hardware or codec?

Hi - I have performance issues on my desktop PC and am unsure if it's a problem with the hardware and hoping someone could help me debug.

It's mainly an issue with high res h265 files where the video either plays very slowly or is choppy depending on the codec and whether it's hardware accelerated. The PC has a Ryzen 5 3600, which shows 20-30% cpu usage on playback, and a GeForce 970.

I had thought this was a hardware limitation but I've just tried a problematic file on my laptop which played perfectly in the Windows Media Player app (K-lite is not installed but I have the paid-for Microsoft HEVC extensions). The laptop isn't very powerful but is newer technology so perhaps that's the difference? It has an 11th gen i5-1135G7.

I installed the Microsoft HEVC extensions on the desktop too but that doesn't seem to have helped and I'm not convinced they are being used. On the laptop, Windows Media Player couldn't play the video until I installed them but it did on the desktop. I have had VLC, Potplayer and mpv installed on the PC previously so possibly one of those installed some codec that it is using. Is there a way to check/configure the codec in Media Player?

Does anyone know if the CPU or GPU would be the cause of my problems or what I could try to improve performance/debug the issue?

Geforce 970 does not have hardware acceleration for HEVC (= H.265) unlike your laptop.

So hardware acceleration isn’t available - but shouldn’t it still play well unless the CPU is getting overloaded?

Make sure that you did not enable hardware acceleration, because then it might do some hybrid acceleration which has bad performance.

Copy MediaInfo details here of a video that plays badly.

I've just done a Fresh Install with all the defaults, which included the following...



In MPC-HC, Play -> Filters -> LAV Video Decoder (internal), Hardware Decoder to use is set to None.

Here is a file that is still problematic:

Code:

General
Complete name                  : C:\Users\vmr\OneDrive\Desktop\DJI_0170.MP4
Format                         : MPEG-4
Format profile                 : Base Media
Codec ID                       : isom (isom/iso2/mp41)
File size                      : 2.21 GiB
Duration                       : 2 min 7 s
Overall bit rate               : 150 Mb/s
Encoded date                   : UTC 2023-02-09 13:49:17
Tagged date                    : UTC 2023-02-09 13:49:17
Writing application            : DJI DEFAULT ENCODING
Cover                          : Yes
Comment                        : EIS:OFF,FOV:Wide
snal                           : (Binary)

Video
ID                             : 1
Format                         : HEVC
Format/Info                    : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                 : Main@L5@High
Codec ID                       : hvc1
Codec ID/Info                  : High Efficiency Video Coding
Duration                       : 2 min 6 s
Bit rate                       : 150 Mb/s
Width                          : 2 688 pixels
Height                         : 2 016 pixels
Display aspect ratio           : 4:3
Frame rate mode                : Constant
Frame rate                     : 119.880 (120000/1001) FPS
Color space                    : YUV
Chroma subsampling             : 4:2:0
Bit depth                      : 8 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)             : 0.230
Stream size                    : 2.21 GiB (100%)
Encoded date                   : UTC 2023-02-09 13:49:17
Tagged date                    : UTC 2023-02-09 13:49:17
Color range                    : Limited
colour_primaries_Original      : BT.709
transfer_characteristics_Origi : BT.709
matrix_coefficients_Original   : BT.709
Codec configuration box        : hvcC

Other #1
Type                           : meta
Duration                       : 2 min 7 s
Bit rate mode                  : Variable
Default                        : No

Other #2
Type                           : nail
Default                        : No


I see that it has a framerate of 120, while your screen probably is only 60 Hz. That means that half the frames will be dropped/skipped.

Try different video renderer:
MPC Options > Playback > Output

If you can record an upload a similar test recording, then I can check what happens if I play it on my computer.

I've tried all the renderers and they have varying levels of slowness/jumping other than Null (obviously) and Sync Renderer (which plays a few frames then freezes indefinitely).

Here is a short sample file: https://1drv.ms/v/s!Au0Gr8fqqUYxsJU_s5sYTEQ0rFVBoA?e=GGEcKu

I can confirm the stuttering problem with software decoding. Hardware decoding works good. I need to investigate what goes wrong. That will take some time.

See if your DJI has a settings to record at a lower framerate such as 60 fps. I am curious if such recordings also have problems.

I get the same (or very similar at least) stuttering at 60fps.

It does seem to be a performance problem. It plays without stutters if I lower the playback rate to 0.25x.

Total CPU usage is misleading in case of multiple cores and when parts of decoding process are not multi-threaded. There is a bottleneck in the decoding somewhere.

I don't have a solution for you, except to play on a PC with modern GPU that can do hardware acceleration.

Check if there is an option to lower the bitrate of the video. That could help. 150 Mbps is very high. Blu-ray is between 50 and 100.

Thanks - I’ve used this to justify getting an RTX 3060 which will bring a number of other benefits too