Best video player and codec for watching 1080p movies?

ithehappy

Senior member
Oct 13, 2013
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I have been using Media Player Classic for as long as I can remember and I use it with K-Lite Mega codec pack. But recently someone on Head-Fi (the audio forum) said that K-Lite is a poor codec pack (the actual word used against it was mess), so that got me thinking whether I should move to a different video player or not, I mean a different codec pack probably.

Any suggestions? I mainly watch full HD Matroskas with DTS-HD, that's all.

Thanks in advance.
 

Auric

Diamond Member
Oct 11, 1999
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Codec packs are generally bad and are really more unnecessary than ever since MPC-HC has included the best for some time: LAVFilters -and for a long time they were added simply enough. Add madVR (video renderer) and you are set for the highest quality and performance (i.e. hardware acceleration).

Unless there is a specific reason for 64-bit, then a 32-bit version of the player is compatible with more third-party/commerical decoders.
 
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ithehappy

Senior member
Oct 13, 2013
540
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Codec packs are generally bad and are really more unnecessary than ever since MPC-HC has included the best for some time: LAVFilters -and for a long time they were added simply enough. Add madVR (video renderer) and you are set for the highest quality and performance (i.e. hardware acceleration).
So I am uninstalling the K-Lite and installing this madVR then? Didn't know MPC already had filters like LAV and all.

Thanks by the way.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
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VLC works great, I think it comes with it's own codecs too. Never had an issue.

Linux and XBMC is actually pretty good too, never really ran into something it wont play. This is more for a dedicated HTPC though.
 

Berryracer

Platinum Member
Oct 4, 2006
2,779
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MPC-HC + MadVR + LAV + SVP (Smooth Video Project)......

that will let you watch all your movies @60 FPS. once you experience 60 FPS playback, you will never go back to 24 or 30 FPS EVER.......

SVP
 

sweenish

Diamond Member
May 21, 2013
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That would be true if you experienced true 60 fps video, or better yet, 240 fps.

But frame duplication/interpolation is still garbage.
 

TheRyuu

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2005
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SVP (Smooth Video Project)......

...

SVP

What exactly was wrong with madvr's smooth motion which should do the exact same thing? Also I don't think it's very useful.

I do use madvr but only for the improved scaling and dithering.

Whenever one of these threads comes up I recommend either mpc-hc + lav[1] or mpv[2] depending on what you want. mpv is self contained and does not use directshow but may be harder to set up for first time users (although compared to madvr it might actually be easier). For the former I recommend using CCCP since it only really contains those (plus xy-vsfilter) and is configured out of the box to be sane.

I do recommend madvr[3] if you use mpc-hc but setup can be extremely annoying. mpv has comparable rendering options to madvr now and --vo=opengl-hq is generally sufficient in that regard.

Unless there is a specific reason for 64-bit, then a 32-bit version of the player is compatible with more third-party/commerical decoders.

I would say that 32-bit is actually on the way out as it is unlikely to receive very much attention (e.g. HEVC asm/optimizations). We're not there yet though.

[1] http://www.cccp-project.net/
[2] http://mpv.io/
[3] http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=146228
 
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Berryracer

Platinum Member
Oct 4, 2006
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What exactly was wrong with madvr's smooth motion which should do the exact same thing? Also I don't think it's very useful.
madVR's smooth motion is a joke, it does nothing to upscale the FPS, all it does is prevent jerkiness or frame drops but doesn't even come one bit lcose to SVP's 60 FPS playback
 

TheRyuu

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2005
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madVR's smooth motion is a joke, it does nothing to upscale the FPS, all it does is prevent jerkiness or frame drops but doesn't even come one bit lcose to SVP's 60 FPS playback

I'm pretty sure you can force it to behave like SVP. I still think it's unlikely to be all that useful as frame interpolation has historically always sucked.
 

flexy

Diamond Member
Sep 28, 2001
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madVR's smooth motion is a joke, it does nothing to upscale the FPS, all it does is prevent jerkiness or frame drops but doesn't even come one bit lcose to SVP's 60 FPS playback

What comparison is this supposed to be?

Smooth motion's purpose is for proper 24p playback (which it does VERY WELL!) and not to upscale or convert FPS or make 24p movies into 60fps movies. You're comparing apples and oranges here.
 

Berryracer

Platinum Member
Oct 4, 2006
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I'm pretty sure you can force it to behave like SVP. I still think it's unlikely to be all that useful as frame interpolation has historically always sucked.
but the problem now is, if I watch a normal video @ 24 FPS or even go to the movie theater and watch a movie, it seems to jerky to my liking, I think SVP has damaged my eyes now that I am so used to 60 FPS :(

help teh meh :'(
 

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
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help teh meh :'(
Only watch newer action movies by Robert Rodriguez. He seems to be the only one these days not addicted to very short exposure times (if you listen to cometary tracks, he has also been nearly on the cutting edge of commercial camera and effects technology, and actually understands the compromises needed), though even he has used them sometimes.

Beyond that, watch old movies. Like compressing HDR (which I've only seen done to good effect in a single TV show, Downton Abbey, and no movies as of yet), the problem is that movie and TV folk can screw things up with modern camera sensors, and so they do, instead of using them to make better looking video. It used to be making a faster video meant less quality per frame, because the film relied on a lot of light to do its thing. That's why they'd use backdrops, filters, and post-process work to make a night scene in the day, for instance, because typical dusk is too dark for the film. Now, the sensors are sensitive enough they don't need to do that. But, instead of longer exposures, which create motion blur, which looks bad if paused on a still image, but good-looking for motion, they go for quick exposures, which make for crisp images, but poor-looking for motion.

Your eyes see changes in intensity over time, across your whole range of vision, not scanned stills. With enough frames to be faster than your eyes can respond (about 22, IIRC, near the center), a series of images that have been exposed for long enough each to have enough motion blur, will appear as a continuous moving image, similar to looking at reality. Of course panning and zooming slowly but at an even speed, and probably some other things, create effects we can pick out as, "wrong," but that's the generalization. I can't recall which now, but I was one of the famous old WWII movies some years ago, and paused it, in a scene where everyone was in a small boat. The boat's painted on label was clearly readable when watching the movie, but pausing and stepping through the scene, I could not make out any character but a big dash. With new movies, you can pause and step through, while reading everything, but it's often hard to see what's going on in a scene when watching it as a movie.

It has been annoying the crap out of me for years, and and I stopped bothering with movies I expected to lack substance due to just that, because watching a slide show of bangs and booms is not enjoyable (I'm all for shallow entertainment, when the mood strikes, but it's going to have to be good to get me to sit through such bad video). Much like the music industry's Loudness War, you can't do any fixing on your end, but the core of the problem is not the framerate. If the 60FPS interpolation works for you, keep on doing it. It's making blurry middle frames, where it would have looked alright had it had burry 24/30FPS content to start with. I can see the same sort of effect in games, at 60FPS, now that I have a fast enough monitor, FI, so I'm sure 48FPS and 60FPS movies and TV will give you the same problem, for the same reason.
 
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ithehappy

Senior member
Oct 13, 2013
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Okay so I have the latest MPC-HC and I downloaded the madVR zip, and extracted it, but is that it? I mean I don't need to install it further? (Sorry I am bad at these things)
 

bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
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According to the readme.txt all you need to do is

INSTALL
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) Unzip "madVR.zip" and copy the folder to a suitable place (e.g.
Program Files).

(2) Run "install.bat". (with admin rights!)

(3) Do not delete the madVR folder after installation.
 

Iron Woode

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 10, 1999
31,159
12,688
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I use WMP and MPC and for codecs I use FFDshow and Matroska filter both 32 and 64 bit versions.

This way I can watch everything in WMC using win 8.1 x64.
 

giggity

Junior Member
Jan 13, 2015
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i've been using VLC for years and have never had a problem with any file. not too knowledgeable on codecs, and since VLC has been awesome for me, i haven't even thought about checking out other media players for comparison.
 

BarkingGhostar

Diamond Member
Nov 20, 2009
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Interesting as it may seem, I have run across some WMV files that play better in MPC than in VLC. Of course, I can say the opposite a lot more.
 

ithehappy

Senior member
Oct 13, 2013
540
4
81
According to the readme.txt all you need to do is

INSTALL
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) Unzip "madVR.zip" and copy the folder to a suitable place (e.g.
Program Files).

(2) Run "install.bat". (with admin rights!)

(3) Do not delete the madVR folder after installation.

Yeah, found that out later, it was the install.bat file.

So using madVR, well it's good but I am not really a fan of how the display flickers when I toggle between full screen and windowed mode.

Now I will try the Smooth Video Project codec. But I don't understand one thing, movies are generally recorded at 24 frames, so how come it will show them at 60 frames? I mean I get that it will simply upscale the framerate but won't that look awkward?
 

bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
7,096
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I tried it a long time ago and it wasn't really for me. I guess it looked fake to me. It also put some major hurt on my little Phenom2 965.
Try it and see who knows you might like it.
 

ithehappy

Senior member
Oct 13, 2013
540
4
81
Hmm, okay.

I am having one problem though, it's the audio, I mean I am having a feeling that the audio is kinda low! I mean with K Lite the audio was damn loud (without connecting any amp) but now with madVR the audio seems low, I am not 100% sure but quite enough to report this. Is there any settings needing to be modified or something?
 
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TheRyuu

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2005
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So using madVR, well it's good but I am not really a fan of how the display flickers when I toggle between full screen and windowed mode.

Disable automatic exclusive fullscreen (I think under general settings). You really shouldn't need that and it'll also keep the player control's as well. It really shouldn't default to doing that IMO.

Hmm, okay.

I am having one problem though, it's the audio, I mean I am having a feeling that the audio is kinda low! I mean with K Lite the audio was damn loud (without connecting any amp) but now with madVR the audio seems low, I am not 100% sure but quite enough to report this. Is there any settings needing to be modified or something?

madvr just handles the video, it shouldn't affect the audio at all so something else likely changed.
 

ithehappy

Senior member
Oct 13, 2013
540
4
81
Disable automatic exclusive fullscreen (I think under general settings). You really shouldn't need that and it'll also keep the player control's as well. It really shouldn't default to doing that IMO.



madvr just handles the video, it shouldn't affect the audio at all so something else likely changed.
Thanks mate, will do that, and you are right, it shouldn't do that change by default, I just love the MPC's default controls.

Are there any other settings need to be changed in madVR as well? I mean there are too many of them :hmm: