Ffdshow FAQ

[kejar31]

First what is it?

Ffdshow is a filter used with your DVD, Mpeg2, Mpeg1 and most Mpeg4 codec’s. Ffdshow allows you to make changes to the video stream real-time digitally, like sharpening and denoising. It’s sort of like digitally enhancing the video, to perfectly match your system, while playing it back, real time.

Is my system fast enough to use ffdshow???

That depends, how you use ffdshow, will determine whether you can use it, with your processor or not. If you have a system with a 1.2 GHz or above you can give it a try and see how it works out.

OK were do I get it and how do I install it???

Go here --- http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...group_id=53761

I recommend using the one dated 2002-12-11

Its easy to install just click and follow the onscreen instructions.

Now how do I get it to work with Zoomplayer???

You need to create a graph or find one on this sight using the search function.

------ If someone would donate the space online I could give them my graphs I have to host. I have one for nvdvd, windvd, and sonic. -----

For the Sonic filters you need to add a Dword registry entry ALLOWALLRENDERERS with a value of 1 to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sonic\CineMaster DS DVD\2.5\VideoDecoder registry directory

Also befor it will work you need to go to your start menu->programs->ffdhow->configuration and choose Codecs under the Left hand tool bar. When you click on the Codecs option a screen wil populate on the left hand side with listing under ( Supported codecs) and ( Supported output colorspaces)

Supported Codecs -- Unselect everything except Raw video

Support output colorspaces --- select everthing

All those settings, what to do, what to do???

That will depend on how much CPU power you have

For systems with and AMD 1800/ Intel 1.8 GHz and above ---
Resize to sharpen ---
1. On the left hand panel unselect everything to start
2. Now go to the Resize & aspect setting ( hint - it does not have a check mark box beside it ) and highlight it. You should notice little up down arrows to the far left hand side, once highlighted. Click on the up arrow ( you should notice the Resize & aspect menu move up on the panel ) do this until it is above the Blur & NR option
3. Once again select the Resize & aspect option on the left panel. In the screen that is now populated to your right you should notice and option ( Resize ) with a check mark beside it. Check it. Under that option select the ( Specify size ) option and set your new size to 1440 x 960.
4. Select the Settings option on the left panel 9 hint – it is located directly below the Resize & aspect option ) in the right hand window select Bicubic under the Method option ( hint - if you have problem playing back smooth video playback try and change this option to experimental ). Under the Luma and Chroma sharpen option in the right hand menu select a setting from 1.0 to 2.0 ( you will need to adjust these setting to your personal taste, at a later date --- hint – I have both of mine set to 1.3).
5. Now go to the Blur & NR option on the left panel and check the check mark beside it. Also go the right hand screen and select gradual denoise and move the slider from 20 to 40 ( you will need to change this setting to your liking later – hint – I have mine set to 40 )
6. Select OK.
7. Now play a movie to see if you get smooth playback ( one thing I have noticed on my system is that my menus do not play back smoothly while the video does, so make sure to play the move to check not the menu)
8. if you do not get smooth playback first to experimental instead of bicubic and if that doesn’t help try turning off the Blur & Nr option. And last if those doest works try the next set of instructions.

Plain old sharpen option
1. On the left hand panel unselect everything to start
2. First you will want to select the Blur & NR option on the left hand panel until you see the up and down arrows. Now click on the down arrow until the Blur & NR option is below the Sharpen option on the left hand panel
3. Select the Sharpen option. In the right hand screen you will see options to select different sharpening methods ( Xsharpen, Unsharp mask, Msharpen, and asharp to be exact) select the unsharp mask and set it from 10 to 40 for the strength ( I have also heard great things about asharp but have never tried it myself, so I don’t know what those settings should be ) also make sure that the check mark beside sharpen is selected.
4. Select the Blur & NR option on the left hand panel and set the Gradual denoise from 10 to 40.
5. Give it a try and see how it looks but more importantly play around to tweak the setting for you set.

And that’s all for now. Sorry if my grammar wasn’t the best or if I made any mistakes.
And thanks to everyone on this forum who have helped to make this happen

[Owen]

EDIT

If you are reading this thread for the first time, take note of the date.
This thread is now very old. So I suggest that you just read the last 10 or maybe 20 pages to find out the current best practice.
Over the time this thread has been running, there has been considerable advancement in hardware, software, and of coarse experience. So consider these early posts as early experiments with FFDShow and the hardware-software available at the time.
If you are feeling keen, you may want to read the old posts as reference. There will be information in there that you may find useful in understanding FFDShow and its use.

I started an even older thread on FFDShow resize back in June 2003.

http://archive2.avsforum.com/avs-vb/...ize+as+sharpen


Here is a link to a good illustrated starters guide for Zoom Player and FFDShow setup. Newbies should start here.

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

Regards,

Owen

___________________________
The FFDShow resize-sharpen dude.

P.S. Almost all the common questions get asked and answered within the last 10-20 pages of the thread and I considerer the asking of questions that HAVE been answered within those pages to be rude and shows a lack of effort or your part.





kejar31,

Thank your for spending the time to write this FAQ.
Just couple of things I have an issue with.

1. It is not required to resize to anywhere near 1440x 960 to get good results with Resize-Sharpen. A 25-30% increase over DVD resolution is a good starting point and work up from there depending on system speed. Bigger is not always better.
This will help a lot more people to get Resize-Sharpen working for them.

2. I would encourage people to start with Gradual denoise before the resize filter.
Or not use it at all until they can get resize running smoothly.
It is more important to have Resize with Sharpen then denoise.
There is only a slight improvement in using the denoise filter after resize so it is better to have denoise first and save the CPU to get a more optimum resize.

Regards,

Owen

[metallicafreak]

Thanks a lot for this! I am nearly done with the hardware construction on my HTPC and software still holds some abiguity for me. This sheds a lot of light.
Thanks!
FREAK!

[Blight]

Small note... you no longer nead graph files to get ZP to work with FFDShow in v3.00 RC1.

[kejar31]

Originally posted by Blight
Small note... you no longer nead graph files to get ZP to work with FFDShow in v3.00 RC1.

that sounds great Blight Ill try that out tonight. Thanks for your great program

[kejar31]

Originally posted by Owen
kejar31,

Thank your for spending the time to write this FAQ.
Just couple of things I have an issue with.

1. It is not required to resize to anywhere near 1440x 960 to get good results with Resize-Sharpen. A 25-30% increase over DVD resolution is a good starting point and work up from there depending on system speed. Bigger is not always better.
This will help a lot more people to get Resize-Sharpen working for them.

2. I would encourage people to start with Gradual denoise before the resize filter.
Or not use it at all until they can get resize running smoothly.
It is more important to have Resize with Sharpen then denoise.
There is only a slight improvement in using the denoise filter after resize so it is better to have denoise first and save the CPU to get a more optimum resize.

Regards,

Owen

Owen:

I will try and edit the Faq tonight but I might not be able to get to it until tomorrow. If you have anything you would like to add or reword in the original post I can add or edit it for you and note you changes. Just email me the rewording or changes at justin.rogers@kraft.com or just post with a reply in this forum. If you rewrite som I can add it right away.

[Troubleshooter]

How important is/do we need to select 'Process whole image'? Not selecting this gives me smooth playback on my lame 1ghz athlon but selecting it throws things off even though 100% cpu utilization is never reached regardless. After playing with the filters for a while my eyes are playing tricks on me so I just want some confirmation on my hunch
Thanks for taking the time to do this...It got me off my ass to finally give it a shot. Your directions worked perfectly.
-Trouble

[shakti]

"Process whole image" processes the black bars on top and bottom as well.

[Dammit!]

Originally posted by Blight
Small note... you no longer nead graph files to get ZP to work with FFDShow in v3.00 RC1.

Where can we download that? I don't see it on your page...

[kejar31]

Originally posted by Dammit!
Where can we download that? I don't see it on your page...

check out this thread.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=245776

[Ye110man]

thanks for the faq. it's exactly what i've been looking for.
i have an athlon 1700 and the 1440x960 resize didn't work but on owen's suggestion i'm now resizing to 960x640.

Originally posted by kejar31
Supported Codecs -- Unselect everything except Raw video

why?

[brickie]

just wated to report my findings on resize..i too couldn't go as high as some others have..i tried 1280x720 and it wasn't bad,but i got the slo mo menus.i went to 1024x720 instead and now everything works!!!it really is a nice way to improve the picture..

i was using asharp before this and it worked qiute nicely as well,but i didn't like the "ringing" or edge enhancemant it introduced...anyhow i'm thru tweaking for alittle while..probably til next weekend..

brickie

[kyrill]

To be pixel perfect for my D-ILA have the desktop set to 1360x1024

OR as a general question, do you have to set the resize larger than the standard dvd size but at least as big as the native screen resolution of the projector?

[Ye110man]

you should set it higher than 720x480 otherwise there's no point in resizing. but you don't have to set it as high as your native screen resolution. 1440x960 would be optimal regardless of you native resolution (since it will be adjusted again upon full-screen display) but most people can't get that high.

[DrakkenFire]

Great Guide, thought I would add my input:

I did the resize method as you listed. I am using zp3 + cineplayer video + powerdvd audio + ffdshow + reclock.

I was having some stuttering problems but my CPU usage was only at about 70% with the exact settings you listed (athlon xp 1800+ /w 512MB DDR 2100)

So, I figured the stuttering couldnt be because i was trying to use too much, because I wasnt hitting 100% CPU usage.

I moved the Blur & NR to before the Resize and all the stuttering stopped. Its running great at a resize of 1440x960 with my desktop resolution being 1184x666


Here are the other settings I changed (due to improved PQ):
I am using Process full image for both blur and the resize.
I am using experimental resizing instead of bicubic
my gradual denoise is set to 30
and as i said i blur and nr THEN resize.

Otherwise all settings are as listed in original post.

LOOKS GREAT!!!

Before I was using a sharpen method almost the exact same as you listed as the sharpen method in your original post, I can say without a doubt the resize method I am using now yeilded a 100% improvement in PQ.

I AM VERY HAPPY!

[Blight]

you should be aware that the CPU resource monitoring under windows is EXTREMELY flawed, it may be listed at 70%, but in fact be using 100%.

Noise reduction should probably be done before the resize, but blur? Why would you blur the image? And for ref. sharpening should be done after the resize.

[DrakkenFire]

I meant Blur and NR as a catagory, im not really blurring anything, im just using the NR.

And with the current resize setup I dont use the sharpening options at all. The resize does the sharpening for me.

[Owen]

DrakkenFire,
"Proccess whole image" is not a good idea.
It asks ffdshow to proccess the top and bottom black bars as well as the video.
This is a wast of CPU.

Try useing less Resize and Gradual denoise after Resize as another option.
Sometimes this works better overall.

Im glad you have the resize toy running.
Another happy Resize & Sharpen customer.

Regards,

Owen

[DrakkenFire]

I was running without process whole image checked, but there was a marked improvement once I checked it.

[RTK]

Could someone post an image of a filtergraph (Graphedit) using ffdshow?

[DrakkenFire]

I know there was a thread on here about 3 weeks ago that had a whole bunch of filtergraphs using ffdshow... also, if you check the inmatrix forums (ZP website) there is a post that has all kinds of filtergraphs that vern dias posted. It used to be a sticky thread on that forum, but got bumped when the new version was released.

Also, I would suggest ZP3 Pro. It eliminates the need for filtergraphs, and allows you to try different combinations to check quality, very very easily. You do have to register it eventually, but the $20 is well worth it.

[ninja.rogue]

Dear friends,
I have a desktop set to 1280x720, as I am using Radeon 9500 DVI to Infocus 7200, native.
Do I need to use exactly 1280x720 in order to avoid problems?
I presume that I have to get exactly the native resolution - am I wrong?
I have read above of much higher resolutions - are these for CRTs?
Thank you all in advance
Paolo

[beyond]

whats the best way for it to actually do something to the vid feed coming in off a capture card? ie the Xcapture?

I have gotten it to work on recordings using various codecs.. but am having a hell of a time getting it to edit the live feed (raw data I presume? )

[Goi]

Originally posted by Blight
you should be aware that the CPU resource monitoring under windows is EXTREMELY flawed, it may be listed at 70%, but in fact be using 100%.

Noise reduction should probably be done before the resize, but blur? Why would you blur the image? And for ref. sharpening should be done after the resize.

Wouldn't it be better to process the image(NR) after resizing? The whole point in resizing is so that the algorithm works over a supersampled scene right? If NR is done before resizing, what's the resizing for? Wouldn't ZoomPlayer's "Full Screen" mode server the same purpose then?

[beyond]

hrm.. u make a FAQ and won't help? hehe

help!

can't get the vid to work with what's coming over the capture card.. I know it works, as I have seen others that have gotten it to work..

[Owen]

dnoyeb,

If what you are asking is: Can ffdshow be used to process live video from a capture card, then the anser is no. I dont think so. Not yet anyway.
Maybe it could integrated into Descaler by some very smart people.


Regards,

Owen

[Socio]

This is the first I have heard of ffdshow;

Will ffdshow work with Theater TK?

If so how? Do I need a graph for Theater TK?

[schud]

Originally posted by Socio
This is the first I have heard of ffdshow;

Will ffdshow work with Theater TK?

If so how? Do I need a graph for Theater TK?

Yes, it will work with TheaterTek v1.5.23.

No, you don't need a filter graph. Theater Tek 1.5.23 provides the option to use ffdshow under the video tab.

Check out the Hints and Tips forum (IIRC)at the TheaterTek forums.

[Socio]

Originally posted by schud
Yes, it will work with TheaterTek v1.5.23.

No, you don't need a filter graph. Theater Tek 1.5.23 provides the option to use ffdshow under the video tab.

Check out the Hints and Tips forum (IIRC)at the TheaterTek forums.

Thanks for the info I am going to try out ffdshow and see how it works!

[Fallo]

@Owen

I am using VirtualVCR in preview as my TVApp, ffDshow with raw option marked and resizing/sharpening in ffdshow at 1440 x 960 for my Live TV viewing. All this from myHTPC at 30/40 percent CPU usage. I am not using any blur/nr in ffDshow so I can manage to run smoothly...

Fallo