Question regarding Video Renderer

[Trancer]

Hi guys,

Through more testing of this great player, I have found another question I would like some help on.

When using CoreAVC as the codec to play x264 files, I have always noticed regardless of using Kmplayer that the films were dark. As Kmplayer is very configurable, I managed to locate this down to using VMR9 as the Video Renderer. If I change this to Overlay Mixer the files are visable and bright as they should be.

I also noticed with an xvid .avi movie it appeared very pixelated and colours were very weak under VMR9. Change back to Overlay Mixer and the picture is much better.

The spec tested on is:

Onboard Nvidia 6150 graphics
Same thing appears to happen under XP and Vista

I think this may be down to the graphics card, as my other PC uses an Nvidia7800GT card, and this problem doesnt appear to exist.

So, Id really appriciate it if someone could explain why they think this is happening? and will I be suffering any loss of quality by using Overlay Mixer as the renderer?

Thanks in advance.

[Waldemar Sikorski]

When you're tweaking you might miss something so resetting i advisable.
Post ctrl+tab info of problematic configurations.
Read this ([Only registered and activated users can see links]).

[Trancer]

Thanks for the reply. I didnt post the ctrl+tab info as its not a problematic configuration as such as I know its down the renderer used.

I read that info in the link, and have I understood this correct then? It doesnt really matter what renderer you use, as long as it looks right for your configuration? Theres pros and cons for each? and therefore no particular one you should use?

Its looks then that the onboard 6150 GPU doesnt support features of VMR9 and therefore looks poor using it?

[mad]

it appeared very pixelated and colours were very weak under VMR9.
Select "Force RGB32..." option when using VMR9.
I personally use Haali´s video renderer (provided with the installation of Haali´s media splitter).
Its looks then that the onboard 6150 GPU doesnt support features of VMR9 and therefore looks poor using it?
I am sure it supports DirectX9.

[Trancer]

Thanks for the suggestion on that, i'll investigate it.

Ive been trying to read up info on renderers and colourspaces around the internet to try and understand how it all works.

Apparently with Overlay Mixer I could have issues with subtitles not displaying?

I have Haali Media Splitter installed, and have read other people suggest this is a good one to use? Would there be any other settings Id have to set in Haali for subtitles etc..?

Thanks for any help on this.

[mad]

any other settings Id have to set in Haali for subtitles etc..?
F2 -> Subtitle Processing -> Draw to VMR/D3D Surface (+ the 2 options bellow it).... for way better subs quality.

[Trancer]

Thanks mad,

By the way, is there a reason you have chosen to use the Haali renderer? Have you found the quality to be as good as the others?

[mad]

Well, VMR9 has good picture quality, but I can see about a 20% cpu increase over overlay mixer. And Haali´s video renderer looks good as VMR9, but is as fast as overlay. This is my personal view, some may not agree.

[Trancer]

Yes, from what ive been reading it seems it a personal choice, and based on your hardware.

I've just done some testing myself; "Force RGB32..." was already ticked and videos still were dark/blown out with VMR9.

Changed the renderer to Haali and some .mkv gave a blank screen. Plus with the movies that did work the quality appeared to be the same as using Overlay Mixer.

So based on my testing, the Overlay Mixer appeared to give best performance/quality. Not sure if thats a good or bad thing?

[Waldemar Sikorski]

The bad thing is that you're limited to just one renderer.

[Trancer]

The bad thing is that you're limited to just one renderer.

What does that mean? That you can only use one display?

[mouse]

Force RGB option only works with KMP Video transform filter. If there is no difference of color level with the option, there would be a video driver fixed the issue. By the way, there should be almost no difference of color level between overlay mixer and vmr9 if the video driver is really fixed.So based on my testing, the Overlay Mixer appeared to give best performance/quality.
It is dependent upon graphic card and its driver.

[lostovios]

I have an ATI 9600 VGA and i haven't noticed any differences in picture quality between
overlay mixer vmr9 renderless and haali.
I wanted to see which renderer gives best quality in dark scenes of avi files but both give me the same result.
So I use vmr9 without any specific reason.

When using vmr9 are there any suggestions to improve picture quality in dark scenes ?
I ll try to increase sharpness or contrast to see if i get an improvement.