Mediaportal and PowerDVD 8 codec

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mm1352000

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Topic # 30608 15-Feb-2009 01:56

Hey all

I have a weird problem that I need some help with. So first the obligatory details:

Hardware:
Vid Card: HD 4670 (latest drivers)
TV Card: DigitalNow Quattro S-T
CPU: Intel e6600 (not overclocked)
RAM: 4G (4x1G)
Mobo: Asus p5w dh dlx

OS: XP Pro SP3, Vista Ultimate 64 bit SP1, (Ubuntu)

Software:
MediaPortal 1.0 (primary tv app)
PowerDVD 8.0 Ultra
PowerDVD 6
WinDVD 4
DNTV Live! 1.3.3
K-Lite Mega Codec Pack - Gabest, Haali, ffdshow, media player classic, AC3 filter etc.
Twinhan DigitalTV

Background: I just upgraded my video card from a 6600GT to an HD4670. I figured that I might as well try and get hardware accelerated h.264 decoding working now that I actually have a card that can do the job. This lead me to purchase PDVD 8. Here begins my story...

I have a triple booting system but I really only use XP. For this reason I thought I'd try getting HA working in XP first. My first step was to uninstall PDVD 6. I then installed PDVD 8. It took a bit of fiddling, but I eventually got HA going. Initially I had what I think were codec conflict issues that caused my system to restart when changing channels (in MediaPortal). This lead me to uninstall a whole lot of my media software (K-Lite Mega, WinDVD, DigitalTV, and DNTV Live!) that I thought could be potentially conflicting. After cleaning up my registry (deleting all keys with "cyberlink", "intervideo", "dntv", "windvd", "powerdvd", "klite") and reinstalling PDVD 8 everything seemed to be okay. I moved on to Vista...

Thinking that I would encounter the same problems as in XP, I uninstalled the same programs as before and did a registry clean first. I then installed PDVD 8 and went to configure MediaPortal to use the new codec. This is where I hit my snag - MediaPortal lists the PDVD 8 codecs in the MPEG 2 and Audio fields (MediaPortal config, Television tab/screen), but it doesn't list the PDVD codec in the H.264 field.

I tried reinstalling both MediaPortal and PDVD multiple times and went through the registry again to make certain that there were no old entries that I had missed in the first clean up. No change - still no cyberlink codec in the h.264 codec field. I tried manually using regsvr to register the cl264dec.ax file but this also failed to make any difference.

This is the point I'm at now. Can anyone suggest a solution?

Regards

mm1352000

Dingbatt

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Reply # 195879 15-Feb-2009 09:04

Does PDVD8 support 64bit H.264?
You may be best to mirror this query on the MP forums.

Areas of Geek interest: Home Theatre, HTPC, Android Tablets & Phones, iProducts.

Quidam

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Reply # 195920 15-Feb-2009 17:16

Hi. PDVD8 definately supports Vista 64bit. Running fine on my PC with Mediaportal client installed (I stream TV remotely off my main HTPC)

Sounds to me as if you might need to do a full windows re-install.

Have you run cc-cleaner (registry cleanup?). If not, worth a try.

"There is no way to Peace -Peace is the Way" (A. J. Muste)

mm1352000

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Reply # 197123 21-Feb-2009 15:49

Further investigation on geekzone, mediaportal forums, amd gamezone forums, and others led me to guess that my issues are caused by:
1. Graphics driver DXVA support broken
2. PowerDVD build broken

I'm running vista 64 sp1 and xp 32 sp3 and the issues above seem to have different symptoms under each.

Under XP:
- I was running catalyst 9.1 and PowerDVD Ultra 8 build 2521. Symptoms were that the PowerDVD h.264 codec showed in MediaPortal config but attempting to use it gave audio and <blank>/BLACK video (note: viewing mpeg2 dvb-s broadcasts with powerDVD codecs worked flawlessly). Playing recordings in PowerDVD did work.

- I downgraded to catalyst 8.12 and PowerDVD Ultra build 2217. Hardware acceleration is now working flawlessly!

Under Vista:
- I was running catalyst 9.1 and PowerDVD Ultra 8 build 2521. Symptoms were that the PowerDVD codec DID NOT show in MediaPortal config (note: mpeg 2 video and audio did show and worked for dvb-s broadcasts. Only h.264 didn't show). Manual codec re-registration failed. Playing recordings in PowerDVD did work.

- I downgraded to PowerDVD Ultra build 2217. The h.264 codec then appeared under mediaportal config. To be clear: the codec was available with catalyst 9.1. Hardware acceleration appeared to be working, but playback was jerky.

The change of graphics driver under XP definitely made a difference. In DXVA checker I was able to see:

5B23D46D-FA5F-4FDC-B78A-7EB2787942EC
ModeMPEG2_C
ModeMPEG2_D
ModeMPEG2_IDCT
ModeH264_VLD_NoFGT
ModeVC1_VLD

with modes DXVA1, NV12, 720x480 /1280x720 / 1920x1080 available for all.

I didn't write it down, but as I recall I could only see 2 options with no modes when I was using 9.1 in XP. Note that I see the full list of options under Vista with 9.1.

Okay so my next step will be to downgrade to catalyst 8.12 on Vista and see if that fixes my jerky playback issues. I already tried switching between evr and vmr9 but it made no difference.

Hope this helps someone...

Nil Einne

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Reply # 197646 24-Feb-2009 07:34

The problem with XP has been reported by others http://nunnally.ahmygoddess.net/watching-h264-videos-using-dxva/

Don't know about the Vista problem though. Have you tried disabling Aero? I've heard it helps with other problems (primarily post processing ones).

mm1352000

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Reply # 197655 24-Feb-2009 08:02

Yeah I had heard that turning off Aero might help. I'll give it a shot because downgrading to 8.12 drivers didn't help - I really kinda expected this since it appeared that 9.1 enabled dxva already.

Nil Einne

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Reply # 197669 24-Feb-2009 09:00

What sort of content has the problems? Freeview? 1080i and 720p?

mm1352000

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Reply # 197866 24-Feb-2009 22:10

Hi all

I want to be absolutely clear because this stuff can easily get confusing. Since people only seem to be interested in Vista, I'll give a brief overview of my setup and what I have tried.

- I'm running Vista Ultimate 64 bit SP1, Catalyst driver version 8.12, MediaPortal 1.0.0.0 (NOT a nightly build), PowerDVD Ultra 8.0.2217.50, CoreAVC 1.8.0.0

From experimentation, I would say that the following are true for my setup.
- Catalyst drivers 8.12 and 9.1 both enable dxva on my machine, as checked with DXVA checker 1.10.1.0
- PowerDVD Ultra 8 builds greater than 2217 (specifically 2521 and 2430) do not register the cyberlink h.264 codec properly. This means the codec does not appear in MediaPortal configuration. However recordings (ts, unedited) of Prison break (TV3) and Minority Report (TV2) play without issue in PowerDVD.
- PowerDVD Ultra 8 build 2217 registers the cyberlink codec properly. Attempting to use the codec to view live television with Aero either off or on, using VMR9 or EVR, and with "prefer AC3 audio" off result in pixelation (jitter/freezes on sections of the screen, and green frames [only] if Aero is off). HOWEVER, the same pixelation results when trying to use CoreAVC! Again playing back recordings of Prison break or Minority Report in PowerDVD works flawlessly.

From this, it is my guess that there could be a problem with MediaPortal 1.0 under Vista 64. I mean what else could it be? Why would recordings play okay in PowerDVD but not in MediaPortal? In my opinion the only other thing it could be is refresh rate synchronisation. ATI only seems to support 60Hz for my 1920x1200 HP lp2475w - isn't freeview broadcast in 24p? Even then that wouldn't explain why PowerDVD can play back recordings... Perhaps someone with much more wisdom than me could make a suggestion? I'm happy to experiment for anyone that wants me to try something sensible.

Before I finish, note that my setup:
1. Is not a clean install - I installed and uninstalled various codec packs and other software in the process of trying to get this working.
2. When I uninstalled catalyst 9.1 I used the standard uninstaller, restarted, then installed catalyst 8.12.
3. Because my version of PowerDVD that I bought from the website is build 2521, I had to download and install an "upgrade" patch to get build 2217 installed. In other words, I installed build 2521, then "upgraded" to 2217. Dodgy I know, but it was the only way for me - trust me! The upgrade wouldn't let me install as a standalone.
4. I have 4G of RAM in a 4x1G setup. It is not entirely "compatible" on my 975x motherboard. It is "stable" though.

sbiddle

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Reply # 197901 25-Feb-2009 06:50

I just posted this in the other thread as well but incase you don't see it I'll mention it here as well..

To use hardware acceleration under Vista you need to use EVR. You can't use VMR as it will not work. This seems to be something that people are obviously unaware of.

kiwijunglist

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Reply # 198539 28-Feb-2009 15:31

Problem relates to build 2521 of PDVD8 Ultra's H264 codec

There are posts on mediaportal forum regarding this build

Personally when i upgraded to build 2521 on my vista client, the H264 codec option dissappared from mediaportal. I am going back to build 2217aU which works perfectly for me.

For XP I recommend catalyst 8.12 + PDVD8 2217aU + MP 1.0.0.0 + Default settings. Don't use any other version of catalyst for XP and NZ Freeview.

HTPC: Intel i3-2100 / 12GB RAM / AMD HD7750 / 480 GB SSD / 58TB Storage / MediaPortal / MadVR / Win10
AVR: Pioneer Elite SC-LX87 220W 9.2 Ch AVR
Speakers: Wharfedale Jade 7 Fronts / Jade 2c Center / Jade 5 Rears
Subs: iNuke 3000dsp 3000W proamp with 4x 15" JBL Sealed Subs
Display: Samsung 60" UA60H6400 LCD TV
Accessories: Gefen HDMI Detective with splitter