questions about playing mkv files with mpc

nervegrind3r

Lifer
Jul 12, 2004
16,267
5
81
hey all, finally got my first htpc up and running with a 40" samsung lcd over hdmi. Here is my system specs:

asus m3n78-vm (nvidia 8200 chipset)
athlon 64 5000+ BE (2.6ghz ---> 3.0ghz)
4gb memory @ 1066 dual channel
8500gt pcie- video card (running in hybrid sli)
vista ultimate sp1 (32bit)

I am trying to play various 720p and 1080p mkv files through media player classic using either coreavc 1.9.5 or ffdshow. 720p is no problem. At 1080p, I get alot of variation; some play fine without a hiccup, some skip here and there, some have severe a/v sync issues, etc.
So, here are a few questions:

Can 1080p files be played back using hardware acceleration? If not, would upgrading my cpu to a quad, or faster dual core cpu be helpful?

If there a way to tell the bitrate of the audio and video for an mkv file through media player classic, or other? I am just curious so I can see at what bitrate does playback start crapping out.

Is it possible to play back mkv through the latest powerdvd, or use the powerdvd filters to process the mkvs? I cant seem to playback mkv files through powerdvd, which I thought was weird.

Thanks, really appreciate any feedback here.

EDIT: I forgot to mention something important, when playing 1080p files that stutter, my cpu is around 50%, but nothing higher. This is why it was confusing to me whether I need more powerful cpu, hardware decoding, or possibly the codecs on the system are messed up/conflict.


 

Mango1970

Member
Aug 26, 2006
195
0
76
This was very helpful for me. It has your answers:
http://iphonedaily.net/other-n...dtv-low-cpu-usage.html

I had a system that was less powerful than yours BUTTTT, I bought for $65 an ATI (asus) 4550 with HDMI out. It does full hardware decoding X264 right on it. Works like a charm.

For PowerDVD and playing MKV you need to do two things and this thread here has your answers as well. That also works and of course PowerDVD supports Avivo then.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=865611
Essentially you need to install the Haali splitter and then rename the MKV to .mp4 or avi.

EDIT: please watch out downloading the pure codec they suggest. I never bothered and you have to jump through hoops and I don't trust the download sites, my system installing Haali and renaming the extension from mkv to avi allowed me to play MKV files using PowerDVD 9 ultra and I don't see ANY hiccups... and that is 1080p MKV files.
 

nervegrind3r

Lifer
Jul 12, 2004
16,267
5
81
mango, I will try what you said about powedvd.

if I am not mistaken, that 4550 is about the equivalent of my 8500gt when it comes to hardware acceleration of hd movies, thats what I bought that model in the first place (also because its silent, and to use hybrid sli with my mobo). I also have an 8600gts which is part of the same family of hardware acceleration.

I am curious though if some 1080p mkv cannot be accelerated due to the way they are encoding, or something else. I mean my cpu does not even reach 50% for mpc, and I get skipping, and stuttering, and the sync is off with some files.

thanks
 

Mango1970

Member
Aug 26, 2006
195
0
76
Yah no doubt.. it depends how someone, anyone encoded the MKV. I have some that simply wont play which is a pain. Others are a gem and run smooth as silk.
 

manimal

Lifer
Mar 30, 2007
13,559
8
0
Try enabling the osd in ffdshow as a debug tool, while ago it used to stutter on 1080P files until I enabled FPS to see if there was a framerate issue and it stopped stuttering. A few updates ago that bug disapeared for me.
 
Mar 10, 2005
14,647
2
0
Originally posted by: Mango1970
Yah no doubt.. it depends how someone, anyone encoded the MKV. I have some that simply wont play which is a pain. Others are a gem and run smooth as silk.

true
 

nervegrind3r

Lifer
Jul 12, 2004
16,267
5
81
what I dont get is that both my amd htpc running on a 5000+ BE (@3ghz oc) with onboard 8200+8500gt card cannot play two different 1080p mkv files with good a/v sysnc BUT my main pc using an e8400 (@3ghz stock) with an 8800gt plays the same two files with no problem.

As far as any hardware acceleration goes, the 8200+8500gt (equals 8600gt) should be better than an 8800gt, so I dont think the video card plays any role here with these particular mkv files.

So as far as the processor goes, they are both running at 3ghz, but there is an obvious performance difference.

Also, on the amd hptc, I am using mp3 with ffdshow....if I use vlc, it sucks. On the intel system, I use vlc and it works perfectly.

I will try that debug tool suggested, but I just dont get the variances.
 

Bryf50

Golden Member
Nov 11, 2006
1,429
51
91
I recently had a similar issue with my htpc.
I have
x2 5600+ @2.9ghz
Biostar 790gx mb
3450 and 3300 in crossfire x
Windows 7 rc1(which has its own dxva codecs)

There are two things i did to increase performance. The first one is using dxva. I use Media Player Classic Home Cinema which includes a dxva h.264 codec but if your on Vista you must change the output to EVR to make this work. Another thing you could do to use is the PowerDvd codec in mpc by adding it as an external filter. I'm sure a quick google search would come up with more complete instructions on that. All in all dxva was hit and miss for me and only worked without artifacts on half my videos.

The second thing I found was with ffdshow. It didn't detect the number of cores my cpu had. If you go into the decoder settings option for ffdshow you can increase it to 2 which made me able to play 1080p videos with the cpu alone.

Edit: Something can't be right with that Pure Codec program. It includes cyberlink's and coreAVC's filters. Both of which are not free.

Edit: Yea it includes cracked versions of these filters with fake cd-keys.