Video Tearing With FFDShow...

Don't use chroma sharpen as it only creates noise - it's bad.


System specs? Does the problem still happen as you reduce the amount of ffdshow post-processing you do? Also what version of video drivers?


If it's not hardware related you may want to try reclock.

Your 5200 probably doesn't have the cahones to do VMR9 at 1440x960

Thanks for the reply. The system is a P4 2.8 with 512 PC3200 memory, 200 Gig SATA, Windows XP SP1, and yes, an FX 5200 with Nvidia 61.77. It works fine without the resize, but what's the point without it. I'm not home right now so I'll try the sharpen and reclock settings later. If there is anything else anyone can think of, I'll try that too when I get home.

Not to argue, but what's the point of resize if you get tearing?

Well I have to agree with stanger89, that's a beefy PC and the video card is definetly the weakest link. If you're using VMR9 the card is probably not up to the job.... what happens to the stutter if you switch to overlay?


The 61.77 drivers are very slow.... you'll have better performance using the newly released 66.81_win2kxp_english_whql.exe version. It's WHQL certified and I've seen some tests showing it has much better performance than the ones you're using. I didn't see a huge difference when I went to the 66.81 but then I'm using a 6800GT card and am already pushing the limits. YMMV.


The good news is you're HTPC is up to the job and you'll only need to upgrade your video card...

I hear you. That's why I'm not using ffdshow at the moment, but I must, I just have to get this fixed. I'm getting used to watching HD, so I wanna puke when I watch a dvd without ffdshow.

I'm going off of memory here, I can't use Overlay in Zoom Player or I just get a grey screen. I've tried VMR9 and 7. My Nvidia codec is set to Prefer Overlay under Enhanced Nview Support. Might be a dumb question, but should the VR settings be the same in Zoom Player as they are in the Nvidia Video Codec?

Well, I did some more fooling around with ffdshow and zoom player. I guess stanger89 was probably right about my video card. Since I can't seem to use overlay, I used VMR7 instead and set the resize to 960x540 and turned off chroma sharpen. Even with VMR7 at 1440x960 the video starts to studder, so I guess the workaround for now is use those settings and get around to buying a better video card. The video looks pretty good, so I guess I won't feel sick next time I watch a movie. Oh yeah, I also upgraded my Nvidia drivers to 61.81, didn't seem to help with the video tearing, but did help with another issue I was having.


Thanks again for all your help guys.

I can't even use denoise3d or I get major stutters. I can do vmr9, gradual denoise, and resize to 1.75. My video card is even older than FX5200! If 6800GT is pushing it, what is considered the best buy (nVidia gpu) if I want to do vmr9, denoise3d, and resize to like 1.75~2.0?


Hammer

Quote:
Who said anything about a 6800GT "pushing it"? Novakaine has a 5200.


As for Studder with Denoise3D, that's probably a CPU issue.


Right now, the Geforce 6600 is the best buy if you can get one, if you don't have PCIe, then the 6800 is the next best, probably followed by the 5900XT.

Post#6 mnn1265 "I'm using a 6800GT card and am already pushing the limits"


My CPU is actually P4 2.4GHz, but my MX440 4x agp is probably choking . I'm actually considering 6600/6800. My mobo is only 4x, will a 6600/6800 @ 4x be ok? Or do I really need 8x?


Hammer

Ah, skimmed right over that, it's possible to max out a 6800 but a lot harder than something slower.

Quote:
I've got a P4 2.4B also, and I'd say that Denoise3D and resize is asking too much from that CPU, that's probably what's causing the stuttering. Make sure you're using one of the SSE2 ffdshow builds, and try resize or denoise.


As for best video card? If you want to do resize, then the best buy right now is probably the fanless Gigabyte 6800.

Not sure if this will help you or anyone else searching for tearing problems, but I fixed my performance problems by only playing the DVD on the 1 display - initially I had it set to a "clone" mode which played Overlay DVD on both vga projector and S-video to TV and when I changed it to only play on projector it now plays fine on my Radeon 8500.


Kille

I would just like to restate what Killefitt said.


If you are using two displays you will get tearing on the secondary monitor. Especially if they are running at different refresh rates.


I shouldn't post this yet but I am in the middle of programming a new DVD/Media player( I grew tired of fighting all the other front ends and having to use a seperate dvd program with them ).


I'm able to use ffdshow + denoise 3D + asharp + Lanczos resize to 1600x1200 with no video tearing, at about 88% cpu usage. This is with a Radeon 9500Pro + AMD Barton 2500 running Renderless VMR9(the only mode supported by my program).

Hello guys,


After seeing this post I would like someone to clarify on the effects of a video card using FDDShow. I do have an Athlon XP oced at 3200 and perfectly stable, 512 MB of Ram and a GF4 Ti 4200. A friend has a P4 at 3 Mhz, 512 MB ram and a Radeon 9200. Each one of us uses the FFDshow version most suitable for its system. We use Lanczos 4, Resize at 2x PAL DVDs and Denoise 3d HQ. We both get stutter while using either Dscaler or Windvd codecs but our cpus are sufficient. This of course happens while using overlay, things are unacceptable with VRM9. I suggested that the video card is the weak link in both cases, lurking in speed and not supporting Directx 9, but someone suggested that since the job of FFDshow is performed by the cpu, the card shouldn't play a role. Anyway, can an expert elaborate on the role of the video card while using this program. Christmas is coming, and I want to prepare my shopping list......

The card will definitely play a role even with ffdshow. You are transferring a huge amount of data to your video card every frame. With ffdshow your in software mode, so all of the data is being transfered from system memory to video memory.


Alot of things can slow the transfer down including memory speed, agp speed, system bus/cpu speed and the efficency of the video card to lock/unlock and copy the image to the backbuffer.


Alot(all?) of the current DVD player programs run in a fullscreen window. (If you can ctrl-alt-del and see the task manager while the video still plays you are in windowed mode.) This places a further strain on the system by forcing it to copy the backbuffer surface to the front buffer when the video frame is ready. My program has the option of running in fullscreen D3D exclusive mode which eliminates the need for the copy. If the cards vsync is working correctly tearing is very unlikely in that mode.