
Ask HN: Why is my browser so energy inefficient when playing YouTube videos? - guilamu
I thought this would be a problem long gone in 2020 but it&#x27;s still not. I had it for decades like everybody else I guess: when I&#x27;m playing a video on YouTube using any browser (FF&#x2F;Chrome) my laptop spinner is going crazy and I can feel the heat. If I download the same video with YouTubeDL and watch it with VLC&#x2F;MPC-HC or any other player the laptop stays cool.<p>Any idea why browsers are still so bad at using the specialized video decoding hardware built-in processors for a decade?
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navjack27
It is using hardware decoding in the browser. Try playing a YouTube video on
an old computer with no hardware decode or an OS with it lacking like Haiku.

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ApolloRising
If you are on a mac try safari, for some reason safari is far more efficient
with youtube.

