Does YouTube use less CPU if I hide the window?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by head_unit, Jul 31, 2015.

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  1. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
    i.e. if I just want to listen? Or does the video portion somehow still run? What if the window is in the background and not visible?
     
  2. JohnO

    JohnO Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    If it's Flash, if you hear it, it has the same CPU load whether you have it on screen or not. Flash must process and display the video and sound even if you have brought something else, some other window or tab, to the front.
    I don't know yet about the webm or HTML5 formats or how or if those are partially implemented so far, by Youtube and by your browser. Youtube will be using only those and dropping Flash at some point in the future--they probably have a secret date already scheduled 2 or 3 or 4 years away, a date which could be changed. webm and HTML5 can (will be able to someday) sense if they're not actually being displayed on your machine, and so can skip over processing the video in some ways.
     
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  3. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Fire up Windows Task Manager (assuming you're using Windows), and it'll tell you how much RAM any one program is using at the moment:

    [​IMG]

    On Mac OSX, Activity Monitor does the same thing:

    [​IMG]

    Flash is typically so trivial on a modern system, I wouldn't worry about it. But I also say with modern operating systems, you need a minimum of 8GB of RAM and preferably 16GB.
     
    chilinvilin likes this.
  4. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
    Even for OS X? I've read and a friend who works at the store that 8GB is fine, no need for more unless you're doing something really intensive like video editing or gaming. My machines never show memory "full" with 6 or 8 depending on machineā€¦but I know "full" can be tricky, cuz sometimes the OS adjusts to how much is actually available.
     
  5. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Even for writing and doing database stuff and listening to music, I'm much happier with 16GB of RAM. RAM is very, very cheap these days. A 16GB thumb drive is, what, $20? Even for the trashcan Macs, it's maybe $200 (at most).
     
  6. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    RAM and solid state storage (a la thumb drives) are two very different things.

    And yes, it's very hard to max out 8GB of RAM, especially with any recent OS.
     
  7. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    I love it when people lecture me on computer basics. I was using computers in 1978, and know RAM and storage very, very well -- more than you could believe. I'm strictly talking about how much silicon prices have fallen over the years, and how 16GB will help heavy-duty users. Light-duty users -- sure, do whatever makes you happy.

    My brother's computer is topped off at 64GB, and he still hits the wall running Photoshop, inDesign, Word, and a few other graphics programs simultaneously. It happens.

    I had 64K of RAM on my original Apple II, and people thought I was hip then. Very funny to reflect on the old days.
     
  8. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    No lecture, just trying to make sure no one reading along got thrown by the USB non sequitur you tossed in there. :thumbsup:
     
    jriems likes this.
  9. vegafleet

    vegafleet Forum Resident

    I run a relatively big car dealership and back in the early 90's I wrote a car inventory program (it also handles the complicated import tax regulations, declarations and communications with our government customs agency (still today over phone lines via the 56K computer modem until recently) in DBXL, a DOS based database program, running on a Windows 95 PC with 64K RAM. That no-brand PC ran perfectly for 20+ years and it was fast for the work it did (admittedly no internet browsing). Being very old school I kept that PC (or its twin) running this very critical program until just this year when we were forced to move the communications part of the application to the web. I now run the same program on XP with 1GB ram, and which computer you think did the job faster? The 64K Ram one.

    I still have that 64K W95 (and a spare twin that I always kept) still in my office in case I can't run the program in some future Windows version as we migrate to newer computers. I know I will always have my 64Ks. Point is that the newer the OS the more bloat they have (at least in the Windows world).
     
  10. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    There's way to write fast code with new programs, too. If it's text-only, database work is relatively easy. It's not a good idea to cling to a proprietary database format this old -- it's eventually going to bite you. If you can export it as comma-delimited or tab-delimited files, it's possible to migrate a database like this to (say) Filemaker Pro, which at least is a modern 64-bit database application that will run on modern Macs and Windows machines. And it's fine even on a $200 laptop or tablet.

    I've seen several businesses go down in flames trying to salvage old databases on which the entire company was run. It's particularly bad when this happens in accounts receivable.
     
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  11. vegafleet

    vegafleet Forum Resident


    I know you are right. I just have backups of the data, the programs I wrote and the DBXL application (very similar to DBase) in all manners and forms. It is just that it is fine tuned so well to our country's laws that it works much better than the commercially available US-centric car dealership software. It is not just an in-and-out inventory program, it handles Puerto Rico customs and excise taxes declarations and payments plus Free Trade Zone management. Since I am the programmer, any new feature or report needed is just an afternoon away.

    It did bite us when 2001 came around. All of a sudden it could not recognize db files modified from 1/1/01 on. The year 2000 had been fine, it was 2001 when it blew up. I did a Google search and tons of businesses were having the same problem and freaking out.
    Somehow I remember dental practices were specially hit. But by 1/5 or 1/6 someone had posted a patch that fixed the bug and here we are 15 years later.
     
  12. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    If it saves in compatible dBASE .DBF files, then those can easily be converted to modern database systems. The trouble would come with re-establishing relational files and creating the user-entry screens. But it's all doable.
     
    vegafleet likes this.
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