Does nVidia's cards automatically enable video acceleration?

[Spike]

Just curious if by default there is video optimization when playing 1080P content either through media player classic (.mkv) or through powerdvd 7 (HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs). If not, how do I enable that?

The reason I ask is I'm getting some sound lag on my HTPC setup when playing 1080P (does not happen at 720P) and while I was told it's probably more because of my Opteron 165 than anything I'm still curious. When I build a new PC my e8400 is going into this so that should speed things up nicely but I still would not mind some better performance right now.

Thanks!

 

[JAG87]

The drivers do not enable anything, they just provide the API. It's up to the applications to make use of the GPU.

Power dvd should have acceleration enabled by default if you installed it after the Forceware driver. Check in the video options, it should say use nvidia purevideo, and it should be checked.

For mkv (x264 only, VC1 works only on ati), you need to use MPC-HC, and use either EVR Render or EVR Custom Render, assuming you are using Vista, otherwise VMR9 renderless for XP. Google it, there is lots of information.

 

[Spike]

Thanks for the info, I'll make sure video acceleration is selected in powerDVD. I don't know what version of MPC I have installed, I'll about that -HC your talking about. And yes, the system is Vista 32, last rig in my sig.

Thanks!

 

[JAG87]

MPC home cinema. Get latest build here:

http://www.xvidvideo.ru/content/category/1/1/2/

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: JAG87
MPC home cinema. Get latest build here:

http://www.xvidvideo.ru/content/category/1/1/2/

Thanks for the link!

 

[lopri]

1. Install latest ForceWare drivers. (Rel. 180 and higher)
2. Install Haali Media Splitter. Google it for the latest version. I believe the latest version is 1.9.42.1. If you have previous version installed you may need to uninstall it first.
3. Go grab a MPC-HC. (svn 1100 or higher) 32-bit version is a safer choice even if your system is 64-bit.

You should be able to play just about everything using MPC-HC.

 

[JAG87]

Originally posted by: lopri
1. Install latest ForceWare drivers. (Rel. 180 and higher)
2. Install Haali Media Splitter. Google it for the latest version. I believe the latest version is 1.9.42.1. If you have previous version installed you may need to uninstall it first.
3. Go grab a MPC-HC. (svn 1100 or higher) 32-bit version is a safer choice even if your system is 64-bit.

You should be able to play just about everything using MPC-HC.

Haali is crap in my experience. It loads a big chunk of the movie into memory, and superfetch likes to learn this behavior so you end up with ~2GB of ram mysteriously disappearing, even upon a fresh boot. I think some people don't notice this, that's why I could never do without my trusty G15 keyboard. Using MPC-HC's internal splitter is the best solution IMO.

 

[yh125d]

<3 MPC

Also CCCP (google it) lets you play almost anything in most players. .mkv in WMP for example

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: yh125d
<3 MPC

Also CCCP (google it) lets you play almost anything in most players. .mkv in WMP for example

It has nothing to do with playing certain files, I have no issues with that and yes, I do have CCCP installed. My issue was the problem with sound lag and I was curious about what acceleration my video card could offer and if it was being utilized.

It sounds like I may need to try different software to take advantage of the purvideo so I can sqeek some more performance out of this rig.

 

[lopri]

?

CCCP is just a package that contains various codecs including;

- Haali Media Splitter (a.k.a. Matroksa, or .mkv)
- FFDShow
- AC3 filter
- FLV Splitter

The Haali Media Splitter included in CCCP is an older version than the 1.9.42.1. Thus I think it is better to get the newer version, but if you already have CCCP installed I'd think that should do the job fine as well.

What other codecs do you have installed? If you have a lot of codecs installed that decode H.264, you may need to block them in MPC-HC.

 

[Spike]

I'm aware it's just a codec pack. I don't actually know everything I have installed though it's not much. When I did the clean install of Vista I installed MPC and then put on the CCCP and DIVX codec packs and that was about it. Should I uninstall everything (program and codecs) before installing MPC-HC or just the program itself?

 

[lopri]

This is what my MPC-HC's internal filters setup looks like.

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/5611/geforce1.jpg

If you have installed ffdshow, go to 'External Filters' and click on 'Add filters'. You will see the filters installed in your system. Now you want to add 'ffdshow Video Decoder'. Back to the main option screen, you highlight the 'ffdshow Video Decoder' that you've just added then click on 'Block'. Yes, you add the filter in order to block it. Kinda weird but that's how it works. This is done so that MPC-HC will use its own decoder instead of that of ffdshow's.

Can you give an example of the clips that you're having trouble with, if you don't mind? G92 should off-load most of H.264 decoding and your CPU usage should be below 20% at the most, unless you're trying to view subtitles. (Subtitles tend to be very taxing on CPU)

 

[lopri]

My MPC-HC is build 1161, 32-bit. If I remember correctly all builds past 1100 have come with Matroksa/Ogg disabled in internal filters by default.

Edit: Just FYI, I've uploaded this clip on Megaupload. (Hope I'm not breaking the law! I have no idea where I got it!) So far, if a system could handle this clip it could handle anything from my experience.

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: lopri
My MPC-HC is build 1161, 32-bit. If I remember correctly all builds past 1100 have come with Matroksa/Ogg disabled in internal filters by default.

Edit: Just FYI, I've uploaded this clip on Megaupload. (Hope I'm not breaking the law! I have no idea where I got it!) So far, if a system could handle this clip it could handle anything from my experience.

Thanks for the help, when I get home I'll give that a try. I do have ffdshow installed so I guess that is something I need to disable.

As for what I'm having trouble with I have a 1080p mkv file of batman begins (I'm too lazy to grab the blu-ray off my shelf) and I was playing a harry potter on HD-DVD the other night, both had issues with sound lagging behind the video. If I click on the status bar and jump the film to another point the sound re-matches back up and then slowly gets off after 20 or so min

 

[Spike]

All right, I tried that clip you posted and it had massive framerate and sound issues. I uninstalled the CCCP and MPC and then reinstalled CCCP with MPC-HC. After that I tried it again and had just about the same issue. I went in and excluded the FFDshow video codec and now the sound is fine on that clip but the frames are still a little jarring. I did not have time to do anymore testing but I will soon.

At least this seems like it helped a little, thanks for the advice.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: lopri
?

CCCP is just a package that contains various codecs including;

- Haali Media Splitter (a.k.a. Matroksa, or .mkv)
- FFDShow
- AC3 filter
- FLV Splitter

The Haali Media Splitter included in CCCP is an older version than the 1.9.42.1. Thus I think it is better to get the newer version, but if you already have CCCP installed I'd think that should do the job fine as well.

What other codecs do you have installed? If you have a lot of codecs installed that decode H.264, you may need to block them in MPC-HC.

+1, ditch that crap, its outdated and they intentionally disable "codecs not used in anime fansubbing scene"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fansub

If you want an easy package get vistacodecpack
http://www.free-codecs.com/dow...ista_codec_package.htm
It doesn't disable "not used in anime" codecs and it even has neat things like associating FLV and SWF with windows explorer to create thumbnails of those and other exotic video file formats.

But its not really necessary... you just need to get MPC-HC and use its internal codecs and splitters (it has FFDShow tryouts built in). Not many people know that, but unless you MANUALLY go into the advanced settings in MPC-HC to disable its internal splitters and codecs it will NEVER actually use anything else you have installed.

The advantage of installing FFDShow is that POS programs like windows media player are then able to play movies. But only in CPU, and you don't seem to have a powerful enough CPU for that.

So... process of getting it to work:
1. Update drivers
2. Get MPC-HC
3. Switch MPC-HC to "EVR" or "EVR (Custom)" mode in windows vista (or read the instructions on MPC-HC website)