Question Re. WMP11

[Kilgore Trout]

I have two desktop computers that both have Windows XP SP3.
One of them I can put a dvd into it and play a movie nicely in WMP11.
The other one will not play movie DVD's in WMP11. I can hear the sound; but there is no picture to accompany the sound.

BTW, I set both of these computers up from scratch and as far as I recall did not set them up any differently from each other. Still one can play movies and the other can't.

In any case someone told me I need to get something called Powerdvd to run movie dvd's in WMP11.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Cyberlink-Power...arms=65:12|66:2|39:1|72:1234|293:1|294:50side

Can anyone confirm that this is the software I need to buy or is there some other way to get this PC to play movies in WMP11 when I insert a movie DVD in the DVD player.
Thanks for any ideas.

 

[enyaw]

On the machine that can't play the dvd's try adding a codec like http://www.xvid.org/

as far as cyberlink powerdvd, you can get that for free from a torrent site. A lot of computer stores will sell you the basic version of cyberlink for a few bucks oem.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Okay, thanks.
I downloaded the VLC Media player and I tried K-Lite Codec; but, my WMP11 will play the sound and show no images.

I can play a movie in the VLC Media Player and also on my Nero Showtime video player ; but, the video is being decoded in a very sluggish and slow and dopey manner so the movie doesn't have the easy effortless flow that my other two WMP11 computers have.
I would find it really awful to have to watch a movie the way the codec is decoding it.

Think I'll stop off at the computer shop and see if the guy can figure out why movies are being decoded in such a slow and choppy way.

 

[WoodPeckr]

Try Winamp

Give free Winamp a try.
Like it better than any version of WMP.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Okay, I think I figured out what the problem was for this computer.
I needed to reduce my screen resolution on my 22" monitor from 1600x1200 to 1280 x 960 for playing movies.
Now the choppy video has been eliminated and it plays like a normal dvd.
Guess the video card in this pc isn't powerful enough to do a movie while resolution is at 1600x1200.

 

[thewheelman]

What you should be using is MediaPlayer Classic-Home Cinema.
http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/download-media-player-classic-hc.html

There are only a couple media players that will do hardware accelleration for you. MPC-HC is one of them. If you have an ATI 3800HD or higher model video card, or an NVidea 9600 or higher, this app will process the video using your video card's GPU and not your CPU.

You will be able to play 1080p H.264 encoded videos on older PC's. My CPU runs at 2% playing 1080p .mkv files using a cheap ATI 3850HD card.

This tutorial will help you set it up.
http://forums.techarena.in/guides-tutorials/1192826.htm

 

[Kilgore Trout]

What you should be using is MediaPlayer Classic-Home Cinema.
http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/download-media-player-classic-hc.html

There are only a couple media players that will do hardware accelleration for you. MPC-HC is one of them. If you have an ATI 3800HD or higher model video card, or an NVidea 9600 or higher, this app will process the video using your video card's GPU and not your CPU.

You will be able to play 1080p H.264 encoded videos on older PC's. My CPU runs at 2% playing 1080p .mkv files using a cheap ATI 3850HD card.

This tutorial will help you set it up.
http://forums.techarena.in/guides-tutorials/1192826.htm

Okay, thanks for that info.

 

[thewheelman]

MPC-HC can appear a bit daunting to setup at first, but it is worth it. By using the graphic card's processing power a) you are not wasting all that processing power, and b) you will enjoy very smooth full screen playback with no audio synch problems or picture lag. Background processes on the CPU will not affect the video quality. There also is a 64bit version that works very well.

Freeing up the CPU also allows you take advantage of the filters and pixel shaders included in MPC to improve the picture quality. Otherwise applying the sharpen and denoise filters would probably slow down your system and lag the picture.

Here is another tutorial http://nunnally.ahmygoddess.net/all...o-know-about-media-player-classic-homecinema/

...no, I'm not into anime...but these are the best tutorials out there...

 

[Kilgore Trout]

MPC-HC can appear a bit daunting to setup at first, but it is worth it. By using the graphic card's processing power a) you are not wasting all that processing power, and b) you will enjoy very smooth full screen playback with no audio synch problems or picture lag. Background processes on the CPU will not affect the video quality. There also is a 64bit version that works very well.

Freeing up the CPU also allows you take advantage of the filters and pixel shaders included in MPC to improve the picture quality. Otherwise applying the sharpen and denoise filters would probably slow down your system and lag the picture.

Here is another tutorial http://nunnally.ahmygoddess.net/all...o-know-about-media-player-classic-homecinema/

...no, I'm not into anime...but these are the best tutorials out there...

Thanks for that insight.

I was at Staples last night and I was asking the guy how he was able to get full screen movies flowing so well from PC that he had on display onto a connected 24" LCD.
I told him I could not get video to flow effortlessly like that into my 24" monitor with WMP11. MY PC video flow is too slow, - I mean physical movement of people is a little bit jerky in dvd movies and when I explained my computer to him he said the solution was very simple, - all you need to get is a much better video card, - that's it.

I'm going to pick this up:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4111742&CatId=3585
It's cheap; but, it's a million times faster and better than the video card I've currently got hooked into the PC. I'm hoping that creates effortless video flow from out of WMP11.

 

[enyaw]

Solid choice, and no one ever suggested a hardware solution. Ask the sales person how much oem cyberlink powerdvd would cost you, while your there.

Good luck and let us/me know how that turns out for you

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Solid choice, and no one ever suggested a hardware solution. Ask the sales person how much oem cyberlink powerdvd would cost you, while your there.

Good luck and let us/me know how that turns out for you

I ended up buying an ATI Radeon 4830 because ATI has a really great reputation with their new 4600 series and 4800 series cards.

http://www1.sapphiretech.com/us/products/products_overview.php?gpid=261

So far it's a really great card. My WMP movies play really well.
The choppy video that I had before is reduced by about 98% likely due to the better video graphics. If you try hard you can detect a tiny little wobble every now and then ; but, overall I'm quite satisfied with the "flow" of dvd movies now.

I had a problem getting audio on WMP; but, after some tinkering and hacking around fixed that by downloading some some audio codecs I got after a google search.

 

[enyaw]

congrats, glad it worked out for you.

 

[thewheelman]

Check your CPU utilization when playing a DVD.
I'm assuming you are playing an actual DVD and not a rip.
I'm not sure if WMP will do hardware acceleration for DVD's or .mkv files.
It will do it for .wmv files.
If the CPU utilization is running at more than 10%, then most likely WMP does not use hardware acceleration for those formats.
With that card, and hardware acceleration working, your CPU should be at 2%-3%.
No point in buying a good card like that and then use a media player that does not use it.

I used to have a similiar setup without proper hardware acceleration. Most of the time movies played smooth.But other times, when some background process would start up, the movie (especially audio) would lag badly.

WMP11 may have added better hardware support over previous versions. I personally will not use WMP11 or Media Center, and have disabled all WMP and Media Center services from loading. I use MPC-HC for the playerr and TVersity as the media server.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Yea, I've experimented with maybe 6 media players during the past week I've been hacking repeatedly with my system.

I really like the look of MPC and it gives really excellent video flow, - probably the best of all my media players, the problem is I can't get the sound to work. I've done google searches and downloaded every cure in the book for no sound on MPC - apparently it's a common problem; but, I can't cure my no sound problem with MPC.

I'll see if I can get an oem copy of Powerdvd at a store because I've heard some of the free downloadable codecs for sound and video aren't as good as ones you pay for.

 

[thewheelman]

www.pccanada.com on Lakeshore Blvd West of Kipling has PowerDVD on sale for 1 cent.

Audio problems in MPC are usually just due to setting the internal filters to speakers instead of SPDIF. Or not disabling the internal filter when using an external version like AC3filter or your AVR.

for example... I want my Denon receiver to provide sound and do the AC3/DTS decoding, so my windows default audio playback device is the ATI HDMI device, and in MPC-HC Options --> Internal filters, I disable the AC3/DTS source filter, and the DTS transform filter. Double click the DTS transform filter and set AC3 and DTS to use SPDIF.

To switch to use the PC sound card and speakers, I have to switch the Windows sound properties to use the speakers, enable the MPC internal DTS/AC3 source filters, and change the AC3 and DTS transform filter properties to output to 3/2 speakers and LFE.

Is your ATI HD Audio HDMI port detected OK? Mine was not until a couple of ATI driver releases ago.
You should remove all video card drivers and get the latest 9.6? from ATI if you haven't already.
You need the full catalyst package and the AVIVO drivers.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

www.pccanada.com on Lakeshore Blvd West of Kipling has PowerDVD on sale for 1 cent.

Audio problems in MPC are usually just due to setting the internal filters to speakers instead of SPDIF. Or not disabling the internal filter when using an external version like AC3filter or your AVR.

for example... I want my Denon receiver to provide sound and do the AC3/DTS decoding, so my windows default audio playback device is the ATI HDMI device, and in MPC-HC Options --> Internal filters, I disable the AC3/DTS source filter, and the DTS transform filter. Double click the DTS transform filter and set AC3 and DTS to use SPDIF.

To switch to use the PC sound card and speakers, I have to switch the Windows sound properties to use the speakers, enable the MPC internal DTS/AC3 source filters, and change the AC3 and DTS transform filter properties to output to 3/2 speakers and LFE.

Is your ATI HD Audio HDMI port detected OK? Mine was not until a couple of ATI driver releases ago.
You should remove all video card drivers and get the latest 9.6? from ATI if you haven't already.
You need the full catalyst package and the AVIVO drivers.

Okay, thanks for input.
Managed to get MPC to deliver sound on both my computers.

BTW, are you able to get captions when you use MPC. I can't get subtitles to work on either of my computers although sound and video are fine.
Did an internet search, - apparently it's really hard to get MPC to deliver subtitles. I like subtitles when there's a movie with characters who slur their words or speak with an unusual accent. I like to know exactly what people are saying.
Subtitles work fine inside Windows Media Player but not MPC.

 

[thewheelman]

For Subtitles
1) Options-->Playback - confirm "Auto-load Subtitles is ticked
2) Options-->Playback-->Output - Select "EVR Custom Pres" as renderer
3) After loading movie--> right-click to bring up menu-->Subtitles--> Enable Subtitles.

(If you installed the Haali Media Splitter and set it as preferred filter, then you may need to open the Haali menu in the taskbar and enable subtitles.)

With EVR Custom Pres selected, your hardware accelleration should now be working. You can follow the first tutorial on how to confirm it, or just check your CPU utilization in Task Manager--> Performance...should be very low now.

hehe..may have to change the title of this thread to "Re:HPC-HC"

Other settings I use...While viewing bring up menu (right-click on screen)
- under Video Frame - select "Touch Window from Inside" and "Keep Aspect Ratio"

So, if the DXVA (hardware accelleration) is now working, you will have freed up your CPU horsepower enough to try some Filters and Pixel Shaders to enhance the picture quality.
If viewing on a big screen, bring up the menu while viewing (right-click) and select Shaders--> Sharpen. Makes a big improvement on 720p videos using large 1080p Displays. Note: I get a blank screen on extended monitor when loading movies with any of the Shaders settings already on. They work fine when activated after movie starts...bug I guess.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

On this part:
2) Options-->Playback-->Output - Select "EVR Custom Pres" as renderer

Select "EVR Custom Pres" does not exist as an option on my version of MPC; so, I'm at a dead end there.
My version of MPC is 6.4.9, which now that I think about it is different from the version you suggested ie MPC - Home Cinema version. Is that a free to download and free to use software package.

In any case when I go to the movie screen and right click to bring up the menu, the "subtitle" part is whited out so that I can't click on it or have access to it. The other parts of the menu are solid black print and I can enter those paths.

 

[thewheelman]

If you are running XP you use either VMR7 or VMR9 (windowed), EVR Custom would be for Vista only.

I do recommend you get the Home Cinema version (earlier post has link) if you are serious about movies...and it is free.

 

[thewheelman]

According to MPC-HC that should be VMR7 or VMR9 (Renderless). That is what I have on my XP box and subs work.

FYI.For some reason I have had to reload the ATI HDMI driver 3 times since installing Catalyst 9.6. Twice it just disappeared from the Playback Device list, and last night I noticed it switched to the Microsoft driver and would not pass Dolbly or DTS to the receiver. All I had to do was Update Driver and have it search c:\ATI for the ATI driver. Simple fix but annoying.