Huge increase in CPU usage while playing any video

Dragor1 · 16 Feb 2009

I have installed 181.22 version of Vista's 32 bit drivers and K-Lite's Mega Codec pack v4.5.3.0.

Whenever I play any video using Winamp or any player that uses DShow, I get abnormally huge CPU usage which was not the case in either XP or Vista.

Heres the results from playback of two file types:

1. an AVI file:

2. an RMVB file using the Real Alternative installed with K-Lite Mega Codec pack.

Please help!

It feels as though my GPU is sleeping and letting the CPU do all the work!

Thanks for your time!

NosferatuX · 16 Feb 2009

Just a thought.

If you're up for it, you could try the Windows 7 Codec Pack. Please be sure to uninstall the previous codec and try the video again.

Hope it works out for yah

Dragor1 · 16 Feb 2009

Does the above mentioned Codec pack have Real Alternative?

I MUST be able to play rmvb files w/o installing real player [real player stinks but the codec rocks!].

But I think that this problem might be more related to drivers than the codec pack since EVERY video played anywhere [even flash in Firefox] is causiing abnormally high CPU usage!

I'll give the codec pack later, first, I am gonna uninstall Vista's drivers and try using the Windows Update ones.

Will post back with results.

Thanks for your time!

Sparatan117 · 16 Feb 2009

Hey just a thought. I noticed the same thing today infact when I tried to watch my Fast and Furious movie on AVI. I kept on getting lag and CPU spikes. I installed DVIX and it had no effect. Then remembering from past experience I downloaded Windows Media Player Classic. After extracting it from its RAR I dragged the AVI file ontop of it and it opened and played without lag or major CPU usage.

Not sure if its what you want but its a quick fix.

NosferatuX · 17 Feb 2009

Dragor1 said:

Does the above mentioned Codec pack have Real Alternative?

I MUST be able to play rmvb files w/o installing real player [real player stinks but the codec rocks!].

But I think that this problem might be more related to drivers than the codec pack since EVERY video played anywhere [even flash in Firefox] is causiing abnormally high CPU usage!

I'll give the codec pack later, first, I am gonna uninstall Vista's drivers and try using the Windows Update ones.

Will post back with results.

Thanks for your time!

I've checked with the site and my installation, and yes, it does play real media files.

You're welcome

Dragor1 · 17 Feb 2009

Silly me! I should've looked more closely at the installer pic shown on Shark007 site:

It says RealMedia components right there!

My bad! sorry!

BTW, I have uninstalled Vista's 181.22 and then let Windows Update their Prerelease WDDM 1.0 driver which reads as 179.23 in nVidia Control Panel's system information dialog.

That, unfortunately, didn't have any effect. I am downlading Windows 7 codec pack as I write this.

Will post back.

Thank you for your time!

Dragor1 · 17 Feb 2009

Update: Installed Windows 7 Codec pack but still nothing!

However, as Sparatan117 noted, I did try running things through MPC Home Cinema and CPU usage was quite low; about 15%. But its still higher than what it was in Vista and XP.

I would not like to use MPC HC as my default video player in place of Winamp because I have setup Winamp to give me exactly the type of sound I need.

MPC on the other hand has no such arrangements.

I completely fail to see the logic behind this! How can it be working flawlessly in XP and even in Vista, and not work properly in 7?

Is it because I have a dated 6600? Or am I overlooking something?

Please help!

Thanks for your time!

P.S.: Although Windows 7 codec package is good, I will be reverting back to K-Lite Mega Codec Pack's newer version [v 4.6.2], as I get lots of stuff with it, like MPC HC and other awesome tools! No hard feelings!

Sparatan117 · 17 Feb 2009

I'll see what I can do to help out. I'll let ya know as soon as I come up with a solution.

NosferatuX · 19 Feb 2009

Dragor1 said:

Update: Installed Windows 7 Codec pack but still nothing!

However, as Sparatan117 noted, I did try running things through MPC Home Cinema and CPU usage was quite low; about 15%. But its still higher than what it was in Vista and XP.

I would not like to use MPC HC as my default video player in place of Winamp because I have setup Winamp to give me exactly the type of sound I need.

MPC on the other hand has no such arrangements.

I completely fail to see the logic behind this! How can it be working flawlessly in XP and even in Vista, and not work properly in 7?

Is it because I have a dated 6600? Or am I overlooking something?

Please help!

Thanks for your time!

P.S.: Although Windows 7 codec package is good, I will be reverting back to K-Lite Mega Codec Pack's newer version [v 4.6.2], as I get lots of stuff with it, like MPC HC and other awesome tools! No hard feelings!

You're most welcome and no hard feelings :)

Well, this is still in its beta stage, though I'd suspect some other things are working to make that behave like that as I don't experience the symptoms you're having.

Please let us know the progress of your media experience

I'll give a shout out if I have something for yah.

Snowcrash · 19 Feb 2009

Dragor1 said:

I have installed 181.22 version of Vista's 32 bit drivers and K-Lite's Mega Codec pack v4.5.3.0.

Whenever I play any video using Winamp or any player that uses DShow, I get abnormally huge CPU usage which was not the case in either XP or Vista.

Please help!

It feels as though my GPU is sleeping and letting the CPU do all the work!

Thanks for your time!

Hi Dragor1, I havent had time to research your problem but I do have a sollution that both you and the Seven Forum Users will love and it's FREE! 100% GPU Accelerated video playback using Media Player Classic Home Cinema (GPU accelerated). Found here Media Player Classic Home Cinema (GPU accelerated) download from Guru3D.com. The player works great under XP,Vista 32/64 and Windows 7 32/64. It offloads all of the video decoding to your GPU and works with most GPUs including motherboard integrated sollutions.
Enjoy! :)