[Libav-user] Maximize CPU usage when decoding h264

[Winter Fa]

Hi all,

I am trying to use libavcodec(55.39.101) to decode h264 video as fast as
possible, I found that the library can only make use of around 160% of CPU
( i3-2100, 2 core, 4 threads) on some of the h264 videos (eg. Video A, see
link below), but able to use over 300% CPU on other h264 videos (eg. Video
B, see link below)

>From mediainfo, Video A is interlaced while B is progressive. Does this
really affect the parallelism of decoding?
I've tried using x264 to encode videos to h264 with interlace/progressive
options, either option videos can let libavcodec use over 300% CPU to do
decoding. so it seems that interlace/progressive may not be the root cause
which affects CPU usage.

My question is what factors are affecting the CPU usage of decoding h264
videos? Is there a way to maximize CPU usage so that decoding can become
faster?

I use ffmpeg benchmark command to illustrate the difference of CPU usage:
ffmpeg -benchmark -threads auto -i ~/Videos/fileA.h264 -f null -
(-threads=4, 8 or auto, results are similar)

Video A -
http://downloads.mainconcept.com/MainConceptLogo_Blu-ray_AVC_1920x1080_LPCM.zip
Video B -
http://download.blender.org/durian/trailer/Sintel_Trailer1.1080p.DivX_Plus_HD.mkv

I appreciate any help from you, thanks!

Winter Fa
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