Thinkpads Forum

Shredder11 wrote: Your download link did not work for me, so I Googled for the file name and downloaded a 141MB file which has a 23.97 film frame rate.

Sorry, just realised that it only works when I save the URL (right click etc) and then manually paste it in a separate window.

Shredder11 wrote: Hmmm.....I think we have found your problem! When running the Planet Earth Pole to Pole video, it does not utilise the Broadcom and infact this decoder is absent from the Filters menu in the K-Lite Codec pack; CPU use at around 25secs is approx 60% on my Core2 Duo T7500. If I then run my football video again, the Broadcom is fully available and running. By the way I am not sure if you know this, but there is a file here C:\Program Files\Broadcom\Broadcom CrystalHD Decoder\DTS_Info.exe and when launched, it places an icon in the Windows System Tray and this lights up red and green if the video decoder is operating or not.

Thank you: just tried DTS_Info.exe and it stays gray with my .mkv file and turns red and green with the other HD (.divx) file I have.

Wondering what exactly in the .mkv file it dislikes...


axur-delmeria:

> Try this one.

Could you please confirm your card kicks in when you play this very .mkv file? If so did you have to change any settings or do any tweaks for that?

Out of countless video files I have played. this is the first one I have found that does not work with the Broadcom. I have no idea why yet as I have other videos with similar specifications. Oh well at least you now know that your decoder card is working.

Shredder11 wrote:Oh well at least you now know that your decoder card is working.

Yes, it'd just be great to view a proper sample (like your football recording I suppose) where visual difference is obvious: e.g. when I play that other .divx file, which btw is the 2nd video sample called Micayala Gatto here:
http://www.divx.com/en/devices/profiles/video
direct DL link:
http://trailers.divx.com/divx_prod/prof ... p_ASP.divx

, the card when enabled appears to take ~30% off CPU load (from 40-50% down to 10-20%) but the video plays equally well when it's disabled, even though it's also live enough with everything moving fast.

dandreye wrote:

Shredder11 wrote:Oh well at least you now know that your decoder card is working.

Yes, it'd just be great to view a proper sample (like your football recording I suppose) where visual difference is obvious: e.g. when I play that other .divx file, which btw is the 2nd video sample called Micayala Gatto here:
http://www.divx.com/en/devices/profiles/video
direct DL link:
http://trailers.divx.com/divx_prod/prof ... p_ASP.divx

, the card when enabled appears to take ~30% off CPU load (from 40-50% down to 10-20%) but the video plays equally well when it's disabled, even though it's also live enough with everything moving fast.

Well even the CPU reduction is worthwhile to save battery and reduce heat etc. The reason why the difference was so great between my two Z61p laptops on that YouTube video I made, is because the football video was 50 frames per second. Even the non-Broadcom equipped laptop can play 1080p if the framerate is only 25fps. Once you step up to 50fps for ultra smooth playback you then need the Broadcom.

Shredder11 wrote: Well even the CPU reduction is worthwhile to save battery and reduce heat etc.

Totally agree: why not offload CPU when a card dedicated to video processing is so affordable.

Shredder11 wrote:The reason why the difference was so great between my two Z61p laptops on that YouTube video I made, is because the football video was 50 frames per second. Even the non-Broadcom equipped laptop can play 1080p if the framerate is only 25fps. Once you step up to 50fps for ultra smooth playback you then need the Broadcom.

Looks like only sports videos have that high frame rate: been searching and searching here for anything short timed and everything I'm finding is up to 30fps. In fact the Planet Earth mkv sample where the difference should be visible is 24fps. Hope axur-delmeria or someone else will comment on why it doesn't use the card.

I'd say this card is a must for full HD sports videos and desirable for any other full HD videos: no regrets having paid just over £11 for it.

I suppose maybe Blu-Ray films might use higher frame rates? I know that the video my Panasonic Lumix camera produces is in the Blu-Ray format and at high frames rates of 50+. YouTube also has 50fps videos appearing all the time now, although sadly since they and the various browser developers dropped support for Flash the Broadcom no longer works for online video. Up until last year I could use the Broadcom with Internet Explorer and Flash v10, to watch 1080p 50fps on my X61. However I often download videos from YouTube and then play them back using the Broadcom. Downloading from YouTube is very quick and there are various programs available to do this, although I generally use the JDownloader 2 I mentioned to you previously.

Shredder11 wrote:I suppose maybe Blu-Ray films might use higher frame rates? I know that the video my Panasonic Lumix camera produces is in the Blu-Ray format and at high frames rates of 50+. YouTube also has 50fps videos appearing all the time now, although sadly since they and the various browser developers dropped support for Flash the Broadcom no longer works for online video. Up until last year I could use the Broadcom with Internet Explorer and Flash v10, to watch 1080p 50fps on my X61. However I often download videos from YouTube and then play them back using the Broadcom. Downloading from YouTube is very quick and there are various programs available to do this, although I generally use the JDownloader 2 I mentioned to you previously.

Just found this 1080p 50fps one and downloaded it using JDownloader 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT813V5tzEk

The CPU offload looks more efficient here: ~80% CPU util w/o the card vs ~10-20% with the card. Looks like it takes away whatever CPU load is on top of those ~10-20%, which are probably back-end activities like reading video file from disk. Must admit that visual difference is still barely noticeable if at all but still good to have a device dedicated to video decoding job, especially when watching full HD on a regular basis.

Before I bought and installed this decoder card, I had read comments by people saying the video quality was poor compared with their onboard graphics etc. Like you I cannot see any difference and I spent years doing video encoding, so I became very picky about such issues. This card gives great looking video quality.

I don't have a Broadcom card at the moment so I can't test for sure. It's just one many test videos I've used over the years and I probably remembered incorrectly that the BCM70015 can decode it.

Usually it's the encoding settings that make some videos incompatible with video decoding hardware, especially when using Microsoft's DXVA interface (which the Broadcom driver uses AFAIK). Of particular note is the setting for "reference frames"-- IIRC setting it to more than 8 or 9 might cause the resulting video to be incompatible with DXVA, but I've forgotten the reason why.

axur-delmeria wrote:I don't have a Broadcom card at the moment so I can't test for sure. It's just one many test videos I've used over the years and I probably remembered incorrectly that the BCM70015 can decode it.

Usually it's the encoding settings that make some videos incompatible with video decoding hardware, especially when using Microsoft's DXVA interface (which the Broadcom driver uses AFAIK). Of particular note is the setting for "reference frames"-- IIRC setting it to more than 8 or 9 might cause the resulting video to be incompatible with DXVA, but I've forgotten the reason why.

Thanks for your reply. If you happen to recall any others you tested around that time we'll happily give them a try ) It'd still be great to see how this card handles a sample that otherwise makes CPU peak at 100% like that huge flock of flying birds, badly affecting video quality.

Just tried this video (snowboarding, HD 1920 x1080)

http://www.divx.com/en/devices/profiles/video

on my X61T (1.8 Ghz, 6 Gb RAM) with the Broadcom card.

First attempt with Windows Media Player did not activate the card, and CPU usage was between 85-100%, in fact the lowest was 85%, and most instances were pinging 100% regularly.

Second attempt was with Media Player Classic, card activated, and the CPU usage dropped to 30-40% consistently.

Have to do more experimenting with other formats and players to see if I can improve on those figures!

Regards.

Dave

As many will be aware, in 2015 many websites like YouTube stopped supporting Adobe Flash and this caused them to be incompatible with the Broadcom video decoder. However yesterday I discovered and downloaded a free software program that monitors your Windows clipboard for video URLs, and then streams them using Windows Media Classic player found in the K-Lite codec pack. It does indeed work but for me at least, tends to work when it feels like it regardless of the video link previously working with this little program. I think this is down to YouTube changing how their site works, which means the SVPtube developers are always playing catchup to fix errors etc. Anyway the link to the software is below and you simply unpack the file to a folder and run it. I find it works best to open the video in YouTube and then launch SVPtube. If you need to exit the program you have to force it via the Windows Task Manager, because the exit function in SVPtube does not work.

SVPtube

https://www.svp-team.com/w/index.php?title=SVPtube

Btw if HD video processor cards exist, wondering maybe similar "HD sound" cards also do? Looks like PCM > DSD upsampling can be done on PC even better than on a DAC.