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    DVD playback Micro-stutter

    Discussion in 'Asus' started by RKG72MP, Feb 25, 2009.

  1. RKG72MP

    RKG72MP Notebook Geek

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    Has anyone ever figured out what causes notebooks/laptops to exhibit what some call micro-stutter? I’ve heard of settings to ultra-dma, but this doesn’t always work for some. Turning off some services & background programs has no effect. Clean install of windows is futile. Changing DVD programs like winDVD to powerDVD, you guessed it, has no effect. So, what exactly causes this phenomenon? One thing I’ve observed on my unit is that the HDD led is constantly flashing while a DVD is playing. Is the DVD writing to the HDD first?
     
    RKG72MP, Feb 25, 2009
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  2. laptop4life

    laptop4life Notebook Consultant

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    Maby, try updating your graphic card drivers. I dont think the HDD would be causing this. Either A DVD Driver problem or Graphics card id say. Sorry i could not be any more of help.

    edit: Go to http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/ for updating your graphic card driver.
     
    laptop4life, Feb 25, 2009
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  3. Qwakrz

    Qwakrz Notebook Consultant

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    The microstutter is caused by the difference between the refresh rate of the screen (my G71V has it set to 61.8Hz for some reason) and the refresh rate that the playing video uses.

    Ideally for silky smooth playback you have to match the refresh rates of the video and the screen, if they do not match then Windows / Linux has to add an extra frame every so often to keep the video in sync with the audio and this causes the very slight stutter you see.

    Slysoft has a beta program called ReClock that can correct for slight sync problems, its listed on their forums. I use it here to resync 24fps blue ray to my 50Hz TV and this removes the microstutter but makes the movie very slightly shorter.

    If the video stutter is more than 1 frame or is not a regular stutter then something else is causing the problems. On my old laptop the battery polling to get its state of charge caused stutters so try a quick test without the battery.
     
    Qwakrz, Feb 25, 2009
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