HD video files playback problem

[ToYo]

my pc specs are:
windows xp
intel core 2duo e6300 @1.86Ghz
2GB ram
8800GTS xXx 550mhz 640

I have been playing HD video 1080p 720p x264 mkv files without any problem as it should.
Smooth (low cpu usage) without any problems.

untill a few days ago this was history.
Now all HD video's I would play are slow, slobby, incorect etc.
Not as it was before.

The only thing I know I changed was that I was trying to hook my pc to my projector by VGA, changing resolutions etc.

I guess it must be some codec problem but I allready did a lot of research of what could be wrong.

Before the problem I was using VLC mediaplayer for 720p video files, playing without any problem.
Playing 1080P files with MediaPlayerClassic, showing the FFDshow icon in the low right corner of the screen.
I used the following codecs: ffdshow, mkv-codec, coreavc professional (probably wasn't installed properly becourse of the ffdshow icon in the tray)

Now I updated the above codec's and added the "haali media splitter".
Updated Nvidia drivers.
But couldn't get it any better.

Also cpu usage is a lot more then before when I played HD-content.

Even when I visit apple-Trailers and watch some 720p trailers no problem (exept cpu usage 70-85%) and with 1080p it won't play smooth, stuttering (cpu 85%-up)

It's really strange, I don't know what to do next, maybe uninstall all codec's and reinstall.


In the attached picture you can see the screenshot I took from VLC media player with the 720p .mkv file iceage2 sample.
You can see black outlined SQUARES in the image(very strange)
When I play it in MPC the squares are gone but it still won't play smooth.

any ideas please [/img]

[Krispy Kritter]

These types of issues are typically codec related. Ffdshow or CoreAVC are your best bet for 1080P content.

If you have any of the original files that played well, I would check them again. Otherwise, there are numerous other posts here from users with 2ghz and faster cpu's having playback issues with 1080P content.

Also, VLC uses it's own codecs, so any codec changes should not affect it. Which would seem to indicate a difference in the files/file types that you are playing, video drivers (which you updated), or lack of cpu power.

[ToYo]

Thanks for your reply, and the move of the topic (thought that was the right one to post it in, I found some more topic close to my subject there).

It's so strange, I didn't change anything I know and Poof...! the HD-video files didn't play properly, cpu rising-up, that wasn't like it was before when using VLC media player.
I'll try to find the older codecs (don't know if or where I stored them on my pc) and install them, but I don't know becourse the newer ones should be even better.

It really looks like my videocard/cpu work at half capacity when playing a HD file.

I also used a special program to change the codec's merit (level of importence/priority) but that didn't change much (I couldn't see any better result)
when playing with MediaPlayerClassic it has some lag, and horizontal flickering.

I can vaguely remember me that when I for the first time dowloaded and installed the HD-video playback codecs (.mkv, .x264, coreAVC, FFDshow) that I had to change some settings in order to play the files correct.
I guess it was something in the FFDshow configuration, or CoreAVC's configuration but I can't remember wich.