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    Can't stop VLC turning on the nVidia card

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by c_henry, Jul 20, 2010.

  1. c_henry

    c_henry Notebook Enthusiast

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    One of the main uses for me with the M11x is to watch movies whilst travelling. I've noticed that VLC turns on the nVidia card when viewing normal films (non-HD). I've used the nVidia Control Panel to specifically use the integrated video when running VLC, but after starting VLC it switches to the nVidia card. I've noticed that Media Player does the same thing, QuickTime doesn't though.

    If all else fails I'll use QT, but prefer VLC.

    Anyone have any ideas?

    Many thanks,

    Colin
     
    c_henry, Jul 20, 2010
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  2. Thermogenic

    Thermogenic Notebook Guru

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    Newer versions of VLC and Windows Media player make DXVA calls to increase performance. Might want to look through the configs to have either nVidia to stop kicking in for these, or to have VLC stop calling it.
     
    Thermogenic, Jul 20, 2010
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  3. KevinL

    KevinL Notebook Enthusiast

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    The latest version of VLC uses the GPU to accelerate HD video decoding via DxVA2. You can disable it in preferences - input and codecs - GPU acceleration. With that option unselected and starting the program using the integrated processor explicitly (via the right click context menu) the nvidia GPU stays off for me.

    Alternatively, I can recommend SMPlayer as a VLC alternative - SMPlayer - General Info It's a mplayer front-end that lacks some of VLC's features, but has some other useful ones such as multi-speed playback and remembering settings/position for all of your video files.
     
    KevinL, Jul 20, 2010
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  4. c_henry

    c_henry Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks for the quick responses, seems it is already disabled in the Preferences, the "Use GPU acceleration (experimental)" is unchecked.

    I'm using version 1.1.0. I'll check out the DXVA setting in the nVidia CP.

    Colin
     
    c_henry, Jul 20, 2010
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