Personal computing discussed

Moderators: renee, Dposcorp

 
setaG_lliB
Gerbil First Class
Topic Author
Posts: 144
Joined: Wed Mar 03, 2010 6:02 pm

Need an efficient VC-1 decoder

Sun Aug 12, 2012 12:13 pm

I'm having trouble playing VC-1 encoded BD rips (MKV format, all ripped from my own BD collection) on my "new" Athlon X2 computer.

I previously had a Core 2 Duo E6600 which had no problem decoding VC-1 streams in software, but that system's motherboard died recently. I just moved into a house, so money's tight. A friend kindly gave me a computer he no longer uses.

The specs are:
Asus M2N-E motherboard
Athlon X2 4600+ 2.4GHz
8GB DDR2/667 (4 of which came from my old system)
8800GTS (also from my old system. It's G80-based, so it doesn't have a hardware video decoder)

This system has no problem with MPEG2 and H.264--only VC1 gives it trouble. I've tried Win7's built in decoder, MPC Video decoder, and LAV. All of them struggle maintaining 24fps with VC1 rips. Also, MPC-HC never uses more than 80% of the CPU; It usually bounces around 50-75.

I was using the same video card, OS, and codecs on my old C2D system.

Anyone know what might be the problem with the new system, or know of a more efficient VC-1 decoder? Thanks.
Last edited by setaG_lliB on Sun Aug 12, 2012 3:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
bthylafh
Maximum Gerbil
Posts: 4320
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2003 11:55 pm
Location: Southwest Missouri, USA

Re: Need an efficient VC-1 decoder

Sun Aug 12, 2012 12:48 pm

This wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_PureVideo
claims that your 8800 accelerates VC-1 decode (it has the 2nd-gen VP2 unit), so I'm not sure what might be wrong with your computer. I know that newer versions of the K-Lite Codec Pack have an install-time option to choose which acceleration method you want for H.264 and VC-1, so maybe you don't have a compliant codec installed.

If that doesn't help, it looks like any modern low-end video card can do hardware decode even faster than your 8800.

Here's the red-team equivalent page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Video_Decoder
Hakkaa päälle!
i7-8700K|Asus Z-370 Pro|32GB DDR4|Asus Radeon RX-580|Samsung 960 EVO 1TB|1988 Model M||Logitech MX 518 & F310|Samsung C24FG70|Dell 2209WA|ATH-M50x
 
sluggo
Gerbil Jedi
Posts: 1651
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 8:44 pm
Location: under the table and dreaming

Re: Need an efficient VC-1 decoder

Sun Aug 12, 2012 2:31 pm

bthylafh wrote:
This wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_PureVideo
claims that your 8800 accelerates VC-1 decode (it has the 2nd-gen VP2 unit), so I'm not sure what might be wrong with your computer.

Oops. He has the older (by a few months) G80-based 8800, which lacks any hardware acceleration. The later G92 GPU (used on the 8800's with the wider memory bus) has support for VP2.

The E6600 runs some standard benchmarks about 50% faster than the Athlon X2 you mentioned. This might explain why the new system is struggling. I don't know if a drop-in replacement for the 4600 is in your budget, but perhaps some mild overclocking would be good enough.
There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action - Goethe
 
bthylafh
Maximum Gerbil
Posts: 4320
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2003 11:55 pm
Location: Southwest Missouri, USA

Re: Need an efficient VC-1 decoder

Sun Aug 12, 2012 3:57 pm

For the purposes of video decoding, I'd get a newer used lower-end card from eBay if your finances are that tight.

Newegg's got this card that will do the trick:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814131339
Hakkaa päälle!
i7-8700K|Asus Z-370 Pro|32GB DDR4|Asus Radeon RX-580|Samsung 960 EVO 1TB|1988 Model M||Logitech MX 518 & F310|Samsung C24FG70|Dell 2209WA|ATH-M50x
 
setaG_lliB
Gerbil First Class
Topic Author
Posts: 144
Joined: Wed Mar 03, 2010 6:02 pm

Re: Need an efficient VC-1 decoder

Sun Aug 12, 2012 6:59 pm

This is strange. Just tried MPC's decoder again, this time under WMP. CPU usage was even lower than before--only 48-54%--yet the video was limping along at 18 or so fps. It looks like this CPU would be able to handle VC1 if the decoders would use more of the available power. At first I thought MPC was only using a single core, but both CPU graphs are showing roughly equal activity.

I'm going to try mildly overclocking this thing later on and see where that gets me.
 
BobbinThreadbare
Graphmaster Gerbil
Posts: 1195
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2005 2:47 am
Location: Champaign, IL
Contact:

Re: Need an efficient VC-1 decoder

Sun Aug 12, 2012 7:18 pm

setaG_lliB wrote:
This is strange. Just tried MPC's decoder again, this time under WMP. CPU usage was even lower than before--only 48-54%--yet the video was limping along at 18 or so fps. It looks like this CPU would be able to handle VC1 if the decoders would use more of the available power. At first I thought MPC was only using a single core, but both CPU graphs are showing roughly equal activity.

I'm going to try mildly overclocking this thing later on and see where that gets me.

It's still possible it's only using one thread and the scheduler is bouncing it between the cores.

If you use FFDshow, make sure you check queue output samples, under the queue and & misc section, and turn off "use queue only in"
 
l33t-g4m3r
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Posts: 2059
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2003 2:54 am

Re: Need an efficient VC-1 decoder

Sun Aug 12, 2012 7:31 pm

Make sure you're using the most up to date software (mpc/ffdshow) and dunno if lav filters could help.
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=156191
 
Cannonaire
Gerbil
Posts: 25
Joined: Thu May 03, 2012 12:38 am

Re: Need an efficient VC-1 decoder

Sun Aug 12, 2012 7:47 pm

Codec problems/conflicts can often cause playback problems. In general, I recommend using (ONLY!) CCCP for your codec pack and selecting libavcodec for h.264 in FFDShow video decoder configuration. I also recommend MPC-HC, but this is more user preference and it looks like you're already using it. Having multiple codec packs can often cause problems, and K-Lite codec pack by itself is known to cause problems too. With the above configuration, I've never had trouble playing things back even on fairly slow computers (though admittedly I haven't played a large sample of HD video).
 
chµck
Gerbil Team Leader
Posts: 236
Joined: Tue Jan 10, 2012 11:14 pm

Re: Need an efficient VC-1 decoder

Sun Aug 12, 2012 9:17 pm

I use coreAVC in zoomplayer. I can play 1080p on my laptop: turion x2 ultra 2.2ghz & ati 3850m
Trump 2020
 
setaG_lliB
Gerbil First Class
Topic Author
Posts: 144
Joined: Wed Mar 03, 2010 6:02 pm

Re: Need an efficient VC-1 decoder

Mon Aug 13, 2012 10:30 pm

l33t-g4m3r wrote:
Make sure you're using the most up to date software (mpc/ffdshow) and dunno if lav filters could help.
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=156191


Just tried LAV filters again...success! I installed both the 32- and 64-bit versions this time. Last time I only installed the 64-bit version, and the performance sucked.

Thanks for all the help!

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest
GZIP: On