Testing Netflix HD performance on old Macs: Chrome wins.

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
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I have an old 2008 white MacBook Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz (T8300), with no hardware H.264 or VC-1 decode acceleration. The GPU is an Intel X3100.

I was noting that with Firefox, Netflix HD playback was occasionally stuttering, and the CPU fan was revving up high. Firefox uses Silverlight.

So, I tried Chrome. Even on 10.7 Lion, the latest Chrome does NOT use Silverlight. SD quality in Chrome leaves something to be desired. It looks different, with much more visible aliasing than Firefox with Silverlight.

I don't know if Chrome's rendering in HD is worse, but on a 1024x768 MacBook, it already looks good, and is much less CPU intensive. I didn't try Safari, mainly because Safari is no longer being updated and has other issues, but I do remember having some Netflix HD issues in the past, probably because it's also dependent on Silverlight.

Some numbers from Activity Monitor, playing back Curious George (just because that's what my kid was watching at the time). Numbers are CPU usage. Total is 200% (since this is a dual-core CPU).

Firefox: 15-20%
Firefox Silverlight plug-in: 75-95%

Chrome: 10-15%
Chrome Helper (including all 4 instances): 60-75%

To put it another way, Firefox with Silverlight easily saturates more than a single core, but Chrome does not. In fact, Silverlight alone saturates a single core.


Also, in Chrome, there were never any stutters unless I brought up the menus, etc. In Firefox, there was occasional stutters in HD just sitting there playing things back with no menus active and doing nothing else. However, I've noticed in the past that usually a restart of the browser fixes this. I'm not convinced this is strictly a CPU performance issue, since I've seen the same thing with Firefox/Silverlight with SD playback as well, and obviously, SD playback is much less CPU intensive.

In addition, in Chrome the fan didn't rev. as high in HD mode, which made a noticeable difference audibly. In Chrome the fan was still somewhat annoying but in Firefox/Silverlight, the fan was much more annoying.

I don't know if non-animated material would measure differently, but the times I've tried it, Chrome again revved the fan up less, and playback was smooth.

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However, on my 2009 MacBook Pro with GeForce 9400M with 10.10 Yosemite, I use Safari with Silverlight. While Netflix HD in Chrome is good, as mentioned Netflix SD isn't so good, whereas both SD and HD in Safari with Silverlight are decent. The fan isn't an issue, since the GeForce 9400M has proper H.264/VC-1 decode acceleration.

For some reason, I cannot get HTML5 playback in Netflix to work in Safari even in Yosemite with this machine. I'm told it may be because my CPU is too old and doesn't support the necessary security features.

EDIT:

See below, but in 10.6.8 Snow Leopard, Netflix playback in Chrome is a real pain.
 
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Tegeril

Platinum Member
Apr 2, 2003
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You could try the Webkit nightly builds as an alternative to Safari in 10.7.
 

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
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How buggy would it be to use the Webkit nightly builds?

BTW, I've since found out that the improved Netflix support in Chrome happened sometime after when Google released Chrome 37 in September 2014. Chrome 37 supports HTML5 on Netflix.

Netflix system requirements for HTML5 Player and Silverlight

You can use our HTML5 player or Silverlight to watch Netflix movies and TV shows on PCs running Windows XP or later, and Intel-based Macs running OS X Tiger (v10.4.11) or later. You'll find a complete list of requirements below for HTML5, Silverlight 4, and Silverlight 5.

This has increased relevance for me now, since:

1) Netflix is now giving me a message saying Safari in OS X 10.7 is no longer supported. Before it would work with problems, but didn't give me that message.
2) Firefox continues to cause stuttering. This occurs even with HD turned off. It turns out it's not a consistent issue. Sometimes it plays fine, but sometimes it stutters, even after a reboot, and even with only SD content. So, it's not necessarily a Firefox/Silverlight speed issue, but a bug.
3) I'm getting a free 2006 Intel Core Duo iMac from work.

The only issue is occasionally the menu overlay buttons in Chrome don't display properly and just show up as squares. But even then they work fine, and a relaunch usually fixes it.

Too bad these older machines can't use Yosemite or El Capitan, but it's good to know that DRM'd HTML5 video is supported on even OS X 10.7 with Chrome, despite the requirement for Yosemite and specific hardware if you use Safari.

However, on the other hand, right now I'm trying Chrome on OS X 10.10.4 Yosemite, and it won't work with Netflix at all. It says I'm missing some component. Silverlight is installed, and Netflix works fine in Safari on this newer machine, which is a 2009 Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro 13".
 
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redheeler

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Jan 11, 2015
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This is one of the few times I actually use Chrome, for Netflix on my 2010 Mac mini. HTML5 Netflix in Safari requires a Sandy Bridge CPU or later.
 

Excelsior

Lifer
May 30, 2002
19,048
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So, Core 2 Duo 2.66Ghz MBP (late 2008) 9400M
Chrome Version 44.0.2403.61 beta (64-bit)
Netflix plays well,Chrome Helper hovers around 10-15%, and Chrome half that.
 

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
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996
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Heh. Old thread but interestingly, I finally got the chance to try out everything on an old Core Duo 2.0 GHz (32-bit) 20" white iMac that I got free from work. This Mac is too old to run anything past 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. It can't even run the latest version of iTunes either, since that requires Lion 10.7.

Plus, since it's 32-bit, Chrome 39 won't even run on it since a 64-bit CPU is mandatory. I installed Chrome 38 which supports 32-bit and it surfs just fine, but I couldn't play anything at all in Netflix. Chrome 38 with Netflix refuses to run Silverlight, making HTML5 the only possible Netflix playback option... except it doesn't work since the Widevine component won't install.

Finally, I downgraded to Chrome 34 and HTML5 Netflix still doesn't work, but Silverlight works with it. It plays fine in full-screen mode, but in windowed mode it often stutters. Annoying, but at least I can use full-screen mode.

This is the exact same behaviour I am getting in Firefox and Silverlight, and now for some reason it's happening with my white MacBook mentioned above too with Firefox. So, this appears to be a Silverlight bug, not a Netflix bug per se. Unfortunately, I don't expect MS to fix this, since they had discontinued development on it as of 2013 or something AFAIK.

Bottom line is that if you're thinking of getting a used Mac, don't bother getting anything that can't run Mountain Lion 10.8 and above, unless you're getting it for really cheap (or free in my case). The video issues for Lion 10.7 and Snow Leopard 10.6 are just a little too annoying.

Summary:

Don't get a used Mac limited to 10.6 Snow Leopard (unless it's uber cheap). Too many browser and video issues.

Don't get a used Mac limited to 10.7 Lion (unless it's uber cheap). Still some video issues, although better than 10.6 Snow Leopard.

If you're getting a used Mac for actual daily use like surfing and Netflix, make sure it can run 10.8 Mountain Lion or above. (Any such machine can actually run El Capitan 10.11 too.)
 
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Excelsior

Lifer
May 30, 2002
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Ah true, quite an old thread. Good points though. Makes me really glad I bought nothing earlier than the late 2008 MBP model, or I'd be out of luck.
 

redheeler

Member
Jan 11, 2015
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Ah true, quite an old thread. Good points though. Makes me really glad I bought nothing earlier than the late 2008 MBP model, or I'd be out of luck.

The early 2008 and mid 2007 pre-Unibody MacBook Pros can still run the current version of OS X also.
 

Tyranicus

Senior member
Aug 28, 2007
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The early 2008 and mid 2007 pre-Unibody MacBook Pros can still run the current version of OS X also.

Yeah, the limiting factor for Mountain Lion and up is the GPU, so you end up with MacBook Pros and iMacs from 2007 that will run Yosemite, while MacBooks and Mac Minis of the same vintage will not.
 

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
23,583
996
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The other issue, probably of less importance to many, but still important to remember is the optical drive if you have any backups or video on DVD. The one that came with my Core Duo iMac is a Panasonic/Matsushita UJ-846. This thing supports DVD+R on paper, but is EXTREMELY picky with it. DVD-R works much better.

Strangely enough though, this 2 GB Core Duo iMac wakes from sleep and boots faster than my 10.10.4 Yosemite 12 GB Core i7 iMac. I guess Yosemite is just that much more bloated, and of course I have much more software on my i7.