Video constantly stuttering/lagging on MPC-HC

[synnchan]

Laptop Specs:


Video Info:


MPC-HC Settings:




What could be the reason for this? Maybe I just don't have enough horsepower to play this video smoothly?

[jagabo]

Probably not enough horsepower to decode 4K h.264 video at 60 fps and downscale it to 1600x900 for display. Try using a different output device (not madVR).

Don't be fooled by the CPU model name. An i7 7500U is about equivalent to a i3 in a Desktop.

[Selur]

Yup, the gpu (https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/hd_graphics_620#Hardware_Accelerated_Video) doesn't support 'High 4:4:4' AVC and the cpu is way to slow to handle such content. (I doubt not using madVR will really make a difference, but it might be worth a try)

[lingyi]

You might give Potplayer or VLC a try. Videos that used to chug along on my old PC with MPC-HC, played fine with Potplayer and VLC. Also, since you're already underpowered, shut down any programs / processes you don't need running in the background and don't do anything else when playing the video.

[jagabo]

Yes, you can also see here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Graphics_Technology#Hardware-accelerated_algorithms

that Kaby Lake's GPU doesn't support High 4:4:4 video decoding.

[sneaker]

/edit:
Ignore, I looked at the wrong spec...

[johnmeyer]

4K 60p video will be tough to play on any PC. However, you can sometimes get better performance by using a different player. For awhile, I used to be able to play 4K video using the player you're using, but then I started getting less than full frame rate. I then tried VLC which didn't used to play these videos smoothly. However, a newer version actually worked, whereas it didn't used to work.

[synnchan]

You might give Potplayer or VLC a try. Videos that used to chug along on my old PC with MPC-HC, played fine with Potplayer and VLC. Also, since you're already underpowered, shut down any programs / processes you don't need running in the background and don't do anything else when playing the video.

Wow! The video played perfectly on VLC. Who would've thought.

[synnchan]

Sorry for the double post, but I found what's the culprit of the slowness on MPC. It's the H264/AVC internal transform filter. Disabling that makes the video play smoothly, but the video quality gets decreased (doesn't seem to display as RGB 4:4:4 anymore).

The problem isn't with my hardware, it's just MPC's internal filter that has poor performance (probably doesn't use all CPU cores). I can play the same video with the correct quality without any lag on VLC.

So, can you guys recommend me a good external decoding filter to replace MPC's internal one? I thought of using the same one as VLC, but I don't know what they use there.

[sneaker]

MPC-HC's internal filter has been LAV Video for a long time. Both VLC and LAV Filters are based on ffmpeg. Differences should be negligible.

doesn't seem to display as RGB 4:4:4 anymore

Your display is 4:4:4/RGB so that's impossible. Copy the filter list here. Did you try e.g. Enhanced Video Renderer instead of madvr like jagabo suggested?

[synnchan]

Your display is 4:4:4/RGB so that's impossible.

Then what's the explanation for this:

Video screenshot (H264/AVC internal filter enabled)
https://forum.videohelp.com/images/imgfiles/0q7weSj.png

Video screenshot (H264/AVC internal filter disabled)
https://forum.videohelp.com/images/imgfiles/g7UReNk.png

Left is a random video frame as it shows in the video, and right was photo-shopped so you can see the color bleeding more clearly. It only happens when the filter is disabled.
RGB 4:4:4 would not have chroma subsampling like that. That's probably some YUV.

Copy the filter list here.

You mean this?

Did you try e.g. Enhanced Video Renderer instead of madvr like jagabo suggested?

Yes, I've tested all of them. Out of the ones in my list, "Old Video Renderer" is the only one that doesn't lag while still displaying full image quality. But it has a lot of tearing/choppiness, possibly because it doesn't accept VSync. The option (accessible through "View > Renderer Settings > VSync") becomes grayed out when I pick that filter.

[sneaker]

Copy the filter list here.

You mean this?

No, I mean "Play"->"Filters".

[synnchan]

Filters currently loaded:
- Default DirectSound Device
- Enhanced Video Renderer (custom presenter)
- Audio Switcher
- LAV Video Decoder (internal)
- LAV Audio Decoder (internal)
- LAV Splitter Source (internal)

[sneaker]

So either way it's using LAV Video?

I still don't really get your comments about chroma subsampling with an RGB source.

[ElCid]

Hello guys the same thing has been happening with me,1080p videos keep lagging in MPC-HC. I'm not tech fluent so i tried to solve it watching videoson youtube but that didn't work. My Pc is a lenovo G40-45 Windows 10 64 bit. VLC also did not work smoothly,can you suggest another player perhaps.

[KarMa]

Yeah I've been having trouble with recent versions of LAV Video and simple HEVC and H.264 1080p content. Not sure what is up with it. I tend to get better performance in VLC now days. When a year ago I could do 4k HEVC/H.264 fine with MPC-HC, but VLC can do it fine.

[Cosmin3]

Hi.

Sorry for bumping.

I have the same problem when playing mp4 1080p 60fps 4000+ kbps (h264). Once every 3..20 sec it freezes for a few sec. I mean ALL freezes, including keys, subtitle and OSD,
During normal playback it stays in 35..45% processor usage (I set it to use hardware acceleration in my NVidia video card). During the freeze it is under 10%.
It uses LAV filters. If I deactivate hardware acceleration I don't see any improvement.
In Options >> Internal filters >> Transform filters h264 is disabled.

If I try in BSPLayer the freezing is reducing much but the image quality is lousy.

Can you please help me?
Thank you.

[isidro]

This solve most lagging issues: View, Renderer Settings, Presentation, ENABLE FRAME TIME CORRECTION
Make sure it is checked.
Don't know why this works though.