WMPlayer 11 vid playback freezes, then speeds up

I've been having a bit of an issue running HD content.

Recently, I've been running many 1080p .mkv video files in Windows Media Player 11 with the help of the K-Lite codec pack. Last night though, one particular video was playing normally up until a certain point, when suddenly the video froze for a couple of seconds, followed by it speeding up to catch up with itself. All the while, the audio track continued as normal.

Any reason why this may have happened? It's been stumping me all night. Is there perhaps, another, more superior media player I should be using? (Media Player Classic and VLC both gave me inferior performance, by the way)

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System Manufacturer/Model Number
Asus G73JH-A1
OS
Windows 7 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i7 Q 720 @ 1.60 GHz
Motherboard
N/A
Memory
8 GB RAM
Graphics Card(s)
ATI Mobility Radeon 5870 w/ 1 GB VRAM
Sound Card
N/A
Monitor(s) Displays
1920x1080

 

Your g73 probably has wmp 12, not 11 just fyi

I have had this happen once, but expected it to happen: if you are doing intensive I/O ops on the same hdd you simply run out of bandwidth, for lack of a better term.

WMP is fine, though I would suggest using the CCCP codec pack, it just works. There's also the possibility that whatever file you were watching was not rendered properly (aka it's the fault of the file).

Are you playing it just on the laptop, or trying to stream it via wireless? Streaming can also cause this issue since 1080p can consume all available N bandwidth.

 

hm, that's interesting. I was playing the file on the laptop itself, not streaming it. (though, I was using my tv as a monitor to watch the movie on, but I don't think that should make a difference)

I bounce back and forth between CCCP and K-lite, I'll have to go back and give CCCP a try.

 

If you use CCCP, make sure to try use copy of MPC-HC that it installs as it is customized (in a way) for performance.

If that doesn't work, please open the video in CCCP's MPC-HC and tell me what is listed in the menu: Play-> Filters.

 

I am with everyone else on this. Use the CCCP codec pack. So many codec packs overwrite each other and lead to a mess of codecs on your system. CCCP just works wonders. No need to pay for any stupid Divx codecs, no need to download lite or full versions. You just install and forget.

also Hakira suggested if you were doing random IOPS then you might have just run out of bandwidth. He's probably right. It's either that or you have a bad base of codecs.

 

I took your advice and began using MPC that was installed along with the CCCP codec pack, and everything seemed to be going okay until this morning. I was watching a movie, and the video froze for a few seconds, (audio still continued as normal) then it resumed normally.

I'm sorry, I just really want to know what's going on. I have severe OCD when it comes to getting videos to run properly, and when something like this happens I seriously can't function until I can figure out what the culprit was. What the heck could have caused the video to freeze like that? And how can I prevent it in the future?

I know my computer is far more than capable of running 1080p files, and I am thoroughly convinced that that isn't the problem.

 

Did you uninstall your previous codec pack, before installing CCCP? Remove all previous codec packs completely.

Also make sure you have enough ram, that your hdd is fast enough to buffer the movie, that you aren't doing 1,000,000 things in the background like torrenting which constantly uses the hdd. etc.

You have a pretty slow quad.. (lol) but that shouldn't have a negative affect against this.. try removing the older codecs.

 

I made sure to uninstall the K-Lite codec pack prior to installing CCCP. (and as far as I know, those were the only codecs installed at the time)

Would 8 GB of RAM not be enough to run a movie file, let alone a quad core? I understand the clock speed is a little lower than maybe some higher end models, but it's a quad core nonetheless.

Lastly, I do have a number of programs running in the background, but should I really have to disable any of them to ensure fluid video playback? Couldn't I perhaps, I don't know, set the process priority to very high or even realtime; would that potentially cure this?

 

Your specs are fine for smooth video playback.

Leave your task manager running with the video not maximized. Sort the task manager process list by CPU usage. Watch the video and the task manager at the same time, take a note of what process is capping the processor at the time of the freezes, report back. My guess is Norton, AVG or McAfee. MS Security Essentials is the way to go.

 

I'll go ahead and try your suggestion, zhaden. Only problem is, the freeze occurs extremely rarely.

Also, I didn't have any anti-virus installed at the time of the problem, however I did have a few things running in the background, including a VNC server, D3DOverrider, and Steam. My best guess at this point is that one of those programs (or a number of them) did something in the background to temporarily fuss with my video playback.

Opinions?

By the way, thank you all for all your help on this matter, it really means a lot to me.

 

Out of the programs listed, my opinion is the VNC server, especially if it has open connections while streaming the movie. Otherwise, I can only suggest what I previously mentioned. You may sort those processes by memory, instead, and see if anything is using an excessive amount, indicating a memory leak. Firefox is a notorious leaker and can zap up 1mil Kb after being open for quite some time, and may induce some issues with cache... but, in the end, I still think it is a CPU spike from something.