I've had this problem for quite awhile so not exactly sure when it started, and if it never existed or always did.

The problem being large movie (playtime wise, 45+minutes typically; might be the quality too that's that common factor) files smoothly. Certain types like dvix, xvid mp4, and DVDs and the like tend to have the video slow to a stop while the audio goes on normally. It happens at random times during playback, rarely that it doesn't do it at all. Really annoying that I can't watch my DVDs or even my recorded TV shows. (my pc doubles as a DVR ) I have to stop the video and try to find where I left off and watch a little more before it slows again. It pretty much acts as if I have no memory left, but I've tried watching videos with nothing else running and doubled my RAM since.

I run a Dell Pentium 3ghz, 4g RAM, a Geforce 7600 GS 512mb with a WinTV HVR-1600 on WinXP MCE SP3. I keep the drivers up to date, and latest DirectX. I also have the codecs to play all these files. Now, the RAM, video card and service pack are upgrades I made hoping to solve the problem. (was an older Geforce and 2g RAM on XP SP2)
The problem isn't limited to a certain media player either. I've tried Quicktime, WMP, VLC, Aplayer, and Realplayer. I don't think even an image of a DVD worked for playback.
It isn't the too many media players either, I've reformated and tried with only WMP.

Now, there is a chance it's, for some reason, the TV card. The codecs it came with on teh CD messed up certain video playback by playing it in chipmunk mode. Reformating and downloading a updated CD from developer solved that problem. Related or unrelated, I have no idea.

Well, certainly, you have the horsepower (and you did before you upgraded too).

So this happens whether the movie source is a store-bought DVD in a DVD player, or a file on the HD, correct? If so, that would rule out the DVD player, but not the hard drive because the system will attempt to read ahead and use the Page File on the sllooowww hard drive (even with lots of RAM, Windows will use the Page File ). So, what are your PF settings and how much free space is on the PF's drive?

What if you play a DVD through your graphics card to a computer monitor? That is, NOT through the TV card to a TV. You need to eliminate possible causes - especially if you suspect them!

It is too bad you reformatted - that is always the last resort and sadly, as you discovered, it still might not fix the problem. Reformatting did however, remove suspicion from this being a malware issue. And media players are notoriously, and childishly bad at getting along together on the same machine, so I recommend picking one, and sticking with it, and certainly WMP is an able player.

A store bought did or a good quality video file both, yes. I am playing the DVDs through the video card/dvd-rom to my monitor. The TV card is there to watch/record my TV programs only (on my PC, not on an outside TV), but it records them in mp4 type format, so they're among the videos with playback trouble if the shows go beyond a certain length.
(typically half hour shows will play fine 95% of the time)
The page file was been altered and eventually turned it off completely as it wasn't helping. The system had it at 2 gig, I upped it to 4gig, but later I simply turned it off. I just turned it back on and upped to 6 gig and I'll test it afterwards, but not expecting any improvement. The HD is a 300gig SATA (not certain the rpm) and it usually has a good amount of free space. (30-60g free)
The reformating is something I do every so often anyway. Too much clutter, spy/mal/adware, other such things.
I use only the 4 media players, each one has it's own thing about them I prefer. WMP, comes with Windows anyway and I prefer it for music files and cd-ripping. Real player is favored for video files. Quick Time is simply for some web content and qt files. (even with the codecs for other players, it plays them best still) and VLC is basically my 2nd for videos because Real Player can't handle them all and VLC is self contained. WMP lately likes to freeze up if I try to skip around too much, but I think that's because of no page file.

You really don't need that big of a PF file - I would take it back to fixed (same initial and maximum) of 1 or 2 Gb.

Ok, lowered it. Told it to let the system decide the size. It says you shouldn't have a paging file on the root drive though, so should I leave it on C or move it to the D partition?
While looking through the hardware profile, apparently one of my RAM sticks is bad, system memory reads 3.25gig. (total not available)

What says you shouldn't? 95% of the users out there only have one drive with one partition, and therefore the the PF is on the boot drive, and it works fine - as long as you have lots of free disk space.

That said, for best performance, it should be "fixed" in size (not system managed), and it should be the very first file stored in the first partition of the Master drive on the secondary EIDE connector.

In your situation, if me, I would run disk clean up or CCleaner on the D Drive, then defrag the D Drive, then "set" the PF to there.

No, there are several "barriers" in the computer world and you just ran into one of them. Consider yourself lucky. Many folks end up with less than 3Gb.

Microsoft Article KB888137 - The RAM reported by the System Properties dialog box and the System Information tool is less than you expect
Dude, Where's My 4 Gigabytes of RAM?

That affects all 32-bit OSs, BTW, not just Windows.

Ok, set it to 2gig on my 2nd partition (D:\). Windows says to avoid putting it on the same drive that has Windows installed to, but it also says to make the page file at least recommended size so taike either for what's it's worth coming from MS. (it recommends about 5 gig)

Ok, I'm just waiting for a long enough show to record comes on. (gotta be able to like it enough to watch over an hour) Then I'll get back to you about the page file and if it helped.


UPDATE:
Sorry, lost power for few days. The video still did it's usual visual lag. It did try to correct itself, but it becomes a bit grainy. (that happens once in awhile on videos)

This post has been edited by Kyllinge: Jul 17 2008, 06:59 PM

Had time to play a few more, and the problem is still there. Might be coincidence but, seems to mess up more with WMP than say VLC media player.

Well, I don't know what to offer. 5Gb is overkill in my opinion when you already have 4Gb of RAM. But it does not hurt to play with it.

If the system is clean of malware and clutter, the drive has lots of free disk space and is not too fragmented, then I would be looking at graphics drivers and codecs.

Well, at least 3 video players/editors have their own CODEC pack instead of sharing Windows' pack with WMP / Real player and it bleeds into them still. Sadly, the only thing I can think of is my TV card as the culprit again, which will kinda suck to have to remove it, but I don't recall having any video trouble before I installed it awhile back. (I also didn't have the variety of quality videos either for it to mess up with)


So far, the count is 0 -2 on problems without having to replace hardware. I still got one last problem left to ask about, but at least it isn't with hardware. (asking on networking forum soon)

Well, good luck and keep us posted.