video is choppy...any help?

I have video files on my computer that are choppy when i try to play them and i'm not talking about streaming, files that i have stored on my computer are choppy and will barely play. I tried to play the files on different media players on my computer but the video is still choppy on every program i use. I have the most problems with Windows Media video files. I have 320 mbs of RAM on my computer, (is that enough, or do i need more?) Do I need certain codecs? I don't know what the problem is. Any help would be appreciated.

 

What are your other specs,what media player are you using and which windows

 

I'm using Windows Media Player 11 and I'm using Windows XP. I've also tried the files on DivX Player and VLC Media Players.

What do you mean by specs?

 

What are the rest of the components in your computer,if your unsure run this program and post the info from the system

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181

Does the skipping correspond with the harddrive light flashing?Try defragging the drive,check you have enough free harddrive space 20%,update your video card and motherboard drivers,open taskmanager check there no processes using all of the cpu,update your soundcard drivers,check there are no exclaimation marks in device manager.

 

Also, what kind of videos are they? HD (High def)? If so, knowing what kind of video card ye have, will help. My current computer can barely (as in not at all) play HD.

 

For large wmv files, I find Media Player Classic uses the least resources and gives the smoothest play. This is not Windows Media Player but an alternative. I think it is definitely worth a try. Get it from sourceforge or free-codecs both reputable.

 

Even with MPC, I find HD videos choppy, with my system, at least (3200+, 1.5 gig ram, 6800).

 

The system report is attached and the harddrive light isn't flashing.

 

Yeah, the ones I'm having problems with are HD. I'm not sure what kind of video card I have though.

 

Thanks, that program played the files a little better but they're still choppy just not as much as they were.

 

Sorry to say this but it looks like your computer is just too old,your running a 400mhz cpu and a matrox 4mb video card,I'm suprised you can use Windows at all

EDIT:My friend has an old laptop that has slightly higher specs than yours and his cannot run videos without them being choppy either

 

I'd re-download the free videos using a smaller screen resolution.