Haali splitter questions

[huykin]

I am getting my first experience using Haali splitter (that came with CoreAVC decoder) to play HD AVC video. It did the trick of playing mono PCM audio in MOV HD AVC video from a Canon photo camera which wouldn't play in MPC with MPC internal MP4/MOV source filter. But I have a few questions:

* During Haali install I could choose which formats will be handled by it, but is there a way to change that after install? Haali config has some esoteric options, but doesn't seem to provide this basic functionality.

* When looking at Filters in MPC when a video is playing and Haali is engaged, Haali shows as a sub-item under the file name (last item in the list which without Haali doesn't have sub-items) instead of a separeate line like other filters. Why is that?

* If I have Haali tray icon enabled (default), and then open SD DivX AVI files with AC3 sound in AVIcodec, Haali icon shows up for each one. For example, opening a folder with 10 such files in AVIcodec produces 10 Haali icons in sys tray! Haali is not even the default splitter for those files. (When one of them is played in MPC, Filters shows the file name without that sub-item for Haali, but instead has MS "AVI Splitter".) Why is this happening, and how can I get rid of it?

* The front tab of Haali config shows min/max/average/current video and audio bitrates in kbps together with some other numbers next to them when video is playing with Haali. When video bitrate is above 10,000 kbps (which is normal for HD video), current video bitrate overlaps with that other number next to it, so neither is readable. Does everybody see that? (I have large fonts enabled in Windows, which may cause things like this.) Also what are those numbers next to video and audio bitrates?

Thanks

[huykin]

I got an automatic email that somebody has replied to my message above. But when I click on the email link, I get to a page with "Sorry but only users granted special access can read topics in this forum". What the hell is this - a secret subdiscussion hidden from the public and the OP? That would feel contrary to the philosophy of the VH forum...

[Baldrick]

Just a spammer.

[huykin]

Regarding multiple icons in sys tray, I have a similar problem with ffdshow. When I use "Open Directory" or open an M3U playlist in MPC-HC to play a bunch of MPEG2 files, with MPC internal MPEG source and decoder filters disabled and ffdshow MPEG2 decoding enabled, I get an additional ffdshow sys tray icon for each file! Is it normal behavior that plug-in progs with sys tray icons (Haali, ffdshow, etc.) keep adding icons for each file in a "batch" operation, or is something wrong with my Vista set up? Thanks

[huykin]

Those multiple ffdshow sys tray icons seem to be specific to MPC. When I play the same M3U playlist in WMP11, it keeps just 1 ffdshow sys tray icon. But both MPC and MPC-HC keep adding icons for each file. When WMP moves to the next file in playlist, the ffdshow icon disappears for a moment and reappears again, so it looks like WMP is "smart enough" to close the previous icon, while MPC isn't.

Also MPC's support of video playlists sucks. If I click on another file in the playlist window, it starts playing, but the audio from the previous file keeps playing as well! I tried both M3U and MPC's own MPCPL lists with the same problems. In contrast, WMP handles M3U playlists gracefully and I can freely jump between files in the playlist without any artifacts. And MPC can't open ASX playlists it creates itself. Looks like MPC still has plenty of room for improvement. Now that most of my splitting/decoding/postprocessing is done by ffdshow and other plug-in DirectShow filters rather than a player, may be it's time to go back from MPC-HC to WMP, at least for things like playlists.

I know, I know, I am talking to myself in this thread. And this has nothing to do with Haali splitter. May be I should move these MPC observations to another thread...

[jagabo]

Those multiple ffdshow sys tray icons seem to be specific to MPC.

I only get one ffdshow tray icon.

Also MPC's support of video playlists sucks. If I click on another file in the playlist window, it starts playing, but the audio from the previous file keeps playing as well! I tried both M3U and MPC's own MPCPL lists with the same problems.

I don't have this problem.

Regarding Haali, you can configure it via its tray icon when it's in use.

[huykin]

Hmm, interesting... After experimenting a bit more it looks like the problems described above (multiple ffdshow icons when playing video in MPC, inability to properly jump between files in a playlist in MPC) are more specific to my laptop. Neither my other laptop not my desktop have those issues with the same (latest stable) versions of MPC-HC and ffdshow. The most significant differences between the computers are that the problematic laptop has Vista (32 bit) and integrated video, while the machines that don't show the problems have Win2k and XP, each with dedicated video. Any ideas why this may be happening and how to fix these issues on the Vista laptop? Is anybody else experiencing similar issues with playlists in MPC-HC under Vista?

[jagabo]

Some players have a seamless playback mode where they can play sequential files with no pause between them. I believe they accomplish this by opening several (all?) of the files at startup. I don't see this feature in MPCHC -- but maybe it has it and this is why there are multiple icons?

[huykin]

I don't think it's seamless playback, as I still get some pause when a new file loads and another ffdshow icon appears.

But after playing with it further, I think I found the cause. The problems appear only on my Vista laptop and only when I have the internal MPC "MPEG PS/TS/PVA" source filter disabled. (I usually disable MPC internal MPEG source filter and MPEG2 decoder, using Windows default MPEG2 splitter/demultiplexer and ffdshow libmpeg2 decoder instead, as I found that this is the fastest combination, which helps me to play MPEG2 better on my ancient 500 MHz desktop.) If I enable MPC internal MPEG source filter, the problems go away. Also the XP laptop and Win2k desktop don't have these problems, even when I disable MPC MPEG source filter and rely on Windows MPEG2 splitter. I figured Vista SP2 has an updated version of the MS MPEG2 splitter (...\system32\mpg2splt.ax, file date 4/11/09) which causes the problems. After taking ownership and full control of that file, I overwrote it with a version from XP SP3 (file date 4/14/08), and guess what - the problems went away!!! I wish MS did more testing of their stuff before releasing... On the other hand, this problematic filter does not cause problems when used from WMP11, so there is something peculiar about using the Vista version of MS MPEG2 splitter within MPC.

Morale: If you experience problems when playing MPEG2 with MS MPEG2 splitter engaged on Vista, try using an older version of mpg2splt.ax

[negtheegg]

Is there a way i can get a directshow player using Haali splitter on mac?

[jagabo]

Directshow doesn't exist on the Mac.