(Can't Be Solved) Flash uses too much CPU

adam777 · 2012-06-03 22:33:07

Hello all,
In the process of setting up my first Arch system, I currently experiment with OpenBox, and have tried using Flash (flashplugin) under Chromium, both latest version from the repos.
I tried watching a 720P video on youtube (Big Buck Bunny), but it was a complete failure.
After some searching, I disabled hardware decoding using

/etc/adobe/mms.cfg

.
Next, I completely disabled the Laptop Mode Tools daemon to make sure no powersaving was in play (and rebooted of course).
I also set the CPU governor to "performance" (though using cpupower, the CPU does scale to maximum under "ondemand").
All of the above did not help - CPU usage still reach ~80% when playing the 720P video unmaximized (and no dropped frames), and I get lots of dropped frames when going full screen.

Is it really what I can expect from flashplugin under Arch or have I missed something (hopefully)?
My CPU is Core 2 Duo P8600 which is more than capable of handling such videos (for reference only, software decoding of the same video under Windows 7 hover around 30% CPU usage (also Chromium and Flash, different Chromium version)).

Thanks, Adam.

Last edited by adam777 (2012-06-04 12:55:54)

karol · 2012-06-04 07:58:53

Have you tried some other Linux distro and it had better results that Arch? Flash on Linux generally sucks and often maxes out the cpu.

Gusar · 2012-06-04 08:46:35

If you get dropped frames in fullscreen, it means opengl isn't used. Which is weird. Did you maybe deactivate acceleration (right-click -> Settings -> Enable hardware acceleration)? Activate that, it should make fullscreen the same as not-fullscreen.

Another thing you can try is installing libvdpau-git-flashpatch from AUR. Then, on youtube, right-click on a video -> View Video Info, it should say "Accelerated video rendering" there. Decoding will still be software, as the open-source drivers only decode mpeg2 using vdpau.

If the above two don't noticeably improve things, well, it's just the nature of flash - without vdpau it does everything in software, except scaling when you go to fullscreen. So it's completely normal that it's slower than a dedicated video player. And if your CPU isn't strong enough, you simply can't play 720p videos with flash.

adam777 · 2012-06-04 11:01:21

I forgot to mention I use an ATI card (Mobility Radeon 4570, 512MB), so hardware isn't an option.
Haven't tried other distros, but I'll give Ubuntu a spin and see if it's any better in there (don't plan on using something other than Arch, though ).
I've also tried lightspark-git from AUR (lightspark failed to build) - aside from the fact that pretty much everything renders incorrectly, doesn't seem like much improvement in the performance area.

Last edited by adam777 (2012-06-04 11:02:48)

adam777 · 2012-06-04 12:54:52

OK, back from Ubuntu.
Did a fresh Ubuntu 12.04 LTS installation, and just installed Chromium and Flash from the software center.
Chromium version is 18.0.1025.151 (Arch has 19.0.1084.52).
Flash version is 11.2 r202 (Arch has 11.2.202.235, which I suppose is the same).
Also tried built-in Firefox and using proprietary drivers (still pure software decoding and rendering).

Under all scenarios, behavior was the same as in Arch - ridiculously high CPU usage comparing to Windows.
I guess Flash under Linux really is THAT bad, perhaps this new "chrome-only" flash will behave better (and will most definitely kept up-to-date in the AUR or so).
(I've already tried the currently available pepper flash from the AUR, with no better results).

Can't see much more that can be done in regards to direct flash rendering, really annoying.
Might try some sort of flash-video-automatic-replacement-with-vlc-or-something-like-that.
Adam.

PS.
My 20 minutes with Ubuntu were enough - Arch is definitely the way to go, even for a pretty green Linux user such as myself (have some background, though).

Last edited by adam777 (2012-06-04 12:57:06)

DSpider · 2012-06-04 13:32:16

I got rid of Flash 8 months ago and never looked back. Firefox has been very stable since then.

For the few Youtube videos that interest me and aren't converted yet, I use ClipGrab (from the AUR) and just view them with SMPlayer.

Last edited by DSpider (2012-06-04 13:34:52)

theGunslinger · 2012-06-04 13:59:44

I just have one question, why the hell would you turn off hardware acceleration with proprietary drivers?

With hw accel i get smooth flash on my amd athlon 3000+ which is WAY weaker than your cpu, just let the graphics do all the work.

alphaniner · 2012-06-04 14:08:11

theGunslinger wrote:

I just have one question, why the hell would you turn off hardware acceleration with proprietary drivers?

adam777 wrote:

I forgot to mention I use an ATI card (Mobility Radeon 4570, 512MB), so hardware isn't an option.

Gusar · 2012-06-04 14:14:16

theGunslinger wrote:

I just have one question, why the hell would you turn off hardware acceleration with proprietary drivers?
With hw accel i get smooth flash on my amd athlon 3000+ which is WAY weaker than your cpu, just let the graphics do all the work.

Err, Flash doesn't support hardware decoding with fglrx. There's just opengl support for fullscreen scaling. Hardware decoding and presentation require VDPAU, which is supported by nvidia (both presentation and encoding) and the open drivers (only presentation).

Arch Linux

#1 2012-06-03 22:33:07

(Can't Be Solved) Flash uses too much CPU

#2 2012-06-04 07:58:53

Re: (Can't Be Solved) Flash uses too much CPU

#3 2012-06-04 08:46:35

Re: (Can't Be Solved) Flash uses too much CPU

#4 2012-06-04 11:01:21

Re: (Can't Be Solved) Flash uses too much CPU

#5 2012-06-04 12:54:52

Re: (Can't Be Solved) Flash uses too much CPU

#6 2012-06-04 13:32:16

Re: (Can't Be Solved) Flash uses too much CPU

#7 2012-06-04 13:59:44

Re: (Can't Be Solved) Flash uses too much CPU

#8 2012-06-04 14:08:11

Re: (Can't Be Solved) Flash uses too much CPU

#9 2012-06-04 14:14:16

Re: (Can't Be Solved) Flash uses too much CPU

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