WinDVD 8 HD Playback Performace

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 9:33 pm

I tried Windvd 8 and it suggests to use a dual-core processor for proper performance.
Gee, you would think the program would come with a dual-core.

Post by **Ron P.** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 2:35 am

maddrummer3301 wrote:I tried Windvd 8 and it suggests to use a dual-core processor for proper performance.
Gee, you would think the program would come with a dual-core.

Excellent marketing strategy

Buy the full boxed version and get your choice of Dual Core or Duo Core processors absolutely free..

You must act fast, supplies are limited..

Edited

I also recieved an automated response from Ulead when I attempted to d/l the Vista Patch for VS. Included was a coupon, which expires June 30, 2007, for the purchase of :

VS11 or VS11 Plus
DVDMF 6 or DVDMF 6 Plus
DVDMF5 or DVDMF5 Plus
PhotoImpact 12

I'm going to guess in ref to Terry's Post, that DVDMF6 Plus is the non-business, corporate version.

htchien · Post by **htchien** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 4:13 am

Hi MD,

maddrummer3301 wrote:I tried Windvd 8 and it suggests to use a dual-core processor for proper performance.
Gee, you would think the program would come with a dual-core.

The suggestion for a dual-core is for HD and H.264 playback, especially when you are trying to play BD / HD DVD disks.

My WinDVD 8 plays normal DVDs well on my old Pentium M 1.73 G notebook.

H.T.

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 5:06 am

HTChein,
I was thinking maybe a 3.2Ghz machine is to slow for the Windvd8's code. But, Windvd8 will not playback a Mpeg2-TS file either nor when it does playback HD-Mpeg2 at 18Mbs PS CBR the playback isn't smooth such as cars passing along the road when the cam is about 60FT away from the road, or similar footage. Seems like it maybe drops frames for the fine interlaced fielding detail necesary for good motion. I found the de-interlace feature in 8, tried weave first, then all of them. I don't want de-interlace because it's going directly to a HDTV. I also have the HDTV setup as Primary monitor on a DVI connector to be sure. Some programs only playback correctly when assigned as Primary Monitor when connected to a TV.

The other players that also don't playback correctly and have the same results (skipping) are Nero Showtime 3, VLC, Mplayer, WMP & Ulead's player. Same exact results also in Linux when driving the HDTV at 1080i using Xine or Mplayer. Loss of the fine motion detail.

The files are good because I can play them back in a multi-media player (The AVeL Link Player 2). It pushes out the TS stream @25Mbs CBR nice, also the 18Mbs PS files playback very smooth on the LP2 unit.
WinDVD8 playsback dvd's and SD without a problem.
There is one program I'm buying for the computer which is "PowerDVD 7 Ultra". It must have different drivers that access the video card directly, ATI or NVidia both work and play the files back as good as the hdmi connector from the cam (when the HDTV is connected via computer DVI->HDMI to the HDTV). Component connections are just as smooth but slightly loss of quality due to being component versus dvi.
Example though when using PDVD7_Ultra:
When playing back 25Mbs TS stream the 2.8Ghz HT machine uses about 22% or less cpu usage (ATI). The 3.2Ghz HT (NVidia Card) runs about 18% cpu usage. The Nvidia card playsback the same whether the HDTV is Primary or Secondary. Works in both modes.

Sorry to make this a long post. Just confused why PDVD7 works nice for my HD files and Windvd8 is giving me problems. Windvd8 was setup to use hardware acceleration.
Think I need a super dupper core2 duo computer to do this, or maybe send a sample dvd to someone with the HD files. But all they have to do is record a few minutes from a HC3 unit.

htchien · Post by **htchien** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 5:45 am

Hi MD,

I have no copy of PowerDVD 7 Ultra so I cannot comment on it, but maybe I will try it later when I get a new system.

For WinDVD 8, as I know it would utilize the video card to do the video acceleration, however it would depend on the system you have. For HD playback in WinDVD 8, I would suggest to use the following video cards:

nVidia 7600 or higher.
ATi X1400 or higher.

I suggest them because they have HD acceleration.

I think what you observed is correct, nVidia is using less CPU power than ATi. But to play HD video, yes you would need a higher level CPU to do that. Definitely my Pentium M notebook cannot do it so I would stay with SD until I buy a new system.

H.T.

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 6:20 am

>>>I suggest them because they have HD acceleration.
Thanks, I didn't know about the HD-Acceleration. Any they are probably PCI-E Video Cards which means needing a new system. I'll have to see if ATI or NVidia have HD accellerated AGP cards. But I may not need one except to run Linux which isn't a high priority for video but nice.

Just a TidBit. On the 2.8Ghz HT machine I have a ATI AIW9600Pro in the AGP Slot with the ATI Vga to Component adapter connected to the 2nd Display vga port.
On Pci-Slot 1 an ATI 9250 (fastest pci card available I think). Both cards are assigned separate Irq's automatically through the bios. The HDTV is also connected via the DVI connector on the 2nd Video Card, 2nd Diplay port. So I have 2 HD available connections. The PCI card pumping the HDTV via it's DVI connector works nicely with the PDVD7 software.

I realize that to playback a BD and all it's features would require a faster cpu. They all recommend core2-duo. I'm going to live with what I have for now. Who would ever think one would need to upgrade a 3.2Ghz Cpu.

Thanks,

htchien · Post by **htchien** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 6:52 am

maddrummer3301 wrote:>>>I suggest them because they have HD acceleration.
Thanks, I didn't know about the HD-Acceleration. Any they are probably PCI-E Video Cards which means needing a new system. I'll have to see if ATI or NVidia have HD accellerated AGP cards. But I may not need one except to run Linux which isn't a high priority for video but nice.

They do have HD acceleration, check the followings.

ATI AVIVO:
http://ati.amd.com/technology/avivo/index.html

nVidia PureVideo:
http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo.html

nVidia PureVideo HD:
http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo_hd.html

You will need one of them for both HD and BD playback. For Linux, you might need to check with nVidia for nVidia has some support on Linux.

maddrummer3301 wrote:I realize that to playback a BD and all it's features would require a faster cpu. They all recommend core2-duo. I'm going to live with what I have for now. Who would ever think one would need to upgrade a 3.2Ghz Cpu.

If you have a 3.2 GHz CPU, it's not really needed to upgrade to Intel Core 2 Duo for High Definition. Just upgrade the video card should be OK. But yes, upgrade to faster CPU would be better.

H.T.

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 4:00 pm

OK, that's the answer with WinDvd8.
PDVD7 IS using those exact name drivers, I see them under the hardware accelleration for both the ATI & the NVidia.

Pretty sure that WinDVD8 is NOT using the purevideo on the Nvidia card because I noticed when playing back the full screen feature on Secondary Display doesn't work the same as PDVD7.
I didn't try Windvd8 on the ATI machine which is using up to date drivers.
I'll upgrade the NVidia drivers on that machine and maybe WinDvd8 will then access the PureVideo drivers. I'll let you know how I make out.
The NVidia card is a GT6600-e 128Meg Ram.

htchien · Post by **htchien** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 4:53 pm

Hi MD,

maddrummer3301 wrote:Pretty sure that WinDVD8 is NOT using the purevideo on the Nvidia card because I noticed when playing back the full screen feature on Secondary Display doesn't work the same as PDVD7.

Check the Preference settings in WinDVD 8 (right clicks on the video window and select Preference), make sure you have checked both Hardware Decode Acceleration and Hardware Color Acceleration options in the Video tab.

Then when you play the video, check the Info tab in the Preference, it will show the current decoding information in that tab, including the information about video acceleration is been enabled or not.

Hope this helps.

I think this thread is getting a little OT and should be splited to the WinDVD forum, so I did it....

H.T.

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 10:48 pm

Chein,
Thanks for all the help.

I've narrowed the biggest problem down to the software & hardware both working together with maybe de-interlacing the video. Before the video stream hits the hardware device and Afterwards, how the hardware video card displays the video on the screen.

Along with probably a faster cpu. It's hard to judge anything the way I'm testing it when the people that write the code suggest a fast Core2-duo etc. I would be nice to see Windvd play TS format streams. It omits the m2t extension on file player and if I rename the m2t to mpg program hangs.
So, I guess it's not coded to play TS mpeg streams yet, I don't know.

I did get VLC player to work smoothly at about 50% Cpu usage applying the "Linear" De-interlace feature. Actually works nice and I think that VLC only access's the DirectX Accelleration.

Not bad for a 2.8Ghz machine, eventually I'll get faster BUT have been hoping that ulead and others would port their code to MAC. I'd prefer to get a Desktop with Dual Xeon's and be done with it (for a few years).
I just read today where Adobe has ported their code for Premier to run on the Mac's. Pretty sure it's available now.
There is a market for lower cost video/audio programs for the Mac's. Most of the Mac software for video is expensive and most people don't need all the advanced features in those editors. Not to mention making the program more complex and harder to learn.

Thanks again for the help.

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 7:44 am

If you have a 3.2 GHz CPU, it's not really needed to upgrade to Intel Core 2 Duo for High Definition. Just upgrade the video card should be OK. But yes, upgrade to faster CPU would be better.

Htchein,
Wanted to get back to you after reading the links you provided referencing hd-certified video cards.
Didn't need to buy any video cards. The links you provided listed my NVidia GeForce 6600 GT supports PureVision.
That machine (3.2GHz Asus P4C800-E) plays back HD nice either via Component or DVI. DVI yields the best picture, (cpu usage ~ <= 20%), (Powerdvd 7).
The ATI9600Pro AIW also plays back HD-Mpeg2 nice(although not hd certified), low cpu usage on a 2.8Ghz machine.

Playback on HdTv at 480i/480p/720p/1080i yields smooth playback. Source files = 1440x1080@25Mbs CBR-TS interlaced / 1920x1080@18Mbs VBR-PS interlaced.
Powerdvd7 no deinterlace at all, smooth playback.

To achieve full motion using VLC player (cpu usage >=50%) I programmed a shortcut to VLC with some switches. I don't know if VLC is actually de-interlacing (which I didn't want), but through experimentation this yields smooth playback of each frame. Still good resolution.

This will launch VLC to play a HD Video 1/2 size windowed, with a de-interlacer that works on the NVidia 6600GT card. You could also customize the "vlcrc" config file.

"vlc --zoom=.5 --vout-filter=deinterlace --deinterlace-mode=linear"

htchien · Post by **htchien** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 8:26 am

Hi MD, that's great.

Have fun with HD.

H.T.