Excessive CPU usage when using YouTube/other flash based sites.

[thundersteele]

Fair enough, but I was replying to a specific post that really needed a response. It's a disease I have.

True. I actually wasn't replying to you in particular... just trying to add some perspective

I never understood why video playback has to be such an issue on modern high-speed computers. I mean, my $30 dvd player does it with just passive cooling.
The first time I really noticed flash misbehaving was when playing some stupid facebook games. You start to wonder why something with a complexity and graphics animation similar to minesweeper makes your machine behave as if you were playing WoW.

In the end, there is a reason why Apple started a crusade against flash and banned it from their mobile devices. Allowing flash on the iPad would have killed it's battery life and potentially the success of the whole platform.

 

[Eidorian]

I never understood why video playback has to be such an issue on modern high-speed computers. I mean, my $30 dvd player does it with just passive cooling.

Were you around for PCI slot MPEG-2 hardware decoder cards paired up with DVD-ROM drives? The Pentium II finally brought enough power to do it via software. h.264 was another hurdle but you are better off using your IGP/fGPU/GPU's dedicated decoding hardware for that instead of brute forcing it on the CPU.

My phone has better h.264 playback just due to the fact it does have a hardware decoder unlike my MacBook.

You also have to hope that your operating system and applications support said hardware acceleration. Dedicated video processors are simplified down to do one thing very well, decode video obviously. Low wattage, costs, and efficiency come to mind. Making it passive is a great benefit for longevity, from my phone to a settop box.

The first time I really noticed flash misbehaving was when playing some stupid facebook games. You start to wonder why something with a complexity and graphics animation similar to minesweeper makes your machine behave as if you were playing WoW.

In the end, there is a reason why Apple started a crusade against flash and banned it from their mobile devices. Allowing flash on the iPad would have killed it's battery life and potentially the success of the whole platform.

I am still puttering along with my old GMA X3100. Flash and h.264 just destroy my battery life. (and lap) Not so much of a problem when you have never video hardware.

 

[ABadSanta]

It's quite normal that Flash burns CPU.

• Find your Flash version and make sure it's the latest version available.
• Install ClickToFlash (Safari), Flashblock (Firefox) or FlashBlock (Chrome) to control which Flash content plays on websites.
• Use the YouTube HTML5 Video Player to watch YouTube videos, when available

Definitely try out the HTML5 Video Player on youtube, OP.

 

[grahamnp]

OP,

How long have you been experiencing this?

Is this a new problem on an old notebook or did you just get it?

I used to get 80-100% on my 2.4 C2D 2008 MBP so I'm not surprised that you do. Even on my 2.2 i7, I still see up to 50%.

Still, watching youtube videos at 240p shouldn't normally cause such load and there shouldn't be any problems going full screen. Have you tried uninstalling flash completely and reinstalling it?

If one does not want to take time and identify the problem of the OP, then sometimes it's better not to reply.

Yes, people are waay to quick to jump on the "lets-all-diss-flash" bandwagon.

 

[nateo200]

Exactly. Did you even see the OP's claimed CPU load?

No. Instead you once again chose to respond with one of your canned responses implying that all is well in Apple Land and the OP's plight is basically "in his head". :confused

Thank you...I am still not buying the ******** train packed with people crying "its your core 2 duo", "flash is teh suxzorz!!!11",. Yes flash is CPU intensive but watching a 360P video with 4 other tabs of text based websites is not crazy CPU intensive...I can run compressor doing multi pass H.264 encoding while working in Final Cut Pro X with video (already in ProRes format), while handbrake chugs along with my queue packed with season 5 of 24 and not have a single beach bubble...yet the second I go to YouTube suddenly its like I'm trying to play a 4k RED video...this makes NO SENSE at all...its like when doctors miss a cancerous tumor because they have "seen it all".

1) Go to youtube.com/html5 and deactivate the html5 trial. That fixes the fullscreen issue

2) Try Chrome instead of Safari.

3) I don't know why Flash is acting up suddenly for you.

Yeah I'm gonna disable the HTML5 and see what happens...I just think its so strange its acting up...no other website gives me this issue...Vimeo is fine..but YouTube and my mac go hay wire! Again I don't buy the CPU BS...I can watch YouTube on a fricken pentium II for Christs sake a Core 2 Duo should be eating H.264 360P for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

I used to get 80-100% on my 2.4 C2D 2008 MBP so I'm not surprised that you do. Even on my 2.2 i7, I still see up to 50%.

Still, watching youtube videos at 240p shouldn't normally cause such load and there shouldn't be any problems going full screen. Have you tried uninstalling flash completely and reinstalling it?

80-100% on your 2008MBP? What did you do to the CPU?! Thats ridiculous! At this very moment I am encoding DVD rips and transcoding H.264 to ProRes and I have NO ISSUES at all doing anything else, including browsing safari with 9 tabs open! I'm going to uninstall flash I guess...I had a recent update request that kept popping up, maybe the update came in half baked? I don't know it just seams strange..CPU usage right now is about 90% BTW and I have no issues doing what I said before...

 

[GGJstudios]

....yet the second I go to YouTube suddenly its like I'm trying to play a 4k RED video..

Have you verified that you have the most recent Flash version?

 

[TheJing]

CPU usage right now is about 90% BTW and I have no issues doing what I said before...

I like your tab "Seven Fetis..." Hahah!

Does your CPU go crazy when you are viewing content on that site as well?

 

[nateo200]

I like your tab "Seven Fetis..." Hahah!

Does your CPU go crazy when you are viewing content on that site as well?

Haha its a cinema photography site..its about how certain film/HD DSLR/video heads have "fetishes" over certain aspects of film. See Jim Jannard from RED and his resolution fetish

EDIT: I knew that some cheeky bastard would point it out! Lmao I saw it on the side of Prolost.com and I was thinking "wtf..how does that have anything to do with this site...".

 

[thundersteele]

Thank you...I am still not buying the ******** train packed with people crying "its your core 2 duo", "flash is teh suxzorz!!!11",. Yes flash is CPU intensive but watching a 360P video with 4 other tabs of text based websites is not crazy CPU intensive...I can run compressor doing multi pass H.264 encoding while working in Final Cut Pro X with video (already in ProRes format), while handbrake chugs along with my queue packed with season 5 of 24 and not have a single beach bubble...yet the second I go to YouTube suddenly its like I'm trying to play a 4k RED video...this makes NO SENSE at all...its like when doctors miss a cancerous tumor because they have "seen it all".

Look, it is well known that flash is somewhat CPU intensive, and scales bad with available CPU power. This is not a new issue.
Youtube in particular is currently making some adjustments, e.g. they changed the layout of the site, they made the html5 trial the default choice, and maybe other changes I'm not aware of. Eventually this will hopefully lead to better and more efficient video playback.
Right now this creates a few issues, e.g. fullscreen being broken for some browsers, increased CPU load, and whatever. Right now this should be mostly blamed on youtube - after all there were no updates to Lion or Safari in the last months that could have caused this misbehavior.

 

[TheJing]

Right now this creates a few issues, e.g. fullscreen being broken for some browsers, increased CPU load, and whatever. Right now this should be mostly blamed on youtube - after all there were no updates to Lion or Safari in the last months that could have caused this misbehavior.

But I'm experiencing no problem whatsoever and my CPU load when watching 1080p videos on youtube are nowhere near the OP's when he is watching in 240p.

You don't think there might be something wrong with his machine or something that isn't up to date maybe?

I'm not expert, I'm simply asking you.

 

[thundersteele]

But I'm experiencing no problem whatsoever and my CPU load when watching 1080p videos on youtube are nowhere near the OP's when he is watching in 240p.

You don't think there might be something wrong with his machine or something that isn't up to date maybe?

I'm not expert, I'm simply asking you.

There's always a chance that something is wrong. In this particular situation, I think it's unlikely.
Youtube broke fullscreen for some people by defaulting them into the html5 trial. This mostly affected people who never set this manually.
Also, I don't find his CPU times particularly high. I'm seeing over 100% CPU time for the involved flash processes when the video is still loading in the background - of course, on the i7 quad cores, this still gives me an 80% idle machine. Once the video is fully loaded in the background, my flash process goes down to 10% CPU time, and my machine is usually 95% idle or more. This is using Chrome flash btw, Adobe flash might behave differently.

 

[nateo200]

Look, it is well known that flash is somewhat CPU intensive, and scales bad with available CPU power. This is not a new issue.
Youtube in particular is currently making some adjustments, e.g. they changed the layout of the site, they made the html5 trial the default choice, and maybe other changes I'm not aware of. Eventually this will hopefully lead to better and more efficient video playback.
Right now this creates a few issues, e.g. fullscreen being broken for some browsers, increased CPU load, and whatever. Right now this should be mostly blamed on youtube - after all there were no updates to Lion or Safari in the last months that could have caused this misbehavior.

So I'll just have to deal with it? I mean I'm not the first guy to grab the torches and hunt down whoever is to blame...BUT I was just curious as to the pathology of such weird issues. I guess I'll wait. Haha I've literally been using "KeepVid" to download the videos to my hard drive to watch them temporarily instead of waiting for them to load! Much faster! and I get to see the full quality! I download some of these videos in 1080P and they have 8,000 bit rates, I must say I thought YouTube was just as quilty as TV providers in the whole "HD Lite" BS.

But I'm experiencing no problem whatsoever and my CPU load when watching 1080p videos on youtube are nowhere near the OP's when he is watching in 240p.

You don't think there might be something wrong with his machine or something that isn't up to date maybe?

I'm not expert, I'm simply asking you.

Lucky you with your SSD . I'll probably make an SSD my next purchase for the sake of speed...I've already done up the RAM, Optibay,might as well add something big in I guess...is it possible I put the RAM in not all the way and thats it? Doesn't seam to have much merit as I've noticed my FCP workflow has sped up a bit with the 8gigs of RAM.

 

[thundersteele]

So I'll just have to deal with it?

You could send an email to youtube, and see what they say/if they care.


Maybe there are non-flash using video streaming websites?