The Mac
- Computer
- MacBook Pro, Apple M1 Pro, 16 GB
- System
- macOS 26.6.2
- Display
- Built-in Liquid Retina XDR
- Date
- September 23, 2026
Right picture. Fraction of the work. 4K Dolby Vision with the correct colour, and far less CPU than the players we tested.
- 56×
- less CPU than VLC
- 2.9×
- less CPU than Elmedia Player
- 6.8×
- less memory than VLC
4K Dolby Vision. Same file, same Mac, one player at a time.
- Stoic14.5%
- Elmedia Player41.7%
- VLC819%
- Stoic202 MB
- Elmedia Player428 MB
- VLC1,375 MB
| Player | Version | CPU | Memory | Colour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stoic | 0.2 beta | 14.5% | 202 MB | Correct |
| Elmedia Player | 8.24 | 41.7% | 428 MB | Colour cast |
| VLC | 3.0.20 | 819% | 1,375 MB | Colour cast |
| QuickTime Player | 10.5 | — | — | Doesn’t open Profile 5 |
How we tested. Everything you need to run it yourself.
The file
- Title
- Mystery Box Dolby Vision encoding sample
- Format
- Dolby Vision Profile 5
- Video
- HEVC Main 10 · 3840 × 2160 · 59.94 fps
- Audio
- E-AC-3
Each player opened the file fresh. After a 5–6 second warm-up, CPU and memory were sampled for 12–14 seconds; we report median CPU and peak memory, and confirmed from screen captures that the picture was moving. Colour was checked against screen captures of the same frame in each player — you can drag between two of them on the home page.
Accurate to the source. Stoic’s decode, checked against reference output frame by frame.
0.00080Worst ΔPQ, Profile 5 against the authored source
0.00007Worst ΔPQ, Profile 5 against the CPU reference
0.00064Mean ΔPQ, Profile 8.1 against its HDR10 base
0Dropped frames across 55 s at 23.976 fps