It might be better to focus on the actual problem instead of a workaround. There's a chance we can just get it working.
Good plan, and I hope so too. however, my actual "issue" is/was that I don't seem to have full control over direct show any longer, and I cannot do any testing of things now. I think RO is great, but full control should be allowed also, IMHO.
Could you describe your hardware, and the type of VC-1 files? What does CPU usage look like while playing?
It's playing on my wimpy laptop, over wireless G; clearly not the best solution, but it still doesn't seem right to me. Here is what i see, followed by file and machine specs. The HTPC machine shows the same issues, and also loses audio sync while playing this video. the sync issue actually seems to vary in how far out of sync they get, but after 5-8 minutes of watching the video, it's annoyingly out of sync. it seems the video follows the audio by about 1/2 second or so. It doesn't seem to keep getting worse, it seems something is trying to keep them in sync, as it sometimes feels worse than other times, all while watching about 20 minutes of the movie.
I'll post HTPC specs later is you want them, but it's a dual core CPU and HD5550 Radeon card, and seems to handle RO HQ fine in everything else.
In pasting all this, I noticed that it says progressive content, but this looks like de-interlacing problems in the mouth and collar. Upon watching again, this looks like it was "on TV" in the movie, so I'm not sure if this is encoded with artifacts (there are much worse ones in later TV schenes), or if the filter just isn't recognizing the change in the stream, and it's actually supposed to de-interlace this part properly??
Filter Graph Info:
Filter 'JRiver Audio Renderer'
CLSID: {A4002F8E-510F-442C-8AD3-F9C7B23FB394}
Host:
Input Pin 'In'
Connected to pin 'Output' of filter 'LAV Audio Decoder (auto-configured)'
Major type MEDIATYPE_Audio Sub type MEDIASUBTYPE_IEEE_FLOAT, Format type FORMAT_WaveFormatEx
Filter 'JRiver Subtitle Renderer'
CLSID: {F74E834C-9C98-43ED-89B1-19A9DF82E774}
Host:
Input Pin 'In'
Connected to pin 'Subtitle' of filter 'LAV Source Splitter'
Major type Unknown GUID Name: {E487EB08-6B26-4BE9-9DD3-993434D313FD} Sub type Unknown GUID Name: {04EBA53E-9330-436C-9133-553EC87031DC}, Format type Unknown GUID Name: {04EBA53E-9330-436C-9133-553EC87031DC}
Filter 'Enhanced Video Renderer'
CLSID: {FA10746C-9B63-4B6C-BC49-FC300EA5F256}
Host: c:\windows\syswow64\evr.dll
Input Pin 'EVR Input0'
Connected to pin 'Out' of filter 'ffdshow Video Decoder (auto-configured)'
Major type MEDIATYPE_Video Sub type MEDIASUBTYPE_YV12, Format type FORMAT_VideoInfo2
Input Pin 'EVR Input1'
Filter 'ffdshow Video Decoder (auto-configured)'
CLSID: {04FE9017-F873-410E-871E-AB91661A4EF7}
Host: C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 16\Plugins\ffdshow\ffdshow.ax
Input Pin 'In'
Connected to pin 'Output' of filter 'JRiver Video Monitor'
Major type MEDIATYPE_Video Sub type Unknown GUID Name: {D979F77B-DBEA-4BF6-9E6D-1D7E57FBAD53}, Format type FORMAT_VideoInfo2
Output Pin 'Out'
Connected to pin 'EVR Input0' of filter 'Enhanced Video Renderer'
Major type MEDIATYPE_Video Sub type MEDIASUBTYPE_YV12, Format type FORMAT_VideoInfo2
Input Pin 'In Text'
Filter 'LAV Audio Decoder (auto-configured)'
CLSID: {E8E73B6B-4CB3-44A4-BE99-4F7BCB96E491}
Host: C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 16\Plugins\lav\LAVAudio.ax
Input Pin 'Input'
Connected to pin 'Output' of filter 'JRiver Audio Monitor'
Major type MEDIATYPE_Audio Sub type Unknown GUID Name: {00002001-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}, Format type FORMAT_WaveFormatEx
Output Pin 'Output'
Connected to pin 'In' of filter 'JRiver Audio Renderer'
Major type MEDIATYPE_Audio Sub type MEDIASUBTYPE_IEEE_FLOAT, Format type FORMAT_WaveFormatEx
Filter 'JRiver Video Monitor'
CLSID: {A4207487-E7D8-406B-9882-B66370DE2492}
Host:
Input Pin 'Input'
Connected to pin 'Video' of filter 'LAV Source Splitter'
Major type MEDIATYPE_Video Sub type Unknown GUID Name: {D979F77B-DBEA-4BF6-9E6D-1D7E57FBAD53}, Format type FORMAT_VideoInfo2
Output Pin 'Output'
Connected to pin 'In' of filter 'ffdshow Video Decoder (auto-configured)'
Major type MEDIATYPE_Video Sub type Unknown GUID Name: {D979F77B-DBEA-4BF6-9E6D-1D7E57FBAD53}, Format type FORMAT_VideoInfo2
Filter 'JRiver Audio Monitor'
CLSID: {A4207487-E7D8-406B-9882-B66370DE2492}
Host:
Input Pin 'Input'
Connected to pin 'Audio' of filter 'LAV Source Splitter'
Major type MEDIATYPE_Audio Sub type Unknown GUID Name: {00002001-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}, Format type FORMAT_WaveFormatEx
Output Pin 'Output'
Connected to pin 'Input' of filter 'LAV Audio Decoder (auto-configured)'
Major type MEDIATYPE_Audio Sub type Unknown GUID Name: {00002001-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}, Format type FORMAT_WaveFormatEx
Filter 'LAV Source Splitter'
CLSID: {B98D13E7-55DB-4385-A33D-09FD1BA26338}
Host: C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 16\Plugins\lav\LAVSplitter.ax
Output Pin 'Video'
Connected to pin 'Input' of filter 'JRiver Video Monitor'
Major type MEDIATYPE_Video Sub type Unknown GUID Name: {D979F77B-DBEA-4BF6-9E6D-1D7E57FBAD53}, Format type FORMAT_VideoInfo2
Output Pin 'Audio'
Connected to pin 'Input' of filter 'JRiver Audio Monitor'
Major type MEDIATYPE_Audio Sub type Unknown GUID Name: {00002001-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}, Format type FORMAT_WaveFormatEx
Output Pin 'Subtitle'
Connected to pin 'In' of filter 'JRiver Subtitle Renderer'
Major type Unknown GUID Name: {E487EB08-6B26-4BE9-9DD3-993434D313FD} Sub type Unknown GUID Name: {04EBA53E-9330-436C-9133-553EC87031DC}, Format type Unknown GUID Name: {04EBA53E-9330-436C-9133-553EC87031DC}
=========================================================================================
General
Unique ID : 318352319431951926366644292433520692277 (0xEF806D2E2E47213B5A7D2AF406310C35)
Complete name : V:\Movie\State_of_Play\title01.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 23.2 GiB
Duration : 2h 7mn
Overall bit rate : 26.2 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2011-08-23 23:26:49
Writing application : MakeMKV v1.6.14 win(x64-release)
Writing library : libmakemkv v1.6.14 (1.2.0/1.1.0) win(x64-release)
Video
ID : 1
Format : VC-1
Format profile : AP@L3
Codec ID : WVC1
Codec ID/Hint : Microsoft
Duration : 2h 7mn
Bit rate : 22.9 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.461
Stream size : 20.3 GiB (87%)
Language : English
Audio
ID : 2
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Format profile : MA / Core
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 2h 7mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 2 761 Kbps / 1 510 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossless / Lossy
Title : Lossless
Language : English
Text #1
ID : 3
Format : PGS
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : English
Text #2
ID : 4
Format : PGS
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : Spanish
==============================================================
Media Center 16.0.160.0 Registered -- C:\Program Files (x86)\J River\Media Center 16\
Workstation 6.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 7601)
Intel Pentium III 2093 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 2025 MB, Free - 202 MB
Internet Explorer: 9.0.8112.16421 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82.7601 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.1.7601 / Shell32.dll: 6.1.7601 / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping / Drive D: HL-DT-STBDDVDRW GGC-H20L Mode:ModeSecure Type:Auto Speed:Max
Drive E: Mode:ModeSecure Type:Auto Speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 100
Eject after ripping: Yes / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / Drive D: Slimtype DVD A DS8A4SH Addr: 1:0:0 Speed:40 MaxSpeed:40 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: Yes
Use playback settings: No /
Portable Device Info
Removed devices:
Interface Plugins:
TiVo Server