Bad Video Playback Performance (on Mac)

[Calvin-Xu]

Previously I mentioned how my HD630 desktop was not able to play video at 4K output resolutions in Memento, and I had to switch to 1080P output system-wide.

Lately I discovered my 16" Intel MacBook Pro, using AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB, also struggles to playback video smoothly at the display's native resolution (3072 × 1920), and I have been expanding the subtitlelistwidget to make the playback area smaller to keep video playback smooth.

I have not investigated whether a specific commit caused this or what the bottleneck might be. So far I can only say that a build with OCR disabled does not seem better.

[ripose-jp]

I doubt it's a GPU bottleneck given the specs. Can you take a screenshot of the statistics of a video that lags your MacBook in both Memento and mpv playing at full resolution? You can show stats with Shift+I.

[Calvin-Xu]

After some testing I found this is not a Memento problem. After playing the identical video clip for about two minutes, mpv also started dropping frames.

Memento:

mpv:

mpv produced the following stacktrace that I also got from Memento. I have never seem this before, but it looks to be caused by MacOS update and windowing/fullscreen related again. There is an issue already, mpv-player/mpv#11018, but nobody seem to mention dropped frames there, so maybe it is unrelated. After starting playback and fullscreening either Memento or mpv, I did not change window size of switch desktops; only let the videos play.

1   HIToolbox                           0x00007ff81183f726 _ZN15MenuBarInstance22EnsureAutoShowObserverEv + 102
2   HIToolbox                           0x00007ff81183f2b8 _ZN15MenuBarInstance14EnableAutoShowEv + 52
3   HIToolbox                           0x00007ff8117aecd7 _ZN15MenuBarInstance21UpdateAggregateUIModeE21MenuBarAnimationStylehhh + 1113
4   HIToolbox                           0x00007ff81183f173 _ZN15MenuBarInstance19SetFullScreenUIModeEjj + 175
5   AppKit                              0x00007ff80b3104b7 -[NSApplication _setPresentationOptions:instance:flags:] + 1145
6   AppKit                              0x00007ff80b165165 -[NSApplication _updateFullScreenPresentationOptionsForInstance:] + 582
7   CoreFoundation                      0x00007ff807e7f3f4 __CFNOTIFICATIONCENTER_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_AN_OBSERVER__ + 137
8   CoreFoundation                      0x00007ff807f1943a ___CFXRegistrationPost_block_invoke + 88
9   CoreFoundation                      0x00007ff807f19389 _CFXRegistrationPost + 536
10  CoreFoundation                      0x00007ff807e52919 _CFXNotificationPost + 735
11  Foundation                          0x00007ff808c8cf2c -[NSNotificationCenter postNotificationName:object:userInfo:] + 82
12  AppKit                              0x00007ff80b310b28 spacesNotificationHandler + 119
13  SkyLight                            0x00007ff80caae74d _ZN12_GLOBAL__N_123notify_datagram_handlerEj15CGSDatagramTypePvmS1_ + 1030
14  SkyLight                            0x00007ff80cdc104a _ZN21CGSDatagramReadStream26dispatchMainQueueDatagramsEv + 202
15  SkyLight                            0x00007ff80cdc0f71 ___ZN21CGSDatagramReadStream15mainQueueWakeupEv_block_invoke + 18
16  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007ff807c2d7fb _dispatch_call_block_and_release + 12
17  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007ff807c2ea44 _dispatch_client_callout + 8
18  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007ff807c3b7b9 _dispatch_main_queue_drain + 952
19  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007ff807c3b3f3 _dispatch_main_queue_callback_4CF + 31
20  CoreFoundation                      0x00007ff807ec8610 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_SERVICING_THE_MAIN_DISPATCH_QUEUE__ + 9
21  CoreFoundation                      0x00007ff807e88b90 __CFRunLoopRun + 2454
22  CoreFoundation                      0x00007ff807e87b80 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 560
23  HIToolbox                           0x00007ff8117cc766 RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 292
24  HIToolbox                           0x00007ff8117cc576 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 679
25  HIToolbox                           0x00007ff8117cc2b3 _BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInModeWithFilter + 70
26  AppKit                              0x00007ff80afd3f33 _DPSNextEvent + 909
27  AppKit                              0x00007ff80afd2db4 -[NSApplication(NSEvent) _nextEventMatchingEventMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 1219
28  AppKit                              0x00007ff80afc53f7 -[NSApplication run] + 586
29  mpv                                 0x00000001005b69f5 cocoa_main + 757
30  dyld                                0x00007ff807a7b310 start + 2432
AV: 00:00:09 / 00:23:41 (1%) A-V:  0.001 DS: 2.380/12 Dropped: 32
[osd/libass] fontselect: Using default font family: (sans, 400, 0) -> /System/Library/Fonts/Helvetica.ttc, -1, Helvetica
[osd/libass] fontselect: Using default font family: (sans, 700, 0) -> /System/Library/Fonts/Helvetica.ttc, -1, Helvetica-Bold
AV: 00:00:43 / 00:23:41 (3%) A-V:  0.006 DS: 0.840/68 Dropped: 255
Audio device underrun detected.
AV: 00:00:46 / 00:23:41 (3%) A-V:  0.009 DS: 0.760/74 Dropped: 306
Audio device underrun detected.
AV: 00:00:51 / 00:23:41 (4%) A-V:  0.011 DS: 0.670/85 Dropped: 405
Audio device underrun detected.
AV: 00:00:54 / 00:23:41 (4%) A-V:  0.017 DS: 0.680/90 Dropped: 454
Audio device underrun detected.
1   HIToolbox                           0x00007ff8117cc0c2 _ZN15MenuBarInstance22RemoveAutoShowObserverEv + 30
2   HIToolbox                           0x00007ff8117aece3 _ZN15MenuBarInstance21UpdateAggregateUIModeE21MenuBarAnimationStylehhh + 1125
3   HIToolbox                           0x00007ff8117ae7a4 _ZN15MenuBarInstance16ForEachMenuBarDoEU13block_pointerFvPS_E + 46
4   HIToolbox                           0x00007ff8117ae762 SetSystemUIMode + 209
5   AppKit                              0x00007ff80b3104c3 -[NSApplication _setPresentationOptions:instance:flags:] + 1157
6   AppKit                              0x00007ff80b165185 -[NSApplication _updateFullScreenPresentationOptionsForInstance:] + 614
7   CoreFoundation                      0x00007ff807e7f3f4 __CFNOTIFICATIONCENTER_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_AN_OBSERVER__ + 137
8   CoreFoundation                      0x00007ff807f1943a ___CFXRegistrationPost_block_invoke + 88
9   CoreFoundation                      0x00007ff807f19389 _CFXRegistrationPost + 536
10  CoreFoundation                      0x00007ff807e52919 _CFXNotificationPost + 735
11  Foundation                          0x00007ff808c8cf2c -[NSNotificationCenter postNotificationName:object:userInfo:] + 82
12  AppKit                              0x00007ff80b310b28 spacesNotificationHandler + 119
13  SkyLight                            0x00007ff80caae74d _ZN12_GLOBAL__N_123notify_datagram_handlerEj15CGSDatagramTypePvmS1_ + 1030
14  SkyLight                            0x00007ff80cdc104a _ZN21CGSDatagramReadStream26dispatchMainQueueDatagramsEv + 202
15  SkyLight                            0x00007ff80cdc0f71 ___ZN21CGSDatagramReadStream15mainQueueWakeupEv_block_invoke + 18
16  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007ff807c2d7fb _dispatch_call_block_and_release + 12
17  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007ff807c2ea44 _dispatch_client_callout + 8
18  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007ff807c3b7b9 _dispatch_main_queue_drain + 952
19  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007ff807c3b3f3 _dispatch_main_queue_callback_4CF + 31
20  CoreFoundation                      0x00007ff807ec8610 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_SERVICING_THE_MAIN_DISPATCH_QUEUE__ + 9
21  CoreFoundation                      0x00007ff807e88b90 __CFRunLoopRun + 2454
22  CoreFoundation                      0x00007ff807e87b80 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 560
23  HIToolbox                           0x00007ff8117cc766 RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 292
24  HIToolbox                           0x00007ff8117cc576 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 679
25  HIToolbox                           0x00007ff8117cc2b3 _BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInModeWithFilter + 70
26  AppKit                              0x00007ff80afd3f33 _DPSNextEvent + 909
27  AppKit                              0x00007ff80afd2db4 -[NSApplication(NSEvent) _nextEventMatchingEventMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 1219
28  AppKit                              0x00007ff80afc53f7 -[NSApplication run] + 586
29  mpv                                 0x00000001005b69f5 cocoa_main + 757
30  dyld                                0x00007ff807a7b310 start + 243

➜ mpv -v
[cplayer] Command line options: '-v'
[cplayer] mpv 0.35.0 Copyright © 2000-2022 mpv/MPlayer/mplayer2 projects
[cplayer]  built on Thu Nov 17 13:14:07 UTC 2022
[cplayer] FFmpeg library versions:
[cplayer]    libavutil       57.28.100
[cplayer]    libavcodec      59.37.100
[cplayer]    libavformat     59.27.100
[cplayer]    libswscale      6.7.100
[cplayer]    libavfilter     8.44.100
[cplayer]    libswresample   4.7.100
[cplayer] FFmpeg version: 5.1.2

[ripose-jp]

I've noticed the stacktrace as well when switching windows while Memento is fullscreened. It doesn't seem to cause any issues beyond spamming standard error. Since it's probably an mpv thing, I think it's best to just let them sort it out.

As for the dropped frames, I can think of a few possible causes.

• Drivers for the 5500M are poorly optimized for OpenGL on macOS.
• macOS is rendering Memento and mpv using your iGPU instead of the dGPU.
  • I am of the opinion that this shouldn't matter on a 2019 Intel laptop as either should be sufficient for 24 FPS at 4K.
• There is some inefficiency in the mpv rendering pipeline.
  • I don't think this is likely because high resolutions would lead to dropped frames on other platforms.

I'm going to mark this as a can't fix and leave it open since the problem affects mpv as well. I also don't have the requisite hardware to recreate the issue.

[Calvin-Xu]

Just want to say after trying various other fixes I gave up and went with hwdec=no. No dropped frames so I can't really complain.

[ripose-jp]

Interesting. Memento enables hwdec=auto-safe in spite of the mpv docs advising hwdec=no. Did you override that with some other value in your mpv.conf or did you let Memento decide?

[Calvin-Xu]

I overrode it with hwdec=no in mpv.conf. Previously I had no entries touching this value.

On this note I might add that I did this after comparing playing the same video file in IINA (default config) and noticing that it was not using hardware decoding.

[ripose-jp]

Thanks for letting me know about the fix. I'm going to stop enabling hwdec by default and close this.