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[PhatPhreddy]

I have been having the pleasure of reviewing a advance copy of the T2 Extreme edition which comes with a 1080p equivalent Hi Def WMP9 encoded version...

The actual WMP9 content is 1440x816p anamorphically encoded for a 1920x816p output... as its a 2.35:1 AR feature this is the same as a letterboxed 1920x1080p 16:9 clip...

As you guys have included DRM abilities I figured I would give it a try in MC... Especially as I have an anamorphic lens and you have that display option...

Firstly MC does not respect the encoded AR correctly and displays the downsized 1920x816 tall and skinny (when set to source AR)... Its either not understanding the anamorphic output or its filling the 1080 with the 816... Cant truly tell...

If I set it to 2.35 output it then looks correct but the source is 1920x816... Source output should be correctly 2.35 anyway... I think the player is not reading output rez (1920) and reading encoded rez (1440) and displaying it like that...

Secondly there needs to be some serious optimisation under the DRM'ed files...

When using clips like the coral reef from the MS HD clips site (I DL'ed have both the 1280x720p and 1920x1080p versions)... In WMP9 and Zoom player I can play the 720p versions happily on my 2.2 P4 desktop...

I can play the 1920x1080p in Zoom Player though I have 3 spikes that break it down (WMP is worse presumably due to post processing filters that I can edit out of the filtergraph in ZP)... However the audio is pretty broken in both with ZP being nearly OK.

This comes down to being nearly bearable on my P4 2.4 with ZP so I am thinking a minor overclock on this box and I will be able to play the 1920x1080 with 5.1 WMA Pro.

In MC both of these files play in approx the same kind of way...  This gave me hope...

Then I load T2 (which is lower bitrate than the 720p coral reef... Approx equal to the Step into liquid trailer, which also plays fine in MC) and its like a slideshow...

I try the 2 BMW Hire clips @ 720p (no problems with WMP9 about 55- 75% CPU) and they are also stutterfests...

something is going weird with the DRM'ed files... For some reason the non DRM'ed ones play smooth... the DRM controlled ones far far worse...

Any ideas ?  

[JimH]

No, but what version of MC are you using?

On the resolution problem, try a right click on the display to set the screen resolution for the display screen.

[PhatPhreddy]

Media Center Registered 9.0.172 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\

Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2189 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 204 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920)
Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1145 (xpsp2.021108-1929) / wnaspi32.dll: Internal ASPI Layer

Ripping /   Drive E:   Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer   CD Type:Auto   Read speed:Max
 Digital playback: Yes /  Use YADB: Yes /  Get cover art: Yes /  Calc replay gain: No /  Copy volume: 32767
 Eject after ripping: Yes /  Play sound after ripping: Yes  Soundfile:   chord.wav

Burning /  Drive E: PIONEER  DVD-RW  DVR-104    Addr: 1:1:0  Speed:8  MaxSpeed:7  Use MJ Engine:Yes
 Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: No
 Use playback settings: No /  Normalization: None


So .172... a way back but after release... If theres been any WMP changes I will update now...

Also the rez is at desktop I think but manually setting it to 1280x1024 changes nothing...

It looks like you are anamorphasing the content or playing a non 4:3 in the 4:3 window... I strongly suspect its got something to do with the fact that its encoded at 1440 for a 1920 output... Not heard of any WMP using anamorphic encoding prior to this...

The speed issue is weird though... You can play a 9 Mbit/s 1920x1080 nearly fine... Yet playing a 7Mbit/s 1440x816 (or 1920x816 depending on your point of view) DRM file and its 1 frame every couple of seconds...

[JimH]

About three weeks ago, we switched from using the Windows Media Player playback engine to using the DirectX filters.  I don't remember which build it was.

Updating is worth a try.

[PhatPhreddy]

OK updated and identicle..

Media Center Registered 9.0.179 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\

Microsoft Windows XP 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2190 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 329 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1145 (xpsp2.021108-1929) / wnaspi32.dll: Internal ASPI Layer

Ripping /   Drive E:   Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer   CD Type:Auto   Read speed:Max
 Digital playback: Yes /  Use YADB: Yes /  Get cover art: Yes /  Calc replay gain: No /  Copy volume: 32767
 Eject after ripping: Yes /  Play sound after ripping: Yes  Soundfile:   chord.wav

Burning /  Drive E: PIONEER  DVD-RW  DVR-104    Addr: 1:1:0  Speed:8  MaxSpeed:7  Use MJ Engine:Yes
 Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: No
 Use playback settings: No /  Normalization: None



OK from what you say the 'DirectShow Player' bit at the bottom of the screen makes sense...

This also explains why when I tried MC a couple of weeks ago it was terrible performance on WMP9's and then tweaking around I found that Zoom Player was also awful... Turns out having FFDShow installed it gives itself a massively high merit value and ends up in almost every filtergraph process.. FFDShow is great fopr DVD playback but CPU heavy even with a 720x480 source... Once its applied to HiDef 720p or 1080p it kills it...

I then created some streamlined filters in ZP.. Set them as a media playback filter and ZP was smooth (and I still have FFDShow in my DVD profiles... Gotta love that customisation)... Now in the last 2 days I find MC is also smooth and I assume thats due to me creating stremlined merit values on WMP9 material...

That said that only applies to the non DRM'ed material... I assume that the DRM solution you have implemented is either drawing a lot of resources (and I mean a lot) or its not working as expected in some other way...

For some free DRM content grab the Do Amazing Things DVD... The BMW 'Hire' Clips are 1280x720p with a 60 day license (and the James Brown / Gary Oldman one is a gas )...

The T2 is definately being presented in a funky AR... I think you are playing the simple encoded rez (1440x816) fitted to the window... If you have a play with the WMP9 encoder you will see that anamorphic encoding with custom parameters is available.. source does not always equal square pixels....

Does it sound like I may be on the right track ??  

[JimH]

Dunno.  We can look into it when we get some time.  The problem may not be in MC, however.  I believe we're using standard MS stuff to decrypt.

[PhatPhreddy]

OK... It plays smooth in WMP9 and the InterActual player...

None of the others have thier DRM paperwork cleared up yet... Blight was just donationware until recently... now he is shareware, doesn't make it easy to sign up to the $$ registration processes...