Computer can't play videos without skipping

[darkertint]

I thought I had a decent computer, but it has trouble playing dvd quality movies. The video and audio is very choppy and not watchable. The specs are:
2.9GHz Celeron D
512mb ddr400
64mb Nvidia Geforce2

When I play a video using winamp or wmp, the cpu usage is usually in the 90's. What needs to be upgraded so that the videos will play smoothly?

[paul9]

64mb Nvidia Geforce2 is the worst part you have listed, although the hard drive and CD/DVD drive setup could cause the problems you describe.

[EXreaction]

You should be able to play DVD's perfectly fine with that.

I still remember back when I had an AMD 400Mhz cpu with an ATI Rage card, with that I could play DVD's without any problem at all.

Run hijack this and paste the log file:
http://download.hijackthis.eu/hijackthis_199.zip

Unless of course you are watching ripped movies in a different encoding...then it depends on what it is encoded in...

[darkertint]

They are ripped movies encoded in divx and xvid. They use to play fine, even with other programs running. I just formatted my hard drive about 3 months ago. I know the video card isn't the like the new ones, but videos use to play fine with the built in 64mb graphics card. Here's the log:
Logfile of HijackThis v1.99.1
Scan saved at 7:13:15 PM, on 11/15/2007
Platform: Windows XP SP2 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP2 (6.00.2900.2180)
Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\system32\acs.exe
C:\Program Files\Google\Common\Google Updater\GoogleUpdaterService.exe
C:\Program Files\Nero\Nero 7\InCD\InCDsrv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
D:\StrongDC++\StrongDC.exe
C:\Program Files\Azureus\Azureus.exe
C:\Program Files\Maxthon\Maxthon.exe
C:\Documents and Settings\master\Desktop\HijackThis.exe
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.yahoo.com/
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://www.yahoo.com/
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Bar = http://us.rd.yahoo.com/customize/ie/...ch/search.html
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://us.rd.yahoo.com/customize/ie/.../www.yahoo.com
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.yahoo.com/
R3 - URLSearchHook: AOLTBSearch Class - {EA756889-2338-43DB-8F07-D1CA6FB9C90D} - C:\Program Files\AOL\AOL Toolbar 2.0\aoltb.dll
R3 - URLSearchHook: Yahoo! Toolbar - {EF99BD32-C1FB-11D2-892F-0090271D4F88} - C:\PROGRA~1\Yahoo!\Companion\Installs\cpn\yt.dll
O2 - BHO: &Yahoo! Toolbar Helper - {02478D38-C3F9-4efb-9B51-7695ECA05670} - C:\PROGRA~1\Yahoo!\Companion\Installs\cpn\yt.dll
O2 - BHO: Adobe PDF Reader Link Helper - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll
O2 - BHO: RealPlayer Download and Record Plugin for Internet Explorer - {3049C3E9-B461-4BC5-8870-4C09146192CA} - C:\Program Files\Real\RealPlayer\rpbrowserrecordplugin.dll
O2 - BHO: SSVHelper Class - {761497BB-D6F0-462C-B6EB-D4DAF1D92D43} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_02\bin\ssv.dll
O2 - BHO: AOL Toolbar Launcher - {7C554162-8CB7-45A4-B8F4-8EA1C75885F9} - C:\Program Files\AOL\AOL Toolbar 2.0\aoltb.dll
O2 - BHO: Google Toolbar Notifier BHO - {AF69DE43-7D58-4638-B6FA-CE66B5AD205D} - C:\Program Files\Google\GoogleToolbarNotifier\2.1.615.5858\sw g.dll
O3 - Toolbar: AOL Toolbar - {DE9C389F-3316-41A7-809B-AA305ED9D922} - C:\Program Files\AOL\AOL Toolbar 2.0\aoltb.dll
O3 - Toolbar: Yahoo! Toolbar - {EF99BD32-C1FB-11D2-892F-0090271D4F88} - C:\PROGRA~1\Yahoo!\Companion\Installs\cpn\yt.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [RivaTunerStartupDaemon] "C:\Program Files\RivaTuner v2.05\RivaTuner.exe" /S
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Adobe Reader Speed Launcher] "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 8.0\Reader\Reader_sl.exe"
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Yahoo! Pager] "C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\YahooMessenger.exe" -quiet
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [AIM] C:\Program Files\AIM\aim.exe -cnetwait.odl
O8 - Extra context menu item: &AOL Toolbar Search - c:\program files\aol\aol toolbar 2.0\resources\en-US\local\search.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel - res://C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office10\EXCEL.EXE/3000
O9 - Extra button: AOL Toolbar - {3369AF0D-62E9-4bda-8103-B4C75499B578} - C:\Program Files\AOL\AOL Toolbar 2.0\aoltb.dll
O9 - Extra button: AIM - {AC9E2541-2814-11d5-BC6D-00B0D0A1DE45} - C:\Program Files\AIM\aim.exe
O9 - Extra button: Yahoo! Messenger - {E5D12C4E-7B4F-11D3-B5C9-0050045C3C96} - C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\YahooMessenger.exe
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Yahoo! Messenger - {E5D12C4E-7B4F-11D3-B5C9-0050045C3C96} - C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\YahooMessenger.exe
O9 - Extra button: Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Windows Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
O16 - DPF: {30528230-99f7-4bb4-88d8-fa1d4f56a2ab} (YInstStarter Class) - C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Common\yinsthelper.dll
O16 - DPF: {6414512B-B978-451D-A0D8-FCFDF33E833C} (WUWebControl Class) - http://www.update.microsoft.com/wind...?1187125549625
O16 - DPF: {6E32070A-766D-4EE6-879C-DC1FA91D2FC3} (MUWebControl Class) - http://www.update.microsoft.com/micr...?1187125849203
O21 - SSODL: WPDShServiceObj - {AAA288BA-9A4C-45B0-95D7-94D524869DB5} - C:\WINDOWS\system32\WPDShServiceObj.dll
O23 - Service: Atheros Configuration Service (ACS) - Unknown owner - C:\WINDOWS\system32\acs.exe
O23 - Service: Google Updater Service (gusvc) - Google - C:\Program Files\Google\Common\Google Updater\GoogleUpdaterService.exe
O23 - Service: InstallDriver Table Manager (IDriverT) - Macrovision Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Driver\1150\Intel 32\IDriverT.exe
O23 - Service: InCD Helper (InCDsrv) - Nero AG - C:\Program Files\Nero\Nero 7\InCD\InCDsrv.exe
O23 - Service: NBService - Nero AG - C:\Program Files\Nero\Nero 7\Nero BackItUp\NBService.exe

[EXreaction]

Well, nothing looks bad in it, but there are a lot of extra things running that are not needed.

I'd try cleaning some of the junk up and then try again.

Also, you could give Media Player Classic a try, or VLC Media player.

[Russian Wall]

I was having some problems on my comp with some DivX files playing slow and had some success changing the Tools>Preferences>Video settings in the DivX player. (I don't think Winamp has it's own DivX Codec by default, so it would use the official DivX codec which is modified by the settings in the DivX player for the video playback would affect Winamp too.)

You could try turning down the hardware settings in the video control panel too, things like overlay, etc.

[Keymaker]

What have you overclocked your card too?

It seems either you have programs and what not running in the background or you processor is doing all the video work.

I also played movies fine on an old machine. It was an Inspiron 8100 notebook, speed step, 1.2/800 MHz, 512 MB RAM with a Gforce2go 32 MB Video card.

All your messengers belong to Trillan

While you are watching a DVD, go to the task manger, Control + ALT then Delete. See if there is something else that is consuming the processor. Look at picture.

I would also get rid of Adobe PDF reader and use foxit instead. Much faster and won't have a dumbass service. I run the portable version though.

Forgot, you might be interested in this or this

Quote:

First of all, the FFDSHOW consumes way less CPU power than original DivX codecs, even with maximum post-processing. At the same time the post-processing seems to give excellent quality results and allows more configuring than the original DivX 5 codec. It can even automaticly reduce post-processing if your CPU is getting overloaded. The noise filter adds a kind of a rasterising effect to the picture - might be useful in some cases. The alpha version also includes experimental playback for MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 files (such as VCD and SVCD movies), which works pretty damn well. Only problem is that MPEG-2 playback can't play the SVCD clips directly from the CD, but requires the video to be extracted to the HDD by using VCDGear first.

Make sure your processor supports MMx and SSE or SSE2. I'm sure it does.

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/FFDShow.htm

[chris_fairbanks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkertint

I thought I had a decent computer, but it has trouble playing dvd quality movies. The video and audio is very choppy and not watchable. The specs are:
2.9GHz Celeron D
512mb ddr400
64mb Nvidia Geforce2

When I play a video using winamp or wmp, the cpu usage is usually in the 90's. What needs to be upgraded so that the videos will play smoothly?

**************

I found that this is related to a wireless service called the Atheros Configuration Service. I found this by trouble shooting in Microsoft Configuration. Go to start>Run> and type msconfig. Go to services and uncheck atheros configuration utility. Then click okay and restart the computer. Unfortunately, the wireless internet won't work with out this service running, but the videos will now play perfectly. You may also be able to just go to the task manager under processes and just end the acs.exe process. I found this executable in c:/WINDOWS/system32, which can be restarted easily. I hope that this improves the performance for your system. I was hoping there might be an easier way to fix this. As of now, I have at least identified the problem and I hope that you won't have to buy a new computer.