R2 watching videos discussion - gfx card switching

I know you can whitelist programs. I have steam and a couple games whitelisted, but since I got the computer (and upgraded to the newest drivers for both intel gma and nvidia 260xx or something) the switching has been flawless. Essentially, it only switches to nvidia for games, which is what I want. Never for chrome since youtube videos play fine with gma. I do get some scrappy scrolling when pictures are involved in firefox but in chrome its better - i tried forcing the nvidia but wasn't sure it was helping (or was even turning on).


So besides the pictures and scrolling in a browser - which might just be related to the processor specs(?) I am having an issue with watching videos. I use mp classic and while most normal (480p) videos work flawlessly even with jumping around with the mouse on intel gma, the larger 720p videos stutter and jump around when i seek to a different point before getting going again. The 720p works fine when its all caught up just on play under intel but when I seek around a bunch its kind of annoying.

Any thoughts for this? Should I download vlc too and whitelist that and use that for hd video? but then i'd be right clicking open with vlc every time for those videos.

Other option is force mp classic with the whitelist to use nvidia, and somehow easily turn it off on the rarer occasions I am watching video on battery?

Thoughts?

 

I have no problem with HD video working with the integrated card, not sure about 1080p videos, don´t have some of those, but my video camera is 720p and they work perfect, even 720p videos from some sites...

 

The intel HD chip works fine for 1080p playback for me. I'm regularly playing back 1080p, x264 encoded, high bitrate mkvs ripped from my bluray library streamed from a network attached Drobo over ethernet. When I jump ahead or backward in the video there is a 2 to 3 second pause for it to catch up but no stuttering as it does so. It just stops playback very briefly.

CCCP + Media Player Classic HC. MPCHC set to the IGP in the nvidia control panel.

 

I watch 720p videos (anime files) using vobsob for subtitles in Windows Media Player with the MPC codec and it only uses 2-10% of the CPU in most cases. (I have the i7 M11x) This is using the intel card. I dont know if it is the intel card or the i7, but I have a Core2Duo 2.6Ghz with a 320M and videos use more CPU % on that computer then they do on my i7 M11x. Using the exact same codec and player. I wonder if the i7 hyperthreading helps.