diff --git a/packages/cli/src/telemetry/events.test.ts b/packages/cli/src/telemetry/events.test.ts
index c35864d037..393e643d63 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/telemetry/events.test.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/telemetry/events.test.ts
@@ -2,9 +2,20 @@ import { describe, expect, it, vi, beforeEach } from "vitest";
 
 const trackEvent = vi.fn();
 const flush = vi.fn(() => Promise.resolve());
+const shouldTrack = vi.fn(() => true);
 vi.mock("./client.js", () => ({
   trackEvent: (...args: unknown[]) => trackEvent(...args),
   flush: () => flush(),
+  shouldTrack: () => shouldTrack(),
+}));
+
+// Power state shells out to `pmset`; spy so tests can assert it is NOT
+// sampled for opted-out installs (the fields are built at the call site,
+// before trackEvent's own shouldTrack guard).
+const getPowerState = vi.fn(() => ({ on_battery: true, low_power_mode: false }));
+vi.mock("./system.js", async () => ({
+  ...(await vi.importActual<typeof import("./system.js")>("./system.js")),
+  getPowerState: () => getPowerState(),
 }));
 
 // identifyUser reads the install anonymousId; pin it so the $identify alias is
@@ -706,3 +717,28 @@ describe("auth login telemetry events", () => {
     expect(trackEvent).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
   });
 });
+
+describe("power-state sampling respects the telemetry opt-out", () => {
+  beforeEach(() => {
+    getPowerState.mockClear();
+    shouldTrack.mockReturnValue(true);
+  });
+
+  it("samples power state for a tracked render", () => {
+    trackRenderComplete({ durationMs: 1, fps: 30, quality: "high", docker: false, gpu: false });
+    expect(getPowerState).toHaveBeenCalled();
+    const props = trackEvent.mock.calls.at(-1)?.[1] as Record<string, unknown>;
+    expect(props.on_battery).toBe(true);
+    expect(props.low_power_mode).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it("does NOT spawn pmset when telemetry is disabled", () => {
+    // Regression: powerStateFields() is spread into the properties object at
+    // the call site, so it runs BEFORE trackEvent's `if (!shouldTrack())`
+    // guard — an opted-out install would otherwise pay two blocking
+    // subprocess spawns per render for an event that is then discarded.
+    shouldTrack.mockReturnValue(false);
+    trackRenderComplete({ durationMs: 1, fps: 30, quality: "high", docker: false, gpu: false });
+    expect(getPowerState).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/telemetry/events.ts b/packages/cli/src/telemetry/events.ts
index d7593d84f3..cd68747569 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/telemetry/events.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/telemetry/events.ts
@@ -1,8 +1,30 @@
 import { redactTelemetryString, type OutputResolutionIssueKind } from "@hyperframes/core";
 import type { SubTimelineWaitOutcome } from "@hyperframes/engine";
 import { FEEDBACK_RATING_SCALE } from "../utils/feedbackRating.js";
-import { flush, trackEvent } from "./client.js";
+import { flush, shouldTrack, trackEvent } from "./client.js";
 import { readConfig } from "./config.js";
+import { getPowerState } from "./system.js";
+
+// Power state is volatile (a laptop docks/undocks mid-session), so it is
+// sampled per render event rather than cached with SystemMeta. Attached to
+// render_complete AND render_error: the DE fleet is macOS laptops whose
+// power management shifts render perf ~1.8x with no other telemetry signal,
+// and perf/soak analysis needs to segment by it (see getPowerState).
+//
+// shouldTrack() is checked HERE, not just inside trackEvent: this helper is
+// spread into the properties object at the CALL SITE, so it runs before
+// trackEvent's own `if (!shouldTrack()) return` guard. Without this an
+// opted-out install would still pay two blocking `pmset` subprocess spawns
+// per render for an event that is then discarded (review finding).
+// shouldTrack() memoizes, so this costs nothing on the tracked path.
+function powerStateFields(): { on_battery?: boolean; low_power_mode?: boolean } {
+  if (!shouldTrack()) return {};
+  const power = getPowerState();
+  return {
+    on_battery: power.on_battery ?? undefined,
+    low_power_mode: power.low_power_mode ?? undefined,
+  };
+}
 
 // run_id is attached only when the orchestrator set HYPERFRAMES_RUN_ID — an
 // absent property, never null/"" (PostHog treats those as real values).
@@ -300,6 +322,7 @@ export function trackRenderComplete(
       de_blank_recaptures: props.deBlankRecaptures,
       de_boundary_frames: props.deBoundaryFrames,
       de_ncpr_fallbacks: props.deNcprFallbacks,
+      ...powerStateFields(),
       source: props.source ?? "cli",
       composition_duration_ms: props.compositionDurationMs,
       composition_width: props.compositionWidth,
@@ -379,6 +402,7 @@ export function trackRenderError(
       elapsed_ms: props.elapsedMs,
       peak_memory_mb: props.peakMemoryMb,
       memory_free_mb: props.memoryFreeMb,
+      ...powerStateFields(),
       // gpu_renderer arrives via renderObservabilityEventProperties below:
       // on the failure path perfSummary is never built, so live capture
       // observability is the only source. Backend attribution matters MOST
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/telemetry/system.test.ts b/packages/cli/src/telemetry/system.test.ts
index 375ca15386..c6e90df167 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/telemetry/system.test.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/telemetry/system.test.ts
@@ -110,3 +110,54 @@ describe("getAvailableMemoryMb", () => {
     expect(getAvailableMemoryMb()).toBe(6144);
   });
 });
+
+describe("power state (laptop fleet segmentation)", () => {
+  it("parsePmsetPowerSource reads battery vs AC", async () => {
+    const { parsePmsetPowerSource } = await import("./system.js");
+    expect(parsePmsetPowerSource("Now drawing from 'Battery Power'\n -InternalBattery-0")).toBe(
+      true,
+    );
+    expect(parsePmsetPowerSource("Now drawing from 'AC Power'\n -InternalBattery-0")).toBe(false);
+    expect(parsePmsetPowerSource("garbage output")).toBe(null);
+  });
+
+  it("getPowerState samples pmset on darwin", async () => {
+    vi.doMock("node:os", async () => ({
+      ...(await vi.importActual<typeof import("node:os")>("node:os")),
+      platform: () => "darwin",
+    }));
+    vi.doMock("node:child_process", async () => ({
+      ...(await vi.importActual<typeof import("node:child_process")>("node:child_process")),
+      execSync: (cmd: string) =>
+        cmd === "pmset -g batt"
+          ? "Now drawing from 'Battery Power'\n"
+          : "SleepDisabled 0\n lowpowermode         1\n",
+    }));
+    const { getPowerState } = await import("./system.js");
+    expect(getPowerState()).toEqual({ on_battery: true, low_power_mode: true });
+  });
+
+  it("getPowerState returns nulls off-darwin (no guessing)", async () => {
+    vi.doMock("node:os", async () => ({
+      ...(await vi.importActual<typeof import("node:os")>("node:os")),
+      platform: () => "linux",
+    }));
+    const { getPowerState } = await import("./system.js");
+    expect(getPowerState()).toEqual({ on_battery: null, low_power_mode: null });
+  });
+
+  it("getPowerState survives pmset failure with nulls", async () => {
+    vi.doMock("node:os", async () => ({
+      ...(await vi.importActual<typeof import("node:os")>("node:os")),
+      platform: () => "darwin",
+    }));
+    vi.doMock("node:child_process", async () => ({
+      ...(await vi.importActual<typeof import("node:child_process")>("node:child_process")),
+      execSync: () => {
+        throw new Error("pmset: command failed");
+      },
+    }));
+    const { getPowerState } = await import("./system.js");
+    expect(getPowerState()).toEqual({ on_battery: null, low_power_mode: null });
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/telemetry/system.ts b/packages/cli/src/telemetry/system.ts
index d8d9bacf54..20481ec5bb 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/telemetry/system.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/telemetry/system.ts
@@ -184,6 +184,60 @@ export function getFreeDiskMb(path: string = "."): number | null {
   }
 }
 
+export interface PowerState {
+  /** true = running on battery, false = external power, null = undetectable. */
+  on_battery: boolean | null;
+  /** macOS Low Power Mode; null off-darwin or undetectable. */
+  low_power_mode: boolean | null;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Parse `pmset -g batt` output for the power source line. Exported for tests.
+ * Example first line: `Now drawing from 'Battery Power'`.
+ */
+export function parsePmsetPowerSource(raw: string): boolean | null {
+  const m = raw.match(/Now drawing from '([^']+)'/);
+  if (!m) return null;
+  return m[1] === "Battery Power";
+}
+
+/**
+ * Sample the machine's power state. Volatile — sample at event time, never
+ * cache alongside SystemMeta.
+ *
+ * Why this exists: the DE fast path only engages on macOS + hardware GPU, so
+ * the render fleet is overwhelmingly laptops, and laptop perf is
+ * power-managed — bench sweeps on an M4 Pro showed the SAME render flipping
+ * between ~9.6 and ~17.2 ms/frame regimes with no load/thermal signal to
+ * explain it. Without a power-state dimension on render telemetry those
+ * regimes are indistinguishable noise; with it, perf distributions (and the
+ * DE parallel-router soak) can be segmented by the machine state real users
+ * actually render in.
+ */
+export function getPowerState(): PowerState {
+  if (platform() !== "darwin") {
+    // Linux laptops exist but the DE fleet is darwin; don't guess elsewhere.
+    return { on_battery: null, low_power_mode: null };
+  }
+  let on_battery: boolean | null = null;
+  let low_power_mode: boolean | null = null;
+  try {
+    on_battery = parsePmsetPowerSource(
+      execSync("pmset -g batt", { encoding: "utf-8", timeout: 2000 }),
+    );
+  } catch {
+    // pmset missing/slow — leave null rather than fail telemetry.
+  }
+  try {
+    const raw = execSync("pmset -g", { encoding: "utf-8", timeout: 2000 });
+    const m = raw.match(/lowpowermode\s+(\d)/);
+    if (m) low_power_mode = m[1] === "1";
+  } catch {
+    // Same: absence of the reading is itself acceptable.
+  }
+  return { on_battery, low_power_mode };
+}
+
 /**
  * Get available memory in MB, accounting for OS-level page caching.
  *
diff --git a/packages/producer/src/services/renderOrchestrator.test.ts b/packages/producer/src/services/renderOrchestrator.test.ts
index deec16be0d..791a17389b 100644
--- a/packages/producer/src/services/renderOrchestrator.test.ts
+++ b/packages/producer/src/services/renderOrchestrator.test.ts
@@ -1843,6 +1843,7 @@ describe("shouldPreferParallelDrawElement (DE parallel router)", () => {
     probeDeGated: false,
     experimentalParallelDeOptIn: false,
     routerEnabled: true,
+    parallelStreamingAvailable: true,
     totalMemoryMb: 32768,
     minMemoryMb: 24576,
   };
@@ -1851,6 +1852,16 @@ describe("shouldPreferParallelDrawElement (DE parallel router)", () => {
     expect(shouldPreferParallelDrawElement(eligible)).toBe(true);
   });
 
+  it("withholds the bet when parallel streaming can't run (e.g. over the duration cap)", () => {
+    // The router pins workerCount to 3 and skips calibration to serve the
+    // verified parallel DE STREAMING path. If streaming is off for this
+    // render — the >240s duration cap is the common case — firing would pay
+    // the whole cost of the pin for none of the benefit.
+    expect(
+      shouldPreferParallelDrawElement({ ...eligible, parallelStreamingAvailable: false }),
+    ).toBe(false);
+  });
+
   it("withholds the parallel bet below the RAM floor (16 GB black-slab report)", () => {
     expect(shouldPreferParallelDrawElement({ ...eligible, totalMemoryMb: 16384 })).toBe(false);
   });
diff --git a/packages/producer/src/services/renderOrchestrator.ts b/packages/producer/src/services/renderOrchestrator.ts
index b6bb80af22..232bc29acc 100644
--- a/packages/producer/src/services/renderOrchestrator.ts
+++ b/packages/producer/src/services/renderOrchestrator.ts
@@ -1340,9 +1340,14 @@ export function resolveInversionRetryPlan(args: {
  * but the decision itself stays gated behind its own flag pending the
  * telemetry soak (revert rate, de_verify_min_db distribution) on real wild
  * traffic — there is currently none, since nothing routes here by default.
- * Takes priority over the single-worker inversion when both would fire (a
- * higher minFrames than HF_DE_SINGLE_MIN_FRAMES is the intended shape: this
- * only picks up the long tail the inversion's own benchmark didn't cover).
+ * Takes priority over the single-worker inversion when both would fire.
+ * Re-calibrated 2026-07-27: a controlled crossover sweep (three content
+ * profiles including a genuinely init-expensive 24-sub-composition comp;
+ * worker counts and capture modes verified per run) found par3 > single at
+ * every size from 350f up in every profile — workers init concurrently, so
+ * per-worker init duplication costs CPU, not wall-clock. minFrames therefore
+ * dropped below the inversion's threshold (700 vs 900): where both fire,
+ * parallel wins over the inversion's single-worker pick (+17–21% at 700f).
  */
 export function shouldPreferParallelDrawElement(args: {
   workerCount: number;
@@ -1361,6 +1366,16 @@ export function shouldPreferParallelDrawElement(args: {
   experimentalParallelDeOptIn: boolean;
   /** HF_DE_PARALLEL_ROUTER === "true" — the router's own kill switch, default off. */
   routerEnabled: boolean;
+  /**
+   * Whether verified parallel DE STREAMING can actually run for this render
+   * (`shouldUseStreamingEncode` at the router's worker count with
+   * forceParallelStream). The router's entire value is that path; without it
+   * firing would pin workerCount to 3 and skip calibration while delivering
+   * none of the benefit — e.g. a composition longer than
+   * `streamingEncodeMaxDurationSeconds` (240 s default), where the duration
+   * cap disables streaming before the router's force flag is consulted.
+   */
+  parallelStreamingAvailable: boolean;
   /** Machine RAM (os.totalmem, MB). */
   totalMemoryMb: number;
   /** RAM floor for routing; <=0 disables the guard. */
@@ -1368,6 +1383,7 @@ export function shouldPreferParallelDrawElement(args: {
 }): boolean {
   return (
     args.routerEnabled &&
+    args.parallelStreamingAvailable &&
     args.workerCount > 1 &&
     typeof args.requestedWorkers !== "number" &&
     args.useDrawElement &&
@@ -2414,18 +2430,27 @@ async function executeRenderPipeline(input: {
         process.env.HF_DE_PARALLEL_STREAM === "true",
     });
     // DE parallel-router eligibility — see shouldPreferParallelDrawElement.
-    // Default-off (HF_DE_PARALLEL_ROUTER); HF_DE_PARALLEL_MIN_FRAMES defaults
-    // higher than the single-worker inversion's threshold since it targets
-    // the long tail the inversion's own benchmark didn't cover.
+    // Default-off (HF_DE_PARALLEL_ROUTER); HF_DE_PARALLEL_MIN_FRAMES default
+    // 700, re-calibrated 2026-07-27 from the original safe-high 2000. A
+    // controlled frame-count sweep (fixed content-per-frame, three synthetic
+    // profiles × {350..3000f} × {single,par2,par3} × 3 reps, worker counts +
+    // capture modes verified per run) showed par3 beating single at EVERY
+    // size in every profile — +17–21% at 700f rising to +28–34% at 3000f —
+    // including a 24-sub-composition profile built to reproduce the
+    // "workers re-pay init" failure (92k tweens, ~2.5s
+    // pollSubCompositionTimelines per worker): workers init CONCURRENTLY, so
+    // duplicated init costs CPU, not wall-clock. Below ~700f the win thins
+    // toward ~+10% while still paying 3 hardware-GPU browsers, so the floor
+    // stays. Harness: plans/drawelement-fast-capture/de-crossover-bench.sh.
     const deParallelRouterEnabled = process.env.HF_DE_PARALLEL_ROUTER === "true";
     const deParallelMinFramesRaw = process.env.HF_DE_PARALLEL_MIN_FRAMES;
     const deParallelMinFramesNum =
       deParallelMinFramesRaw === undefined || deParallelMinFramesRaw.trim() === ""
-        ? 2000
+        ? 700
         : Number(deParallelMinFramesRaw);
     const deParallelMinFrames = Number.isFinite(deParallelMinFramesNum)
       ? deParallelMinFramesNum
-      : 2000;
+      : 700;
     // RAM floor default 24 GB: the wild black-slab report was a 16 GB
     // machine; every clean routed cohort in telemetry so far is >=24 GB.
     // HF_DE_PARALLEL_MIN_MEM_MB overrides (0 disables the guard).
@@ -2456,6 +2481,15 @@ async function executeRenderPipeline(input: {
         process.env.PRODUCER_EXPERIMENTAL_FAST_CAPTURE === "true" ||
         process.env.HF_DE_PARALLEL_STREAM === "true",
       routerEnabled: deParallelRouterEnabled,
+      // Router pins 3 workers for the streaming path; don't pin when the
+      // duration cap (or any other streaming gate) would turn that path off.
+      parallelStreamingAvailable: shouldUseStreamingEncode(
+        cfg,
+        outputFormat,
+        3,
+        job.duration,
+        true,
+      ),
       totalMemoryMb: Math.round(totalmem() / (1024 * 1024)),
       minMemoryMb: deParallelMinMemoryMb,
     });