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Zoomplayer: Best filters?

1829 Views 29 Replies 15 Participants Last post by FAKEFACTORY, Jan 26, 2004

intinig

Discussion Starter · Jan 22, 2004

Hello to all.

I have always been a TT user, so I used the Sonic Cinemaster filters. Two days ago I bought windvd5 and registered zoom player pro, trying to achieve a better image than TT (I know it's difficult

).

I have trouble finding threads about the best filters combo. What do I use for video? Windvd5 or sonic cinemaster? And audio? Ac3filter, intervideo, sonic, ... and so on

Let's help each other finding the best filters!

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1 - 20 of 30 Posts

OmicronOmega

· #2 · Jan 23, 2004

Just curious can you use the TT filters in Zoom Player.

TheDesolateOne

· #3 · Jan 23, 2004

For video I use the WinDVD 5 filter in Zoom for PAL and PowerDVD for NTSC, for some reason I get this huge green line when using WinDVD/FFDshow on NTSC material. One uses Power DVD for audio plus reclock which is a great little device. As far as I know, you can use TT filters with Zoom...

Mark

Blight

· #4 · Jan 23, 2004

The TT filters are the Sonic filter and can be used with ZP.

intinig

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jan 23, 2004

So basically for Video WinDVD5 > Sonic Cinemaster > all the others, right? And for audio PowerDVD > others?

Stasulos

· #6 · Jan 23, 2004

I have heard many people saying that AC3 is best for audio. I am using powerDVD. Audio is much more subjective than video, you should try for yourself.

When it comes to video WinDVD5 is the best for PQ, but it has chroma bug. Cinemaster allegedly does not have it one mode, but not another (hardware or software). Rumours are that the upcoming nVidia NVDVD (3.0?) will not have chroma bug and might be the best filter then.

TheDesolateOne

· #7 · Jan 23, 2004

Sounds like Nvidia's new one is going to be the dogs bolloc**

Mark

intinig

Discussion Starter · #8 · Jan 23, 2004

Cinemaster has chroma bug in software mode, so basically it has it because I use ffdshow

The chroma bug in sonic can be masked using ffdshow. Can the windvd bug also be masked in ffdshow?

I will try AC3Filter, and I should have a powerdvd cd hidden somewhere, so I will try them both.

Crescent

· #9 · Jan 23, 2004

I don't know much about chroma bugs, but to my eye the sonic video filter looks best.

You may get different responses about audio based upon whether or not you're using s/pdif or audio out to your amp. Believe it or not, I heard differences via s/pdif. Audio from my board sounded terrible, so I got a Revo 7.1. Then, there where differences between filters. TT sounds thin. WinDVD is better, but I use PowerDVD all the time now.

A lot of people have sworn by ffdshow. I tried it and thought it looked artificially sharp, like turning up the sharpness on your TV too high. You can do a search and read plenty on that debate.

I haven't tried as many combos perhaps as some of the members, but I'm happy and don't see any point in further experimentation. I don't think you're going to do much better in video quality than the sonic filter at this point in time. If you experiment too much you'll forget about the goal, watching movies.

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intinig

Discussion Starter · #10 · Jan 23, 2004

Do you think sonic is better than WinDVD?

Crescent

· #11 · Jan 23, 2004

At the time I tested them, WinDVD 4 and PowerDVD 4 both suffered from video stuttering (I'm not sure my terminology is correct but the video would be choppy for very brief periods of time). PowerDVD was worse than WinDVD. The sonic video filter from Theatertek 1.5 also appears sharper to my eye.

budiman

· #12 · Jan 23, 2004

A bit off topic - with ZP, I'm finding that it uses quite a bit of CPU cycles to play DVDs.

I like the flexibility to use any filter I want, but even pairing PowerDVD Video + Audio, I'm getting more CPU usage than using the PowerDVD app itself.

Just for the record, I'm using PowerDVD Audio and Video filters for DVD playback - for some reason they're more reliable, and I'm using WinDVD's Audio filter for DPL2 processing of stereo materials (Divx / AVI stuff).

barhoram

· #13 · Jan 23, 2004

Concerning audio filters...what is the difference when using SPDIF with the options that are listed under Audio Rederer (MAudio, Default Direct Sound Device, Default Wave Out Device, DirectSound: M-Audio Revolution)?

sargentsod

· #14 · Jan 23, 2004

@Crescent

The choppy videoplayback you describe sounds like judder and can be helped by ReClock. Judder (as I understand) is the result of a mismatch between the timings of the video- and audiofilter and ReClock sync's both signals.

/on topic

I personally use the windvd5-filters for both audio and video, PAL and NTSC.

Crescent

· #15 · Jan 23, 2004

Thanks.

I tried reclock. As I recall it wasn't applicable to running at 60 (Hz or kHz, I'm not certain). And I did not want to potentially have to recalibrate my CRT projector. It takes me six hours from start to finish.

intinig

Discussion Starter · #16 · Jan 23, 2004

@Crescent

I know that Sonic Cinemaster is way better than WinDVD4, but I read from lots of people (especially on the ffdshow megathread) that WinDVD5 is way better than 4, and slightly better than Cinemaster. I'll have to try myself

Crescent

· #17 · Jan 23, 2004

Please let me know what you find.

But a good test would be to try them separately and then each with ffdshow. Test them with good material. When I pop in a DVD like Dark City or The Fifth Element, it's hard to imagine a monumental increase in picture quality. I would think that it would be slight. I can already provide my guests with better than the cinema quality. At some point you have to say, is a slight increase worth the time? If you enjoy that time, and it is part of the hobby, I wish you a great time.

I did download 5 a few weeks back. The software was buggy and I noticed no appreciable difference, although I don't know if the trial version was missing something. After a while the tinkering wears me down. GIVE me movies....Give me movies...Give me movies!

intinig

Discussion Starter · #18 · Jan 23, 2004

Yes, we always have to remember that the most important thing is not tweaking, but enjoying movies (and tv series

)

However if I am not satisfied from the images I am watching and the audio I am listening to, I tend not to enjoy the movie. That happened to me while watching The Sopranos Season 1 two days ago. The motion blurring problem was so bad that I kept noticing it instead of concentrating on the storyline

That's when tweaking becomes useful

. Obviously if you also enjoy tweaking (and believe me, I do) that's a huge plus

Gary Lightfoot

· #19 · Jan 24, 2004

I've tried WinDVD4, PowerDVD XP and 5, and TT, and I found on my system that TT and PDVD 5 were about the same, with WDVD being quite grainy/noisy. I now have Zoomplayer set-up with the Sonic filters, and PDVD5, so can use whichever one suits me at the time, but for video quality, they both look the same to me.

I did find that TTs rescaling caused a slight amount of blue fringing, whereas Zoom doesn't. Many people say that TT is vastly superior, but I din't see that on my system, so I'd have to say you should try before you buy.

I wonder why I didn't see the same large improvements that many others saw when using TT. Any ideas?

Gary.

JerryW

· #20 · Jan 24, 2004

You need to smoke more crack.

Seriously, when comparing video codecs, the discussion really seems to be subject to a lot of hyperbole. Some people really make mountains out of quality molehills.

1 - 20 of 30 Posts

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