Hi all,

After a wonderful experience using 7x64 RC1, after installing Retail version H.264/MKV playback in WMP12 and Windows 7MC was fine for a while with DivX Plus, for the last few months im experiencing difficulties with H.264/MKV playback in Windows 7x64 (join the club huh?)

My Build:

• ASUS P6X58D Premium
  
• Intel Core I7-960
• 12gb DDR3-16000
• 2x GT240 Silent
• X-Fi Fatality Titanium
• 4x 2TB WD
• LG Blu-Ray Reader/Writer
  
• Blackgold BGT3595 Dual DVB-S2 Tuner
• Thermaltake Toughpower XT
• Creative Gigaworks S750 7.1 Speakers (Sub modded to replace all the cheap caps with hi q japanese ones)
• LG Infinia 55LX9900 LED 3DTV
• Dreambox 500S
• 8TB ReadyNAS NV+
• 12TB ReadyNAS Pro Pioneer

Software

• Windows 7x64 Ultimate / Windows Vista Ultimate x64 (other partition)
  
• DivX Plus
• AC3 Filter 1.63b (64bit)
• Skyplayer (UK Sky Digital TV Player App integrated into Media Center UI - Windows 7x64 only)
• Silverlight
• Playready (Windows 7x64 only)
  

After overcoming a series of other impedences, (ATI Catalyst Drivers, Avast Antivirus causing even more severe stutter over GB Lan) i now have the problem narrowed down to the following set of results.

Playback in Windows 7 Media Center

• H.264/MKV files from local hard drive - Stuttering, Freezing sometimes, but has periods of playback of 15-20 seconds sometimes OK
  
• H.264/MKV files streaming from NAS over GB Lan (Jumbo Frames enabled) - Stuttering, Freezing - its like playing 1 - 3 FPS and audio is slowed down and choppy like a drunk dj who just found the sampler on his mixing desk, forget any controls theres about a 15sec delay, the only one that works is the big red x in the top right corner after about 15 seconds
  

Playback in Windows Media Player 12 in Windows 7x64

• H.264/MKV files from local hard drive - OK but often Audio/Video out of sync and often if you drag the slidey progress bar, it just freezes and goes into "Not Responding" state, sometimes stutters in first few seconds
• H.264/MKV files streaming from NAS over GB Lan (Jumbo Frames enabled) - Stuttering, Freezing, pressing stop/fwd,pause freezes although not as bad as Media Center
  

Playback in VLC 1.1.1 in Windows 7x64

• H.264/MKV files from local hard drive - Perfect, A/V sync precise, dragging progress bar works perfectly, AC3 works perfectly
  
• H.264/MKV files streaming from NAS over GB Lan (Jumbo Frames enabled) - Perfect, A/V sync precise, dragging progress bar works perfectly, AC3 works perfectly

Playback in Windows Vista Ultimate x64 Media Center

• H.264/MKV files from local hard drive - Perfect, A/V sync precise, FWD Skip control works perfectly, AC3 works perfectly
  
• H.264/MKV files streaming from NAS over GB Lan (Jumbo Frames enabled)  Perfect, A/V sync precise, FWD Skip control works perfectly, AC3 works perfectly

Playback in Windows Media Player 11 in Windows Vista Ultimate x64

• H.264/MKV files from local hard drive - Perfect, A/V sync precise, FWD Skip control works perfectly, AC3 works perfectly
  
• H.264/MKV files streaming from NAS over GB Lan (Jumbo Frames enabled) - Perfect, A/V sync precise, FWD Skip control works perfectly, AC3 works perfectly

Playback in VLC 1.1.1 in Windows Vista Ultimate x64

• H.264/MKV files from local hard drive - Perfect, A/V sync precise, dragging progress bar works perfectly, AC3 works perfectly
  
• H.264/MKV files streaming from NAS over GB Lan (Jumbo Frames enabled) - Perfect, A/V sync precise, dragging progress bar works perfectly, AC3 works perfectly

Other things i have tried:

• Sharks Codec Pack - Fixed all the stutter & A/V sync but screwed all the AC3 up so only my front speakers worked, tried for 2 days to sort out settings, but still no joy, also broke my TV playback and was a nightmare to get off my system, had to reinstall clean OS
  
• FFDSHOW Tryouts x64 - Fixed nothing
• All of the above on 2 other PC's starting with Fresh installs
  

Things i have Eliminated:

• Nvidia Driver issues - I installed every version from Beta that worked with Windows 7 up to current revision 258.xx - i know about the ATI catalyst issues from 2 other pcs with ATI GPU's
  
• DivX Plus pack - H.264/MKV streaming from NAS works on every OS, except Windows 7, same result with FFDSHOW Tryouts
• AVAST Antivirus - After removal, stutter was not as bad, but still unwatchable in Windows 7 Media Media Center
• Ripping MKV files with different tools (Handbrake 0.94 & Nightly builds, Ripbot264, AutoMKV, DivX Converter - as a test only) - Playback results all the same.
  

The Bottom Line:

• H.264/MKV playback in Vista x64 with any media player app works fine without 3rd party codec packs installed (just using DivX Plus/AC3 Filter)
• H.264/MKV playback in 7x64 anything else other than VLC is Broken and completely unusable currently (and for the past 3 or 4 months)

Build Differences:

• Microsoft Playready DRM installed on 7x64 but not on the other OS (was not installed on pc when i had 7x64 RC1 installed which played back the same H.264/MKV files without stutter)
  
• Skyplayer installed on 7x64 but not on other OS (was not installed on pc when i had 7x64 RC1 installed which played back the same H.264/MKV files without stutter)
• Windows Media Foundation on Windows 7 but not on other OS

My suspicion about the culprit

• Microsoft Playready DRM or
• Some Windows update that had further reaching implications than the KB article detailed
  

The goal

H.264/MKV playback in Windows 7 Media Center with working AC3, streaming from NAS over GB Lan (just like i have in Vista) without using codec packs.

Anybody's thoughts, opinions, feedback, advice welcome... especially anybody from UK that has Skyplayer / Playready installed - if you have this working, please let me know the obvious that im missing!

As MKV playback is simply broken and as WMP12 is a complete abortion, the only thing 7x64 has going for it is Skyplayer integration, so my 7x64 partition is fast moving towards being 200gb of spare storage space.

Thanks in advance for feedback/suggestions

 

Two things:

Fresh install of Window 7 x64

Haali Media Splitter

[edit]AC3Filter (for volume control within 7MC)[/edit]

I have a much less powerful system, and it plays MKVs just fine, with AC3 (out S/PDIF to receiver). The only thing I don't have is thumbnails for the MKV files. If the MKVs are released movies, I simply add the DVDXML file into the folder with them, and get all the metadata as well as covers.

 

This was not my experience with 7RCx64, where I did load AC3Filter and FFDShow as well.

 

For what it is worth...

I've been playing around with the h.264 codec for a week now and I have yet to get satisfactory results either. I do all my encoding/conversion on a vista box, but the target machine is win 7. However, I'm trying to use the mp4 container. I can't get this stuff to play on the local machine OR extenders (Xboxes). My mpeg mkvs work great for the most part, but either h.264 or mp4 appears to be hosed. On top of all that, it appears to take over 400% longer to encode to h.264 vs. mpeg4. I'm using ac3 across all attempted encodes.

AZCowboy

Fresh install of Window 7 x64

Haali Media Splitter

+1

 That should give you great playback with no codecs to mess with (you might want to install ac3filter as well as haali).

Although before you format, you could try uninstalling divx (and everything else codec related), then reboot, install haali (and maybe ac3filter) and see what plays and what doesn't.

You could also try registering the MPCVideoDec.ax codec once you've removed the other stuff and set that to decode whatever formats you like using Win7DSFilterTweaker

I use the mpc codec for all compatible formats (I installed both x86 and x64 versions) and can recommend it if you see issues with certain video files when using the built in codecs.

Not quite as clean because you are adding codecs, but the Divx Codec pack adds native support for h.264 MKV's on you MC PC and also adds support for h.264 MKV playback on Xbox 360 extenders, as long as they have the 'optional media update' installed.

7MC supports H.264 natively. It requires a splitter for the MKV container. Haali is the splitter I'm using - without trouble, except for the lack of thumbnails (note that the Haali changelog mentions that shell extension support was removed when X64 support was added, and is expected to be added back in the future).

But I should amend my previous post, to add that I am using AC3Filter. I had forgotten that I added it to gain volume control on AC3 through the 7MC volume control. AC3 does play natively through 7MC, but without volume control when using S/PDIF.

My system is only a Core 2 Duo E8400 with 4G of RAM and using my integrated NVIDIA GeForce 9400 graphics. It plays 1080p H.264 in either MKV or MP4 (as well as M2TS) silky smooth, at least up to 10 Mbps bitrate. No XBox 360s, though, so I don't have that issue to contend with.

And I'm not sure how a codec pack can add "native support". Isn't that internally inconsistent, or am I missing your point?

Thanks for the feedback guys, I too had excellent playback of MKV's before i installed the Playready DRM, but i spent so much time between then and now troubleshooting sideshows, i cant be 100% certain it is the Playready DRM or something else. I had issues with some of my Seagate drives in my NAS dropping frames in videos, had the catalyst drivers unable to playback H.264, then found AVAST was also interfering with playback. I forgot to mention, i did try other splitters including HAALI but that didnt make a difference either.

To really help me nail this down further, id really like to know in particular:

1. Are you streaming your H.264/MKV from another device to your Media Center (not an xbox or extender) ? in my setup it is NAS -> 7x64 over GB Lan (The most stuttering occurs when streaming not when playback is from local HDD)
   
2. Can you confirm if you have installed Playready DRM? 

I know its not the drives now, or the files or my network setup as it was all working before and it all still works in Vista, i just dont have the DRM installed with Vista and didnt have it with 7x64 RC1. Currently having to watch everything through VLC which is bulletproof but a real aggro when sprawled on the sofa.

Any further info is appreciated.

 

PS.. I think the reference was to the DivX Plus pack as it makes MKV format 'native' in that it adds a splitter, allows thumbnailing of the video files and enables playback of Matroska in WMP12 / WMC without installing other 3p codec packs. When it was working, the only other thing it needed was AC3 Filter.

I do have Play Ready installed. I am not streaming or reading the file across the LAN (though I plan to be within the next few weeks).

I really suspect something has screwed up the codec interactions with the WMF codecs (I am no expert). But your situation does sound challenging.

And thanks for cracking the code on the DivX Plus - from my view, it is a codec pack.

Interesting thread to read so I'm interested in what happens as I've recently started having voice sync issues on HD channels (from freesat) and HD recordings but also more noticeably other SD videos are showing an increased issue so that I have so I know that there is a problem - the playready issue might not apply to me (no idea if it's installed - how do I tell?)

However, I have a suggestion to assist on the original issue - I have a much lower spec that the orignal listed at the top of this thread (I've a 4850e with integrated HD3200, 4Gb ram, single local 1Tb drive) - I too have been having choppy playback & horrid pauses in WMC (Windows 7, 64bit, only DIVX installed) and about 3 months ago finally resolved - by setting the graphics back to windows basic (or whatever it's called, it's the old "best performance" settings rather than "let windows decide" or "best appearance") and turned off the themes serivce & suddenly my playback problems went away - might not help but worth mentioning just in case.

 FYI i recently rebuilt the system and did not install DivX at all (now its owned by Macrovision). I also chose not to install CoreAVC codec so im relying only what is included with Windows 7. Where the H.264 MKV files wouldnt play previously without other codecs, mine are playing fine now without any issues. The only thing i did have to install was AC3 Filter. I dont know what has changed in Win7 over the last few months, but they wouldnt play before without codecs... now im just happy everything is working in WMC, streaming from NAS without stutter.

 

BR

You must have installed some sort of mkv splitter as well right? Haali's? The only success I have had with DivX Plus is to install it via Shark007 and to run all of my mkv's through MetaFox as well. I also go with H.264 video and AAC audio, DivX does the splitting, then Windows 7 does all of the decoding, or xbox 360 if watching through extender.

I've been happy with MKV playback (via Sharks pack) but I also like mp4 with 6-channel AAC as my format of choice right now. It would be great if the xbox would support more than 2 channel AAC, but I don't have an AVR on my xboxes yet, so I'll cross that bridge soon enough.