looking for blu-ray playback software with minimal GPU usage

[faxon]

So for the last couple months (since before i started doing DC), my blu-ray playback capability has been spotty at best, and completely nonfunctional until i did a windows reinstall last week. now, whenever i open a blu-ray, my milkyway@home work unit completion time doubles until i close out of the version of powerDVD that came with my drive. i know for sure that it wasnt slowing down that much prior, but i have no idea what might have aided in this kind of performance other than possibly my not having installed the K-Lite mega codec pack yet. i dont mind just CPU accelerating my blu-ray playback either, since i dont mind load balancing my seti@home work units with it for a little while since the ppd drop is marginal compared to my milkyway GPUs. so, any idea how i can either disable gpu accelerated playback, or which software (preferably at minimal cost) can play blu-rays but doesnt have gpu acceleration support?

as an alternative, i also do have some pci-e x1 slots free, and there's a couple models of hd4000 GPU that can go in this slot. if i were to enable one of them as the primary GPU, would it still slow down my work units?

 

[TheRyuu]

So for the last couple months (since before i started doing DC), my blu-ray playback capability has been spotty at best, and completely nonfunctional until i did a windows reinstall last week. now, whenever i open a blu-ray, my milkyway@home work unit completion time doubles until i close out of the version of powerDVD that came with my drive. i know for sure that it wasnt slowing down that much prior, but i have no idea what might have aided in this kind of performance other than possibly my not having installed the K-Lite mega codec pack yet. i dont mind just CPU accelerating my blu-ray playback either, since i dont mind load balancing my seti@home work units with it for a little while since the ppd drop is marginal compared to my milkyway GPUs. so, any idea how i can either disable gpu accelerated playback, or which software (preferably at minimal cost) can play blu-rays but doesnt have gpu acceleration support?

as an alternative, i also do have some pci-e x1 slots free, and there's a couple models of hd4000 GPU that can go in this slot. if i were to enable one of them as the primary GPU, would it still slow down my work units?

Get rid of klite, install cccp. I recommend you grab the latest beta version.

You can chose to have it (ffdshow) use either libav, ffmpeg-mt, or even enable dxva now (gpu). Keep in mind you'll only get gpu accelerated decoding if you're using EVR in vista/7.

 

[faxon]

havent ever used anything besides klite. if i set up cccp does it just give me a pull up menu from the task bar in the far right corner, like if i minimize OCCT or i want to quickly access CCC controls? or would i have to change settings from within the player? i know with k lite there was a way to do this but i never looked into how to be honest. i dont mind switching codec packs as long as all the obscure japanese anime my friends bring over in .OOG, .OGM, and .MKV still play

 

[lopri]

Just say no to codec packs.

Seriously, if you're using Windows 7 all you need is the Matroksa splitter. WMP and MPC-HC will play everything but encrypted Blu-Ray. I don't know which Blu-Ray player uses less GPU. I've used PowerDVD and Total Media Theatre 3 without paying much attention. (They're both decent but I prefer TMT3) I mean, the trend is to take the load off of CPU to GPU. And different codecs and bit rates per titles mean it'll be near impossible to predict the load on GPU. Player updates and driver updates may affect that as well.

Two possible scenarios including one you mentioned.

1) Strip DRM off Blu-Ray discs and play the content with MPC-HC. Configure MPC-HC so that it won't use DXVA. (haven't done it but I think it can be done)
2) Add a second GPU for Blu-Ray playback. I did this before but with 2 displays. Oh and it wasn't Blu-Ray so that's another thing. I had one GPU hooked to a main monitor and the other to a secondary, and each GPU' load corresponded to each screen. Not sure if this can be done on a single display, though.

 

[faxon]

yea that second gpu solution was what i was considering doing. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161280

since its x1 i could put it in my one remaining x1 slot (soundcard in the other) and just replace the loud ass cooler with a cheap chipset water block and add it to my loop. my only alternative is if i can get a pci-e x1 to x16 riser which would let me put my 4670 inin, and rise the card up enough so it wouldnt also bump into my ram. i could put BOINC in a VM and use it so i can run collatz on the 4670 without also enabling it on my 5870s, so it would be win/win since i dont have a rig for that card now anyway, and i dont mind pausing that. again, since the card is a little louder than my taste, i can use the same fix to quiet it as i would the 4350. dont have the space for a passive cooler for either since my sound card is in the way.

 

[lopri]

Umm.. What you're planning doesn't sound feasible to me. Do you mean that you would assign a GPU to a VM (for crunching), while running the host system on another GPU? That sounds like I/O virtualization and I don't even know which virtualization software has such support yet. Of course you need capable hardware as well. Your CPU and motherboard should support I/O virtualization. (VT-d for Intel, IOMMU for AMD) Many high-end CPUs should have it but I am not sure about motherboards, unless you've got a server board or something. High-end chipsets (X48/X58) and business-oriented chipsets (Q41/Q57) supposedly have the capability, but not many boards actually implement it. On AMD side, 890FX is the first client-side chipset to support I/O virtualization, afaik.

Remember NVIDIA SLI-OS announced sometime last year? I believe that was basically GPU virtualization.

 

[faxon]

yea being able to do that would just be an added bonus, the 4670 doesnt have a system to live in right now, and the one board i did have to put it in to crunch just died last weekend. i know my cpu supports intel VT, was why i did that upgrade in the first place. dunno about the board though, i will look into it on that side of things. would be good if someone knew whether sticking in a gpu like that would even work though. i would of course have to make it the primary display adapter, so if i wanted to game i would have to rip it out and reboot, but thats not a big deal if its an easy fix for this issue

 

[EarthwormJim]

No codec packs!!!!! No k-lite, no CCCP!!!

Install FFdshow tryouts.
Install haali media splitter.
Optionally install media player classic homecinema to play media files.
Optionally install gabest flv splitter for flash video.

That's it. That's all you need.

You can use media player classic homecinema for it's DXVA (gpu acceleration) capabilities, or configure FFDshow to enable DXVA acceleration. FFDshow DXVA acceleration will work in any media player (including Windows Media Player).

*edit* oh you said minimal GPU usage.

You want the CoreAVC codec then. It's the fastest software h.264 decoder. You can disable all DXVA acceleration in FFDshow or media player classic homecinema too. Their software decoders work fine provided you have the CPU processing power, but they're not as fast as CoreAVC.

Regardless, you still want/need the software I listed above.