Lav filters. Why?

[eastavin]

Looking for some advice on why many feel LAV filters with NPVR are advantageous? I have tried asking Google this question, perused the LAV web site yet have not found how installing and using this makes video quality or audio superior to that created by using the drivers/decoders supplied and supported by the USB or PC Card TV tuner manufacturer?

Is there some objective test process to determine this and I have not found it?

[sub]

Looking for some advice on why many feel LAV filters with NPVR are advantageous?

The main reason they're often recommended for NextPVR is they're only freely available decoders, easily accessible for everyone. Other video decoders supplied by TV card manufacturers can be good too, but they're much harder to get and depend what hardware you've got etc.

I wouldn't necessarily say the LAV decoders are superior to other decoders, but they are pretty damn good decoders, and they're actively maintained and supported.

Some PC card manufacturers are shipping very old decoders now, and these are sometimes buggy. For example, Hauppauge ships a 10 year old MainConcept MPEG-2 decoder that is known to crash occasionally.

[Graham]

Is there some objective test process to determine this and I have not found it?

I suspect that if you compare three or four decoders that are new to you ... you will be unable to tell the difference.

If you use a decoder for a few months and then try something different ... you might notice some subtle difference.

One of the most important benefits or LAV is they are rock solid and don't crash or hang ... (pause to wait for all the posts telling us about all the crashes and hangs they have had )

[eastavin]

Thanks guys.

[Dale Dewing]

Since V5 of NextPVR here are my experiences with decoders:
LAV: had intermittent freezing especially if I jumped back and forward. Updated LAV decoders to latest and still had freezing but cannot get lip sync correct no matter how I play with the LAV delay settings.
Nablet: freezing
ffdshow: Program crashes on playback.
Arcsoft: Hit play and nothing happens. Keys do not work but if I hit stop, keys work but get a message that the show has completed.
Microsft DTV: Same as Arcsoft.
Main Concept: No closed captions.
With V4, all worked

[mvallevand]

My last reply to you stands https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.ph...#pid565617 stick with LAV You make too many posts without logs to seriously test your problem. Reopening an old v4 doesn't help at all. Logs using LAV32 and sample files are the best way for us to help you.

Note you have several forum posts were you wanted to downgrade from v4 to v3 so there might be something specific to your setup or how you skip or perhaps use fast forward. Without logs we are in the dark on what is happening. I am also concerned about you audio output on one older post.

2022-03-29 18:28:41.017 [DEBUG][1] adding audio renderer: DirectSound: SPDIF-Out (Sound Blaster Z)

I think sub as posted to use Default and change Default rather than use NextPVR's audio setting.

Martin

[sub]

I am also concerned about you audio output on one older post.

2022-03-29 18:28:41.017 [DEBUG][1] adding audio renderer: DirectSound: SPDIF-Out (Sound Blaster Z)

Yep, I second this. If this is the audio renderer you're still using, it could absolutely be the cause of the of the types of problems you describe. This is a common cause of audio/video sync issues, and problems skipping.