Jellyfin Media Player vs VLC player | Resource usage

[RogerRoger]

Hello,
I've installed a Jellyfin server on a fairly powerful Windows computer.

I watch my content on a somewhat older Windows laptop:
CPU: i3-5005U
GPU: Intel HD Graphics 5500
RAM: 8 GB

When playing my media in VLC, the laptop uses around 20% CPU and about 3% GPU. The video runs smoothly without stuttering and the laptop stays cool.
However, when I play the exact same media through the Jellyfin Media Player, my laptop uses significantly more resources around 75% CPU and 80% GPU which causes it to heat up quickly and starts to lag a bit.

MPV Video Player settings:

• Play method: Direct play
  
• Container: MKV
  

Media info:

• Video codec: HEVC 10-bit
  
• Type: SDR
  
• Audio codec: EAC3
  
  

Now my questions:
Is VLC really that much better than the Jellyfin Media Player?
Why is Jellyfin so much more resource-intensive, even when playing the same media?
Are there settings I can change to improve playback performance or is the Jellyfin player simply more limited in this regard?
Lastly, is there a workaround such as using VLC for playback or a plugin that can do that? I’ve read that the option to use external players is only available on mobile.

Thank you

[Generator]

Look at as external player
https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-mpv-shim

You can also try to disable hardware decoding (Settings -> Client Settings) see if it help somehow.

In my case hardware decoding was making the laptop running hot (CPU: 75c+, GPU: 80c) disabling HW decoding solved the issue (now CPU: ~67c, GPU: 63c)

Other alternative enable DLNA (install DLNA plugin) and you can browse the libraries with VLC (View -> Playlist -> Universal Plug n Play)

PS: DLNA doesn't support external files (external subtitles, audio tracks)