Help reproducing HD files

[montoto]

Hello everyone.

Just wondering if I can solve my situation with 720p AVI files; my system is:

1.2 Ghz
384 MB RAM
128 MB graphics cards (it's an Asylum GeForce MX 4000 with 8xAGP)

but I'm unable to play 720p files without skipping frames or asincronism between audio and video.

I've read an article from a guy who has basically 1 Ghz, 128 MB of graphics card, the same or less RAM memory, and he made it posible to execute just fine files up to 1080i, and he said he solved the problem "Using a DirectShow filter filter that effieciently took advantage of DXVA (DirectX Video Acceleration) I was able to watch 1080i sourced material".

The article is here http://www.hdbeat.com/2006/02/20/how...ng-on-your-pc/

I've read an article at the IEEE about Accelerate video decoding with generic GPU, so it seems a posible thing to do.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/search/wr...number=1425532

Just wondering what filter do I need to buy/download/install if it's posible-
Or a better configuration of my BsPlayer to take all of the GPU and not only the CPU.

Thanks a lot in advance for your time!

edit: my OS is winxp home sp2 and the bsplayer version is 1.37

[BSPeter]

Check setting of "Rendering mode" under
(rightclick >) Options > preferences > Video > Video rendering
[Perhaps try DirectDraw surface or VMR-9.]

[J7N]

What is the video format? Have you turned off all processing, deinterlace? MPEG2 usually are not in avi and the container format doesn't say much at all. H264 for example requires very fast CPU.

[montoto]

First, thanks to both of you.

Originally Posted by BSPeter

Check setting of "Rendering mode" under
(rightclick >) Options > preferences > Video > Video rendering
[Perhaps try DirectDraw surface or VMR-9.]

I've tried it and it didn't worked. I tried VMR-9 renderless also.

Originally Posted by J7N

What is the video format? Have you turned off all processing, deinterlace? MPEG2 usually are not in avi and the container format doesn't say much at all. H264 for example requires very fast CPU.

It's an AVI file. More specifically the samples you can download here http://www.divx.com/movies/browse.php?categoryID=3. "Thank You For Smoking" works fine, but it's 1280x544 and it has a lowbitrate.

Don't know what u mean with video container and turning off the deinterlace.

[J7N]

(•) http://trailers.divx.com/Fox/ThankYouForSmoking_HD.zip [1280*544 px]

It used 15% of my Pentium 4 2.66 GHz, when decoding using FFDSHOW without any post-processing functions turned on. This is normal.

(•) http://trailers.divx.com/Dreamworks/SharkTale_HD.zip [1280*688 px]
Used 22% of my Pentium 4 2.66 GHz.

(•) http://trailers.divx.com/Dreamworks/Madagascar_HD.zip [1280*720 px]
Used 22% of my Pentium 4 2.66 GHz.


The video format was DivX 5 (DX50) for all clips. Look for Post Processing in your decoder (Options -> Filters) and turn them off. What filter are you using for decoding? I didn't use any SSE/SSE2 optimizations or GPU assistance (except scaling), so your comp is most likely able to keep up too.

BSPlayer automatically zoomed out as the res was greater than my desktop currently set. But this happens in hardware even using old i740, so shouldn't be a problem.

AVI is a container format, which carries one or more video and audio streams, which themselves are in one format or another. The container format has little influence on the processor time needed for decoding. Deinterlace is a solution how to fix legacy video where each frame contained 2 fields, taken at different time moments (not needed here).

__
Strange that the required CPU on that page is as fast as 2.4 GHz. What does that DivXPlayer they are offering do... Really post-processing – creating data which doesn't exist in the file... :?

The player installer is 15 MB :o. Bloatware.

[adicoto]

Shark Tale play in here very bad, average of 15 fps in 1280x688 !!!! resolution, using DivX decoder and consuming 85-95 % of my PIV@2,4

EDIT:
WIth postprocessing disabled playing OK.

[J7N]

Do you use deblocking or other post-processing?

[adicoto]

Quality level to MAX is default.

[J7N]

So this is the problem. I won't say anything about the quality of post-processed video, that's subjective. But it will be better @ 24 fps, I think. ;)

[montoto]

Hi again, thanks to all for the interest of helping.

I were a little busy and couldn't test the compuer with these options, but I did it now and it doesn't work.

the video of shark tale trailer plays normally, but the audio is not in sync with the video.

other important thing is that in filters (at bs player) I don't get options to configure.

finally, I've disabled the post processing at the divx configuration utility.

I'm thinking my CPU is just not enough for these bitrates, becouse it's working at 99%/95% and the ram memory being used is about 280 when I've 384MB installed, so the problem is not the RAM memory and/or the GPU/video card internal memory (128MB).

Cheers folks.

[J7N]

GPU memory is used for displaying the video and most likely also scaling (resampling). This is not a 3D game where textures have to be kept in mem.

Maybe you have too many filters installed and more than one of them is doing the post processing.

The files were Advanced Simple MPEG-4 and bitrates weren't too high at all. You can try downloading VideoLAN Client (VLC). And if the video plays Ok (without post-processing), then it means there's some redundant processing going on in DirectShow.

[montoto]

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FINALLY, IT WORKED!!!

sorry i'm so happy... after so many tests it plays normally!

I've tried with sharcktale (thanks for smoking played fine from the begining), and a 720p episode series release of about 448kb/s, I know (you're right) it's not a high bitrate at all, indeed I've tested Terminator II Extreme Edition DVD trailer (7000kb/s, from wmvhd at microsoft) and it freezes in the start.

So, I'll keep testing and I tell you.

Thanks a lot!

[J7N]

:)
It will be useful if you tell other users how did you make the videos play properly.

I think the creators of these clips have tried to squeeze hi-res content in a bitrate apropriate for PAL resolution. I noticed many compression artifacts. The bitrate alone will not require a very fast computer. Your machine will probably be too slow for H264/AVC decoding at regular 1-2 MBit/s. H264 is a very good format and achieves its quality at expense of CPU time.

[montoto]

Originally Posted by J7N

It will be useful if you tell other users how did you make the videos play

Simply I installed VLC. ?Do you know if there's some kind of thing to do to increase even more the "power" or something? If so, please tell me :)

Do you think I'll have trouble playing this:

type: AVI,  1 audio stream
Video:  1.22 GB,  4099 Kbps,  23.976 fps,  1280*720 (16:9),  XVID Mpeg-4
Audio:  137 MB,  448 Kbps,  48000 Hz,  5 channels,  AC-3 ACM Codec

Dont understand, the other file I've tested was only 448kb/s (1280*720, avi, ac3 audio) (based on win xp explorer's info from the avi file) and these release has more than 4mb/s :shock:

I'm thinking maybe windows only show the audio bitrate, instead of the video bitrate.

[J7N]

Video: 1.22 GB, 4099 Kbps, 23.976 fps, 1280*720 (16:9), XVID Mpeg-4
Audio: 137 MB, 448 Kbps, 48000 Hz, 5 channels, AC-3

Why don't you check yourself with VLC? I know 1.2 MBit/s MPEG4 ASP with AC-3 can barely be played on a 400 MHz Celeron.

the other file I've tested was only 448kb/s (1280*720, avi, ac3 audio) (based on win xp explorer's info from the avi file) and these release has more than 4mb/s

Make sure you don't mess megabits and megabytes. A megabyte contains 8.38 megabits [(2^20)*8/(10^6)].

I'm thinking maybe windows only show the audio bitrate, instead of the video bitrate.

I don't know. If you install FFDSHOW and decode your video with this filter, then the average bitrate of the portion played so far will be shown in ffdshow's property sheet. The video size is always [container size] - [audio size] - [small overhead]. If you know the audio bitrate you can aproximately calculate also the video bitrate.

[montoto]

Originally Posted by J7N

Why don't you check yourself with VLC?

Becouse I was downloading the file...

Originally Posted by J7N

Make sure you don't mess megabits and megabytes. A megabyte contains 8.38 megabits [(2^20)*8/(10^6)].

dude, I know the diference between bytes and bits (more simply than that, 1byte=8bits)

And yes, windows gives a wrong info about a video file; I've downloaded a 4099kb/s AVI file and its says "448kb/s".

[J7N]

It is up to you to determine how fast your box is, as I did with my old computer. I can only help with tips how to use all of your computing power for decoding – the thing you need right now.

dude, I know the diference between bytes and bits

I remembered that Win98 gave bitrates in kilobytes in its media property page and 448 kB/s was real close to 4 MBit/s.

more simply than that, 1byte=8bits

Yes, but 1 kB != 8000 Bit.

[adicoto]

1 kbyte is 1024 bytes. 1 byte is 8 bits

[Tizio]

Originally Posted by adicoto

1 kbyte is 1024 bytes. 1 byte is 8 bits

True!

[BSPeter]

Originally Posted by J7N

Yes, but 1 kB != 8000 Bit. (Edit BSPeter: put otherwise: 1 kB <> 8000 Bit)

Also true!