MakeN PotPlayer Guide - Not Dead Yet 2021 W.I.P. (Page 12 of 21)

Hi all, first i have to thank again to SVP Team to keep alive this Thread, for the awesome SVP that i been using all this time, for all of you who still find some help with the guide, for my friends and the ones who contacted me by other means. Thank you all very much!.

I have in mind some updates and changes for the guide, but before that happen i want to share some interesting things like:

-Some king but not too in deep PotPlayer vs MPC HC, plus if necessary other player(s).
-Try to answer if i can the questions about " hey why PotPlayer and not MPC HC " or " hey why PotPlayer looks different or not the same as MPC HC does " or " hey why are you not using Lav Filters and Madvr " or " Why you made PotPlayer guide in SVP forum knowing that SVP Team offer MPC HC + SVP and more as recommended combo ", all of these for example and from some friends and the ones who contacted me by other means.

Part 1

I was always wondering why so many peoples complaining about PotPlayer image quality vs MPC HC image quality, its complicate to answer because there is or lets say there is two possible cases:
1- If you want to make all of us see things as it does look for you ( image quality )
2- using same settings and player from X guide as other does and it does not look the same to me

You need keep in mind and understand we all are not using same hardware, i mean if you dont know the capabilities of your monitor/tv can do with image quality, how to take advantage of them and same with your pc. Imagine someone using still an old monitor/tv vs someone using a recent one like " led " and more. Also Nvidia and AMD ATi have some settings to change the image quality of your videos if you like and keep them enable will affect the results you want or if you want to see everything as other peoples does.
You have two ways to make things look as you want or like other peoples have even if you dont have same hardware like your friends:

1-Using your hardware ( monitor/tv/video card ) or software ( internal players shaders ) to enhanced the image quality.
2-or using both that means have more patience and time dedication, i mean work with more settings.

If you ask what is the price in performance for both, well all depend thats something you must figure it out but i will try to help you with that if i can. so i could help with this:
-Using your monitor/tvs image settings will cost you " zero " performance lost to your PC, but only you will see that image quality unless someone else have same hardware you have and you share your settings with them.
-Using your Video Cards image quality by it software will cost you nothing to your CPU but you need to share your settings to others that have same video card as you have.
-Using internal shaders from your player ( PotPlayer or MPC HC ) will have price in performance to your CPU(s) and GPU(s). Same with Video Renderers and more but is the same you need to share settings with others so we all can see more or less as you see things.

The first steps to follow to start working with your ideal image quality not matter what video player are you using are:

1- Set a normal or balanced image settings in your monitor / tv like 50%/75 contrast,brightness,sharpness and 50% color.
2- Dont use or enable from your monitor / tv stuffs like Auto Dynamic contrast enhancement or something that auto change the image quality in the time the source ( video ) change. If in X scene the video source is too dark then your monitor / tv make it more brighter and more automaticaly.
3- Dont use image quality presets from your monitor / tv like: Vivid, Game, Text, Internet, etc. Always go custom dont be lazy read your monitor / tvs manual to can do that.
Note: I could show some examples about it with Samsung and LG monitor / tvs but later.

4- in the case with Video cards and it driver software image settings:

or you can do this:

what is not recommended. It will affect everything your entire desktop, games and more. that + what you change in your monitor/tv image settings it could result in a total mess - oversaturated or overbright and more if you don't know what are you doing ofc.

Now this affect video player(s) only:

If we enable " Dynamic contrast enhancement " and " Color enhancement " it will affect and work with few video players only, like Windows Media Player ( windows 7 ), Splash Pro and PowerDVD. PotPlayer and MPC HC are not affected by them but if you change their Video Renderer it could work. Here i will recommend you to use all the time and only EVR CP or MadVR as Video Renderers.

Windows Media Player + Nvidias Dynamic contrast enhancement and Color enhancement:

MPC-HC + Nvidias Dynamic contrast enhancement and Color enhancement:

Daum PotPlayer + Nvidias Dynamic contrast enhancement and Color enhancement:

As we can see MPC-HC and Daum PotPlayer are not affected by them so its useless to keep them enable, if you do the other(s) video players will be affected only. Recommended is not use them for MPC-HC and Daum PotPlayer.
In resumen enable auto video enhancement with your monitor/tv and video card image settings at the same time following the conditions i said before may result in terrible image quality or you could make the ultimate image quality settings , who knows its up to you just remember the conditions about if you want to be the only one to see them or for share with everyone else.

Part 2

In this part i want to share some video player vs video player results in some cases to see if i can help you to know what video player to choise.

Makens MPC-HC vs Daum PotPlayer settings:

Transformers Age of Extinction IMAX 1080p TrueHD

Format                         : Matroska
Video
ID                             : 1
Format                         : AVC
Format/Info                    : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                 : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC         : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames      : 3 frames
Codec ID                       : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                       : 2h 45mn
Bit rate mode                  : Variable
Maximum bit rate               : 35.0 Mbps
Width                          : 1 920 pixels
Height                         : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio           : 16:9
Frame rate mode                : Constant
Frame rate                     : 23.976 fps
Color space                    : YUV
Chroma subsampling             : 4:2:0
Bit depth                      : 8 bits
Scan type                      : Progressive
Default                        : No
Forced                         : No

Audio #1
ID                             : 2
Format                         : TrueHD
Codec ID                       : A_TRUEHD
Duration                       : 2h 45mn
Bit rate mode                  : Variable
Maximum bit rate               : 7 662 Kbps
Channel(s)                     : 8 channels
Channel positions              : Front: L C R, Side: L R, Back: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                  : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode               : Lossless
Title                          : TrueHD 7.1 eng
Language                       : English
Default                        : Yes
Forced                         : No

Audio #2
ID                             : 3
Format                         : AC-3
Format/Info                    : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension                 : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness    : Big
Codec ID                       : A_AC3
Duration                       : 2h 45mn
Bit rate mode                  : Constant
Bit rate                       : 640 Kbps
Channel(s)                     : 6 channels
Channel positions              : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                  : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                      : 16 bits
Compression mode               : Lossy
Stream size                    : 756 MiB (3%)
Title                          : dd5.1 640k eng
Language                       : English
Default                        : No
Forced                         : No

MPC-HC (last version at this time) + built-in video decoder + DXVA2 (native) disabled:

Daum PotPlayer (last version at this time) + built-in video decoder + DXVA disabled:

The performance without DXVA is close.

MPC-HC (last version at this time) + built-in video decoder + DXVA2 (native):

Daum PotPlayer (last version at this time) + built-in video decoder + DXVA:

MPC-HC (last version at this time) + NVIDIA CUVID:

Daum PotPlayer (last version at this time) + Nvidia Cuda Decoder:

MPC-HC (last version at this time) + MadVR (last version at this time) default settings + DXVA2 (native)/NVIDIA CUVID are disabled:

Daum PotPlayer (last version at this time) + MadVR (last version at this time) default settings + DXVA/Nvidia Cuda Decoder are disabled:

MPC-HC (last version at this time) + MadVR (last version at this time) default settings + ReClock (last version at this time) default settings + DXVA2 (native)/NVIDIA CUVID are disabled:

Daum PotPlayer (last version at this time) + MadVR (last version at this time) default settings + ReClock (last version at this time) default settings + DXVA/Nvidia Cuda Decoder are disabled:

MPC-HC (last version at this time) + MadVR (last version at this time) default settings + ReClock (last version at this time) default settings + DXVA2 (native):

Daum PotPlayer (last version at this time) + MadVR (last version at this time) default settings + ReClock (last version at this time) default settings + DXVA:

--Since here you need keep always in use ffdshow raw video filter to make SVP work.--

MPC-HC (last version at this time) + MadVR (last version at this time) default settings + ReClock (last version at this time) default settings + ffdshow raw video filter + DXVA2 (native)/NVIDIA CUVID are disabled:

Daum PotPlayer (last version at this time) + MadVR (last version at this time) default settings + ReClock (last version at this time) default settings + ffdshow raw video filter + DXVA/Nvidia Cuda Decoder are disabled:

MPC-HC (last version at this time) + MadVR (last version at this time) default settings + ReClock (last version at this time) default settings + ffdshow raw video filter + DXVA2 (copy-back):

Daum PotPlayer (last version at this time) + MadVR (last version at this time) default settings + ReClock (last version at this time) default settings + ffdshow raw video filter + DXVA2 (copy-back):

MPC-HC (last version at this time) + MadVR (last version at this time) default settings + ReClock (last version at this time) default settings + ffdshow raw video filter + NVIDIA CUVID:

Daum PotPlayer (last version at this time) + MadVR (last version at this time) default settings + ReClock (last version at this time) default settings + ffdshow raw video filter + Nvidia Cuda Decoder:

I will skip same settings with EVR CP, the performance is better with EVR CP but im just testing more with MadVR because it popularity. Between Nvidia Cuda Video Decoder vs DXVA2 copy-back, its up to user what to take, as you can see Nvidia Cuda lower some CPU usage but increase GPU usage, this is ok if you want to use more settings in SVP that depend more of CPU. DXVA2 we can say its more balanced, problem is that MadVR is GPU hungry, it can easy make cry any video card with high settings and if you left low performance on your GPU(s) it will cause problems of performance with SVP but in this case if you have good CPU then you can make your CPU(s) dealing SVP, in my opinion best results are keep CPU + GPU acceleration = best performance / results for SVP than use CPU only. Again i want to say MadVR is amazing, but i only see it good use for SD material and DVDs, i prefer go better for 1080p material with high quality, in this case for 1080p use EVR CP better then you will have more free room to play with SVP settings and more. MadVR + SD material = decent performance and high quality than any other video renderer could offer you.
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Part 3

This part will be more like MPC-HC + it internal Lav filters + MadVR + ReClock + DXVA2/Nvidia Cuda vs Daum PotPlayer + Lav filters + MadVR + ReClock + DXVA2/Nvidia Cuda. Both with default and custom MadVR settings.

MPC-HC + MadVR default settings + DXVA2 (copy-back):

Daum PotPlayer + MadVR default settings + DXVA2 (copy-back):

Custom MadVR quality settings:
MPC-HC + DXVA2 (copy-back):

Daum PotPlayer + DXVA2 (copy-back):

MPC-HC + NVIDIA CUVID:

Daum PotPlayer + NVIDIA CUVID:

MadVR settings:

If you use more " taps " in some " custom pixel shader codes ", it will increase much more the GPU(s) usage and when its too high you will have framedrops and more, we dont want that because you wont left any decent performance for SVP when its active. If that happen you are forced to lower settings.
Example:

That without SVP in use... no no no good we dont want that happen right?. Think before change settings.

Part 4

720p, 1080p, MadVR and EVR CP.

I usually play high quality encoded material, it can be 720p and 1080p but in my case i go more for 1080p if possible, when i dont have more options then 720p. If the file to play does not have any noticeable banding artifacts and more, then no need to use shaders to minimize what is not present or not noticeable. I go for EVR CP as video renderer for high quality 1080p,720p material and performance but when the case is that 1080p or 720p or less file does not have much quality like some animes, dvds, tv shows, sd movies, video clips,etc then is when i go for MadVR, you start using it custom pixel shader codes to increase quality, reduce artifacts and more. There is some settings that dont need to keep always in use,just when its needed you do, for example i like from MadVR this " artifact removal " in cases like this:

MadVR > artifact removal > reduce banding artifacts = disabled

MadVR > artifact removal > reduce banding artifacts = enabled

it was simple example, it can be better and there is more shaders to make better and fix things. Like i said i dont use it when its not need and when to say when its needed its up to you. Its the same for others shaders.
Im thinking add to my guide the use of both video renderers as optional like say go for EVR CP for performance,high quality encoded material,as default video renderer and go for MadVR for high quality results with sd material,high quality encoded material too, as default video renderer but it will increase GPU usage depending what settings are in use.

---Impportant----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The hardware used for all tests was old Dual Core + old GPU(s) but well overclocked!. This is best way to see how good is their performance with such hardware so the ones with better hardware could have an idea of how much it will cost in performance for them, but dont be fool not because you have or think you have " monster " PC and go crazy with high settings in MadVR and SVP, does not mean it wont make cry your CPU(s) and GPU(s).
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more coming later.