thanks for the help (the "-softvol=yes" part mainly)

the division by two (or four since it's both height and width) is the procedure for reducing a video size which would require the least CPU power. all that the computer does is to find the average color of four adjacent pixels, and display that color, stretched out onto these four pixels. Any other size (even 2/3) would require way more CPU, and we are trying to optimize playback.

I will look for an[other] way to keep the best video display under 100% cpu usage, but due to a lack of ideas, I am trying to make this manner the most optimal.