Switching MPEG-2 Decoders

[ryanlantzy]

Hi,

I've been doing some searching but can't seem to find the info I'm looking for. In sage under MPEG2 Video Decoder Filter I have four choices: Default, Intervideo NonCSS for Hauppauge, CyberLink Video/SP Decoder, and SageTV MPEG Video Decoder.

I installed ffdshow but it didn't show up in this list. So, I downloaded the Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility. And used it to set ffdshow as the "preferred decoder."

This tool listed the following decoder:
ffdshow
Cyberlink Video/SP Decoder
SageTV MPEG Decoder
MainConcept HCW MPEG-2 Decoder
Microsoft MPEG-2 Video Decoder
InterVideo NonCSS
CBVA DMO wrapper filter
SageTV MPEG-2 Decoder
Cyberlink SAC Video Decoder

Now Selecting "Default" in SageTV will select the ffdshow decoder. I can tell because the OSD fro ffdshows appears in the corner of the video.

I wanted to try some of the other codecs (now that I see they are there) but selecting the SageTV MPEG-2 Decoder, Cyberlink SAC, Microsoft, or MainConcept as "preferred" doesn't change what SageTV uses when Sage is set to "Default."

Question 1:
What exactly is the "Default" setting. I figured it would be using whatever the windows Default was.

I have Vista, AMD 780G, Phenom Quad, 4GB ram and Sage 6.4.

Question 2:
Am I using the wrong Microsoft Checkup Utility? Is there one for Vista? It would be nice to use that tool to select the decoder that is used. Or to have the other decoders available in SageTV.

Question 3:
Otherwise, how do I get ffdshow to quit monopolizing the "Default" setting in sageTV?

If there is already a post on this I'm sorry I missed it.

Thank you.

[ryanlantzy]

Ok, I did find the following: http://www.divx-digest.com/software/...r_manager.html

This allows you to set the merit parameter for pretty much every filter known to your system.

The ffdshow had a really high merit setting. Setting it to Normal and setting another filter to Merit_preferred allowed me to change the default MPEG2 filter used by windows.

This setting was not reflected in the windows video decoder checkup utility.

And note, you must log off and log back on apparently for the filter merit to "engage."

I think the one thing that ffdshow does when it installs is set the merit to all the other decoders to "disabled" they were all set to 0020000. That's why ffdshow is the only one that works until you manually change the merit.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by ryanlantzy

I installed ffdshow but it didn't show up in this list.

Seems like it shows up in the list for me, or used to but it's been a while.

Now Selecting "Default" in SageTV will select the ffdshow decoder. I can tell because the OSD fro ffdshows appears in the corner of the video.

FFDshow is tricky, it might not actually be the decoder being used, but due to how Sage builds filtergraphs it may be inserting itself after the decoder.

I wanted to try some of the other codecs (now that I see they are there) but selecting the SageTV MPEG-2 Decoder, Cyberlink SAC, Microsoft, or MainConcept as "preferred" doesn't change what SageTV uses when Sage is set to "Default."

You could add them to the mmc/additional_video_decoder_filters line of the properties file, then you can select them in Sage.

Question 1:
What exactly is the "Default" setting. I figured it would be using whatever the windows Default was.

It's the system default, as determined by Directshow, not always the most predictable setting.

I have Vista, AMD 780G, Phenom Quad, 4GB ram and Sage 6.4.

Question 2:
Am I using the wrong Microsoft Checkup Utility? Is there one for Vista? It would be nice to use that tool to select the decoder that is used. Or to have the other decoders available in SageTV.

Use the above property line (might want to double check my spelling).

Question 3:
Otherwise, how do I get ffdshow to quit monopolizing the "Default" setting in sageTV?

Disable Raw Video and MPEG-2 in ffdshow codec configuration.

Originally Posted by ryanlantzy

I think the one thing that ffdshow does when it installs is set the merit to all the other decoders to "disabled" they were all set to 0020000. That's why ffdshow is the only one that works until you manually change the merit.

I believe it changes merit when you enable or disable codecs in the ffdshow config.

[ryanlantzy]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Disable Raw Video and MPEG-2 in ffdshow codec configuration.

That would do it for those two formats I suppose, but what about others? I think the real answer is modifying the Merit of the encoder, I'm still curious how this meshes with the Windows XP Decoder Checkup utility (seems that it just doesn't).

I believe it changes merit when you enable or disable codecs in the ffdshow config.

It may. But it shouldn't be changing the merit of other decoders installed on the system should it?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by ryanlantzy

That would do it for those two formats I suppose, but what about others?

Disable any others you don't want it used for too.

I think the real answer is modifying the Merit of the encoder, I'm still curious how this meshes with the Windows XP Decoder Checkup utility (seems that it just doesn't).

Deccheck, AFAIK only looks at MPEG-2 (DVD) decoders. Further with Raw Video enabled in ffdshow, it will insert itself after the actual MPEG-2 (or other) decoder if possible, so Deccheck may be working, but you can still see ffdshow in use because it will latch onto your desired decoder's output.

It may. But it shouldn't be changing the merit of other decoders installed on the system should it?

I believe that's the intended behavior of ffdshow, it will set itself up so that it's used for all codecs you have selected in it's codec config.

[Ryokurin]

If you choose all supported raw video in ffdshow, it will insert it into every compatible video it can. If you don't want it then set it to disable. And at least on my setup, I had to add ffdshow manually via the mentioned property line, and make sure that mpeg-2 is enabled in ffdshow, otherwise you'll be able to select it, but you'll get an error every time you try to play video.