ARGH I dunno WTF is goin on!! [MPEG Decoding Issue]

Jason 00 · Post by **Jason 00** » Fri Sep 03, 2004 1:31 am

I have also noticed a drop in quality with WMP9. I was watching some older NHMK vids thinking to myself "I don't remember the video quality looking this poor the first time I watched these". So I took some advice and downloaded <Media Player Classic 6.4> and it has taking care of all of my vid quality issues. I am still not sure what the problem is with WMP9 as far as just the overall look of the video. I try to keep my system as streamlined as possible. There are no games on my machine so I don't have to worry about updating my video card drivers all the time. Only Symantec Antivirus and ZoneAlarms load at startup and there is no spyware or adware on the machine. I only run the video codecs that I need (i.e. ffdshow, Huffyuv, MJPEG, etc.) no codec packs full of extra bullshit. Yet I have noticed a slow down hill trend in video quality with WMP9 (i.e. jagged edges and an overall choppy look.) However Media Player Classic > http://www.divx-digest.com/software/med ... assic.html does not seem suffer from these issues.

Kajino Rei · Post by **Kajino Rei** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 4:39 pm

I have WMP9 and it always play "everything" fine, except MPEG Layer-3 Decoder audio unless the DIVX player is installed.
BTW, why is that?

Anyways, maybe the playlist is the problem but I don't think since before all my videos were in playlist.
Now all my videos are stored in CD-RW's.

So the playlist thing sounds...probable but never had that problem myself.

Are the files you're playing different than most? In terms of audio/video codecs.

SS5_Majin_Bebi · Post by **SS5_Majin_Bebi** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 9:26 pm

Kajino Rei wrote:I have WMP9 and it always play "everything" fine, except MPEG Layer-3 Decoder audio unless the DIVX player is installed.
BTW, why is that?

Anyways, maybe the playlist is the problem but I don't think since before all my videos were in playlist.
Now all my videos are stored in CD-RW's.

So the playlist thing sounds...probable but never had that problem myself.

Are the files you're playing different than most? In terms of audio/video codecs.

God, NO!! Don't roll your eyes at me, im not some kind of hapless noob. I've just encountered a technical issue that has me perplexed.

Yes, the majority of my videos are similar enough to not be a problem. No wierd standards, no odd codecs. I have 1 mpeg-2 one, the rest of them are either DivX, DivX-Compatible XviD, or MPEG-1. The First two SHOULD be able to be easily decoded by ffdshow, but something is interfering. It really looks like the postprocessing is being neglected one out of every 2 times. Which is really odd, seeing has I do have postproc enabled.

Kajino Rei · Post by **Kajino Rei** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 9:39 pm

SS5_Majin_Bebi

God, NO!! Don't roll your eyes at me, im not some kind of hapless noob. I've just encountered a technical issue that has me perplexed.

Yes, the majority of my videos are similar enough to not be a problem. No wierd standards, no odd codecs. I have 1 mpeg-2 one, the rest of them are either DivX, DivX-Compatible XviD, or MPEG-1. The First two SHOULD be able to be easily decoded by ffdshow, but something is interfering. It really looks like the postprocessing is being neglected one out of every 2 times. Which is really odd, seeing has I do have postproc enabled.

Bebi...

I almost ALWAYS roll my eyes at the end of my posts.

It has nothing to do with you or your post.

See this thread: http://www.animemusicvideos.org/phpBB/v ... hp?t=39561

I've questions too, you know.

PS: Rolling of eyes the norm in this case.

Arigatomina · Post by **Arigatomina** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 9:58 pm

Just a random post here, probably unrelated, but whatever.

I don't care much for wmp9, but I've been using it (with winxp) for a while now. I've noticed the increasing 'poor' quality when using playlists, but it isn't random - it depends on the size of the video, and the number of videos played in a row. In other words, it depends on memory. If I run a playlist of med to large mpg vids (averaging 50mbs), I can get to the third before it starts getting increasingly nasty, often skipping or snagging, and hesitating before starting new vids - especially a problem when mixing xvid with mpg files. If I defrag, let it rest a bit, and try again, it plays them all just fine. As far as my problem is concerned, wmp9 just takes up more running memory than my last wmp (6 I believe it was). Loading a large list of high bitrate vids bogs it down after the first few, so it can't play them accurately. I take that as a given now.

I don't think I've installed this infamous sp2, but I can say with certainty that I've had this problem (the same 'errors' with wmp9) and it is unrelated to sp2, ffdshow, vfw, any filters - it's a memory problem particular to wmp9. I can play the same playlist just fine with Winamp (excluding xvid files, of course) - but Winamp takes up quite a bit less memory than wmp9.

Instead of reinstalling everything you can think of, try cleaning up your comp - then do some tests to see if wmp9 behaves differently when the comp is fresh, as apposed to when it's cluttered and has been running for days. >.>

Kajino Rei · Post by **Kajino Rei** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 10:07 pm

Indeed Arigatomyna.

Bebi...

If you have Norton the I recommend using the "Speed Disk" and "Disk Doctor" programs, since they help keep the computer clutter free.

Even a simple "Disk Cleanup" is good.

When it's about computers less is better, get rid of everything you don't need.

SS5_Majin_Bebi · Post by **SS5_Majin_Bebi** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 4:41 am

I've tried all that, did no-one notice that I said that the problem was completely random in its occurence and it popped up out of the blue? Meaning that running scans and shit is completely superfluous and inconclusive.

Its an issue with the decoding filters themselves, but I have no friggin idea what or why. This is why I hate windows, it just misbehaves at a point in time of its choosing , whether you'e altered settings or not. Its a fucking nightmare.

To re-iterate - I have NEVER had the pixellation problem before, with playlists or files of any size, shape, colour, composition, texture, atomic weight, odour, taste... u see my point.

Kajino Rei · Post by **Kajino Rei** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 1:34 pm

did no-one notice that I said that the problem was completely random in its occurence and it popped up out of the blue

We did Bebi, which is why we're giving some solutions at and trying to help.

Since it's random I thought that using the "Speed Disk" could help some. If doesn't help in this case, at least it's good for the computer anyways.

Going to ask around to see if anyone knows more; like you said it's hard for us to pin point the exact problem without knowing all the happenings of your system.

SS5_Majin_Bebi · Post by **SS5_Majin_Bebi** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 9:42 pm

Kajino Rei wrote:
did no-one notice that I said that the problem was completely random in its occurence and it popped up out of the blue
We did Bebi, which is why we're giving some solutions at and trying to help.

Since it's random I thought that using the "Speed Disk" could help some. If doesn't help in this case, at least it's good for the computer anyways.

Going to ask around to see if anyone knows more; like you said it's hard for us to pin point the exact problem without knowing all the happenings of your system.

Thats why this problem is such a bastard. If I knew exactly what I'd added or removed to cause such a random piece-of-shit hassle like this, I could fix it =/

SS5_Majin_Bebi · Post by **SS5_Majin_Bebi** » Sun Sep 12, 2004 3:46 am

Ok Trythil told me on the chat that it sounds alot like its software-scaling or something. Can someone tell me what this is and how I can stop it?