This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Youtube 60fps framedrops (Edge and IE no drops)

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 71 views
  • Last reply by Da Vinci

Da Vinci
Da Vinci
more options

Hello,

the following issue concerns all (new) browsers Firefox, Edge Chromium, Chrome and Opium, from what I have tested. I have noticed the issue when using my 2016 notebook which has an intel n3710 cpu.

The issue: 60 fps videos on youtube have severe framedrops (15-20%) on all those browsers. The catch:(old) Edge and Internet Explorer have 0 framedrops. How can this be?

Two things:

1. By default Youtube uses the VP9 codec for video playback. The (old) Edge browser automatically disables VP9 and fallsback to AVC1 codec, when your hardware doesn't support VP9 decoding. All the newer browsers do not fallback to AVC1, which means even if your hardware doesn't support it, by default VP9 is used, which means high cpu usage, framedrops on 60fps videos, lower battery life. Why do the new browsers not fallback to AVC1 codec on youtube, if the hardware doesn't support it?

2. There are ways to force the AVC1 codec on youtube on the newer browsers via third party addons, or tweaks in the "about:config", which I already did. Stats-for-nerds on Youtube report that the AVC1 codec is being used, still, 60 fps videos have 15-20% framedrops. Hardware acceleration is active, obviously.

TLDR: Edge (old), Internet Explorer -> Youtube 60fps = 0 framedrops Firefox, Edge Chromium, Chrome -> Youtube 60fps = framedrops

Any ideas?

Hello, the following issue concerns all (new) browsers Firefox, Edge Chromium, Chrome and Opium, from what I have tested. I have noticed the issue when using my 2016 notebook which has an intel n3710 cpu. '''The issue:''' 60 fps videos on youtube have severe framedrops (15-20%) on all those browsers. The catch:(old) Edge and Internet Explorer have 0 framedrops. How can this be? Two things: 1. By default Youtube uses the VP9 codec for video playback. The (old) Edge browser automatically disables VP9 and fallsback to AVC1 codec, when your hardware doesn't support VP9 decoding. '''All''' the newer browsers do not fallback to AVC1, which means even if your hardware doesn't support it, by default VP9 is used, which means high cpu usage, framedrops on 60fps videos, lower battery life. Why do the new browsers not fallback to AVC1 codec on youtube, if the hardware doesn't support it? 2. There are ways to force the AVC1 codec on youtube on the newer browsers via third party addons, or tweaks in the "about:config", which I already did. Stats-for-nerds on Youtube report that the AVC1 codec is being used, still, 60 fps videos have 15-20% framedrops. Hardware acceleration is active, obviously. '''TLDR:''' Edge (old), Internet Explorer -> Youtube 60fps = 0 framedrops Firefox, Edge Chromium, Chrome -> Youtube 60fps = framedrops Any ideas?

Modified by Da Vinci

All Replies (3)

TyDraniu
TyDraniu
  • Top 25 Contributor
more options

What about h264? -> https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/h264ify/

Da Vinci
Da Vinci Question owner
more options

I am using that addon, which enables AVC1 codec. Without the addon the videos are unwatchable. With the addon, 30fps videos are fine, 60 fps vidoes have 15-20% framedrops, while (old) Edge and IE play 60 fps videos with 0 framedrops.

As a side note: Why does it require a third party addon to play youtube videos? This isn't progressive. Again, the old Edge automatically detects if the hardware supports VP9, and fallsback to AVC1 automatically, without the need for third party addons.

Firefox, Edge Chromium, Chrome should fix this.

Modified by Da Vinci

Da Vinci
Da Vinci Question owner
more options

One more important thing: When watching any Youtube video on the old Edge or Internet Explorer (regardless if 30fps or 60fps), in Windows task manager under GPU-Engine it says "GPU0-Video Decode", and when using Firefox, Edge Chromium and Chrome it only says "GPU0 -3D"

I suspect that this is the reason why all the newer browsers have framedrops when watching 60fps videos, as it stresses the cpu more, and if the cpu is not powerful enough it will drop frames. Ideally it should all be decoded via gpu hardware, like on old Edge/IE and not using the cpu.

EDIT:Turns out that on the desktop PC with dedicated AMD gpu, it says "GPU0-Video Decode" in task manager using Firefox. That makes me believe the newer browsers do not correctly recognize the Intel mobile CPU n3710 from 2016. Maybe the gpu list for hadware decode needs to be updated?

Please report this to the mozilla team

Modified by Da Vinci