Fix Poor Video Playback Quality and Jagged Edges in Windows 7

Playing video on machines powered by Nvidia GPUs, Windows 7 x64’s own Windows Media Player (WMP) video playback quality is just fine, but when it comes to any other player such as Media Player Classic - Homecinema (MPC-HC) or VLC media player, jagged edges are annoyingly obvious, especially when the video is resized. Well, an MPEG-2 PAL video stored at 720x576 (4:3) is displayed at 768x576, that’s simply called resizing!

The sample video frame on the left demonstrates Windows 7’s poor video quality and the aliasing artifacts caused by the absence of a filter which should make jagged edges smooth. The aliasing artifact is apparent on the outer edge of Lili Haydn’s nose, and also on the ribbon of the horsehair of her fiddlestick. On the right, the filter in Enhanced Video Renderer (EVR) smoothed jagged edges, making video quality much more acceptable. (Credit: Lili Haydn’s violin solo with George Clinton & Parliament-Funkadelic live at the 38th Montreux Jazz Festival 2004)

In the video domain, aliasing artifacts can appear as wavy lines or bands, or moiré patterns, or popping, strobing, or as unwanted sparkling, emphasizing the poor video quality, caused by jagged edges.

Smoothing jagged edges is omitted when the video is played in Windows 7 using the default renderer in Media Player Classic - Homecinema (MPC-HC) or VLC media player on Nvidia-powered systems.

To fix the problem, you need to install the latest WHQL driver located at nvidia.com/object/win7_x64_185.85_whql.html, and then enable Enhanced Video Renderer (EVR) in your player’s options.