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    Blu-ray stuttering

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by IrateMike, Apr 20, 2011.

  1. IrateMike

    IrateMike Notebook Geek

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    Hi all,

    Just wondering if any of you guys have experienced stuttering with blu-ray playback. I was watching my first blu-ray movie last night, and about every 15 minutes the movie would freeze, and then would run slowly for the next couple of minutes before returning to normal again. The movie is brand new so I doubt it's a bad disk. It almost seemed like throttling.
    I haven't really experienced any problems with games otherwise though, so maybe it's an isolated incident.
    Also, I'm looking to upgrade the graphics card (260m) and processor soon. My budget is about 800USD, so I'm looking at one of the QS/ES processors on ebay. For the graphics card I'd like to go for the 5870, but the ones that are on ebay want to charge ludicrously high prices for shipping to New Zealand (80USD!)
    So maybe it's a better option to buy a 5850 from Dell.

    Regards,


    Michael
     
    IrateMike, Apr 20, 2011
    #1
  2. raven evo

    raven evo Notebook Consultant

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    the problem wont be your hardware.Try firmware updates for your blu-ray,imo blu-rays on pc's have too many problems like this for it to be worth while,but i hope you get it sorted out i think you will find it will run some movies fine and other stutter or not play at all.
    the QS/ES cpu's from ebay are great i got mine for there and many others have too.The 920xm is a great chip.the 5850m from dell is pretty much the same card as the 5870 and can easily over clock to 5870 speeds and beyond I'd get the 5850 you wont be disappointed.
     
    raven evo, Apr 20, 2011
    #2
  3. unclewebb

    unclewebb ThrottleStop Author

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    Try running ThrottleStop in monitoring mode with the Log File option checked. The log file should show you if your laptop is throttling while trying to watch a Blu-ray. Upload it somewhere like MediaFire and send me a link if you're not sure and want me to have a look at it.
     
    unclewebb, Apr 20, 2011
    #3
  4. jwolf7722

    jwolf7722 Notebook Deity

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    What program are you using to run the blu-ray? I had issues with the program that was shipped on my system due to software not being up to date.
     
    jwolf7722, Apr 20, 2011
    #4
  5. Jdpurvis

    Jdpurvis Notebook Evangelist

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    I agree this is much more likely to be a software problem. Even the 720QM processor with the 260m graphics card has more then enough horsepower to handle bluray data rates. Make sure your video driver is up to date - I had a problem with one of the Nvidia drivers causing stuttering with HD video (from my camera) playback. You may also want to try several different programs for playing the bluray - players are not all created equal - some do not make good use of hardware acceleration.

    I recently did the processor upgrade - not very difficult, but took a couple of hours because I was being very careful to get the reasssembly right.

    The gang here can provide a lot of help and support.

    Good luck.

    Joe
     
    Jdpurvis, Apr 20, 2011
    #5