Izzy 2.0 Multiple movies on full screen playback

mark

Well, the thing is, under Windows your best option for movie playback is DirectShow. QuickTime is no longer being developed, and Apple stopped improving it for Windows years ago already. So the subsystem that plays movies on Windows is not changing -- but it has always been quite good because it is heavily multithreaded in nature. Users like @keftaparty have and @DusX have gotten really excellent performance when using Windows Native Playback (WMV/AVI files). (Maybe you guys can comment.)

Based on my recent experiences, I would make a very unscientific gues that AVFoundation may be superior to DirectShow, if only because it decodes H264 movies directly to the GPU. On the other hand, HAP is now available for [Direct Show under WIndows](http://vdmx.vidvox.net/blog/hap-windows), and if you want really fast, high res movie playback, that might be the way to go.

Best Wishes,

Mark

mockej

Thanks @Mark, oddly enough I have had very good results with Quicktime Prores under Windows...

But yes, HAP seems to be the way. The HAP Q files are enormous, but I have had fantastic multi-HD playback via Touch Designer, so really looking forward to harnessing that power in Izzy!

Take care

m

mark

Dear @mpckej,

Well, I must admit my experience with Windows is pretty much relegated to testing, not so much in real life usage. @keftaparty and @DusX can speak to the qualities of Windows much better than i.

All the Best,
Mark

DusX

Video playback on windows is great. To achieve playback similar to what AVfoundation is providing, I suggest compressing to WMV using the free Microsoft Expression Encoder. My tests show that these native microsoft formats are the most optimized, utilizing both extreme cpu multi-threading and GPU processing.
I have not done a playback test for sometime, so I can't say exactly how many HD videos it will allow, but I have found this to be surprisingly efficient.
Of course you loose some controls (time scrubbing for example) with native windows playback, not sure how the HAP on windows preforms in comparison yet.

mockej

Thanks for the tip @DusX, when I build a Windows machine again I will try the Expression encoder.

Take care

m

Michel

@mockej

Today I did a test with 6 separate .h264 HD movies (the same content). But only with 5 external screens because in lack of adpaters, the others are used in a show right now. Solid 30fps.

The first 2 screens you see are, 1 Samsung 40" LED TV and an Acer projector, after the pan another Acer projector and two lcd screens.

http://troikatronix.com/tt-movies/Izzy2.0.mp4

Best
Michel

DusX

@michel
Thats great.!

crystalhorizon

Wow, nice!

Bill Cottman

Excellent!

fifou

We want 2.0 ! We want 2.0 ! We want 2.0 !
Great news..
I just can't wait ...

mockej

@Michel thanks for setting that up... looks like dynamite is on its way!

Take care

m