ffdshow and Media Center

[z5556792]

It looks like my ffdshow video settings are only being applied to Vista Media Center when watching my .mkv and .avi files. However, when watching Live TV... ffdshow is inactive.

Anybody know how I can fix that? I rely on ffdshow to output correct black levels for my monitor.

 

[esturk]

Do you have ffdshow setup to do mpeg2 decoding?
Look in the video setup.

 

[z5556792]

Do you have ffdshow setup to do mpeg2 decoding?
Look in the video setup.

Yes, I do have mpeg2 activated in ffdshow. When I try to play the recorded TV shows using a different player (Media Player Classic), then the ffdshow settings are active. But if I try watching it with Media Center, then the ffdshow is bypassed. The problem is, Live TV is only playable through media center.

Surely I'm not the only one to have this problem?

Black levels on Media Center is completely wrong. The input data (ie TV or movies) usually assumes a range of 16-240 for playback on a television set. But computer monitors have a range of 0-255... so all my blacks are looking gray, and the whites look dull. I use ffdshow to correct the black levels, by expanding 16-240 to 0-255. It works fine for .mkv and .avi, even with Media Center. But for some reason, Live & Recorded TV in Media Center seem to bypass ffdshow.

 

[esturk]

There is a little tool for making the registry changes so that one can use something other than the ms mpeg2 decoder. It's called vmcd.exe. It only makes registry changes, but it's quick and easy.

I suspect that this does not "see" mpeg2lib (or whatever it's named). Cruise on over to TGB (the green button) and find what registry changes need to be done.

If you aren't the author of this thread then you should monitor it:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=16172031

 

[z5556792]

There is a little tool for making the registry changes so that one can use something other than the ms mpeg2 decoder. It's called vmcd.exe. It only makes registry changes, but it's quick and easy.

Thanks for your advice. I went and changed the registry settings as you suggested, and it caused both Media Center and Media Player to let ffdshow handle the decoding process. Unfortunately, these players would simply freeze whenever it attempts to decode Live TV or Recorded TV.

Surely I'm not the only one watching TV on a PC monitor instead of a TV screen? The black levels on Live TV & Recorded TV are just totally out of whack with Media Center. The low contrast is infuriating... I don't know how people can put up with that. I play my recorded TV files using Windows Media Classic, and let ffdshow correct the black levels (16-240 becomes 0-255). The difference is quite dramatic --- it looks exactly like it would on a big screen plasma TV.

 

[esturk]

I can't speak for everyone but I personally don't think alot of the ms decoder either. I use the powerdvd decoder myself.

That's unfortunate that it does not seem to work properly. I'll have to remember to give that a try sometime. I would have thought I'd tried that before. Maybe this has something to do with the dvrms container. . . .