The VideoLAN Forums

Hello,

The title might be a bit confusing but here's the problem. When I open a VLC instance (VLC 3.0.3, 3.0.4 or 2.2.8 ), it consumes a certain level of CPU. However, when I open multiple VLC instances, the CPU usage increases for each VLC players. Let me explain with an example:

* I launch first VLC player and open a network stream (i.e. udp://@:1234). The input source is 1080p MPEG transport stream. The average CPU usage for vlc.exe is around 16%.
* I launch second VLC player and open a network stream (i.e. udp://:1235). The input source is 1080p MPEG transport stream. The average CPU usage for 1st vlc.exe is now around 22%, and 2nd vlc.exe is also around 22% (44% total cpu usage)
* I launch third VLC player and open a network stream (i.e. udp://:1236). The input source is 1080p MPEG transport stream. The average CPU usage for 1st vlc.exe is now around 27%, 2nd vlc.exe is around 27% and the third vlc.exe is around 26% (80% total cpu usage).

I've tested this on Windows 7/10. I tried using "Hardware-accelerated decoding", also disabled it and nothing changed. Is there a way to keep the CPU usage around the same level for multiple VLC instances?

The reason I'm asking this is because I have an application which uses multiple embedded VLC players and after 3rd player, the application starts to become laggy.

Cheers.

Hello,

I tried to reproduce your issue on VLC 3.0.4, on windows 10, with hardware decoding deactivated (16% CPU usage on 1080p TS stream suggests you have no hardware decoding on the machine), without any success: CPU usage is fairly constant (15/16% per VLC).
The only difference with you is that my TS streams are in rtsp (pulled) and not pushed directly on the machine IP address.

Can you try to use another protocol to stream ? for example using a multicast address (ex: 224.0.0.12 or 42 etc.), or a rtsp/http one ?

Hello garf,

Sorry for late response. Unfortunately I couldn't try with rtsp/http stream. Instead I simply opened media from local directory with the same result. In the link you can find the cpu usages per each VLC 3.0.4. I opened and played the same .ts file for each VLC players.

https://imgur.com/a/EvsmXU6

1 player --> Avg: 12% cpu
2 players --> Avg: 17.5% cpu
3 players --> Avg: 21.3% cpu

Can you also try with local .ts file and share your results with me please?
Regards.