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WMP10 Patch for WMV Acceleration  

post #1 of 104
5/26/05 at 6:57am
Thread Starter 
From HTPCnews.com:

"MS finally allows WMV acceleration
Posted by: SpHeRe31459
I just got work that Microsoft has finally put out a patch to WMP10 to properly enable WMV-HD acceleration for graphics cards that support it.

Grab the update here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;888656

I got these results from my contact at NVIDIA, I will be testing how it works for myself soon.


QUOTE
I ran some tests on my demo system with the “Step_Into_Liquid_720.wmv†WMVHD clip that can be downloaded from the Microsoft website and have observed the following improvements with a 6600 Passive:

Without WMV patch: 64% CPU Utilization

With WMV Patch: 40% CPU Utilization



I also ran the same tests with the 1080p version of the same demo clip and have observed even better improvements:

Without WMV patch: 98% CPU Utilization (and dropping frames)

With WMV Patch: 57% CPU Utilization (no dropped frames)



So if you have a GeForce 6-series card or a Radeon x700 and higher you can now benefit from the WMV acceleration that has been sitting dormant waiting for MS.
ATI users may need to wait until updated drivers are available. There is a hidden registry key that may or may not work. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SYSTEM -> CurrentControlSet -> Control ->Video. You will need to hunt through the keys until you find your current ATI video card. Then the key to change is called DXVA_WMV = 1"

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post #2 of 104
5/26/05 at 7:26am
For real? If this is true it's the best news ever! Now I donn't have to upgrade my cpu!
post #3 of 104
5/26/05 at 7:32am
I'm sure Intel / AMD are less than thrilled...
post #4 of 104
5/26/05 at 7:36am
linky no worky
post #5 of 104
5/26/05 at 7:42am
here's the right link
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;888656
post #6 of 104
5/26/05 at 8:41am
Thread Starter 
sorry I fixed the link in the first post...
post #7 of 104
5/26/05 at 9:01am
Great!
Tomorrow I'll do some test with my 6600GT :)

Will it work also with WMP9?

Regards,
Jok
post #8 of 104
5/27/05 at 3:43am
bump

it didn't install on my almost new PC- said "prerequisite missing"

i have an nvidia 6600.

did anyone else get this msg?
post #9 of 104
5/27/05 at 4:19am
If you follow that link above, there is another hotfix on the site that you have to install first. It fixes their DRM problem.

Also, this patch really works! my cpu usage dropped from 60-80% for 720p to 40-60%
post #10 of 104
5/27/05 at 7:20pm
I have a 6800NU AGP, and I noticed an improvement, albeit a small one. The real test is the 1080p Alexander trailer. I can *almost* play the whole thing now without dropping frames.

For best performance I had to turn off the graphic equalizer.
post #11 of 104
5/27/05 at 7:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MidnightWatcher
I have a 6800NU AGP, and I noticed an improvement, albeit a small one. The real test is the 1080p Alexander trailer. I can *almost* play the whole thing now without dropping frames.

For best performance I had to turn off the graphic equalizer.
Are you sure this isn't just placebo effect? I thought that the 6800 series was crippled so that WMV acceleration wouldn't work. As a fellow 6800 owner, I would love to find out that WMV acceleration works after all.
post #12 of 104
5/27/05 at 8:46pm
As I understand things, the WMV accleration is NOT broken on the 6800 plain jane cards. It IS broken on all the other 6800 cards (ultra, gt, etc.).
post #13 of 104
5/28/05 at 1:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lazyn00b
Are you sure this isn't just placebo effect? I thought that the 6800 series was crippled so that WMV acceleration wouldn't work. As a fellow 6800 owner, I would love to find out that WMV acceleration works after all.
Nope, no placebo effect. There is an improvement, but the improvements don't seem to be as big as those with 6600-based cards.
post #14 of 104
5/28/05 at 7:10am
Hi all, I didn't notice any improvement on my Nvidia 6600 (plain) - (Sony 3.4G, media center PC). CPU usage is around 30-35% before and after the patch?

did I miss something?

the new patch does show significant improvent on ATI 9800 pro (Sony 2.66 G, winXP) CPU usage dropped from 95-100% to now 60%.

thanks
post #15 of 104
5/28/05 at 7:15am
Oh, those tests I run are from 720 p clips, (6600 plain, 3.4 GHz sony, CPU is average around 35% after the patch)

frin 1080p clips, the CPU is average around 42% after the patch- probably 10-15 % improvement (w/o the patch).
post #16 of 104
5/28/05 at 8:48pm
Quick Question: in order to take advantage of the WMV acceleration with the 6xxx series, do you need to be running the NVIDIA DVD Decoders? Or will it work without them?
post #17 of 104
5/30/05 at 8:22am
rtiangha, you don't need NVIDIA DVD Decoders

Here are my tests with an Athlon XP 2800+, 6600GT and 1080p clips

Before the patch:
WMP9: 80-100%

After the patch:
WMP10: 38-60%


They are good results :)
However with WMP10 and 1920x1080i resolution via DVI the video stutters a lot. I think it is caused by the lack of renderless mode in WMP10; can anyone confirm this?

Regards,
Jok
post #18 of 104
5/30/05 at 11:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by andyO
the new patch does show significant improvent on ATI 9800 pro (Sony 2.66 G, winXP) CPU usage dropped from 95-100% to now 60%.
I have an ATI 9800 Pro with 128 Meg (Dell version) and didn't see any drop with this patch and the 1080p Alexander clip. It still hits 100% at times. I had an older driver from 2003 in there for the video card and just updated to the latest 5.5 driver, but that didn't help. I'm wondering if I am missing something here also. I've checked in the ATI control panel and see that hardware acceleration is set to max and also in WMP10 and see that Video Acceleration is set to Full.

--Darin
post #19 of 104
5/30/05 at 2:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lacquer
As I understand things, the WMV accleration is NOT broken on the 6800 plain jane cards. It IS broken on all the other 6800 cards (ultra, gt, etc.).
It is broken on almost all 6800 cards. The only one it supposedly works with is newer PCI-E regular 6800s. Be aware that there are regular 6800s that are on the older silicon and are broken - all AGP versions and possibly some early PCI-E versions.
post #20 of 104
5/30/05 at 2:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by darinp2
... I'm wondering if I am missing something here also. I've checked in the ATI control panel and see that hardware acceleration is set to max and also in WMP10 and see that Video Acceleration is set to Full.

--Darin
try enabling the registry setting someone listed above.
post #21 of 104
5/30/05 at 2:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by darinp2
I have an ATI 9800 Pro with 128 Meg (Dell version) and didn't see any drop with this patch and the 1080p Alexander clip. It still hits 100% at times. I had an older driver from 2003 in there for the video card and just updated to the latest 5.5 driver, but that didn't help. I'm wondering if I am missing something here also. I've checked in the ATI control panel and see that hardware acceleration is set to max and also in WMP10 and see that Video Acceleration is set to Full.

--Darin
Did you also install the DRM patch? Also make sure that the graphic equalizer is turned off.
post #22 of 104
5/30/05 at 8:22pm
Worked great for me -

XP Pro SP2 - 6600GT / AGP, XP2500+OC to 3000+

On 1080 files before, I was pegged at 100% CPU and had stutters... After the patch, Im at about 80% peak. and rock solid even moving the window around and resizing... nice.

THANK YOU for posting the link!
post #23 of 104
5/30/05 at 10:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bzo
try enabling the registry setting someone listed above.
Thanks. I had forgotten to do that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MidnightWatcher
Did you also install the DRM patch? Also make sure that the graphic equalizer is turned off.
I did install the DRM patch, but I'm not sure where this graphic equalizer thing is.

In any case, I'm still hitting 100% at times and haven't noticed any change. Glad to hear this is working for other people, but still wondering what is going on with my system. I've also had trouble running TheaterTek 2.1 in Renderless mode (I don't get any video that way), but I'm not sure if these are related. I've wondered if maybe I should switch to one of the NVIDIA cards (like a 6600) if that might work better for TheaterTek 2.1 (and maybe this).

--Darin
post #24 of 104
6/1/05 at 4:01am
Just installed this patch on my system running an XFX GeForce 6600GT and AMD Athlon XP 3200+, 1 gig RAM.

It played 1080p smooth with 75% CPU load before, and now it plays 1080p smooth with 45% CPU load!

On my MCE system I also had to change a setting in WMP10 to get a completely smooth playback. More on that here:
Playing smooth WMV-HD in Windows Media Center Edition

_eirikso
post #25 of 104
6/1/05 at 4:34am
Darin, I thought you needed an X*** generation ATI card for the acceleration to work - I don't think a 9800 pro has the hardware support.
post #26 of 104
6/1/05 at 6:41am
On my athlon xp 2000+ & overclocked radeon 9600xt rig, the patch increases cpu usage by 40 % when I play 720p clips with the screen resolution at 1024 x 768!
The patch reduces cpu usage for 1080p clips only if the screen res is 800 x 600! very strange results! Earlier, my cpu could handle most 720p wmv hd clips with cpu usage around 60 %. Now, hardware accelerated decode has raised cpu usage to an insane 93%!
athlon xp 2000+
512 mb ddr333
via kt333/8233a
agp 4x + fastwrites=on
radeon 9600xt @ 562/704
catalyst 5.5
all instances of dxva_wmv=1 in the registry
latest patches for mp10 installed

Can anyone throw light on this madness?
Tip: Turn down agp from 8x to 4x to see if that reproduces this bug!
This bug is surely a BIG find!
post #27 of 104
6/1/05 at 7:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bhanja_trinanjan
On my athlon xp 2000+ & overclocked radeon 9600xt rig, the patch increases cpu usage by 40 % when I play 720p clips with the screen resolution at 1024 x 768!
The patch reduces cpu usage for 1080p clips only if the screen res is 800 x 600! very strange results! Earlier, my cpu could handle most 720p wmv hd clips with cpu usage around 60 %. Now, hardware accelerated decode has raised cpu usage to an insane 93%!
athlon xp 2000+
512 mb ddr333
via kt333/8233a
agp 4x + fastwrites=on
radeon 9600xt @ 562/704
catalyst 5.5
all instances of dxva_wmv=1 in the registry
latest patches for mp10 installed

Can anyone throw light on this madness?
Tip: Turn down agp from 8x to 4x to see if that reproduces this bug!
This bug is surely a BIG find!
Quick! Report it to M$ before we all suffer the wrath of high CPU usage!1!1!1! :rolleyes:
post #28 of 104
6/1/05 at 8:13am
why did you install the patch, your video card doesn't support wmv9 dxva !!!!!!

if it ain't broken, don't fix it.
post #29 of 104
6/1/05 at 8:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1c3d0g
Quick! Report it to M$ before we all suffer the wrath of high CPU usage!1!1!1! :rolleyes:
M$ will not act on the basis of observations made by a single person. Please try to replicate my findings by playing those 720p hd clips on older processors. Try the clips on processors, which lie below the stated requirements(2-2.4 ghz class), as these cpus are likely to benifit the most from graphics card assisted decoding! Post your results here.
post #30 of 104
6/1/05 at 8:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by vairulez
why did you install the patch, your video card doesn't support wmv9 dxva !!!!!!

if it ain't broken, don't fix it.
All directx 9 class radeons use the shader pipeline to decode wmv hd clips. I mean all directx 9 class radeons (r9700/9600/9800 inclusive)! Read threads at rage3d. ATI gurus themselves admit that r9800 and radeon x800 do NOT differ in this regard. You may argue that the ATI web pages do not explicitly state this. But the very concept of wmv hd was not there during the radeon 9700 days! The radeon 9700 web page at ati.com has not been updated to highlight the inherent capability of all dx9 class radeons do do the same wmv hd decode. It is to be noted here that all dx9 class radeons can accelerate divx hd clips flawlessly in hardware. And yes, it works wonders on my rig!
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