1. What is madVR?madVR is a video renderer, which you can use as a replacement for the Microsoft stock renderers VMR7/9 and EVR.
2. Where to get it?Here you can always get the latest version:
http://madshi.net/madVR.zipYou may also want to check out the doom9 development thread, where new versions are announced and discussed:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=1462283. Installation(1) Unzip and copy the madVR folder to the folder you want it to be installed in, e.g. "C:\Program Files (x86)\madVR".
(2) Run "install.bat".
(3) Do not rename, move or delete the madVR folder.
(4) You may want to give the "settings.bin" file write access rights for your current user, otherwise madVR might not be able to store settings. (This will be fixed in a future version.)
4. Limitations(1) rotated displays (portrait vs. landscape orientation) don't work yet
5. Benefits(1) madVR pretends to be a game, not a video player. This bypasses many GPU driver problems.
(2) Highest quality algorithms for chroma upsampling, scaling, color conversion etc.
(3) Highest bitdepth processing with final dithering stage for banding-free quality.
(4) Built in complex display calibration capability (if you have your own meter).
(5) Automatic switching between windowed and exclusive mode for tearing free playback.
(6) Carefully implemented presentation algorithm to achieve smooth motion playback.
(7) more to come...
6. Requirements- Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7.
- A fairly fast DX9 GPU. NVidia or ATI preferred. Intel works, but is really slow.
- CPU must be fast enough for software decoding.
7. Recommendations(1) Recommended MPEG2 decoder for movies is the "DScaler IVTC Mod", which is able to automatically convert 1080i60 movies to 1080p24 in perfect quality.
(2) For NVidia GPU owners I recommend to create custom resolutions. That makes sure that the GPU output is untouched. With the default HD/SD output modes, the GPU driver stretches the data behind madVR's back which can result in banding problems.
(3) For ATI GPU owners PowerStrip can be used to create custom timings (only until 5xxx, unfortunately 6xxx is not supported by PowerStrip).
(4) ATI GPU owners please use "RGB Full" as the output format. With "RGB Limited" or "YCbCr" output there can be banding problems.
8. Official 1080p CEA timingsFor NVidia custom resolutions and ATI PowerStrip tweaking, here are the official CEA timings you should use for the various 1080p formats:
Refresh Rate, Horizontal Active Pixels, Front Porch, Sync Width, Back Porch, Total Pixels, Vertical Active Pixels, Front Porch, Sync Width, Back Porch, Total Pixels, Pixel Clock
23.976Hz, 1920, 638, 44, 148, 2750, 1080, 4, 5, 36, 1125, 74.2500 / 1.001 (= 74.175824175824175824175824175824)
24.000Hz, 1920, 638, 44, 148, 2750, 1080, 4, 5, 36, 1125, 74.2500
25.000Hz, 1920, 528, 44, 148, 2640, 1080, 4, 5, 36, 1125, 74.2500
50.000Hz, 1920, 528, 44, 148, 2640, 1080, 4, 5, 36, 1125, 148.5000
59.940Hz, 1920, 88, 44, 148, 2200, 1080, 4, 5, 36, 1125, 148.5000 / 1.001 (= 148.35164835164835164835164835165)
60.000Hz, 1920, 88, 44, 148, 2200, 1080, 4, 5, 36, 1125, 148.5000
As you can see, the pixel clock for the very important 23.976Hz and 59.940Hz refresh rates are "wild", and unfortunately neither ATI nor NVidia allow us to enter enough decimals to get near to the optimal refresh rates. PowerStrip allows finer control to get near to these optimal values. With NVidia you may have to trick a little. E.g. personally, I've modified the "Vertical Total Pixels" number a bit. That allowed me to get nearer to 23.976Hz. But if you modify these values too much, your display might not understand the signal, anymore, and go out of sync. So you may have to experiment a little. You can use the madVR OSD (press "Ctrl + J" to activate) to check how near you got to the optimal refresh rate, cause madVR shows a very exact measurement of the refresh rate.