How To Install Lav Filters

Over a year ago I put together a quick guide on how to set Bitstreaming HD Audio using FFDShow. At the time FFDShow was actually the merely game in town for bitstreaming Hd Audio from a PC, but slowly over the past yr things have evolved and more solutions have come about. One solution in particular that has been growing in popularity are the LAV Filters, which is a DirectShow Media Splitter and Decoders. Below is a list of some information provided past Nevcairiel, developer of LAV Filters.

Country of the project
LAVFSplitter is a multi-format media splitter that uses libavformat (the demuxing library from ffmpeg) to demux all sorts of media files. Note that this list only lists properly tested formats/codecs, many others may just work!

Containers
MKV/WebM, AVI, MP4/MOV, MPEG-TS/PS (including basic EVO support), FLV, OGG, and many more that are supported past ffmpeg!

Video Codecs
H264, VC-i, MPEG-2, MPEG4-ASP (Divx/Xvid), VP8, MJPEG and many more than.

Audio Codecs
AAC, AC3, DTS(-Hd), TrueHD, MP3/MP2, Vorbis, LPCM and more than.

Subtitles
VOB, DVB Subs, PGS, SRT, SSA/ASS, Text

BluRay Support
Support for opening BluRay playlists (.mpls), also equally the index.bdmv file, which volition try to discover the master movie playlist!

BluRay support is nonetheless in an early stage, and there are withal many improvements and new features planned!

Other Notable Features
- Full Stream switching
- MKV Embedded Fonts
- Audio Bitstreaming (through LAV Audio)

Planned Features
These features will exist implemented "soon", and "when its done"
- Improved BluRay support (Title selection from within the player)
- Audio Upwardly/Downmixing

Features for the much more distant time to come
These features might arrive in ane day, no guarantees, no fourth dimension frame
- BluRay Menu back up

Known issues

Splitter
- WMV Video streams don't show whatsoever video when connected to a MS DMO decoder. (Thus, WMV will non be registered for yet)

Audio Decoder
- TrueHD decoding does not piece of work when used in conjunction with the MPC-HC/Gabest MPEG Splitter. This is a problems in the MPC-HC splitter, ane that the audio decoders in MPC-HC and ffdshow piece of work around, instead of fixing it in the splitter. I will not exercise these kinds of hacks.
- DTS Express cannot be bitstreamed and merely be decoded when using the ArcSoft DTS Decoder.

Frequently asked Question

Q: DirectVobSub will non load with LAVFSplitter
A: Make sure to use the "DirectVobSub" filter when adding it to the preferred filters listing, and Not "DirectVobSub (auto-loading version)". The latter will Not work.

Q: Volition in that location ever be a "LAV Video Decoder"?
A: Its planned – not shortly, though.

Q: Will you write a Subtitle Filter?
A: No. Subtitles should be drawn by the renderer onto the finished prototype, and currently in that location is no way to make that a custom filter. Plus, me personally, i don't care much for subs.

Q: Tin can LAV Sound decode DTS-Hard disk drive?
A: Kind of. On its own, it cannot. But, LAV Sound supports using the ArcSoft DTS decoder, which allows decoding of full DTS-HD. Simply drop the "dtsdecoderdll.dll" from the TMT3/5 Codecs directory into LAV Sound's directory, and enjoy.

Q: I do not get any audio when using ffdshow every bit a postal service processor. What gives?
A: When using ffdshow as post-processor, under some circumstances, you might need to forcefulness ffdshow to but utilize ane output format. In this case, i recommend turning off all output formats except i, preferably either 24-bit int or 32-bit bladder.

So really just to analyze, the LAV Splitter can supplant popular splitters such equally Haail and the LAV Audio Decoder tin can replace FFDShow Audio Decoder. Ane item in particular that I like most the LAV Splitter is that it can filter out and present only forced subtitles. Once again I will be using MPC HC as my player of option for this setup.

My Setup:

Windows 7 x32 HTPC west/ Sapphire 5670 GPU continued to Receiver via HDMI
Onkyo TX-SR906 AVR, 5.1 speaker setup continued to TV via HDMI
Panasonic Viera Th-58PZ800U Plasma HDTV

Hardware Requirements:

PC running Windows (preferably Windows vii). Either an AMD 5xxx/5xxx GPU, Intel i3/i5 Clarkdale/Sandy Bridge CPU, or NVidia 4xx/5xx GPU (I don't know off the top of my head specifically which ones back up Hard disk drive Audio). The last requirement is only necessary if you desire to bitstream HD Audio.
A Receiver that tin can decode the DTS(MA) and TrueHD. One time again, simply necessary if y'all are looking to bitstream HD Sound.

Files to Download:

Latest LAV Filters
Latest MPC HC

Setup and Install (keep in mind I am installing/using both the LAV Splitter and LAV Audio):

1. Install LAV Filter:

First thing you may find is that when you get to install LAV Filter if you do non accept Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 yous will be required to install.

With Visual C++ 2010 installed adjacent up is to being the LAV Filters install process.

Every bit with a typical software install you will be asked where you desire to install.

Next you will have the option to install the LAV Splitter and/or LAV Sound.

Choose if y'all would similar to create a Beginning Menu Folder

Assign what file formats you want the LAV Splitter to handle. I only stuck with the default formats.

Now with all the options selected select "Install"

If everything went well y'all should at present be greeted past the typical "Wizard has completed"

2. Setting Up MPC HC:

Open upward MPC HC and under View -> Options get to Internal Filters and ensure that any Source Filters you want LAV used for are unchecked (then for my test I made sure Matroska and MPEG PS/TS/PVA were unchecked)

Next upwards go to Options -> External Filters and add "LAV Splitter", "LAV Splitter Source", and "LAV Sound Decoder", setting them as Adopt.

Double-click on "LAV Splitter" which will bring upwardly the LAV Splitter options. Since I want only forced subtitles delivered I brand sure that option is enabled (patently if yous plan on using multiple subtitle streams then you don't want to enable this selection).

Double-click on "LAV Audio Decoder" to set your audio options. This is particularly important if you desire to utilize LAV Sound Decoder to bitstream HD Sound formats.

3. Final Check:

Since for me the goal of using LAV Filters was to get HD Audio bitstream support likewise as back up for forced subtitles, in that location are a couple of checks to do to make certain everything is working every bit expected. First off I like to run Graphstudio while playing a video in MPC HC to ostend that LAV is being used.

Next up is to play one of my movies that contain forced subs (Commune ix existence my test movie) to confirm that the forced subtitles are existence delivered. As you tin can see below MediaInfo shows six subtitle streams available yet in MPC HC only one subtitle stream (the forced subtitles) are presented.

Of form the last test if to confirm on my Receiver that DTS(MA) and/or TrueHD lights up. Unfortunately I didn't take a flick but y'all will have to take my discussion for it that Hard disk audio was bitstreamed properly

Additional Information:

If you lot happen to exist post-obit Nevcairiel most likely you take also come across talk of LAV CUDID and madVR. madVR is a high quality video renderer developed by madshi that many consider to give the all-time picture quality. The effect is that using madVR yous lose DXVA, so it can be a very CPU intensive process. A way around this is using the LAV CUDID Decoder developed by Nevcairiel, which is a high quality hardware decoder. However, the catch is that the LAV CUDID Decoder but works with NVidia GPUs, and then Intel or AMD GPU users are out of luck. Right now using NVidia GPU + LAV CUDID + madVR + LAV Filters seems to exist the sweet spot when information technology comes to video playback. However, since I don't currently own a NVidia GPU I take no mode of testing out. Hit up the LAV CUDID and madVR links if you are interested in getting more than information.

Links/Resources:

LAV Filters support forum – Doom9

Tagged as: Bitstreaming, DTS(MA), GraphStudio, Guides, Hd Audio, LAV, Lav Sound, LAV Audio Decoder, LAV Filters, LAV Splitter, MediaInfo, MPC HC, Splitter, TrueHD