I am getting skipping video and audio, please help?

Hi guys

I have a Inspiron 9300 Intel Pentium M (mobile) laptop which i am using as a HTPC, it's connected to my projector via dvi.

Every media that i play on this HTPC skips a few seconds and i have no idea what is up with this

I have a Dell Inspiron 9300
1 GB RAM
256MB Nvidia graphics card not sure which one
1.86 ghz processor
SPDIF Out
windows xp home edition + service pack 2
latest Nvidia drivers
microsoft .net framework 2.0
direct x9.0c
java

I have the spdif cable going into my surround sound system

I have tried playing DVD'S through the DVD drive and i get skips where the sound jumps.

For DVD's i am using windows media player

Then i have some HD movies, 720p, 1080i, 1080p transport streams and WMV9. I play these files using Nvidia Nstant media player. Great looking picture but sound jumps it can be anything from every few seconds to a jump evey 45-70 seconds, the skip is only a few seconds long.

All my media has dolby digital 5.1 sound which my surround sound system supports. I have some media on the built in harddrive and the others on my netgear external USB2.0 hard drive but i still get the same skipping problems.

I used to use VLC media player and i had the same problem but i have uninstalled that quite a while ago.

Does anybody know what is the problem, my laptop screen resolution is 1920x1200 but it is off while it is connected to my projector which has a native resolution of 1280x720p. But my projector can take input of 1080i and 1080p and scale it to it's native resolution of 720p.

My laptop has a 60GB HD but i have only about 500MB left
But all my HD movies are on my Lacie HD external USB2.0 drive which is 500GB and i have about 230GB left. This lacie drive i think is 7200 RPM and the one in my laptop is 5400 RPM. The HD in my latop has been drefragged but not the Lacie one i just been using it how i got it in the package. And yes my latop is connected to a power supply, i get these problems while it's running on it's battery and through the power supply.

In all the latest games i don't get any skips, like i am playing Doom 3 in a custom resolution of 1280x720p ultra high settings and it's really smooth, i did notice on some fast action cut scenes that it did get a bit choppy for a few seconds. But it is still very playable.

Again the same specs as above but in prey and all super smooth.

It's just the movies are being strange,

I am also planning on streaming my HD movies from the HD of my current PC to my laptop which is connected to a projector. I am just waiting for the release of the devolo homeplug which can reach speads of upto 200mbps and a distance of 200 metres, there being released in September, It's been designed especially for streaming of HD movies. What i would like to know is if i do get the sound to work properly will my system specs be enough to stream these movies with this devolo home plug so i can stream HD movies without any problems?


My Laptop hard drive size is 60GB but there is only 500MB left. I don't see the hard drive light flickering that much. Most of my HD movies are on my USB 2.0 external hard drive which has a size of 500GB but there is 230GB left, that drive does a lot of flickering while playing games and movies.

I can't see my system as not being powerful enough for HD movies, as this flickering seems to happen even with any media Non HD, like dvd movies, mpeg video, xvid, divx then the HD like wmv9, wmv, transport streams, mpeg 2, h.264. The jumping seems to happen in movies that have dolby digital 5.1 sound. Now my system specs should be more than capable to play dvd's but yet i still am getting this jumping video, i would not call this stuttering as it is not like the frames per second is choppy like in games, but it is like the video just jumps it could be cause of the sound. So as DVD movies are jumping it can't be my system not being powerful enough so it must be some other issue.

I have already tried playing in VLC media player and i get the same problems, i have now uninstalled VLC. I have also tried media player classic in the past and that didn't have an effect either same jumping problems.

My laptop when it's not connect to my projector and just running on the laptop screen every media that i throw at it is super smooth with no sound problems, now the laptop has a native resolution of 1920x1200 and i have that exact resolution being displayed on the screen. And all media is perfect.

when i connect it to my projector and change the laptops resolution to 1280x720p which is also my LCD projectors native resolution.

Then my laptop has a svideo out, and i have this external adapter that you connect into the svideo out and then the adapter has some ports and one of them is an optical out/SPDIF coax and so i plug a coax cable into one end and the other end into my surround sound system and then i enable digital surround sound in my surround sound system.

Then when i play any media, in windows media player, Nvidia nstant media player using pure video decoder, and VLC media player. I get the same sound stuttering and few second jumps. I check my sound system and it displays the sound as dolby digital 5.1 sound.

It could either be that the laptop sound system is not very good for 5.1 sound output, or that this adapter is not very good, so i am looking to see if i can get an updated firmware for this. Or it could be a software issue.

My laptop is very powerful and can play 1080p HD movies, so this has got to be some problem with the configuration.

What are your views


any help much appreciated


Many many thanks

Message Edited by snowkitty on 08-26-200605:16 PM