VLC vs. MPC standard, nothing, between, noticed

andy

As i have nothing else to do, i testet VLC with standard configuration vs MPC with ffdshow several builds.

The main differenz i noticed is that VLC is using between 8-12% CPU usage, MPC (ffdshow) up to 45%.

I used the same video(Xvid-MP3), with and without PP and several configurations. Always the same result. Also trying MPC with DiVX/Xvid latest versions.

Why is VLC using such less CPU than MPC even with full PP?

VLC doesn't use external codecs, it has it's own internal decoding codecs. MPC uses external codecs like ffdshow, divx or xvid.

I'd try different output renderers, etc etc

I know, that VLC uses own codecs. The codecs of VLC are based - correct me if i am wrong- as ffdshow also on libav. That's the reason i am questioning about the different CPU usage, which has a difference up to 40% even by trying different output renderes in MPC.

quot;Overlay outputquot; is the one using the less CPU, but it doesn't explain the 30% more MPC uses :S


Originally Posted by Sirberquot;Overlay outputquot; is the one using the less CPU, but it doesn't explain the 30% more MPC uses :S

Tried this also, brings CPU 5% down, but not mor.  I/can't explain the high CPU usage between these two players.

can it be related to dshow?


Originally Posted by Thomas_ARTried this also, brings CPU 5% down, but not mor.  I/can't explain the high CPU usage between these two players.

Which version of ffdshow are you using?

Depending on how it was compiled and which CPU you're using, the CPU usage of ffdshow can vary quite a bit (from dog slow to really speedy) - probably try one of the latest daily builds made by Milan himself, or dig into the current ffdshow thread to find a compile matching your machine.

np: The American Analog Set - Play Hurt (Set Free)

Ok, i tested several ffdshow builds.
The build of Milan ffdshow-20051108 ICL8/Ansi is the one with less CPU usage.

But found the main reason:
Using VRM7/9 renderless in MPC results in very high CPU usage. Depending of the ffdshow build up to 90%
Using VRM7/9 (best VRM7) windowed brings the CPU usage down to 8%-25%, mostly 15%

Result: Using MPC 6.4.8.7 with VRM7 windowed and Milan's ffdshow-20051108 ICL8/Ansi brings best results regarding CPU usage, and running fast and stable.

Perhaps i should try older MPC version.Problem is now suptitling for Directshow needs VRM renderless


Originally Posted by Thomas_ARProblem is now suptitling for Directshow needs VRM renderless

Have you tried using ffdshow's built-in subtitle support?

np: Amorphous Androgynous - The Emptiness Of Nothingness (Alice In Ultraland)

Same behaviour here... VLC r0x and it's actually the fastest player for h.264 (10% CPU occupancy for anamorphic SD res).
AAC decoding seems b0rked in 0.84 though.


Originally Posted by SharktoothVLC r0x and it's actually the fastest player for h.264 (10% CPU occupancy for anamorphic SD res).

Is VLC faster than mplayer or it's similar? (I know they are both based on libavcodec)

mplayer is faster than VLC. Both suck though for their stupid subtitle renderers which annoys me so much that I use neither really as I watch like 90% of my media with subs, VLC 0.8.4 still shows subs in a total unacceptable way even, two lines and it shows one line over the other etc, no shadow and antialias etc.


Originally Posted by LeakHave you tried using ffdshow's built-in subtitle support?

Good solution, works fine.

Can somebody explain me why VRM7/9 renderless needs so much more CPU and what is the advantage of it?

ffdshow inbuilt subtitle renderer sucks totally. VMR modes directly draw to the screen via DirectX 3D APIs, thus it goes through the a lot of ways before it actually appears on the screen, you'll notice you can take screencaps from VMR content, this shows that the video is actually drawn into the whole picture via windows calls, overlay (used by default by mplayer and VLC) draws a special color to the screen and the graphics card later draws the video into this without going through the whole batch of OS graphics functions, the video is just copied directly to the video memory. This eats a whole less CPU, for me with recent MPC VMR9 mode is totally broken anyways, slow as hell, as soon as I put a window over the video it stutters :/

I think DirectShow copies things directly from filter to filter as a whole picture, VLC etc. should only copy the information of picture changes and thus saves CPU on those operations. However this prevents some things from working properly sometimes giving devs hard time to implement some things. e.g. a H264 video with no motion at all eats 0% CPU on mplayer because it doesn't really need to draw and copy anything, while DirectShow copies the complete picture each time :/

Imo VMR modes are a step backwards in time when original VFW still used GDI etc. to draw video.

So in your opinion whats the best solucion regarding to VRM/Subtitles/MPC? Or do you suggests a total different one?

Use overlay mixer and use vsfilter for the subtitles, they may not be that sharp but the same if they were hardcoded into the video and vsfilter is basically the same as the MPC subtitle renderer. MPC itself is just fine, just VMR modes are nothing I'd recommend as overlay mixer is a well established technique with unmanipulated video output except for hardware extensions done by gfx card manufactors. ATI and nVidia overlay mixing is real good quality on new modells. ATI also got special in-card postprocessors for these kinds of videos iirc. nVidia keeps them as they are usually. Also it saves you converting in software to RGB32 as this is all done in the hardware.

VMR modes are overriding all these hardware features on purpose to prevent hardware manipulating most of the video, too bad that if you use 3D rendering mode etc. settings interfere and affect videos that way, e.g. antialiasing or ansitropic filtering etc.

I like to use VLC player for speed and simplicity and WMP based players for flexibility and more options. So far my Athlon X2 4600+ hasn't really needed to use VLC Player.

Hoever, it's so much easier to give a friend a video I encode with X264 and include VLC Player with it. Or else I have to explain to them how to install and setup FFDShow. Their slower computers are also more likely to play it.

I really like quot;mplayer kkquot;, since it can playback RMVB (compared to VLC) and is very lightweight (compared to dshow players).


Originally Posted by videomixer9mplayer is faster than VLC. Both suck though for their stupid subtitle renderers which annoys me so much that I use neither really as I watch like 90% of my media with subs

I also watch movies with subs a lot, and mplayer subtitle rendering is great! You have to do quite a bit of testing initially (and read the doc), but once you find some settings you are happy with, no need to think about it anymore.