stuttering vids: calling all geeks

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

I have a number of videos that I've downloaded over the past few years, and I notice the ones that I have viewed most often are beginning to play in a jerky fashion.
The audio seems to work properly, but not the picture.
If someone is talking, for example, I'll hear the conversation, but the faces will freeze, and then rush ahead jerkily, and freeze again.
Is there any way of fixing this?
(I use RealPlayer, if that's relevant.)
Anyone know?

 

[gobluemi]

could be the video card on your computer.
Do you know how much memory your video card has?

how old is your computer?

 

[nudeyorker]

I always assumed it was my internet company running sluggishly when that happened because sometimes it plays normally and sommme-ttttimessss itttt plllllays liiiike an olllld cartoooooon!

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

could be the video card on your computer.
Do you know how much memory your video card has?

how old is your computer?

The newer videos that have been recorded play fine.
It's the older recordings that are "stuttering."
So I think it must be something to do with the individual recorded file ... something seems to have happened over many playings. But I'm just guessing.
So I appreciate your suggestion, gobluemi, but I'm pretty sure it ain't the video card.

I always assumed it was my internet company running sluggishly when that happened because sometimes it plays normally and sommme-ttttimessss itttt plllllays liiiike an olllld cartoooooon!

Well, I find that too with fresh downloads.
But as I explained to gobluemi, the problems are with old and much-played video files.
These are on my external hard drive.
Sorry. I was not explicit enough in my OP.

 

[B_Hickboy]

Here's one I like to stutter along to: YouTube - The Who - My Generation (Marquee Club 1967)

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

^^^^^^^^^^
Yup. That's good stuttering.

 

[Pendlum]

Does it seem like the videos are stuttering in the same spots? If so then it is most likely corrupted data. However if it seems random, then I would have to say it would have to do with memory. What formats and size are the problem videos, and what are the formats and size for the ones that haven't had a problem? If the video is stuttering, it could be that it isn't able to buffer the video properly. Larger more high resolution videos require more memory to buffer properly. Audio buffering is less resource heavy, which is why it seems fine. If you are experiencing problems, take a look at what you have running at the same time, as well as your resource usage in your task manager.

Also I recommend ditching real player and getting vlc, it's free, supports a large array of video types, and to top it all off it is very light weight and simple. It even supports external subtitle files, as well as multiple encoded subtitle tracks.

 

[JF]

Pend covered that quite nicely, especially the 'ditching Real Player in favour of VLC' part - I completely agree.

You might have hit the nail on the head, though, when you said the old movies are on an external hard drive. Can you try copying them (just one ?) back to an internal hard drive, playing it from there and see if you get the same problem ? Internal hard drive performance is far faster than using an external (USB-connected ?) drive.

Let me know how you get on with that, and if it doesn't solve the probelm, we can go to Video Playback Performance Problems - Round 2 :smile:

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

Does it seem like the videos are stuttering in the same spots? If so then it is most likely corrupted data. However if it seems random, then I would have to say it would have to do with memory. What formats and size are the problem videos, and what are the formats and size for the ones that haven't had a problem? If the video is stuttering, it could be that it isn't able to buffer the video properly. Larger more high resolution videos require more memory to buffer properly. Audio buffering is less resource heavy, which is why it seems fine. If you are experiencing problems, take a look at what you have running at the same time, as well as your resource usage in your task manager.

Also I recommend ditching real player and getting vlc, it's free, supports a large array of video types, and to top it all off it is very light weight and simple. It even supports external subtitle files, as well as multiple encoded subtitle tracks.

The thing is that these videos, which I play off my external hard drive, used to work fine. Now, they don't. But others, also on the external hard drive, work as they're supposed to.
I think the files must have been corrupted over time.
I wonder if there's any way of fixing them.
I think I will download vlc and see if it works any better.

Thanks, Pendlum. That was a very considerate and detailed response.
;-)

Pend covered that quite nicely, especially the 'ditching Real Player in favour of VLC' part - I completely agree.

You might have hit the nail on the head, though, when you said the old movies are on an external hard drive. Can you try copying them (just one ?) back to an internal hard drive, playing it from there and see if you get the same problem ? Internal hard drive performance is far faster than using an external (USB-connected ?) drive.

Let me know how you get on with that, and if it doesn't solve the probelm, we can go to Video Playback Performance Problems - Round 2 :smile:

I did try copying one movie back onto my internal hard drive. And the same stuttering quality was present when I played it.
As I said to Pendy above, I am going to try vlc.

Thanks for your response, JF.

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

Loaded VLC and then restarted the computer.
Okay, the VLC works fine.
But so do all those 'corrupted' video files ... in RealPlayer.
Now, it's like I never had a problem.
I don't understand ... but if the magick works, I'll buy it.

 

[Incocknito]

Must have been something running in the background on your PC. Maybe an antivirus scan or some virus or spyware but that would only be the case if you have a very slow, very old single core PC.

Or possibly the external drive was being indexed, that causes a lot of 'slowdown'.

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

Must have been something running in the background on your PC. Maybe an antivirus scan or some virus or spyware but that would only be the case if you have a very slow, very old single core PC.

Or possibly the external drive was being indexed, that causes a lot of 'slowdown'.

Both sound plausible, but I have an Athlon 64 x 2 Dual processor, so probably not.
Also, many video files on my external drive did work well. I mean, I could go back and forth between infrequently viewed vid files (which worked) and the ones I view most frequently (which didn't).
And then I restarted the machine (maybe that had no real effect, of course) and the problems vanished.
They all played normally ... in RealPlayer.

 

[JF]

Good to hear you have it working now. It is unlikely that the files are corrupt (they can't 'self-repair' to work normally again) and even less likely that frequent playing would cause any real problems unless you were looping them 24/7 over a prolonged period of time.

If you get the same problem again, you can run Task Manager (press CTRL-ALT-DEL then pick from the options) and check the CPU % used to see if any task is hogging the processor to cause slow performance elsewhere.

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

Good to hear you have it working now. It is unlikely that the files are corrupt (they can't 'self-repair' to work normally again) and even less likely that frequent playing would cause any real problems unless you were looping them 24/7 over a prolonged period of time.

If you get the same problem again, you can run Task Manager (press CTRL-ALT-DEL then pick from the options) and check the CPU % used to see if any task is hogging the processor to cause slow performance elsewhere.

I'm sure the files aren't corrupt.
But it was definitely true that it was only a set of frequently played vids that were acting up.
Very strange.
Your suggestion of checking CPU usage is good ... and I actually did this a number of times, typically finding 5 percent usage or less. (Of course, it would vary.)
Anyway, thanks for your help, JF.