Choppy HD video playback

[Planefreak]

I have an aging computer to say the least. I also have some high def videos stored on my hard drive that I enjoy watching on my pc but the problem that I'm having is that when the movie reaches an action scene the audio cuts and then it flashes one frame every second or two depending on how active the scene is. I've ran diagnostics while videos are playing and my CPU is maxed out, which leads me to believe that I should be able to decompress the vid and get a smooth playback. Would decompressing the files into VOB, or some other format allow for a smooth playback? If so what format should I use?

Thanks, Travis

[glc]

Is this the computer in your sig? What operating system? What format are the videos stored in, and what are you using to play them?

[Planefreak]

Yep the pc in my signature is the one I'm playing movies on. The movies are 1080p. I use all different kinds of media players. I use WMP 11 often because it seems to work best. I also use VLC, GOM, and MKV player too with the same results. For performance purposes I usually stick to XP but occasionally switch to Vista.

[Masaki 7-11]

I have a similar backup rig which uses a Pentium D 3.2GHz and 7900GS; it struggles to play 720p ( I can run them fine if I set priority to realtime and use up about 80% CPU utilization). If you can afford a bit over $50 I would take a look at upgrading the video card; for that price you can get a video card with full 1080p decoding (meaning CPU utilization for videos would max out at or below 10%) and at least twice the performance of your card for other tasks. If you can't afford a video card update; you can transcode the videos to a lower resolution with or without a different format.

[Planefreak]

I've been looking at new cards, but up until this point couldn't really justify a new one, but with the low prices today I may just have to.