Need help playing HD video on PC

[kfowler]

When ever I try and play a HD video with .MOV format, it's very choppy. I've tried it on one PC using Vista and another using XP with the same result. I've even tried using alternatives to Quicktime like Window's Media Player and VLC.

This seems to be a common issue from the net. Any ideas on how to fix this?

[iacas]

When ever I try and play a HD video with .MOV format, it's very choppy. I've tried it on one PC using Vista and another using XP with the same result. I've even tried using alternatives to Quicktime like Window's Media Player and VLC.

.mov is a container format that can contain any number of formats inside it. Is the video H.264? What's the bitrate? What processor speed and how much RAM do you have? Video card? All that stuff matters, apparently, on Windows.

Sad, but true: I bet my six-year-old 12" PowerBook could play the video smoothly. Windows, as I understand it, is built to really emphasize .wmv playback and hasn't really cared much about H.264 despite its emergence as a good x-plat standard. Bummer, too - it's quite nice. P.S. You have iTunes installed, right? And QuickTime Player, it seems... so you have the software best capable of playing it (I don't know if iTunes installs some codecs - maybe it's completely unnecessary on Windows, but QT Player is a key part).

[kfowler]

Erik,

The file is from my Kodak Zx1. It plays the VGA files fine. It's just HD video I have issues with.

My laptop runs Vista. It's a 1.6 Pentium processor with 1.5 GB of RAM. I believe the video card is an Intel 945 Express w/ 256 MB of memory. Not sure how to tell what the actual type of file is or the bitrate. I believe this is a compatibility issue between MOV and windows.

Do you think changing the display settings would make a difference?

Thanks

[iacas]

The file is from my Kodak Zx1. It plays the VGA files fine. It's just HD video I have issues with.

I don't know. Joe (ERC7.5) had the same issues early on. Send him a PM with the URL of this thread and maybe he can help you.

[kfowler]

Different displays didn't work. I'll drop Joe a line. Thanks.

[jamo]

This might not really matter but I have an old Acer with a 1.86 Ghz Pentium M processor, 256 GB Ram, Intel Accelerator graphics card, and Windows Vista Home Basic that plays .mov HD movies fine, so it probably isn't a hardware issue. Just make sure you have the newest edition of Quicktime, other than that, I can't really help you. Although, a lot of dumb Windows problems go away just my restarting the machine, so maybe trying that would be worth the few minuted it takes.

[ERC7.5]

I don't know. Joe (ERC7.5) had the same issues early on. Send him a PM with the URL of this thread and maybe he can help you.

Different displays didn't work. I'll drop Joe a line. Thanks.

Unfortunately I have not found a solution to this issue (although I do believe my laptop at home which is Vista does play better). I've opened a few HD .mov files on my XP system at work and they are quite choppy.

[kfowler]

Funny thing is, if I run the video in V1 Home, it actually plays smoothly but in slow- mo. I can't get it to play at normal speed.

Thanks for the help though. I'll keep trying.

[Chipper]

Chances are you just have a crappy video card.

[kfowler]

Chances are you just have a crappy video card.

I thought that may be it but I have the same issue with my desktop that has an updated video card with HDMI outputs. I even tried it on my work computer, which is slow, but same issue.

[live4u120]

Yeah, I'm thinking it's the processor/video card. Or perhaps you need to update your codecs?

Not sure, but what graphics cards do you have in your Desktop/Work Computer?

[kfowler]

Wanted to give an update on this. My neighbor is a computer guru and we discussed some of the issues I was having. He has a Mac and a PC. We tested the video on both and had no issues. The major difference between his PC and mine is memory. He's running 4 GB of memory while I'm only running 1.5 GB with a 1.6 GB processor on my laptop and 1 GB with a 2.6 GB processor on my desktop. So I believe the issue is related to a lack of RAM.

I'm putting an order in today so we'll see if it helps.

[ugottabjoshinme]

Lack of RAM makes sense when you are using vista. Vista needs at least 1GB of that RAM (maybe more) just to run itself (which is sad). I also believe that 64 bit Vista is incompatible with odd number of RAM (3 GB). If you have 3GB 1 GB of that will never be used, so if you upgrade get 4GB. If you have the 32 bit Vista, I don't think this is a problem.

[ChvyKc]

The Intel 945 chipset is not the best video processor to run HD video with. That's probably your problem with the laptop that you tried it on. The processor could be an issue but processing power is not so much of an issue anymore. I would be willing to bet that it's just a combination of a very slow video card, a not-so-fast processor and slow RAM speed. 1.5GB of RAM is plenty to run Vista and should be enough if you are only trying to run video playback by itself but if the motherboard can't access the RAM fast enough then you would see poor performance on games and video playback.

If you wanted to try to get better video playback, I would shoot for a RAM upgrade first. Just keep in mind that your RAM will only run as fast as the slowest stick (if you are running multiple sticks). Crucial is a great place to pick up affordable quality RAM. Unfortunately, you won't be able to upgrade your video card since it's soldered to the motherboard (like every other laptop except for a select few).

Also, what ugottabjoshinme said is not correct. 32-bit Vista will support any amount of RAM up to 4GB. It is not incompatible with odd amounts of RAM. Due to limited addressing space, anything over 4GB of RAM on a 32-bit Vista system will be ignored.

If you need any help or have any questions feel free to PM me. I'm a network administrator so I deal with this kind of problem all the time.

[kfowler]

Thanks for the help.

I really don't think it's the video card. My desktop has a new HDMI video card and it has the same issue. It's only running on 1 MB. I've got 4 MB ordered for the desktop. I was going to see how that goes before I order more for the laptop.

[ChvyKc]

Sounds good. I would be surprised if that Intel video card works well with the HD video though. It's a very basic video card with only 256MB of on board memory. Your probably loading the card up with more than it can process and it's running out of memory. Sounds like a good plan to go with the RAM upgrade in the desktop first. Let me know how it works out.

[kfowler]

Ok, so here's the spec on both my PC's. Hopefully others will find this helpful since it seems to be a common problem. I have 4 GB ordered for the desktop. The plan is to try 2GB + 1 GB existing and see if that makes a difference. If so, I'll order a 2 GB chip for the laptop and use one of the existing chips.

Desktop
OS: XP
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 516 2.93 GHZ
Motherboard: ASUSTek Goldfish 3
Memory: 1024 MB total (2 Corsair PC2-4300 512 MB)
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS 64-bit 512 MB


Laptop: HP Pavillion dv6000
OS: Vista
Processor: Intel Core Duo T2050 @ 1.6 GHZ
Motherboard: Quanta 30BB 66.42
Memory: 1536 MB Total (PC2-5300 @ 512 MB and PC2-5300 1024 MB)
Graphics Card: Mobile Intel 945 Chipset Family (256 MB)

[scottevans77]

You could try downloading K-Lite Codec Pack and installing Media Player Classic, it's a shot in the dark, but it may work.

http://www.free-codecs.com/download_...p?d=5641&s;=775