An easy guide on how to play HD content efficiently

I noticed on NBR that many people seem to have problems with HD content. Before we get into this, let's talk about HD content. HD content can be found on Blu Rays and on, the obsolete format, HD DVD. Because Sony won the HD format war, the world is using Blu Ray. The new high definition format allows better quality, both sound and picture wise. Quality varies from 720p to 1080p.

DivX used to be the preferred codec for ripping DVDs. Similarly, Matroska is the preferred codec for ripping Blu Ray or HD DVD. This new codec is better than DivX in many ways. It allows a few gig rips to maintain an amazing quality, better than any DVD can offer on the market. *.MKV can be played with the following:


1.

VLC Media Player.

This is one of the best players around. It has its own codecs and plays almost everything. Unfortunately VLC is very picky for HD content. All the decoding is done by the processor and if your processor is not powerful enough, you will get choppy playback. Moreover, a good processor does not equal amazing HD playback on VLC. If, Windows needs the processor in other areas, VLC will start framing your HD video.






2.
Media Player Classic with Core AVC

Do not install 20 million codecs. Most codec packs will clutter your system and it is not worth it. MPC with Core AVC will yield an amazing playback if properly configured. This is the best HD codec out there and the fastest. Moreover, it does not require you to close down background services and to always make sure that no processes are running in the background.

Media Player Classic Download.









As you can see from the usage graphs, VLC is more processor hungry. They spikes you notice on the CoreAVC usage graph is due to my FF on the film and not due to CoreAVC decoding.


Bottom line:Try it for 14 days and then buy it. It is a good investment and not very expensive. I bought the license because my Prescott would frame every now and then on HD content. I was not willing to spend over 1000 euros on a new pc just to play HD content. My Prescott is from the stone age . I bought this and I was amazed how playback improved. It was like a new machine.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!!

 

See if you can figure out DXVA, another reason for those powerful video cards...

 

What is your set-up mate? Attach some screenshots. I am interested in different options and we can add several alternatives for people in this thread.

 

I stopped using Media Player Classic because it would freeze vista completely when I resize the window for some reason...
VLC is good for me, no problems

 

That never happened to me. Weird...what version were you using? Latest one?

 

My only PC is in my sig; basically a piece of crap compared even to netbooks...

Here is a tutorial for DXVA. It should work with your 9300m. Though the only real advantages come if you have a really weak CPU.

 

My laptop is crap too, don't worry . Having a look now.

 

What, like a 1.5k piece of crap? :cry:

Anyways, post up results if it works.

 

1-2% CPU use for 1080p video with DXVA.

CoreAVC is overhyped.

 

Windows Media Player + K-Lite Mega = The best.

 

= bloatware.

 

ICCL.

IHTH.

 

Ok, gotta correct you there sport. DivX is a codec, true. It's a tweaked implementation of MPEG4, Part-2. Matroska is a CONTAINER format, much like AVI is (Audio-Video Interleave), which is what it's replacing because it's an open standard versus AVI. MKV files could contain a DivX compressed video, OGM, DivX, whatever you want, really. For example, this is output from ffmpeg about a Cowboy Bebop episode I ripped from my DVD's:

Code:

myth@Wakko:~$ ffmpeg -i /media/myth/video/Anime/Cowboy\ Bebop/Cowboy\ Bebop\ -\ Session\ 01\ -\ Asteroid\ Blues.mkv
FFmpeg version SVN-r16055, Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
  <snip>
[B]Input #0, matroska[/B], from '/media/myth/video/Anime/Cowboy Bebop/Cowboy Bebop - Session 01 - Asteroid Blues.mkv':
  Duration: 00:24:38.39, start: 0.000000, bitrate: N/A
    [B]Stream #0.0(eng): Video: mpeg4[/B], yuv420p, 576x432 [PAR 1:1 DAR 4:3], 23.98 tb(r)
    Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16
    Stream #0.2(jpn): Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16
    Stream #0.3(eng): Subtitle: 0x0000
At least one output file must be specified

Note the stuff in bold. Standard MPEG4, which is equivalent to DivX in multimedia parlance, even though H.264 is also an MPEG4 standard. I don't even want to get into it, but just trust me on that

What you're seeing in High Definition video is typically an H.264 compressed video, also known as AVC or MPEG4, Part 10. That's the same compression that Blu-Ray and HD-DVD use. It's simply sitting inside of a Matroska container. CoreAVC is an implementation of the H.264 codec that is made to use multiple cores to efficiently decode (and encode) H.264 video.

 

Though, isn't OGM a container as well?

 

Just a tiny technicality .

 

I actually believe KM player is the best for just about any video need, including HD. I've compared it side by side with VLC, and Km seemed to play just about anything AND played smoother and with less CPU being used.

Just my 2 cents.

 

I tried and it crashed my media player every time. It also screwed up my MPC Core AVC settings.