Most appropiate Hardware Acceleration?

Hello all,

I'm new on this forum, and I've register to post I simple question for what I've been a lot time looking for and answer and has not find it.

Whith is the most appropiate Hardware Acceleration when installing K-lite? I have those options:

Use Software decoding
LAV Video - DXVA2 native
ffdshow DXVA decoder - DXVA1/2 native

I suppose the first one is the worst since it doesn't use the graphic cards capabilities, but sincerely, I don't know with one of the others select...

It's for an HTPC based on an AMD A8 APU, but I also would like to know (if it's different) what to do in an intel i3 with integrated HD2500/HD4000/HD4600, and in an AMD Zacate E350 APU.

Many thanks in advance

DXVA2 native is the best choice.

I think lav video decoder + intel quicksync will offer better results as you have intel i3. Test and let us know

I have about the same question.

I've run an older Dell as a media computer for a long time.  Now running Win7 64 bit and had been running K-lite standard 9.95 until I upgraded to 10.15 then 10.19 today.  Had always run fine in the past and I'm nearly certain hardware acceleration was never used.

CPU is Intel Core2 Duo E8300
VidCard is ATI Radeon HD 3400 (HDMI output)

In the 10.15 installation process the DXVA2 (native) was selected by default (for I think h.264 only) - I just went with it.  I simply tried a few 720p h.264 .mkv files to see how it works (and to make sure I had the LAV audio bitstreaming to my receiver functioning correctly).  I certainly don't think the video played any better really.  Do I need hardware accel?  OS runs on SSD, media files on conventional drive.  During media playback i see "Playing [DXVA]" whereas I'm pretty sure in the past the [DXVA] was never there.

If I were to set it back to software decoding only, I'd do it in both LAV x86 and x64??  Interestingly, in both configuration windows there is no check mark next to h.264 in the Codecs for HW Decoding section?

diff topic - why was ffdshow audio ditched in v10?

thanks a lot for any help

Hardware acceleration does not make it play better/worse with regard to quality. It only helps balance performance. If you only play 720p videos then you don't really need it. It may help with 1080p.

MPC-HC uses the x86 version of LAV Video decoder.

ffdshow is not included in the Standard version. It is still included in Full/Mega.

Thanks for the input, only found time to compare some results today.

When I was talking about playing better, I was referring to performance of the playback - like the video stuttering or something. I'm not sure that was totally clear the way I wrote it. To my eyes, I sort of thought that the video playback looked like it had a stutter or two with the hardware decoding enabled.

Instead of trying to play with the LAV settings, I just uninstalled and re-installed the K-lite standard codec pack and on this installation chose software decoding only.  The playback seems fine on 720p h.264 files.  I'm only judging it with my eyes.  Are there pretty simple benchmarking apps that will simply tell me if any frames are being dropped or ... ?

While the whole computer is somewhat ancient in computer lifetimes, maybe my vid card is even more of a relic than the CPU? and thus, the software decoding will actually playback smoother?

I do see I could opt for the Full or Mega version of K-lite and get ffdshow audio.  Would a novice like me get any benefit out of it relative to the LAV audio that is now handling the audio bitstreaming for my video files?

Dropped frames are usually pretty obvious. If software decoding works fine, then keep using that. It is the most reliable decoding method.

ffdshow does not provide any advantages when bitstreaming.

it just share my experience. this is my spec

- intel c2duo e7500
- radeon HD 5450

for viewing any video format. i prefer using software acceleration. AMD is does'nt have any decoding/encoding API and just using DXVA. compare to intel quick sync and nvidia CUVID, DXVA is worst. i have many bad experience like artifak using DXVA. for playing any video i using windows media player and using ffdshow instead of using LAV. FFDshow have many tools for improve video in using software decoding. and now i have no experience like artifak for playing any video.

if you using core i3 with intel HD you can using intel quick sync in lav video and for nvidia card you can using nvidia cuvid in lav video. but for amd ?? don't using DXVA. software decoding is the best.

Actually, DXVA is most efficient hardware acceleration method.

AMD/ATI card sometimes give corruption due to bad drivers.