Play HD videos smoothly while using the least CPU power?

[Bondurant]

Hi guys,
My objective is to reduce the CPU usage to the least amount possible while playing HD videos smoothly. I watch HD basket-ball videos 3 or 4 times a week so I want to keep my hardware safe on the long term. The media info of these videos is usually:

Video: h264, 1280x720, 59.94fps, 4400 kbps
Audio: AAC, stereo, 44.1 KHz, 192 kbps

The 60fps seem to consume much more compared to the other HD videos I play.
My hardware specs are:
- Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 2,5GHz
- 2 Go DDR2 RAM
- Motherboard Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H with integrated GPU intel Nvidia Geforce 7100 / Nvidia nForce 630i (yes, crap)

Actual OS: windows 7 x64

I actually use Potplayer with FFmpeg Decoder (Type 2) & EVR (Win 7) as the video renderer and the CPU usage is about 50-55% with these 60fps videos. I've disabled all the useless .exes services on Windows.


I wonder if switching to another OS like Windows 8 or a Linux Distro would make a difference. Anyway, I'm ok with changing OS, player, anything to reduce the CPU as long as I don't get a laggy video during the games.
Thanks for any suggestion.

[jagabo]

Get a graphics card with GPU h.264 decoding. CPU usage will be in the low single digits.

[Bondurant]

Get a graphics card with GPU h.264 decoding. CPU usage will be in the low single digits.

I might do that, but I'm still interested to find out if there are ways to reduce the CPU usage with what I already have (even though I realise the CPU usage is not gonna drop to single digits that way).

[jagabo]

I'm still interested to find out if there are ways to reduce the CPU usage with what I already have

No. At least nothing significant. Turn off the h.264 decoders deblocking filter? Of course, you'll get blocky looking video.

[jman98]

I wonder if switching to another OS like Windows 8 or a Linux Distro would make a difference.

No, it won't.

You can try using VLC for playback and see if it is nicer on your CPU.

[Baldrick]

Try also Splash.