Codec control

[Ted Wagner]

My application is playing MTS files from a Sony camcorder.

They appear MUCH better when played with VLC or WMP, where "Info" says "MPEG4 Video (H264) 1920x1080 29.97fps [Video]".

When I play the file through my VLDSVideoPlayer, the indicated codec is "ffdshow Video Decoder" (in which I have deinterlacing turned on), and the quality is not quite as good.

Is there a way to make my VLDSVideoPlayer use the same codec that the other applications are using?

Thanks

ted

[Ted Wagner]

After uninstalling my K-Lite codec pack and (re-)installing (32-bit) K-Lite 800 Mega pack, my MTS playback improved dramatically, but the more I learn, the less confidence I have in my codec configuration.

I did a set of playback quality tests with 4 different video files. The results, and the files, can be found here:

http://justsoar.com/public/stuff/

What I am stuck on is the inconsistency between the indicated codec (fourcc, codec name, and filter name), and the actual playback results.

For example, the .MTS and the .MP4 files both indicate the same format: fourcc = AVC1, code name = "AVC1 Unknown", and filter name = "ffdshow Video Decoder". But when I play them, the .MTS file quality is nearly 100%, where the .MP4 achieves only 20 fps and drops 33% of frames.

Most (maybe all) of my MP4 files do this -- playing 20 frames per second while dropping a third.

(To track frames, I create an array of frame times, setting each element in the player's OnProgress() event callback. After 30 or 40 seconds of playing I stop and inspect the array, while comparing elapsed video time to elapsed actual time. I'll be happy to email my test application to anyone interested in trying to reproduce any results.)

I'm using Boian's latest & greatest, XE2 VCL, on a high end, high performance Windows 7 Pro 64-bit platform ...

[Dave]

(01-07-2012 01:34 AM)Ted Wagner Wrote:  What I am stuck on is the inconsistency between the indicated codec (fourcc, codec name, and filter name), and the actual playback results.

For example, the .MTS and the .MP4 files both indicate the same format: fourcc = AVC1, code name = "AVC1 Unknown", and filter name = "ffdshow Video Decoder". But when I play them, the .MTS file quality is nearly 100%, where the .MP4 achieves only 20 fps and drops 33% of frames.

Maybe a splitter issue?

[Ted Wagner]

By Splitter, are you referring to the Infinite Tee filter?

The noted playback differences occur whether I use the Inf Tee filter, or leave it out ... did the tests with both configurations ...

[Dave]

No i'm not, it's been a while since a messed with these things until everything worked fine. To be able to play .MTS .MKV etc using KMPlayer i know i had to install a different splitter than the default used or a newer version.. think it was the Haali splitter. I've seen different results in performance with old/new different splitters as well.

[Ted Wagner]

Okay ... bigtime rookie question here ... what exactly is a "splitter" in this context? Is it a decoder of some type? Is it used in conjunction with a decoder? How do I use one?

---

This web site answers some of my questions:

http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/...litter.cfm

... but raises others: what is a "container" in the context of video stream sources?

Even better, where is a web site that explains all this stuff from the ground up?

[Dave]

Maybe google is a way to find more, container explained:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_f...digital%29

[Ted Wagner]

Well I installed the Haali Media Splitter, added a filter and tried all 3 different flavors of like-named filters, but no change -- a steady 20fps and 33% dropped frame rate on my .mp4 file.

The new Radeon card just arrived, shutting down now to install and kick tires...

[Dave]

And? Dazzling speedy graphics or the same issues?

[Ted Wagner]

The only detectable difference after installing the magic Radeon card was I was reduced from 3 monitors to 2.

This because all of my monitors are DVI or HDMI, but the Radeon card, which has six mini-DisplayPort outputs, only came with two active MDP-to-DVI adapters. The MDP-to-HDMI adapters I bought with the card, it turns out, don't work because they're not "active".

Video playback tests with two displays were indistinguishable from the tests with the previous video cards.