Video skips when added to timeline

[Guest]

Hello - I'm having a problem with viewing my videos in Movie Maker. If I
just preview the clips from within the "collection," they play just fine.
But if I add one to the timeline, even if it's the only thing there, it skips
so badly when playing that I basically can't even view it. Does anyone know
what might be causing this, and more importantly, how to correct it?

Thanks in advance for any help you could provide.

 

[Wojo]

It could be a lot of different things.
First let me say that the preview screen is a low-res video preview so what
you see there is not what the final result will look like.
That said it still shouldn't look as bad as you are describing unless it is
a really high res video to begin with or it is located on a CD/DVD as
opposed to your harddrive.
The first thing I would look at is the type of file it is. Outside of that
more info is needed such as:
The filetype (extension) as I said above?
The location of the file (HDD, CD, DVD, flash drive etc...)?
Your system specs (especially processor and memory)?
Is anything else running in the background eating system resources?
When is the last time you defragmented your harddrive?