Intel G4600 Kaby Lake - can't watch 4K60 videos on YouTube (VP9 codec) (Waterfox 53.0.1)

[VirtualLarry]

Seems like it's decoding in software?

Browser is Waterfox 53.0.1, Intel iGPU driver, was 4590, then updated with Creator's Update, then was later updated to 4664, which was released in May 2017. DXVAChecker reports that VP9_VLD_Profile0 and VP9_VLD_10bit_Profile2 are supported in hardware, for SD / HD / FHD / 4K / 8K. (As it did with 4590.)

I do have the newest version of Windows Skype for Desktop installed and running too.

Waterfox is set to use Hardware Accelleration.

CPU usage is 70% decoding the video, and dropping 1/2 to 2/3 of the frames. (Dual-core with HT)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWLAayJMIEA

 

[Crumpet]

Wasn't that like the main selling point of Kaby Lake?

(obviously apart from extreme clockspeeds in the high end K-sku market)

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, kind of.

I tried uninstallling Waterfox 53.0.1, and re-installing 52.0.1, but no change, still dropping majority of frames at 4K60.

Internet connection is 70Mbit/sec. (Actually, 60+10)

Now, it seems like it won't even serve the 4K60 VP9 version of the video. I only get the 1080P "avc" version, which plays with 3% CPU usage. It looks fairly OK, upscaling to 1080P, but I would like to use the 4K version of videos when available.

I can't even manually select 4K60 on those videos, the highest it will offer me is 1080P60.

I tried clearing YouTube.com cookies, and re-loading the page.

Even this 4K60 video won't play at 4K for me. Highest I can go is 1080P.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UceRgEyfSsc

 

[Crumpet]

Your connection is double the speed of mine and I can load that video just fine at 4k (I can only presume it's running at 4k, as youtube says it is, as my monitor is only 1080p)

Stupid question, are you connected via DisplayPort cable??

 

[daveybrat]

Does it play in Chrome?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Ok, this is wierd. I switched over to my gaming PC, which I just recently put a GTX 1050ti 4GB card in (today), and I left Waterfox with ATF open, and when I went back to it, it was sluggish browsing these forums, and it has 6GB of RAM allocated, out of 8GB total, just for Waterfox.

Anyways, on this PC, YouTube is still serving up 4K60 videos, but when I try to watch them, same deal, high CPU usage, skips most frames.

The Intel G4600 iGPU rig is running Win10 Creator's Edition, this gaming PC with G4560 is running the Anniv. Edition still.

What is causing this? Did Google re-process their 4K videos, to add HDR or something? Because they seem to be punting to software decode, which is too much for these stock-clocked KBL dual-cores with HT.

I recently enabled UPnP and NAT-PMP in my router, could that be an issue? Could either one of those options affect YouTube, over HTTP or HTTPS?

I guess I can try turning them off again.

 

[SPBHM]

I heard only Edge and Chrome Canary have VP9 acceleration enabled?

 

[VirtualLarry]

I thought Firefox had VP9 HW acceleration support too, at least, I think it does.

I tried closing Waterfox 53.0.1, to clear the RAM usage, and then when it had exited, re-started it and re-loaded that video. That seemingly worked, for the most part. But I still had some patchy spots, with dropped frames. 4000+ dropped frames, @ 3840x2160@60.

That's on the G4560 rig, with the 1050ti, driving a 4K UHD screen.

Interestingly, it first settled on 2560x1440 first, then auto-selected 3840x2160 a bit later on.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Your connection is double the speed of mine and I can load that video just fine at 4k (I can only presume it's running at 4k, as youtube says it is, as my monitor is only 1080p)

Don't "presume". Right-click on the video, select "stats for nerds".

Should tell you your display resolution, video resolution, and "optimal" resolution, which is what it is trying for.

You may not be able to get "optimal" and "video" resolution to 4K, if you don't have a 4K display.

You might be able to select it manually, and then have your browser down-scale it for your display. The selector is the gear in the lower-right corner of the video.

 

[VirtualLarry]

This video played mostly OK, only 300 dropped frames, mostly all in one spot.
Costa Rica in 4K
(4K30)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNJdPyoqt8U

It was telling me my connection speed, after disabling my 10Mbit WAN connection, and only using my 50Mbit FIOS connection, was 75Mbit/sec.

 

[nvgpu]

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1360006

VP9 hardware decoding is not enabled by default yet on Firefox.

 

[VirtualLarry]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWLAayJMIEA

Ok, I went to about:config, searched for VP9, and found a setting "media.wmf.vp9.enabled", which was defaulted to "false". I double-clicked it, made it "true", and then re-loaded the page with that video.

Now, it was playing MUCH better, but it was still dropping around 3FPS / sec, or around 10% of the frames. Which, suggested that my actual FPS was around 30FPS, not 60FPS as the "stats for nerds" indicated.

So, I had an idea, I right-clicked the Desktop (in Win10), selected "Display Properties", went down and clicked "Advanced Display Properties", then clicked on "Monitor", and lo and behold, it was set for 30Hz. I changed that to 60Hz, re-loaded the video page, and voila! 60FPS video. I had like 200+ dropped frames, out of 30,000 frames or so, at the end of the video. Pretty decent performance, finally.

So now I'm going to try some tweaks on my Intel iGPU G4600 box, let me switch over now.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I figured out how to get a Waterfox/Firefox FPS counter on the screen, there's an option for that.

Full-screening the YouTube video mentioned in my post above (the HardwareUnboxed G4560 review), showed that it had a ~30FPS framerate. I can't seem to find any setting in about:config to control full-screen framerate.

I checked my Display Adapter, Monitor, properties, and it's set correctly for 60Hz.

There was someone else using a TV at 4K, and wasn't getting 60FPS for some reason full-screened in Windows 10 too. Let me try to find that thread.

Edit: Found it. But it was 1080P, and not 4K, though it was hooked up to a 4K TV.
Anyways, I'm using an Intel iGPU, and the Intel control panel is set to 60Hz as well.

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/all-games-locked-24fps-1920-1080.2507018/

 

[VirtualLarry]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/i...s-creator-update-media-player-fullscreen.html

Seems that this is an issue with the Creator's Edition?

Edit: Or is my SSD failing?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Ok, with 4K60 selected manually, but windowed (in YouTube page), I don't get any dropped frames, but the frame count increases by 30 frames/sec. So it's really running the video at 30FPS, though not dropping frames.

So, why can't I get it to run at 60FPS? I've fiddled with "Game DVR" and "Game Bar" and "Game Mode", and tried to disable them as best I can.

Edit: There's a Mozilla thread on this issue:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1060237

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1242659

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, I went to sleep, and took another look at it.

Now, based on my "chuggy" browser scrolling, I'm pretty certain that my Windows 10 desktop is ALSO running at 30 FPS, which might explain why full-screen is only running at 30FPS too.

So, why is my Windows' Desktop at 30Hz, when my Display Adapter, Monitor setting is 60Hz, also 60Hz in Intel Graphics Control Panel. (Should be same setting on both.)

Edit: That was weird. The Intel Graphics Control Panel showed it was set to 29Hz, which is I think the default.

I wonder if the Intel iGPU drivers hadn't finished installing somehow during my Windows session last night, and I needed to reboot to fix it, and then it reset the settings next boot? Such that changing my settings last night didn't have any actual effect? Let me try the videos again.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Ok, so I played the first video, the HardwareUnboxed G4560 build / review video, at 4K60.

Full-screen, it seemed like it was running at 30FPS. CPU usage in Task Manager was at 10% for Waterfox, which showed it was running on HW acceleration.

But it still dropped like 1/3 of the overall frames. It was watchable, but during panning scenes, it was a little choppy. It was not 60FPS smooth.

I don't think it's my internet connection, it was saying it was at 65Mbit/sec.

When I restored the video to the YouTube in-page video, it stopped dropping frames, but it was running at 30FPS still, judging by the overall frame counter.

Edit: Is Netflix 4K, at 24, 30, or 60 FPS? Does Kaby Lake (specifically, the Pentium CPUs ... wait, I paid extra to have the Pentium with the better HD 630 iGPU) have the chops for 4K60 hardware decoding?

I still think that the dropped frames, are because the monitor refresh is set to 30Hz during full-screen (some DirectX/DirectDraw/DirectMedia registry setting?), and the KBL HW decoder is trying to display 60FPS, but can't because of the refresh rate.

Note that the actual UHD TV's refresh rate doesn't seem to change, there's no OSD pop-up due to a monitor mode change.

This may still have something to do with Windows 10's Creator's Edition, and Game DVR settings somehow.

Edit: Hmm, checking the "Menu" on my UHD TV, the mode is 3840x2160@60Hz. So the HDMI2.0 port IS running at 60Hz.

This PC is using a Club3D active DisplayPort to HDMI2.0 adapter.

I wonder if the DisplayPort output on this H110 mini-STX mobo is running in DP1.2 mode? Or if there's a bandwidth limitation in the adapter? I wouldn't think so, as the whole purpose of the adapter is to run at 4K60.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, I switched over to my other, otherwise mostly-identical DeskMini PC, again with a G4600, running Win10 Pro Creator's Edition 64-bit, and ... same issues.

I was getting mostly skipped frames at 4K60, until I went into about:config, and changed the wmf.vp9 setting to true. Then, I was getting the same thing as the other G4600 DeskMini rig, around 30 FPS full-screen, with a bunch of frames dropped.

This has to be down to software, and the Creator's Editon.

This PC is a triple-boot, so I'm going to try booting into Windows 7 Pro 64-bit, and see how that fares.

 

[nvgpu]

Firefox uses Windows 10's VP9 Media Foundation(MF) decoder for hardware decoding, so if you use Windows 7, you'll get no VP9 hardware decoding at all since Windows 7 does not have the VP9 MF decoder and MS doesn't support it with any feature updates since mainstream support ended.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, VP9 was way worse in Windows 7 Pro 64-bit, seemed like it wasn't HW accelerated.

I found out, while using Windows 7 64-bit, that Waterfox 53.0.3 was released, though not on auto-update yet, so I manually updated, and still the same in Windows 7, and Windows 10.

I tried switching my internet connection at my router, from my 50 (65) Mbit/sec FIOS connection, to my 10Mbit/sec Comcast connection, and re-loaded the video. That time, it played back fine, but it was running in 2560x1440@60 mode, but the frame counter was only increasing at 30FPS. But I wasn't dropping any frames, really. At one point, it dropped to 1080P@60 mode, then it went back. But again, very little dropped frames, but seemed to be running at 30FPS.

The reason that I switched internet connections, is because I was thinking YouTube might have been throttling my FIOS connection, as they've done that in the past.

Still no solution.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Is there anyone else with Kaby Lake CPU with HD 630 iGPU, connected to a 4K60 display (obviously, through an active DP-to-HDMI2.0 adapter), or directly to a 4K60 monitor via DP, that can test this for me?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Tech City G4560 + RX 470 build video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSmLA4Hjvy8

This eventually runs at 2560x1440@30, but the actual FPS counter is increasing by 15FPS each second.

So, this 30FPS video wont play faster than 15FPS full-screen, but doesn't skip frames either.

 

[VirtualLarry]

HardwareUnboxed, another G4560 video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dichjs9HXTg

This one only seems to be served at 1080P@60, but runs at 30FPS.

Every video seems to run at HALF FPS. WTF?

Edit: I mean, after doing the wmf.vp9 tweak, it seems like VP9 does play back HW accelerated, and most of these videos are smooth and watchable, but it would be nice to get full frame-rate from them.

 

[Guru]

Use Edge browser, its seems to work best.

 

[VirtualLarry]

"Naturally, a Kaby Lake system will be able to decode 4K video at 60 frames per second—or up to eight 4K streams at 30 fps.But even the ultra-low-power Y-series will be able to encode 4K video at 30 frames per second, Intel said."

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3113...-chip-is-a-must-have-for-4k-video-fiends.html