HTPC Credentials - Local Media Playback and Video Processing

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Evaluation of local media playback and video processing is done by playing back files encompassing a range of relevant codecs, containers, resolutions, and frame rates. A note of the efficiency is also made by tracking GPU usage and power consumption of the system at the wall. Users have their own preference for the playback software / decoder / renderer, and our aim is to have numbers representative of commonly encountered scenarios. Towards this, we played back the test streams using the following combinations:

  • MPC-HC x64 1.8.5 + LAV Video Decoder (DXVA2 Native) + Enhanced Video Renderer - Custom Presenter (EVR-CP)
  • MPC-HC x64 1.8.5 + LAV Video Decoder (D3D11) + madVR 0.92.17 (DXVA-Focused)
  • MPC-HC x64 1.8.5 + LAV Video Decoder (D3D11) + madVR 0.92.17 (Lanczos-Focused)
  • VLC 3.0.8
  • Kodi 18.6

The thirteen test streams (each of 90s duration) were played back from the local disk with an interval of 30 seconds in-between. Various metrics including GPU usage and at-wall power consumption were recorded during the course of this playback. Prior to looking at the metrics, a quick summary of the decoding capabilities of the two available GPUs is useful to have for context.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 and Intel UHD Graphics 630 both have similar video decoding support. Based on paper specifications, we can surmise that the power efficiency while decoding using Intel's GPU should be better, while more powerful video post-processing steps could be used with the RTX 2070's GPU compute capabilities without dropping frames in the playback process.

All our playback tests were done with the desktop HDR setting turned on. It is possible for certain system configurations to have madVR automatically turn on/off the HDR capabilities prior to the playback of a HDR video, but, we didn't take advantage of that in our testing.

VLC and Kodi

VLC is the playback software of choice for the average PC user who doesn't need a ten-foot UI. Its install-and-play simplicity has made it extremely popular. Over the years, the software has gained the ability to take advantage of various hardware acceleration options. Kodi, on the other hand, has a ten-foot UI making it the perfect open-source software for dedicated HTPCs. Support for add-ons make it very extensible and capable of customization. We played back our test files using the default VLC and Kodi configurations, and recorded the following metrics.

VLC and Kodi have no trouble playing back all our test streams using either GPU, given that video post-processing steps making use of GPU compute resources are minimal to non-existent. There are no dropped frames. In terms of power efficiency, VLC (Intel) averages around 49W for the complete playback benchmarking process. The corresponding numbers for VLC (NVIDIA), Kodi (Intel), and Kodi (NVIDIA) are 58W, 43W, and 52W respectively. Given these numbers, it might make sense to utilize the HDMI port from the Compute Element for media playback duties using vanilla Kodi / VLC, and use the NVIDIA display outputs only for gaming purposes in a HTPC environment.

MPC-HC

MPC-HC offers an easy way to test out different combinations of decoders and renderers. The first configuration we evaluated is the default post-install scenario, with only the in-built LAV Video Decoder forced to DXVA2 Native mode. Two additional passes were done with different madVR configurations. In the first one (DXVA-focused), we configured madVR to make use of the DXVA-accelerated video processing capabilities as much as possible. In the second (Lanczos-focused), the image scaling algorithms were set to 'Lanczos 3-tap, with anti-ringing checked'. Chroma upscaling was configured to be 'BiCubic 75 with anti-ringing checked' in both cases. The metrics collected during the playback of the test files using the above three configurations are presented below.

The UHD Graphics 630's struggles with madVR's GPU compute-intensive rendering algorithms (in the Lanczos case) are well known from our previous HTPC reviews. The key here is the performance of the RTX 2070 in those scenarios. The GPU handles the madVR configuration with aplomb, rarely breaking a sweat and keeping the GPU loading factor below 40% for the most part. This means that we have GPU compute resources to spare and HTPC enthusiasts can tweak the madVR algorithm settings further to suit their personal tastes without the risk of choking the GPU. From a power efficiency viewpoint, the Intel EVR-CP configuration is the best at around 50W, while the madVR (Lanczos) NVIDIA combination comes in around 63W. These numbers are the average power consumption numbers over the length of the playback benchmarking process, and are along expected lines.

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