[MudslideSlim]

Is anyone having very choppy playback of the videos? I'm using a dial-up connection, so I save the video on my desktop and watch it off-line. The playback tends to skip quite a bit, or sometimes pause and then jump to later in the video.

I have a Pentium II 350 running Windows 98. That could be part of my problem. My Windows Media Player is only 7.1, and I can't install any of the newer versions with my version of Windows. I have downloaded the newest Realplayer and tried running that, but I get the same choppy, inconsistent results.

I've tried updating my video drivers, my version of DirectX, and of course my media software as mentioned above. I've also tried editing things like buffers, hardware acceleration, etc. No luck.

I'm hoping to get a new computer later this year, but for now I'm stuck with the one I have. Sometimes I get 4-5 seconds of clean replay. I've just been trying to stop, rewind, replay, until I get the right idea of how Kirk is fretting and changing chords.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,

MS

[Clancy]

Hi MudslideSlim,

I'm not sure I can suggest anything as you seem to have tried quite a few things to get it fixed already which haven't worked for you. I do think that when you update your computer (that's a pretty old computer you've got there ) you'll find that all works well.

Just one thing, when you try to play the video back, does it always become choppy or pause at the same place or is it different every time you play it back?

The only thing that you might like to try (although I don't hold high hopes for it working) - is to download this codec package http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...cdownload.aspx - apparently Windows Media Player is supposed to automatically download the latest codecs for you, but as you are on dialup maybe it hasn't worked properly for you. It's a long shot but may be worth giving a try.

Anyway that's all I can think of now. Maybe somebody else on the forum might know more, but I really would assume it's your old computer that's causing the problem, that and your inablility to upgrade your media player... Have you downloaded any other wmv files that play ok on your computer?

Clancy

[si16]

As Clancy says you seem to have tried just about everything. Just make sure that you have no other programs running at the same time, if you know what you are doing try disabling services that aren't required, eg spoolsv.exe (only required when printing), close down those pesky sytem tray icons that aren't required, try playing the files directly after a system restart. If you are running the file full screen try reducing the size.

If all else fails perhaps you could stick some extra RAM in your machine if you have a spare slot, it's pretty inexpensive and usually produces better results.

[sctoddc]

maybe try running a defrag on your system, mine gets that every once in a while...but, I watch a lot of full length movies on mine...most of the time this helps.

Todd

[chuckswood2001]

the machine u have prob has an old video card, either built in or seperate, they used part of the memory on ur main board to run, a new video card would help that, but if ur gonna buy a new machine later this year it would be a waste of money to put in a new video card, not much u can do about it, unless u have some extra memory laying around that u can put in

[MudslideSlim]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I do believe my Codec files are up to date, I think that's one of the list of things I've tried, but I will check.

I have 384MB of RAM, so that should be okay. I upgraded the video card several years ago to a TNT2 64, which should be good enough. I have recently defragged the hard drive, although the hard drive is 8.4 gigs and only has about 500MB available. Maybe just a good reason to upgrade to a new machine sooner rather than later! My machine is 7 years old now, but still works fine and I've always chosen to spend my $$ on other things (like guitar stuff)!

Thanks again,

MS