Hello,

I am a "long time" Vista Codec Package user under vista ultimate x64. Thank you for the great work you are doing. Since the latest release, I am experiencing playback issues under Vista Mediacenter. These issues were not there before. I would need more experienced users advices, if possible. Thank you in advance.

Vista Mediacenter Playback issues :

1 - DV-AVI files

• Jerky fullscreen playback with FFDShow (libavcodec).
• Perfect windowed playback with FFDShow (libavcodec) except that the playback stops when the mediacenter controls hide themselves : bringing the mouse cursor over the mediacenter window makes the video play again since the controls appear.
• Perfect fullscreen playback using the default DV Video Decoder (libavcodec deactivated).
• Perfect fullscreen and windowed playback with FFDShow (libavcodec) and WMP11 64bit.

2 - MJPEG-AVI

• Jerky fullscreen playback with FFDShow (libavcodec).
• Perfect windowed playback with FFDShow (libavcodec) except that the playback stops when the mediacenter controls hide themselves : bringing the mouse cursor over the mediacenter window makes the video play again since the controls appear.
• Jerky fullscreen playback using the default MJPEG Decompressor (libavcodec deactivated) !?!
• Perfect fullscreen and windowed playback with FFDShow (libavcodec) and WMP11 64bit.

3 - AVC1-AVI files

• Jerky fullscreen playback with FFDShow (libavcodec).
• Perfect windowed playback with FFDShow (libavcodec) except that the playback stops when the mediacenter controls hide themselves : bringing the mouse cursor over the mediacenter window makes the video play again since the controls appear.
• No playback using default Vista Video Decoders (libavcodec deactivated).
• Perfect fullscreen and windowed playback with FFDShow (libavcodec) and WMP11 64bit.

If I stop using the zoom feature (the one that preserves the proportions in the center but not on the sides) for fullscreen playback under Vista Mediacenter, then the windowed playback does not stop when the controls hide. However, the playback is still jerky in full screen mode (with or without the zoom feature).

Thank you in advance.

Cyrille

Intel Core 2 CPU 6600 (2.4 GHz)
NVidia 8600 GTS, latest drivers

(editted by Shark007 to make the topic title more appropriate)

This post has been edited by Shark007: Feb 4 2008, 05:39 AM

I have researched your issues and you are not alone.

This seems to be Vista MediaCenters' problem and not the codecs.


shark

more information ...

after extensive research I've come up with a possible solution - NVIDIA GRAPHICS ONLY

open nvidia control panel, go to 'adjust video color settings' find the 'enhancement tab'
set the 'edge enhancements' and 'noise reduction' to anywhere from 15% to 25%


shark

This post has been edited by Shark007: Jan 31 2008, 02:16 PM

Hello,

I am currently not home but I will give your workaround a try as soon as possible. I will let you know.

By the way, thank you a lot for your help.

I'll be back...

Cyrille

Hi, I have registered to this forum for this exact problem!

I have your Vista Codec Package installed, 4.6.2, both versions. All files work perfectly except for mov files. They work fine in WMP64 (windowed and full screen) and work fine in VMC if it is windowed, once VMC is in full screen it becomes really jerky and flickers all the way through, audio is fine, the video just flickers.

I have an Nvidia 8800 Ultra with the 169.25 drivers installed.

My computer runs HD DVDs and Blu Rays perfectly with PowerDVD with no lag what so ever so it is not the power of the computer, it is the codecs somehow.

I hope someone can find a fix for this as I miss watching trailers in VMC.

I moved your post to a more appropriate thread.




shark

Hello,

What a timing ! I was about to report some new informations on our problem...

I will be short :

Since my last post, I decided to start with a fresh windows vista 64bit installation and the NVidia driver version 169.25 (no vista codecs). Since I was playing Blu-ray and HDDVD, I needed also powerdvd. Without anything else installed, everything worked just fine (almost two months in a row) until one day... that day when the problem started again. I was really unable to findout what could have made this happen : I really did nothing special, or special enough to be remembered of.

Then I decided to give your suggestion a try (20% for 'edge enhancements' and 'noise reduction'). It worked. No more jerkyness in my MJPEG-AVI files.

But then, one week later (or so), the same problem started again. What change in my system triggered it ? I still don't know. Adjusting the 'video color settings' had no effect at all. I decided to see if my DV-Avi files were playing well. No, they didn't. Not because of jerky or stuttering playback issues. Playing DV-Avi file resulted in something like a permanent zoom on the video (vista mediacenter, media player and powerdvd too) !?! I have found out the "zoom effect" disappears as soon as I put back 0% for the 'edge enhancements' and 'noise reduction' parameters... oh well...

As part of my experimentation, I have never installed the Vista Codec package so, the problem is not related to this package.

Don't hesitate to ask for more questions or details.

Cyrille

This post has been edited by crustom: Mar 23 2008, 09:03 AM

Setting both to 15% has worked, thanks for the help.
It is occasionally jerky, presumably messing with the percentages will help but I don't have time today.

Thanks again

The bottom line of this discussion is that it is a driver issue
From what I read around the net, using the latest available drivers direct from Nvidia (171.xx?) has fixed this issue for most Nvidia users.


shark

Hello,

I didn't know for the NVIDIA driver 171.xx. Great.

Cyrille

Where are the 171 drivers? On the Nvidia site the 8 series has 169.25 and the 9 series has 174.53?

I have found now that it is not jerky but it goes out of sync occasionally, each .mov file goes out of sync at different times and others never, hence why it appeared to work yesterday!, it happens in windowed and full screen and also in wmp64 but it is fine in wmp32 so I might go back to the older vista codec pack with the percentages changed and see what happens.

EDIT: Just put 1.4.1 codec pack back on and most now work perfectly. It appears that only 3 or 4 (out of 142, so not bad!) are still out of sync. There is something in the 1.4.2 version that puts them out of sync.

This post has been edited by RICOUK: Mar 24 2008, 10:48 AM

Thanks for the information. I know the cause now. I turned on deinterlacing.
In 142, to turn it off, open the video decoder configuration shortcut, scroll the left column util you se Deinterlacing, and uncheck the box next to it.


shark

Yep, that worked, also, for the few files that did lag, they somehow catch up again towards the end!! You also only notice it when you can see someone talking so the lag isn't that big.

Thanks Shark, keep up the good work.

Just to let you know,

I gave a try to different versions of NVIDIA display drivers. I looked for the driver 171.xx and while searching for it, I found out the driver 174.16 and decided to install it.

Well, it solved the stuttering playback issue (or lag issue if you will) without using 'edge enhancements' and 'noise reduction' parameters (by the way, setting these parameters to non-zero values still results in the "zoom effect" that occurs while playing DV-Avi files with any media player).

Thank you again for your suggestions. Keep up the good work, as RICOUK says.

Cyrille

I tried the 174.16 drivers as well and they have fixed the problem without having to change any settings, in the Nvidia Control Panel or in ffdshow. They are not official drivers from Nvidia, they are, but tweaked by someone else, they can be found here in the download section under Xtreme-G Forceware nVidia Drivers.

the issue is solved with these drivers.

Direct from Nvidia.com version 174.74


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shark

I recently ran into a similar issue, though not exactly the same, so I'm going to share my experience.

I had everything working happy on my Vista 64 system in MCE for playing AVIs.

After installing 1.4.9 (I don't remember what my previous version was) it started getting all jerky in full screen MCE.

After reading this thread I looked at the decoder options, and De-interlacing is not selected, but Post Processing and Subtitles were. Post Processing sounded more important, so I disabled Subtitles, and sure enough everything works delicious now.

Looks like you might have to disable another default option.