VLC Hardware Acceleration

[reverend]

I never actually realised until today that VLC uses a software renderer by default and doesn't take advantage of any AMD / Nvidia or Intel GPU you may have. I'm building a low spec HTPC and wondered why VLC was choking when playing 1080p videos.

If you're getting playback or high CPU issues when using VLC then give this a go - it's easy enough to change back if it doesn't help.

Launch VLC
Click the Tools menu and select Preferences
Click Input / Codecs on the left



By default the hardware-accelerated decoding option is set to Disable - change this to Automatic and click Save.

Restart VLC and see if your video plays back any better - if you have an AMD / ATI / Nvidia or Intel GPU from the last few years you should notice quite a drop in CPU performance.

Registrator Viewer on the other hand defaults to hardware encoded video - to check that just look at the Playback - Renderer option in the menus:

• EVR is GPU hardware accelerated
• VMR is not GPU hardware accelerated and all the load will be put on the CPU

 

[niko]

I never actually realised until today that VLC uses a software renderer by default and doesn't take advantage of any AMD / Nvidia or Intel GPU you may have. I'm building a low spec HTPC and wondered why VLC was choking when playing 1080p videos.

If you're getting playback or high CPU issues when using VLC then give this a go - it's easy enough to change back if it doesn't help.

Launch VLC
Click the Tools menu and select Preferences
Click Input / Codecs on the left

View attachment 9432

By default the hardware-accelerated decoding option is set to Disable - change this to Automatic and click Save.

Restart VLC and see if your video plays back any better - if you have an AMD / ATI / Nvidia or Intel GPU from the last few years you should notice quite a drop in CPU performance.

Registrator Viewer on the other hand defaults to hardware encoded video - to check that just look at the Playback - Renderer option in the menus:

• EVR is GPU hardware accelerated
• VMR is not GPU hardware accelerated and all the load will be put on the CPU

Very useful [emoji106]

As they say: "many answers are just under your nose, just need to look closer"

 

[reverend]

Even Pot Player is the same - off by default.

I'll start a new thread for that one for if anyone is using it

 

[Sabe]

Oh My God
I usually use (on purpose) lower end computer and there has always been problem with VLC, after this change every problem is gone!
But that's not so bad, i've used it wrong way only 5 years maybe
Thank you very much!

 

[reverend]

It's mad isn't it - I'd assumed that these days they'd be using those settings by default but they've turned it off so that people don't complain about as many problems!

 

[M---]

Same thing with Media Player Classic - hardware acceleration is disabled by default. My HTPC is a Core i3 laptop with a broken screen, and I was wondering why HD videos has its cooling fans screaming. Enable the hardware acceleration, and it's nice and quiet!

 

[Dionic90]

hardware is better for lower end computers or computers with not much cpu horsepower, otherwise software is just fine.

i use vlc in its default mode as well as media player classic with the k-lite codec packs and dont have any issues. i edit and shoot in 4K (dabbling with 5K ) with many cameras down to the gopro 4 and software is best if your computer is fast enough.

good info nonetheless though as many people dont even bother to make any adjustments.

 

[niko]

It's a strange, for me it was completely opposite.

I have AMD Radeon HD 6670.

As mentioned, the VLC player "Inputs and codecs settings" set by default to "Disable", - in this position my VLC plays almost ( 99% ) smooth videos. Just as an experiment, I went and changed "input and codecs settings" to "Automatic", restarted VLC, tried to playback files but all videos started choking videos. When I set back to "disable", it plays smoothly.

Not sure why so ?

 

[Dionic90]

using the GPUs cpu will take the load off the CPU of the computer, so if you have a slow computer/cpu, using hardware acceleration may benefit. also some processors may work better or worse.

i only use intel and am currently using a late i7 4th generation cpu and i dont rely on hardware acceleration and i have no issues playing back 4k 30 1080p 120FPS, 2.7k or any variant in between.
'course i built the computer to my specs (16gb ram over 14tb of data storage plus 3 23 inch ips monitors full hd)

 

[reverend]

It's a strange, for me it was completely opposite.

I have AMD Radeon HD 6670.

As mentioned, the VLC player "Inputs and codecs settings" set by default to "Disable", - in this position my VLC plays almost ( 99% ) smooth videos. Just as an experiment, I went and changed "input and codecs settings" to "Automatic", restarted VLC, tried to playback files but all videos started choking videos. When I set back to "disable", it plays smoothly.

Not sure why so ?

Are you up to date with the AMD drivers for that one or is it using the standard Microsoft driver?

I'm only using an HD 6450 in this one and it's working much better - it's only a low power AMD 1.3GHz CPU and it had no chance with it enabled as it would flatline at 100% - like Dionic90 says my i7 uses less than 10% but that's because it's also got loads of other optimisations baked into the CPU - offloading to the GPU drops usage to around 3% on that machine when playing 1080p dashcam footage.

Driver wise this box is 14.301.1001-140915a-176154C and Catalyst 14.9 and basically I just let the AMD site auto detect the right driver to use. It's certainly weird why it's bad with it turned on though - I guess it's these sorts of issues why it's off by default! Do you play games on that machine as maybe there's an issue with the PCI Express config if the driver etc is all ok?

 

[niko]

Are you up to date with the AMD drivers for that one or is it using the standard Microsoft driver?

I'm only using an HD 6450 in this one and it's working much better - it's only a low power AMD 1.3GHz CPU and it had no chance with it enabled as it would flatline at 100% - like Dionic90 says my i7 uses less than 10% but that's because it's also got loads of other optimisations baked into the CPU - offloading to the GPU drops usage to around 3% on that machine when playing 1080p dashcam footage.

Driver wise this box is 14.301.1001-140915a-176154C and Catalyst 14.9 and basically I just let the AMD site auto detect the right driver to use. It's certainly weird why it's bad with it turned on though - I guess it's these sorts of issues why it's off by default! Do you play games on that machine as maybe there's an issue with the PCI Express config if the driver etc is all ok?

I am not sure how latest drivers of GPU. Usually I do full PC non-automatic updates drivers "health-check" once per year. Worth to check GPU updates when get chance.
Never play games on PC or PS / Xbox ( never had them ). I have Quad i7, so there are plenty of CPU.
Will see after GPU update check.

 

[reverend]

If you pop to AMD.com they've got a couple of links on the front page - when it works you would only see a small drop in cpu on that system but every little helps and all that

I guess on the flipside if it ain't broke....

 

[niko]

If you pop to AMD.com they've got a couple of links on the front page - when it works you would only see a small drop in cpu on that system but every little helps and all that

I guess on the flipside if it ain't broke....

I know, this is easy to do, just my "cpu" ( brain ) keeps forgetting "easy stuff".
In most cases ppl start thinking only when facing a problem, not before. Thats a nature of humans.

 

[jokiin]

I know, this is easy to do, just my "cpu" ( brain ) keeps forgetting "easy stuff".
.

need more memory in your necktop computer

 

[niko]

need more memory in your necktop computer

Yeah. If only eBay-Amazon-Ali would sell a "human-RAM-CPU". I would be the first to buy it [emoji23]

 

[reverend]

Google Glass - give it time and we'll all end up like the humans in Wall-E (to be fair I'm not far off already )