ffdshow and mkv questions.

[slag]

Whats the point of FFDSHOW and why do I need it on my htpc?

I recently reinstalled windows 7 and put the normal codecs on, but left FFDSHOW off. Sound is great, picture is great.. Why do I need this again?

Also, i have a MKV file problem. All but 2 of my MKV files play great. The other two have glitches and splotches through them. I'm using the matroska halaii splitter. If I use the other MKV codec, those 2 files play great but the others have glitches in them. Ever heard of this before?

 

[Modelworks]

All media needs a codec to play, it is the decoder for the media. FFDSHOW is just a set of decoders it is never required, you are free to use whatever codec works. A lot of people install codec packs because it seems to make it easier, but in fact it complicates things by installing a lot of files people do not need. It can make it harder to find out what is causing the problems with media playback.

With windows 7 they included h.264, xvid/divx, mpeg2 decoders so they no longer have to be installed to play those formats. MKV is not a codec, it is a container for the files inside. The splitter opens the container and then sends the video and audio to the correct codec which is usually h.264 which win7 already has.

The only thing I have installed to play media on win7 x64 is the splitter. I have installed no other codecs and all my media works fine.

Why those 2 files play differently I can't say you would need to open them in an application and look at the differences in the resolution, bitrate, etc.

 

[Gooberlx2]

One thing ffdshow can do for you, over the default video (de)codecs in Win7, is adjust a lot of post-processing options. You can sometimes apply filters (like sharpening, or deblocking) to somewhat improve the video output, if you have a powerful enough PC.

Another thing is that ffdshow will also provide the appropriate audio (de)codecs for AC3 and DTS tracks inside the MKVs.

While codec-packs can install more than most people need, I do feel the well established packs (sharky's and k-lite) are very useful in installing everything you need for playback, and keeping things simple.

It's possible the two files use a different codec inside the MKV container, or had particular advanced codec settings applied, during the encoding process, that one or the other playback (de)codecs don't cooperate with.

 

[Fallen Kell]

FFDShow lets you do video processing on the fly. Specifically it will do a much higher quality upscaling, do noise reduction, reduce compression artifacts, etc., etc., etc.... Its effects are best seen when viewing standard definition video feeds like DVD or TV. The downside is that you need some real processing power available in the system.

See the thread over on avsforums: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1172653

Again, for HD sources, it doesn't make as much difference (without a really powerful CPU).

 

[0roo0roo]

Again, for HD sources, it doesn't make as much difference (without a really powerful CPU).

and a really really expensive tv

 

[SunSamurai]

All media needs a codec to play, it is the decoder for the media. FFDSHOW is just a set of decoders it is never required, you are free to use whatever codec works. A lot of people install codec packs because it seems to make it easier, but in fact it complicates things by installing a lot of files people do not need. It can make it harder to find out what is causing the problems with media playback.

BS. FFDSHOW is more than just a bunch of decoders. It doesn't make it more complicated, it gives you much more control over the codecs and what is going to be used to decode what. Not to mention dozens of post processing tweaks to get the best out of your source files. 'Need' is a silly word to use in the world of A/V. How much quality do you 'need'. :thumbsdown:

Maybe try using it instead of trashing it.

 

[SlitheryDee]

You can use ffdshow to apply compression and normalization to the dolby digital, THD, or DTS audio and then pass it on as dolby digital to your receiver. It's a useful function even if you don't want compression or normalization if your receiver doesn't support DTS or TrueHD decoding but you don't want to lose the original lossless audio in the file. Without ffdshow, all Win7 does is pass the dolby digital, DTS, or THD audio through to the receiver.

I've also noticed that ffdshow's mpeg2 decoding is worlds better in visual quality than whatever is built into Win7, even without any post processing. Anyone else notice the vertical banding you get when watching DVDs with Win7s decoder? That's completely gone when you rip the video to an MKV and use ffdshow to decode. I don't think the Win7 h.264 codec is as efficient as ffdshow as far as resource usage either, though I have noticed no striking visual differences in that respect.

I think ffdshow is FAR superior to whatever windows uses, but I guess you could get by without it.

 

[vshah]

has anyone actually gotten ffdshow video decoding working in win7? i can't for the life of me get it to work over the built in decoders.

 

[rsd]

has anyone actually gotten ffdshow video decoding working in win7? i can't for the life of me get it to work over the built in decoders.

It is not as simple in Win 7, if you search around there are many methods of doing it.

But honestly I'd suggest using the Shark Win 7 codec pack. It is relatively simple to use and gives you a variety of options (including ffdshow, ffdshow dxva, etc etc). Uninstalling it leaves your system as before, so it does not do any permanent file/registry modifications.

This is coming from someone who did it manually/by hand in the past, and refused to use a pack before.

 

[Gooberlx2]

It is not as simple in Win 7, if you search around there are many methods of doing it.

But honestly I'd suggest using the Shark Win 7 codec pack. It is relatively simple to use and gives you a variety of options (including ffdshow, ffdshow dxva, etc etc). Uninstalling it leaves your system as before, so it does not do any permanent file/registry modifications.

This is coming from someone who did it manually/by hand in the past, and refused to use a pack before.

Similarly the k-lite pack will also install all the good stuff, as well as a few useful tools. One such being "Win7DSFilterTweaker" which allows you to choose which codec you prefer the system to use for which kind of video stream.

You can also download it separately.

I think sharky's provides all the same stuff, I've just used k-lite for a long time and find the separate tools to be a bit more intuitive than sharky's layout on their GUI.

 

[SunSamurai]

Alternatively I just use CCCP. I used to use K-lite and swiched over a couple years ago. I've found it to be more refined than the typical codec pack you will find out there. Has lite and full installs. Been using is with zero issue for two years through multiple versions of vista and w7. (64bit)

You can install it and do absolutely no tweaking, or all the tweaking your heart could desire. The only tweaking I've ever had to do is when I wanted a different (more efficient) decoder to decode my .264 content at a huge CPU savings.

www.cccp-project.net

 

[Modelworks]

BS. FFDSHOW is more than just a bunch of decoders. It doesn't make it more complicated, it gives you much more control over the codecs and what is going to be used to decode what. Not to mention dozens of post processing tweaks to get the best out of your source files. 'Need' is a silly word to use in the world of A/V. How much quality do you 'need'. :thumbsdown:

LOL. You should lighten up on the caffeine. In the context of the OP question for playing back video FFDShow is not and I repeat not needed or required. He said his video was playing fine without it and wanted to know why he needed it. If someone likes what they use who am I or you for that matter to try to suggest they are doing it wrong or should use something else because I think everyone needs to have 1080p 120hz playback with bit perfect audio. None of that was part of the question.


And yes it does make it more complicated. Most people just want to play back the file. They don't want to know bit rates, codecs, matrices, quantization, post processing or anything else. I can't count the number of times I have had to help people who installed everything and messed with settings they had no clue how to use and ended up screwing up all video and audio playback. KISS applies here more than ever before.

 

[Modelworks]

has anyone actually gotten ffdshow video decoding working in win7? i can't for the life of me get it to work over the built in decoders.

Yes you can make it work.
You need to use administrator rights and disable the MS codecs or better lower their priority. When windows goes to play a file it looks at the priority setting to determine which codec to try first. So you just need to put FFDshow above the MS default ones on the list.

There are a couple ways to change the priority, probably the easiest if you are already using the shark codec pack is to open the configuration window as admin and make sure to set FFDshow as the default and not the MS ones. This can get tricky if you use media center because FFDshow has issues here due to the way media center implements PMP or protected media path. I have gotten it to work but it wasn't as smooth at playback as the defualt MS codecs.

 

[vshah]

i tried pretty hard the manual way, including deleting all the built in codec files (or so i thought) but ffdshow still wouldn't get used. i'll give it a shot with the codec packs, thanks!

 

[SlitheryDee]

i tried pretty hard the manual way, including deleting all the built in codec files (or so i thought) but ffdshow still wouldn't get used. i'll give it a shot with the codec packs, thanks!

I use the "Win7DSFilterTweaker" mentioned above with Haali Media Splitter and ffdshow. The codec packs probably work too, but they may also install some things that you don't need. With all the formats that ffdshow can decode you don't really need anything else.