How to disable playback filtering of MPEG2?

[huykin]

Hi. How can I disable the automatic filtering (anti-aliasing, blurring) of MPEG2 at playback on a computer?

I encode at relatively high resolution and bitrate, so there is no visible pixelation or blockiness, so filtering just blurs the video and washes out the colors (and I think also shifts the colors) - I don't like it. For MPEG1 & DivX played in Windows Media Player (WMP) I disable it by setting hardware acceleration to None in WMP Options. But this doesn't disable filtering for MPEG2 played in WMP. Also enabling/disabling hardware acceleration in PowerDVD 4 Configuration doesn't disable filtering of MPEG2 played in PowerDVD. I did find a way, but it's kind of inconvenient : open the file in WMP, pause or stop (but don't close), then open this same file in PowerDVD -> no filtering (sharp picture, bright colors). Does anyone know a more staightforward way to do this (in player or codec settings, at playback or encoding)?

When I play MPEG2 in PowerDVD directly (with filtering), Configuration - Information shows FourCC Code: YUY2, Surface Type: Overlay. But when I play it with the WMP trick (no filtering), it becomes FourCC Code: RGB, Surface Type: Off-screen plain. So perhaps it is related to displaying YUY2 vs RGB...

Thanks!

[huykin]

Com'n, experts! Help me here, please. There must be a way other than the silly trick with WMP that I found. I am deciding between MPEG2 & DivX encoding. MPEG2 is better for several reasons, but this inability to turn-off autoblur for MPEG2 is a serious quality issue for me.

[huykin]

Since I got no replies, I'll share my findings.

I asked Cyberlink (creators of PowerDVD) about this a months ago, but still have no reply.

The solution that I found is to use Elecard MPEG2 codec. Once you install the codec, WMP starts to play MPEG2 with it, even if previously WMP played MPEG2 with PowerDVD codec, and PowerDVD is still installed. Now to turn antialiasing of MPEG2 off, I do what I do for DivX3 and MPEG1 - set hardware acceleration to None in WMP options.

By the way, for non-DVD MPEG2 files I find WMP with Elecard to be better than PowerDVD. (For DVD PowerDVD is better.) And yes, there are ways to get rid of Elecard's logo. With some video cards, resolutions, and settings WMP/Elecard do not resize to full-screen correctly, especially with hardware acceleration turned off in WMP. But I mainly use it to play my 448x336 MPEG2 encodes, and at that resolution there are no problems.

You may ask why this guy wants to turn off antialiasing in the first place. For low resolution (such as 320x240) you may want to keep antialiasing on because it becomes too pixelated otherwise (asuming you watch in full screen on a decent size monitor). For high resolution (such as 720x480) it makes little difference. But for medium resolutions (such as 448x336) I get much brighter colors and overall more pleasant picture with antialiasing off, especially if the video is noisy, such as my analog captures. Turning antialiasing (hardware acceleration) off requires more CPU power for playback, but with MPEG2 it shouldn't be a problem unless you have high resolution and a very old CPU. There may be some visible pixelation from doing this, which is easily avoided by watching from a few feet away from the monitor - you don't see any pixelation, and have bright colors without any blurring associated with antialiasing.

Some of this may be very specific, but that's what works for me (and may be will work for someone else). However, if anybody finds a way to turn off the antialiasing/blurring in PowerDVD, please post it here.