Nero's ShowTime Player

Ok, I know it's not the greatest player in the world!

But it's the only one I've been able to find that can open XviD and 3viX 16:9 encodes at the correct aspect ratio automatically...

That was until I installed Nero Vision Express (v2.1.0.8). Which includes Recode2 (v2.0.0.12) amp; ShowTime (v1.5.0.8)!

Why did they have to change it when NVE (v2.1.0.4) including Recode2 (v2.0.0.7) amp; ShowTime (v1.5.0.6) worked absolutely fine!

Damn them... Anybody know any other software media players that work?

Cheers

Nero Showtime only uses the Nero Digital Video Decoder DirectShow filter just use it in MPC and you can see 16:9 their too  but be carefull the  Nero Decoder has some DCT Mismatch problems with XviD Encodes and with that it degrades the Quality of the Output Video, not really vissible for non trained eyes

Yea,

I tried that, but the problem is the new version the Nero Video Decoder does not correctly support 16:9 AR switching - well not like the previous version.

One good thing is, if you have the new version of XviD installed, when you use the Nero video decoder it does not seem to over-ride the XviD decoder (or the DivX decoder) just 3viX's.

I wonder what would happen if I swapped the Nero Decoder filters around.... Or maybe I should just pay for Nero6 (NVE amp; Recode2 etc) instead of just using the monthly promo's!

Cheers

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
I wonder what would happen if I swapped the Nero Decoder filters around.... Or maybe I should just pay for Nero6 (NVE amp; Recode2 etc) instead of just using the monthly promo's!
Does anybody know which .dll file is the Nero Video Decoder filter?

I had a look in the NeroVision folder and there are loads of .dll files....

This is new territory for me!

you can easily find out the name of the filter when looking at the filterlist in graphedit

Originally posted by bond
you can easily find out the name of the filter when looking at the filterlist in graphedit
Owa!
You and GraphEdit. I have to admit I have not got round to using this application yet!

Doh!

Try the RadLight Filter Manager

Hey, thanks very much for that DAvenger.

After downloading (v1.4) of your Filter Manager I was able to track down and replace the new version of Nero's video decoder filter with the previous version of Nero's video decoder filter. And....

The exercise was a complete SUCCESS

For anybody else who wants to give it a try, I've posted what I did  here

Thanks again everybody

No problem. Was happy to help out

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
Why did they have to change it when NVE (v2.1.0.4) including Recode2 (v2.0.0.7) amp; ShowTime (v1.5.0.6) worked absolutely fine!

hm yes thats wierd. do xvid and 3ivx movies work at the correct ar in the nero showtime player?

Originally posted by CruNcher
but be carefull the  Nero Decoder has some DCT Mismatch problems with XviD Encodes

hm thats also wierd cause bobololo told me once that nero digital uses the same dct as xvid, if i remember it right...

Originally posted by bond
hm yes thats wierd. do xvid and 3ivx movies work at the correct ar in the nero showtime player?
Hey, hey, hey... they do now. That is to say the 'special' anamorphically encoded files do

Originally posted by bond
hm thats also wierd cause bobololo told me once that nero digital uses the same dct as xvid, if i remember it right...
I really could not comment/know about that...

I guess I should really fork out a few quid and buy Nero6, as at the moment I can't generate Recode2 files with 6Ch AAC audio.

That said... I'm open to suggestions!

Cheers again

EDIT: I've just fed the Nero ShowTime player with an MKV containered, 2pass XviD 720x576 anamorphic encode with AAC LC and AAC HE audio streams... And it works perfectly... A-MA-ZING!

I did'nt know it could do that

you do realise that vlc media player can resize anamorphicaly just like showtime.

In the latest version of vlc i had to set the mux module to mp4/mov muxer under stream output in the preferances.

But when this is selected it resizes anamorphic encodes perfectly also it uses teh fmpeg codec so it is better equiped to play back xvid encodes.

its available for almost every computer platform known

vlc/

Well I do now!

The trouble is you have to configure the player 'manually' to do this. Which means you have to know, before hand, that the encode contains 'anamorphic' signalling!

With the ShowTime player it's all done 'automatically'.

Which makes me wonder. If Nero's ShowTime player can do it... why can't other players?

Cheers

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
If Nero's ShowTime player can do it... why can't other players?

It's not really the player which does this, it's rather the splitter which reads this information and passes it to the video renderer. Of course, the player has to know what to do with this information.

My understanding is that Showtime can playback non-square movies cause it always uses the ND video decoder filter when possible. In other player, depending of your setup, you may use a video decoder that may not decode automatically AR like divx or some version of xvid or ffdshow. There are also some players that cannot use non-square AR like wmp8. wmp7 and wm9 can when deactivating some dummy option. wmp64 and all the other alternative directshow player (mpc, bs, ...) can by default...

I tried assigning Nero's ND video decoder and/or Nero's splitter into Media Player Classic but neither XviD or 3viX encodes were able to automatically open at the correct AR!

I wish I knew more about programming, like you guys, to understand what was going on - at the sub atomic level...

I also find it interesting that this player can correctly identify 3viX and XviD encodes generated using AR's of 1.77:1, 1.85:1 and 2.35:1. But it can't correctly open up Recode2 encodes generated at 2.35:1.

I guess Recode2's problem is more to do with the initial encoding, rather than decoding.

That said, Nero's Recode2 application has been available for a while now (not including testing) so I'm surprised it's not been fixed yet!

Also can shitowax's 'understanding' of the ND video decoder be checked out by more experienced users than me?

Cheers