Problem: Watching Video Files

I have a problem playing video (MPEG, AVI, MOV) files.  I have also the same problem watching TV from my TV card.  About every second the picture slows down almost to a stop (stagnation) and it picks up and slows down again.

What could be the problem?

I am running:
Windows XP Professional
2.4 GHz Intel Pentium 4
1 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX Videocard
Intel D845EBG2 Motherboard

Should I upgrade to a faster videocard?

[R.I.P.]

blwol...well it looks like you have a decent processor and sufficient ram......is this problem something that has just started ? Is your vid card is designed to watch tv ? do you have the correct drivers for your vid card......and how about if you D/l and watch a vid file from inter net ....is it ok ? How about your sound is it ok or does it lag as well .

let us know

dl65  

I have always have this problem.  I've updated the drivers periodically.  When I watch the videos, the CPU Usage is in the 40% range.  Watching DVDs is fine, though.

[R.I.P.]

Have you researched the specs on your vid card ......maybe your pushing it beyond what it was designed to do.

Good luck.....

dl65  

Pushed what?  I haven't done anything to it other than update the software for it.

When I watch a video though, one way to stop the stagnation is that I change the Set Priority of the program running from "Normal" to "Realtime" (in Windows Task Manager, Processes tab).  I don't think this is safe because I am using all my resources for it and it may crash the computer at some point.

[R.I.P.]

blwol....when you watch tv through your TV (vid) card exactly how do you get the cable signal into your computer ?

let us know
dl65