A surprising discovery

[borg]

venkat

please share it when you become successful, i have hd5850 card, liteon blu drive and onkyo 3300, so far couldnt get it to pass hd audio

 

[NetFreak]

The 5770 is also supposed to pass HD Audio. I have not yet succeeded with either VLC nor with PowerDVD. I am planning to reinstall the OS on Monday, and take it step by step. If that does not work, I may have to overwrite the EDID of the AVR which is the last option. Tulli of AV Forum is an expert in that, and he has agreed to help.

Did some tweaks with VLC, could not get it to bitstream HD audio. DTA and Dolby (SD) worked just fine though.

This is how VLC identified the media:




This is how MPC HC identified the same file:



Will include EDID details in next post.

 

[NetFreak]

EDID Details

Chipset correctly identified the AVR



EDID details correctly included HD Audio formats



HDMI Output was selected in VLC



Based on this, it seems that the problem was with VLC itself.

Will see if any other software can bitstream HD Audio.

OTOH, when I played DTS (Core) and Dolby, it was bitsreamed and stream was recognized properly by AVR.

 

[spirovious]

How can you copy the BD folders into the HDD and play them? They have AACS encryption.
Are these pirated BDs?

I used DVDfab8(newest)& it can copy as iso,main movie,copy Disc,rip easily.

 

[Rockfella]

OP i wonder why you still use PowerDVD. VLC/media classic player/KMPlayer also play BR Rips. Infact windows 7 media center edition plays any format with ease. Works well with TVtuner/remote too.

 

[NetFreak]

OP i wonder why you still use PowerDVD. VLC/media classic player/KMPlayer also play BR Rips...

Have you been able to bitstream HD Audio with any of these players over HDMI?

Benefit of PowerDVD and similar software is "One Stop Shop" solution for HD Video/ 3D as well as HD Audio.

 

[venkatcr]

OP i wonder why you still use PowerDVD. VLC/media classic player/KMPlayer also play BR Rips. Infact windows 7 media center edition plays any format with ease. Works well with TVtuner/remote too.

KM Player does NOT play Blu-Ray at all. It plays the initial ads/menu and then hangs. It does not bit-stream audio at all.

Though VLC does play Blu-Ray, as has been explained above by many people, it is 'iffy' in many ways. In addition, it does not bit-stream HD Audio.

Of course, all these are on my system.

Cheers

 

[spirovious]

Have you been able to bitstream HD Audio with any of these players over HDMI?

Benefit of PowerDVD and similar software is "One Stop Shop" solution for HD Video/ 3D as well as HD Audio.

PowerDVD can with setting HDMI out as primary & select HDMI in audio setting.There is another option to select bitsream.I dont have HD avr,but this is what I got reply from PDVD site.
another option is ARC totalmedia5 where one can selest default audio from MP irrespective what you chose in win7{like asio?}

 

[spirovious]

Did some tweaks with VLC, could not get it to bitstream HD audio. DTA and Dolby (SD) worked just fine though.

This is how MPC HC identified the same file:



Will include EDID details in next post.

You can select audio from this menu too,I tried with avatar & changed audio language from there.
Lot of other audio options there-


Now I am not sure that MPC-HC downscales HD-audio like PDVD-

 

[NetFreak]

MPC-HC did identify HD Audio codec. A screenshot:





But it sent the audio as LPCM and not as HD bitstream.

 

[spirovious]

MPC-HC did identify HD Audio codec. A screenshot:





But it sent the audio as LPCM and not as HD bitstream.

Its not so.You can bitstream it with ffd show & output setting(tick necessary)-




a perfect guide for MPC-HC-
Tutorial ffdshow - Introduction - HomeCinema-HD
Tutorial Media Player Classic Home Cinema - External filters - HomeCinema-HD

 

[venkatcr]

NetFreak and Spiro are moving in lovely direction, and this will be really useful for people planning for an HTPC.

I just wanted to conclude my discovery. Today I decided to sit down and watch The Dark Knight for a little while to see how VLC behaves. As mentioned before, I could not get anything more than Dolby Digital or DTS. But what was surprising was that VLC started mis-behaving after a little while with video. In the scene where the school bus comes out of the bank, VLC froze for a few seconds. Later on it pixelated the image.

To re-check, I played the same copy through PowerDVD and it went through flawlessly.

Though it is a welcome sign that VLC can understand and play Blu-Ray formats, but it is a long way from being a mature software to be used for that purpose.

BTW, someone mentioned Media Centre. In most Blu-Rays it just shows a blank screen though the time scale keeps moving. I also could not find a way of setting the audio out of Media Centre/Media Player and I always got Multi Channel on my AVR.

Cheers

 

[spirovious]

Thanks venkat,I am playing with MPHC & it has a lot features.Setting it is a difficuilt task.There are some results of MPHC upscaling & it is very exiting.
I am trying to set it perfectly,but need lot sudy & obsevations.-
Quality comparison - HomeCinema-HD

I am getting confused with actual Hardware acceleration & many site suggests different ways.Is there really need to use ffdshow as its external codec for that?
Without that will everything go fine?
I even tried Hali media splitter & with all settings ,CPU load is 15 to 18% & rarely 12.

So did anyone get best setting for MPCHC yet?

 

[venkatcr]

I am getting confused with actual Hardware acceleration & many site suggests different ways. Is there really need to use ffdshow as its external codec for that? Without that will everything go fine?

Actually no for video. If you recall, a decent GPU has a higher resolution capability that what is required for 1080P. So by itself the GPU should be able to scale to FullHD without any help.

I have many times tested video pass through at the HTPC and the AVR level, and not seen any difference as far as 1808P signals go. With 480P, 720P etc., you have to experiment to see which one serves you better. With very old movies, I have noticed that the best is to see the movie as is. That way you actually fill the screen though the video quality many not be top notch.

I am starting to realise that installation of a minimal codecs is the best. Unfortunately for me, this mean re-installation of the OS and starting from scratch as I have installed too many players to see which one works well.

KM player has been a disappointment for me. It seems to crash too often, and does not send audio properly in spite of accepting proper instructions. That way VLC seems to be better, though that has also crashed a few times.

Cheers

 

[spirovious]

Yes GPU does upscale,but I doubt sometimes when I cant get full screen mov.I testes few DVDs which dont fit to full screen evenafter I select GPU scaling & 1080p option in ATI CP.
secondly screenshots in the link looks good & wanted to test that method.DXVA is confusing as we still some settings to do & many guides are using different way.
So MPHC users can post simple tricks here.

 

[theironhorse]

see i told ya mate...vlc is amazing peice of software.. but not for HD movies and vids..

also u can check you cpu usage.. it really cranks the cpu to the max...

either side.. mpc with ffd.. does the job without hiccups.. and cpu runs just fine..

infact mpc with ffd show was able to run good 720p with dts on pentium d processor..

 

[Rockfella]

nah.. i actually don't have a digital set-up, using onboard sound with ATPs . . was curious about PowerDVD as i used to think its boatware

Have you been able to bitstream HD Audio with any of these players over HDMI?

Benefit of PowerDVD and similar software is "One Stop Shop" solution for HD Video/ 3D as well as HD Audio.

You must be talking about the 40gb blu rays i guess

KM Player does NOT play Blu-Ray at all. It plays the initial ads/menu and then hangs. It does not bit-stream audio at all.

Though VLC does play Blu-Ray, as has been explained above by many people, it is 'iffy' in many ways. In addition, it does not bit-stream HD Audio.

Of course, all these are on my system.

Cheers

 

[NetFreak]

nah.. i actually don't have a digital set-up, using onboard sound with ATPs . . was curious about PowerDVD as i used to think its boatware

Its quite useful if you have hardware capable of HD Audio and Video.

It ensures that config is setup properly for that hardware and CPU is not used for Video or Audio.

in addition it sets up filters so that even other softwares like Windows Media Center automatically get this benefit.

This can also be done with MPC-HC (which is free). But as you can see setting that up is non-trivial.

 

[spirovious]

UPDATE on MPHC-

I can get full HD-audio processed with MPHC.I tried PDVD10 which used to downscale DTs-HD as 16bit(original 24bit)

Now in MPHC,I checked input which is 1536kpbs(DTS-HD confirmed from filter & already posted).Output is 24bit which you can see at bottom of MPHC on ffdshow(Rt.side).With regular DD,it shows 448kpbs.
Hardware acceleration is on as you can see DXVA at bottom of MPHC(Lt.side).



I hope this Dts-HD is not downscaled as Dts(sd),I dont think so as D2X is capable of handling 192/24bit audio.

 

[NetFreak]

I hope this Dts-HD is not downscaled as Dts(sd),I dont think so as D2X is capable of handling 192/24bit audio.

What do you see on AVR's panel? That would indicate bitrate and codec for input signal.

EDIT: Based on screenshot, output is downscaled to 48kbps DTS.