Bluray playback Flickering

Hi,

I get a flickering light to dim (like a light switch being turned on and off repeatedly) on Blu-ray play back in MPC when the video slows or show the same image for a few seconds. This is not present when using VLC, however I like MPC better. I was wondering if there is a fix for this.

Details:
Computer:      GIGABYTE B365M DS3H WIFI
CPU:           Intel Core i3-9100 (Coffee Lake-S, B0)
              3600 MHz (36.00x100.0) @ 4000 MHz (40.00x100.0)
Motherboard:   GIGABYTE B365M DS3H WIFI
BIOS:          F2b Y1, 12/17/2019
Chipset:       Intel B365 (Kaby Lake)
Memory:        16384 MBytes @ 1200 MHz, 19-19-19-43
              - 8192 MB PC21300 DDR4 SDRAM - Chun Well Technology CL19-19-19 D4-2666
              - 8192 MB PC21300 DDR4 SDRAM - Chun Well Technology CL19-19-19 D4-2666
Graphics:      Intel UHD Graphics 630 (Coffee Lake-S GT2) [GIGABYTE]
              Intel UHD Graphics 630, 1024 MB
Drive:         ST2000DM008-2FR102, 1953.5 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 6Gb/s
Drive:         ST2000DM008-2FR102, 1953.5 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 6Gb/s
Drive:         WDC WDS500G2B0C-00PXH0, 488.4 GB, NVMe
Drive:         WDC WD10SDZW-11UMGS0, 976.7 GB, Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 6Gb/s <-> USB
Drive:         HL-DT-ST BD-RE  WH16NS40, BD-RE
Sound:         Intel Kaby Lake - High Definition Audio / cAVS (Audio, Voice, Speech) [A0]
Network:       Intel Wireless-AC 9260 160MHz
Network:       Realtek 8812BU Wireless LAN 802.11ac USB NIC
OS:            Microsoft Windows 10 Professional (x64) Build 19042.1023 (20H2)

Test if disabling hardware acceleration in the video decoder settings makes any difference.

Also try with a different video renderer:
MPC-HC options > Playback > Output

Thanks for the reply the hardware acceleration didn't make a difference but switching to madVR fixed it. Sorry I should have tried this on my own first. Again thanks for the help.

Was it set to "MPC Video Renderer" before?
Could you test for me if changing any of its settings also solves the problem?
Try the "Use Direct3D 11" setting. Also try unchecking everything in the box "DXVA2 and D3D11 video processor".

Yes it was MPC Video rendering. I don't have Direct3D 11 in options. But under LAV Video settings I have a D3D11 setting but don't see the box "DXVA2 and D3D11 video processor". If that was the Direct3D 11 setting you requested it still works fine.

You can access the settings of the renderer here:
MPC-HC menu > Play > Filters > MPC Video Renderer

I retried Options > Rendering and it only appears with MPC Rendering without the Use Direct3D 11 checked (DXVA2 and D3D11 box checked or unchecked didn't matter) and in Enhanced Video rendering. The MPC Rendering now works fine with the Use Direct3D 11 checked.

Thanks for testing.

Do I understand correctly that "Enhanced Video Renderer" also had the flickering problem? Did "Enhanced Video Renderer (Custom Presenter)" work ok?

Yes it was present in both "Enhanced Video Renderer" and "Enhanced Video Renderer (Custom Presenter)".

Have a look in the Intel graphics control panel. Find option called "dynamic contrast" or "adaptive brightness" or something similar. Disable that. That might also solve the problem.

If your whole screen flickers, then look in the power settings in the graphics control panel. Disable all the power saving options related to the display. I had had flickering problems once on a laptop because of one of these options.

OK it was the Setting called 'Contrast Enhancement' in the Intel Graphics Command Center under Video the flickering occurs when it is turned on and doesn't when it is turned off or I use the Filter Driect3D 11.

I have totally removed all power saving setting in Windows 10. I never use any - Ultimate Performance.

Do keep in mind the VLC plays fine with the Contrast Enhancement set. I just don't care for the VLC interface and not opening directories correctly. I have been a user MPC from the K-Lite for years and will continue to do so via the work around Filter.

I use Windows 10 Driver Update and do not use Intel or Gigabyte update bloatware since these have caused problems and suck up resources. My drivers are up to date form MS for Windows 10 21H1.

Thanks again for your help.

Contrast Enhancement is probably only applied by the driver when a renderer uses DXVA2 processing (not to be confused with DXVA2 decoding). That is why it happened only with some of the video renderers. And also not with Direct3D11 enabled. VLC also does not use DXVA2 processing, so that is why it didn't suffer from the problem.

I am a Windows Systems Engineer and not a programmer, so I don't know the intricacies of application to driver calls. So just use the workaround Direct3D11 and don't worry about it or will some future driver or MPC release fix this? Thanks again for your patience.

I do plan to make Direct3D11 the default for Intel on Windows 10.

But ultimately it would be best if Intel fixes their drivers. But I don't have much hope they will.

The K-Lite installer actually tries to disable Contrast Enhancement pro-actively given that is is known to cause trouble. So maybe your driver was updated after K-Lite, or maybe Intel moved keys to a different location in newer drivers. I will investigate that.

Here are the relevant registry keys:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Intel\Display\igfxcui\Media]
"EnableACE"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Intel\Display\igfxcui\MediaKeys]
"EnableACE"=dword:00000000

Thanks I really appreciate your assistance.