HD video/DXVA on a Quadro GPU - problems and bugs!

Been trying to get my T61 to play HD video using DXVA for a few days now, to no avail. This is the guide I've been primarily using:
Watching H.264 videos using DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA)

While my GPU (NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M) is listed there as being compatible (with the G86 core, basically a 8400GS), I haven't been able to play most of the test videos in the how-to. I have been trying various settings and graphics drivers, and I'm ready to tear my hair out. Have any of you run into this kind of issue, and does anyone have any advice/solutions to offer?

I've attached a screenshot of CPU-Z/GPU-Z of my T61 for reference.

Also, codec-wise, I've got K-Lite Codec Pack/MPC-HC (from a Ninite install), and ffdshow-tryouts.

 

DXVA won't work with K-lite codec pack and ffdshow. ffdshow is a software decoder. Uninstall k-lite (and anything else related) and reinstall MPC-HC by itself. All you need is MPC-HC.

 

When you're playing one of the test videos, right click the video window, go to filters, and see what is being used. If it's not MPC video decider, you'll have to go into the external filter options and block it.

 

Watching H.264 videos using DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) >> My collection of short anime reviews

 

Also, don't follow the guide (renderer settings in particular) besides the subtitle settings and haali splitter. MPC-HC's default settings are better.

No reason to block anything. MPC Video Decoder takes priority over other decoders. If something else is loading then some options aren't configured correctly.

And note that the subtitle renderer is still a huge CPU eater.

 

If you install something K-lite or CCCP, MPC-HC's decoder is disabled and the bundled decoder like ffdshow is used.

 

Uninstalled all codecs, did a clean install of MPC, updated drivers to latest from Nvidia (latest stable WHQL Verde drivers, 267.76). Still no joy.

The card isn't up to snuff, I've concluded. After reading quite a bit, I've found that the NVS 140M (an 8400GS) is not capable of quality DXVA/hardware-accelerated HD playback.

Sad panda.

Exact same link I wrote above in my OP.

 

formerglory, have you tried playing any other videos besides those test videos?

 

You could try CoreAVC, which uses CUDA instead of DXVA on nvidia cards. However, it does cost some money ($10 at the moment). I used it instead of DXVA on my desktop because it supports more poorly encoded videos.

 

I think I know what it is. It might be because your GPU only has 128MB VRAM.
On my PC, I opened a random 1080p video in MPC-HC (tested similarly with CoreAVC-CUDA and LAVCUVID-0.1) and VRAM shot straight up to 170/256MB (check 'Memory Used' on the Sensors page in GPU-z).

VRAM with nothing opened but Aero enabled is 60MB. With Aero disabled, it goes down to 20MB.

I think you just might be able to play 1080p DXVA if you disabled Aero.

 

Good call. Ignore my CoreAVC recommendation then, it'll have the same problem

Though, it is a faster software decoder, so that might help with some videos you were having trouble on... though I hear the Divx H264 decoder is pretty fast too (and it's free), though I haven't tried it yet.

 

1080p + DVXA on my PC with GF 8400GS works fine even with Aero enabled, but it has 256MB VRAM...

I can't test DVXA on my R61 with 140M as I'm using Linux on it (with GL acceleration for video playbak - 30% CPU usage when watching 1080p ).

 

so this is to play HD videos with the GPU hardware acceleration of some sort (that apparently doesnt exist) ?

because I can play HD videos fine. Could be my Penryn CPU helping quite a bit though ... I also got 128MB Video memory. The video card however reserves up to 512MB for it's use so the other 384MB come from the system RAM (I would assume).

 

The GPU hardware acceleration is supported for formerglory's GPU as seen in the DXVAchecker screenshot (ModeH264_VLD_NoFGT) which can offload decoding for some H.264 encoded videos to the GPU.

Also, did you try play a H.264 encoded 1080p video with Media Player Classic Homecinema standalone? If so, that would perhaps rule too little VRAM out.

 

Not to hijack this thread, but I have Penryn chip (T9300) and t61p 14'' version with the quaddro card. I can't play 1080p videos on Youtube and I figured it was the age of the laptop. I know a lot of computers with just Intel graphics can handle it. Are the T60/61 GPUs just really weak? It doesn't bother me much since I don't want video in 1080p online much anyways, but just curious.

 

You could try disable hardware acceleration in flash and see if it makes a difference for 1080p video.

Video decoding even for standard '1080p' could be even as low as 25% on recent CPUs. Not too much gain with hardware video acceleration.

 

How do I do that? I use Chrome.

 

Open video (for instance in Youtube).
Right-click and click "Settings".
Untick 'enable hardware acceleration'.

 

Awesome! It works wonderfully

 

YouTube - HD 1080P High Resolution Video Test - Maine

I can play this ^ fine with or without the "hardware acceleration" in the settings of the Adobe Flash player. I play it on full screen that is 1400x1050 here.

the CPU usage is between 20 and 25 %

.. or point me a video that some can play and some cant play, so that I can try it.

 

Right-click the video area and click 'show video info'. Does it say hardware accelerated? Which browser are you using to test?
Also, you seem to be using Windows XP which could be considered Windows Vista/7 with Aero off (less video ram usage).

 

XP Pro 32bit, Firefox 3.6.16

it says accelerated video rendering, 10 stage fps, 30 video fps, dropped XX - it drops some at the beginning, usually about 25.

 

Brilliant. Could you try GPU-z to check video memory usage? Well, OP might be able to play that video. Another issue is that more aggressive video encoding settings might equal higher video memory usage.
OP might have luck if disable Aero.

For that video, my GPU only reports 126MB usage.

 

gpu-z doesnt give memory usage, it only gives me total memory (128MB here). It is reported elsewhere that the card is having 512MB total memory ... like when I play games for example.

it's overclocked to 625 core and 950 memory though

 

Which Forceware driver is being used?
If I recall correctly, around 18x it wasn't reported but I know that 197.72 that I'm currently using reports the usage on the sensors page.

Darn, I'd try test on my sister's laptop which has a NVIDIA GeForce G 105M (128MB) but she's using it.

 

178.74 is what I'm using right now.

I've installed the 266.58 before but it gave me BSOD at my overclock rate, so I rolled back before I played with it to figure out at what clocks it would work fine. With my old T7500 cpu I got ~2440 3dMark06 score, havent tested with the new T9500.

going to bed as it's 2:30 am here ... I can update tomorrow if other info is needed.

 

Going to try a few things and some of the advice mentioned above later today when I get some free time. Classes just started up today.