3 ms·

Many issues with this experiment: 1. Both VLC & Chrome are native apps. VLC defaults to SD resolution (you can check codec statistics during playback), while t

Many issues with this experiment: 1. Both VLC & Chrome are native apps. VLC defaults to SD resolution (you can check codec statistics during playback), while the YouTube web app adaptively streams the best quality your hardware and network can support. 2. VLC & chrome likely use the same decoder source code, especially for VP9. But video playback is just one component of Chrome. It has to do so much more, like run untrusted code from the internet, and Sandbox it all. And keep the 10 extensions loaded running while your video is playing (like an adblocker that skips YouTube ads) 3. While not the case in the instance, chrome also supports background tasks while your playback is in progress. Like downloading your favorite game while watching PewDiePie reviewing it on YouTube 4. Not to mention all the analytics Google is likely gathering and sending on your choice of video, what parts you skipped, .... If anything, Chrome/Browser is likely to optimize the heck out of the playback/decoding pipeline because it needs to do so much more beyond just playback that VLC does

Crinus 7y ago
The point of the article is that a native program that was meant to do one thing (VLC, play videos, though ok the "do one thing" is a bit stretched when it comes to a media player) needs less resources to do that thing (with thing in this case being stream a video) than a web site running inside a browser. And the reason is basically what you wrote. However the point wasn't why it happens, but to focus on that it happens - ie. native apps matter because they are (or can be) faster. BTW... > While not the case in the instance, chrome also supports background tasks while your playback is in progress. Like downloading your favorite game while watching PewDiePie reviewing it on YouTube ...this is why we have multitasking OSes. You can download your favorite game using wget (or that GOG command-line downloader or whatever) while watching PewDiePie reviewing it via VLC.
- lonelappde 7y ago
  VLC "needs less" resources, but Chrome "has more" resources. Anyway, "number of features" has not to do with "native".
  - Crinus 7y ago
    Chrome doesn't have resources, it only consumes resources. Resources here mean system resources like memory, CPU time, etc. What sort of resources that Chrome has are you referring to?

Crinus 7y ago

The point of the article is that a native program that was meant to do one thing (VLC, play videos, though ok the "do one thing" is a bit stretched when it comes to a media player) needs less resources to do that thing (with thing in this case being stream a video) than a web site running inside a browser. And the reason is basically what you wrote. However the point wasn't why it happens, but to focus on that it happens - ie. native apps matter because they are (or can be) faster. BTW... > While not the case in the instance, chrome also supports background tasks while your playback is in progress. Like downloading your favorite game while watching PewDiePie reviewing it on YouTube ...this is why we have multitasking OSes. You can download your favorite game using wget (or that GOG command-line downloader or whatever) while watching PewDiePie reviewing it via VLC.

lonelappde 7y ago
VLC "needs less" resources, but Chrome "has more" resources. Anyway, "number of features" has not to do with "native".
- Crinus 7y ago
  Chrome doesn't have resources, it only consumes resources. Resources here mean system resources like memory, CPU time, etc. What sort of resources that Chrome has are you referring to?