Netflix using over 100% of CPU

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I have a Macbook Air. (The latest version: i5, 4GB, Intel HD3000). Fully updated with the latest Silverlight.

Whenever I stream Netflix, the CPU usage seems far higher than it should be, even for non HD content.

Is there anything I can do to remedy this?
 

chscag

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2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
Streaming video is going to task the machine heavily especially the CPU and GPU. Not much you can do about it. I get the same result even on this iMac which has a more powerful CPU and discrete graphics. It's just the nature of the beast. Don't worry about it, your MBA is solidly built and can take it.
 

vansmith

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Mini (2014, 2018, 2020), MBA (2020), iPad Pro (2018), iPhone 13 Pro Max, Watch (S6)
It's important to know what 100% might mean in this context. Each CPU core has 100% capacity so if you have a dual core processor, you can have up to 200% usage (it doesn't make much sense but this is how it works). If you're only using 100% spread across two cores, that's not bad considering that Flash and Silverlight like to use up a lot of your CPU power (relatively speaking).
 

vansmith

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I can't speak for Silverlight but the version of Flash for the Mac sucks relative to the Windows version. Given that Silverlight is a Microsoft product, I wouldn't be surprised if this were the case here as well (it helps when you design the OS that the product runs on).
 

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