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[Wungun]

Sampling a BluRay copy of Avatar Extended edition (12+GB size), played thru latest MC...

Quad core Phenom, 4gb RAM, Radeon R7 250 1GB

Using RO standard setting, played out to Samsung 4k TV thru HDMI. 4096x2160 32bit, 30Hz from NAS server, on LAN and gigabit router.

Image looks "soft" and FPS looks clearly less than optimum. Visibly jerky...

Compared to playing back using the Plex app in the TV from a Plex server on the NAS, much, MUCH smoother and image looks crisp and sharp.

My hardware not up to task....?
Is MC manipulating the image?
Thoughts?

[6233638]

1. Try playing from your disc. Whatever you've done to rip the movie to only a 12GB file will have compromised the image quality.
 
2. Avatar is a very soft, low-quality Blu-ray release to begin with. Pretty CG, but poor image quality.
 
3. Use Red October HQ if you want high quality video scaling and processing. Depending on the settings used, your hardware may or may not be able to handle upscaling 1080p to 4K.
 
Reading the madVR Expert Guide can help you configure it.
 
Media Center is not "manipulating the image" though Red October Standard may be affected by any video settings in your graphics card's control panel.

[Hendrik]

The R7 250 may also be quite a bit too weak for proper upscaling to 4K resolution.

[Wungun]

1. Try playing from your disc. Whatever you've done to rip the movie to only a 12GB file will have compromised the image quality.
 
2. Avatar is a very soft, low-quality Blu-ray release to begin with. Pretty CG, but poor image quality.
 
3. Use Red October HQ if you want high quality video scaling and processing. Depending on the settings used, your hardware may or may not be able to handle upscaling 1080p to 4K.
 
Reading the madVR Expert Guide can help you configure it.
 
Media Center is not "manipulating the image" though Red October Standard may be affected by any video settings in your graphics card's control panel.

1. Compromised, no doubt. Visually obvious...? Maybe not. But that's besides the point. I'm playing the SAME source in both playbacks.

2. I dunno about that. Looks pretty fantastic in 4k. Shot with digital Fusion Camera system, but at 24fps.

I'll go thru the settings and check everything over.
Ive played actual 4k material thru MC and it was no worse than Avatar as far as smoothness.

[Wungun]

Disabling AMD video quality features in the Control Panel made a measurable increase in picture quality...go figure. Still using Standard RO.
Still noticeably not as smooth.
Sourced some higher bandwidth 4k material...yeah, my system isn't up to task with current hardware.
Also, the TV buffer or Plex server, while it plays 3 or 4 seconds worth of the 4k really, really well, it stops and buffers constantly while playing back thru the Samsung Plex app.

[6233638]

For smooth playback try Red October HQ. (configured appropriately for your hardware)
 
NVIDIA have a 950/Ti on the way soon. If these are GM206 parts as rumored, they should make pretty good low-cost GPUs for native 4K playback.
Maybe not the fastest cards for upscaling to 4K, but I'm sure they would handle it reasonably well.
 
I'm currently planning on replacing my existing GPU with a 960 (the high-end GM206 part) which is the fastest card currently available with native 4K 10-bit H.265 playback.

[Wungun]

Setup HQ and went over MadVR settings for upscaling and exclusive modes.
What is the best quality upscaling and chroma upscaling settings? Nearest neighbor?

Does not seem to be a performance hit using HQ over standard, but unable to see any improvement in image quality.
6233638, your remark about Avatar being very soft is true....played thru MC!
Again, thru Plex local server upped to Samsung TV Plex app, smoothness and sharpness are light years beyond MC for some reason.

[Wungun]

I misread the guide...nearest neighbor is for best frame rate.,.
Setup now using 3 tap spline on both chroma and upscaling. Playback no worse with lower quality setting. Colour rendition looks fantastic if still a bit soft.

[Wungun]

The R7 250 may also be quite a bit too weak for proper upscaling to 4K resolution.

Just dropped in my R9 280X into the HTPC.... fresh driver install... Performance is IDENTICAL to my R7 in all resolutions, including 4K. Was also hoping for higher refresh rates but I'm limited to the TV's capabilities. 

Obviously not my video hardware being the issue... Maybe my system (ddr2, PhenomX4) but I doubt it, with PCI-X pipeline.

BTW, there isn't any upscaling going on. My desktop is set to native 4K resolution. Desktop, JRiver, output is 3840X2160

Any quality, powerful vid card out there is designed for 3D performance. 
But I thought the current generation of ATI cards had hardware X265 decoding... The codec for which I'm sampling. 

[Hendrik]

But I thought the current generation of ATI cards had hardware X265 decoding... The codec for which I'm sampling. 

They do not.

[Wungun]

So I sprang for a gtx960....
HDMI 2.0 and I have 4k rez at 60hz now (30hz before). Much nicer....
However, playback of demo 4k UHD x265 (which the card has hardware support) is no better than my R7!
Poor drivers on Win10 perhaps....?
Ugh!

[Hendrik]

Hardware acceleration for 4K is currently disabled as hardware/driver support is spotty at best, and can cause severe instability on many configurations.
We may enable it in a future version.

[CountryBumkin]

So I sprang for a gtx960....
HDMI 2.0 and I have 4k rez at 60hz now (30hz before). Much nicer....
However, playback of demo 4k UHD x265 (which the card has hardware support) is no better than my R7!
Poor drivers on Win10 perhaps....?
Ugh!

Did you go into madVR settings (RO+HQ)  and try to increase them any (from madVR default)?
You should be able to run higher settings with that new card.

[Wungun]

Wish I knew what the defaults were...
Playing around with the scaling, I'm getting some decent playback results now. Phew!
Installed LAV filters and using them as renderer (custom video settings in MC)

[Wungun]

Holy nuts! I was toying with an older windows 10 driver and decided to upgrade to the latest without u installing the old one. Everything runs beautifully now!!!
4K 50MB/s playback... Like butter! Now to try some Madvr tweaks.
Again, this is with LAV filters.

[RoderickGI]

Again, this is with LAV filters.

Which is what MC uses by default anyway, although you may have installed a slightly later version...

...and which Hendrik created and maintains.

It sounds like the latest video drivers have made quite a difference, rather than the LAV filters you installed. Though I guess there may be some dependency.

[Wungun]

Which is what MC uses by default anyway, although you may have installed a slightly later version...

...and which Hendrik created and maintains.

It sounds like the latest video drivers have made quite a difference, rather than the LAV filters you installed. Though I guess there may be some dependency.

I originally was working with the latest drivers and decided to try and older set. Then back again...
Overall, the drivers are absolute shite. Major problems... And with just 2 days to go to Win10 release!
The 2 drivers I tried were both actually Windows Certified WHQL.

Im not able to replicate smooth playback with either RO... Only by choosing "custom" and adding MadVR renderer and LAV filter.