I upvoted it but the last response also was over a year ago and it was regarding the Plex for Windows not the new HTPC app. My media needs madvr tone mapping since I use a projector. The emby app is bad but works, and kodi is just eh. Plex interface is so much better.
Are you aware that mpv (the Plex playerās internal AV engine) can probably already do what you want?
Why do you want madvr+mpchc instead of HTPC Player?
Go to the website for MPC-HC and you are greeted with a banner: MPC-HC is not under development since 2017. Please switch to something else. I presume you really mean one of the forks but just the idea itself presents itself with a huge host of problems:
- MPC-HCās API is very poor. It is missing a tremendous amount of the key functionality necessary to be properly driven as a player by another application. This lack of functionality will translate to a poor user experience
- MPC-HCās API is very poorly documented. This significantly increases the development work that would be required.
- Almost no one would use it. Not the size of a user base you want for such a large amount of effort required.
- Thereās really no advantage. MPV has very advanced capabilities (including several tone-mapping algorithms). So much so that other players are adopting its architecture (this architecture is being integrated into libplacebo so other players can use and VLC is already adopting it).
So, to that end, I will propose the following to those who suggest MadVR+MPC-HD:
You can do it yourself. All you have to do is implement the MPV API (mpv.io), build that implementation of the API into a dll, name it mpv-2.dll, and substitute in the library shipped in HTPC.
Yes I meant the Media Player Classic K-Lite pack not MPC-HC, the logos are the same and I forgot. Iāll check out doing what you recommended, but Iām not technically skilled to the point I could do that and MadVr+mpc is just very easy to configure and I have it all setup. I assumed madvr would be taken over eventually due to the creator stepping aside and working on the MadVr Envy. I will eventually get to setting it up with mpv instead.
What I described is not easy in the least but then the same can be said of this feature suggestion.
well, it cant do what I want. ![]()
(which is perfectly stutter free playback - Kodi DS with MadVR spoiled me real good).
Besides that what MadVR in Plex HTPC would also do is avoid the severe stutter I get right now.
Yes it can, as you found out in that thread.
On this topic of this thread, just for the simple fact that external player support requires a tremendous amount of work that would be used by an extremely small number of people (if not zero) means that this is just not going to happen.
Even though going the Vulkan route did fix the severe stutter I (and others) are suffering from in Plex HTPC on the latest nvidia driver, the playback is sadly still not as smooth as it is with madVR.
I have no idea what kind of black magic its developer uses, but with madVR there is not a single hiccup. While with every other player there is a visible repeated frame at least every 5 minutes.
Apple TV 4k, nvidia shield ⦠they also show this occasional stutter.
madVR is the only player I have found during the last decade that is capable of truly perfectly stutter free playback.
It is also not affected by that ābugā in the nvidia driver which caused the severe stutter in Plex HTPC.
Furthermore it flawslessly switches between sdr<->hdr and has many additional features to further enhance the quality of the image (inside a GUI, no conf file editing required which makes it a lot easier to use than mpv).
So given the option, I would recommend using madVR to everyone who cares about stutter free playback. (or just make it the default player) ![]()
This is not the norm as most people have no issues and those that do tend to have set options in the nvidia control panel which affect everything that opens a D3D or Vulkan context. So the problem lies there.
Iāve used MPV for perfectly stutter free playback for at least half a decade. There are other players I can add to this list.
Funny, when I did a search to see if madvr has been updated to use direct3d yet, Iām immediately greeted with a thread describing exactly the same stutter when people use Direct3D11 for presentation in madvr.
In the other thread the issue with switching out of HDR when using Vulkan was mentioned but I did not mention that this is NVIDIAās fault. Additionally the workaround is present in the next version of the app which you should see within a couple of weeks. As per quality enhancements, you must not have examined the applicationās settings well enough. There is a video quality profile setting which your GPU can take advantage of the highest. As an example, the upscaler used in this profile has been mathematically demonstrated to have less error than bes madvr has to offer.
If you really want a madvr-based player, hereās what you need to do:
- Look at the MPV api. Itās exceedingly well documented.
- Implement that API and bridge to the player of your choice.
- Be sure to also implement the callbacks such as progress updates.
- Build all this as a shared library and replace the provided
mpv-2.dllwith your own
When you go through these steps, you will discover:
- While MPVās API is well documented, the same cannot be even remotely stated of players which use madvr.
- Many of the API calls that PlexHTPC makes to MPV has no equivalent in these other players.
- Here you will find out how utterly deficient the APIs in these other players are.
I took a serious look at incorporating a madvr based player several months ago and encountered a myriad of serious issues of which the above is only a subset. So you can ask for it all you want but unless you can actually accomplish the above or one of these players actually fixes these deficiencies, your wishes will never materialize.
Please donāt take my posts as an attack, because they are not. ![]()
Iāve been involved in HTPC development for well over 15 years, 6 of which I was the project manager of Team MediaPortal after Erwin (frodo) left. So I know the stuggle and fully understand what you are saying. ![]()
As a perfectionist it is a very cumbersome process to arrive at a solution that works for you, you can surly relate to that.
I am extremelly sensitive when it comes to visual stutter as well as audio quality/misconfiguration - neither my wife nor my kids see/hear what I am on about. XD
Ultimately since I began to use MadVR all my playback issues vanished (first when we added support in MediaPortal, later when I used Kodi DS).
Playback was simply flawless (many other things in MP /Kodi not though which is why I switched to Plex last year).
So right now I am really happy with Plex, except for 2 things:
- Apple TV 4k does not support audio passthrough (TrueHD, DTS-HD) thx appleā¦
- there is that annoying occasional stutter with ANY player I tried (AppleTV, FireTV, nvidia shield pro, Samsung Tizen)
So⦠for a āperfect home cinema eveningā⦠my solution currently is MPC-HC with MadVR. Thats kinda⦠annoying. ![]()
It manages to not have a single dropped/repeated frame in 2+ hours (backed up by the stats).
I spent yesterday digging through guides and premade configs for mpv, but I could not get it to play as smoothly as MadVR.
There appears to be a dropped/repeated frame at least every 5 minutes.
So that is the place I am in right now. Surly you can understand why in my case Iād love to have access to MadVR in Plex HTPC.
But as I said, I fully understand your reasoning - weāve been in that place plenty of time with MP. ![]()
Who knows, maybe I will get mpv to perform as well as MadVR for me eventually.
Ah yeah, I have seen that when the application does not allow MadVR to enter exclusive fullscreen mode. In that case HDR is borked as well.
example (if anyone wants to reproduce this) ![]()
- MPC-HC & MadVR (enters exclusive fullscreen mode): perfectly smooth playback
- MPC-BE & MadVR (does not enter exclusive fullscreen mode): stutter
^that said, this is with current nvidia drivers.