A little confused about ffdshow

[soulprops77]

Right now I am only passing audio through ffdshow, but I'm curious about the video configuration. . .

I'm running Sage over component to a 720p PJ and as of now the upscaling looks decent for SD and pretty damned good for DVDs. I'm wondering how much of a benefit there might be to using ffdshow to handle the upscaling, and how I might set that up. I followed the rather old guide on HTPCNews and DVDs looked terrible. I didn't even wait to see what my recordings looked like.

Can anyone weigh in on this? Perhaps recommend a good source of current reading material. I've dug around in these forums quite a bit and there are a dizzying number of references to ffdshow

Thanks,
Chris

[blade]

I think many people have come to the conclusion that FFDshow is not worth the hassle or cpu usage because most modern video cards (especially Nvidia with the PureVideo decoder) do a very good job.

When using FFDshow everything is done in software, meaning you are not getting any hardware acceleration or other features your video card may offer. For example the Nvidia cards do per-pixel adaptive deinterlacing, bad edit detection, IVTC, noise reduction, and edge sharpening in hardware. When using FFDshow none of those hardware features will be used. Alot of people say the deinterlacing of PureVideo is superior to anything that can be done in FFDShow.

FFDshow can look very good, but requires a lot of cpu power and tweaking. Where as the Nvidia decoder just looks good with a wide range of content with very little tweaking and cpu usage compared to FFDShow.

I use FFDshow to normalize audio and playback avi files. Awhile back I compared an FFDshow resized imagine to one scaled by my 6600gt and the resized image was a little sharper, but I decided the extra cpu usage just was not worth it to me.

BTW I am not really trying to talk you out of using FFDShow just stating my opinion.

Unfortunately I have not run across an updated FFDShow guide.

[soulprops77]

Thanks. That was just the right amount of discouragement I needed

I'm going to leave well enough alone regarding my video.

Now that I think about it though, I do have a quick audio question. . .

Basically all I want to do is have my DVDs pass through the SPDIF and my divx files with 5.1 audio get picked up properly by my receiver. What is the most direct way to accomplish this using the ffdshow audio config?

It would also be nice if I can get my recorded TV encoded with ffdshow's dolby digital. . . Seems to sound much better than pro logic.

[blade]

Give it a go anyway. It is neat to see the difference in the image when you make tweaks. I really like when you can process half the image. It makes it very obvious how the changes are affecting the PQ.

When I get time I'm going to play around with FFDShow some more to see if post processing is worth it on my avi files. It's not like I'll lose any hardware features for them. I'm using the v6 built in transcoding on a few recordings when I need extra space so I thought I might be able to clean them up a little during playback.

One thing you could do is use the Nvidia (or whatever decoder you use) for recordings and FFDshow for DVDs. I don't think the "purevideo" features are quite as helpful for dvds as they are broadcast content.

As for the audio I'm stuck in stereo through my TV speakers so I have no clue about that stuff.

[corykim]

Originally Posted by soulprops77

Thanks. That was just the right amount of discouragement I needed

I'm going to leave well enough alone regarding my video.

Now that I think about it though, I do have a quick audio question. . .

Basically all I want to do is have my DVDs pass through the SPDIF and my divx files with 5.1 audio get picked up properly by my receiver. What is the most direct way to accomplish this using the ffdshow audio config?

It would also be nice if I can get my recorded TV encoded with ffdshow's dolby digital. . . Seems to sound much better than pro logic.

In ffdshow, disable AC3 and DTS, and handle those with ac3filter. For all other audio, apply whatever filters you want, then use LPCM as your output format.

[soulprops77]

If I go that route won't any AVI files with 5.1 AC3 audio be sent to my receiver as PCM stereo?

[corykim]

Originally Posted by soulprops77

If I go that route won't any AVI files with 5.1 AC3 audio be sent to my receiver as PCM stereo?

Umm, no, because I said "in ffdshow, disable AC3 and DTS, and handle those with ac3filter."

[soulprops77]

I guess my confusion comes from not really understanding how to do that. . .

Edit: I think I fumbled my way through it. Thanks for all the help everyone.

Berst,
Chris

[corykim]

Originally Posted by soulprops77

I guess my confusion comes from not really understanding how to do that. . .

How do I handle those with AC3Filter?

In the "codecs" tab of ffdshow, each input type has a number of choices, one of which is "disable". Once you've disabled AC3 and DTS in ffdshow, then you must install the latest version of AC3Filter. In the AC3Filter config screen, be sure that it is enabled for AC3 and DTS. Also make sure you have SPDIF passthrough turned on. You may have to tweak the selection of DirectSound versus WaveOut for the output renderer. That should take care of it.

[corykim]

Originally Posted by soulprops77

Basically all I want to do is have my DVDs pass through the SPDIF and my divx files with 5.1 audio get picked up properly by my receiver. What is the most direct way to accomplish this using the ffdshow audio config?

It occurs to me that ffdshow will allow you to choose "SPDIF" as the handler for AC3 and DTS. On my system, it didn't seem to work properly, but you may as well try it before going the AC3Filter route.