Video Playback

E

Edman22

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 9, 2006
Messages
158
Okay I posted this over at the vlc boards but nobody has answered me in over a day. I'm running a C2D E6600 with an ATI x1900xtx so video playback really shouldn't be a problem. But here's my story, sorry if it's a little long.

This most concerns mainly playing back 1080p or 720p hd content in formats such as h.264 mkv files etc.

I installed VLC, everything worked fine. Then for some reason one day it stops working. I get a black screen and just audio. The only thing that helps is going into the VLC options and disabling "overlay video input" But doing this causes the video to look "funny" especially during scenes with more motion. It's hard to explain, the framerates are fine, I've checked with FRAPS, but it seems like theres some split seconds of choppyness. I can play back 720p mkv files in media player classic and they don't have this choppyness that i get when I use VLC. It never used to do this with overlay enabled. I want to be able to use VLC because I still can't play back 1080p stuff in media player for some reason, and also I just like vlc.

Another weird note, I installed powerdvd, which is supposed to be able to play h.264....and it did...but now it doesn't. I've tried reinstalling but it still doesn't play h.264 files it used to two weeks ago.

So my questions are:

1) What is video overlay and why did it work for a while then all of a sudden stop working? How can I return back to normal with overlay enabled and everything working (I have already uninstalled vlc, cleared cache, reset it to default settings using that function that they provide etc.)

2) Why did powerdvd stop being able to playback these files, and continues not to be able to do so after a reinstall?

Sorry for the really long post but watching videos is very important to me and this problem is really getting on my nerves. I was so happy to finally be able to playback HD content...but that happiness lasted only two weeks :(
 
Sounds like your MPEG2 codec is a trial version and has expired or the codec is messed up.
Can you re-install the codec?

PowerDVD not working could be related but thats unknown at the moment
 
yea I've reinstalled everything. Also I think VLC doesn't even use codecs everything is built in.
 
Can you try playing the same files in media player classic?
I use this with the Elecard MPEG2 codec, works fantastic!

ahh, forgot, I had to uninstall ffdshow aswell cos it interfered with mpeg2 playback even though ffdshow wasnt selected.

edit:
video overlay makes use of hardware on your graphics card to display the image rather than software rendering.
Maybe the video driver is at fault?
 
I've tried playing the 720p files in mp classic and they work fine with no choppiness. I can't seem to be able to play 1080p files in media player anymore. Also power dvd used to play everything before, but now won't. I can also play everything in VLC when I turn off "enable overlay" but then the video seems slightly choppy. It's really hard to explain because its for like miliseconds.
 
VLC does the same for me when I play back any 1080p content.
This might just be a problem with the overlay.
Try uninstalling your graphics driver, rebooting and reinstalling it.

Codec problems often arent so easy to solve, many strange video/audio tools can get inserted into the processing.
I will try and help sort that but I will be learning as I go.
My knowledge isnt poor but it is rusty.
 
Yea I've already uninstalled drivers, cleaned everything with driver cleaner, and reinstalled. I've even tried using different versions of drivers, and even using DNA Ati drivers and I get the same problem. Funny thing though, when I uninstall the drivers, so my system doesn't have any drivers, the problem goes away (though the video looks like junk but at least there is video).
 
Does anyone have any other ideas? I can't really think of what else to try...

PS. What does "video overlay" do? In the description it reads "overlay is the hardware acceleration of your video card (ability to render directly)"

Does this mean that my video card is not performing hardware acceleration correctly?

(BTW why did my thread get moved, even though I have ATI I don't think this really has a direct connection with that. I thought it was more of a general video problem?... I dunno)
 
You're right, Vlan does use its own decoders rather than those installed in Windows.
(btw, sorry I waffled on about mpeg2, I clearly cant read)

I'm grabbing an h264 Matroska video so I can start looking at it. It'll be here in about 2 hrs.
Can you tell me to the best of your knowledge if PowerDVD stopped working with your mkv h264 files at the same time?
Does PowerDVD work ok with other video formats/types?

Its odd both should fail on the same thing yet are supposed to use different decoders. I would like to assume theres a link between the two but I need to find it.

When the video is playing in VLC, click view/messages and tell me any errors that appear with overlay enabled and disabled.
In view/stream and Media info, can you tell me what codec(s) it thinks are being used with overlay enabled and disabled?

edit:
forgot to ask, does VLC play other video files with overlay enabled?
 
I can only assume that they stopped working at the same time because I don't use PowerDVD to play these files. I only tried it when I first got it and it used to play them fine.

As far as messages in VLC, I get a ton of printout in both cases of overlay enabled and disabled and they both look identical. There are some warnings in both cases but they are present in both, so I'm not so sure it would be causing the playback problem.

For example one of the files I'm having this problem with is an mp4 file and it states
video:

codec: avc1
resolution: 1920x796
framerate: 23.98

and this info is the same for both cases also..

I have come to the preliminary conclusion that this is probably a problem with my drivers. But I base this mainly on the fact that the video plays fine with overlay when no drivers are installed (but quality is very poor).

Also the video I'm refering to above is the following Pirates trailer in 1080p
http://www.dvdloc8.com/clip.php?movieid=9153&clipid=3
 
cheers, I'm getting the video.

Does powerdvd play back other videos ok?
Is powerdvd configured to use hardware video acceleration?

Does VLC work with "any" videos with overlay enabled?
 
powerdvd plays other media just fine. And I have hardware acceleration using avivo turned on. VLC does not work with any type of video when overlay is enabled.
 
That almost rules out a generic overlay failure.
Have you tried any other versions of the Catalyst drivers?
Also are you use VLC version 0.8.5?

The video plays back fine here with VLC and overlay enabled on my X1800XT, cat 6.9 Chuck driver so no immediate suspicions there.

As the problem seems to persist when you uninstall/re-install VLC, I'm wondering if there are some settings left in the registry that will affect this problem.

Can you download Gspot or another codec analysis tool and see what that reports for the videos that dont play? This is to try and diagnose why PowerDVD doesnt work.


In VLC there is a configuration page for x264/mp4, this could be of direct relevance.
Its in Preferences/Input Codecs/Video Codecs/x264

I'm going to list every setting on that page, can you use these settings and see what happens?.
These are entirely default so should be fine for you to use.
(be very careful not to use the mousewheel as it changes the sliders and does not necessarily scroll the window up/down)

Maximum GOP size: 250
Minimum GOP size: 25
Extra I-Frames Aggress...: 40
B Frames between I and P: 0
Adaptive B Frame: ticked
B Frames usage: 0
Keep some B Frames as references: unticked
CABAC: ticked
number of reference frames: 1
skip loop filter: unticked
set QP: 26
Quality based VBR: 0

Min QP: 10
Max QP: 51
Max QP step: 4
Average Bitrate tolerance: 1.000000
max local bitrate: 0
VBV buffer: 0
Initial VBV buffer occupancy: 0.900000
QP factor bwetween I and P: 1.400000
QP factor bwetween P and B: 1.300000
QP difference between chroma and luma: 0
QP curve compression: 0.600000
Reduce fluctuations in QP: 20.000000
Reduce fluctuations in QP: 0.500000 <- odd these last 2 have the same name?!

partitions to consider: all
Direct MV prediction mode: temporal
weighted prediction for B frames: unticked
Integer pixel motion estimation method: hex
maximum motion vector search range: 16
subpixel motion estimation... : 5
RD based...: unticked
Decide references... : unticked

Ignore Chroma... : ticked
Jointly optimise ...: unticked
Adaptive spatial transform... : unticked
Trellis RD quantization: 0
Early skip detection on P frames: ticked
Noise Reduction: 0
CPU optimizations: ticked
PSNR ...: unticked
statistics: unticked
 
I am using the latest version of VLC available from their website. I checked all of the settings you posted and they are identical. Also when I try to open the pirates 1080p trailer using Gspot I don't get any info.
 
hmm
using GSpot 2.60 pB01, I get plenty of info in GSpot.

It tells me its using
AVC1 codec, H.264/MPEG4 AVC
24fps
1920x796

If you cant get that basic info from GSpot its likely the codec for windows is having trouble.
I wonder if you sort that out will VLC start behaving miraculously?
 
Apparently i was using an old version of gspot. Using version 2.60 I get the same information you get.
 
bugger, this is where it gets tougher.
I need to sleep on this, can we try again tomorrow?

In the meantime, try another catalyst version, say 6.5, they were a good vintage.
 
yea of course, I just appreciate that you're helping me out...this is really tough.
 
I figured it out...well sorta, I don't know why yet but here's what's going on....at least for now.

Basically there can be nothing maximized in the background, and if there is vlc doesn't display any video. For some reason if there is something open and maximized in the background it doesn't work.

Now this seems odd to me becuase I know I've tried it before with nothing else running...so maybe my last uninstall-reinstall cycle did something? But either way for now I can play files, with overlay enabled, as long as there isn't a window maximized in the background.

I'm not really sure what this implies, maybe you can help me out with that? Why would having a window maximized prevent vlc from displaying any video? Guess it's google time for me.
 
I suspected something was stealing the video overlay, this doesnt confirm it but does suggest something along those lines.
Normally when an app using the overlay is minimised, video processing stops but the overlay is still bound to that app and cant be used by another app.

I'm a bit lost why it happens the way it does on your system, but well done for finding out!
Please check for spyware etc, just in case there is a program sniffing your video feeds.
I somehow doubt that is the cause but for now, better be safe.

what happens when the video is playing and you maximise something?
Do any errors pop up?

I'll do some checking on it later, I've just got up and feel rough :)
 
Are you using ATI Tool? Because it has a problem where video is concerned.
 
ill check for spyware and things, but im pretty sure that isnt it. To Tae, I think I might have ATI tool installed...I installed it initially when I built my system to see what options I had in overclocking, but I never got around to doing so so I haven't Oc'd anything. I'm not at my computer at the moment, so I'll have to check later whether I uninstalled it.
 
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