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Advanced MPC-HC Setup Guide

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#1 · (Edited)
Advanced MPC-HC Setup Guide (6/2015 update)

Introduction
This guide is about getting the best quality and performance out of the MPC-HC video player, allowing it to make the most out of your hardware. The guide has 5 main parts: installation, video decoding, audio, madvr configuration, and reclock(optional). The installation part is really easy, and if you really wanted to keep things simple, you can actually just use the installation section alone and be in decent shape. I’d recommend that for casual users that don’t want to read the whole thing. Also, feel free to add comments and questions in this thread. Two things I don’t cover are SVP and display calibration. I’m not interested in SVP’s functionality. If you want to learn more about display calibration, see http://www.avsforum.com/t/1471169/madvr-argyllcms .

What you need to download
1. MPC-HC x86 installer (http://mpc-hc.org/downloads/ )
- Considered one of the best directshow players for windows. I’m suggesting the 32 bit version since it is compatible with more things.
2. MadVR.zip ( http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=146228 )
- Considered the best video renderer, most of the quality improvements come from madVR.
3. Optional - Reclock ( from the stickied thread here http://forum.slysoft.com/forumdisplay.php?f=85 )
- Advanced software popular among videophiles, its main function is to provide extremely smooth video by better syncing the video with the display. Much more detail in the Reclock section.

Installation
Run the MPC-HC x86 installer. Note that it gives you the option to reset settings if you’ve messed around with other guides or codec packs, and want to start fresh.



Then, to install madVR, extract the zip file and run the install.bat for it. To tell mpc-hc to use madVR, open mpc-hc, press “o” for options, go to ouput, and select madVR under directshow video.



That’s it for installation. I’ll cover reclock in its own section, as you may or may not need to install it.

Video Decoding
To access the video decoding options, open mpc hc, press o for options, go to internal filters, and click Video Decoder at the bottom.



The important things to note here are the hardware acceleration options on the upper right side. In general, dxva copyback is the one to use to decode the video through your gpu. You also can use the “none” option if you want to use your CPU. Hardware acceleration lowers cpu usage on supported formats, such as 8 bit HEVC, 8 bit H264, VC-1, mpeg 2, etc, depending on the GPU and what is ticked in the video decoder options.

Audio
Windows Audio Setup
This subsection doesn’t deal with anything mpc-hc specific, but rather a windows audio setting that people often overlook that affects audio quality in general. Go to control panel, hardware and sound, and then sound. Right click on your sound device, and then go to advanced. My recommendation is 24 bit, 48khz.



Next, go back to the sound window. Right click on your sound device and this time select configure speakers. Set it up to match your speaker setup. If you are using spdif output, you probably don't have this option, and don't have to do this step.



It’s pretty straight forward.

Bitstreaming
This is mostly for people with AV receivers, allowing you to use the audio decoders in them. To access the bitstreaming options of MPC-HC, go to options, internal filters, and click Audio Decoder at the bottom. This opens the audio settings.



For analog, don't check anything. For a receiver connected by SPDIF, you usually can check Dolby Digital and DTS. For a receiver connected by HDMI, you usually can check all the options for bitstreaming.

Mixer
This is mostly for people having volume issues with multichannel audio. The low volume occurs when Windows downmixes your audio, and to avoid this, you can do a downmix within MPC-HC instead. To access the mixing options of MPC-HC, go to options, internal filters, click Audio Decoder at the bottom, then go to the mixing tab.



Select your speaker configuration and check the option in the upper right called “Don’t mix stereo sources” to leave mono and stereo audio untouched by the mixer. Don’t touch any of the sliders.


MadVR Config
To edit the madVR settings, first play any video in MPC-HC. Then right click in the video, go to filters,
then click on madVR, and click edit settings. This is also a great chance to make sure all the right filters are also showing up properly in the filters list.



Scaling
For image downscaling, catmull rom is the way to go. For chroma and image upscaling, Jinc with the antiringing filter is considered great quality, but requires a fast GPU. Similiarly, lanczos 3 taps with antiringing is considered good, but doesn’t require as much GPU performance. For modern intel GPU’s specifically, the dxva scaling options provide good quality with a very small performance hit.



Image Doubling
Image doubling gives higher quality than upscaling alone. Currently, the option with good performance and quality is the super xbr option, so I recommend that. Image doubling in general requires a fast gpu.


Display Modes
This subsection is basically for televisions that have a 23.976hz mode. MadVR can make the display switch refresh rates when needed. The default 60hz usually isn’t ideal for movies. To see what refresh rates your display supports, right click on your desktop wallpaper and go to screen resolution. Choose the display you watch videos on and go to advanced. Then go to the monitor tab and look at the listed refresh rates.



To have madVR automatically switch to the proper refresh rate, go to the devices section in madVR settings and choose the display that you watch videos on. Expand it, and then choose display modes. Check the option to change to matching display modes, and then list the important refresh rates your device supports in the box. The important refresh rates are 23.976, 24, 50, 59.94, 60, or multiples of these. The names of the non-integer refresh rates are shortened, so 23.976=23. Make sure you only enter refresh rates for the native resolution of the display (eg, don’t put in 720p values for a 1080p display). You can see the display’s refresh rate and the video frame rate while watching a video by pressing ctrl+j.



Smooth Motion
This is basically for 60hz computer displays and televisions that don’t support a 23.976hz mode. It is an alternative to setting a matching refresh rate through the display modes section. Enabling both doesn’t hurt anyway, since Smooth Motion is only used when needed by default. It causes a small performance hit, but on the bright side, you don’t get the screen going blank from a refresh rate change. It is listed under rendering.



Film Deinterlacing
This is mostly for DVD video and HDTV broadcasts. There are 2 types of deinterlacing available through madVR. Video deinterlacing for video sources and film deinterlacing for film sources. Film deinterlacing is also known as inverse telecine. Film mode is probably more appropriate for your DVDs and HDTV shows. Deinterlacing options are in the processing section. You have to disable automatic source detection and force film mode. Automatic source detection doesn’t work atm, it just defaults to video mode all the time. Film deinterlacing is not compatible with DXVA2 (native) video decoding atm.



How To Judge Performance
Press ctrl+j while a video is playing. You want the all the queues to be full or near full, with a low average rendering time. The rendering time has to be comfortably lower than the movie frame interval. Rendering performance varies depending on the resolution of the video, the resolution of the display, and the frame rate and bit depth of the video. You also want to make sure the dropped frame counter isn’t rising, though some dropped frames are inevitable at the start of playback. You can press ctrl+r to reset the counter after playback has stabilized.

Optional - Reclock
Who should use it?
This is mostly for people with 120hz/144hz computer displays or televisions with 23.976hz mode. Without reclock, you will have slight frame drops/repeats once in a while due to the frame rate not quite matching the refresh rate. Reclock will make them sync up exactly.



Reclock Requirements:
1. You shouldn’t bitstream with reclock. Reclock needs uncompressed audio to work.
2. You have to have set up display mode switching in madvr or have a 120hz/144hz computer display. Your video’s frame rate (or an integer multiple of the frame rate) has to be roughly near your refresh rate for reclock to be effective. So, for a 23.976 fps video, the display can be 23-24hz (multiple of 1), 119-120hz (multiple of 5), 143-144hz (multiple of 6).

If you meet this criteria, and you’re intrigued by the idea of even smoother video (since you aren’t limited to 60hz, you’re already smoother than most), continue reading this section.

Setting up Reclock
Install reclock using the installer. Note that you don’t need PowerDVD support, dsound support, Arcsoft TMT support, etc, just the program files. Then, go into lav audio and disable bitstreaming for all formats.



While in the audio settings, note the mixing tab. With reclock, we will use wasapi exclusive mode, which bypasses the Windows’ mixer (the one you saw in control panel>audio>configure speakers). This may cause issues if you are using integrated audio, so you will have to use lav audio to mix to your speaker configuration. Check "Don't mix stereo sources" to keep mono and stereo streams untouched. Don’t touch the sliders. If you have a dedicated sound card or an hdmi multichannel receiver, you can likely skip mixing here – specify speaker config through the sound card or receiver instead.



Configure MPC-HC to use reclock as the audio renderer by going to options, output and selecting reclock as the audio renderer.


Open the configure reclock shortcut from the start menu. Choose Wasapi for PCM, choose best sinc interpolation for quality, choose 24 bit padded to 32 for format, and uncheck “output mono to front channels” if you have a center speaker (5.1 configs, etc). You may also have to set a 48khz sampling rate here, depending on if you run into weird videos that don’t use the standard 48khz and your hardware isn’t tolerant of the sampling rates.


And that’s all. You’ll should see the green reclock icon in the taskbar while videos are playing, indicating that reclock is doing its thing.

Updating Software
You can update MPC HC by just running a newer installer. Your settings will carry over. For madVR, run the uninstall.bat, delete the old madVR folder, put the new one in its place and run the install.bat. For reclock, run the uninstaller, and then the new installer.
 
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#2,902 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by rexb610  /t/1357375/advanced-mpc-hc-setup-guide/2880#post_24631253


I think i've found a way to fix it. I turned off the view in fullscreen in the output of MPC-HC. But running it inside MediaBrowser3 as external plug-in it will still run it in fullscreen. After I turned off the option in MPC-HC, it now works and no more blank black screen and freezing. Thanks for the response.
Awesome. So you are running MPC-HC withing MB3?
 
#2,905 ·
Radeon card supports 4 displays (EyeFinity). But you will need DisplayPort.
 
#2,907 ·
The number of displays that can be turned to a single large display is Radeon: up to 6, GeForce: up to 3 (Quadro supports more by Mosaic).
 
#2,908 ·
I dont know why reclock icon stays always on yellow, I've tried everything,

Im using a samsung hdtv which currently change the resolution corresponding to the video,

The message on reclock says Cinema media adaptation: media speed changed to 24.000fps. Audio resampled at 48048Hz.

pressing CTRL+J:

display 23.96578Hz

movie 23.976fps (says source filter)..

But still icon is yellow and still I loose about a frame per 30sec.

Videocard is nvidia 8800gt, audiocard auzentech Prelude, windows 7x64 (all software x86)no bitstreaming,

Any help?
 
#2,909 ·
There is a setting per devices, under the devices node that controls whether madvr changes to the closest matching refresh rate on start and optionally, returns to the existing on exit. They are both enabled by default.
 
#2,910 ·
Dumb question but is their anyway with lav to bitstream lpcm audio? Seems any lpcm audio will only output whatever my speaker configuration is in windows. So if i set my speaker config in windows to 5.1, then 2 channel lpcm tracks on some old blurays are output as 5.1, and vice versa. If i set it to 2 channel in windows for music, it output lpcm 5.1 blurays as 2 channels.


And then if i set it 7.1 in windows, i cant use my avr processing (pro logic IIx) or anything on 5.1 or lesser tracks.


Besides using reclock that is, anyway to fix this within lav? Or do i have to hope media browser theater adds wasapi.
 
#2,911 ·

try to disable "convert output to standard channel layouts".

 

you can't bitstream lpcm because there is no decoder needed.

but i'm not 100 % sure what you mean with this:

 
Quote:
So if i set my speaker config in windows to 5.1, then 2 channel lpcm tracks on some old blurays are output as 5.1, and vice versa. If i set it to 2 channel in windows for music, it output lpcm 5.1 blurays as 2 channels.
is the output 5.1 or is the avr getting and showing 5.1 in his display but there is only sound on stereo? if the output is stereo this may help.
 
#2,913 ·

Quote:
 Optional - DTS-HD Decoding

By default, MPC-HC will only give you DTS quality if you try to decode DTS-HD audio tracks with it. You can still bitstream DTS-HD over HDMI since bitstreaming bypasses the decoder. You can get DTS-HD decoding by using a file found within arcsoft TMT software. Search the arcsoft TMT folder for a file called dtsdecoderdll.dll. Then copy this file into C:\Program Files (x86)\MPC-HC\LAVFilters.
i have downloaded latest arcsoft trial version and copied the dtsdecoderdll.dll 1.1.0.9 version into the lavfilters, but still i'm getting dca audio output for bitstreaming. pls help me to rectify this problem
 
#2,916 ·
I am requesting assistance. Just got a brand new laptop as my old one died on me, its a Lenovo i5-4200M with HD4600 running Win 8. I am using this as my temp HTPC until i can build a dedicated one. I am running XBMC with mpc-hc and madvr. My question is ,how do i confirm that i have mpc-hc as my external player in XBMC. I have looked at several online guides how to set up mpc-hc and set it on XBMC but i am not sure if i have do it correctly. Bellow is my player factory .xml





Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
#2,917 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by adinis  /t/1357375/advanced-mpc-hc-setup-guide/2910#post_24688573


I am requesting assistance. Just got a brand new laptop as my old one died on me, its a Lenovo i5-4200M with HD4600 running Win 8. I am using this as my temp HTPC until i can build a dedicated one. I am running XBMC with mpc-hc and madvr. My question is ,how do i confirm that i have mpc-hc as my external player in XBMC. I have looked at several online guides how to set up mpc-hc and set it on XBMC but i am not sure if i have do it correctly. Bellow is my player factory .xml





Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Below should work. To confirm just watch the screen when you use an external player xbmc will minimize or be pushed to the back and mpc-hc will open. Right click the screen and you should get the options menu for mpc-hc.

Code:
Code:
[CODE]C:\Program Files\MPC-HC\mpc-hc.exe
     "{1}" /fullscreen /play /close
     true
     true
     none
[/CODE]
 
#2,920 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by wraslor  /t/1357375/advanced-mpc-hc-setup-guide/2910#post_24693346


Below should work. To confirm just watch the screen when you use an external player xbmc will minimize or be pushed to the back and mpc-hc will open. Right click the screen and you should get the options menu for mpc-hc.

Code:
Code:
[CODE]C:\Program Files\MPC-HC\mpc-hc.exe
     "{1}" /fullscreen /play /close
     true
     true
     none
[/CODE]
 
#2,923 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by adinis  /t/1357375/advanced-mpc-hc-setup-guide/2910#post_24694259


Thanks, one more question, I also have some .mp4 files, how do I add that to the script
Quote:
Originally Posted by wraslor  /t/1357375/advanced-mpc-hc-setup-guide/2910#post_24693346


Below should work. To confirm just watch the screen when you use an external player xbmc will minimize or be pushed to the back and mpc-hc will open. Right click the screen and you should get the options menu for mpc-hc.

Code:
Code:
[CODE]C:\Program Files(x86)\MPC-HC\mpc-hc.exe
     "{1}" /fullscreen /play /close
     true
     true
     none
[/CODE]

so i have tried this as you suggested but it seems i am still using the xbmc player, any other suggestions


i have also saved the .xml under c:\Program Files(x86)\xbmc\userdata ans still not working
 
#2,924 ·
Ok it seems that i was saving the .xml file under the wrong path, here is where i needed to save it


C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\userdata


but when i do this and i try to launch a movie, i get a flicker as if mpc-hc wants to start but nothing happens, it just stays in xbmc. Any ideas?



ok i have finaly gotten it to work. here is what i did http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=194472
 
#2,926 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by adinis  /t/1357375/advanced-mpc-hc-setup-guide/2910#post_24696059


Ok it seems that i was saving the .xml file under the wrong path, here is where i needed to save it


C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\userdata


but when i do this and i try to launch a movie, i get a flicker as if mpc-hc wants to start but nothing happens, it just stays in xbmc. Any ideas?



ok i have finaly gotten it to work. here is what i did http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=194472

Sorry for late reply, glad to hear you got it sorted!
 
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