Is h.254 playback in pvrx2 on P4 and WinXP possible?

[tmrt]

I have a pretty weak machine (WinXP, P4 3.2GHz, ATI 2400HD PRO) and I would like to watch h.264 .ts recordings in GBPVR.

It seems that I can play these recordings in MPC-HC or graphedit using MPC-HC standalone decoder with DXVA enabled. I can also also play recordings using Cyberlink h.264 (TechnoTrend) decoder, that came with the DVB tuner, and Cyberlink ts splitter in graphedit, so there seems to be enough processing power if DXVA and a proper sequence of filters is used.

I tried both decoders in GBPVR with no success. MPC-HC h.264 standalone decoder does not work at all in pvrx2. With the cyberlink decoder I am able to get sound and blinking screen with an occasional frame in both custom and full screen vmr9. It looks like mpeg2 splitter, which is used by pvrx2, breaks the playback since the graph whith mpeg2 splitter does not play well in graphedit as well.

Is there any possibilty to make h.265 playback working within pvrx2 on this basic hardware or I need a 2 core processor? Does anybody have a working solution?

[BigMoose]

What resolution are you displaying at? I've had it work fine with a similar (slighly worse) CPU and an HD2600XT (AGP) and playback was fine at 720p output. At 1080p it struggled, but would do it without the OSD up. That was using the Cyberlink decoder in GBPVR. You need to make sure it is setup to do DXVA, some people have had problems getting it to work via GBPVR although I never did.

[tmrt]

I use the graphics card in the 720p output mode.

[pBS]

try using the mpchc mpeg splitter...MpegSplitter.ax from individual filters.
also works for m2ts and ..ts too
you have to tell gbpvr to use in config tho..
set preferred demux to "MPC - Mpeg Splitter (Gabest)"
and make sure to use gspot or some other filter manager to raise the splitter's merit to highest merit...[so it will be preferred]

it won't be used for livetv tho, so if you have h.264 livetv it will use gbpvr splitter..
but for already-recorded stuff it'll use mpchc's...

also, may want to grab the quartz.dll from sp3 as it's much newer and may not have same problems..
[the ms splitter is inside]

incidentally, it's the video card, not the processor that is a bit underpowered..
2400 just barely does it, 2600 is capable tho..same with 3xxx and 4xxx's too...
3450 barely can...3650 no prob..
4350 barely...4650 no problem...

[tmrt]

Unfortunately I was not able to trick pvrx2 (the latest version) to use anything else then the Microsoft mpeg2 splitter.

As a last resort I tried to re-multiplex TS to MKV. I got some success, but had no time to really test it. My first impression was that playback is not completely smooth in vmr9 custom. I have not checked vmr9 FSE yet.

[whurlston]

Try renaming them to *.m2ts instead of *.ts. It will then use the MPC Splitter and it should detect the filetype properly.

[tmrt]

Try renaming them to *.m2ts instead of *.ts. It will then use the MPC Splitter and it should detect the filetype properly.

This method succesfuly makes gbpvr to use Haali and MPC-HC decoder. It works smooth in vmr9 FSE, but only occasionally.

MPC-HC decoder works rather smoothly with a downloaded MKV h.264 file. The recorded h.264 ts. files play smoothly in standalone MPC-HC. From graphedit they play only sometimes after I stop and restart the graph. In gbpvr they play only sometimes if I skip forward and then jump backwards a couple of times.

I am thinking to upgrade the graphics card. I can get Sapphire HD4550 or Powercolor HD4650 for approx same price (I need low profile). Is there any difference among them with respect to the h.264 playback? Does anybody have a working combination (h.264) of these cards with P4? I do not want to throw in 50 EUR with no improvement.