Adding support for high-def and low-def .MKV, .MP4, and .MOV files

[Max Leung]

This thread is intended for advanced TheaterTek users who want to experience the goodness of the next generation high-def formats...

UPDATE May 7, 2006: This post has an alternate method for getting MKV etc. files to play - GraphEdit not needed! http://www.theatertek.com/forums/sho...&postcount=124

You can grab the latest GraphEdit in this post: http://www.theatertek.com/forums/sho...4&postcount=33

(You can find many 720p and 1080p trailers at http://www.davestrailerpage.co.uk/ . You can rename these files to have an extension of .mkv or .mp4.)

Attached is a screenshot of the filters I used for playback of high-def WMV, XVID, and h.264 mkv files. Once you create the graph as shown, save it as mkv.grf, mp4.grf, and even mov.grf (for playback of high-def Quicktime movies).

This graph assumes you have the following filters installed:

• The latest Haali Media Splitter

Can be found at http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/ - download the MatroskaSplitter linked to in the right.

If you want subtitle support, be sure to right click on the filter in GraphEdit to edit the Filter Properties, and be sure that Autoload VSFilter is set to Yes in the Compatibility folder.

Attached is a screen shot of the Insert Filter dialog box in Graphedit - just double click on it to add it to your graph. This procedure can be done for the rest of the filters below.

Note that when you add the splitter to the graph, you will be prompted for a media file to load - pick an .mkv file that you feel is representative of the type of mkvs you will play.

• FFDShow

I am assuming you installed FFShow along with its Audio Decoder. In the Audio Decoder Configuration, you can set AC3 and DTS to "SP/DIF" if you want passthrough instead of remixing (like AC3Filter does). FFDShow can also decode AAC 5.1 audio - another standard from HD-DVD/Bluray.

If you plan on using a different video decoder for h.264 video, be sure to DISABLE h.264 playback in FFDShow.

The version of FFDShow I use is the 2005-11-24 version.

NOTE: You may need to disable RAW codec support - otherwise FFDShow may insert itself to every graph you create, causing problems.

• (Optional) AC3Filter or DScaler Audio Decoder

I use the DScaler Audio Decoder because I have not found a reliable way of getting the NVIDIA Audio Decoder to play back in the graph. I set DScaler to do SP/DIF passthrough. Normally I would use FFDShow's Audio Decoder, but I'm having issues with pops and crackles with FFDShow. Your mileage may vary!

Otherwise, you can use AC3Filter - the attached screenshot doesn't have it included but you can add it to the graph instead of DScaler Audio Decoder instead.

• CoreAVC decoder

CoreAVC can be found at http://www.coreavc.org . It is a commercial product, but reasonably priced. UPDATED: There is also a free alpha version 0.0.0.4 that is very hard to find now, as the authors of the software no longer wish this version to be distributed! You may get lucky with Google, or find someone who is willing to copy it for you.

ORIGINAL information that is now obsolete (link no longer works): There is also a free alpha version 0.0.0.4 that can be found here: http://www.cccp-project.net/wiki/ind...?title=CoreAVC

This decoder is for playback of h.264 video and outperforms even the ATI and NVIDIA hardware accelerated solutions (except the NVIDIA 7900 GTX card with the Cyberlink h.264 decoder - but why spend the money on that?).

• DirectVobSub

Embedded soft-subtitle support - can be found here: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/DirectVobSub.htm

Note that in my example I selected the Default WaveOut Device for the audio renderer - choose a different one if needed!

Also, the video renderer I chose is VMR9 - this allows use of Fullscreen Exclusive Mode in TheaterTek. However, if this is too much CPU usage for your system you can choose Overlay or the plain old Video Renderer instead.

[Max Leung]

Feel free to add your graphs here - obviously my graph works on my system, but may not work as well for others.

Have fun!

[Max Leung]

BTW, I forgot to add that the WMV video decoder should be added to the graph. It is called WMVideo Decoder DMO in the screenshot.

I suppose you could also add the Windows Media Audio Decoder too - but I don't think this is very common in MKV files.

Note: If an MKV file requires a filter that is not in the graph, it may be loaded anyways by TT because DirectShow can auto-load filters it thinks it needs - so debugging can be very complicated!

Another Note: You may need to disable FFDShow's Raw codec support - I found on my system that if Raw is enabled, FFDShow will insert itself to EVERY graph, causing system performance issues and generally messing everything up!

[Bob Loblaw]

This is mine for High Def x264 MKV files:



Problem is, my audio is strangely low using AC3filter since upgrading to 2.3. Any resolution for this?

[cartman69]

Bob I'm using you're graph and playback is great I am having 1 strange problem. Theatertek is set for fullscreen mode, so the only way i can change the audio stream, is to double click in theatertek to get it windowed, i can then change audio stream. But when i go back to fullscreen mode it reverts back to the default audio track I've tried CTRL+A to change to then next audio stream but i get message - NOT POSSIBLE??? Any ideas

[PeterSt]

You can't do it with ctrl-c (from full screen) ?

[Max Leung]

To change streams click on Status in the top bar, then click on the file name, and you should see a list of streams.

Also, be sure you are using the latest Haali Media Splitter.

[Max Leung]

Bob, low audio with AC3Filter may mean that you need to increase the Windows volume before launching TT.

I am assuming you are not using AC3Filter's SP/DIF passthrough feature for AC3 audio.

[PeterSt]

Originally Posted by Max Leung

Bob, low audio with AC3Filter may mean that you need to increase the Windows volume before launching TT.

I am assuming you are not using AC3Filter's SP/DIF passthrough feature for AC3 audio.

There was a post in the past that told that the volume shoud be put up at INSTALL of TT ...
This was general volume though, not AC3 specific.

[cartman69]

thnx max works a treat i installed latest version of haali to be on the safe side. Peter CTRL+C doesn't get you to the correct menu, it's the context menu you need, but this must be disables in fullscreen mode as CTRL+P doen't work. Status menu as max says works fine.

[mradem]

I am abit unexperienced using GraphEdit. Could somebody tell me abit how it worls? I have GraphEdit, Matroska pack (with Haali splitter) installed.
I have for instance a speed1080i.mkv file.

Or is it just to complicated to tell in a few words?

[Max Leung]

Have a look at the GraphEdit Help menu. It is kinda tough to explain it - I'm sure someone wrote a small tutorial online, but hopefully you can find it with Google.

[Max Leung]

Here is a tutorial I found on ZoomPlayer's site. It does have instructions specific to Zoomplayer, but you can ignore those.

http://www.inmatrix.com/articles/dvdgraph.shtml

Also, when you save the grf file for use in TheaterTek, it is best to delete the connections between pins before saving.

[cartman69]

i followed the link to create a dvd graph, which worked fine up to the point when i had to save it, what filename do i need to save it as to get theatertek to use it as the default graph for dvd's. I tried dvd.grf but no joy.
TIA

[mayburnik]

Try ifo.grf.

Here's my question. I tried creating a graph for a mov file (ice age 2 trailer). It has AAC 5.1 audio but when I drag the file over, it gets an error that I dont have the audio decoder for that. I have ffdshow and enabled AAC decoding. Any ideas?

Thanks.

[cartman69]

mayburnik - sorry can't help as you can tell i'm a newbie called graph ifo.grf but can't get dvd to play, graph works fine in graphedit, but theatertek just hangs when i try and use it, here's my graph.

[mayburnik]

thats fine. total newbie as well.

have you tried disconnecting all pins? i think max suggested that whne using it in tt2.3

[cartman69]

yes i have disconnected the pins,I've got a graph for .ts working, so i have a small grasp on how to do it. I've tried doing it exactly how it says in the link, but even that doesn't seem to work for me. I changed to nvidia decoder as that was what theatertek is using along with line21 2 decoder and vwmr9. Hmmm need to take a break my head hurts

[mayburnik]

cartman

im trying to recreate your same graph so i can troubleshoot the same thing but i noticed that my Video mixing renderer 9 only has 1 input pin. not sure why? am i picking the wrong filter?

[Vern Dias]

VMR9 starts with one pin until you connect something to that pin. Then it automagically grows additional pins.....

Vern