Taming video players

[carlmart]

This problem is related to playing mkv files on the computer. Particularly some more demanding 1080p types.

The one I generally use on my desktop is VLC, mostly because I'm used to it and because it seems to play everything. It's also very user friendly to deal with different subtitles, which I use a lot.

But things seems to be different on my laptop, and with many films the movement is "choppy" instead of being "smooth". It was suggested here that VLC was most demanding of the hardware, so I wonder if there's some setting up I can do to improve on that.

Another program that was suggested here was MPC-HC, and video playing is more smooth indeed. But on some cases, apparently some 1080p files too, audio gets out sync. So I wonder what is the cause for that sync-off and if there's anything I can do to correct it.

So as you see: two different symptoms for two different players. Anything I can do to tame them?

[Baldrick]

Maybe Splash would be something for you "ooold" computer.

[carlmart]

Well, it's not so old really: dual-core cpu, 2Gb memory. Three years at most.

[carlmart]

Things did not get that much better with Splash, unfortunately. Movement is smoother than with VLC, but still far from good. Frames seem not be being played, but tempo is fine, so it seems as the program is not reading all the frames, so it prolongs the ones they have. If you know what I mean.

Sync is better, but as image is not played as it should it's not something I can view.

OTOS it plays perfectly streaming on my LG player, with very good image and audio.

The problem is I need it to play fine on my laptop so I can sync the subtitles.

[Baldrick]

Potplayer,

[epsilonalpha]

Use mpc-hc in combination with LAV Filters and madvr (maybe reclock if it still out of sync).

Here's a good guide for setting one up : http://haruhichan.com/wpblog/?p=205 It's mainly 10 bit playback guide but will do well for your purpose.

[jagabo]

Your laptop is probably borderline for playing 1080p h2.64.

Try changing the output device in VLC: Tools -> Preferences -> Video (left pane) -> Display (box) -> Output. Also be sure Accelerated Video Output and Use Hardware YUV->RGB Conversions are enabled.

[carlmart]

Change output to what?

[jagabo]

Whatever works. Don't forget, you have to stop and restart playing a video for the change to take effect.

[carlmart]

Use mpc-hc in combination with LAV Filters and madvr (maybe reclock if it still out of sync).

Here's a good guide for setting one up : http://haruhichan.com/wpblog/?p=205 It's mainly 10 bit playback guide but will do well for your purpose.

The MPC-HC setup following the instructions didn't work. Once I changed the setup, when I started it back and played a file, there was not video and now it doesn't play any video at all, showing error after about 30 seconds. Now I don't know how to default back to the where it was at the beginning. Tried re-installing, but the preferences changes remain. There's no uninstall option.

[carlmart]

Whatever works. Don't forget, you have to stop and restart playing a video for the change to take effect.

No change. Just installed latest VLC version, which wasn't so much ahead as mine, as the setup I had was different from the one you described. But playback still still is awful.

But now the file plays fine in WMP and particularly in MPC (non-HC).

In fact I just noticed that some of the things I just changed seem to have made matters better in Subtitle Workshop too when playing this file. Probably they are related to WMP improvements, as I think SW uses it.

I just wished I knew what did I do that changed things.

[epsilonalpha]

Use mpc-hc in combination with LAV Filters and madvr (maybe reclock if it still out of sync).

Here's a good guide for setting one up : http://haruhichan.com/wpblog/?p=205 It's mainly 10 bit playback guide but will do well for your purpose.

The MPC-HC setup following the instructions didn't work. Once I changed the setup, when I started it back and played a file, there was not video and now it doesn't play any video at all, showing error after about 30 seconds. Now I don't know how to default back to the where it was at the beginning. Tried re-installing, but the preferences changes remain. There's no uninstall option.

are you sure you've installed lav filters?

[Mildragon]

Try Total Media Theater 5

[davexnet]

If you're comfortable using regedit, use it to delete the following key:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Gabest\Media Player Classic]

This will set MPC-HC back to defaults.

Another tip, when you're experiencing playback problems, open the task manager and see what the cpu usage is.
If it's approaching 100%, you may have found the problem.

[chicken264]

if MPC-HC / Splash do not work, try CoreAVC once.
As per my previous experience, Dual core without graphics card can not play 1080P smoothly, you need minimum core2.
Graphics acceleration does miracles here.

[carlmart]

Now I'm back on my desktop, where I have a reasonably good graphics card (Geforce 9600GT), so part of my questions do not apply for now.

But still want a smooth play with all my players, so I can pick the one I want for specific things. My cpu is Core2 dual 2.13Mhz type.

[adom]

I have one notebook with atom z550 and gma500 - that is really poor configuration but I'm able to play 1080i50 smoothly wit mpc-hc.

I've tried:
haali, lav, av - splitters
ffdshow, coreAVC, lav, microsoft DVD-DVB - decoders
evr, evr custom, evr synch, madVR - renderers

I played A LOT with different configurations and different videos. After that I was able to find out what gives the best playback (read: smooth):
av splitter - as splitter (always)
coreAVC - as decoder - gma 500 has no CUDA but has DXVA and here coreAVC gave the best results
if for some reasons (unknown to me) coreAVC didn't want to switch to DXVA than I used microsoft DVD-DVDVB decoder
I was not able to run built in DXVA decoder nor ffdshow DXVA with the latest edition of MPC-HC - all I got was a blank screen - I reported this on their support page but till now no changes.
EVR (the basic one) - as renderer (I'm using win7) - forget about madVR

Try configuring mpc that way - set above as prefered (in external filters) and all the rest set to block (or do not install at all).
Maybe that will help