Major Video Playing Problems..

[SpazRaven]

Hello

So it seems I have some serious problems playing mainly the wmv and mp4 video formats
on my laptop for about a week now and I cant figure out whats going on along with a major
headache

The main problem is playing videos without them staggering or pausing every couple of seconds
the movie saying a few words then a minute later it doing the same thing but for the most part
its mainly the mp4 format that does that. As for the wmv format a video might not start playing
right away or freeze up when I jump forward alittle then start playing again.

So far Ive tried installing the K-Lite Codec Pack and FFShow. At the moment I have the latest
K-Lite Codec Pack installed along with WMV9 VCM and DivX Audio Compressor 4.02 which both
help make wmv videos play right in the VirtualDub-1.10.0.

Thats the best I can describe it now but I guess one question I have is when you install the K-Lite
Codec Pack or FFShow, which configuration option are we suppose to click on to change the codecs:
ffdshow VFW interface, ffdshow video decoder or both ?


From the guides Ive read Im suppose to change the codec H.264/AVC to libavcodec for the mp4 videos
to work in VirtualDub but all I come up with a green or black screen. All I can think of is maybe I have
all my settings wrong in the configurations that causing all the problems.



Anyways sorry for the long text and Id appreciate any help, thanks


Spaz

Info:
Toshiba Satellite L505D
Windows Vista Home Premium (6.0.6002)
Service Pack 2
32bit Operating System
Memory Ram: 3.00GB

AMD Athlon x2 Dual-Core QL-65 2.10GHz
ATI Radeon 3100 Graphics
1366x76

[NICEBUD]

Try a differnt media player such as VLC maybe ?

[SpazRaven]

I forgot to add which players Ive tried. One of them is VLC, surprisingly enough Quicktime had problems
playing mp4 videos and the main video player Ive been using for years Gom Player. So all 3 players have
the same issue of not playing the whole movie completely through without stopping a few seconds before
continuing. I have no idea what happened but I use to be able to play the mp4 videos without any problems.

Thanks for the reply NiceBud

[Nelson37]

What changes were made to the PC immediately before the problem began?

You are not absolutely clear but I assume that everything was fine up until about a week ago? What changed? Updates, upgrades, hardware, software, think hard, be specific.

In the future, avoid codec packs like the plague. If you need ONE codec, get ONE codec. Packs are a major, and I mean MAJOR, source of problems.

[SpazRaven]

The only 3 problems I can think of are... 1. There were 2 Windows Updates where it screwed up my laptop when I
would shutdown the laptop down for the night and the next morning I would receive an error stating something
about the updates properly installed. I did a system restore both times then installed the same updates 2 days
later apart. And if your wondering I didnt have any viruses as I have SpyBot, Avast and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
scanning my laptop frequently.

2. I installed a program that required DirectX 9 to be installed which was confusing as I have DirectX 11 so I didnt
think that would have to be installed, not really sure if that did anything. 3. This last one was odd and never happened
before but one night my laptop reached the CPU Usage at 100% nonstop for like 15 minutes and I couldnt do anything,
still dont know why that happened.

Thanks for your reply as well Nelson37, I appreciate it

[Nelson37]

VLC results and #3 above indicate possible virus activity, or problems with some system operation. I would test ONLY with VLC and perhaps the Media Player Home cinema version here, as they are self-contained. Once K-lite has touched a system ALL OTHER PLAYERS can become un-reliable.

I would thoroughly examine all anti-virus logs and system events, something may be causing your system to spin its wheels for a few seconds periodically. CCCLeaner, a defrag and HD check might help.

[edDV]

Are these HD files or SD?

Your processor is on the weak side and Radeon 3100 has SD AVIVO support but not HD AVIVO. HD h.264 files will load the CPU.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVIVO#ATI_Avivo

Try the MPCHC player. It should auto configure DXVA. Codec Packs often screw up DirectShow codec support.