Answers.Body: <p>Quite possible that the Windows player can make use of some HW acceleration the others can not / are not using. </p>
  
  <p>Check this how to enable HW video decoding on VLC: </p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><a href="https://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_GPU_Decoding" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_GPU_Decoding</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://superuser.com/q/128478/228841">https://superuser.com/q/128478/228841</a></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>If you are using VLC 2.2.2 check this
  <a href="https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=130590" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=130590</a></p>
  
  <p><strong>UPDATE</strong> from the author of the question:
  Adding screenshot from VLC v. 2.2.1 to compliment this answer.</p>
  
  <p>VLC 2.2.1 with Hardware Acceleration enabled.
  <a href="https://i.sstatic.net/fqQTz.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/fqQTz.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-03-03T06:22:35.633Z
Answers.Text: Unlikely. Even if so, H/W accel uses GPU and FTV shows half the GPU use as well.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Gyan
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-03-03T07:12:29.507Z
Answers.Text: If your gpu does HW video decoding, I don't think it would even register as high GPU usage since it is _Hardware_ Decoding.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Hans Meiser
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-03-03T07:14:47.600Z
Answers.Text: http://superuser.com/q/128478/228841
Answers.UserDisplayName: Hans Meiser
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-03-03T07:21:21.830Z
Answers.Text: The hardware decoder is part of the GPU die, so I'm not sure how that affects my point.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Gyan
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-03-03T07:23:45.353Z
Answers.Text: 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.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Hans Meiser
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-03-03T07:40:12.780Z
Answers.Text: Depending on how efficient the decoder is, it should still affect the temps. Compare the GPU temps. The chief discrepancy here seems to be the post-processing/renderer, not the decoding.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Gyan
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-03-03T07:43:55.600Z
Answers.Text: No, it wouldn't. You can run FullHD H264 movies on a raspberry pi, thanks to hardware acceleration and you wouldn't notice a temperature change.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Hans Meiser
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-03-03T08:38:48.540Z
Answers.Text: If you look at the first chart [here](http://www.anandtech.com/show/7007/intels-haswell-an-htpc-perspective/5) (with the default renderer), Quicksync decoding consumes more power than DXVA2. When I compare VLC playback of FHD 30fps with s/w decode vs DXVA2 using a nV card, I register a 5% increase in GPU (30 -> 35) and 1-2 C increase in GPU temp in the latter case. That suggests that decoding doesn't account for all the discrepancy in the OP's case.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Gyan
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-03-03T09:37:44.980Z
Answers.Text: The point is: there cannot be any other real explanation for his / her original question. The Windows player uses some kind of acceleration the others are not. This also lines up with other search results related to that subject: one article praising the Windows player as less battery consuming, other articles speaking of high CPU utilization when using VLC. I think your energy would be more wisely invested trying to to figure out WHICH acceleration is missing in the other players than arguing that there is none.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Hans Meiser
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-03-03T09:41:38.000Z
Answers.Text: I'm not arguing "WHICH acceleration is missing". I'm saying the discrepancy isn't explained by different decoding pipelines between the players.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Gyan
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-03-03T09:55:29.700Z
Answers.Text: Using ( or not using)  a HW decoder results in a different decoding pipeline. Sorry man I really think you're getting nowhere with this. And also I don't find it interesting discussing the existence of something obvious.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Hans Meiser
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-03-05T23:30:29.747Z
Answers.Text: I have to agree  with Hans Meiser. GPU decoding absolutely explains this behavior.
Answers.UserDisplayName: timonsku
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-03-09T15:31:14.830Z
Answers.Text: @HansMeiser Today I downgraded VLC player to version 2.2.1 (in 2.2.2 hardware acceleration isn't working as you pointed out) and results are similar (though not as good) as the default Windows player. Therefore I believe hardware acceleration will explain the big difference in resource utilization. The minor difference probably has to do with some further optimizations.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Filip Nikolov
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-03-09T20:15:04.593Z
Answers.Text: Yeah, GPU decoding does explain the CPU %. But not the GPU %, which looks due to VLC's filters+renderer.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Gyan
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-03-03T01:06:52.177Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2016-03-09T18:19:01.270Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2017-03-20T10:18:33.487Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Hans Meiser
Body: <p>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.</p>
  
  <p>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.</p>
  
  <p>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. </p>
  
  <p>The CPU / GPU used are Core i5 5200U / Intel HD Graphics 5500</p>
  
  <p>VLC Player CPU utilization:
  <a href="https://i.sstatic.net/XGSQE.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/XGSQE.png" alt="VLC Player CPU utilization"></a></p>
  
  <p>Films and TV CPU utilization
  <a href="https://i.sstatic.net/agPr7.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/agPr7.png" alt="Films and TV CPU utilization"></a></p>
  
  <p>This is the info for a sample video file.</p>
  
  <pre><code>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
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>VLC reports the following video output in: Tools -> Messages -> Module Tree -> playlist -> video output</p>
  
  <pre><code>window "qt4" (0x5a738fc)
  vout display "direct3d" (0x5a57a34)
  
  subpicture (0xf456b4)
  spu text "freetype" (0x5a24264)
  scale "yuvp" (0x5a70c1c)
  scale "swscale" (0x55a1eac)
  </code></pre>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2016-03-02T07:29:18.140Z
Comments.Text: Probably different renderer and/or filters used with VLC/GOM. In VLC, what does `Tools -> Messages -> Module Tree -> playlist -> video output` say?
Comments.UserDisplayName: Gyan
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2016-03-02T18:30:03.137Z
Comments.Text: @Mulvya Added the requested info in the body of the post/question.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Filip Nikolov
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2016-03-07T14:49:50.050Z
Comments.Text: 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.
Comments.UserDisplayName: avnr
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2016-03-09T15:24:31.313Z
Comments.Text: @avnr My display is 1600 x 900 and player are running maximized, though not in full screen.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Filip Nikolov
Tags: <playback><full-hd>
Title: How is the default video player in Windows 10 achieving the low CPU utilization while playing FHD videos
UserDisplayName: Filip Nikolov
ThreadText: # How is the default video player in Windows 10 achieving the low CPU utilization while playing FHD videos
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2016-03-01)
  
  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](https://i.sstatic.net/XGSQE.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/XGSQE.png)
  
  Films and TV CPU utilization
  [![Films and TV CPU utilization](https://i.sstatic.net/agPr7.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/agPr7.png)
  
  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)
  
  ```
  
  **Tags:** playback, full-hd
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: Probably different renderer and/or filters used with VLC/GOM. In VLC, what does `Tools -> Messages -> Module Tree -> playlist -> video output` say?  
  > **username_0**: @Mulvya Added the requested info in the body of the post/question.  
  > **username_2**: 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.  
  > **username_0**: @username_2 My display is 1600 x 900 and player are running maximized, though not in full screen.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_3 on 2016-03-03. Score: 0 | Accepted answer
  
  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:
  
  * <https://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_GPU_Decoding>
  * <https://superuser.com/q/128478/228841>
  
  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](https://i.sstatic.net/fqQTz.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/fqQTz.png)
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: Unlikely. Even if so, H/W accel uses GPU and FTV shows half the GPU use as well.  
  > **username_3**: If your gpu does HW video decoding, I don't think it would even register as high GPU usage since it is _Hardware_ Decoding.  
  > **username_3**: http://superuser.com/q/128478/228841  
  > **username_1**: The hardware decoder is part of the GPU die, so I'm not sure how that affects my point.  
  > **username_3**: 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.  
  > **username_1**: Depending on how efficient the decoder is, it should still affect the temps. Compare the GPU temps. The chief discrepancy here seems to be the post-processing/renderer, not the decoding.  
  > **username_3**: No, it wouldn't. You can run FullHD H264 movies on a raspberry pi, thanks to hardware acceleration and you wouldn't notice a temperature change.  
  > **username_1**: If you look at the first chart [here](http://www.anandtech.com/show/7007/intels-haswell-an-htpc-perspective/5) (with the default renderer), Quicksync decoding consumes more power than DXVA2. When I compare VLC playback of FHD 30fps with s/w decode vs DXVA2 using a nV card, I register a 5% increase in GPU (30 -> 35) and 1-2 C increase in GPU temp in the latter case. That suggests that decoding doesn't account for all the discrepancy in the OP's case.  
  > **username_3**: The point is: there cannot be any other real explanation for his / her original question. The Windows player uses some kind of acceleration the others are not. This also lines up with other search results related to that subject: one article praising the Windows player as less battery consuming, other articles speaking of high CPU utilization when using VLC. I think your energy would be more wisely invested trying to to figure out WHICH acceleration is missing in the other players than arguing that there is none.  
  > **username_1**: I'm not arguing "WHICH acceleration is missing". I'm saying the discrepancy isn't explained by different decoding pipelines between the players.  
  > **username_3**: Using ( or not using)  a HW decoder results in a different decoding pipeline. Sorry man I really think you're getting nowhere with this. And also I don't find it interesting discussing the existence of something obvious.  
  > **username_4**: I have to agree  with username_3 username_3. GPU decoding absolutely explains this behavior.  
  > **username_0**: @username_3 Today I downgraded VLC player to version 2.2.1 (in 2.2.2 hardware acceleration isn't working as you pointed out) and results are similar (though not as good) as the default Windows player. Therefore I believe hardware acceleration will explain the big difference in resource utilization. The minor difference probably has to do with some further optimizations.  
  > **username_1**: Yeah, GPU decoding does explain the CPU %. But not the GPU %, which looks due to VLC's filters+renderer.  
  
  ---
  
  