Safe and 'CPU low' browsers in general and YouTube

[Peter Franks]

Is there a browser that doesn't overheat your laptop when watching YouTube?

Safari doesn't show moving thumbs in the sidebar, which is a shame, and does send fans into overtime after a few views.

Fans on a Chrome viewing eat battery in no time at all. Chrome does show thumbs, but it's a hog, 'Google Chrome Helper' is not your friend. There seems to be even more of them in this latest update, sticking out more than usual, as they now all have (Renderer) written after Google Chrome Helper. Anyone know what that's all about?

Firefox can give you a fit, because every version I've owned, it flickers madly if I use it for YouTube.
No idea why, Always has done that, even after updates. It's unbearable.

All of them send the fans wild so that's an issue for all, but there must be better out there. Safari used to be great, but it seems very behind compared to Chrome these days.

So, just wondered if there's a perfect browser for the older MBP out there, that I don't know about?

Thank you all

 

[Fishrrman]

iCab
Microsoft Edge Canary
EPIC privacy browser
Brave
Vivaldi

 

[Peter Franks]

Thanks.

And do you favour any of these for particular tasks.... ie YouTube, or do you still favour Safari?

 

[lonelyhollowdays]

You’d be best looking for an optimised Chromium fork that includes the necessary codecs for video playback.

Google are rather notorious for implementing methods in their UX that severely deprecates functionality in anything but their own engine (which alongside Firefox trying to constantly emulate it in ways has eventually led to Chrome literally monopolising the browser world), which means you’ll have to use it one way or another for proper YT functionality.

Most Chromium forks change almost nothing or just tack on built-in features available already via extensions anyway, though. Opera seems enticing but is owned by Chinese (specifically Qihoo who are well known for an incident where they faked AV tests few years ago).

Maybe there are some optimisation flags you can pass when compiling Chromium that’d help but I never did do so when I still had a PC/Mac so I don’t entirely know about that.

 

[Peter Franks]

You’d be best looking for an optimised Chromium fork that includes the necessary codecs for video playback.

Google are rather notorious for implementing methods in their UX that severely deprecates functionality in anything but their own engine (which alongside Firefox trying to constantly emulate it in ways has eventually led to Chrome literally monopolising the browser world), which means you’ll have to use it one way or another for proper YT functionality.

Most Chromium forks change almost nothing or just tack on built-in features available already via extensions anyway, though. Opera seems enticing but is owned by Chinese (specifically Qihoo who are well known for an incident where they faked AV tests few years ago).

Maybe there are some optimisation flags you can pass when compiling Chromium that’d help but I never did do so when I still had a PC/Mac so I don’t entirely know about that.

Thanks for your reply, I won't pretend to understand all of what you've said, but I get some of it.
What do you use yourself generally?

 

[Rodan52]

B

Thanks for your reply, I won't pretend to understand all of what you've said, but I get some of it.
What do you use yourself generally?

Bottom line here is it's not so much the browser but the content and how it's displayed. Yes, some browsers like Chrome have a lot of "bells an whistles" and they may be chewing up your cpu but most current devices have enough grunt to run an online streaming movie.
You may want to look at some ways to speed up or improve the performance of your device.

 

[satcomer]

Thanks for your reply, I won't pretend to understand all of what you've said, but I get some of it.
What do you use yourself generally?

Don’t even look at Chrome and try the Brave Browser! With personal security against web trackers it uses the Crome engine without the CPU headaches.

 

[Peter Franks]

Bottom line here is it's not so much the browser but the content and how it's displayed. Yes, some browsers like Chrome have a lot of "bells an whistles" and they may be chewing up your cpu but most current devices have enough grunt to run an online streaming movie.
You may want to look at some ways to speed up or improve the performance of your device.

Thanks, I'm still on a 2011 MBP, SSD and 8GB, I don't really think there's much more I can do except buy new really. It's not as speedy as it was when I first installed, and It's not a great experience watching any online video, YouTube or otherwise. I'm not sure it's an age thing because I can remember always having this heat/fan problem on the MBP. I do use Chrome 95% of the time now. Safari has always let a load of things in that Chrome usually protected from with the same blockers, but it is a stifling experience using Chrome a lot of the time.

Don’t even look at Chrome and try the Brave Browser! With personal security against web trackers it uses the Crome engine without the CPU headaches.

Thank you, Not heard of it being mentioned before this thread, I will definitely check it out.