[savagez3]

I am confused about VMR9. What are the advantages for DVD playback of using VMR9. I know that VMR9 adds some extra functionality, such as 3D support in the overlay, but that does not seem to be relivant to DVD playback.


Also, do you need a video card with DX9 support in hardware. I currently use a 9200, which is not actually DX9 dispite the name.

 

[Nich]

I want to know the same. I have a Radeon9500 and a Geforce5600FX


Nich

 

[barhoram]

i asked the same question on here a while back...the answer i got was theoretically vrm9 should give you advantages over overlay for dvd playback. Real world, however, the difference usually isn't seen as that great. I wanted to use ffdshow... and had all sorts of problems doing that with vrm9, so am using overlay. If you do a search you should be able to find my post with some excellent replies from others smarter on the subject than me.

 

[AndyIEG]

vmr9 is the latest dshow mixing render, one main adv. is the ability to have more than 1 render open at a time (think u can have 8-32 open at once or more not sure) while only one hardware overlay can be used at a time.


vmr9 also was supposed to have better color and sharpness controls if the card support it.


vmr9 has some aspect ratio correction and deinterlacer build in.


Also the normal scaler mode is improved compared to the overlay one. But if u use ffdshow to rezise the image u dont need it at all the scaler is still crap compared to the nice methodes ffdshow offers.


Than i noticed that vmr9 images looks "smooth" some dudes like it some not, while the image/colors dont look so sharp the overall feeling is better in low quality playback, but depends on what u like. ( i dont like that "smooth" feeling )


But last the vmr9 render is still bugged or at least the driver support, nvidia has some color conversions bugs in its driver if u use vmr9 and yuv modes. Also the color settings make trouble in players. Latly i found some color problems with ffdshow rezise and vmr9 also.


I recommend not to use vmr9 since its slower than overlay and dont offer u something that ffdshow cant do better (reziser/deinterlacer...)

Until the performance and the bugs are fixed stay away from vmr9


Also the vmr9 colors setting's differ from the overlay settings (more brightness) for me the vmr9 colors look kinda strange compared to the overlay image, im not sure if its a simple default color setting or something other but overlay looks more natural to me than vmr9.


If u have time just enable vmr9 in the decoder and zoomplayer and check the "use multiple instances" in zoomplayer than compare the vmr9 image to the overlay by alt-tabbing at the same frame

 

[Blight]

I like the native VMR9 much better than the Overlay one. If you're using ffdshow to scale it's a different issue, but for standard media playback, it's much better.


CPU wise, there's a very small difference, probably around 2-5% slower, at least on my system.

 

[ditcho]

Trying to play HDTV MPEG2 media in ZP 3.20 Standard, using default system Nvidia 2.55 filters. ATI 9600 (supposedly does DX9 better), Win2k, AMD XP1800.

With overlay - things are practically perfect - crisp, natural colors, good textures, aboslutely smooth playback on pans and fast movement (using HW accel).

With VMR9 in ZP - everything looks like crap - washed out and very unnatural colors, soft image, tearing occurs on every fast movement, brightness and contrast are way off from the overlay settings and however I set them can't get even acceptable image. Same with all kinds of 3D settings on the Radeon.

I'm completely clueless why anyone would use VMR9 at present, especially for HDTV.

 

[vpopovic]

Most advanced users agree that VMR9 is superior to overlay, if your system is set-up correctly for VMR9 use. Getting things right with VMR9 is more difficult than with overlay. However, this still means that on any one particular system overlay might work better than VMR9.


Benefits for using VMR9 will largely depend on your set-up and your viewing preferences. Screen size, resolution of display, type of display (analog vs. digital), type of interface used (S-video, component, RBG, DVI), viewing distance, CPU power, GPU type/power, software used, drivers used, your preference for "sharp" vs. "smooth" image, your tolerance for noise levels, your sensitivity to level of fine detail in the image, etc.


There are lots of threads on this topic, so whoever feels like exploring will have plenty of material to deal with.

 

[TracerBullet]

what, exactly, is vmr9? what does it stand for? does it come on all directx9 cards? How can I use it? I generally play dvd's through TT and HD through my ADTV; is this a feature that affects me? (I think these questions are even more basic than the thread starters, because I'm not sure if the answers pertain to me or not)

 

[ditcho]

vpopovich, I agree that it depends on all of those things that you mentioned.


But wouldn't it be better to warn people that without at least $2000 system (current prices) + $1000 software + min $4000 display VMR9 is just a waste of time?


BTW, I have at least proper display (56'' Sammy DLP fed through DVI in 1280x720) and am completeley disappointed from any attempt to use VMR9.

 

[jvincent]

Quote:

Originally posted by TracerBullet what, exactly, is vmr9? what does it stand for? does it come on all directx9 cards? How can I use it? I generally play dvd's through TT and HD through my ADTV; is this a feature that affects me? (I think these questions are even more basic than the thread starters, because I'm not sure if the answers pertain to me or not)

VMR9 = Video Mixing Renderer. The 9 refers to directx9.


In a nutshell, VMR9 is a way to use the 3D hardware in the GPU to render or display 2D graphics like DVDs. It performs scaling, colour space mapping, etc.


TT does not support display using VMR. It currently uses the overlay mixer, which is older, 2D graphics specific technology.

 

[N3W81E]

I'm using VMR9 with ZP and ffdshow on a Sony GW3 42" thru ATI9700 DVI, and I prefer it over overlay mixer. Had to change some settings in ffdshow to compensate for the smoothness, but overall, VMR9 'looks' better to me.

 

[barhoram]

what are you ffdshow settinsgs that worked?

 

[TracerBullet]

thanks, jvincent. and I'm gathering, from this thread, that it's a nontrivial thing to mess around with, so I may just stick with TT for now. Until they get a vmr9 based renderer.

 

[jvincent]

The official TT policy on VMR9, and I'm paraphrasing slightly, is that when they think it's ready for primetime they will probably implement it.

 

[diehardii]

VMR9 does not need a DX9 video card, only DX9 installed. It looks great on my TV or monitor with my not that expensive computer. I use Zoomplayer, Got TV and the Got TV viewer with no problems.


~Steve

 

[AndyIEG]

some1 with a nvidia card use VMR9 here with nice results? I would like to see the ffdshow and zoomplayer settings to get around or compensate the yuv + vmr9 "green" bug? Or u use rgb32 output in ffdshow, wich means about 20% more cpu usage?