Mpeg-1 Playback Performance

[Stormblade]

Hey All,

Using Windows Media Player 8 under Windows XP. The playback of mpegs seems to be pretty poor. Sometimes choppy and if I seek around it can freeze for like 10-15 seconds. Sometimes more. Other times after I seek it will play like a frame or 2 and stop. I'll seek again and it'll do the same thing.

When I play this same mpeg in another player like PowerDVD it plays fine and seeks ok. However, PowerDVD's interface I don't really like for playing back many movies. Not the way I watch em. If I were going to watch a long movie then sure but I tend to load up a file I downloaded, skip around while playing it back and either deleting it or keep it to watch later.

So. do any of you know what I can do to improve mpeg playback with WMP 8? Or do you know of a player that is better AND that has the same interface as WMP 8 because I like that interface.

Also tell me whether this is normal. When I check the properties under WMP 8 it says audio codec is Morgan Stream Switcher and the video codec is Mpeg Video Decoder.

Should there even be a codec listed here for it? Does this indicate that the playback is going through some generic codec I have rather than what it should be?

[Enchanter]

Would the mpeg files be mpeg-1 or mpeg-2 type? You should have no difficulty playing back the former, nor need any codecs installed. For the latter, you will need the appropriate filter. One way would be to install a DVD player software, such as PowerDVD or WinDVD (Anyone can tell me if the 4th version is good?). By the way, have you tried WMP6.4?

Edit: Sorry. Missed the Thread title. I suggest removing any strange filters you have got installed there. I don't remember ever needing any codecs to play mpeg-1 files. A bare installation of windows (with the video driver installed) will play mpeg-1 files smoothly and with no problems.

[Stormblade]

Honestly I'm not sure if they are mpeg-1 or mpeg-2. How would I determine this? Yes I've tried WMP 6.4. In fact I generally prefer it except I had some problems with playing back some files with it and WMP 8 played them.

I used to have WMP 6.4 associated with my AVI files because I had some AVIs that used Mpeg4 v2 codec which WMP 8 will not play. 6.4 can be made to play them. Hadn't found a way to make WMP 8 play them yet.

So when I choose file properties I shouldn't see any codecs listed. Then that's the problem because Morgan Stream Switcher and Mpeg Video Decoder are listed as the codecs.

And I have PowerDVD installed.

[Enchanter]

Try opening the mpeg files in virtual/nandub. If they are mpeg-1 files, the programs will open them without a complaint. If not, you can be sure they are mpeg-2 files.

[Batman]

Use WMP 6.4

[Stormblade]

Well with this particular one when I load it in Virtual Dub I get a message saying: Parsing Interleaved Mpeg File. And then it loads just fine.

Checking File Information shows no codecs at all from within Virtual Dub.

[Stormblade]

I can try going back to 6.4 but I had problems playing some files when I did this. Most files played just fine but some didn't and WMP 8 played those that 6.4 had a problem with.

Right now, WMP 8 played em all just that it plays DivX poorly for and certain mpegs. But I guess I can try.

I was looking for a player that had an interface like WMP but couldn't find it. I was gonna try GDivx but it complained about my fonts and there is no way I'm gonna change my fonts simply to get it to work.

[Enchanter]

It is truly strange that you cannot scroll through your mpeg-1 files (I can do that with no problems,as of now). As I stated previously, remove the unnecessary codecs. The Morgan Stream Switcher is a good suspect.

[Stormblade]

I'll do that. But it's not that I can't scroll through the mpeg files just that with some of them I experience long pauses before the video starts playing again and with some it refuses to play. But there are some that play just fine and scroll through fine as well.

Oh the joy of manually removing filters and such.

[Enchanter]

With my system, there is a slight pause with scrolling through mpeg files. I'll be reformatting Windows in a few days (Windows not performing stably), so I should expect some improvement.