Windows Media Player Technical Question

pconti wrote on 5/4/2003, 2:16 PM
I use a Dell Inspiron Laptop for some of my presentations.

P III
750 mhz
256 mb of Ram

If I create a Playlist in Windows Media Player and play back a number of MPEG-2 files in a row, full screen, after the third or fourth item the video begins to skip or hang up for a half second or so. If I stop playing the file, reload it, and play it again, it will run fine.

I'm guessing it's a resource issue, but I'm not certain and was wondering if there were any settings I could play with to improve playback.

Sooner or later I guess I'll have to break down and get my laptop into the p4 2 gig range with some more ram, but this is what I have for now.

Paul

Comments

kameronj wrote on 5/5/2003, 1:40 AM
The problem you are having is most likely system resource. With 256 MB Ram you are doing pretty good, but multimedia files do like to take system resources.

Setting to play with...well, depending on the OS you are using (Win98/2000/XP etc), you can turn off all the other applications (foreground and background) that you don't need prior to running the presentations.

Other than that...you could spend the $$$ for some RAM upgrade. I think a Dell Inspiron board can go up to (at least) 512.

Your Processor and speed are good for a laptop running presentations.

lastly...where are you running these presentations from? A CD or the HD? If on CD...you may want to move them to your HD prior to running - then delete later (faster data transfer).

Hope that helps.
pconti wrote on 5/5/2003, 9:50 AM
Thanks Kameronj. The OS is Windows XP Pro. I'm going to play with shutting down some of the background apps including Norton AV real time protection while I run the presentation. I'll also see what I can do for the RAM, which is what I suspect is really at the heart of it.
pconti wrote on 5/5/2003, 8:57 PM
I did three things that seemed to help. I stopped NAV real time file protection. I unloaded any TSR I did not need and I converted the files to WMV version 9 files instead of MPEG 2 files. It seems much happier now.
kameronj wrote on 5/6/2003, 10:34 AM
Kewlness.

Glad that works for ya.
mikkie wrote on 5/6/2003, 2:20 PM
FWIW, often if you have a slower CPU, you can offload some of the decoding/playing workload from the CPU to the graphics chip by rendering your stuff at reduced size (320 x 240) & letting the graphics chip do the upsize on playback. I say often, because on a laptop there is a lot of latitude when it comes to the graphics chipset they built into it.