8 ms·

lightweight? they are literally the only video chatting service I use that makes my laptop fans spin up.

beebeepka 3y ago
I am yet to find a modern video chat that isn't draining the battery of any laptop. From old Xeons, to fairly recent Ryzen and even M1/2 Macs. It's a bit puzzling, actually. I don't think Skype and TeamSpeak had the same effect on computers back in the day. Just how much local processing are they doing these days? It's crazy
- vorticalbox 3y ago
  It's most likely due to the fact they are all electron apps rather than they are doing "something".
  - Sunspark 3y ago
    Hardware decoding is also an issue.. as in, not being used. Old webcams used to do h.264 encoding in hardware. Encoding has since now moved to the CPU which may or may not be fine.. the next issue becomes the codec chosen.. most stuff all has h.264 decoding in hardware.. but it's not being used anymore.. instead they're trying to use vp09 or h.265 or av1 which in many cases requires CPU-based software encoding and decoding.. so the fans rev up like turbines. I feel certain the reason this is happening is because some middle-manager terrorist in a boardroom said "use this codec it won't require as much network data usage! value for the shareholder!" without asking first whether hardware encoding is beneficial even if there's a bit more network traffic with the older codecs. Really burns me up. I do not want to use software encoding/decoding if I have hardware support.
    - hot_gril 3y ago
      I think Google Meet uses VP9, which is really annoying.
    - David 3y ago
      Bandwidth is the limiting factor in a lot of circumstances, and networks are very challenging to manage. Especially with an increasing number of users on mobile connections, reducing network usage can be the right call. But performance matters, too, of course. It's tricky to balance them.
  - qwytw 3y ago
    > electron apps Which only adds limited overhead to certain cases. Unless they are encoding/decoding video directly in JS...
    - paulmd 3y ago
      Correct, teams doesn’t use videotoolbox so it’s software encoding. Probably not directly in javascript per se, it’s probably calling a native library, but it’s hot because teams doesn’t use hardware encoding.
  - David 3y ago
    Video encoding and decoding is expensive! Especially as cameras improve and users' expectations of quality increase.
- hot_gril 3y ago
  Zoom is reasonably light and uses hardware acceleration on anything modern (e.g. my 2015 MBP).
acidburnNSA 3y ago
I tried it at the beginning of the pandemic and my siblings phones all drained during the hour long call.

I am yet to find a modern video chat that isn't draining the battery of any laptop. From old Xeons, to fairly recent Ryzen and even M1/2 Macs. It's a bit puzzling, actually. I don't think Skype and TeamSpeak had the same effect on computers back in the day. Just how much local processing are they doing these days? It's crazy

vorticalbox 3y ago
It's most likely due to the fact they are all electron apps rather than they are doing "something".
- Sunspark 3y ago
  Hardware decoding is also an issue.. as in, not being used. Old webcams used to do h.264 encoding in hardware. Encoding has since now moved to the CPU which may or may not be fine.. the next issue becomes the codec chosen.. most stuff all has h.264 decoding in hardware.. but it's not being used anymore.. instead they're trying to use vp09 or h.265 or av1 which in many cases requires CPU-based software encoding and decoding.. so the fans rev up like turbines. I feel certain the reason this is happening is because some middle-manager terrorist in a boardroom said "use this codec it won't require as much network data usage! value for the shareholder!" without asking first whether hardware encoding is beneficial even if there's a bit more network traffic with the older codecs. Really burns me up. I do not want to use software encoding/decoding if I have hardware support.
  - hot_gril 3y ago
    I think Google Meet uses VP9, which is really annoying.
  - David 3y ago
    Bandwidth is the limiting factor in a lot of circumstances, and networks are very challenging to manage. Especially with an increasing number of users on mobile connections, reducing network usage can be the right call. But performance matters, too, of course. It's tricky to balance them.
- qwytw 3y ago
  > electron apps Which only adds limited overhead to certain cases. Unless they are encoding/decoding video directly in JS...
  - paulmd 3y ago
    Correct, teams doesn’t use videotoolbox so it’s software encoding. Probably not directly in javascript per se, it’s probably calling a native library, but it’s hot because teams doesn’t use hardware encoding.
- David 3y ago
  Video encoding and decoding is expensive! Especially as cameras improve and users' expectations of quality increase.
hot_gril 3y ago
Zoom is reasonably light and uses hardware acceleration on anything modern (e.g. my 2015 MBP).

acidburnNSA 3y ago

I tried it at the beginning of the pandemic and my siblings phones all drained during the hour long call.