Why is watching 720p Youtube vids so cpu intensive?

[Inctye]

As many of you might know by now, youtube videos can be watched in 720p HD quality by adding "&fmt=22" to the end of video urls. I use a Greasemonkey plugin called YousableTubeFix and dev updated the script yesterday with a feature that automatically switches to 720p quality when available.

But, the problem I noticed when watching these 720p vids is my cpu usage started shooting up to 50-100% usage and the video played less smoothly than it normally does at lower quality levels. Anyone know why this happens? I have a AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-56 1.8Ghz and 2gigs of memory.

[KeR]

You can blame Flash for that, it is very CPU intensive once the content quality goes up.

[NienorGT]

Flash is poorly optimized yes, but even there, a 720p video would be hard on the CPU if not hardware accelerated by the GPU.

So put both on the same boat...

[User6060]

Playing 720p file on youtube only results in 20-30% CPU usage on my 2.5year old laptop.

[Jase]

What what what?.. Youtube now offer 720p?.. yeah right!

Last time I checked they offered high quality videos..but still the Quality was not that good.. I have never seen a good quality high-res Video on youtube... What I have seen are Videos that where 720p Compressed on youtube (poorly) and uploaded.. The outcome = Rubbish Viewing.

If this is a new feature.. please do share the news.

Now back to topic; Have you updated your version of Flash to the new version?

[PricklyPoo]

Example...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUPcimeiqLE&fmt=22

[Jase]

Example...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUPcimeiqLE&fmt=22

whoa! that's amazing! is there a section just for High Quality Videos?

OP: The Video Plays perfectly fine for me, maybe updating Flash will help?

[Inctye]

Flash is poorly optimized yes, but even there, a 720p video would be hard on the CPU if not hardware accelerated by the GPU.

I have updated to Flash 10 since it was first released. But, you are probably are right on the GPU part. I have a crappy integrated Radeon x1200, which probably pushes most of the load onto the CPUs. Completely overlooked the GPU when I made my decision to buy this laptop two years ago and kind of regretting it. So for now, I guess I'm stuck with watching just plain "high quality" instead of HD.

[Jase]

From your first post it looks like you are using Firefox.. try running Firefox in Safemode and trying to see if the Video playback is better. Firefox still seems to be a big memory hog.

also you might as well check out alternative browsers

[Matrix XII]

Example...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUPcimeiqLE&fmt=22

Oh my! How could I not have know this? :|

Very smart of youtube to do this, maybe I'll start browsing there a bit more again.

[Jase]

Oh my! How could I not have know this? :|

Very smart of youtube to do this, maybe I'll start browsing there a bit more again.

Man I am as shocked as you.. I am glad Youtube now have this! Just hope they don't pull a Stage6 with this move.

[arturogoga]

Doesn't matter much if you have a powerful videocard: flash just stinks for video. If you wanna watch 720p, better get the h.264 version (mp4).

Not much of an issue in Windows (I get 20-30% CPU in Windows Vista x64), but on my MBP (with the 9600M) it's nearly unwatchable. Same goes for linux.

[bobbytomorow]

youtube has 720p? thats sweet

[Jase]

Doesn't matter much if you have a powerful videocard: flash just stinks for video. If you wanna watch 720p, better get the h.264 version (mp4).

Not much of an issue in Windows (I get 20-30% CPU in Windows Vista x64), but on my MBP (with the 9600M) it's nearly unwatchable. Same goes for linux.

Is there a way to switch from Flash to quicktime Video or something?

[afusion]

If hulu can't live up to 720p, youtube may have won

[Blackhearted]

The 720p link Prickly posted didn't really seem that cpu intensive to me. It averaged around 25-30% and peaked at a mere 35% on my athlon64x2 4000+ @ 2.82ghz. I've seen flash do much worse than that without 720p video.

[ObiWanToby]

They need to switch to Silverlight.

[x9248]

If you thought that 720p link was impressive install that Greasemonkey script mentioned by the OP (YousableTubeFix) and then go back to the link :p

[Brandon]

Example...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUPcimeiqLE&fmt=22

Thats a really cute movie

[sundayx Veteran]

Thats a really cute movie

I was just about to say

[Inctye]

If hulu can't live up to 720p, youtube may have won

Hulu already has a small designated HD section for 720p and 1080p that works amazingly, but the selections are limited to some old episodes. There are probably some server-side and website kinks and capacity that need to be worked out before they do a wide release for all of their shows and movies. I don't see them losing the advantage they have anytime soon given that it is the best online tv show/movie player there is.

Doesn't matter much if you have a powerful videocard: flash just stinks for video. If you wanna watch 720p, better get the h.264 version (mp4).

Not much of an issue in Windows (I get 20-30% CPU in Windows Vista x64), but on my MBP (with the 9600M) it's nearly unwatchable. Same goes for linux.

Yep, the greasemonkey script called YousableTubeFix is amazing and has features that allows for watching 720p in mp4 format. Did a little more testing on a few other vids and its still consistantly around 50-60% usage on both cores, around 20-30% on another computer better hardware. Must be mostly flash and a little bit of hardware too.

[Jase]

They need to switch to Silverlight.

Give me some reasons why?

[*RedBull*]

Athlon X2 3800 939, 6800GT, IE7....plays without a problem. I'd bet it'd play well on my Turion M37 notebook with radeon integrated as well. ;)

[Brandon Live Veteran]

As much as I love to rag on Flash for being total crap, my CPU usage doesn't go above 5% while playing back that video. Though, this is on a Q9540.

Give me some reasons why?

Vastly more secure, efficient, and better video quality?

[Jase]

As much as I love to rag on Flash for being total crap, my CPU usage doesn't go above 5% while playing back that video. Though, this is on a Q9540.

Vastly more secure, efficient, and better video quality?

Can you please elaborate on that?