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Author Topic: MKVs, Directshow priority, and seeking (ff and rw).  (Read 4128 times)

floepie

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MKVs, Directshow priority, and seeking (ff and rw).
« on: April 17, 2009, 08:40:40 am »

I'm really loving this front end!  However, this whole video playback thing might be a dealbreaker.  I've come to notice that when playing back MKVs, and I only have AVC-containing MKVs at the moment, that I cannot seek, i.e. fast-forward or rewind.  Furthermore, the task bar appears continuously at the bottom of the screen.  I have been using CoreAVC as decoder, but I've read here in the forums that MC13 doesn't play all that nicely for whatever reason with CoreAVC, whereas some have reported no problems at all. 

In any case, I unchecked CoreAVC as "preferred decoder" and switched to the libavcodec from within ffdshow for AVC files.  For whatever reason, MC still pulls up CoreAVC, whereas all my other directshow video players properly call up ffdshow as the decoder.   Graphedit even shows that ffdshow has priority for AVC files.   So, why does MC still use CoreAVC even after a reboot?  Does MC13 allow one to specify which decoder is used?  It appears that this was the case at one time according to some posts here, but I don't see this option in this latest version.

All this may be in vain anyway if ffdshow still behaves the same way as CoreAVC (lack of seeking and visible task bar).  So, for those with MKV/AVC files, are you able to seek, and do you have that visible task bar? 
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JimH

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Re: MKVs, Directshow priority, and seeking (ff and rw).
« Reply #1 on: April 17, 2009, 08:54:12 am »

You must change the filter used in MC under options for filetypes.
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fitbrit

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Re: MKVs, Directshow priority, and seeking (ff and rw).
« Reply #2 on: April 17, 2009, 09:01:20 am »

CoreAVC works just fine with MC13 now. One thing you should do is turn off the COreAVC tray icon. In fact, turn those off in as many programs as possible like ffdshow and haali - I think part of the with the task bar showing is the tray icons.
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Yaobing

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Re: MKVs, Directshow priority, and seeking (ff and rw).
« Reply #3 on: April 17, 2009, 09:27:51 am »

Does MC13 allow one to specify which decoder is used?  It appears that this was the case at one time according to some posts here, but I don't see this option in this latest version.

As Jim mentioned.  Here are the details:

Tools > Options > File Types > Select MKV under Video.  Select "JRiver video engine (using DirectShow filters)" from "Playback Method" drop-down list.  Choose filters.

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floepie

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Re: MKVs, Directshow priority, and seeking (ff and rw).
« Reply #4 on: April 17, 2009, 09:58:19 am »

Thanks for replies.  When people say AVC in MKV works fine with the CoreAVC decoder, are you able to seek?  That was the main thrust of my question. 

For whatever reason, the only button that works on my Media Center remote is 'stop' when this type of file plays.  Even 'pause' does nothing.  However, when playing any sort of WMV file, things work just fine.  I don't have any sort of directshow filter problem, as I've just tested in other standalone players as well as another media center app I've been playing with. 

So, in order to test whether the CoreAVC decoder is preventing me from be able to seek, I'm trying to change the decoder to ffdshow.  I've selected the J River video engine, ffdshow as video decoder, deselected CoreAVC as preferred decoder in CoreAVC settings, and selected the libavcodec as AVC decoder in ffdshow settings.  In other video apps, ffdshow is properly called, but MC continues to call CoreAVC.  In this instance, the video does not play (audio plays fine) when ffdshow is the preferred decoder. 

Again, as I stated in the first post, this effort to switch decoder for AVC may be in vain if the seek problem persists.
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Yaobing

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Re: MKVs, Directshow priority, and seeking (ff and rw).
« Reply #5 on: April 17, 2009, 10:25:14 am »

Thanks for replies.  When people say AVC in MKV works fine with the CoreAVC decoder, are you able to seek?  That was the main thrust of my question. 

Yes, I am able to seek (FF/REW, or jump forward/backward, or random seek - clicking anywhere on seek bar).

Quote
For whatever reason, the only button that works on my Media Center remote is 'stop' when this type of file plays.  Even 'pause' does nothing.  However, when playing any sort of WMV file, things work just fine.  I don't have any sort of directshow filter problem, as I've just tested in other standalone players as well as another media center app I've been playing with. 

So, in order to test whether the CoreAVC decoder is preventing me from be able to seek, I'm trying to change the decoder to ffdshow.  I've selected the J River video engine, ffdshow as video decoder, deselected CoreAVC as preferred decoder in CoreAVC settings, and selected the libavcodec as AVC decoder in ffdshow settings.  In other video apps, ffdshow is properly called, but MC continues to call CoreAVC.  In this instance, the video does not play (audio plays fine) when ffdshow is the preferred decoder. 

Again, as I stated in the first post, this effort to switch decoder for AVC may be in vain if the seek problem persists.

What version of CoreAVC do you have?
What version of FFDShow (or CCCP)?  It would be best to install FFDShow as part of CCCP.
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floepie

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Re: MKVs, Directshow priority, and seeking (ff and rw).
« Reply #6 on: April 17, 2009, 10:34:03 am »

OK, thanks.  I have v1.9.0 of CoreAVC and version 2867 (April 5) of ffdshow.  These two work just fine outside of MC.  I can switch easily between them in other players, and these are the only two video decoders that I have on my Vista install. 
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fitbrit

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Re: MKVs, Directshow priority, and seeking (ff and rw).
« Reply #7 on: April 17, 2009, 11:03:31 am »

For whatever reason, the only button that works on my Media Center remote is 'stop' when this type of file plays.  Even 'pause' does nothing.  However, when playing any sort of WMV file, things work just fine.  I don't have any sort of directshow filter problem, as I've just tested in other standalone players as well as another media center app I've been playing with. 


Yes, I'm able to skip ahead, pause, go to the next movie, even fast forward pretty well if my CPU can handle it. This is with CoreAVC 1.6 and now 1.9.5. As for not being able to try other filters in MC, do you have the "Prefer CoreAVC" button checked in the CoreAVC options?
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gappie

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Re: MKVs, Directshow priority, and seeking (ff and rw).
« Reply #8 on: April 17, 2009, 11:23:07 am »

for what it is worth, i play mkv's with mc using cccp without any problems, seek works, pause etc (except chapters). nothing special done in the filter sections..

 :)
gab

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Yaobing

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Re: MKVs, Directshow priority, and seeking (ff and rw).
« Reply #9 on: April 17, 2009, 12:19:06 pm »

OK, thanks.  I have v1.9.0 of CoreAVC and version 2867 (April 5) of ffdshow.  These two work just fine outside of MC.  I can switch easily between them in other players, and these are the only two video decoders that I have on my Vista install. 

How about Haali Media Splitter?  Are using it?
While playing a video, right-click, and choose DirectShow Filters > Copy Graph Info to clipboard, and paste the result here.
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Yaobing Deng, JRiver Media Center

floepie

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Re: MKVs, Directshow priority, and seeking (ff and rw).
« Reply #10 on: April 17, 2009, 03:34:04 pm »

OK, we're narrowing down the problem.  Thanks for following, but I seem to have come across a bug of some sort.  When I play an MKV with CoreAVC and Haali's splitter, I cannot ff/rw/pause while video is playing in full screen.  For this reason, I posted in this forum.  Playing around a bit further, I discovered I *can* ff/rw/pause even with the remote *only after* I've closed the display and the movie continues to play in the small lower left window. 

Now, here's the strange part.  If I double-click the small video in the lower left, it then occupies the full screen, and I now have ff/rw/pause capabilities, BUT the bottom of the screen reads "Volume: 100%" when ff'ing or rw'ing. 

If I make the small video in the lower left occupy the full screen by pressing 'play' on the remote, I then LOSE the ff/rw/pause capability. 

As you asked me to show the filter graph, here is as follows:

Code: [Select]
Filter Graph Info:

    Filter 'Default DirectSound Device'
        CLSID: {79376820-07D0-11CF-A24D-0020AFD79767}
        Host: quartz.dll
        Input Pin 'Audio Input pin (rendered)'
            Connected to pin 'Out' of filter 'AC3Filter'
            Major type MEDIATYPE_Audio  Sub type MEDIASUBTYPE_DOLBY_AC3_SPDIF, Format type FORMAT_WaveFormatEx

    Filter 'Enhanced Video Renderer'
        CLSID: {FA10746C-9B63-4B6C-BC49-FC300EA5F256}
        Host: C:\Windows\system32\evr.dll
        Input Pin 'EVR Input0'
            Connected to pin 'Output' of filter 'CoreAVC Video Decoder'
            Major type MEDIATYPE_Video  Sub type MEDIASUBTYPE_NV12, Format type FORMAT_VideoInfo2
        Input Pin 'EVR Input1'

    Filter 'AC3Filter'
        CLSID: {A753A1EC-973E-4718-AF8E-A3F554D45C44}
        Host: C:\Program Files\AC3Filter\ac3filter.ax
        Input Pin 'In'
            Connected to pin 'Audio' of filter 'F:\Movies\Juno.mkv
            Major type MEDIATYPE_Audio  Sub type Unknown GUID Name: {00002001-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}, Format type FORMAT_WaveFormatEx
        Output Pin 'Out'
            Connected to pin 'Audio Input pin (rendered)' of filter 'Default DirectSound Device'
            Major type MEDIATYPE_Audio  Sub type MEDIASUBTYPE_DOLBY_AC3_SPDIF, Format type FORMAT_WaveFormatEx

    Filter 'CoreAVC Video Decoder'
        CLSID: {09571A4B-F1FE-4C60-9760-DE6D310C7C31}
        Host: C:\Program Files\CoreCodec\CoreAVC Professional Edition\CoreAVCDecoder.ax
        Input Pin 'Input'
            Connected to pin 'Video' of filter 'F:\Movies\Juno.mkv
            Major type MEDIATYPE_Video  Sub type Unknown GUID Name: {31435641-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}, Format type FORMAT_MPEG2_VIDEO
        Output Pin 'Output'
            Connected to pin 'EVR Input0' of filter 'Enhanced Video Renderer'
            Major type MEDIATYPE_Video  Sub type MEDIASUBTYPE_NV12, Format type FORMAT_VideoInfo2

    Filter 'F:\Movies\Juno.mkv
        CLSID: {55DA30FC-F16B-49FC-BAA5-AE59FC65F82D}
        Host: C:\Program Files\Haali\MatroskaSplitter\splitter.ax
        Output Pin 'Video'
            Connected to pin 'Input' of filter 'CoreAVC Video Decoder'
            Major type MEDIATYPE_Video  Sub type Unknown GUID Name: {31435641-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}, Format type FORMAT_MPEG2_VIDEO
        Output Pin 'Audio'
            Connected to pin 'In' of filter 'AC3Filter'
            Major type MEDIATYPE_Audio  Sub type Unknown GUID Name: {00002001-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}, Format type FORMAT_WaveFormatEx
        Output Pin 'Subtitle'
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Yaobing

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Re: MKVs, Directshow priority, and seeking (ff and rw).
« Reply #11 on: April 17, 2009, 05:38:23 pm »

OK, we're narrowing down the problem.  Thanks for following, but I seem to have come across a bug of some sort.  When I play an MKV with CoreAVC and Haali's splitter, I cannot ff/rw/pause while video is playing in full screen.  For this reason, I posted in this forum.  Playing around a bit further, I discovered I *can* ff/rw/pause even with the remote *only after* I've closed the display and the movie continues to play in the small lower left window. 

Now, here's the strange part.  If I double-click the small video in the lower left, it then occupies the full screen, and I now have ff/rw/pause capabilities, BUT the bottom of the screen reads "Volume: 100%" when ff'ing or rw'ing. 

If I make the small video in the lower left occupy the full screen by pressing 'play' on the remote, I then LOSE the ff/rw/pause capability. 

I still can not reproduce it.  It sounds like a focus problem, but that would not be limited to MKV / CoreAVC. 

Would it get better if you try clicking the video window with your mouse before trying to seek?  Also does seeking with keyboard work (CTRL+ARROW, or CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW)?
Quote
As you asked me to show the filter graph, here is as follows:

Code: [Select]
Filter Graph Info:

    Filter 'Default DirectSound Device'
        CLSID: {79376820-07D0-11CF-A24D-0020AFD79767}
        Host: quartz.dll
        Input Pin 'Audio Input pin (rendered)'
            Connected to pin 'Out' of filter 'AC3Filter'
            Major type MEDIATYPE_Audio  Sub type MEDIASUBTYPE_DOLBY_AC3_SPDIF, Format type FORMAT_WaveFormatEx

    Filter 'Enhanced Video Renderer'
        CLSID: {FA10746C-9B63-4B6C-BC49-FC300EA5F256}
        Host: C:\Windows\system32\evr.dll
        Input Pin 'EVR Input0'
            Connected to pin 'Output' of filter 'CoreAVC Video Decoder'
            Major type MEDIATYPE_Video  Sub type MEDIASUBTYPE_NV12, Format type FORMAT_VideoInfo2
        Input Pin 'EVR Input1'

    Filter 'AC3Filter'
        CLSID: {A753A1EC-973E-4718-AF8E-A3F554D45C44}
        Host: C:\Program Files\AC3Filter\ac3filter.ax
        Input Pin 'In'
            Connected to pin 'Audio' of filter 'F:\Movies\Juno.mkv
            Major type MEDIATYPE_Audio  Sub type Unknown GUID Name: {00002001-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}, Format type FORMAT_WaveFormatEx
        Output Pin 'Out'
            Connected to pin 'Audio Input pin (rendered)' of filter 'Default DirectSound Device'
            Major type MEDIATYPE_Audio  Sub type MEDIASUBTYPE_DOLBY_AC3_SPDIF, Format type FORMAT_WaveFormatEx

    Filter 'CoreAVC Video Decoder'
        CLSID: {09571A4B-F1FE-4C60-9760-DE6D310C7C31}
        Host: C:\Program Files\CoreCodec\CoreAVC Professional Edition\CoreAVCDecoder.ax
        Input Pin 'Input'
            Connected to pin 'Video' of filter 'F:\Movies\Juno.mkv
            Major type MEDIATYPE_Video  Sub type Unknown GUID Name: {31435641-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}, Format type FORMAT_MPEG2_VIDEO
        Output Pin 'Output'
            Connected to pin 'EVR Input0' of filter 'Enhanced Video Renderer'
            Major type MEDIATYPE_Video  Sub type MEDIASUBTYPE_NV12, Format type FORMAT_VideoInfo2

    Filter 'F:\Movies\Juno.mkv
        CLSID: {55DA30FC-F16B-49FC-BAA5-AE59FC65F82D}
        Host: C:\Program Files\Haali\MatroskaSplitter\splitter.ax
        Output Pin 'Video'
            Connected to pin 'Input' of filter 'CoreAVC Video Decoder'
            Major type MEDIATYPE_Video  Sub type Unknown GUID Name: {31435641-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}, Format type FORMAT_MPEG2_VIDEO
        Output Pin 'Audio'
            Connected to pin 'In' of filter 'AC3Filter'
            Major type MEDIATYPE_Audio  Sub type Unknown GUID Name: {00002001-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}, Format type FORMAT_WaveFormatEx
        Output Pin 'Subtitle'

The graph looks fine.
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fitbrit

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Re: MKVs, Directshow priority, and seeking (ff and rw).
« Reply #12 on: April 17, 2009, 06:46:00 pm »

Please make sure the tray icon is turned off in Haali and CoreAVC. They don't always play nice with MC, and can sometimes steal focus for some reason.

BTW, which renderer are you using? Also, if you're entitled to a free upgrade to CoreAVC 1.9.5 please get it. For one thing, it has CUDA support; if you have a supported nVidia card, you get hardware acceleration of all h264 mkvs, even high profile encoded ones.
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floepie

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Re: MKVs, Directshow priority, and seeking (ff and rw).
« Reply #13 on: April 17, 2009, 09:30:49 pm »

Well, it turns out the whole thing was an "out of focus" issue created solely by the CoreAVC tray icon (neither the direct vobsub nor splitter icons were responsible).   So, now there is no visible taskbar in full screen mode, and I can pause/rw/ff.  :D  I still wish there were a progress bar or more info while ff/rw'ing.  I do notice that remote cursor left/right *do* show how far into the movie I'm seeking, however.  It wasn't very apparent at first, and I've never even thought about using those remote keys to ff or rw until I did it by accident.   ?

However, and this must be entirely unrelated matter, I still see the Volume level, which appears a split second after any seek operation is performed, whether it be pause, rewind, etc., and the volume level covers up what is supposed to be visible.  I know this b/c I can see it for about  1/10th second before the volume level appears.   This odd behavior is exhibited only in full screen mode and not with the lower left small screen.  Additionally, control by keyboard or mouse do not differ with control by the remote.  So, there is no "remote control" issue here.

Has anyone reported this?
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Yaobing

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Re: MKVs, Directshow priority, and seeking (ff and rw).
« Reply #14 on: April 17, 2009, 11:13:59 pm »

We have seen the Volume thing, on Vista I believe.
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