Solved How to match VLC performance in MPC-HC?

Hello!
I have noticed that my hybrid tablet/laptop Fujitsu Stylistic Q720 (4th generation Intel Core-i5, 4GB RAM, Intel HD 4000 graphics) has trouble playing certain movies with Media Player Classic (MPC-HC). I have installed the latest K-Lite codecs Mega package which contains MPC-HC, all the codecs and filters such as LAV splitter, LAV video decoder, LAV audio decoder, MadVR renderer etc. I have selected the LAV ones and MadVR as renderer. When I play the same videos with VLC they play fine with the default settings. But I prefer using MPC-HC. Can anyone give me an idea what settings I need to match the performance of VLC and play the videos without stuttering? In LAV I have tried both Intel QuickSync and DXVA with no difference. In MadVR I have tried to set upscaling/downscaling to Bilinear or DXVA, no difference. Any ideas welcome.

PS: Please don't just say to give up MPC-HC and use VLC. That is not the point of this thread! I am trying to configure MPC-HC, if possible, to play the videos without stuttering. If I wanted to use VLC I would have done so and would not take the time to post this. I don't like VLC, I use it as a last resort.

Interpolation can take up a lot of resources.

I'm pretty sure I don't use interpolation, but I will have a look at the guide. Thanks.

The Guide suggested the fastest setting is Bilinear upscaling/downscaling. I set Bilinear to all, nothing changed. By the way I noticed the videos that stutter are HEVC (aka x265) encoded. I will reinstall x265vfw and check its configuration to see if it fixes.

It seems to me you are flagellating a dead equine trying to solve issues with MPC-HC.

There are many VLC alternatives e.g. Kodi, Potplayer, MPC

It all has to be about customization.
Do you have to use MAD VR ?
Maybe there is an option to enable logging.
I've been using only MPV for a long time and don't remember what's in other players.

When hwdec=yes


hwdec=no

Well I decided not to waste more time trying to fix it. I completely uninstalled K-Lite codec pack and FFDShow and x264vfw and x265vfw. I then carefully installed them and configured them again. To increase my video editing capabilities I also installed AVISynth and FFMPEG. Now the videos play all fine without stuttering.

spapakons said:

Hello!
I have noticed that my hybrid tablet/laptop Fujitsu Stylistic Q720 (4th generation Intel Core-i5, 4GB RAM, Intel HD 4000 graphics) has trouble playing certain movies with Media Player Classic (MPC-HC). I have installed the latest K-Lite codecs Mega package which contains MPC-HC, all the codecs and filters such as LAV splitter, LAV video decoder, LAV audio decoder, MadVR renderer etc. I have selected the LAV ones and MadVR as renderer. When I play the same videos with VLC they play fine with the default settings. But I prefer using MPC-HC. Can anyone give me an idea what settings I need to match the performance of VLC and play the videos without stuttering? In LAV I have tried both Intel QuickSync and DXVA with no difference. In MadVR I have tried to set upscaling/downscaling to Bilinear or DXVA, no difference. Any ideas welcome.

PS: Please don't just say to give up MPC-HC and use VLC. That is not the point of this thread! I am trying to configure MPC-HC, if possible, to play the videos without stuttering. If I wanted to use VLC I would have done so and would not take the time to post this. I don't like VLC, I use it as a last resort.

Click to expand...

MadVR is for dedicated Video Cards (even High End ones - depending on settings). While HD 4000, even among integrated GPUs is rather weak (to stay the least).

spapakons said:

PS: Please don't just say to give up MPC-HC and use VLC. That is not the point of this thread! I am trying to configure MPC-HC, if possible, to play the videos without stuttering.

Click to expand...

MPC-HC is what I prefer as well.
Although it's long time since I used K-Lite codecs.

There is a patched MPC-HC, continuing where the official builds stopped.
Have been using this for a while now.
I have no playback issues with the built-in codecs.

MadVR can be configured to work with very weak graphics cards. I use it in my HP Stream 7 tablet (Intel Atom, 1 GB RAM, onboard graphics, Windows 10 22H2 32-bit) with everything at Bilinear or DXVA. It works OK up to SD videos (720x576 25fps PAL, 720x480 29.97fps NTSC) without stuttering provided the video bitrate doesn't exceed 1Mbps

spapakons said:

MadVR can be configured to work with very weak graphics cards. I use it in my HP Stream 7 tablet (Intel Atom, 1 GB RAM, onboard graphics, Windows 10 22H2 32-bit) with everything at Bilinear or DXVA. It works OK up to SD videos (720x576 25fps PAL, 720x480 29.97fps NTSC) without stuttering provided the video bitrate doesn't exceed 1Mbps

Click to expand...

It's still one of the heaviest renderers. Might make some sense on a mid-high end systems - for people who spent extra on their rigs cause they're nit-picky about video quality (tho, this days there's better alternatives). But on such a low end rig - i don't see the point of wasting extra resources just for using it at very low settings - while playing 720p videos. Personally, don't like how it behaves even on a system with 9th gen i7 and RTX 2060 (dubiously - can manage even 4k content, but if MC-HC is assigned as default video player - even at lower settings - MadVR takes more time to load, higher on resources - and don't really see much difference - unless i zoom the content and measure the difference between pixels). MPC Video Render can do a better job (it's actually rather modern - you'll have to disable some settings for older rigs - and maye set Chroma/Downscalling to Bilinear) or even Enhanced Video Render for older systems. That being said, even if HD 4000 can manage - the resource usage difreance can measurably visable:

HTPC Decoding and Rendering Benchmarks: EVR / EVR-CP

HTPC Decoding and Rendering Benchmarks: madVR

Which reminds me: if video accelaration enabled?! You could set it same as above (that usually helps with video stuttering - more than any other setting).

PS.My main player is MPV, but have multiple others installed - including MPC-HC / MPC-BE, VLC and SMPlayer (keep trying them once in awhile to see how/if they evolved).

At some point I too had a long delay before playback. It took at least 8 seconds for the video to start playing. That was the last straw that made me uninstall everything and reinstall. I now use Intel QuickSync when applicable otherwise DXVA.