AVI + MKV on Vista/7 - Poor in comparison to XP?

OzZie

OzZie

OzZie

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Before i start, this isn't an anti-windows 7 post! ;)

Now i'm no expert in the field of audio/video decoders/codecs etc, so you'll have to go easy!

I've just gone onto Win 7 RC1, coming from XPSP3. All i have ever used is K-Lite mega codec pack, coreAVC, and normal ATi drivers. The quality of 720p MKV files is brilliant and really nice to view. However, on Win7 and Vista, the quality decreases quite a significant amount, and the colours are washy and seem compressed by default. I've gone into the settings of MPC and tried all of the different outputs, but the quality remains the same. The CPU usage seems slightly lower on Vista/7, which i think is a result of the decreased quality. The quality of standard AVI files also seems to have a similar problem, although less noticeable.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Edit: Can supply still image of Win 7 MKV if it'll help!
 
True_Scotsman said:
Havnt had a problem with .mkv files, but then again i use Media Player Classic with FFDShow and Haali Media Splitter and so far so good.
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Same here.

FFDshow, AC3filter and Haali. Everything working and looking perfect.

Try decoding mkvs with FFDshow instead of CoreAVC.

Post comparison screenshots...
 
How do i choose which decoder i'm using?

At the moment i've got haali and ffdshow audio decoder running on my taskbar.

edit: now i've managed to get haali + FFDShow video decoders working at the same time. Is this what most recommend, or should i go one or the other? Quality has suddenly gone a lot more 'XP like' than before! :)
 
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OzZie said:
edit: now i've managed to get haali + FFDShow video decoders working at the same time. Is this what most recommend, or should i go one or the other? Quality has suddenly gone a lot more 'XP like' than before! :)
Click to expand...

Yep, both Halli and FFDshow is what you want. Glad it's sorted now.

You can get even better quality if you enable sharpening and/or NR in the FFDshow panel.
 
CODEC packs are bad, mmmkay? They always put in _way_ more than is needed, and are overly aggressive in how they go about setting things up. Then there are the less than kosher ones that load your system full of junk and malware. Windows 7 includes MPEG4, MPEG2 (including DVD playback decryption), AVCHD, and of course AVI and WMV/WMA support right out of the box. You can go about just using the Haali splitter to get MKVs to work, but you can enhance how well it all works with a good install of FFDShow. However, if you have access to CoreAVC (the commerical one) go with that. It has good hardware accelleration and I would take that in a heartbeat.
Now that all said, I know that the 64-bit builds of Haali and FFDShow are still very much expereimental. I have the 64-bit Haali splitter, but haven't gotten the FFDShow buildouts to be fully stable yet. Anybody else have different experience so far? I'm still using the Windows 7 RC, but plan on switching to RTM later this month when I get some time since I can get it off of TechNet Plus (released on the 6th).
 
marc2003 said:
i've only ever used ffdshow and have never touched any settings at all. it just works. i tried vlc once but that was blocky as hell. :p
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VLC's output is very dependant on what video card drivers you use as it outputs in directx and some drivers make it appear blocky as you described.
 
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