CyberLink codec & jerky NTSC DVD playback

GlenR · **29th January 2006, 10:58 AM**

I was having huge problems playing back NTSC DVDs in MCE. The picture was extremely jerky to the point of not watchable. PAL playback was fine in MCE. Both PAL and NTSC played fine in PowerDVD on the same box.

Digging around I found an option in the video configuration of PowerDVD to Use Hardware Acceleration. This option is not selected by default, and when selected the playback in PowerDVD was the same as in MCE; PAL was fine and NTSC very jerky. Obviously MCE was using Hardware Acceleration by default, the problem was where could you turn it off?

With PureVideo there is an icon in the systray when a DVD is playing, and opening this allows access to deselect Use Hardware Acceleration, but CyberLink does not appear in the systray when in use. Changing the option from the PowerDVD config does not help, as this has no effect on MCE's use of the codec. Looking around MCE, there is no access to these setting via the 10' UI.

After much digging around I found a registry key that turns Use Hardware Acceleration off for MCE. I reset this key and NTSC and PAL both play fine in MCE now.

So, if you are using the CyberLink codec and your NTSC DVDs play back very jerky, here's what you do:

Open Regedit
naviagte to this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CyberLink\Common\CLVSD \ehshell
Find the DWORD value
UIUseHVA
Change it's value from 1 to 0

This will stop CyberLink using Hardware Acceleration under MCE.

bella · **29th January 2006, 11:57 AM**

Hi Glen,

After reading your thread on this subject, I tested some of mine NTSC dvd's. With one I get stutter in the intro (this is a 7 episode dvd), in the episodes themselves, I cannot see much of a stutter. I will keep this in mind though.

Me changing the registry will probably end up in a clean install.

GlenR · **29th January 2006, 12:04 PM**

For all those who look at changing the regisitry with trepidation, here's a registry file to make this change. Save it to your system, double click on it and it will change the setting for you. (Do an image first though, just to be 100% safe.

)

GlenR · **29th January 2006, 12:07 PM**

Hmmm... the attachment vanished. Incorrect file type. OK, trying again, this time I'll zip it.

diablo · **30th January 2006, 04:10 PM**

Well disabling video acceleration isn't the best idea, I mean all youre doing is offloading all the work to the CPU.
As for playing NTSC content, if you are using media center on a TV via composite or s-video make sure you change the display format to NTSC in the display properties, if using component or DVI make sure it is running in 60HZ.
If it is doing it on a monitor then that is really odd, and probably indicates some hardware problem.
Media Center you see will run in run in a 50 hz pal TV mode if you have PAL selected in the options and NTSC (60hz) material will deffienlty look jerky when you are in PAL.

anything · **4th March 2006, 06:15 PM**

does anyone know where the deinterlacing and colour settings are stored in the registry?

FredZ · **5th March 2006, 04:15 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by GlenR

I was having huge problems playing back NTSC DVDs in MCE. The picture was extremely jerky to the point of not watchable. PAL playback was fine in MCE. Both PAL and NTSC played fine in PowerDVD on the same box.

It may not be relevant, but I put an end to 'stuttering' the moment I created a fixed min/max size page file:

Right click my computer
Click "Advanced"
Click Settings in the "Performance" box
Click Advanced
"Change" virtual memory

Now, there is a hundred and one different opinions as to what you should do here.

I set min and max size to 4G. No more "stutters".

Regards

emit_ecaps · **23rd October 2007, 09:23 AM**

Wow. I searched and searched and finally found this thread to figure out how to turn off hardware acceleration on the Cyberlink decoder so that it would affect Media Center. I went into the registry this morning on this PC which also has MCE and found the key mentioned above and was so excited that I had found the solution. Then when I got home and looked my my actual HTPC there was no ehshell listed under the CLVSD. Damn! I don't know why it would be different as it is there on my bedroom PC.

So is there any other way to accomplish this? The only folder under CLVSD is called dxvadecodertest. I would really appreciate some help with this.

GlenR · **23rd October 2007, 08:20 PM**

Wow emit_ecaps, you're digging up a long-dead one here.

It's been a while since I delved into PowerDVD as I have moved to Vista, but I did have a bit of a look for you.

My first question is - what version of PowerDVD is on each box? From memory, this post was made when PowerDVD6 was the latest version. I checked a test-box I have with MCE2005 installed with PowerDVD7 and it didn't have the ehshell folder, so i would guess you have PowerDVD6 on one box and PowerDVD7 on the other. I looks like Cyberlink changed their registry format with the version change.

Anyway, the magic key is UIUseHVA I believe. If that is set to 1 you get hardware acceleration used. On your machine with no ehshell folder, I'd try going to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CyberLink\Common\CLVSD

and setting the UIUseHVA key to 0. See how you go, you can always set it back to 1.

vlad · **23rd October 2007, 08:25 PM**

Glen,
Are you back to 2005