Graphs contain multiple video/audio decoders!

[_gl]

Sorry if this is a known issue, little time.

I couldn't work out why my Mpeg2 playback CPU usage was so high lately, and stuttery as a result - and why building graphs suddenly takes forever in the new GB versions (~16secs?). Looking at the logs, it turns out playback graphs are built with multiple audio/video decoders and video renderers!

I have Dscaler5, Nvidia PureVideo (demo) and Cyberlink mpeg2 filters installed, with the NVidia's set in GBPVR. Here's a log playing back a PVR150 recording:

11:45:50.578 INFO DirectShowPlayerBase::playVideoFile(E:\- AV -\Video\- Recordings -\Grownups\Grownups_20060604_22002230.mpg)
11:45:50.593 VERBOSE Creating new graph
11:45:50.609 VERBOSE getSetting(PreferredAudioRenderer)
11:45:50.609 VERBOSE audio renderer filter: DirectSound: SB Live! Wave Device
11:45:50.656 VERBOSE detected FPS as 25.000000
11:45:50.656 VERBOSE getSetting(PreferredAudioDecoder)
11:45:50.734 VERBOSE audio decoder filter: NVIDIA Audio Decoder
11:45:50.734 VERBOSE getSetting(PreferredDecoder)
11:45:50.812 VERBOSE video decoder filter: NVIDIA Video Decoder
11:45:50.812 VERBOSE getSetting(PreferredMpegPlaybackDemux)
11:45:58.953 VERBOSE getSetting(ListGraphFilters)
11:45:58.953 VERBOSE Graph contains the following filters:
11:45:58.953 VERBOSE - GB-PVR Flow Status
11:45:58.953 VERBOSE - Video Renderer 0011
11:45:58.953 VERBOSE - NVIDIA Video Decoder
11:45:58.953 VERBOSE - NVIDIA Audio Decoder
11:45:58.953 VERBOSE - DirectSound: SB Live! Wave Device
11:45:58.953 VERBOSE - DScaler Audio Decoder
11:45:58.953 VERBOSE - Video Renderer
11:45:58.953 VERBOSE - App Overlay Source
11:45:58.953 VERBOSE - DScaler Mpeg2 Video Decoder
11:45:58.953 VERBOSE - MPEG-2 Demultiplexer
11:45:58.953 VERBOSE - E:\- AV -\Video\- Recordings -\Grownups\Grownups_20060604_22002230.mpg
11:45:58.953 VERBOSE getSetting(SaveGraphFiles)
11:45:59.015 INFO DirectShowPlayerBase::playFile() done
11:45:59.015 VERBOSE DirectShowPlayerBase:etPlaybackRate(1.000000)
11:45:59.015 VERBOSE Restoring audio

Why are the Dscaler filters in there? I then tried uninstalling them - it halved my CPU usage, but graphs still take as long to build and now it includes the Cyberlink filters instead:

12:06:57.406 INFO DirectShowPlayerBase::playVideoFile(E:\- AV -\Video\- Recordings -\Frasier\Frasier_20060609_08550930.mpg)
12:06:57.406 VERBOSE Creating new graph
12:06:57.406 VERBOSE getSetting(PreferredAudioRenderer)
12:06:57.421 VERBOSE audio renderer filter: DirectSound: SB Live! Wave Device
12:06:57.468 VERBOSE detected FPS as 25.000000
12:06:57.468 VERBOSE getSetting(PreferredAudioDecoder)
12:06:57.546 VERBOSE audio decoder filter: NVIDIA Audio Decoder
12:06:57.546 VERBOSE getSetting(PreferredDecoder)
12:06:57.625 VERBOSE video decoder filter: NVIDIA Video Decoder
12:06:57.625 VERBOSE getSetting(PreferredMpegPlaybackDemux)
12:07:06.000 VERBOSE getSetting(ListGraphFilters)
12:07:06.000 VERBOSE Graph contains the following filters:
12:07:06.000 VERBOSE - GB-PVR Flow Status
12:07:06.000 VERBOSE - Video Renderer 0011
12:07:06.000 VERBOSE - NVIDIA Video Decoder
12:07:06.000 VERBOSE - NVIDIA Audio Decoder
12:07:06.000 VERBOSE - DirectSound: SB Live! Wave Device
12:07:06.000 VERBOSE - CyberLink Audio Decoder (ATI)
12:07:06.000 VERBOSE - Video Renderer
12:07:06.000 VERBOSE - App Overlay Source
12:07:06.000 VERBOSE - CyberLink Video/SP Decoder (ATI)
12:07:06.000 VERBOSE - MPEG-2 Demultiplexer
12:07:06.000 VERBOSE - E:\- AV -\Video\- Recordings -\Frasier\Frasier_20060609_08550930.mpg
12:07:06.000 VERBOSE getSetting(SaveGraphFiles)
12:07:06.031 INFO DirectShowPlayerBase::playFile() done
12:07:06.046 VERBOSE DirectShowPlayerBase:etPlaybackRate(1.000000)
12:07:06.046 VERBOSE Restoring audio

Any idea what's happening here?

[mikey]

It looks like something wrong with your NVIDIA audio and video decoders, which forces it to use another set of decoders. Expired valuation maybe? I'd guess that configuring it to use the Cyberlink or DScaler decoders would have resulted in it only one video decoder. Worth trying.

[_gl]

Right, I just came to the same conclusion and that was it. The demo had expired, strange that it still makes the filters available though and causes these problems, you would expect it to unregister them or something.

update: ... and of course GBPVR should respond to the problem by cleaning up its first graph attempt.