Disable GPU for video playback?

[Five_Star]

;tldr
How can you set media players (MCP-HC, MPC-BE ) to FORCE CPU usage rather than GPU usage when rendering video?
--

I’m helping my brother out over Teamviewer as he has got a rather odd situation with trying to get media playback to work smoothly.

He has a fairly old i7-4770 tower which he had connected to his screen via display port. He’s gone and “upgraded” to a bigger screen, but it only has HDMI, the tower (Dell) only has display port built in. From somewhere he’s gotten a GeForce GT710 to give him a HDMI connection.

The problem is, with the GT 710 in, his machine will no longer play back 1080p video smoothly. The GPU usage in task manager goes to 100% and the video stutters and the sound chops in and out. CPU usage at this point is 2%

Pulling the GT 710 out again, 1080p content works no problem being decoded on the i7, CPU usage is about 65%

However, he can’t now use his bigger screen which is how this all started in the first place.

I am at a loss to help him. Windows and media players all default to using GPU rendering where in this case, sadly, the GPU is less powerful than the CPU.

What settings in either MCP-HC, MPC-BE or using LAV filters can you set to FORCE the CPU to take the load, leaving the graphics card as a glorified HDMI converter?

He doesn’t have the money / space (it’s a sff) or time before Xmas to get another card / device in

Thanks!

 

[Five_Star]

Just set hardware decoder to none in the dropdown list.

Thats what we thought, but selecting none does...nothing! The GPU still maxes out at 100% making videos unwatchable

Alternative option, wouldn't a Displayport to HDMI adapter work?

As above, in the LAV filter settings, there's an option to set the hardware decoder to none. You can try force it to Intel's QuickSync to see if that works as well, or force Nvidia CUVID to see if that does better than DXVA. DXVA2 copyback generally works best from my experience.

He has a Neet branded Display Port to HDMI adaptor, it shows a picture but it suffers from awful screen breakup, lots of black screen moments.

To be honest, we've been through every option in the LAV video hardware decoder options and with the GT 710 installed nothing works as smoothly as when the card is not installed and it's set to DXVA2 (via the CPU?)

 

[Five_Star]

I apricate the continued follow-up from people.

I got him to send me the screen shot below.

• All MPC internal filters disabled
• LAV splitter, LAV splitter source, LAV video decoder and LAV audio decoder added as external filters
• Hardware Acceleration decoder set to None

Yet as you can see the GT 710 he is using for the HDMI port is maxxed out!