ffdshow for HTPC

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mykel

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 9, 2004
Messages
76
is there a prime way to configure ffdshow to get the best results?

i read http://htpcnews.com/main.php?id=ffdshowdvd_4 but i wasn't sure if that was geared toward DVD's (with the resizing and such) or if it was a general quality booster.

also what is a good TV recorder? (scheduling is a must)
currently i use GotTV but i haven't been able to get it to record successfully for some odd reason.
 
Have you tried Got TV PVR? I use SageTV.
I'm using FFDShow primarily with Divx files and such since my DVD drive died and I haven't gotten it replaced, the guide is pretty much just for setting it up.
 
well i tried using GotTV simply by pushing Ctrl+R (start recording) and then Ctrl+S (stop recording).
but, as soon as i start recording the audio starts echoing badly and when i stop recording the file it created is deleted. so i'm not sure. maybe i'm doing something wrong?

i was thinking about buying SageTV but i'm not sure how it will compare to Meedio. So i'm a little hesitant. I remember attempting to use a trial version of sagetv and for some reason it wouldn't work. again, not sure if i did something wrong.
is it incompatible with AiW 9800 Pro by chance?

as far as ffdshow goes, no real configuration is necessary?
 
Sage TV will not work with software based cards (like your 9800AIW). Since it is an AIW your better off using the ATI software, I should have asked what card your using first.
Since the AIW uses your CPU to process the video adding ffdshow will not work since your going to have two programs eating up CPU.
Get a hardware based encoder.
 
FFDshow especially on resizeing is going to take up your processor. half the time too when you see these people running 1080i res while playing back video are on top of the line computers and video cards on machines dedicated to video playback. if you want to do things such as playback while recording and so forth you may want to step of alittle or at least water down the settings than what they suggested.
 
i have:
2.8 GHz P4 w/ HT
P4C800-E Deluxe
RADEON 9800 All-in-Wonder
2x512MB DDR400 Kingston

i'm not terribly concerned with cpu loading. or should i be? (for high end ffdshow configs)
 
Yes you should be since your using the CPU for two things (AIW and FFDShow).
 
I use FFDShow with denoise3d HQ followed by a resize to 1440x960 for DVD playback. Using AndyIEG's SSE2 optomized version of FFDshow I get between 80-90% CPU usage on my P4-M 2.2 oc'ed to 3.1Ghz. Depending on how high you want to resize and what Blur & NR filters you use you should be worried about recording and playback at the same time.
 
wow.. i didn't know it was that strenuous on the CPU.
i gather something like haup 350 would help out the strain?
 
i bought a very similar setup to yours mainly to give me room to play with ffdshow. all the parts are waiting at home for me when i get off work. i hope to OC to at least 3.2Ghz just so i can resize and do a little denoise in ffdshow . . . and that's it! if you read the last 15 pages or so of this thread: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=246752 you will get an idea of just how powerhungry ffdshow is.

btw, i would save some bux and get the hauppage 250. that's the one i bought. the only thing you add with the 350 is an mpeg DEcoder, and i read a few things that suggest you will end up not using (ie- you will run zoomplayer, ffdshow, and windvd codecs for software decoding) or if you DO use it you may have some issues. i don't recall what those issues were though. sorry.
 
Yeah get a 250. I can't believe how people think an AIW goes into a HTPC for their video needs, they are great for your gaming rig but they don't belong in an HTPC- it's just a matter of quality. My 250MCE average around 2% CPU usage when recording and FFDShow averages around 80%.
 
sounds good. 250 is a pretty penny less than the 350 and from the sounds of it, there's only a small difference. i read a bunch of 'versus' reviews on the 2 models so it's reassuring to hear it from other sources before making a buy.

anyways.. is it possible any of you would be willing to share some configuration settings?
the reason why i asked if there were any guides to ffdshow was because i don't really know what all the settings do.
so, that's what i was kinda shooting for.. a general explination of what the various configuration components do and (what would really help) a configuration that other, more experienced HTPC users have.

i'm not extremely HTPC savy but i'm doing my best to learn. :)
 
Okay but ffdshow is all about experimentation ;)
Specs: 1900+ XP, 256mb PC2100, GF2 MX, two 250MCE.
ffdshow version: Jul 9 2004 02:00:43

Actually I just noticed something, you can DL my settings here (right click "SAVE AS") and load them up yourself under "Image Settings/ Read from file". :)
That should be enough to get you started tweaking.
 
go to that thread i posted earlier and read at least 20 pages of it- the last 20. there are a ton of settings, and there are a ton of different displays and your settings on your CRT will not be the best for me on my DLP. go through and get an idea of the wide variety of options people are using, and then use those as a basis for your own experimentation.
 
mykel said:
wow.. i didn't know it was that strenuous on the CPU.
i gather something like haup 350 would help out the strain?
Click to expand...


it does help out but its also tradeing things that may be an issue. For example, the 350 is great for output, since its straight out but thats all it displays so you wont be able to display the windows desktop if you wanted something more for example. if you get a 250 the video is pretty close to what the 350 can do depending on the codec you use. however due to the fact that you are still using software to decode your cpu usage will still be at least 5-30% add in ffdshow and it can be in the 50s to 90% this is fine for most people but it can cause issues sometimes with timeshifting and other similar PVR functions. half the time that people complain about choppyness or freezes is because they are trying to do to much. thats all I was saying.
 
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