Video file formats and battery life

[perdomot]

Not sure if this has ever been addressed but does the type of video file one plays on a laptop affect how much power and therefore battery life is used up?I'm going on a long flight and want to make my netbook last as long as possible. Thanks.

[edDV]

Depends if your playback format is supported in the display chip hardware (low power consumption) or requires CPU to decode.

DVD MPeg2 is generally supported in most laptop display chips and most laptops are power optimized for playing DVD. If you play from a file rather than from the drive, you save the power used to spin the drive.

AVIVO-HD and PureVideo-HD display chipsets will decode Blu-Ray format high def MPeg2, h.264 and VC-1 in hardware. Other display chipsets may have hardware assist (when properly configured) but the CPU must carry most of the load. High CPU activity burns the most power.

Play your videos and watch CPU activity in the task manager. The lower the better for power consumption. Next issue would be screen brightness. Headphones use less power than speakers.

[perdomot]

Thanks for the info. I plan on playing avi files and some flv files from youtube using VLC player. My netbook is the usual Atom 1.6Ghz cpu so I guess I'll have to run some tests.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Generally the higher the resolution the more the CPU and GPU have to work, I would also turn off the Wi-Fi or wireless card when not in use.
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/03/10-tips-to-make-your-laptop-battery.html

[creamyhorror]

Thanks for the info. I plan on playing avi files and some flv files from youtube using VLC player. My netbook is the usual Atom 1.6Ghz cpu so I guess I'll have to run some tests.

VLC isn't going to accelerate any of your videos, so you'll be relying on CPU decoding all the way. It's pretty draining, as has been mentioned.

[perdomot]

Is there a better media player you can recommend than VLC?