[LPChris]

I'm running a cheap Acer as my HTPC with AMD 4000+ Proc, 3GB of RAM and using the ATI HD2600 video card which said it was specially for HD video. It'll play 720p movies just fine, but on 1080p the proc runs at 100% and the audio and video are no where near in sync unless it's a slower part of the movie.


So basically I know that my processor must just be too weak, but why isn't my video card doing the decoding? What would you guys suggest as minimum system requirements for a economical HTPC that will play 1080p video files? Also, can I just upgrade the video card again and it'll work? Or am I going to need a more powerful processor?


I read another thread where they were talking about some DXVA encoding or something, but I have no clue what that is or how I can convert my current MKV files over to it.

 

[MickeyDora]

What player and what codecs are you using?

 

[LPChris]



Quote:
Originally Posted by MickeyDora /forum/post/15537546


What player and what codecs are you using?

Oh yeah, I forgot about that, sorry.


I'm using the K-lite Media Codec Pack with the Windows Media Player Classic that comes bundled with it.

 

[MickeyDora]

Try MPC-HC (Media Player Classic - Home Cinema) and depending on your GPU (ATI or NVidia) you can use either the built in MPC filters or Arcsoft filters. Should be flawless after that.

 

[johnifehr]



Quote:
Originally Posted by LPChris /forum/post/15537433


I'm running a cheap Acer as my HTPC with AMD 4000+ Proc, 3GB of RAM and using the ATI HD2600 video card which said it was specially for HD video. It'll play 720p movies just fine, but on 1080p the proc runs at 100% and the audio and video are no where near in sync unless it's a slower part of the movie.


So basically I know that my processor must just be too weak, but why isn't my video card doing the decoding? What would you guys suggest as minimum system requirements for a economical HTPC that will play 1080p video files? Also, can I just upgrade the video card again and it'll work? Or am I going to need a more powerful processor?


I read another thread where they were talking about some DXVA encoding or something, but I have no clue what that is or how I can convert my current MKV files over to it.

After playin around with my e4300 (dual core1.8ghz) I had to overclock the processor to 2.6 ghz then It could play any 1080p files without hesistation, and these mkv's really rely on a fast processor, not your video card. I have since built another htpc with a e8400 and now it plays any 1080p perfectly at stock speeds but for fun I overclock it anyway. My office computer has a amd x2 dualcore 4400 and it is not quite up to par for 1080p, so I can tell you that your processor is to slow. One other thing you can try is the coreavc codec which you have to pay for, but it is much easier on the processor itself cause it distributes better across both cores but quality isn't quite as good.

 

[MickeyDora]



Quote:
Originally Posted by johnifehr /forum/post/15538332


After playin around with my e4300 (dual core1.8ghz) I had to overclock the processor to 2.6 ghz then It could play any 1080p files without hesistation, and these mkv's really rely on a fast processor, not your video card.

WRONG!!!! I am using a E4300 @ stock 1.8ghz with a ATI 4670 and all mkv's play at less than 15% CPU. AVC or VC1 can easily be played with GPU alone if you use the right filters.

 

[GooberedUp]

The MKV has to be encoded correctly as well.

 

[johnifehr]



Quote:
Originally Posted by MickeyDora /forum/post/15538407


WRONG!!!! I am using a E4300 @ stock 1.8ghz with a ATI 4670 and all mkv's play at less than 15% CPU. AVC or VC1 can easily be played with GPU alone if you use the right filters.

Watching Blu ray and hd-dvd I use like nothing cause they use avivo acceleration but mkv's seem to not use the gpu, only processor. I also have many friends that can't play 1080p mkv's cause processors are 2 slow, but if you can do it thats great, but I know the stock e4300 won't play my 1080p mkv's cause I tried and only once I had jacked it up to 2.6 ghz That processor was able to. Anywho if you know the trick to use the acceleration of the ati cards for mkv's you should share. I have never gotten acceleration to work on mkv's only on blu and hd-dvd's.(I'm using the ati 3870)

 

[MickeyDora]



Quote:
Originally Posted by johnifehr /forum/post/15539447


Watching Blu ray and hd-dvd I use like nothing cause they use avivo acceleration but mkv's seem to not use the gpu, only processor. I also have many friends that can't play 1080p mkv's cause processors are 2 slow, but if you can do it thats great, but I know the stock e4300 won't play my 1080p mkv's cause I tried and only once I had jacked it up to 2.6 ghz That processor was able to. Anywho if you know the trick to use the acceleration of the ati cards for mkv's you should share. I have never gotten acceleration to work on mkv's only on blu and hd-dvd's.(I'm using the ati 3870)

Your first problem will be the 38xx card. They are buggy as far as I'm concern. Any of the 45xx and up series are so far the best cards I have ever used as far as GPU acceleration.


First, use MPC-HC. Then start playing with the different filters (MPC, Arcsoft, Cyberlink) and you will easily find a combo that will work. You may or may not need Haali and ffdshow but I don't since I am only using the internal MPC filters.

 

[barth2k]

your hd2600 should handle h264. get mpc

http://tibrium.neuf.fr/DXVASupport.html


and follow the instructions there. not all mkv files will work unfortunately.


is your processor dual core? I have a X2 3800+ overclocked to 2.4ghz and I can easily play any 1080p mkv file with coreavc (software) decoder. I think you can download a trial version at coreavc.com and see if it works for you. I can even play avc encoded m2ts bluray files, which are much more processor intensive. sure it's nicer to get hardware decoding, but it's so hit and miss it's almost not worth the bother.

 

[LPChris]

I downloaded MPC-HC and it seems even worse. The video is wayyy behind the audio now. Should I download the Standalone Filters as well? I just downloaded the Win32 version of the player zip file.


Should I rip Vista Home Premium (what was installed on the comp by default) out and put in XP 64 bit? I'd just hate to do that since I know XP64 seems to have a lot of driver issues.


While playing back The Dark Knight, I checked the properties on the video renderer and it said it wasn't using DXVA mode.

 

[JiffOrange]



Quote:
While playing back The Dark Knight, I checked the properties on the video renderer and it said it wasn't using DXVA mode.

Think you just answered your own question .....when you have MPC-HC open, go to options and alter the video codec to enable DXVA mode and update drivers for your ATI to latest and you should be golden. Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Jiff.

 

[johnifehr]



Quote:
Originally Posted by MickeyDora /forum/post/15539504


Your first problem will be the 38xx card. They are buggy as far as I'm concern. Any of the 45xx and up series are so far the best cards I have ever used as far as GPU acceleration.


First, use MPC-HC. Then start playing with the different filters (MPC, Arcsoft, Cyberlink) and you will easily find a combo that will work. You may or may not need Haali and ffdshow but I don't since I am only using the internal MPC filters.

Thanks, but I like this card cause its an excellent gaming card and I have plenty of power now, and it plays 1080p24 so smoothly too, but I also use ffdshow with wm 11 player and blu+Hd-dvd on powerdvd and use many filters than enhance P/Q, using core avc or internal mpc filters with no enhancing filters will work on a slower processor, but that wasn't good enough for me.LOL I'm on a 106" screen so PQ is most important.

 

[LPChris]



Quote:
Originally Posted by JiffOrange /forum/post/15540620


Think you just answered your own question .....when you have MPC-HC open, go to options and alter the video codec to enable DXVA mode and update drivers for your ATI to latest and you should be golden. Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Jiff.

Yeah, my drivers are up to date, I'll check out that tab, but I was poking around last night and didn't see anything about enabling DXVA. Hopefully it's as simple as enabling it!

 

[Zagor]

You guys keep missing the most important part. If the MkV is NOT ENCODED to make use of DXVA then it doesn't matter what card you use or what filter you use, you will have to brute force it with a powerful CPU. Buying a new video card is not going to help at all. The 1080p h264 video stream in the mkv has to be encoded using four or less reference frames (blu-ray specs profile level 4.1) for the video card to be able to assist in decoding. The majority of mkv files you download off the net do NOT support DXVA (not encoded properly).

 

[yankeetrader]



Quote:
Originally Posted by GooberedUp /forum/post/15538578


The MKV has to be encoded correctly as well.

That's pretty much the key to getting hardware decoding (that, and setting the hardware TO decode).


For ATI, make sure you have the latest drivers. I use CCCP with MPC-HC for the player. In MPC-HC, go to Options/Transforms and make sure everything with the letters DXVA is checked (if not, check it). Then go to the Playback/Output and choose EVR for the renderer. That should enable hardware playback, but as GooberedUp correctly points out, only MKV files that are DXVA compliant will take advantage of the hardware decoding.

 

[jrwalte]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Zagor /forum/post/15544141


The majority of mkv files you download off the net do NOT support DXVA (not encoded properly).

You may download from a crappy place. Every single MKV I've downloaded so far from usenet has worked with DXVA (I check my CPU and it runs usually around 4% for 720p content and 1080p is around 15% with an E6600 stock). I also have the 4870, and I think I've read 48** are more forgiving with DXVA.


Codecs used:

PowerDVD8 for AVC/264

Haali Media Splitter

AC3Filter for audio

EVR as renderer

VSFilter when subtitles are necessary on foreign films (I leave this codec turned off as it will shut off DXVA because it inserts itself between the Video filter and EVR)


Player:

Vista Media Center


FYI,

DXVA will only work in XP if you use renderer VMR9 and in Vista EVR. In Vista, programs other than Media Center won't choose EVR as the default renderer (WMP11 may), but the basic renderer instead. MPC-HC has an option to force EVR as the renderer under output options.


FFDShow can also cause issues with DXVA. It likes to place itself above the other AVC/VC1 codecs and can cause issues even when you lower its merit/disable (at least in my case). This is why I didn't install ffdshow and used AC3Filter instead for my audio. Graphstudio is your best friend to figure out what codecs your PC is using.


If you use graphedit/graphstudio in vista it will never give you DXVA in its test because the renderer always defaults to basic renderer. If you want to test DXVA in graphstudio, manually insert the EVR renderer and delete the basic.

 

[johnifehr]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Zagor /forum/post/15544141


You guys keep missing the most important part. If the MkV is NOT ENCODED to make use of DXVA then it doesn't matter what card you use or what filter you use, you will have to brute force it with a powerful CPU. Buying a new video card is not going to help at all. The 1080p h264 video stream in the mkv has to be encoded using four or less reference frames (blu-ray specs profile level 4.1) for the video card to be able to assist in decoding. The majority of mkv files you download off the net do NOT support DXVA (not encoded properly).

Exactly, agree 100% what I realized too and was trying to say. I've got 1500 gigs of 1080p and 720p MKV movies and none use DXVA.

 

[tattootearz]

This thread is very confusing....


I have well over 200 .mkv files. Most are 720p but some are 1080p as well.... Here is a combination that works on every PC I have used.... ranging from Single Core 1.6Ghz on up to Dual Core 3.1Ghz...

• Media Player Classic
• CoreAVC
• Haali Media Splitter
• Spdifer (for HTPC w/ Spdif output)

Using this combination and making SURE that FFDSHOW is not in your Video Filter chain will ensure that you will have flawless playback of .mkv files. (Assuming that you have adequate RAM)


For instance, one of my HTPC systems is a laptop that uses a lowly 1.6Ghz Processor and using the above mentioned configuration with a fugazi Intel onboard GPU, I get smooth playback of .mkv with minimal CPU usage.


I know there are a quite a bit of h264 decoders out there... and I have a Video card capable of DXVA, but CoreAVC works very well and only costs $15.

 

[Zagor]



Quote:
Originally Posted by tattootearz /forum/post/15545901


This thread is very confusing....


I have well over 200 .mkv files. Most are 720p but some are 1080p as well.... Here is a combination that works on every PC I have used.... ranging from Single Core 1.6Ghz on up to Dual Core 3.1Ghz...

• Media Player Classic
• CoreAVC
• Haali Media Splitter
• Spdifer (for HTPC w/ Spdif output)

Using this combination and making SURE that FFDSHOW is not in your Video Filter chain will ensure that you will have flawless playback of .mkv files. (Assuming that you have adequate RAM)


For instance, one of my HTPC systems is a laptop that uses a lowly 1.6Ghz Processor and using the above mentioned configuration with a fugazi Intel onboard GPU, I get smooth playback of .mkv with minimal CPU usage.


I know there are a quite a bit of h264 decoders out there... and I have a Video card capable of DXVA, but CoreAVC works very well and only costs $15.

Try playing a 1020x1080p file with a bitrate of 12000kbps or higher using coreAVC and any of your computers and then tell me how well it played.



Bitrate makes a big difference in 1080p files when being decoded by software only decoders.