# HTML 5 = smooth video playback finally + frame rate counter help



## qubit (Jun 12, 2015)

Flash-based videos have always played at inconsistent framerates with significant hitching and jerking, which looked frankly awful and unwatchable for anything more than short clips and I hated it. They did this on every computer I've used too, so it wasn't my setup. I even started a thread about this on TPU some time ago, I was annoyed by it that much. Fraps would show just how bad the framerate was, too.

Now with HTML 5 videos that problem has finally been completely solved and videos play with nice even frame pacing like you'd get on a TV. Bliss. Note that judder/strobing is still visible unless the video is running at 50fps or more, but that's normal and looks the same on a TV.

However, Fraps doesn't show the framerate on HTML 5 and that application doesn't seem to be being developed any more. Does anyone know of a replacement that will show a framerate counter in HTML 5 videos? I've tried googling for it, but all I can find are code snippets to modify the web browser with rather than a little application one can just run.

EDIT: Videos are made at various different framerates, therefore it's handy to know what it is so that the monitor refresh can be set to either match it, or be a multiple of it. This prevents uneven frame pacing due to a rate mismatch.


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## dcf-joe (Jun 12, 2015)

If you are using Chrome, you can type in "chrome:flags" into the URL to enable/disable all kinds of experimental features in Chrome.

The 8th option from the top is "FPS counter." You can enable/disable the feature there. Keep in mind, a prompt will pop-up at the bottom of the Chrome screen that will allow you to restart Chrome in order to start using the new effects.

I tested it with 60 FPS YouTube videos. At least on my PC, I was getting a very stable 60 FPS! In non specified 60 FPS videos, the framerate was very sporadic around the 30 fps range.


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## qubit (Jun 12, 2015)

I use Firefox, but have Chrome installed as well and yes it works, nice one.  There doesn't seem to be a similar feature for Firefox, unfortunately.

I found that those 30fps videos look fine on the screen, but the framerate jumped around a lot at the start, but then settled down. It's probably also a good idea to look at newer videos, as the old grotty ones may have had an uneven framerate before even being uploaded to YouTube.


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## RejZoR (Jun 14, 2015)

This crap is getting worse by the minute...

Few years back, Firefox and Youtube 720p playable on Atom N270. Fast forward several years, AMD E-450, a proper dual core CPU with dedicated DirectX 11 graphic core. Youtube slow as fuck, 720p60 unplayable, 720p30 unavailable entirely, 1080p barely playable. What the fuck Google, Firefox and Microsoft? Don't tell me Youtube somehow became more complex and that my APU just somehow degraded.

Guess what, few weeks ago I've tried Windows 10. 480p was fucking 720p30 was entirely unplayable and 480p was just barely working. WHAT. THE. HELL. !?

They can have this dumb HTML5, it's dreadful. It's so bad it makes Adobe Flash look like a brilliant thing to exist.

I'm looking for ways to have Youtube video hardware accelerated on the GPU, because from what I can see now, the GPU is just wanking there in the corner and CPU is apparently sweating like mad...


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## Ferrum Master (Jun 14, 2015)

RejZoR said:


> Guess what, few weeks ago I've tried Windows 10. 480p was fucking 720p30 was entirely unplayable and 480p was just barely working. WHAT. THE. HELL. !?



Mate, are you reading the changelogs for win10?

Video hardware acceleration is DISABLED for now in win10, it is not ready in driver yet, thus it does not work.


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## Solaris17 (Jun 14, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> Mate, are you reading the changelogs for win10?
> 
> Video hardware acceleration is DISABLED for now in win10, it is not ready in driver yet, thus it does not work.



Instead of being rude to the OP can you show ME the source for this information?


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## RejZoR (Jun 14, 2015)

Still doesn't change the fact that Youtube has transitioned from usable to absolutely unusable on same laptop. And I don't recall any massive bitrate boosts or anything on Youtube... Feels like HW acceleration was just gone one day... Even Adobe Flash video is laggy as fuck now. Not really sure who to blame. Browser sandboxex running stuff within itself on 50 levels isn't helping either I'm guessing...


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## RejZoR (Jun 14, 2015)

*Ok, here is a guide to improve HTML5 playback performance in Firefox by disabling integrated OpenH264 decoder:*
https://rejzor.wordpress.com/2015/06/14/improve-firefox-html5-video-playback-performance/


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## qubit (Jun 15, 2015)

@RejZoR  Sounds like AMD driver issues again, there. Even without GPU acceleration it should still play videos competently, at least the 480p ones.

If you've got them, you could try adding a discrete AMD card and seeing how that goes. Then replace it with an NVIDIA one and see how that works. I reckon both discrete cards will work fine, even tiddly low end ones.

EDIT: HMTL 5 works great on the PCs I've seen it run on, especially with Chrome, so I'm pretty sure you have a driver issue and it's not the new HTML 5.


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## RejZoR (Jun 15, 2015)

I have a quadcore in my PC, it doesn't matter there. But I did notice lack of quality, meaning AMD's video filtering wasn't kicking in.

Besides, Atom tablet with full Windows 8.1 was experiencing the same thing. After turning that shit off it's super smooth again, meaning it's not AMD only thing...


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## qubit (Jun 15, 2015)

I think it's something to do with IGP graphics then, as Intel doesn't work either and I still think it's the interplay with the drivers. Please do have a go with the discrete graphics cards and let me know. It would also be 

I tried turning off OpenH264 and all that happened is that CPU use for Firefox went from about 7% to 15%. That was on this 60fps video when I set the quality to 1080p60 and left the window size at the default ie didn't maximise the video. Note I used my usual graphics cards with this test.


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## Ferrum Master (Jun 15, 2015)

I wasn't rude. Complaining about beta OS is rude imho.

I read it somwhere in MDL during build 1021 era, there is so much info there, hard to find, one must read insider hub and some forums dedicated for that OS development. Even if it is filled out, it would be marked as minor bug.

Those are not only cat faults, abeit it is being totally rewritten for WDDM2 and as a beta stage it is more than OK, as those cats reduced driver overhead a lot. And DX12 is also disabled again in latest builds. So there are lot of changes, so do not be surprised, M$ is still playing around, the latest builds does not even boot on their own Surface tabs, what to expect? The build branches still have not merged all their code actually.

Try to use explorer based AX flash, it works sometimes better for me.


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