Windows XP Video Playback Jerky

[McLarenF1]

Hi, my dad is having problems playing video files on his computer. It will play a couple of seconds then stop for a second or so then play for a couple of seconds and so on and it's REALLY frustrating!!! His spec, AMD K6 450Mhz, 350MBish of SDRAM, 32Mb ATI Rage Fury graphics card, is not very good by today's standards but I would have thought it enough to play a movie.

Does anybody have any idea what could be the problem behind this? I believe that my dad has the latest drivers.

BTW the operating system is Windows XP.

 

[muckshifter]

Despite what Microsoft may say XP can run on you are indeed pushing it ... go back to 98/ME and you'll probably find your 'video' will play a lot better.

You could try and turn off “the bells & whistles” but your system really is lacking to run XP.

The minimum I would suggest to run XP would be an 800/1000 CPU + 256mb ram.

 

[floppybootstomp]

McLarenF1:

Sorry, but I really don't think that system is capable of handling video playback with any reliability.

I've been doing quite a lot of video file conversion/editing lately, mostly from VHS.

I'm using, amongst other software, Pinnacle Studio 8, whose minimum spec is a 1.6Ghz processor and 512Mb RAM.

I'm using an XP1900 at stock speed of 1.6Ghz with 1Gb RAM, and it works OK.

I expect a lower speed processor could handle things, but at least 512Mb RAM is a must for video editing, in my experience anyway.

 

[McLarenF1]

OK, thanks for your help guys.

My dad doesn't want to spend a lot of money to fix this problem so I thought the cheapest way to fix it would be to buy a 64Mb AGP graphics card. Do you think this would solve the problem or would the old components in the machine limit the full potential of the new graphics card so much that we would see no difference?

 

[meggoddess]

Same

hey, i have a sony notebook with 2.4ghz, 512mb of ram, and i have the same problem. anyone have a solution or even know what's wrong?

 

[floppybootstomp]

McLarenF1:

In my opinion buying a 64Mb Video card would do little to alleviate your Dad's problem. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but to enable reliable video playback/editing/conversion you would really need to upgrade to the specs outlined in previous post.

However, a 64Mb video card would be an improvement to your Dad's system and at the price they're going for right now, I'd say you've little to lose by trying one. It would, after all, be an improvement.

meggoddess:

Is that an Intel system? What processor is it you're using? (Pentium, Celeron?)

Graphics on notebooks are often integrated and are frequently a compromise. However, if it's DVD playback you're having problems with and the laptop was purchased with a DVD ROM drive and software for DVD playback, then it should play OK.

PS: Sorry about late replies, just returned from a 5 day break.

 

[meggoddess]

Intel, Pentium 4

And my laptop came with an 8x DVD player/CD-RW combo and DVD software. I tried to play a DVD, but it kept skipping, and the sound was barely audible.

I somehow got videos to work ok now somehow, but DVDs are still jerky.

 

[Soul-UK]

I was recently given an old laptop which had Vista on it - got rid of that and installed Windows XP Home on it to find I had the same problem of Jerky Video. I tried a lot of things suggested by various websites with no luck. However, after playing with the videocard memory settings and then upgrading the system ram from 1GB to 2GB I noticed there was no change in how jerky my test video was...

... To cut a long story short, after a LOT of testing, I found my problem was to do with DirectX. By dissabling DirectDraw (and thus Direct3D as well) via the DXDIAG tool ('Start' -> 'Run' -> type "dxdiag" and press enter), I can now play all my video's, even high-definition ones without any problems

Apparently the cause of the problem in my case is either a faulty DirectX driver or file, or the driver for my graphics processor is either faulty or not DirectX compatable.

Hope this helps some people, as this problem was driving me up the wall.

(Laptop spec: E-Machines D620 - AMD 2650e Processor, 2GB Ram, Built in GFX.)