Playing x264 content with UVD

[EdanFalls]

Hi guys,

My graphics card has UVD and I've been playing 1080p stuff fine with the CPU pretty much idle. UVD is meant to be able to decode H264 and VC1 content by itself, so I figured it SHOULD be able to decode x264 content by itself, considering that x264 effectively outputs as H264. But when I play x264 I get erratic frame rates and audio out of sync.

Now, the annoying thing is that I have a Phenom, and with the codecs out there that utilise multi-core technology, I should have no problem playing back 1080p x264 via the CPU. But because the x264 is outputting as H264, the UVD automatically tries and fails to decode it. So I can't play x264!

Is there any way of getting x264 to play fine through UVD? Or, alternatively, is there any way of disabling UVD so I can just decode it with my CPU?

Thanks for any help.

[Wile E]

What codec are you using for playback?

[EdanFalls]

ffdshow into VMR9.

[Wile E]

Originally Posted by EdanFalls

ffdshow into VMR9.

Strange, I don't get those issues with ffdshow. Maybe you should try CoreAVC?

I get it thru use of QT Alternative.

[Deusxmachina]

Of course it should play fine just via CPU, so there's something odd going on. I've used FFdshow + VMR + UVD card fine. The only thing I can think of offhand is if the file is playing with a splitter the FFDshow decoder doesn't like. Try Haali if it's not already.

Another possibility is it doesn't like an audio setting.

Bottom line is your computer obviously has the power to easily play the file, so it's just something dumb somewhere it's not liking.

Also, most user-made h.264 files commonly found in .mkv files can't be accelerated with the UVD. It's only recently that encoders (people) have been figuring out exactly what settings need to be used to get them to accelerate. It's a bit picky. Any C2D or better will have no problem with 1080, though, so not accelerating via the video card shouldn't be much of a concern.

If you are using some special quad core build for the decoder, that may be doing it, too. Not all files or setups like those "this CPU only" software builds.

[EdanFalls]

I've got it running fine now using PowerDVD's H.264 codec so it appears ffdshow was the culprit. It still won't accelerate via UVD, but that's not really a problem, at least it's working now. Thanks for your help.