High definition DVD will be coming to the PC in the near future. With 1080p resolution and high definition audio, many PCs will not be able to play back high definition DVDs smoothly. This guide will help you find out if your system is fast enough.
Software you'll need:
Currently, there aren't many commercially available PCs that can play back high definition DVDs due to the limited availability of Blu-ray/HD DVD hardware. The amount of movies available is also a problem. To test high definition DVD, we are going to approximate it by playing back some high definition H.264 movies and measuring the playback framerate using Fraps.
The clips we will be using are encoded using the H.264 video codec, along with AAC audio, at a resolution of 720p (1280x720, progressive) or 1080p (1920x1080, progressive). This is actually quite close to both the Blu-ray and HD DVD specifications (and we've tried to keep the encoding parameters close as well) - both Blu-ray and HD DVD can use H.264 as the video encoder, as it is much more efficient than DVD's MPEG-2.
The first thing you will need to do is to download a H.264 sample clips we've produced for use with this guide. We've produced both a 720p clip and a 1080p clip, from the theatrical trailer for the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest". It is highly recommended that you download both files and test your system with both of them, as the amount of CPU cycles required by the 1080p clip can be as much as double that of the 720p clip.
Here are the files you need to download:
The next step involves setting up your system so this file can be played in Media Player Classic (MPC) and other multimedia players like Windows Media Player (WMP). It is possible to play back H.264 files in PowerDVD, but PowerDVD is not free.
Software you'll need:
Currently, there aren't many commercially available PCs that can play back high definition DVDs due to the limited availability of Blu-ray/HD DVD hardware. The amount of movies available is also a problem. To test high definition DVD, we are going to approximate it by playing back some high definition H.264 movies and measuring the playback framerate using Fraps.
The clips we will be using are encoded using the H.264 video codec, along with AAC audio, at a resolution of 720p (1280x720, progressive) or 1080p (1920x1080, progressive). This is actually quite close to both the Blu-ray and HD DVD specifications (and we've tried to keep the encoding parameters close as well) - both Blu-ray and HD DVD can use H.264 as the video encoder, as it is much more efficient than DVD's MPEG-2.
The first thing you will need to do is to download a H.264 sample clips we've produced for use with this guide. We've produced both a 720p clip and a 1080p clip, from the theatrical trailer for the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest". It is highly recommended that you download both files and test your system with both of them, as the amount of CPU cycles required by the 1080p clip can be as much as double that of the 720p clip.
Here are the files you need to download:
- 720p Trailer (63 MB)
- 1080p Trailer (123 MB)
The next step involves setting up your system so this file can be played in Media Player Classic (MPC) and other multimedia players like Windows Media Player (WMP). It is possible to play back H.264 files in PowerDVD, but PowerDVD is not free.
Page 2 of 4: Enabling H.264 playback in Media Player Classic (and Windows Media Player)
This section shows you how to enable H.264 playback in Media Player Classic (and Windows Media Player). If you can already play back the ".mp4" file within Media Player Classic or WMP, or if you plan on using a different player to test the software (as long as the file plays, it doesn't really matter which player you use), then you can skip this section and move straight on to the "Testing with Fraps" section.
Please note that the instructions below are purely for the purpose of testing high definition DVD playback. It does not give you a very usable configuration for ffdshow - it merely allows you to play back the ".mp4" file that will be used for this test (mp4 file with h.264 video and AAC audio - remember that mp4 files, like AVI files, can contain numerous types of video and audio codecs, and just because you can play one mp4 file it doesn't mean you can play them all).
Installing MPC:
Installing ffdshow:
Installing Haali Media Splitter:
Associating .mp4 files with MPC:
Alternatively, the file should also be playable in Windows Media Player, by simply dragging the mp4 file into WMP.
Please note that the instructions below are purely for the purpose of testing high definition DVD playback. It does not give you a very usable configuration for ffdshow - it merely allows you to play back the ".mp4" file that will be used for this test (mp4 file with h.264 video and AAC audio - remember that mp4 files, like AVI files, can contain numerous types of video and audio codecs, and just because you can play one mp4 file it doesn't mean you can play them all).
Installing MPC:
- Download the MPC version that is suitable for your operating system
- MPC is really just a single executable, so extract the .exe file to any directory you wish (eg. c:\Program Files\Media Player Classic\)
- Click on the .exe file to start MPC. Easy.
Installing ffdshow:
- Check to see if you already have ffdshow installed (Start -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs).
- Download ffdshow and start the install. When asked to select the "Video decoders", make sure at least the "H.264, X264" option is selected. If you already have ffdshow installed, then leave the other options as they are and select the "H.264, X264" option if it is not selected already. If you don't have ffdshow installed and don't plan on using ffdshow to decode your other video files, then make sure you select the "H.264, X264" option only.
On the next screen, if you already have ffdshow installed then leave the other options as they are and select the "AAC" option if it is not selected already. If you don't have ffdshow installed and don't plan on using ffdshow to decode your other audio files, then make sure you select the "AAC" option only.
- For the purpose of this test, deselect the "Postprocessing" on the next step and also "Volume normalization" on the step after.
- Proceed with the rest of the installation (you do not need to change any of the default selected options).
Installing Haali Media Splitter:
- This step is optional for MPC, but required for WMP.
- Download Haali Media Splitter
- Run the installer and when you get to the option select step, make sure the "Enable MP4 support" option is selected.
Associating .mp4 files with MPC:
- Right click on the ".mp4" you are using for this test. From the menu that opens, select the "Open With -> Choose Program" option, or if it isn't there, select "Open".
- Click on "Browse" and locate your MPC .exe file (eg. c:\Program Files\Media Player Classic\mplayerc.exe). Select the "Always use the selected program ..." option if you want to make the association permanent. Press "OK" to close the window.
Alternatively, the file should also be playable in Windows Media Player, by simply dragging the mp4 file into WMP.
Page 3 of 4: Testing with Fraps
This section shows you how to test the playback performance of the H.264 mp4 file using a benchmarking tool called Fraps.
Fraps is mainly designed for games, but it can also be used on video. Fraps can provide a benchmarking report (as well as take screenshots) from video playback.
Installing and Configuring Fraps:
Testing with Fraps:
Fraps is mainly designed for games, but it can also be used on video. Fraps can provide a benchmarking report (as well as take screenshots) from video playback.
Installing and Configuring Fraps:
- Download Fraps and install it. Please note where you installed Fraps into (default: c:\Fraps\). Start Fraps and go to the "FPS" section.
- Make sure the "MinMaxAvg" option is enabled and you can set the "Overlay Corner" option to "Disabled". Take note of the "Benchmarking Hotkey", which by default should be the F11 key. This is the key that we will use to start and end the benchmark.
- Don't close Fraps, but you can minimize it.
Testing with Fraps:
- It is recommended that you test playback at the highest resolution your monitor can support. 1080p HD files can be 1920x1080 in resolution, so the high resolution is required to get the best out of HD.
- Double click on your ".mp4" file to start playback within MPC.
- Double click on the main playback area to go into fullscreen mode.
- Press the Fraps benchmarking hotkey ("F11") to start the test and then press it again to end the test. It's best to make sure the test is as long as possible, so for the "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" trailer clip I used, I started the benchmark just after the MPAA disclaimer screen and ended it when the "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" title appeared on screen near the end.
- Once testing has finished, go to the Fraps installation directory (default: c:\Fraps\) and open the FRAPSLOG.TXT. If this file is not there, then it means the benchmark was not started properly and you will have to do it again (make sure you press the "F11" key, and sometimes you need to activate your keyboard's "F Lock" key to enable the F-keys). The FRAPSLOG.TXT contains the benchmark results.
Page 4 of 4: Analysing the results
Your Fraps benchmark result should look like this:
The important figure is the on in bold above. This is your average framerate.
The framerate of the Pirates of the Caribbean trailer used is 23.976 frames per second. The result above shows that while the system was able to playback the file, it still results in some frames being dropped and some skipping in the file. In other words, the closer the above number is to 23.976, the more likely your system will be able to handle high definition DVD playback.
Below are some sample results returned from our test systems, along with the test system's specs.
Test System 1:
AMD XP 2500+
1 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700
Resolution: 1280x1024
720p Result: 23.976
1080p Result: 11.916
Test System 2:
Pentium-4 3.2 GHz
1 GB RAM
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Resolution: 1280x1024
720p Result: 23.976
1080p Result: 17.136
Test System 3 (Notebook):
Pentium-M 2 GHz
1 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600
Resolution: 1280x800
720p Result: 23.976
1080p Result: 16.766
The sample results above show that playback was perfect for the 720p clip on all the test systems. The 1080p was a totally different story, with none of the systems able to play back the clip at the full framerate.
Please note that the ffdshow H.264 decoder used (libavcodec) is not the most efficient one around. The most efficient decoder at the time of writing appears to be the CoreAVC codec. The professional version of this codec will also eventually features GPU acceleration support, which is simply a way of using your (most likely very powerful) graphics card to help with the video decoding. CoreAVC is not freeware, but it's well worth checking out.
GPU acceleration is already available in NVIDIA's PureVideo decoder (obviously for NVIDIA GeForce series 6 and 7 cards only), which is NVIDIA's GPU acceleration driver. ATI's version of PureVideo is called Avivo, which is actually free and available for the X1000 series as part of the Catalyst driver set (5.13 or later). You will require a separate Avivo compatible decoder, like the one PowerDVD uses (although it does not seem to be as compatible as ffdshow/CoreAVC).
All of these decoders are still constantly being improved, and performance has risen along with each new version. Using an older Alpha version of the CoreAVC codec (considered by many to be the most efficient out there), I was able to play back the 1080p clip at full frames on "Test System 2", so it shows the importance of decoder efficiency.
If you can already play back the 1080p clip at the full framerate, then you should be fairly confident that your system will be able to handle high definition DVD content. If it is only missing a couple of FPS for the 1080p clip, but playing back the 720p clip well, then there is still a good chance you'll be able to play back HighDef DVDs smoothly (at least at a down-scaled 720p resolution). If you can't even play back the 720p clip at full frames, then I think a system upgrade might be a good idea (although waiting a while to see what's up with Windows Vista might be a good idea, but that's a topic for another article).
2006-06-03 18:59:24 - mplayerc
Frames: 2689 - Time: 112153ms - Avg: 23.976 - Min: 22 - Max: 26
Frames: 2689 - Time: 112153ms - Avg: 23.976 - Min: 22 - Max: 26
The important figure is the on in bold above. This is your average framerate.
The framerate of the Pirates of the Caribbean trailer used is 23.976 frames per second. The result above shows that while the system was able to playback the file, it still results in some frames being dropped and some skipping in the file. In other words, the closer the above number is to 23.976, the more likely your system will be able to handle high definition DVD playback.
Below are some sample results returned from our test systems, along with the test system's specs.
Test System 1:
AMD XP 2500+
1 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700
Resolution: 1280x1024
720p Result: 23.976
1080p Result: 11.916
Test System 2:
Pentium-4 3.2 GHz
1 GB RAM
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Resolution: 1280x1024
720p Result: 23.976
1080p Result: 17.136
Test System 3 (Notebook):
Pentium-M 2 GHz
1 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600
Resolution: 1280x800
720p Result: 23.976
1080p Result: 16.766
The sample results above show that playback was perfect for the 720p clip on all the test systems. The 1080p was a totally different story, with none of the systems able to play back the clip at the full framerate.
Please note that the ffdshow H.264 decoder used (libavcodec) is not the most efficient one around. The most efficient decoder at the time of writing appears to be the CoreAVC codec. The professional version of this codec will also eventually features GPU acceleration support, which is simply a way of using your (most likely very powerful) graphics card to help with the video decoding. CoreAVC is not freeware, but it's well worth checking out.
GPU acceleration is already available in NVIDIA's PureVideo decoder (obviously for NVIDIA GeForce series 6 and 7 cards only), which is NVIDIA's GPU acceleration driver. ATI's version of PureVideo is called Avivo, which is actually free and available for the X1000 series as part of the Catalyst driver set (5.13 or later). You will require a separate Avivo compatible decoder, like the one PowerDVD uses (although it does not seem to be as compatible as ffdshow/CoreAVC).
All of these decoders are still constantly being improved, and performance has risen along with each new version. Using an older Alpha version of the CoreAVC codec (considered by many to be the most efficient out there), I was able to play back the 1080p clip at full frames on "Test System 2", so it shows the importance of decoder efficiency.
If you can already play back the 1080p clip at the full framerate, then you should be fairly confident that your system will be able to handle high definition DVD content. If it is only missing a couple of FPS for the 1080p clip, but playing back the 720p clip well, then there is still a good chance you'll be able to play back HighDef DVDs smoothly (at least at a down-scaled 720p resolution). If you can't even play back the 720p clip at full frames, then I think a system upgrade might be a good idea (although waiting a while to see what's up with Windows Vista might be a good idea, but that's a topic for another article).
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