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I am trying to understand how the default Windows 10 player (called "Films and TV") is able to play FHD (1920 x 1080 x 60fps) videos (shot with GoPro 4) and utilize only around 10% of the CPU, while other players namely VLC and GOM will utilize around 60-70% CPU.

I tried looking at GPU utilization, but even there while using the default Windows 10 player utilization is around 15% vs around 30% when using VLC and GOM.

Right now this looks like magic to me as FHD playback is taxing on the hardware and I can't figure out what is going on. I am thinking the difference will be in the decoder used, but can't find more information.

The CPU / GPU used are Core i5 5200U / Intel HD Graphics 5500

VLC Player CPU utilization: VLC Player CPU utilization

Films and TV CPU utilization Films and TV CPU utilization

This is the info for a sample video file.

General
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media / Version 1
Codec ID                                 : mp41
File size                                : 2.61 GiB
Duration                                 : 12mn 23s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 30.1 Mbps

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4.2
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 1 frame
Format settings, GOP                     : M=1, N=30
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 12mn 23s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 30.0 Mbps
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 59.940 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.241
Stream size                              : 2.60 GiB (99%)
Title                                    : GoPro AVC
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile                           : LC
Codec ID                                 : 40
Duration                                 : 12mn 23s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 128 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 11.4 MiB (0%)
Title                                    : GoPro AAC

VLC reports the following video output in: Tools -> Messages -> Module Tree -> playlist -> video output

window "qt4" (0x5a738fc)
vout display "direct3d" (0x5a57a34)

subpicture (0xf456b4)
spu text "freetype" (0x5a24264)
scale "yuvp" (0x5a70c1c)
scale "swscale" (0x55a1eac)
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  • Probably different renderer and/or filters used with VLC/GOM. In VLC, what does Tools -> Messages -> Module Tree -> playlist -> video output say? – Gyan Mar 2 '16 at 7:29
  • @Mulvya Added the requested info in the body of the post/question. – Filip Nikolov Mar 2 '16 at 18:30
  • Do both players played 1080p? In other words, is your display 1080p and you played the movie full-screen on both tests? If you just play in a small window it is possible that F&TV runs a partial rendering. – avnr Mar 7 '16 at 14:49
  • @avnr My display is 1600 x 900 and player are running maximized, though not in full screen. – Filip Nikolov Mar 9 '16 at 15:24
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Quite possible that the Windows player can make use of some HW acceleration the others can not / are not using.

Check this how to enable HW video decoding on VLC:

If you are using VLC 2.2.2 check this https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=130590

UPDATE from the author of the question: Adding screenshot from VLC v. 2.2.1 to compliment this answer.

VLC 2.2.1 with Hardware Acceleration enabled. enter image description here

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  • Unlikely. Even if so, H/W accel uses GPU and FTV shows half the GPU use as well. – Gyan Mar 3 '16 at 6:22
  • If your gpu does HW video decoding, I don't think it would even register as high GPU usage since it is Hardware Decoding. – Hans Meiser Mar 3 '16 at 7:12
  • superuser.com/q/128478/228841 – Hans Meiser Mar 3 '16 at 7:14
  • The hardware decoder is part of the GPU die, so I'm not sure how that affects my point. – Gyan Mar 3 '16 at 7:21
  • Your point is that HW decoder utilization should register on the GPU graph. Which It not necessarily does if there is a DSP actually doing the processing and not a piece of software that "runs" it's code on the GPU. – Hans Meiser Mar 3 '16 at 7:23

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