[bug2k11]

I am interested others experience of playback quality of 24p media.


I have noticed that the codec used for h.264 decoding seems to have a big impact on the 'smoothness' of playback. I'm not talking about dropped frames but the way motion is resolved.

I have an overclocked Core2Duo, 4GB ram, nVidia GT520, Win7 Pro, Mediaportal running off SSD drives, hooked up to an LG 47LE8900 LCD via HDMI.


Mediaportal is set to dynamic refresh rate control, so switches to the correct rate when a movie is played.

I have the pdvd11 and ffdshow codecs installed at the moment, but have found that I get better playback using the Microsoft DVD/DTV codec, I have tried the pdvd11 and ffdshow codecs and while they decode fine and don't seem to drop frames, it is hard to explain the effect, but it's almost as though the picture isn't as 'solid' when there's motion, as though there's 2 frames overlaid.


I've been happy with the picture quality using any of these codecs, but the Microsoft one definitely seems to resolve motion better.


Has anyones else come across this problem and found out what causes it?

 

[gtgray]

Most likely you are not getting hardware assist with PowerDVD or ffdshow codecs. Your GPU is not really strong. I currently am running the PowerDVD 10 decoder on my main HTP and during the Monday night game I saw issues with pans. There is nothing wrong with the Microsoft Video Decoder and it will do hardware acceleration without any intervention on your part.


The Cyberlink decder can do hardware accelerationg but it must be configured to do so. You have to get to the properties page and set it to hardware if I recall it default is software decoding and deinterlacing.

 

[gtgray]

I just checked on PowerDVD 10's decoder... the default is software mode. There a 3 modes, software, DXVA, and HAM... HAM is a hardware mode for ATI GPUs. I have the GT 545.


The LAV CUVID video decoder would also work for you unless you are running a Ceton than expect some weridness. I get blinking in some commercials in HD cable playback in WMC.


I switched mine over to hardware. You should be able to right click on the file to get to propertieds. The problem with Cyberlink is that there are so many files it is hard to tell which is which. I just added Cyberlink PowerDVD as an external filter in MPC-HD then double clicked it. The property page opened and I selected hardware. So that is one way to get there.

 

[bug2k11]

DXVA is enabled for both pdvd11 and ffdshow, cpu is around 12% when playing back bluray files.


The quality of the actual picture is fine on all codecs, slow motion looks very much the same too, but when there's certain panning shots or people move across the screen at certain speeds there's a certain 'blurring' of the moving object, perhaps blurring is the wrong word, it's almost like 2 frames are overlaid.


I realise 24p will not be 50 or 60fps smooth, that's not the point, the TV has interpolation built in and it give that horrible 'soap opera' effect to movies which isn't nice, I've switched all TV image enhancements off. It doesn't look like a frame dropping issue either, it's just that some moving picture objects aren't clear.