Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

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.

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

Dropped Frames on High Bitrate Youtube Videos Linux when using Global Scaling

  • Akukho zimpendulo
  • 0 zinale nkinga
more options

During what I assume are high bitrate sections of YouTube videos (e.g. lots of movement, high resolution) YouTube will constantly drop frames.

Video for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLuTLF3x9sA

I have tried: • Safe Mode • Installing the Flatpak and testing in that, which also has a fresh profile as I don't use the Flatpak version • Testing different related about:config settings – I can't remember them all now, but I tested every one I found googling that is related to the issue or hardware acceleration.

Hardware acceleration is for sure working. Turning it off makes the video drop to one or two FPS.

Chromium has no problem with the same video. However, you can see from the screenshots that both read the resolution/scaling of my screen differently, and it implies that Firefox is rendering something like 6314 x 3552 while Chromium is rendering at UHD, the resolution of the screen and my video. If I turn off all my Global Scaling, Firefox stops dropping frames (the same info box on YouTube states resolution is UHD), reinforcing my theory about scaling being the issue. Both are confirmed to be using native Wayland.

During what I assume are high bitrate sections of YouTube videos (e.g. lots of movement, high resolution) YouTube will constantly drop frames. Video for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLuTLF3x9sA I have tried: • Safe Mode • Installing the Flatpak and testing in that, which also has a fresh profile as I don't use the Flatpak version • Testing different related about:config settings – I can't remember them all now, but I tested every one I found googling that is related to the issue or hardware acceleration. Hardware acceleration is for sure working. Turning it off makes the video drop to one or two FPS. Chromium has no problem with the same video. However, you can see from the screenshots that both read the resolution/scaling of my screen differently, and it implies that Firefox is rendering something like 6314 x 3552 while Chromium is rendering at UHD, the resolution of the screen and my video. If I turn off all my Global Scaling, Firefox stops dropping frames (the same info box on YouTube states resolution is UHD), reinforcing my theory about scaling being the issue. Both are confirmed to be using native Wayland.
Ama-screenshot ananyekiwe

You must log in to your account to reply to posts. Please start a new question, if you do not have an account yet.