First of all, what I have is a Dell Dimension 2400 2.2G, XP, 1G memory, 40G hard drive. For years it has worked well for me and has played most any DVD or video file I put to it.
The last few months I have had a problem playing some video files without having the video skip, freeze and run jerky. This has been occuring when I download a 720p or high resolution video file, particularly in Quicktime. I have tried several different viewers, and they all have the latest versions. I don’t think it is a codec problem. The higher resolution files (which I didn’t use to see that much in years gone by) just won’t run smoothly.
My computer has the stock on-board video card. Since the machine has adequate memory and processor, I think the video card is just not up to handling the better quality trailers and files I have been getting.
Do you think this is the problem, or am I missing something else?
The first thing I would think it is if its buffering or not. Your computer should be able to play that files no problem if its already saved in the computer. Are you streaming from the net?
I have the exact same computer and can download and play the highest quality video from any site I’ve tried, either streaming or downloaded to the computer. I’ve had trouble on occasion with video from a particular site, and completely deleting the media player and then reinstalling it from scratch has worked. I definitely cannot play any of the high quality pc games on it though.
I am running XP with the latest recommended updates. I checked on the drivers for the video controller and processor, and it says there are no newer updates available.
The files I have trouble with are video files donwloaded directly on to my hard drive, no streaming.
Most things have always run fine, but if I download an HD movie trailer, the audio will work fine but the video becomes a bad slide show.
My XBOX media center doesn’t have the CPU processing power to play HD video files. That guy is significantly less powerful than your computer, but maybe the problem is similar.
Is the CPU in your 2400 a Celeron? It has lower cache and performance, so maybe it just can’t process the file efficiently.
The only other thing I can think of is that the display driver is trying to use software acceleration or rendering instead of the hardware. I can’t seem to find a relevant screen in XP, though. I suppose you could check in: Display Properties -> Settings -> Advanced -> Troubleshoot -> Hardware Acceleration, to see if the slider is at FULL.
My chip is a Celeron 2.2G. It seems to do everything else just fine, it is just the more HD movie trailers and files that won’t run right.
I have just made sure my video driver was updated and I had the latest Win Media and QT versions. The video acceleration slider is set at max. In fact, I saw one mention that I might try setting the slider down a bit, but it is fixed at max and I can’t change it. I even updated some codec packs, to no avail.
The 720p .mov file I am currently trying to run has fine audio, but the video is like a slow slideshow. It will run smoother on Win Media, but is still choppy, the audio cuts in and out and then finally is out of sync with the video.
I think I have enough computer to run this type of file, but either something is set wrong or the new HD trailers and video are too much for my system. The thing is, I felt like I have run files like this before on QT, nice high-quality trailers for WOW and such, and they ran fine. I feel something has changed in my system and I don’t know what to try or look for.
There could be all sorts of problems causing this. Spyware, background applications stuck using 100% of the CPU or a lot of memory, the DMA on your HD controller magically turning off (happened to me more than once).
– Check your task manager to see if anything is using a lot of resources. How much free space do you have on your primary drive?
– Run a good spyware checker and antivirus. Make sure antivirus is not actively testing when you play your file through it (a lot of antiviruses are terrible at resource management)
No, I do not have anything running in the background that is eating up a lot of CPU power or memory.
Although I seldom have any problems with malware, I have run virus scans and ad and spyware scans without finding any problems.
I have over 8G available on my HD.
I went through the DMA procedures from the link you provided and everything seems to be setup correctly.
Still have the same problem. Have also noticed that some regular .avi files run a little jerky. Not as bad as the HD files, but enough to be irritating. This happens in Win Media, QT and DivX players.
I am open to any more suggestions. If I can’t get this straightened out, I have a larger HD that I plan to install anyway, so I’ll just put in the new drive and reload everything from scratch again.
I will mention one more thing before I let this thread fade away.
I have tried any number of things to see if I could get the HD files to play smoothly, and have had no luck. Now I have noticed something else. The situation may be worse than before. Now, if I open a regular .avi or .mpeg file in Windows Media (the viewer I prefer and use the most), it will play fine in the regular preview window, but when I go to full screen, the video becomes jerky and not as clear. Change back to small screen and the video plays smooth and looks better.
What is changing in how the video plays, or is displayed, just because it goes to full screen? I have never had this problem before.
The more screen real estate you want to display, the more work it is to display it.
For example a 320x200 video clip can be displayed at many sizes on the screen, just because its 320x200 in the player does not mean you puter is working to display those 320x200 spread across 1024x720 and has to do the same work for every pixel even when it is identical to its neighbor.
As a test, try reducing your screen resolution to the next step down and see if it helps.
Honestly, it sounds like your hardware just isn’t up to the task.
On-board video is generally crap and you can vastly improve video performance with a cheap GForce card. That’s what I would try first.
If that doesn’t solve your stuttering issues, then you’re probably going to have to consider upgrading your CPU. IMHO, a Celeron 2.2ghz is pretty iffy for hi-res multimedia. It just doesn’t have the data throughput that a P4 could provide. Check your task manager while playing video. If your video player maxes out the CPU during playback, a new processor may be your only option.
For just straight up video playback, not streaming, the hardware ought to be fine. My personal suggestion would be to download and install the K-Lite full codec pack, which includes Media Player Classic. The codec pack will handle anything I’ve ever thrown at it, including Quicktime files and the newest FLAC and other lossless formats. Media Player Classic is an incredibly low overhead player that doesn’t integrate horribly into the OS the way Windows Media Player does. I’ve given up on other players because Media Player Classic is so good I don’t need anything else. Loads in a fraction of the time Windows Media Player takes, too.
Install, do a clean reboot and try the vid files that are giving you hassles with MPC–if you have no problems then it isn’t a hardware issue at all. I’d also uninstall-reinstall your video driver if you haven’t done so. I’m running an AMD Turion 64 bit 1.6 Ghz with 128MB shared onboard video and it can handle any file playback you can throw at it, HD or no, fullscreen using an HD LCD TV as the second video display. Our media box is running a pretty similar CPU as the OP and you better believe it can handle anything playback there is.
Depending on your onboard video chipset it might be smart to put in a decent video card–any idea what you’re running? I’d get a fifty buck G-Force card long before I upgraded the CPU–unless the mobo doesn’t support AGP or PCI/PCI-E, of course. Seems stupid to me, but I’ve seen non-server boards that were set up that way. :rolleyes:
To answer some of the questions; the video is a file on my hard drive, not streaming.
I had already downloaded the latest K-Lite package, thinking the codecs may have had something to do with my problem. It didn’t help.
I downloaded and tried Media Player Classic. The .avi file I noticed trouble on at full screen worked better, but the HD files were still like a bad slide show.
Have updated the video drivers - didn’t help.
The video card is an onboard Intel unit, and certainly isn’t great, but it used to play files like I am having trouble with now. This seems to be a recent thing.
I have tried using Real Player, DivX player, Quicktime, a couple of players that come with my CD/DVD burning software - they all have problems and the video is jerky.
Guess I should just go ahead and install the new hard drive and do a complete re-install and start from scratch.
Probably not going to help much, and HD file is alot more data that typical internet fare. It since you probably have onboard video there is no simple way to boost it without replacing a video card. Even then it could be CPU that is falling short