Smoothvideo Project (SVP)

Dirk

Dirk

Dirk

Associate
Joined
20 Dec 2005
Posts
1,932
I haven't seen this mentioned here before. Is anybody already using it? From the website:

"SVP allows you to watch any video on your PC file with frame interpolation (like you can watch it on high-end TVs and projectors). It increases frame rate by generating intermediate animation frames between existing ones to produce very smooth, fluid and clear motion. The technology is well-known for a while ("TrimensionDNM", "Motion Plus", "Motionflow" and others), but now it's available for free to PC users with simple GUI and just a couple of mouse clicks.

SVP provides GPU acceleration and it's possible to watch FullHD 1080p-video recalculated to 60Hz in real-time with mid-range CPU and almost any GPU hardware.
SVP actually is not a video player itself, but it enables almost any player to play smooth video."

I've been using this for a few days now and have been blown away by it. The initial kneejerk reaction when using it for the first time is that it's a little odd. We're so used to seeing video played back at the same low frame rates that we've had for decades that it takes a little time for the brain to adapt. For the first couple of hours of using it myself i had no intention of keeping it installed. After the second day of using it you couldn't pay me to go back to watching low frame rate video again! It's a night and day difference.

I could go on being effusive but you really need to try it yourselves to make your own minds up. All i would say is use it for a couple of days. You'll be impressed. The SVP package includes, and is pre configured for, MPC-HC. It does work with other players too though. I would recommend installing the full package using the default settings, ensuring that you've removed any other instances of MPC, Codecs and Filters first. And you do need reasonably decent hardware to run it well too.

Playing back a 1080 video uses 40% on all cores with my 3770K and 25% on my GTX570. I for one am actually glad to have something to run on a daily basis that justifies having spent money on good hardware though. Today i've watched a selection of HD movies and sport and each time it's taken my breath away how life-like everything appears. The clarity and immersion is incredible.

Here are some more links about SVP and HFR video:

Guru3D

Short Wikipedia entry

Interactive Demo

Demo Videos

Here are two short clips from Sons Of Anarchy. The first is normal framerate and the second at 60fps:

Original

HFR

The difference should be immediately obvious watching those two clips. If it's your first time watching HFR playback you might have experienced what people call the 'soap opera effect'. I know i did. That's what takes getting used to, but you soon do. It's LFR video that looks wrong to me now!

The flip side to using Frame Interpolation is artifacting. I found it intolerable with the default SVP settings, but setting 'Artifacts Masking' to 'Strongest' in each Profile has almost completely eliminated it for me. I might notice it once or twice during an entire movie only using that setting.

It's a profound change. James Cameron and Peter Jackson say it's the future. Give it a go and see for yourselves.
 
Very impressive and thanks for the tip about artifact masking. The difference/smoothness between 24/30fps and 120fps is really noticeable.
 
I wonder if the output from SVP can be captured and used to create super-slow motion videos.

eg run a 30fps video through SVP and end up with a 60fps video.
Play that back at 30fps and it will be half speed. And so on.
 
Think i've got it setup right as when you open a video it say running at 60fps in media player classic

Using a i7 3770k with it's GPU, HD video (Top Gear Africa Special Part 2) peaks at 25% usage

SD video peaks at about 12%

HD Video does look better and you can tell the difference with it being smother it will just take my eyes awhile to adjust to what it does to SD video
 
Gonna give this a go on my Mediacenter when i get home, irc its cropped up in the past but was still very much beta back then :)
does it play well with LAV??
 
LizardKing said:
Gonna give this a go on my Mediacenter when i get home, irc its cropped up in the past but was still very much beta back then :)
does it play well with LAV??
Click to expand...
Yes it does - the full package from SVP includes the latest LAV filters, although you also need ffdshow's raw filter to run the required Avisynth script.

You will need some heavy-hitting hardware though, and the received HTPC wisdom of using a modest CPU with GPU offloading won't cut it - my HTPC for instance (Q6600/GTX650 Ti) cries and falls over with SVP and high-bitrate 1080p material. 720p stuff however looks fabulous, particularly when combined with madVR for upscaling.
 
CaptainCrash said:
Yes it does - the full package from SVP includes the latest LAV filters, although you also need ffdshow's raw filter to run the required Avisynth script.

You will need some heavy-hitting hardware though, and the received HTPC wisdom of using a modest CPU with GPU offloading won't cut it - my HTPC for instance (Q6600/GTX650 Ti) cries and falls over with SVP and high-bitrate 1080p material. 720p stuff however looks fabulous, particularly when combined with madVR for upscaling.
Click to expand...

Running an fx-6100 and Ati6450, good excuse to by myself a new gfx card and have a shuffle round if you ask me :)

The demo's make a good case for it for sure! How long did it take you to setup?
 
LizardKing said:
Running an fx-6100 and Ati6450, good excuse to by myself a new gfx card and have a shuffle round if you ask me :)

The demo's make a good case for it for sure! How long did it take you to setup?
Click to expand...
Not long at all using the full package as per the OP, as it does everything for you, although for simplicity's sake you should first uninstall any existing instances of LAV and MPC-HC. You can get going with the inbuilt default profiles for the resolutions you're using - right-click the tray icon, then Video profiles > Reset to defaults > pick the nearest approximation to your hardware from the dropdown list - that'll give you a starting point, although needless to say there are loads of options to play with by selecting the "expert" interface type (haven't really got around to extensive fiddling yet).

I didn't see any significant artifacting out-of-the-box as suggested in the OP - maybe that's due to madVR working its magic, or maybe there have been further improvements in the latest releases... so many variables it's hard to tell.

I will say that people who just bung on XBMC and use its crappy inbuilt player (DVDplayer) don't realise what they're missing. :)
 
So i tried this and felt rather underwhelmed :(, no matter what settings i tried it barely made any noticeable difference and the extra heat created it just wasn't worth it for me. (bearing in mind my htpc is on for 50% of the day)

Even my main machine with it set to the highest profile failed to make an impression to want to keep it.

I might keep it for the odd movie but day to day usage is just not feasible.

Edit - i should say animations worked really well on my monitor but normal tv on my tv didnt, probably due to the tv already doing somesort of frame interpolation.:)
 
Last edited:
markweatherill said:
I wonder if the output from SVP can be captured and used to create super-slow motion videos.

eg run a 30fps video through SVP and end up with a 60fps video.
Play that back at 30fps and it will be half speed. And so on.
Click to expand...

I'd be really interested in this. There is a plugin for Final Cut called Twixtor which takes this approach but it is pretty expensive and it looks like the complicated bit of the technology already exists in SVP.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom