Whats the best video/audio codec for Windows 7

[hoborg]

I have unlocked SAF5 and used not to have these problems. I'm not sure if updating to more recent SAF5 versions or updating npvr caused my HD channel sync issues. Re the most recent cyberlink H264 decoders, I cant get the DxVA to stay selected so am not convinced it is using it. Had problems with the UK HD channels and cyberlink anyway, but am willing to re try it and ffdshow if it will play in sync.

Maybe my HD sync issues are more sinister. LiveTV is often OK (but not great, worse than SD which is fine) but when I pause for a couple of mins it is awful after the restart. Assuming I am recording, if I exit and resume playback it gets better.

I newer had A/V desync on LiveTV, but i am still using GB-PVR,i only have MPEG-2 LiveTV and i dont use passthrough.

A/V desync is mostly caused by:
- audio passthrough
- slow CPU (when DxVA is off). CPU is to slow to decode all video frames. For SW FullHD decoding/deinterlacing you need ~3GHz CPU.
- using ReCLock for LiveTV

[imilne]

This is one of those everyone is different questions.

For me, PDVD7 (or 10) has always worked great for SD mpeg2. Every other decoder, including the MS one has shown some bad combing/deinterlacing effects with certain channels that the PDVD decoder seems to handle in its stride. For HD mpeg4, while I was with XP, I also used PDVD7, mainly because it was all I had. Now that I'm on Windows 7, I've tried the MS one, but it breaks up badly when a file starts or is skipped (with BBC HD content and an ATI card). Not as bad as it used to, but there's still something slightly buggy there. I now use the Arcsoft decoder (which seems fine), because neither PDVD7 or PDVD10 (from SAF) would do hardware deinterlacing with VMR9. They're probably fine with EVR though.

[hoborg]

This is one of those everyone is different questions.

For me, PDVD7 (or 10) has always worked great for SD mpeg2. Every other decoder, including the MS one has shown some bad combing/deinterlacing effects with certain channels that the PDVD decoder seems to handle in its stride. For HD mpeg4, while I was with XP, I also used PDVD7, mainly because it was all I had. Now that I'm on Windows 7, I've tried the MS one, but it breaks up badly when a file starts or is skipped (with BBC HD content and an ATI card). Not as bad as it used to, but there's still something slightly buggy there. I now use the Arcsoft decoder (which seems fine), because neither PDVD7 or PDVD10 (from SAF) would do hardware deinterlacing with VMR9. They're probably fine with EVR though.

NONE HW decoder will work correctly if you will use EVR under XP or VMR9 under Vista/Win7. It is simply not possible to mess DxVA 1.0 OS with DxVA 2.0 renderer.

BTW, my HTPC is WinXP based and i dont have any deinterlacing problems.

[RattyDAVE]

Can you confirm that you use the MS DTV-DVD H264 decoder and ffdshow for AC3 for the UK HD channels? I am having bad sync issues with these channels at the moment (via DVB-S - my SD are perfect) and have been using SAF5 with the MS H264 decoder and ffdshow for audio. But that got so bad I tried AC3 Filter for audio without any real improvement.

For BBC HD I use..... Microsoft DTV-DVD and ffshow. And seems to be perfect!
For the SD .... I use Microsoft DTV-DVD for both. I get some strange echo noise every half hour that I am trying pin down. I have a HVR-4400. Seems to be better when I pause and unpause. I am not conviced it is fixed yet.

[BigMoose]

Should have said I have passthrough to an amp that does AC3/DTS and I have an ATI HD4650, win7 and EVR. Oddly I found the MS mpeg2 decoder looks the smoothest on the BBC weather scrolling, it is completely slick where as other decoders look jerky. But I agree you do see de-interlace combing at points, esp if stood close to the telly. Other decoders dont exhibit the combing but the scrolling on the weather is noticeably less smooth. Maybe I am not setting my de-interlacing right.

As for H264, I used to use PDVD7 and later, but when the BBC went VBR it was unusable so found the MS decoder the only one that worked. I've never tried the arcsoft one in anger. I tried it briefly with the VBR feeds but it was worse than the MS one. Actually I'm not sure if I got DxVA working with Arcsoft, think it was one of those that every time I went into the settings it was set to off regardless of what I did.

[imilne]

NONE HW decoder will work correctly if you will use EVR under XP or VMR9 under Vista/Win7. It is simply not possible to mess DxVA 1.0 OS with DxVA 2.0 renderer.

I know this, which is why I said they're probably fine with EVR. I use VRM9 with GBPVR in Windows 7 because I want custom aspect ratios, inset video in the menus, etc etc...

BTW, my HTPC is WinXP based and i dont have any deinterlacing problems.

If I get a chance tonight, I'll try to dig out a good sample (with bad combing) for upload, and you can see how you get on with it.

[imilne]

Give this a go: http://rapidshare.com/files/447055365/Ga...ombing.mpg

You'll get horizontal lines on the on-screen number graphics when they appear and swish across the screen if the decoder can't handle it properly.

For me - with VMR9, only the PDVD decoders could manage. YMMV.

[johnsonx42]

ATI MPEG-2 decoder lack DxVA support and it cannot output to NV12 = no HW deinterlacing at all - very bad for LiveTV

I don't see how that can be true; when I use ATI MPEG-2 I get perfectly excellent deinterlacing and very low CPU use.

[BigMoose]

Likewise, I've always had very good mpeg2 decoding with low CPU usage using the ATI decoder for live TV.

[hoborg]

Give this a go: http://rapidshare.com/files/447055365/Ga...ombing.mpg

You'll get horizontal lines on the on-screen number graphics when they appear and swish across the screen if the decoder can't handle it properly.

For me - with VMR9, only the PDVD decoders could manage. YMMV.

The problem of this video is wrong conversion, it is not LiveTV cut. Somebody did wrong 50 to 25 fps conversion with bad deinterlacing setting. The deinterlacing artefact is part of the video.

EDIT:
Here is very good page about deinterlacing vith sample video: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1157287