webm vp9 hardware decoding in html5 players

[codemaster]

Chrome web browser has native support for webm container and vp9 codec.

I noticed that in Chrome, when I watch a recently published youtube video, the html5 video player starts, and at mime type in "stats for nerds" it says that the container is webm, and the codec is vp9. The CPU utilization is at 60% for 480p (on a 2.5 GHz Athlon cpu).

If I watch the same youtube video, but in Firefox, the flash player starts, and at mime type in "stats for nerds" it says that the container is mp4, and the codec is h264. CPU utilization is at 60% for 480p on a 2.5 GHz Athlon cpu, and should be at ~6% for 480p on a haswell cpu or kaveri apu.

On haswell and kaveri, that video is decoded with the gpu if Firefox is used. My question is: on haswell and kaveri, if Chrome is used to play that video, will that video be decoded with the gpu or with the cpu? In other words, does haswell and kaveri have hardware support for vp9, or haswell and chrome users will get 60% cpu utilization instead of 6% ?

[Detmek]

There is no VP9 hardware decoder yet.

If you want to use Chrome for Youtube and use hardware accelerated decoding you need to switch to flash player. There is Chrome extention that blocks HTML5 player on YT.

[codemaster]

Newest laptop and desktop cpu's (skylake microarchitecture) now have gpu with vp9 hardware decoder. Most users don't use a skylake cpu, but newest Chrome still loads vp9 video instead of h264 video, on youtube. While newest Firefox still loads the h264 video, by default.

[KarMa]

VP9 support is turned off by default in Firefox but can be turned on.

Put about:config in the url box, and confirm you will be careful. Then search for media.mediasource.webm and enable it by setting it to true.

http://www.willinger.cc/blog/firefox-does-not-play-youtube-videos/

I once only used Chrome for watching Youtube as it loaded faster with better quality, via VP9. But by enabling VP9 in Firefox it always uses VP9 in Firefox. I don't think Firefox is doing themselves any favors by defaulting it off.