New Nvdvd decoders WOW!

[abasu2003]

i think this is a dumb question but if you only buy the decoder, how do you set the vmr7 or vmr9?

I remember doing it from a screen when i first got it but I can't find that screen or application anymore

EDIT: Nevermind. For those of you who are as dumb as me


http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/n...cGFnZT0x&p_li=

[stanger89]

In Sage it's in Detailed Setup -> Video (or DVD depending on your use).

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by mlbdude

Good thing Sage allows you to use any audio decoder you want . I noticed this with the TT version as well. I am using NVDVD Video and Sonic audio. Intervideo audio works well too but Sonic gets me my DD passthrough for DVD's.

Yours is as good as any to quote.

I got a response from the nVidia rep on AVS about the audio issue, it's kind of a / thing

We are working on a patch to allow MPEG audio with all applications instead of just WMP, MCE and nStantMedia.

[kny3twalker]

the 6800 non Ultra non GT

for 249.99 at CompUSA

http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...100&pfp=BROWSE

good brand PNY
they normally follow reference design

[Jeraden]

I thought I was using VMR9, but I never enabled the 3d acceleration, so apparently it was still using Overlay (now that theres finally documentation out). I tried VMR9 for real last night. The problem is, there are no video setting controls available for VMR9 and everything looks very washed out. The brightness is way too high so all blacks show up as gray and its kind of unwatchable. I see nowhere to fix this. Anyone else run into this?

[salsbst]

there are no video setting controls available for VMR9 and everything looks very washed out. The brightness is way too high so all blacks show up as gray and its kind of unwatchable.

VMR9 follows the "desktop colors" controls that you can modify in the display adapter's properties pages (as opposed to the "overlay colors").

[Jeraden]

But if I lower the desktop settings enough to make the video "correct" as far as brightness goes, the desktop and everything else is way too dark.

[salsbst]

Not for me, but I'm not you. I also rarely use the TV to configure my HTPC, but rather TightVNC. Anyway, I think Microsoft is planning to change this in the future, but for now you're stuck with it if you want to use VMR9.

[stanger89]

Sounds like you calibrated your capture settings to overlay. I know on my old Radeon 9500, the Overlay settings were very different than the desktop/VMR9 settings. Either that or you never calibrated your capture settings and the bad overlay settings were masking the problem.

[Bathman]

Am I able to use the latest NvDVD Decoders with Win2000?

NvDVD webpage say XP only

Regards

[Jeraden]

I didn't even know you could calibrate capture settings. How do you even do that? I assumed it just captures what comes in.

I'm just using an lcd monitor to watch stuff on my computer. I don't watch it on an external tv or anything. I've never calibrated my overlay settings or anything, as they look fine just at the defaults.

[stanger89]

Capture settings can be adjusted in the Setup Wizard, select your source and then Color Calibration. You can either adjust it to suit you or you can do it the fancy way outlined on the Sage Community site.

[Jeraden]

Thanks for that advice! I checked out that calibration page and I'll try that method tonight. I generally only watch this stuff on digital displays, so I'm guessing my problem is that its currently capturing to the 16-235 range instead of the full 0-255 range. Thats why all the blacks are dark grey through vmr9, though not sure why the problem never manifested itself with overlay.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Jeraden

Thanks for that advice! I checked out that calibration page and I'll try that method tonight. I generally only watch this stuff on digital displays, so I'm guessing my problem is that its currently capturing to the 16-235 range instead of the full 0-255 range.

I doubt it, the 250 isn't calibrated that good that's for sure, you could be getting 100-200 (exageration) or 50-255 (but crushed whites) etc. It's probably worse than just being video calibrated. I have to fix the calibration and 16-235 range is my goal

Thats why all the blacks are dark grey through vmr9, though not sure why the problem never manifested itself with overlay.

On my Radeon, I had to turn the brightess up to about 20 and contrast down to about 90 to get it to match VMR9. That's why it didn't show up with overlay, if yours is like mine it's set way to dark and with contrast too high, thus cancelling (at least partially) the bad 250 capture settings.

The other thing you can try:
Calibrate the 250 to 16-235 so it matches DVDs, and then use the ffdshow levels filter to expand the 16-235 to 0-255 so both video and DVDs will look right on your display.

[themeister]

I just bought and installed the NVDVD package, trying to improve the quality of my video output. Tried Sonic earlier with SP2 and got jerky motion, so abandoned that. I'm using a Radeon 9600 256MB.

When I choose the NVIDIA decoder for the Video Decoder Filter, I get Sage error:

Failed rendering video stream
ErrCode=0x80040255

If I choose anything other than "default", it won't work.

BTW, how is the "default" decoder determined?

Thx.

[pengdahl]

After considerable tweaking, I have found what I believe are the best settings for the NVDVD decoders to work with Sage on my system.
First, some info about my system:

Pentium IV 2.8Ghz
Windows XP Pro w/Service Pack 2
Radeon 9700 Pro (with Catalyst 4.10)
Official NVidia decoders downloaded from the NVidia site. (version 1.00.58)
Anti-chroma and banding patch applied as found on AVS forum.
FFDShow version 20041012-sse
DSCaler version 4.111
NEC PX-42XM2/S plasma tv connected via DVI - progressive 1024x768 at 60hz.

Note that my settings work well on my Radeon card. I don't know how well they will work on other brands, or if there might be better settings for NVidia cards. Also, these settings are only good if you want to send a de-interlaced picture to a hdtv or similar display.

First, set up ffdshow so it will work with the NVidia decoders:
In the "raw filter" configuration:
On the "Codecs" page, set "Raw Video" to "All YUY" (or to YUY2 - this is the format the NVidia decoder outputs natively. Note I'm not using YV12 - this forces the NVidia decoder to add the VPP)
On the "Output" page, select "YV12"
On the "Deinterlacing" page, select "DScaler Plugin" (and enable the filter) - Then in the "DScaler" submenu, select the "DI_MoComp2.dll" filter from the DScaler install directory.
Under "tray, dialogs, and paths", put a checkmark in "Show tray icon". This allows you to bring up the settings for ffdshow while you're viewing a movie in sage.

Then, set up the NVidia decoder - we want to turn off deinterlacing in the decoder since FFDshow is handling it.
Select "Film" De-interlace control
Select "Display fields separately" in the Deinterlace Mode
I have "Hardware Acceleration" checked and "Prefer VMR9" selected, although these options don't appear to do anything with my settings.
If it's working right, you should see "Software mode YUY2" and "Undefined Renderer" in the "Decoder Format" part of the dialog. It's important that you don't see "Video Post Processor" here, because the VPP adds interlacing artifacts (to my eye, at least).

Finally, set Sage to use the correct filters:
In "Detailed Setup", under "Video" and "MPEG 2 Video decoder Filter", select "ffdshow MPEG-4 video decoder".
Select "VMR9" under "Video Renderer" in the same menu"
You'll need to select an approriate audio filter, since the NVidia one doesn't work with Sage.
On my system, I have found it to be useful to disable "3D Acceleration" in the "Advanced" menu of Sage. YMMV.

If everything is working, you should see both the NVidia icon and the ffdshow icon in the tray when you are watching a program with Sage. You can check the settings to make sure they are right here. You can even dynamically tweak some of the filters in ffdshow. I've found that adding more than a few additional filters causes some jerkiness in the picture on my system, though.

Comments?

[Milkman]

I'm not familiar with this...do you have a link for me to look at? I went to the forum, but couldn't seem to quickly find something?

Chris

[Watter]

Originally Posted by pengdahl

On the "Output" page, select "YV12"

I can't seem to find what this might mean. I dont' see an "Outputs" page in FFDShow. Did I miss an option during install or something?

Edit: Doh! Found it! It was one without a hcek box. That's what fooled me. Sorry.

Originally Posted by pengdahl

On the "Deinterlacing" page, select "DScaler Plugin" (and enable the filter) - Then in the "DScaler" submenu, select the "DI_MoComp2.dll" filter from the DScaler install directory.

Another one. I don't have this filter in my DScaler directory. I have the same version of FFDShow installed. Again, did I miss something somewhere?

-Watter

[Watter]

BTW I went ahead and followed the directions you stated as closely as possible (minus the two items mentioned above. I used a different deinterlacing filter; I'm still looking for the one you mentioned) and I must say, the picture is very nice. It's much better than I was able to achieve with the NVidea filter alone. Thanks for posting!

It's frustrating. I hear folks here and on the AVS forums talking about the improvements that they achieve with FFDShow yet I tweak and tweak and tweak and get nothing but a headache. Yet others like yourself are able to understand what's going on well enough to actually come up with the right settings.

In case you can't tell, I'm jealous.

-Watter

[pengdahl]

The mocomp2 de-interlacer is included with the DScaler application.
Download DScaler from Sourceforge and install it, then browse to its directory (usually Program Files\DScaler or some such) and choose it.

My two favorite DScaler de-interacers are TomsMoComp and Mocomp2.
TomsMoComp is included with ffdshow, so you might try that one. Mocomp2 is intended (per the author of DScaler) to be a good motion compensating deinterlacer that uses less cpu than TomsMoComp. TomsMoComp arguably generates better results, though.

My experience with the DScaler plugin in ffdshow has been spotty - not all of the plugins work very well. When in doubt, I use one of the included ones.