Choppy Video on VC1 MKVs


  1. Posts : 30
    Windows 7 RTM x64 (desktop), x32 (HTPC)
       #1

    Choppy Video on VC1 MKVs


    Hi folks,
    Please advise me on best setup options to play back VC1 video.

    Just ripped my Torchwood Season 3 (Children of the Earth) to .mkv with MakeMKV 1.4.8. The resulting .mkv files are VC1 video with DTS audio. This is actually the first VC1 video I've tried playing since moving from W7RC to RTM (32 bit).

    When I play the files (via Media Center with Media Browser 2.1.1... because I'm having some difficulties with the recent 2.1.3 release), I get very stuttery video. Not the smooth play I get with AVC/h264. Lots of frames lost. Some investigation showed me that based on CPU demand of 50-60% during playback, I'm not getting hardware acceleration for these. I get acceleration for AVC/h264 files no problem (CPU use around 10%).

    I recall when I set up my 7RC system, I had to set up the MPC-HC codec for VC1 to get them to play smoothly (I didn't use the whole MPC-HC player). I tried this tonight on RTM, and they are worse than running through WMC/MB. I get a few seconds of smooth video with apparent acceleration (~10-15% CPU), then the picture sort of freezes while the sound goes on. Sometimes I get garbage on the screen. Tried the same version of the MPCVideo codec I used on RC, as well as the newer August release.

    FWIW, the disk image plays just dandy in PowerDVD 7.3 Ultra, with ~15% CPU usage.

    My system is Home Premium x32 with a Sapphire 4550 card, Driver package version 9.10, and an Athlon X2 Kuma (7750, 2.7 Ghz) processor.
    Help would be appreciated!
    Marc
    Note: I've got Haali splitter installed, but no other codecs other than the one W7RTM shipped with, and just now the MPC Video codec set for VC1 files only (though I turned it off after trying it). It's a very clean system right now.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 176
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64 RTM
       #2

    In your internal filters menu for MPC do you have both H264/AVC(FFmpeg) and VC1(FFmpeg) unchecked?
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 176
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64 RTM
       #3

    Should look like this.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Choppy Video on VC1 MKVs-untitled.jpg  
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 30
    Windows 7 RTM x64 (desktop), x32 (HTPC)
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Thanks ba5ik,

    I will check tonight when I get home. I do know that when I set the MPCHC codec to play for VC1 files (in filtertweaker) played by Windows Media Center (or any other application that would use the currently enabled codec), playback changed and matched what I was seeing in the MPC HC application. For the file I was watching, it would go a few seconds then video would sort of freeze. So I'm guessing it's enabled, but will check.

    Any other recommendations for VC1 codec options? Or more to the point, what's going wrong? How come the MS default codec isn't giving good DXVA performance? And, what could be wrong with the MPCHC setup on my end that would make it flail around, whereas it was easy to set up on W7RC?

    Marc
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 12
    Win 7
       #5

    Hi guys,

    I have just installed Win7 and plan to start using WMC. I have been using BeyondTV for years and already see advantages in WMC. Where is the best place to go to find out more about tweaking WMC? I am getting choppy play back with some video, where do I find the setup menu shown above and what is VC1?

    Thanks
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 30
    Windows 7 RTM x64 (desktop), x32 (HTPC)
    Thread Starter
       #6

    Sundance,

    First download Graphstudio from here: (click the link)

    And get Mediainfo GUI (don't have the link handy, but google will find it).

    Mediainfo tells you what type of data is inside the files (VC1, AVC, what sound streams, etc...). Graphstudio shows you which codecs etc. will be invoked when a particular media file is to be played.

    The screen you saw above is from FilterTweaker (I got it from Hack7MC).


    @ba5ic:
    I checked and found that the ffmpeg boxes as well as the dxva boxes were checked. However, unchecking them and restarting things didn't have any effect. If I unchecked the dxva and checked the ffmpeg boxes for VC1, the file wouldn't even play at all.

    I later found out that there are really two problems. One is that VC1 isn't invoking DXVA by default in W7. The other is that 1080i content in VC1 is what is really messing things up for me. I actually have a lot of VC1 content, most of which plays fine albeit via heavy CPU use. It's just the reare 1080i file such as torchwood that makes my system go caplooie. These have frame rates of 29.x instead of the usual 23.x for 1080p.

    Next I'll try to see if the MPCHC codec works well to enable DXVA OK with my 1080p VC1 stuff.

    See great info by TexasGrillChef here:

    www.makemkv.com • View topic - Choppy Video on VC1 MKVs
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 176
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64 RTM
       #7

    What kind of video card do you have? you may not have the ability to hardware decode which would explain your high CPU usage during playback, even with the settings i gave you.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 30
    Windows 7 RTM x64 (desktop), x32 (HTPC)
    Thread Starter
       #8

    @ ba5ic,

    I've got a Sapphire HD4550 which gives reasonable accelerated performance in general.

    Digging around revealed several truths:
    1. The specific files I've been having trouble with, ripped from the Tochwood Season 3 (children of the earth) disks, happen to be an exotic 1080i (interlaced) VC1 variant which almost no codecs play properly. This is actually the real problem, the rest of my VC1 content, upon checking, seems to play fine. They are all progressive. It's just interlaced rare files that are a problem.

    2. Windows RTM VC1 DXVA is broken, so while progressive encoded VC1 content plays fine, it does so using lots of CPU, unlike H264/AVC which the windows foundation can play with DXVA.

    3. I've installed on my desktop test machine the MPCVideoDec.ax filter and all my progressive VC1 content is playing fine so far with DXVA (even on a crappy HD3450 video card).

    Links to some interesting discussion spawn from this thread, thank to Renethx:

    Help! 7RTM trouble with VC1 MKVs. Choppy! - AVS Forum

    Thanks for your help.

    Marc
      My Computer


 

  Related Discussions
Our Sites
Site Links
About Us
Windows 7 Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. "Windows 7" and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

© Designer Media Ltd
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 04:42.
Find Us