Extremely high CPU usage when playing back video on older Macs

Platforms Mac
#1

When I’m streaming an HD x264 video from an SFTP source on my MacBook Pro 15" late 2013 running macOS Big Sur it gets extremely hot and the fans turn up really high.

I’ve got Chrome and VSCode open in the background as well as some minor apps.
I know my MacBook is a bit dated by now but it should be able to play such a video without problems, Im viewing it on the internal screen.

The bitrate of the video is 2728 kb/s
My MacBook has the following specs.

2.0 Ghz Intel i7
8GB RAM
Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB GPU

I’m using Infuse Version 6.5.7 Pro

#2

HAHA…I was just about to post something similar I am seeing on my very similar model of your MBP.
The Fan is blasting after about 20s into any video, 4k or 1080p I tested so far

#3

I’ve noticed it is working better with the window sized down but fullscreen its going crazy. I didn’t even dare trying to play a 4k video.

#4

I am seeing a lot of posts on other forums about Chrome using a LOT of resources. If possible, it might be helpful to the devs to remove that from the equation.

#5

When I’m streaming an HD x264 video from an SFTP source on my MacBook Pro 15" late 2013 running macOS Big Sur it gets extremely hot and the fans turn up really high.

Just out of curiosity, how does the same video play if you download it and play it locally (with some other player)?

#6

Fans ramp up on a MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)

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Infuse macOS public alpha 5 - updated 1/22/21
#7

Can you describe the media you’re playing? (Resolution, bitrate, and codec would be useful)

#8

Can you send in a report from your device (and post the 5 digit code here) if/when this happens again?

#9

Hello team, the app uses enormous ammount of cpu (sometimes 500-600%) on 2016 Macbook Pro 15" i7 via process ‘VTDecoderXPCService’. I guess thats because the app is runnning in some sort of virtualization mode? Both Varys and plex dash report the playback as iOS platform. Is there anything that can be done? Or will the macOS app be fully native in the future? Thanks

#10

on my iMac 2019 it take around 30 max 40% on four cores with a 4K movie. VTDecoderXPCService 1.7%. Directplay from Plex. Seen as iOS.
Capture d’écran 2020-12-20 à 16.56.30

Capture d’écran 2020-12-20 à 16.56.21
Capture d’écran 2020-12-20 à 16.56.21812×206 15.7 KB
Capture d’écran 2020-12-20 à 16.56.15

It’s 14 - 20% with a 1080p movie.

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#11

Can you send in a report (see first post) so we can look into this? Also, what type of videos are you seeing this with? If it’s only a few, it might be helpful to send in a sample at https://upload.firecore.com

FYI VTDecoderXPCService is something called ‘Video Toolbox’ which is used for playback of video on Apple platforms. This generally doesn’t use much CPU.

#12

Sure, it is 926GB. It happens with HDR 4K videos. I’ve tried several of them, and only on this one series (Mandalorian) it spiked. The only difference I can see is that the mandalorian has 5.1 DD Plus audio, and even has lower bitrate than other stuff in my library. On other stuff the VT service goes at about 200% usually, but never over 300, or even 500 like Mando.

#13

926 Gigabytes?

#14

Hi,

I’m using a MacBook Pro 2015 without M370X, just the regular base model. I’m running Big Sur 11.2 and playback is not smooth. It feels like frames are dropping and the sound is not perfectly in sync.

The file is a 1080p H.264 Video @ L4.1 which comes with a 48 Hz 5.1 E_AC3 audio stream. It also comes from a FTP-Source (accessing my NAS at home).

If I use iina to playback the same file after I have downloaded it or via NFS-Share while at home it runs perfectly. Are there any options to tweak Infuse and its rendering behavior?

Regards

Jens

#15

I cant say how it would be with the exact same video, but I surely wouldn’t have a problem with it, the bitrate is not that high and I’ve streamed more demanding videos.

#16

The situation still exists in Alpha 4.

#17

Still exists, I’ve noticed even when a movie has been cached completely the usage stays high.

1 Like