LAV Filters - DirectShow Media Splitter and Decoders

[nevcairiel]

I did some research, and it seems that i can even get LATM AAC to work. It was only disabled in libavformat because libavcodec does not support it, but for example libfaad does.
This will have to wait until i setup my own ffmpeg repository with some custom patches though, so not 0.5 i'm afraid.
I hope to get 0.5 out today with the fixes for TS durations, DVB subs, audio/subtitle stream switching, the "No Subtitles" option and possibly some other small things, but for now i'm still stuck at work, so don't hold your breath, it'll be a few hours.

Speaking about AAC, does anyone know if the populare AAC decoders (ffdshow, mpc-hc internal, CoreAAC, ...) understand the HEAACWAVEFORMAT structure, or if they require everything being packed up in a WAVEFORMATEX?
Edit: I just noticed that CoreAAC does not have LATM support yet, so i guess the monogram decoder will have to do.

[tetsuo55]

Yeah a custom ffmpeg "fork" sounds like a good idea, that way work can be done on the various patches we have/intend to create and clean them up if/before they are committed upstream

[Ger]

Originally Posted by nevcairiel

I did some research, and it seems that i can even get LATM AAC to work. It was only disabled in libavformat because libavcodec does not support it, but for example libfaad does.
This will have to wait until i setup my own ffmpeg repository with some custom patches though, so not 0.5 i'm afraid.
I hope to get 0.5 out today with the fixes for TS durations, DVB subs, audio/subtitle stream switching, the "No Subtitles" option and possibly some other small things, but for now i'm still stuck at work, so don't hold your breath, it'll be a few hours.

Wow, didn't expect that. Sounds promising. If we get a free DS splitter working for LATM, the chances of seeing LATM support added to ffdshow/MPC-HC decoders should improve as well, since libfaad is used for AAC both places already. But Monogram-AAC should be fine in the meantime.

Take your time. Some of us have waited years for a project like this, so we can certainly wait a little longer. Thanks again.

[Underground78]

Originally Posted by nevcairiel

I hope to get 0.5 out today with the fixes for TS durations, DVB subs, audio/subtitle stream switching, the "No Subtitles" option and possibly some other small things, but for now i'm still stuck at work, so don't hold your breath, it'll be a few hours.

Sound like version 0.5 will be a great step ! I will wait for it before continuing my test with others samples.

[Sebastiii]

Congrats again for your great job
Seb.

[nevcairiel]

LAVFSplitter 0.5
- Fixed duration of MPEG-TS files
- Added support for DVB subtitles
- Fixed switching of Audio and Subtitle Streams
- Added a "No Subtitles" Stream

Download: 32-bit & 64-bit

I hope the stream switching works properly now. The current approach works as follows: For Audio Streams, it deletes the current audio decoder, and lets the graph choose a new one, this ensures that we always get the right codec. For Subtitles (and Video), i just disconnect the filter, and let the graph reconnect itself. This seems to work fine so far. Feedback is appreciated. =)

On the DVB Subs: It can't detect the difference between normal and hearing impaired yet, thats still on my list of things to do.

[liquidskin76]

Hey nevcairiel,

I haven't had chance to test 0.5 yet, but was curious if the stuttering when begining a vid has been fixed? I was still seeing it with 0.4.

Thanks

[nevcairiel]

Did you see it in the changelog? :d

I'll try to get that one on the weekend when i have more time to try some things.

[Underground78]

Originally Posted by nevcairiel

LAVFSplitter 0.5
- Fixed duration of MPEG-TS files
- Fixed switching of Audio and Subtitle Streams

Confirmed, thanks a lot !

Originally Posted by nevcairiel

I hope the stream switching works properly now. The current approach works as follows: For Audio Streams, it deletes the current audio decoder, and lets the graph choose a new one, this ensures that we always get the right codec. For Subtitles (and Video), i just disconnect the filter, and let the graph reconnect itself. This seems to work fine so far. Feedback is appreciated. =)

The audio part does work very well but I cannot get the DVB subtitles to work ... It may be me doing something wrong, can someone tell me what I should do exactly to ensure MPC-HC can display subtitles without problems ?

[nevcairiel]

Use one of the supported renderes, on XP that would be VMR9 (renderless), on Vista/7 EVR-CP, it should just magically work then. Additionally during playback check the "Play -> Subtitles" menu if Enabled is ticked
Oh, and the splitter currently defaults to the "No Subtitles" stream, so you need to turn them on, but i think you figured that out.

[Underground78]

Originally Posted by nevcairiel

Use one of the supported renderes, on XP that would be VMR9 (renderless), on Vista/7 EVR-CP, it should just magically work then. Additionally during playback check the "Play -> Subtitles" menu if Enabled is ticked
Oh, and the splitter currently defaults to the "No Subtitles" stream, so you need to turn them on, but i think you figured that out.

Thanks, I had forgotten to use WMR9 (renderless) ... It seems to work !

[Ger]

Some quick v0.5 first impressions:
- MPC-HC crashes when seeking in TS. Not always, but often. Mostly tested with the "Henry IV" sample and is easily reproduced with that sample on my system, but also seen with other samples.
- When enabling DVB-subs in "John Adams" sample, the video freezes. Don't know if this is related to the missing audio support.
- When enabling DVB-subs in "Henry IV" sample, quick video audio freeze, but then resumes and works, so I guess that is expected with the graph reconnecting on change. Would be ideal if it could be enabled seamlessly, but it's probably no big deal if it stays like this.
- TS duration is better (in most cases), but still not OK. HD sample duration is very wrong. I have another HD, sample here which doesn't play at all now, but the previously uploaded "Gossip Girl" HD sample (which is really just over a minute long and was reported as over an hour long in v0.3) is now reported as over 7 hours long in v0.5, but it plays. I don't think there is any point in uploading the other HD sample that doesn't play at all anymore in case it's duration related, and you can see the duration problem in the "Gossip Girl" sample as well.

[nevcairiel]

Originally Posted by Ger

- MPC-HC crashes when seeking in TS. Not always, but often. Mostly tested with the "Henry IV" sample and is easily reproduced with that sample on my system, but also seen with other samples.

I can't really reproduce this. Do you use the MPC-HC internal video/audio decoder, or others?
Edit: I just noticed that for some reason the internal mpeg2 decoder doesnt even connect to the stream in the Henry IV sample. Another thing to check out.

Originally Posted by Ger

- When enabling DVB-subs in "John Adams" sample, the video freezes. Don't know if this is related to the missing audio support.

A short freeze is to be expected, as the graph is stopped to change the stream connections. Here it resumes after that. What do you mean with freeze exactly, does it stay stopped?
Again, what filters?

[Ger]

Yes, it stays stopped. I'm using EVR Sync, with Sync Video To Display.

[Underground78]

Originally Posted by Ger

Some quick v0.5 first impressions:
- MPC-HC crashes when seeking in TS. Not always, but often. Mostly tested with the "Henry IV" sample and is easily reproduced with that sample on my system, but also seen with other samples.
- When enabling DVB-subs in "John Adams" sample, the video freezes. Don't know if this is related to the missing audio support.

I can't confirm this two bugs (I only tried my own samples) but ...

Originally Posted by Ger

- When enabling DVB-subs in "Henry IV" sample, quick video audio freeze, but then resumes and works, so I guess that is expected with the graph reconnecting on change. Would be ideal if it could be enabled seamlessly, but it's probably no big deal if it stays like this.
- TS duration is better (in most cases), but still not OK. HD sample duration is very wrong. I have another HD, sample here which doesn't play at all now, but the previously uploaded "Gossip Girl" HD sample (which is really just over a minute long and was reported as over an hour long in v0.3) is now reported as over 7 hours long in v0.5, but it plays. I don't think there is any point in uploading the other HD sample that doesn't play at all anymore in case it's duration related, and you can see the duration problem in the "Gossip Girl" sample as well.

... I can confirm those. When switching audio or subtitle there is a little freeze which doesn't seem to exist with VLC and for TS with H264 video track, duration is totally wrong (cf sample : http://www.mediafire.com/?g2xjd4rwa2n). By the way, with this sample I can't get the E-AC3 audio to play (whereas it works with internal splitter), is this expected ?

[Ger]

With the "John Adams" sample when I first open it, I get a warning about missing audio codec. I click that away and it starts playing (with no audio obviously and with wrong AR). If I then press stop, and play again, it remains frozen. Does that happen with you? This also happens to me with the internal splitter, but not with Haali (stop and play works with Haali).

I'm using Microsoft Win7 decoder (preferred in MPC-HC).

Changing from EVR Sync to EVR Custom didn't seem to change anything.

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: mpc-hc.exe
Application Version: 1.3.2268.0
Application Timestamp: 4c6c045d
Fault Module Name: StackHash_2b7a
Fault Module Version: 6.1.7600.16559
Fault Module Timestamp: 4ba9b29c
Exception Code: c0000374
Exception Offset: 000cdc9b
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1044
Additional Information 1: 2b7a
Additional Information 2: 2b7a8aec88b183a1d5db4fdf487691fb
Additional Information 3: f18e
Additional Information 4: f18e74554e409b66e4b5aebc55921319

Edit: OK, the freeze on enabling subs and after stop/play depends on the H264 decoder also, as well as the splitter. With ArcSoft decoder that freeze doesn't happen, but video plays at seemingly double speed. Perhaps due to the AnnexB stuff in the first post?

[nevcairiel]

Originally Posted by Ger

If I then press stop, and play again, it remains frozen. Does that happen with you?

No, but i also use ffdshow instead of MS, going to test that.
Actually, the AR is correct with ffdshow as well.

The small freeze on stream switches cannot be avoided, its here to stay. Comparing to VLC on this matter is pointless, as the freeze is a result of Direct Show interaction

Edit:
I see the freeze issue with the MS thing as well.

[Underground78]

Originally Posted by nevcairiel

The small freeze on stream switches cannot be avoided, its here to stay. Comparing to VLC on this matter is pointless, as the freeze is a result of Direct Show interaction

I has quite sure of your answer, it is ok then.

[Ger]

Originally Posted by nevcairiel

I just noticed that for some reason the internal mpeg2 decoder doesnt even connect to the stream in the Henry IV sample. Another thing to check out.

Actually, for MPEG-2 video I can't get it to connect to anything except ffdshow now. If I block ffdshow it refuses all other MPEG-2 decoders on my system.

All my crashes on skipping are in MPEG-2 files, so I guess they must all have been with ffdshow as the video decoder then.

Tried both ffdshow and internal for MPEG audio, and crash with both.

H264 still connects to whatever I set to preferred.

If I missed any questions, ask again. I hope I've answered everything.

Edit: To reproduce the crash, try clicking on different parts of the seek bar in quick succession with MPEG-2 TS samples with ffdshow for video. CTRL-LEFT and CTRL-RIGHT (I think those are the original shortcuts in MPC-HC for jumping a few seconds back/forward) also causes the crash, especially when done in quick succession. I've changed mine to just left/right arrow like in other players so I'm not 100 % sure what the default shortcut is anymore.

[STaRGaZeR]

No subtitles option, subtitle and audio switching working like a charm, good work.

Minor things I noticed:

- Seeking seems a bit slower than Haali/Gabest, specially with high bitrate Blu-ray content where there's a lot to decode if you don't seek to an I-frame. Same with stream switching, a bit slower. Maybe Haali doesn't reconstruct the entire graph?
- I'd put the no subtitles option always at the bottom of the subtitle streams list, instead of at the top.
- There's nothing in MPC's Navigate -> Audio Language -> ??. Same with subtitles. ffdshow detects the stuff though (it uses IAMStreamSelect).