What is the best Media Player for Windows 11?

mrk said:
Hmm interesting, if I encounter any issues with MPC renderer then I will switch back to madVR but as it stands right now, have already uninstalled it I'm afraid after being really impressed with MPC renderer!
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So I tested the above linked video renderer and did a couple of comparison screenshots on a random video, with 1080p to 4K upscaling it looks noticeably blurry compared to madvr NGU low. On a PC with a GTX 1060 I tested power consumption with a power plug (including monitor), it went from around 147w to 127w. Simply not worth the minimal power savings IMO.
 
Which version of madVR are you uing out of interest? I'd be happy to give it another go with the NGU setting and everything else at default (HDR passthrough enabled again to test to see if that works now too).
 
Hmm between your screenshots I am not seeing any difference there? I believe the screenshots only save as the original source frame quality, not the rendered quality though.

Either way I tried it with NGU and I notice more stuttering especially when dragging the MPC window. Quality wise the madVR is a little sharper perhaps, but screenshots I save don't show any difference either. I think for my setup the MPC renderer is just faster, and seems to be just as good quality.
 
mrk said:
Hmm between your screenshots I am not seeing any difference there? I believe the screenshots only save as the original source frame quality, not the rendered quality though.

Either way I tried it with NGU and I notice more stuttering especially when dragging the MPC window. Quality wise the madVR is a little sharper perhaps, but screenshots I save don't show any difference either. I think for my setup the MPC renderer is just faster, and seems to be just as good quality.
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I used print screen to save the screenshots so it shows the upscaled output. I can easily see how much sharper the madVR screeenshots look, especially if I sit close and focus on a particular area like the jacket zip. You should not be getting any stuttering with NGU low on a 3080 Ti if it's a breeze for an old GTX 1060 3GB, if you press Ctrl + J you can see if it's dropping any frames in the stats.
 
It's not stuttering when playing, but the player window if I move it aboutm not something that happens with EVRCP or MPCVR. Stats screen (ctrl+j) shows a fairly stable graph but has some regular spikes if I move the window around.
 
mrk said:
It's not stuttering when playing, but the player window if I move it aboutm not something that happens with EVRCP or MPCVR. Stats screen (ctrl+j) shows a fairly stable graph but has some regular spikes if I move the window around.
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I don't see how that's an issue unless you're always dragging the window around while you watch videos. :D
 
It's just an annoyance really, so I can't see why I'd use madVR when MPCVR seems just as good on my display but has none of the observed negative traits!
 
mrk said:
It's just an annoyance really, so I can't see why I'd use madVR when MPCVR seems just as good on my display but has none of the observed negative traits!
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I noticed in your screenshot earlier that you're using an awkward resolution monitor for video content, so after doubling with NGU it will use downscaling. Where it says "if any (more) scaling needs to be done:" I'd suggest trying SSIM 1D100 AR Linear Light for downscaling algo. If you still don't see any difference then maybe mpc video renderer is the better option for you.
 
It's the best resolution monitor for video content! Movies are naturally full screen because 21:9.

One big rawback with madVR I noticed earlier too with HDR content is that there is what appears to be ABL flicker which only happens with madVR in some darker areas of a frame. With the same HDR video open but using MPCVR the flicker is gone. The flicker only is visible in front of those dark areas of the frame like dark grey, so must be the way madVR is processing HDR, even though I click ed the passthrough option for the HDR signal itself.
 
mrk said:
It's the best resolution monitor for video content! Movies are naturally full screen because 21:9.

One big rawback with madVR I noticed earlier too with HDR content is that there is what appears to be ABL flicker which only happens with madVR in some darker areas of a frame. With the same HDR video open but using MPCVR the flicker is gone. The flicker only is visible in front of those dark areas of the frame like dark grey, so must be the way madVR is processing HDR, even though I click ed the passthrough option for the HDR signal itself.
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Aspect ratio isn't the same as resolution. 3840x1600 is also 21:9 and would be better for video content.
 
Indeed on the first, but better? Purely depends on how far from the screen you are sitting when watching a movie. Arguably a bluray movie would look no different when sat a comfortable distance away regardless of a 34" 1440 ultrawide vs a 38£ 1600 ultrawide. With my own eyes on this display and my previous I have yet to see the difference in PQ other than the slightly annoying traits madVR introduces as mentioned already.
 
mrk said:
Indeed on the first, but better? Purely depends on how far from the screen you are sitting when watching a movie. Arguably a bluray movie would look no different when sat a comfortable distance away regardless of a 34" 1440 ultrawide vs a 38£ 1600 ultrawide. With my own eyes on this display and my previous I have yet to see the difference in PQ other than the slightly annoying traits madVR introduces as mentioned already.
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3840x1600 would be better for video content in terms of scaling; 4K movies wouldn't need any upscaling and 1080p can be doubled. 3440x1440 is an awkward resolution that isn't easily divisible and is harder to scale without losing quality.
 
That's what I'm trying to say, I'm not noticing a quality loss because it's a 3440x1440 display. I have a 65" which is also an OLED in the living room and watching the same clip shows equally great picture quality.
 
landyvlad said:
So these programs are for burning DVDs to a hard drive so they can be served via plex (or whatever)?

What is the best file format for saving
- video / movies: ?
- audio: FLAC ?
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MKV for movies has the best features but isn't widely supported the most widely supported is MP4 (both are container formats the codecs will vary but H264/5 for best quality) MPEG1/2 I'd avoid as its compression algorithm isn't the best

FLAC is lossless audio but again suffers from compatibility issues i.e. not widely supported

If extracting DVD's I'd simply extract as original streams i.e. MPEG2 PS to avoid further loss of quality (its only 576i) unless you're desperate to save space on drives

It may be simpler to just image to an .iso though as Win10 can natively mount images that way you can just play as a normal DVD via a software player
 
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Thanks. Basically what I want to do is 'archive' my CD's onto my NAS so I can play music from there.
Perhaps using something like media monkey?

Same with my DVDs - save them so I can stream to my TV from there. An example of the latter would be I have a box set of 'Get Smart' every episode but only 2 episodes per disk which is crazy huge pile of discs and way inconvenient. Being able to stream from the NAS would be MUCH better.
 
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