[st graveyard]

Hello everybody,

I need help, because currently I don't know what to do anymore.

Here is the deal. I'm using XBMC now for 1.5 monhts and I love it. However, I have some beautifull HD homevideos in MTS format (Panasonic camera). These run beautifully in Windows Media Player, but not as smooth in XBMC.

First my hardware :
Intel I5
4 gigs or Ram
Intel GPU (sadly, so it seems )

This is what I have done after a lot of discussion :

- I installed the last version of XBMC with DSPLAYER (not DSCODEC)
- I installed the FFDSHOW codecs
- Installed the MPC-HC codec

This is what I have been trying to do now with my MTS files.

- Running them in the MPC-HC player, the image is distorted and green. People told me to switch of the DXVA filters because intel GPU have trouble with this. When I do this (to the best of my knowledge, the mts files just don't play anymore. I get a black screen. Any other intel users experiencing this? Can anybody explain how I switch of DXVA2, because I'm not 100% sure I did it correctly.
- I've been trying to use the DSPLAYER function in XBMC. When I use this one on the MTS files, XBMC completely crashes! I can however, run my movies (MKV) with DSPLAYER (edit : NO, this also makes XBMC crash now). To run MTS with DSPLAYER, I added the MTS tag in the mediaconfig.xml file at the spot where the M2TS|TS are declared. Is this correct? I've tried switching off DXVA2 in XBMC, I played with the DSPLAYER config settings in XBMC, but it always crashes.
- Finally, I've added Window MEDIA player as the default player in XBMC for my MTS files. This sounds like it could be THE solution for my problem, but when I try to run an MTS file like this, I see that it wants to start, the little player screen appears, but then disappears and nothing happens.

In conclusion, as a first step I just would like to be able to run the MTS files in XBMC in the same smooth way as standards windows media player.
I'm trying to create a document for other XBMC users to set this up, because there is so much discussion, but I just can't find the solution myself.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance,
Maarten

[LordMerlin]

Install Haali Splitter.

[st graveyard]

Hello all,

I'm finally able to run the MTS files using DSPLAYER!

It seems the option "force internal filters" made the system to crash.
I know have "allow DXVA2" switch to on ... don't see any difference if this is switched of.

movies play alot smoother than with the standard DVDPLAYER, allthough on my computer monitor, it seems a bit more "blocky". I will test this evening on my big screen TV.

[sshaikh]

http://dsplayer.passion-xbmc.org/
the one ending with video is for video codec
the one without it is audio only but its experimental you need to also change settings to audio output directshow in xbmc gui if you want to try it.

Could someone please explain the above? Is it the audio only one that's experimental or are they both? What exactly is the difference? Is one a subset of the other?

If I don't understand the diff (because it's not relevant), which is the "base" version to use?

[therealjoeblow]

Emphasis mine. I think this is a seriously overblown statement. Crap quality? What do you mean?

Soft picture, numerous decoding artifacts. This assessment has been supported by numerous users over and over again. You won't notice it on a 24" monitor or an average quality 42" or lower LCD TV, but try with a very high quality 55" Plasma and you'll see what I mean. Crap quality.

Cheers
The REAL Joe

[ashlar]

Soft picture, numerous decoding artifacts. This assessment has been supported by numerous users over and over again. You won't notice it on a 24" monitor or an average quality 42" or lower LCD TV, but try with a very high quality 55" Plasma and you'll see what I mean. Crap quality.

Cheers
The REAL Joe

On what source? I own a Pioneer Kuro 9G 60". If you feed these screens anything less than 720p material... You are doing yourself a great disservice. Also, upscaling with lanczos or spline (MadVR) introduces ringing and/or artifacts...

[therealjoeblow]

Could you please explain this further? AFAIK DSCodec uses ffdshow and "normal"-XBMC uses ffmpeg but aren't both based on libavcodec? Where is the difference?

-ffdshow is an advanced, highly configurable and flexible directshow decoder; ffmpeg is a basic 'swiss-knife' decoder
-ffdshow has no decoding artifacts; ffmpeg does.
-ffdshow by default decodes the image sharper than ffmpeg does
-ffdshow can use it's own built in filters for image resizing to 1920wide using lanczos in real-time on moderate hardware and onboard graphic chips for even better image clarity and sharpness; XBMC w/ffmpeg cannot, in most cases to use the built-in lanczos resizer without stuttering you need a powerhouse processor and/or vid-card.
-ffdshow can use a multitude of other built-in filters for additional post-processing depending on source quality, limited only by how much time you want to invest in configuring it; ffmpeg is stuck with what it is

[therealjoeblow]

On what source? I own a Pioneer Kuro 9G 60". If you feed these screens anything less than 720p material... You are doing yourself a great disservice. Also, upscaling with lanczos or spline (MadVR) introduces ringing and/or artifacts...

Well, I guess it's up to personal perception and preference then. If you like XBMC's default decoder, then great, use it. I think it sucks, but I guess I should have stated that's only my opinion.

Cheers
The REAL Joe

[ashlar]

The thing is that the decoder is not what you are most likely complaining about. You are probably dissatisfied with postprocessing and/or scaling. But those have pretty much nothing to do with decoding. I doubt that there is something seriously wrong with decoding.

But most definitely, the nice thing about HTPCs is choice. With many choices many individual tastes can be satisfied.

[st graveyard]

Hey guys,

I'm a NOOB when it comes to codecs, but I tested yesterday my HD homevids (1080p MTS files) using the DSPLAYER version. I fiddled a bit with the video options. It runs beautiful for me now in XBMC (on an LG Plasme HD READY 720P screen). I have around 48 - 50 frames/sec. I think it is still not yet as good as when I use WMPLAYER, but it comes very close.

Excellent work!

Cheers,
Maarten

[Mandarynek]

Install Haali Splitter.

Thank you. With Haali Splitter ffdshow finally works in XBMC. But I have a problem. The picture is not smooth even when I watch XVID/DIVX (x264 is smooth). Maybe I set something wrong in the options? But I did not change anything in the ffdshow or XBMC settings.

Some advice?

[LordMerlin]

Freme rate of Video and TV is not equal.

[Mandarynek]

Freme rate of Video and TV is not equal.

Nope. When I turn off sync playback to display nothing changes. I tested the settings on another pc and XVID is also not smooth. Should I use ffdshow to decode audio?

[thewarm]

A quick newbie question...

If I switch to FFDShow will I lose the FF/Rew capability with MKV files that the built-in player provides?

Thanks

[SALAMINOMACHOS]

so far , NO