CoreAVC, FFDSHOW, Haali - Right settings to use?

[lubczyk]

I use a combination of Media Player Classic Home Cinema, the latest FFDShow, the latest Haali Media Splitter and CoreAVC 1.6.5.0 Pro (H.264 files only, rest is FFDShow) to view my video files.

I have a question, what settings should I be using for each?

I'm afraid that I have set the settings up wrong so that I'm either losing video quality and/or going pointless colorspace conversions that degrade quality.

Here are my current settings for Media Player Classic Home Cinema:



Here are my current settings for CoreAVC:



Here are my current settings for Haali Media Splitter:



Here are my current settings for FFDShow Audio:



Here are my current settings for FFDShow Video Output:



Here are my current setting FFDShow Video RGB Conversion:




Do my settings check out? I would appreciate any and all help.

[martino]

Picture 3: That is not Haali's Media Splitter, but Haali's Renderer.

Short answer: Unistall all of those and download CCCP. It has all the settings set for you, and nothing more is needed unless you want to customize certain components.

You are just wasting your time, unless you really know what you are doing... which from your post I'm getting a slight impression that you don't (ie all levels set to PC range -- haven't you noticed anything strange with the video levels?).

Additional info; with CCCP's setup on default settings, while using Haali's Renderer the colorspace conversion will be from whatever that the video is to YUY2. That's the only one that I'm aware of. If you use the Overlay Mixer this colorspace conversion will not take place and the output colorspace will be whatever that comes out from the decoder (in most cases YV12 -- with H.264 it always be YV12). I hope this information is correct from my somewhat limited knowledge of this part...

[lubczyk]

Originally Posted by martino

Picture 3: That is not Haali's Media Splitter, but Haali's Renderer.

Short answer: Unistall all of those and download CCCP. It has all the settings set for you, and nothing more is needed unless you want to customize certain components.

You are just wasting your time, unless you really know what you are doing... which from your post I'm getting a slight impression that you don't (ie all levels set to PC range -- haven't you noticed anything strange with the video levels?).

Additional info, with CCCP's setup on default settings, while using Haali's Renderer the colorspace conversion will be from whatever that the video is to YUY2. That's the only one that I'm aware of. If you use the Overlay Mixer this colorspace conversion will not take place and the colorspace will be whatever that comes out from the decoder (in most cases YV12 -- with H.264 it always be YV12).

____

Ah!!! Thanks a lot for the insight. I really appreciate it.

[greyhawk]

Well, you can try K-lite if you want to, but please take a look at these facts:
- CCCP does NOT play: .flac, .mpc, .ape, .ofr, realmedia, etc.
- CCCP at default settings does not play several audio/video formats (because they are disabled in ffdshow)
- CCCP does not support video encoding
- Most codec packs are using pirated software, some of them try to install 200 codecs where in fact you need only few, some of them can screw your system, etc.

Please do not ever touch such things: angel potion and smr/navi or codec packs that include one or another (or both). Those are not codecs - some kids are changing headers (to be more techy "fourcc" field) in regular divx movies, so you can play them after installing their "marvelous codecs they invented while drinking beer". And they think it is funny, eh.
-K-lite is evil

-Another thread about CCCP x K-lite on animesuki

[martino]

Originally Posted by greyhawk

Well, you can try K-lite if you want to, but please take a look at these facts:
- CCCP does NOT play: .flac, .mpc, .ape, .ofr, realmedia, etc.
- CCCP at default settings does not play several audio/video formats (because they are disabled in ffdshow)
- CCCP does not support video encoding
- Most codec packs are using pirated software, some of them try to install 200 codecs where in fact you need only few, some of them can screw your system, etc.

Please do not ever touch such things: angel potion and smr/navi or codec packs that include one or another (or both). Those are not codecs - some kids are changing headers (to be more techy "fourcc" field) in regular divx movies, so you can play them after installing their "marvelous codecs they invented while drinking beer". And they think it is funny, eh.
-K-lite is evil

-Another thread about CCCP x K-lite on animesuki

*sigh*

1) CCCP is not meant to be a substitute for your favourite audio player.
2) Latest CCCP should be able to decode MPC and FLAC audio. Read above point again please...
3) RealMedia and QuickTime formats can be both run just by installing Real and QuickTime Alternative.
4) At default settings, it will play most if not all files that are distributed around. Will your average user need to play HuffYUV, MJPEG or some other non-common format? No.
5) CCCP is not meant to be for encoding... Why would your average user need encoding facilities anyway? There are better/other tools to do such a task. And as a note, ffdshow can encode too so in the end you are incorrect there too...
6) CCCP does not come with any pirated software, unlike K-Lite.

Now I shall go off to wonder as to what the point of your post was in the end...

[emptyeighty]

Originally Posted by greyhawk

Well, you can try K-lite if you want to, but please take a look at these facts:
- CCCP does NOT play: .flac, .mpc, .ape, .ofr, realmedia, etc.

Flac, mpc, ape and ofr are audio formats, CCCP recommends a decent audio players (foobar, winamp) for that. CCCP _can_ play flac inside the supported containers. Distribution of Realmedia codecs is illegal and therefore omitted from CCCP. Is it even in K-Lite these days?

- CCCP at default settings does not play several audio/video formats (because they are disabled in ffdshow)

Those formats are not very common and/or if enabled ffd would block other codecs (quicktime/real) from decoding.

- CCCP does not support video encoding

ffd vfw is included, so you can encode with it.

[greyhawk]

Quick, quick, hope I'm not too late.

Originally Posted by martino

5) CCCP is not meant to be for encoding... Why would your average user need encoding facilities anyway? There are better/other tools to do such a task. And as a note, ffdshow can encode too so in the end you are incorrect there too...

Gee, I think I confused it with sth else or I overlooked it in the belief that CCCP is mainly for playback purposes. Yeah it was dumb of me but by the time I realized it you guys had already...

Originally Posted by martino

6) CCCP does not come with any pirated software, unlike K-Lite.

Very true It sounds like you thought I was referring to CCCP in some way.
Well my point is : I have been using CCCP for as long as I can remember, while many of my friends , on the other hand, use K-lite without ever experiencing any problems at all. So I thought I'd recommend it (without forgetting to point out some of its downside)
Using either is fine, but I prefer CCCP, that's practically it.

[emptyeighty]

Since CCCP became popular K-Lite has changed a lot. For example it didn't uninstall cleanly and had a ludicrous list of filters. Nowadays it seems at least somewhat sane.