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    Netflix HD on battery

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by taylrjones, Apr 24, 2011.

  1. taylrjones

    taylrjones Notebook Consultant

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    Hey guys,

    I recently got netflix and have been using the instant streaming a lot (we actually cancelled satellite) but today was the first time I tried to watch and HD movie on battery. To my frustration, the video would play smoothly for a few seconds and then become extremely choppy. I've been trying to determine what the cause is, but have not been able to narrow it down. To the best of my knowledge, Netflix does not utilize silverlight's gpu acceleration during instant streaming (UVD status was idle in AMD gpu tool) and changing power plans between balanced and high performance did not affect playback. I know bandwidth is not an issue so buffering is not the problem.

    Do any of you have some info on how/why this is happening?
     
    taylrjones, Apr 24, 2011
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  2. runamonk

    runamonk Notebook Consultant

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    The machine seriously downclocks basically going into stealth mode when running on battery.
     
    runamonk, Apr 24, 2011
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  3. jwolf7722

    jwolf7722 Notebook Deity

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    I get the same thing when streaming HD videos from Amazon. Its just one of the downfalls of the system. Great power requires a source of energy the battery just doesn't have.
     
    jwolf7722, Apr 24, 2011
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  4. taylrjones

    taylrjones Notebook Consultant

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    So unless Dell releases a new BIOS with less aggressive down-clocking or Netflix starts using GPU acceleration for its instant streaming, I cant watch streaming HD movies on my $2,000 laptop, but I can on my $600 netbook?

    Disappointing.
     
    taylrjones, Apr 24, 2011
    #4
  5. Master Schollz

    Master Schollz Notebook Consultant

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    I'm pretty sure there's a way you can overclock it or something so it'll run fine but battery will honestly last like maybe an hour to an hour and a half. I haven't done this myself but i'm pretty sure I read it on here at some point.
     
    Master Schollz, Apr 25, 2011
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  6. xeroxide

    xeroxide Notebook Deity

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    yes it does, it just won't last long.
    batteries do not have a power limit like psu's do.... well not in the same way (shorting the battery doesn't count).
    this is a limitation set by dell in order to ensure decent battery life. imagine the complaints dell would have selling a laptop with only 1/2 hr battery life :rolleyes:

    removing this limitation will net you around 1/2 hr of gameplay, maybe a little less. how do i know?
    i've removed it.

    use throttlestop and force max clocks and ensure that modulations are forced to 100%, as for the video card mines a clevo so i don't need to force it's clocks to max.

    mines a first revision dellian ware however, not sure about the newer SB ones.
     
    xeroxide, Apr 25, 2011
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  7. taylrjones

    taylrjones Notebook Consultant

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    Will throttlestop do that on the 720?
     
    taylrjones, Apr 25, 2011
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  8. ElectricTurtle

    ElectricTurtle Notebook Consultant

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    Well, in case u didn't check everything, change your power profile to high performance might fix that. I watch HD movies on battery too and nothing's wrong to me (i used balanced profile but customized it a bit with alien fusion)
     
    ElectricTurtle, Apr 25, 2011
    #8