Encode for lowest CPU load while playing in Windows Media Player

[IriTrisha]

Hi Everybody!
I have relatively short video and I need to encode it in a way that standard Windows Media Player can play. Moreover it should use as low cpu as only possible while playing.
Could you please suggest some ffmpeg/mencoder options for this?
Thanks,
IriTrisha

[El Heggunte]

With ffmpeg, I normally use these settings:

-vcodec wmv2 -qscale 3 -g 250 -sc_threshold -50000

You can change the scenecut parameter to -40000 or above, if you think -50000 gives you "too many I-frames"

H.T.H.

[Baldrick]

Or mpeg1

ffmpeg -i inputfile -vcodec mpeg1video -acodec mp2 output.mpg

[IriTrisha]

Guys,


Thank you very much!


I’ve tried your recommendations. According to Task Manager each of them consumes about 20% CPU on my laptop. As much as original video.

But then I’ve noticed that my Windows Media Player consumes this 20% even when the playback is stopped or after the playing a video when shows its usual Play again / Go to Library screen. I’m running Windows 7 (64 bit) with default Media Player. I’ve ran through its options and untick everything related to media library and so on, but it continue eating the CPU! Do you have any idea what can cause this and how it could be solved?


Thanks,
IriTrisha

[Cornucopia]

Theoretically, an uncompressed stream should have the least CPU load (as it is only parsing & dislaying, no decoding/decompressing necessary) , but conversely it has the highest load on the HDD and buss subsystem.

For compressed streams, I would think DV or MPEG1 would be the easiest on the system (and still be providing a decent output) . There are older & simpler codecs than those, but you wouldn't want to use them.

Scott

[IriTrisha]

Theoretically, an uncompressed stream should have the least CPU load (as it is only parsing & dislaying, no decoding/decompressing necessary) , but conversely it has the highest load on the HDD and buss subsystem.

Scott,
Thank you for the replay.

As far as I got WMP can't play uncompressed video. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Do you have any clue why WMP consumes 20% of CPU even idling and can it be solved?

Thanks,
IriTrisha

[jagabo]

Something is borked if WMP is consuming 20 percent CPU when idle. Are you sure it's WMP not something else?

[Hoser Rob]

I agree. Try Task Manager or something similar for whatever OS you're using and look at processes.

[IriTrisha]

I agree!!
This seems weird to me. But if the Task Manager not joking WMP consumes about 10% when started (before plying any media. Just WMP) and about 15% after playing a media, while showing its "blue screen" with "Replay again" and "Go to Library" options.

It seems really wrong to me but I don't know how to cure it.

Thanks,
IriTrisha