Purevideo/Codec Issues

[stangdaman]

Please help me end this endless cycle. I'll try to explain the problem as best as I can. I've got one PC that is older and runs GBPVR and one that runs MCE 2005 the MCE one is constantly having codec issues. If everything is working in MCE it's not in WMP and vice versa. This makes no sense to me because I thought they both used the same thing pretty much but I'm tired of dealing with it. Currently MCE will play DVD Rips but just refuses to play regular mpegs.

I use NVIDIAs Purevideo for my primary MPEG codec and DVD decoder aside from FFDShow for xvids. There are other codecs on here however and I'm pretty sure the heart of my problem is some things that are conflicting with each other.

WMP plays everything just fine and if I display the graph in graph edit it shows everything the way it should be (regular mpegs being played by Purevideo and xvids being played by ffdshow) however when I go into GBPVR I get a problem. With ripped DVDs (video TS files) I can view the video fine, the purevideo icon comes up in the task bar like it should and the settings show as being right according to Purevideo but I get no audio at all. With regular mpegs I can see the Purevideo icon start to open up but only for a split second and then it closes. GBPVR still plays them but it's fairly obvious just from picture quality alone that it's not using Purevideo. To top everything off about 50% of the time it will play the files but be locked up. I can't exit out of them or stop them with out killing GBPVR. I've attached the logs I think might be pertinent. Please, please any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I realize I probably need to remove some codecs but I don't know how to identify which ones are the culprits and which ones to keep as they don't really show up in my system information with easy to decipher names.

[stustunz]

try selecting default decoder instead of nvidia pure video and see if icon shows up when playing file
if it doesnt then reinstall purevideo decoder this will hopefully make it the default codec

[stustunz]

you could also download xp codec checkup tool to see whats installed and what is set to default

[stangdaman]

I'll try setting to default system codec. I have the XP Codec Checkup tool and it shows Purevideo as the default codec. That's another reason for my confusion. Every piece of software seems to be having a different problem (but all codec related) but as I said before the graph is right, the codec checkup tool shows everything as right and WMP plays things ok so I don't really know where to start. I may have to try reinstalling Purevideo as you you suggested or if all else fails wiping the hard drive clean and reinstalling Windows all together and going through the process of reinstalling codecs. I really don't want to do that though so I'm trying to avoid it if I can.

[Torque]

What video card are you using? If it's an ATi, I would recommend dumping Purevideo and using the Ati AVIVO decoder. I struggled with Purevideo for probably 2 years. Since I had to pay for it and the video quality was very good (when it worked), I really wanted to make it work, but it was the most unpredictable POS I have ever used. Forget trying to play mixed content with it without having to go into it's control panel and changing settings for each media type so it would play without issues.

Now that I got that out of the way You might try checking the audio properties in Purevideo's control panel while playing your .TS files... for the type of media you're playing, it could be trying to use a SPDIF out rather than the normal line out and that's why you don't hear anything. Also make sure you have the video decoder set to use Purevideo in GB-PVR config... with it set at Default, I would have occasional lock up issues where you'd see a single frame of video on the screen and hear the audio normally but couldn't do anything but kill GB-PVR from the task manager to get out.

HTH

[Deusxmachina]

What video card are you using? If it's an ATi, I would recommend dumping Purevideo and using the Ati AVIVO decoder. I struggled with Purevideo for probably 2 years. Since I had to pay for it and the video quality was very good (when it worked), I really wanted to make it work, but it was the most unpredictable POS I have ever used.

Word. I can understand it being considered if it were free, but it sure gets a lot of hype for something that costs and is picky. Granted, articles about it aren't just about the decoder but for the PureVideo features on the video cards themselves.

I don't know what the OP is running on the system that works, but PureVideo doesn't like .ts files with Haali Splitter. It may like a different splitter.

PDVD7 should now be basically the same as PureVideo decoder except that it's been updated in the past year, which I don't think PureVideo has been. And doom9 people showed ATI decoder is just an old version of PDVD decoder.

When in doubt, try Gabest MPV decoder. There's a Gabest Splitter, too.

[stangdaman]

What video card are you using? If it's an ATi, I would recommend dumping Purevideo and using the Ati AVIVO decoder. I struggled with Purevideo for probably 2 years. Since I had to pay for it and the video quality was very good (when it worked), I really wanted to make it work, but it was the most unpredictable POS I have ever used. Forget trying to play mixed content with it without having to go into it's control panel and changing settings for each media type so it would play without issues.

On this system it's an NVIDIA 7600GS I pretty much agree with you on Purevideo I'm just not ready to give up on something I shelled out $50 for yet. The older PC I referred to earlier has an old ATI 9250 and it never has these problems. Now whether that's due to the lack of purevideo or the different OS (XP Home vs. XP MCE) or some combo of the two I don't know. My biggest frustration with purevideo is most of the time I have no idea where it is I have to open something in order to diagnose a problem or adjust settings and if some other codec is interfering that makes it hard.

I don't know what the OP is running on the system that works, but PureVideo doesn't like .ts files with Haali Splitter. It may like a different splitter.

The thing that kills me with this is the difference between different software. MCE won't play mpegs with Purevideo but has no problem at all with the ts files, WMP play both fine, and now I have GBPVR working using Purevideo with mpegs but still no audio with the video ts. What is Haali Splitter by the way?

Thanks by the way stustunz setting it to system default solved the mpeg problem. Now if I can just figure out why it's not playing the audio on my dvd rips I'd be all set.

[wtg]

First, check out http://www.softella.com and get their DirectShow Filter manager. It's free, and it lets you see, add, remove and adjust the default merits of all the filters on your system. It's great for sorting out codec issues. By adjusting decoders merits down real low or up real high, you can set your system defaults as you'd like and make sure some other decoder isn't hijacking your system.

Second, let me second Deusxmachina experience, Haali and PureVideo don't play nice on my machine either. For .TS I went with HDTVPump recommended by sub... easy to find and seems to work well. I haven't tried any others.

Third, I don't think PureVideo's audio works with gbpvr at all, at least not for AC3 sound. There have been posts in the past about this and it's unclear why, but simply download and install AC3Filter. Afterwards pick this in config. Works well.

Finally, after watching a video check out the lastgraph.grf file in the gbpvr root directory. This shows the graph gbpvr used for decoding, and based on decoder merits may not be the same for AVIs and other non-MPEG files. There are other graph files too.

[bogyver]

I have AC3 sound working with the purevideo codec, It worked out the box with the creative audigy soundcard I had and when I moved to a system with integrated digital out it did not work at first. I had to monkey with the way it output the digital changing it from the default data to sound which seemed strange to me but it works and I get the 5.1 to my receiver.

[stustunz]

i second that
purevideo is the only decoder that also works well with stereo into 5 spreakers without putting the speaking to the rear speakers (which really pisses me off with other decoders)