VLC optimisation?

edgedemon

edgedemon

edgedemon

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Having problems playing back high def content using vlc player over a network share
I have a server that I have ripped all my DVD's and recently, blu-ray discs to, and use a client running Mediaportal and VLC to play back files as I have ripped them all to mkv files.
DVD's are fine, but some of the hi-def stuff will play back with a blocky effect in the picture, although the audio is fine..
I tried to use the standalone player, rather than from within MP, and it was worse, then the picture was blocky and jumping around to catch up with the audio.
In addition, it takes about 2 mins for the standalone vlc player to start playing content, though MediaPortal will play the file instantly.

Are there any network optimisation tricks for VLC player? Both the server and the client are on a wired 1Gb network

The client is using AMD x2 cpu and onboard HD3200 - which should be more than capable of playing the content, Im seeing very little cpu usage, so it looks like avivo is doing its job...
 
VLC is not the greatest at HD playback, especially 1080p.

I doubt if it is related to your network at all.

Bare in mind that VLC uses an entirely software-based H.264 decoder. It doesn't use any form of hardware acceleration. So your "AVIVO" or whatever it is won't be used. Likewise, if you have an Nvidia card the CUDA won't be used.

I assume you aren't using the VLC Server. Just the VLC Client and playing the files via a Windows network share.
 
NathanE said:
I assume you aren't using the VLC Server. Just the VLC Client and playing the files via a Windows network share.
Click to expand...

Yes
Cool - thanks for the replies guys, will give MPC HC a go and see how I get on and post back
I though vlc was the best for mkv playback, but that the beauty of forums - you learn something new everyday :p
 
VLC is the best (IMO) for MKV playback. It "just works". Unlike so many other players which might work for some files but not others.

Unfortunately though VLC is heavy on cross-platform compatibility as well which immediately excludes it from any form of hardware acceleration.

I have found 1080p MKV playback to work fine in VLC on a E6300 2.8GHz chip (and still have approx 20% of the CPU core to spare in Task Manager). However, a Quad Core 2.4GHz chip (Wolfdale, can't remember the model) was not enough power to do the same. (VLC uses a single threaded decoder, so quad core counts for nothing.)

Apparently VLC (or ffmpeg) are working on multi threaded decoding. When this happens, the problem will be a thing of the past.
 
I'm yet to find a file that fails with MPCHC

I have one or two that don't play in Media Centre x64, but do work in MPCHC
 
NathanE said:
VLC is the best (IMO) for MKV playback. It "just works". Unlike so many other players which might work for some files but not others.

Unfortunately though VLC is heavy on cross-platform compatibility as well which immediately excludes it from any form of hardware acceleration.

I have found 1080p MKV playback to work fine in VLC on a E6300 2.8GHz chip (and still have approx 20% of the CPU core to spare in Task Manager). However, a Quad Core 2.4GHz chip (Wolfdale, can't remember the model) was not enough power to do the same. (VLC uses a single threaded decoder, so quad core counts for nothing.)

Apparently VLC (or ffmpeg) are working on multi threaded decoding. When this happens, the problem will be a thing of the past.
Click to expand...

VLC is terrible for playing anything in the MKV container because it has such a poor splitter. MPC-HC has internal splitters/filters for everything and good ones at that, DXVA, shader support, allows external filters etc. VLC is pointless.
 
DXVA, shader support, external filters has nothing to do with the splitter.

VLC's splitter for MKV is perfectly fine. It can do multiple video/audio tracks and subtitles. What more is there to support?
 
NathanE said:
DXVA, shader support, external filters has nothing to do with the splitter.

VLC's splitter for MKV is perfectly fine. It can do multiple video/audio tracks and subtitles. What more is there to support?
Click to expand...

I know. Just more reasons not to use VLC. Although actually the splitter is quite relevant to a lot of that, particularly for advanced containers like MKV.

The VLC splitter is terrible. Doesn't support a lot of functions, poor seeking, crashes, etc. Haali's and Gabest's are loads better, the latter works a bit better but doesn't yet support linking unfortunately.
 
AbsenceJam said:
I know. Just more reasons not to use VLC. Although actually the splitter is quite relevant to a lot of that, particularly for advanced containers like MKV.

The VLC splitter is terrible. Doesn't support a lot of functions, poor seeking, crashes, etc. Haali's and Gabest's are loads better, the latter works a bit better but doesn't yet support linking unfortunately.
Click to expand...

MKV is not advanced. It's just a file format. No different to AVI files really. Except that AVI files were a Microsoft standard and isn't perceived to be "open" to modification or extension by the community. Which is fine. I prefer MKV anyway.

As I said, VLC supports multiple audio and video tracks, as well as subtitles. It might support picture streams as well but I've never seen a MKV that contains them so haven't bothered to check. No idea if it supports file linking either. Wouldn't surprise me. Must be about 10 lines of code surely.

VLC seeks through MKV files just fine. Doesn't crash.

Saying that the splitter has anything to do with DXVA or pixel shaders is a bit like saying some CAT5 cable has anything to do with TCP/IP. The two layers are at the opposite sides of the spectrum and to say they are 'aware' of things at the other end is complete nonsense.
 
"Just a file format" - how silly is that statement? Just like RAR and ZIP are just file formats as well? There's a huge difference between media containers and what they can and cannot do and a big difference with splitters also.
Wrong or outdated splitter and you might have the wrong AR, might not be able to seek correctly, might not have correct flags and colour spaces passed on, might not be able to use DXVA (yes, that's right).

You seem to think it's just "here's a video track, here's an audio track - onto the decoders!" it isn't.
 
RAR and ZIP are compression archives. They are similar to a splitter in that they contain multiple "streams" (i.e. files). But that is where the similarities end because they use algorithms to, obviously, do or undo the actual compression. They also do not contain as much "header" information as a multimedia container does which describe the purpose of and exact details of the stream. E.g. a multimedia container would need to store somewhere the fact that a set of subtitles is in "English" otherwise that stream is useless.

A splitter is closer perhaps to a ZIP/RAR where the compression turned off.

A splitter has no bearing on aspect ratio (AR). A splitter doesn't even know such a thing exists. Likewise a splitter doesn't even know (nor care) that DXVA exists. What on earth would a splitter use DXVA for? To get the GPU to do file I/O? I don't think so. That is handled just fine by the CPU thanks to DMA.

"here's a video track, here's an audio track - onto the decoders"

That is actually a fairly accurate description of a splitter's responsibility.

Further learning: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demultiplexer_(Media_file)
 
You're wrong, what I said is accurate. It's a whole lot more involved and complicated than you think. Have a look at the digest changelogs here - http://haali.su/mkv . Yes that's all so simple. ;)

A splitter doesn't use DXVA but if a stream is not demuxed correctly then a DXVA decode may not be possible, mostly fixed these days. AR is one of the most obvious areas where you can see issues when demuxing; and so on and so forth. Like I said, you're very much mistaken.

"Further learning" how arrogant!
 
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The complication is entirely in storing suitable header information - or at least enough to make a good codec selection decision.

A splitter is only as useful as how many stream codecs it supports. That's why the Haali changelog is full of things like "Added support for muxing FLAC audio as A_FLAC to the muxer" and "Added support for PCM audio with 7 and 8 channels".

It doesn't mean the guy has spent months implementing 7/8 channel PCM support. It means he has tweaked his splitter to support identifying those streams. By means of a some specific header information.

A splitter is directly responsible for offloading the decoding of a stream to the appropriate codec. Therefore, if it chooses incorrectly, you might find that DXVA doesn't work. That's why the best splitters (such as Haali) are popular because they are so damn good at identifying streams correctly and passing them to the correct codec. The authors, as you can see from the changelog, puts so much time into ensuring compatibility with even the most niché codecs.

It really is as simple as this.
 
Seeing how this has descended into a conversation about several media players, has anyone used KM Player? I do and think it is rather good!
 
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