How To Install Arcsoft Codecs

[Spectrum]

Woo I stand corrected. I just loaded graphstudio and checked and the DXVA settings are disabled. CPU usage is ~30% on playback and ~9% when using MS decoder so DXVA is not working on mine either. BOOOO!

I thought the version I had was old enough, guess not

[nwboater]

Originally Posted by Spectrum

Woo I stand corrected. I just loaded graphstudio and checked and the DXVA settings are disabled. CPU usage is ~30% on playback and ~9% when using MS decoder so DXVA is not working on mine either. BOOOO!

I thought the version I had was old enough, guess not

RATS!!!

Could I ask what OS, CPU and Graphics Card you have?

Thanks a lot for checking.

Rod

[Spectrum]

It's Windows 7 running on an Intel E8400 (3 Ghz dual core) and the video card is an nvidia 9700.

Just as an fyi I could never get full 1080p working when I was using a 3.0Ghz (Presscott) P4 but it could do 720p fine. I had one of the last generation of AGP boards with an Nvidia 7800GS and using DXVA it just wouldn't handle 1080p. That was awhile back and I don't remember everything I went through, but with access to PCIe I think you should be able to get it working.

Just as an afterthought, have you tried changing your STB to output 720p? While not ideal, it may enable you to playback HD on that box...

[nwboater]

Thanks for the info. Your present system is much more powerful, yet it's running at 30%. So I guess the fact that it will give me a picture without hardware acceleration working is amazing. Interesting on your old AGP card. Guess I'm lucky at least to have a pciex.

I'm really feeling the key is to get hardware acceleration working. I do hope it's possible on this system but have just about run out of ideas.

I made a post on the EVGA Forum, my cards manufacturer. I asked if directX 10 is required for this card to do HA. If I don't get a response there I'm going to EVGA Tech Support, which is perhaps what I should have done initially.

Thanks again for your responses.

Rod

[Brent94Z]

Originally Posted by nwboater

Thanks for the info. Your present system is much more powerful, yet it's running at 30%. So I guess the fact that it will give me a picture without hardware acceleration working is amazing. Interesting on your old AGP card. Guess I'm lucky at least to have a pciex.

I'm really feeling the key is to get hardware acceleration working. I do hope it's possible on this system but have just about run out of ideas.

I made a post on the EVGA Forum, my cards manufacturer. I asked if directX 10 is required for this card to do HA. If I don't get a response there I'm going to EVGA Tech Support, which is perhaps what I should have done initially.

Thanks again for your responses.

Rod

Hey Rod, I'm having some issues as well with the Arcsoft codec. This is the first I've read about newer versions not allowing hardware acceleration in other programs. In my TME this checkbox is checked but I get 100% CPU when watching live TV using the Arcsoft codec. However, I am down to about 15% CPU when using the Cyberlink PowerDVD8 codec. I have not had much time to play with mine in the last week or so but for me so far, the Arcsoft codec just doesn't work well with my setup.

I'm going to watch this thread though because if you find a fix, it might help my situation as well

[nwboater]

Brent,

I've decided to start a thread in the Hardware forum about this Hardware Acceleration issue. I started this thread here because I couldn't get the Arcsoft Codecs to work in SageTv 7. I don't think this HA issue just pertains to 7. Maybe we'll get more of the 'gurus' involved over there and hopefully make some sense out of it.

So I'd like to request that any more information about speed and hardware acceleration be addressed in that thread in the Hardware Forum. http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51797

Thanks,
Rod

[panteragstk]

Just to let you guys know, I've been fighting a codec battle for a while now. I've finally got the TMT3 codecs to work in sagetv with dxva. CPU usage is below 5% for the most part with VC-1 and H.264. The codec is very picky about the video card you use. I've been using the Intel HD Graphics built into my i3 system and it doesn't work all that well. I installed an old ati 2600xt and DXVA is working great.

One strange thing I did learn was that some plugins break playback with certain codecs. That and .mov files that are encoded with h.264 don't like any codec I've used except for the Divx one. For some reason the divx codec doesn't work very well though. I crashes sage quite often. Let me know what I can do to help.

[nwboater]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Just to let you guys know, I've been fighting a codec battle for a while now. I've finally got the TMT3 codecs to work in sagetv with dxva. CPU usage is below 5% for the most part with VC-1 and H.264. The codec is very picky about the video card you use. I've been using the Intel HD Graphics built into my i3 system and it doesn't work all that well. I installed an old ati 2600xt and DXVA is working great.

One strange thing I did learn was that some plugins break playback with certain codecs. That and .mov files that are encoded with h.264 don't like any codec I've used except for the Divx one. For some reason the divx codec doesn't work very well though. I crashes sage quite often. Let me know what I can do to help.

Thanks for your response. Very glad to hear that you got Arcsoft Codecs to work. Did you buy TMT3 so you could have Blue Ray playback? I haven't gotten to BluRay yet, wanted to try to take this a step at a time. But I wouldn't mind buying TMT3 if that will make things work. I thought though that the newer versions of TMT wont allow their Codecs to be used with other applications. How did you get it to work?

At this point I don't have any plugins and thought I'd wait to get this part working right first. Did you try to work with the plugin author to find out what might be going wrong? Also would you mind sharing which ones you had troubles with?

It looks like you don't have an HD PVR, but you still have been having all these issues.

Any information that you can pass on would be appreciated.

Thanks very much.

Rod

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by nwboater

Thanks for your response. Very glad to hear that you got Arcsoft Codecs to work. Did you buy TMT3 so you could have Blue Ray playback? I haven't gotten to BluRay yet, wanted to try to take this a step at a time. But I wouldn't mind buying TMT3 if that will make things work. I thought though that the newer versions of TMT wont allow their Codecs to be used with other applications. How did you get it to work?

At this point I don't have any plugins and thought I'd wait to get this part working right first. Did you try to work with the plugin author to find out what might be going wrong? Also would you mind sharing which ones you had troubles with?

It looks like you don't have an HD PVR, but you still have been having all these issues.

Any information that you can pass on would be appreciated.

Thanks very much.

Rod

I did purchase tmt3 for bluray playback a while ago because powerdvd is aweful and never worked properly. TMT3 is great for playing the few discs I haven't loaded into my server. I used the checkactivate.dll from doom9 to be able to use the codecs in any player. What I've found about the arcsoft decoder is that in my system it doesn't like to change the codec it is decoding. What that means is it will work great for everything (mpeg2, vc-1 h.264) but if you play one right after the other you will get sound with no video. Also, the arcsoft decoder doesn't work well with .mov files. The divx (mainconcept) h.264 decoder works great for all h.264 but will randomly error when playing certain .mov files. I'm still playing with decoders to see what is going on there.

[nwboater]

Thanks for the explanation of whats going on.

It brings up a few questions.

1 Is your server WHS or ?

2. What OS on the Client

3. When you play Blue Rays from the disc is it at the Client or server?

4. Is everything you have described running from within Sage, or is some external using TMT3?

Sure do appreciate your passing this all on to us.

Rod

[Polypro]

Realize too, there are 2 locations for the .dll: C:/Program Files/Common Files/Arcsoft/Mpeg Engine and the program install folder. I put the checkactivate.dll in both places.

AGP is just a crapshoot for acceleration, I'd upgrade...it saves hair

P

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by nwboater

Thanks for the explanation of whats going on.

It brings up a few questions.

1 Is your server WHS or ?

2. What OS on the Client

3. When you play Blue Rays from the disc is it at the Client or server?

4. Is everything you have described running from within Sage, or is some external using TMT3?

Sure do appreciate your passing this all on to us.

Rod

Glad to help. All behavior I am speaking of is within sage using ripped movies stored on my windows xp server and my client is w7 64 bit.

the arcsoft codec is very picky about the environment it is used in. For everything but vc-1 it works great no matter what, but for some reason it acts very strange with vc-1 and some plugins break playback. not all plugins, but there are a few. Basically every time the ui reloads it breaks vc-1 playback with the tmt codecs. The other decoders don't have this issue, but they don't playback smoothly either. I'm working 100% now, but have had to uninstall plugins to get it that way. I'm working with sage to resolve the issue. It isn't sage that is the issue btw, it is arcsoft as far as I can tell.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Glad to help. All behavior I am speaking of is within sage using ripped movies stored on my windows xp server and my client is w7 64 bit.

the arcsoft codec is very picky about the environment it is used in. For everything but vc-1 it works great no matter what, but for some reason it acts very strange with vc-1 and some plugins break playback. not all plugins, but there are a few. Basically every time the ui reloads it breaks vc-1 playback with the tmt codecs. The other decoders don't have this issue, but they don't playback smoothly either. I'm working 100% now, but have had to uninstall plugins to get it that way. I'm working with sage to resolve the issue. It isn't sage that is the issue btw, it is arcsoft as far as I can tell.

Wow, with the codecs being picky about the environment they work in - ArcSoft really should do something to prevent them from running outside of their designed environment - just saying.

[UgaData]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Wow, with the codecs being picky about the environment they work in - ArcSoft really should do something to prevent them from running outside of their designed environment - just saying.

well, that's fuzzy logic for ya. (sorry, I couldn't help myself).

The special Arcsoft TME version that comes with the HD-PVR allows the Arcsoft codec to be visible to third party programs (SageTV). Other retail versions not so much visibility (without hacking, that is).

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Wow, with the codecs being picky about the environment they work in - ArcSoft really should do something to prevent them from running outside of their designed environment - just saying.

True enough, however if the sage splitter would play nice with the other codecs this would be a non issue. MPC-HC codecs work great, except the sage splitter makes the video stutter really bad. VC-1 shouldn't be so difficult.

[Fuzzy]

well, VC-1 wouldn't be difficult if MS rolled it into the DTV-DVD Video Decoder, instead of the WMV DMO (which doens't do hardware accelleration). Graph building with DMO objects is a bit convoluted, as windows REALLY want's to put them in there, regardless of filter priority. I have, however, just stuck to useing the DMO, as my processor can JUST keep up with it.

[Rico66]

Still many of these issues would be gone, if Sage would (finally) play nicely with the MPC Video Decoder. This has been mentioned for a very long time (even before 7 came out), but somehow it gets ignored. Instead people are hacking around with Arcsoft etc.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by Rico66

Still many of these issues would be gone, if Sage would (finally) play nicely with the MPC Video Decoder. This has been mentioned for a very long time (even before 7 came out), but somehow it gets ignored. Instead people are hacking around with Arcsoft etc.

It would also work if sage would let us use the mpc (gabest) splitter for vc-1. Then the mpc decoder would work just fine. The DMO codec works, but even though my cpu keeps up the video is still choppy and it is the same with the cyberlink decoder to. The only reason I am trying to use the arcsoft decoder is it is the ONLY one that will play smoothly while using the sage splitter.

[Rico66]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

It would also work if sage would let us use the mpc (gabest) splitter for vc-1. Then the mpc decoder would work just fine. The DMO codec works, but even though my cpu keeps up the video is still choppy and it is the same with the cyberlink decoder to. The only reason I am trying to use the arcsoft decoder is it is the ONLY one that will play smoothly while using the sage splitter.

Yes, I know (been through all that stuff as well, and finally gave up= using Arcsoft now for VC1)

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by Rico66

Yes, I know (been through all that stuff as well, and finally gave up= using Arcsoft now for VC1)

Me too. The only thing is that if I install certain plugins it breaks playback with the arcsoft codec. Very strange. I'm working with sage support to find out how a plugin could possibly make a codec stop working. As of right now everything is playing perfectly, but I don't have the plug ins I want so not an ideal setup so far. I've also noticed that if the ui reloads the arcsoft decoder has issues. Granted we used a hack to get it to even work with sage (as fuzzy pointed out) so we can't be all that picky, but this shouldn't be this hard.

EDIT: Because of this issue I am considering converting a blu-ray with vc-1 to mkv to see what happens with an alternate splitter. yay something to do when I get home...