ffdshow CPU usage question

[CyRex]

So I was using ffdshow with the Sonic decoders for a while, but I was noticing a lot of ghosting. I checked out my CPU usage, and I was up around 68%. I tried switching to just the Sonic decoders, and it dropped down to like 30%. Then I switched back to ffdshow, and disabled all of the filters that I had running, and my CPU was still running at over 60%. Is it normal for ffdshow to be using up this much CPU without even having any filtering going on? Cutting ffdshow out of the chain eliminates a lot of the ghosting I was seeing, so I tend to think that it was the higher CPU usage that was causing it...

My system is:
ASUS A4v700 MB w/ AMD Sempron 2200+
512 MB DDR PC2700
PVR-150 Retail
ASUS Radeon 7000 - Composite TV Out, SDTV

[DKT]

There are a couple of trick to using ffdshow that I have learned from the AVS forum. First the version that you are using is important for AMD processors. I found that the June 7 version saves my CPU (Athlon 3000) about 15%.

The next trick is to put a filter ahead of resize. This converts the color space (I'm not sure what this is, but works) to YV12. I use sharpen - unsharpen mask 10. Then I resize to 1440 x 960, lanczos 4, lumina 1, chroma 0. I think I have denoise in the chain also (but am not at home to check) 3d is what I use.

The last thing is to select the output section and only have YV12 checked, but don't check the output box. Don't know why but it works.

I also found that this works best with DVD's. Didn't do much for analog recorded TV.

The last thing I noticed is that if I had Sage asleep and it recorded a program, the next time I woke it and tried to play anything using ffdshow there were big delays in the replay. Close SageTV and restart it and the delays disappeared.

Also, I am using version 2.1, VMR. My CPU is about 80% with these settings, but still a smooth replay.

[CyRex]

Well, I will definately try the June 7 version when I get home.

In ffdshow, I pretty much had the same order of filters as you described. I was doing unsharpen mask 40, then resize, then blur & nr, and that was it. The thing that seemed strange was that the CPU Usage dropped less than 10% when I disabled all of the filters. Wouldn't you think that it would drop a lot more than that? I don't see how having ffdshow running with no filters active could kick up the CPU processing 20%.

BTW, what settings are you using in Sage under Video? Also, are you using the Sonic decoders, NDVD, or neither?

[DKT]

I forgot to check the setting last night, but from memory, VMR, and default decoders.

I am using Sonic, with ffdshow, but also have intervideo decoders loaded, so I don't know what the default is but suspect Sonic, as this was the last decodered loaded on the machine. I think I had a playback problem when I actually selected Sonic or Intervideo, but default seemed to playback OK. I won't be able to test this until later in the week.

[CyRex]

I tried a bunch of different combinations of codecs with and without ffdshow last night and kinda got it settled (although I think its probably similar to what I had when I started).

I tried several different versions of ffdshow, but none of the older ones worked any better in terms of CPU usage and PQ, so I am now back to the latest release.

I also tried the Dscaler5 codec, both with and without ffdshow in the chain. The picture didn't look bad, but I was getting some wierd pixellation on fast motion parts that was just bad... So now I am back to the Sonic decoders running through ffdshow. After a few hours of tweaking, I got the picture looking real good, with minimal ghosting, so I guess I'm happy for now...

One thing that I have been trying to get rid of is the 'blockiness' of colors that I have been seeing. It looks like the video is recorded with a low BR or something because the color transistions aren't all that smooth at times, but I have my recording quality set to BEST. Are most people using the default Quality settings, or custom ones? I wouldn't think that this would be an issue with the quality set to BEST, so maybe its just something with my video card or the decoders?

BTW DKT - If you have the ffdshow tray icon enabled (you might need the extended info enabled too) you can click on the tray icon and it brings up a quick menu over the icon. Near the top of the menu it says what decoder it is using, if you aren't sure.

[DKT]

Thanks, but I know what decoder I'm using with ffdshow, I just didn't know which one Sage was picking when video was set to default. With video set to default it was not picking ffdshow.

[CyRex]

Ahhh I see... Gotcha. Is there any way to know which decoder is the 'Default' one?

And regarding defaults, what are the defaults for the other settings? I have heard that default for video renderer is VRM7, is that correct? Any clue what the defaults for the other modes (Deinterlace, MPEG Mode) are?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by CyRex

Ahhh I see... Gotcha. Is there any way to know which decoder is the 'Default' one?

Try this:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...n&Hash=S5VML3G
Although they call it "preferred".

And regarding defaults, what are the defaults for the other settings? I have heard that default for video renderer is VRM7, is that correct? Any clue what the defaults for the other modes (Deinterlace, MPEG Mode) are?

Yeah VMR7 is default on XP, the other settings depend on decoder, I think Deinterlace mode is usually Auto (Bob or Weave based on content), MPEG Mode, varies based on decoder/video card and isn't really important.

One more comment, ffdshow isn't a decoder, selecting it in the decoder list relies on the way graphs are built.

Of course in 2.2.1, you might want to take a look at the new property:
videoframe/video_postprocessing_fitler