[moskiter]

Hey,

I'm not a genius if it comes to Video stuff, I just want to watch my .mkv videos on my laptop which is Acer Aspire 5740-5749 (i3 2.13 GHz, Intel accelerator HD, 64-bit Windows 7). Which version of MPC should I use (32 or 64 bit) and how to set up filters (internal/external) for the best possible quality? I used search but these threads are too complicated to me and I don't want to deepen too much into it, if anybody can give me a simple way I would appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[Calcvictim]

use default settings, with your CPU you don't care about hardware decoding. just get the 64 bit version and enjoy, most of the people who tweak mpc-hc do it for external filters and if you're watching HD IMHO they're not necessary especially on a laptop screen

 

[moskiter]

Actually the laptop is hooked up with an LCD TV and when I watch HD video on TV it stutters..

 

[rahzel]

Don't use the 64-bit version, it's not as refined as the 32-bit version.


To remove stutters, get reclock. the default settings should work ok.


Get madVR if you want the best PQ possible. Once you install madVR, you should be able to select it as a renderer in the output section of MPC HC. To configure it, there should be a tray icon. If not, right click MPC HC while a video is playing, go to filters and click on madVR. Also, you must keep the madVR folder in the same location it was installed.

You may have to tweak the scaling options to work smoothly on your machine. For scalers, generally you want a softer chroma upsampler and a sharper luma upsampler, but it's all personal preference. Sharper algorithms usually put more processing load on the GPU.

Keep in mind that when you view a movie in windowed mode, madVR uses considerably more CPU power. Fullscreen (aka Exclusive mode) uses less CPU power, so if you experience choppy playback in windowed mode, try fullscreen. I'm sure you watch movies in fullscreen anyway.


If you can't get madVR to work smoothly, then try ffdshow decoder and use EVR CP renderer.

Once ffdshow is installed, go to output and deselect all colorspaces except RGB32. Then go to RGB conversion and select "High Quality YV12 to RGB conversion" and also check "Dithering".

In MPC, go to external filters, add ffdshow video decoder (not DXVA) and set it to prefer.


If even ffdshow runs choppy on your machine, then just use EVR CP with MPC's internal DXVA decoder. Try enabling Full Floating Point Processing or Half Floating Point Processing by right clicking MPC HC, selecting renderer settings and then Presentation. If those make videos too choppy, enable 10-bit output; this will at least give you dithering to avoid banding. Also enable the YV12 Chroma upsampling shader. Right click MPC, select Shaders, pre-resize pixel shaders, then YV12 Chroma upsampling.


LAV splitter is also something you might want to get. It's the best media splitter out there. To use it, you have to uncheck the internal splitters (Matroska, MPEG/PS/TS, MP4, or whatever other containers that you have).

madVR
LAV Splitter
ReClock
ffdshow
MPC HC (that's where I get MPC HC from)

 

[fujmeistr]

Very nice algorithm rahzel. Your write up should help the uninitiated since there are many ways mpc-hc can be used.

 

[assassin]



Quote:
Originally Posted by rahzel /forum/post/20796825


Don't use the 64-bit version, it's not as refined as the 32-bit version.

Huh? I have no idea what you mean by this. Care to expand?

 

[rahzel]

the 32-bit version is more mature and more compatible. there's some software that doesn't work well (or at all) with the 64-bit version (madVR for example).

 

[assassin]



Quote:
Originally Posted by rahzel /forum/post/20799634


the 32-bit version is more mature and more compatible. there's some software that doesn't work well (or at all) with the 64-bit version (madVR for example).

Not true.


madvr works just fine in 64 bit windows. Most 32 bit software does. The only caveat is you just have to also use mpc-hc 32 bit.


Both work fine in win 7 64 as tested by me and many others.

 

[rahzel]



Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin /forum/post/20799656


Not true.


madvr works just fine in 64 bit windows. Most 32 bit software does. The only caveat is you just have to also use mpc-hc 32 bit.


Both work fine in win 7 64 as tested by me and many others.

uh, I wasn't talking about the OS. The OP clearly said he had Win 7 64-bit installed and asked which version of MPC he should get, which I responded to get the 32-bit version and not the 64-bit version.


I'm well aware that madVR works with Win 7 64-bit as I myself am using Win 7 64-bit on my desktop PC with MPC HC x86.

 

[assassin]

So what makes the 32 bit better than the 64 bit then?

 

[rahzel]

As I said (and you said yourself) madVR doesn't work with MPC x64 -- only x86.

 

[assassin]

Okay so just install mpchc 32 bit and madvr (32 bit only) using win 7 64 bit.


It works just fine.

 

[rahzel]

Yup.

 

[moskiter]

Thank you rahzel and assassin. I installed madVR and stuttering worsened a lot, even playing with chroma and luma doesn't help. I also installed ReClock and it helped a little, actually it's almost gone but I have also another issue besides stuttering - the screen freezes for a fraction of second once a while when I watch an HD movie. Now let me try MPC x64 and see what happens. Later I'll try ffdshow and LAV. Currently I don't have any codecs installed on my system, just fresh Windows.

 

[moskiter]

OK, when I play MPC x64 sound and video don't go simultaneously, there is some lag. Rather no suttering but freezing thing that I mentioned before. And ReClock doesn't load.

 

[Somewhatlost]

Quote:

Originally Posted by assassin Okay so just install mpchc 32 bit and madvr (32 bit only) using win 7 64 bit. It works just fine.

silly question...

but I am not quite sure I am following this thread very well... or I missed something....

but isn't that exactly what rahzel said in the first place?

what did I miss?

 

[moskiter]

Should I select anything when I install ffdshow?

 

[rahzel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Somewhatlost silly question... but I am not quite sure I am following this thread very well... or I missed something.... but isn't that exactly what rahzel said in the first place? what did I miss?

He thought that I was recommending Windows 7 32-bit over 64-bit, but I was talking about MPC, not the OS.
Quote:

Originally Posted by moskiter Should I select anything when I install ffdshow?

I leave the ffdshow installation untouched, but configure the ffdshow video decoder as I explained above.


When you play a movie with madVR, what's your CPU usage like? Did you try setting all of the scalers to bilinear?

You can view your CPU and GPU load with THIS program (View -> System Information). Play a movie in fullscreen/Exclusive mode with ProcessorExplorer running in the background for a few minutes, then close the movie and look at the graphs.


Also, what format are most of your videos? If they're h264/avc, you might want to try Divx H264 decoder as it's one of the faster H264 decoders. I'm guessing the pauses you're seeing are because of your CPU load. On my machines, I had to use Divx H264 to remove pauses as well.

Nvidia card owners that support Cuda can use LAV Cuvid which puts the processing load on the GPU rather than the CPU, but AMD/Intel owners have to use software decoders.

Divx H264


Install and set Divx H264 to prefer in the external MPC filters. Double click Divx H264 to configure it (or find it in your install location) and make sure "Multithreading" is checked.


One thing I forgot to mention is that if you use EVR CP, you might want to play around with the different scaling options in the EVR CP settings. In MPC HC, under Output when EVR CP is selected as the renderer, there's a "Resizer" dropdown box. Or you can play around with ffdshow's scaling options, but I've never played around with them before so I dunno how to do it.

 

[assassin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Somewhatlost silly question... but I am not quite sure I am following this thread very well... or I missed something.... but isn't that exactly what rahzel said in the first place? what did I miss?

Just re-read his statements. I stand corrected. He was saying this exactly.


I think we have hammered it home now. Carry on...

 

[moskiter]

OK. I play videos with x264 in their file name.


1. MPC x86 + ReClock (default settings) + madVR (default settings) [both in tray], fullscreen - CPU usage 25-30 %. Big stuttering, actually it looks more like skipping frames.


2. Same setting but EVR CP instead of madVR - bit of stuttering, no skipping frames but the freezing thing once a while, CPU usage - 10-15%


3. Same setting as at 1st time (with madVR) but all three scaling agorithms -> processing done by texture units set to bilinear - same CPU usage (25-30%) - great! No bad things! Should I pick one in 'processing done by custom pixel shader code' ?


4. Same setting as above but DivX H264 on - CPU usage 30-40%, no difference I see.


OK so summerizing:


with EVR CP I have about 15% of CPU usage but the freezing thing

with madVR I have about 35% of CPU usage but smooth video (about 30% without external DivX H264).


Let me watch one movie tomorrow to see if ReClock does anything because so far it works great with and without ReClock...