Media Player Classic Home Cinema (MPC HC) + External LAV Filters

 Tutorial on how to use external LAV Filters with Media Player Classic Home Cinema.

LAV Filters include LAV Splitter, LAV Audio Decoder and LAV Video Decoder.

Tutorial on configuring LAV filters.

System config:

    OS : Microsoft Windows 10 x64

    Software : MPC HC 1.9.7 x64

    LAV Filters 0.74.1

    Install MPH HC app.

    Download and install LAV Filters

Setup MPC HC app to use LAV Filters

Open the MPC-HC Options window.

    Select View > Options from the main interface.

Select External filters tab.

Click on Add Filters button to add external filters.

Find and select LAV Audio Decoder in the Select Filter window.

Click on OK button.

Select LAV Audio Decoder as shown below.

Select Prefer.

Click on  Add Filter button.

    Find and select LAV Splitter in the Select Filter window.

    Click on OK button.

    Select LAV Splitter as shown below.

    Select Prefer.

    Click on  Add Filter button.

• Find and select LAV Splitter Source in the Select Filter window.
• Click on OK button.

• Select LAV Splitter Source as shown below.
  
• Select Prefer.
  
• Click on  Add Filter button.

• Find and select LAV Video Decoder in the Select Filter window.
• Click on OK button.

Select LAV Video Decoder as shown below.

Select Prefer.

Click on  Apply button.

Disable MPC HC Internal Filter

 You may disable Internal filters to make sure that external LAV filters gets used by MPC HC.

 1. Disable Source Filters/Internal LAV Splitter

• Select Internal Filters tab.
  
• Right click any Source Filters in the group box labelled Source Filters and select Disable all filters as shown below.

2. Disable internal Video and audio filter

• Select Internal Filters tab.
  
• Right click any transform filters in the group box labelled Transform Filters and select Disable all filters  as shown below.

LAV Splitter Config

• Open Windows Start Menu
• Find and select  LAV Filters > LAV Splitter Configuration  app.

Audio: This setting allows the user to set the the preferred languages in which the audio tracks will be selected for playback from multiple audio tracks present in the media file.

Subtitles: This setting allows the user to set the the preferred languages in which the subtitle will be selected  for playback from multiple subtitles present in the media file.

 

You need to enter the 3 letter language codes (ISO 639-2) separated by comma or space.

Link to ISO 639-2 codes for various languages :  https://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php

3 letter language codes for some languages:

• English : eng
• Arabic : ara
• Chinese : chi
• Finnish : fin
• French : fre

Example 1:

To set preferred audio track language as English 

• Enter eng in the text box labelled Audio.
• Click Apply  and OK.

To set preferred subtitle language as English 

• Enter eng in the text box labelled Audio.
• Click Apply  and OK.

 LAV Audio Config

• Open Windows Start Menu
• Find and select LAV Filters > LAV Audio Configuration app

• In the Properties window.
  
• Enable Enable Mixing in the group box labelled Mixer.
  
• Enable Don't mix Stereo sources in the group box labelled Settings.

Make sure you select correct Speaker configuration from the drop-down menu labelled Output Speaker Configuration . Its more about wiring you are using to connect the computer to the speaker.

In may case its Stereo which is the most common scenario.

 

• Select Speaker configuration (Stereo) from the drop-down menu labelled Output Speaker Configuration.
• Click on Apply  and OK.

 LAV Video Config

 

• Open Windows Start Menu
• Find and select LAV Filters >  LAV Video Configuration app.

Drop down list labelled Hardware Decoder to use shows the list of hardware decoder supported by LAV Video Decoder for decoding the video using GPU.

None : Selecting this will disable use of Hardware Decoder. It will use CPU for video decoding.
 

NVIDIA CUVID : Selecting this will use Nvidia GPU( only if available) for Video Decoding.
 

Intel QuickSync : Selecting this will use Intel GPU Quick Sync Video (QSV) feature for Video decoding.

DXVA2 (copy-back) : Selecting this will use DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) 2.0 for Video Decoding. Copy-back means the decoded video will be copied from the GPUs memory to CPUs memory. Supports Nvidia, AMD and Intel GPU.

DXVA2 (native) : Selecting this will use DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) 2.0 for Video Decoding. Supports Nvidia, AMD and Intel GPU.

D3D11 : Selecting this will use Direct3D 11 Graphics technology for Video decoding. Supports Nvidia, AMD and Intel GPU.

I would recommend using D3D11 or DXVA2 (native) as video decoder.

When you select a Hardware Decoder if it says OK as shown in the image below, then the GPU in the computer supports that decoder. Its fine to use it.

Next thing to note is the Resolution & Codecs the selected Hardware Decoder supports.

To use D3D11 as Hardware Decoder do the following:

• Select D3D11 as Hardware Decoder to use in the group box labelled Hardware Acceleration.
• Select Apply button. 

If you want a specific GPU device to be used for video decoding then select it in drop-down list labelled Hardware Device to use. To do so do the followings:

• Select the GPU from the drop down list labelled Hardware device to use.
• Select Apply button.
  

 

 

Example :  In my case its NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 GPU.
Select NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 from the drop down list labelled Hardware device to use.

Click on Apply and OK button.