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  1. Member gastrof's Avatar
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    I've just got a new Windows 7 installation on my computer (was running XP), and I keep seeing things about "Silverlight". Supposedly it improves video playback?

    That's a problem I've had since this new installation. Screen resolution is fine and all, but to play back video? Not as smooth or even as clear as it was with XP. Admittedly, this computer barely meets the specs for Windows 7 and can only have the minimum amount of memory called for, but video playback was fine with XP. Now it's sometimes jerky, sometimes the resolution seems poor, sometimes there are lines on the screen as the video plays...

    I've reinstalled VLC but the problem remains. Any chance Silverlight would make things better...

    Or do I also remember hearing something about NEVER installing Silverlight on ANY computer?

    Thanks for any advice/suggestions.
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  2. Silverlight (http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/) is simply an alternative to Flash and should have nothing to do with video playback that is not on a website which specifically uses Silverlight (most sites use HTML5 or Flash).
    -> since you clearly have no clue what it Silverlight you probably won't need it.
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  3. VH Wanderer Ai Haibara's Avatar
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    Yeah, I have yet to (personally) come across a site that requires Silverlight. I don't think, offhand, that you'll hurt anything by having it installed, other than 'wasting' HD space. I could be wrong, however.

    That said, there's at least one service that requires the use of Silverlight - Netflix's online streaming option requires it, more or less for DRM purposes.
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    Most websites don't require Silverlight, but I'm certain it is needed to watch videos at Microsoft's websites. Netflix and some other paid streaming services currently use Silverlight too, although Netflix is changing over to HTML5.
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    What is motherboard brand and model, graphics chip ?

    If there are no dedicated manufacturers device drivers for motherboard and gpu for windows 7 you could inadvertently be running device drivers not 100% compatible with some risk.

    Each successive windows os requires greater system requirements ... you may have reached its limit.

    Some info about files tested in player might point out where the weak link is.

    Use mediainfo and post info on media file with issue.
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  6. Turn off all "auto" picture controls in the multimedia section of the graphics card's setup applet. All they do is screw up the picture. In many cases DXVA (hardware) decoding is inferior to software decoding, or vice versa. So try switching.
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  7. Banned
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    gastrof - Silverlight was intended to compete with Flash and it failed for the most part. It offers superior DRM to most alternatives because it encrypts the video and audio separately from each other, meaning that the only effective way to capture videos protected by it is to record them in real time with a streaming media recorder program. There's nothing evil about it, so I'm not sure what was up with those dire warnings you refer to except maybe someone just didn't want to support it because other DRM schemes are easier to crack so having people refuse to use it might force companies to use easier to crack alternatives. Or maybe it's just some general anti-Microsoft hysteria. It certainly can't fix the kind of video problem you have.

    With Win 7 you will have to install different drivers and there could be an issue with them or as jagabo says, some default setting for your graphics card may be misbehaving. I don't recommend running Win 7 at the bare minimum requirements recommended by Microsoft and I think you're not going to be very happy with it. If you can possibly increase your memory to 2 GB for 32 bit Win 7 or 4 GB for 64 bit Win 7 it should help.
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  8. Potplayer works much better than VLC on non powerful computers, imo.
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  9. Member
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    Your computer details list a 1.9 GHz CPU. If that is a single core CPU and the suggestions made so far do not help, it may be time to invest in a newer PC.
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  10. Member gastrof's Avatar
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    Updated the computer specs-

    Don't know where the 1.9GHz figure came from. More recently it's been showing as 1.99 and in dxdiag it shows up as a full 2.

    Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.00GHz
    Memory: 2048MB RAM (2GB RAM)
    120GB Hard drive

    (I'd already mentioned above it's got as much memory as it'll take, and that does meet the minium specs for W7.)

    Yes, it's an old computer, and I did get one to replace it, but the other day just decided to see if it could still be used, and installed 7. Except for the described video problems, it's not doing that badly.

    I'm surprised, and pleased.

    As for the motherboard, which is marked "IUMV20811036 AA A57887-301", I did a search and it at least shows the correct computer brand. What more can be done with that info....I don't know. (I'm no computer expert.)

    I do know that in trying to upgrade the video driver(s), I found it insists it's got the most up to date one.

    Device Manager says it's got a "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter".

    No info on the manufacturer.

    This question about Silverlight came up because of MS saying 'it helped with video playback', and I figured "Any port in a storm".

    I mean, if this machine isn't going to be able to play videos as well as it did before, well, it's not a Media Computer anyway, just for general use. Again, it is old, and this may be its "last gasp". It couldn't go online with XP any more, due to non-support and potential security issues. It's not my only computer tho' it has been my workhorse. If the newer one ends up taking over those duties, maybe this one can be passed on to someone who needs a basic computer.

    I just want it to be working as well as possible for its final years.

    7 will be supported until the year 2020. I very much doubt this thing will take Windows 8, let alone the supposedly soon-to-be-released 9.
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  11. Originally Posted by gastrof View Post
    I do know that in trying to upgrade the video driver(s), I found it insists it's got the most up to date one.

    Device Manager says it's got a "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter".
    No, Standard VGA Graphics Adapter is a generic driver used when Windows can't identify the graphics card. Figure out what the manufacturer is and download updated drivers from that manufacturer. That will fix your problem.

    Turning off Aero glass effects (disable Transparency in the Window Color settings) should help a little too.
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