H.264 High@L6.1 GTX 1080 - No full hardware acceleration - CPU at 30% on 8700K

Hello,
I recently got a new camera - Nikon Z6 II - capable of recording 4K at 60p. I did some testing for different resolutions and frame rates and discovered that all of them, except the 4K 60p play on my PC with low CPU usage (5%) and higher GPU usage, when played in the Media Player Classic from K-Lite Codec Pack Standard version. When playing the 4K 60p clips the CPU is at 30% utilization (Intel 8700K at 4,7 Ghz) and a bit lower GPU usage comparing to other clips. Surprisingly, when using VLC or built-in Windows Movie player in Windows 10, CPU is always at around 5%, indicating that there is some issue with the hardware acceleration in Media Player Classic.

Here are some clip details for the 4K 60p video which has issues with hardware acceleration:

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L6.1
Format settings : 1 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : No
Format settings, Reference : 1 frame
Format settings, GOP : N=1
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 2 min 29 s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 303 Mb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 59.940 (60000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.609
Stream size : 5.26 GiB (99%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2021-03-06 13:11:57
Tagged date : UTC 2021-03-06 13:11:57
Color range : Full
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
Codec configuration box : avcC

And here are details of lower bitrate / frame rate clips which runs with full acceleration:

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L5.1
Format settings : 1 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : No
Format settings, Reference : 1 frame
Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=12
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 33 s 659 ms
Bit rate : 123 Mb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.621
Stream size : 495 MiB (98%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2021-03-06 13:42:25
Tagged date : UTC 2021-03-06 13:42:25
Color range : Full
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
Codec configuration box : avcC

At first glance the main difference is the profile level - High@L5.1 vs High@L6.1

For some reason, hardware acceleration does not activate for High@L6.1 on my GTX 1080.
I have the latest versions of all relevant software and drivers. Same issue on older version as well.

Please kindly help.

Codec Tweak Tool | Log file | Generated at 2021-03-20 12:39:10

##### System Information #####

OS: Windows 10 Enterprise (10.00.19042) (x64)
CPU name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700K CPU @ 3.70GHz
CPU details: 3696 MHz | 12 core(s) | Family 6 Model 158 Stepping 10
Memory: 65472 MB
Screen size: 2560x1440 (32bits) (144Hz) (125%)

Audio device: USB Audio Device
Audio driver: USBAUDIO.sys (Version 10.0.19041.789) (1-29-2021)

##### K-Lite Codec Pack #####

KLCP version: 16.0.5
KLCP type: standard

Speaker conf: 2.0

MPC renderer: MPC VR
MPC subs: ISR
MPC audio: System Default

##### Decoder Settings #####

LAV Video:
H264=DXVA2CB HEVC=DXVA2CB VP9=DXVA2CB VC1=DXVA2CB MPEG2=1 MPEG4=1 WMV3=0

LAV Audio:
MP3=1 AC3=1 DTS=1 DTSHD=1 EAC3=1 TRUEHD=1 AAC=1 Vorbis=1 LPCM=1 WMA=0

##### DirectShow Filters (32-bit) #####

(A total of 69 filters, 0 shown, 69 hidden)

##### DirectShow Filters (64-bit) #####

(A total of 69 filters, 0 shown, 69 hidden)

##### ICM Class Manager (32-bit) #####

(A total of 2 filters, 0 shown, 2 hidden)

##### ICM Class Manager (64-bit) #####

(A total of 2 filters, 0 shown, 2 hidden)

##### Default source filters (32-bit) #####

(A total of 55 default source filters, 0 shown, 55 hidden)

##### Default source filters (64-bit) #####

(A total of 55 default source filters, 0 shown, 55 hidden)

##### ACM and VFW Codecs (32-bit) #####

(A total of 14 codecs, 0 shown, 14 hidden)

##### ACM and VFW Codecs (64-bit) #####

(A total of 13 codecs, 0 shown, 13 hidden)

##### DirectX Media Objects (32-bit) #####

(A total of 14 DMO, 0 shown, 14 hidden)

##### DirectX Media Objects (64-bit) #####

(A total of 14 DMO, 0 shown, 14 hidden)

Install the 16.0.9 update. Then it should use acceleration again.

Officially, profile level 6 is not compatible with hardware acceleration. But latest version of the decoder now checks if the video parameters fall within the supported values for acceleration. This video is compatible with L5.1 (and thus acceleration), so the camera is flagging it with unnecessary high level.

I will try it out.

Just to suplement the information. The official specification of the camera indicates that the bitrate of 4K 60p recording is at/up to 360 Mbps.
Looking at the wikipedia page about the profiles I can read that the Level 6.1 is the lowest one that supports 360 Mbps. I assume that this is the reason why the camera marks it that way. The clip I mentioned above has around 303 Mbps, but others may go up to 360 Mbps.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Video_Coding#Profiles

Will the abovementioned update be incorporated in the next full release of the standard codec pack ?

I can confirm that the update patch fixed the issue. CPU is at around 5% and GPU at around 50%. Thanks !

They are already included, you can get them from the beta page: https://codecguide.com/klcp_beta.htm

PS: The link isn't yet updated but you can copy the link and replace the numer 8 with 9.

I used the stand alone patch to update. Thanks

I hope that my previous note has been noticed. I paste it again, just in case

Just to suplement the information. The official specification of the camera indicates that the bitrate of 4K 60p recording is at/up to 360 Mbps.
Looking at the wikipedia page about the profiles and levels I can read that the Level 6.1 is the lowest one that supports 360 Mbps. I assume that this is the reason why the camera marks it that way. The clip I mentioned above has around 303 Mbps, but others may go up to 360 Mbps.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Video_Coding#Levels

High bitrate is usually not a problem for the hardware decoders. But yes, that must be why the level was set to 6.1.