Questions about FFD and upscaling on a HTPC

L31mr0d

Ok just a quick question which might seem obvious enough.

If I have a 1080p avi file do I need to have my desktop resolution at 1080p (1920x1080) for it to show at a 1:1 pixel ratio?

The reason I ask is I have my PC hooked up to my HDTV but at 1080p, even with all the icons set to large as well as the text, it isn't as comfortable to read some dialogue boxes that don't change the size of the text. Ideally i'd like to have my desktop res at 720p, but I also want to be able to play my movie files at 1080p.

Also, one other question. When I open up certain types of movie files (i.e. some avi's, H.264 files) in WMP11 I notice the ffdshow icons appearing in the taskbar. I'm guessing they are performing some sort of upscaling on the video file (if someone could clarify what ffdshow does it would be helpful, I thought it was only a codec, does it perform upscaling also?)

How can I set ffdshow to upscale all avi files I play on my pc?

8T8

If I have a 1080p avi file do I need to have my desktop resolution at 1080p (1920x1080) for it to show at a 1:1 pixel ratio?

Yes otherwise it will resize to fit into display but that should not be a problem if you don't mind watching it at 720p.

The reason I ask is I have my PC hooked up to my HDTV but at 1080p, even with all the icons set to large as well as the text, it isn't as comfortable to read some dialogue boxes that don't change the size of the text. Ideally i'd like to have my desktop res at 720p, but I also want to be able to play my movie files at 1080p.

You can increase the DPI to increase the font text size assuming your on Vista go into control panel\personalization\adjust font size & try the 120 DPI setting when using the 1080p resolution.

Also, one other question. When I open up certain types of movie files (i.e. some avi's, H.264 files) in WMP11 I notice the ffdshow icons appearing in the taskbar. I'm guessing they are performing some sort of upscaling on the video file (if someone could clarify what ffdshow does it would be helpful, I thought it was only a codec, does it perform upscaling also?)

ffdshow tray icons are multi-purpose to show that ffdshow is decoding that file and if you right click on it have the option to enable various filters.

To disable the tray icons go into the ffdshow start menu\program group & in audio or video decoder configuration go to the "Tray, dialog & paths" section inside here untick "show tray icon" and that will do it.

ffdshow is much more than just a decoder it has many features that allow it to alter the playback of videos.

As for upscaling the default video renderer in Vista EVR or VMR9 in XP auto-upscale's content to the set desktop resolution when playing files in Windows Media Centre.

You can also make ffdshow upscale content as well with more fine grained control over the process, take a look at this thread for a guide on how to for DVD's and AVI's (you can ignore the DVD bit if already using something else to upscale like Purevideo.

One other recommendation I would make is go into the video config and on the output section tick the box for "High Quality YV12 to RGB Conversion" helps with videos not looking washed out on screen.

L31mr0d

8T8 wrote:

One other recommendation I would make is go into the video config and on the output section tick the box for "High Quality YV12 to RGB Conversion" helps with videos not looking washed out on screen.

Is this video config option in ffdshow?

8T8

Yes -
Start menu\
all programs\
ffdshow\
video decoder configuration\
output tab\ {located at the very bottom}

tick the box and click apply