FFDShow resize-sharpen dude.