[bpdski]

Can anyone point my to some threads or guides on configuring your HTPC so that video files take advantage of hardware acceleration whenever possible? Here is what I tried so far which kind of works. I have an AMD64 with a 4650 video card.


I installed XP from scratch, then the latest ATI, then PowerDVD that came with my LG Blu-Ray. Discs play fine and use the hardware acceleration. I next installed the k-lite codec pack, but was careful to deselect h264, vc1 and mpeg2. This also works pretty well, when I play mkv or avi files in zoomplayer, i can select filter and see that it is using the Cyberlink driver. It also uses less than 10% cpu.


So that's mostly good, except some of my h264 mkv files won't play which work fine with CoreAVC. Is there any way to easily change the codec that will be used for files like this? I also have a couple of mpg files that lock the cpu at 100% and won't play which also worked ok previously.


Thanks,

Brian

 

[mjfink]

This isn't exactly an answer to your question, but it may help.


Get a program called "graphedit" It will allow you to drop a movie file in and see what codecs/filters are being applied between the movie and the output. I find it VERY helpful for trying to diagnose problems like you are experiencing.


Also, I always keep Media Player Classic around (and VLC). MPC has the codecs internally, so, often times, if I am having trouble with a file, MPC can play it (if it's a filter problem).

Quote:
Originally Posted by bpdski /forum/post/15481127


Can anyone point my to some threads or guides on configuring your HTPC so that video files take advantage of hardware acceleration whenever possible? Here is what I tried so far which kind of works. I have an AMD64 with a 4650 video card.


I installed XP from scratch, then the latest ATI, then PowerDVD that came with my LG Blu-Ray. Discs play fine and use the hardware acceleration. I next installed the k-lite codec pack, but was careful to deselect h264, vc1 and mpeg2. This also works pretty well, when I play mkv or avi files in zoomplayer, i can select filter and see that it is using the Cyberlink driver. It also uses less than 10% cpu.


So that's mostly good, except some of my h264 mkv files won't play which work fine with CoreAVC. Is there any way to easily change the codec that will be used for files like this? I also have a couple of mpg files that lock the cpu at 100% and won't play which also worked ok previously.


Thanks,

Brian

 

[bpdski]

Yeah, I've used graphedit, it is great. Interestingly, this file locks up graphedit and pegs the cpu at 100%. I installed PowerDVD, k-lite, ccc and all do the same. Finally I installed VLC and it plays in VLC! It still won't play in anything else though. On another machine it will actually open in graphedit and it goes through the MPEG-2 Demultiplexor. It is just a normal HD mpeg file as far as I can tell. Any ideas why it plays fine in VLC but nothing else?


On another front, I figured out I can go into ffdshow and select h264 and select disabled and h264 will fall back to the cyberlink codec and play fine. When I compared them I noticed that regardless of using ffdshow or cyberlink, cpu is very low at around 10%. Does ffdshow support hardware acceleration through avivo or dxva now? I didn't realize that, but I guess it must. Before getting this 4650 card, these same h264 files would use around 80% cpu.


I have played around with graphedit before and even been able to create my own graphs and play files from within it. However, how do I make it permanent so a program like zoomplayer will use the new graph by default? Is there any way to great graphs and quickly change them out?


Thanks