AVIVO + Cyberlink/ATI Decoder = Nasty image

[sharangad]

Originally Posted by talon95

My problem is gone, but I bought a Nvidia card.

Dave G.

Same here. Oh well. I'm thinking of buying another ATi card, just to see how things are. But I guess 'tis proly best at stage to wait until HDCP's more common and the next gen DX10 cards com out.

[talon95]

Originally Posted by sharangad

Same here. Oh well. I'm thinking of buying another ATi card, just to see how things are. But I guess 'tis proly best at stage to wait until HDCP's more common and the next gen DX10 cards com out.

I did a complete upgrade to a C2D system with the MSI 7600GT (the one with the HDCP chip). Great system, processor is awesome (E6300 running at 2.8Gig).

Dave G.

[DaveFi]

PowerDVD 7.0.1xxx does an excellent job doin AVIVO decoding in hardware, so apparently they've solved whatever problem is going on using the decoder alone.

For some reason to my eyes on my X1800XT, PDVD's hardware decoding looks much better than any other decoder, that includes all the filters available I've tried using Media Player Classic and VMR9.

Along with AVIVO on, I also set hardware Smart Deinterlacing to Weave. This is the best setting for PowerDVD 7, DVD and HD. Only thing is I can't get rid of the annoying gray line on the bottom of a lot of HD streams (even after running them through mpeg2repair).

[sharangad]

Originally Posted by DaveFi

PowerDVD 7.0.1xxx does an excellent job doin AVIVO decoding in hardware, so apparently they've solved whatever problem is going on using the decoder alone.

I pretty much doubt that. I tried PowerDVD 7 Deluxe, PowerDVD 6, WinDVD 7 Platinum and the PureVideo decoder. 'twas the same with all of them.

Only some DVDs are affected by it. On the other hand just about every one of my HTPCs recordings* suffered from this problem to varying degrees.

After they acknowledged the problem in Cat 6.7's release notes I updated my ticket and asked them about it and they admitted 'twas a problem with the noise reduction picking up motion as random noise.

* As captured by a Hauppauge PVR-250.

[talon95]

Originally Posted by DaveFi

Along with AVIVO on, I also set hardware Smart Deinterlacing to Weave. This is the best setting for PowerDVD 7, DVD and HD. Only thing is I can't get rid of the annoying gray line on the bottom of a lot of HD streams (even after running them through mpeg2repair).

That grey line is due to some of the broadcasts being 1088 pixels high, rather than 1080. I couldn't find a way to get rid of it using PowerDVD either. Theatertek and DScaler 5 do not display it though.

Dave G.

[StephaneM93]

Hello,

Originally Posted by sharangad

Could someone comment on whether 'tis fixed?

For me the problem is not resolved at all, I still see the trails. I've come to the conclusion that those artefacts are a direct consequence of noise removal (temporal) during deinterlacing.

The only Catalyst set without these artefacts are for me the 5.12 (with 5.13 the ghosting occurs but only on the top two third of the video )

(I also noticed that the Catalyst 5.12 is the only Catalyst set that does enable H.264 hardware acceleration with Cyberlink decoder in PowerDVD 7)

Regards,
Stéphane.

[sharangad]

I have actual screenshots with Cat 6.8 and the Cyberlink decoder:


First frame: notice the red circle on the middle monitor:




and now notice it in the next frame I've marked the area around it:



'tis not so readily apparent in this, but on a TV out via component 'tis readily noticeable.

Here is a brightened image ( via the GIMP ):


Notice that you can see the Excelsior crewman in the bottom right hand and his console.

The smear trail lasts a while because the next few frames are Kirk being stationary.

[Stanphink]

I've still got the exact same problem with the latest drivers as well. Starting to get a little bit tired waiting for ATI to fix this.

I mostly watch films so it's easy to "fix" by setting DVD software to film output which seems to cure the problem - so long as it's a film you're watching. If it's video then you obviously don't get any de-interlacing, so you have a choice between jaggies or ghosting.

Pretty poor choice if you ask me.

[Stanphink]

Here's an update to my ticket from ATI, they have asked me to complete an RMA form as they say the card could be faulty. Unfortunately, as I told them, my card is a Saphire so it is not eligible for the ATI warranty service and also that plenty of others are having the same problem. Sounds like they've got the slopey shoulders on.

I have asked them to confirm that this is a hardware fault so that I can pursue it with Saphire.

Watch this space.

[sharangad]

Originally Posted by Stanphink

Here's an update to my ticket from ATI, they have asked me to complete an RMA form as they say the card could be faulty. Unfortunately, as I told them, my card is a Saphire so it is not eligible for the ATI warranty service and also that plenty of others are having the same problem. Sounds like they've got the slopey shoulders on.

I have asked them to confirm that this is a hardware fault so that I can pursue it with Saphire.

Watch this space.

Send them some screenshots in VMR mode. Also send them some brightened images.

[EDIT] Allegedly Cat 6.9 released yesterday seems to have imroved things or so I've been told. I'll try and post some screenshots this weekend.

[Stanphink]

Just installed 6.9, now have bsod reset loop.... aaaarrrggghhh

That's it for today, I'm turning it off now before I throw it out the window.

[Dimahnbloe]

Hi guys, this is my first time posting to this particular thread, but I noticed a significant difference in image quality with the 6.9's. So much so that I thought I would post and see if it helps someone out. I think that I may have discovered this by accident, but here goes.

Using the MCE Decoder check utility, I changed the preferred Decoder to the "ATI Multiplexer" shown in the list. In the past this had proven to be unstable but now I get now errors and things seems to work flawlessly. I personally am not to sure what it does or means but it was showing up as a decoder so I tried it.

Once this was done, the image produced for recorded HDTV programming and DVD playback got what seems to me to be a hefty boost in quality. De-interlacing seems to have improved by a wide margin with the new CAT’s. The image looks a lot sharper and seems to be free of a lot of the "noise/artifacts" of previous drivers. And dare I say looks better than what my old 7 Series card Did with Purevideo Installed.

I have Power DVD 7 Platinum installed along with WinDVD 7 so both decoders were in the list. While the "Multiplexer" was selected as the preferred decoder, the one that seemed to be in action was the Cyberlink. Or maybe it's a combination of the two. I had uninstalled the Purevideo Software Package before doing this.

I used to have a 7900GT installed and now I use an x1800xt 256MB from Sapphire.
In the past I dreaded the decision due to the fact that Purevideo was way better on a NVIDIA card than AVIVO was on the ATI card for DVD Playback/ HDTV Programming. But now I can clearly state that the 6.9's via the "Multiplexer" is producing what in my opinion seems to be an equal or maybe even better image than the 7900GT/Purvideo combination.

Can any body confirm this??? Image quality is so subjective, so I don’t want to believe it until someone else here has confirmed the difference that I perceived.

Keep in mind I uninstalled all previous video related items including the Purevideo Decoders from my system.
I have installed:
Power DVD 7
Win DVD 7
Cat 6.9's (Main Driver and WDM Drivers)
AVIVO Decoder 6.9's
AVIVO Encoders and Parental Control 6.9's
New Theatre 550/650 Drivers.
New Theater 550/650 TV Control Panel

[StephaneM93]

Originally Posted by sharangad

Allegedly Cat 6.9 released yesterday seems to have imroved things or so I've been told. I'll try and post some screenshots this weekend.

I installed 6.9, and I see no improvments. Back to 5.12 for me...

[mulbrich]

Hello,

I have this same problem!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hate ATI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And they have notice:
"Playing an MPEG2 video clip on a system running Windows XP and containing an ATI Radeon® X1x00 product no longer results in corruption being noticed during the playback of the MPEG2 file. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22814"

IT´S RIDICULOUS!! They haven´t solved this problem yet!!!!!!!!!
I´ll try the catalyst 6.9 today, but I have no hope in this version (like others)

WHEN A NEW VERSION WILL FIX IT??

[wynpalmer]

Catalyst 6.9 does not improve the ghosting.
Has anyone confirmed that it is a hardware problem. My card is a HIS 1600, not an ATI.
Has anyone opened/renewed the ticket with ATI letting them know that the problem still exists?

[mulbrich]

Originally Posted by wynpalmer

Catalyst 6.9 does not improve the ghosting.
Has anyone confirmed that it is a hardware problem. My card is a HIS 1600, not an ATI.
Has anyone opened/renewed the ticket with ATI letting them know that the problem still exists?

I opened a new ticket letting know the problem still exists!
I´m waiting for a response!!!!

[Stanphink]

I seem to have accidentally cured this problem but I don't know why or how it works, so if anyone else wants to try then here goes.... by the way, this is with a Saphire X1300 AGP, MCE2005, PowerDVD7 with hardware acceleration (ATI Avivo) on and automatic de-interlacing on in catalyst control centre.

Start a dvd playing in MCE, go to the MCE start screen, settings, dvd, audio, video, video enhancement then click arrow next to top box until it scrolls through all the options ie; none,clev,theater,bright,vivid then back to none and exit. Thats it! mine now works! Like I said I don't know why or how it works but it just does does.

Be interesting to know others experiences, also if anyone can figure out why this might work.

[StephaneM93]

Originally Posted by Stanphink

.../... scrolls through all the options ie; none,clev,theater,bright,vivid then back to none and exit. Thats it! mine now works! .../... also if anyone can figure out why this might work.

I guess by doing so you simply disabled hardware acceleration: because when you selected "CLEV" the Cyberlink decoder must use software only and if it works like the configuration in PowerDVD just selecting "Vivid" will not restore hardware acceleration, you have to select it again.

[Stanphink]

I guess by doing so you simply disabled hardware acceleration....

Had me thinking there for a bit but just double checked and hardware acceleration is still enabled.

Also I'm not using 'vivid' I'm using 'none'

[sharangad]

ATi now have a registry hack to fix it:

"Here is the workaround for this issue. I have tested this personally and it works great.

WORKAROUND:

Important: Please back up your Windows registry before making any changes. For more information please click here.

1. Download the ATI-Registry-Tool and save it to your desktop.
2. Run the findreg.exe file and location in the Windows registry will appear.




( Alternatively look here:
Launch regedit and determine the current primary display card by
looking in
HKey_Local_Machine\Hardware\DeviceMap\Video
and note the GUID (global unique identifier assigned by Windows),
which is the long string in brackets { } at the end of the entry
"\device\video0".)


Note: Please note that location above might differ depending on the graphics card installed.
3. Click Start, and then click Run.
4. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
5. Locate and then click the subkey that contains the value that you want to edit. It will be in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

6. Make a right mouse click in the right window and select New and then DWORD Value.
7. Call the new DWORD value TRDenoise
8. Right click and modify the TRDenoise DWORD and give it a value of 0 (hex)
9. Restart the computer and play your video clip."

[Slammy1]

Won't let me download the tool, but I do have a ticket open.

[ehScorpio]

Originally Posted by talon95

My problem is gone, but I bought a Nvidia card.

Dave G.

nVidia shows the same effect with card/drivers which support denoising. You may not see it with drivers 91.47 as sharpening/denoising settings got reset every viewport switch (eg. from windowed mode to fullscreen or at the end of playback). But with drivers 91.31 you may observe the smear trails lasting hundereds of frames if denoising leve is set around 90-100.

Temporal denoising (as any other processing) has it's advatnages and disadantages. I would like to see the driver which allows to change denoising level on the fly without issues and the decoder which uses such feature for adaptive denoising based on content. It may solve issue with tradeoffs between noise level kept after filtering and trails resulted by such filtering.

The only issue with AVIVO I could see - ATi doesn't provide user-friendly interface to change settings for video post-processing, which means you should rely on their judgement about picture quality.

Added: And issue with nVidia drivers release 90 (either 91.31 or 91.47 or 92.91 or 92.92) - their new control panel (where they put interface to post-processing settins) is so buggy and non-robust that I can't use it and have to edit registry manually anyway.

[WillyWonka]

if you can't download the tool try on this page

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/...estionID=22853

[Stanphink]

if you can't download the tool try on this page...

Link tells me that the support session has expired. Anywhere else where I can get it from?

Thanks.

[WillyWonka]

search the ticket #737-22853

[wynpalmer]

I'm trying to modify my registry, but it doesn't look as shown.
I'm using Xp.

I get as far as hkey_local_machine/hardware/devicemap/video
and I see an entry \device\video0, but it is on the right not left side and I can't add a TRDenoise DWORD.
Help!

[WillyWonka]

the dword must be added in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\............ not int hardware\devicemap\......

[wynpalmer]

The modified registry works. thanks a lot for your help.
Does anyone know if ATI will include any modifications to their drivers to make this change?

[mulbrich]

The modified registry works fine. Thanks a lot for the information!!
But I can´t find this information in ATI home page.

[WillyWonka]

has anyone tried the new 6.10 drivers ?