[T400] playing movies is sluggish

Hi everyone,

My T400 has a T9400 CPU, ATI 3470 graphic card and 3GB of RAM. My OS is Windows 7 and I have updated the drivers to their latest version via the Lenovo System Update utility.With this system, I think that I can watch even HD videos smoothly. However, when I play some 480p mkv movies, especially the movies which have more motion scenes, the videos lag and the scenes are kind of interruptive. They are not smooth at all. It's just similar to situations when we do not capture enough 24 pictures per second, or something like that. I think there might be something wrong with my machine. If you have time please help me to solve this problem.

Thanks in advance!

 

You can try downloading CCCP and play the movie on media player classic

 

I actually prefer VLC player. Plays about any format. Try a different player and report back.

mkv... isnt that a format especially used when adding subtitles?

 

Hmm something seems wrong. Make sure you are max performance, make sure there's no strange programs running in the background, and give KMPlayer a try ( http://www.kmplayer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14938).

 

VLC loads faster and is more responsive than KMPlayer IMHO.

 

also check your HDD for fragmentation and errors

also put your ear close to it when it's lagging, if its making any unusual noises, also check the HDD light when those skips occur


and of course all the stuff the peeps before me said..

 

.mkv files are Matroska-format files. Matroska is a container format, which means that although it is a single file, it contains multiple tracks inside it, consisting of video, and often subtitles.

Your T400 should have no problems playing the file. Which media player are you using, and what codec pack?

 

What are the parameters of the comm channel you are watching it over or are you watching it from disks?

Renee

 

I prefer VLC player as well.

 

If you not running in a power profile that lets the CPU reach its full potential, you might get bad performance, especially on MKV files. I had similar experience. Going into "power source optimized" or "max performance" mode solves the problem.

For me it doesn't matter if I am on integrated or dedicated graphics, the CPU seems to be the decision factor in this issue.

 

I have run lots of vids on my similar T400 without issue.
The cpu and vid card have plenty of juice to handle it. I suspect a player or codec issue.

I use VLC the most, and works fine.

 

Hi, I have used Windows Media Player, Media Player Classic, KMPlayer and, after your suggestion, VLC, but none of them produced good results.

I did use the max performance setting in the power manager but nothing's changed.

I've used the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack to play mkv videos.

I played the videos directly from the hdd.

Well, I did try several suggestions but it seems that this is a difficult problem. Anyways, if you have time please help me to check the problem again by viewing the 2 short clips below:

The first one is in the avi format. This one is smooth.

Code:

http://www.box.net/shared/jntardtshq

The second is in the mkv format and this one is sluggish.

Code:

http://www.box.net/shared/1zd7k0r1y3

If the second one can be played as smoothly as the first one in other computers, then my T400 really has a problem.

 

does this problem only arise when watching movies? What about when running games, etc?

 

Do you use the laptop to watch while it's on your lap, and can move around?

I'd make sure the HDD is defragmented; I'd also try disabling ThinkVantage Access Protection at least temporarily to see if this helps.