Windows 7: New here could use some guidance

Hello everyone, the name's moe. Long story short im a newb around Windows 7, i got the RC today of course build 7100. Anyways im not running it on anything close to what MS posted as requirements. So im sure that could be the issue im having with video playback. The sound is a bit choppy and the video is a bit blocky, if that makes sense. Before running xp of course this wasnt the case, so am i assuming correctly that due to the OS its going to cut the quality in these apps?

Thanks for any input

by the way my system specs are
Amd 64 1.6
SiS m760 graphics 64mb
768 mb ram
ac97 sound

all this on an OLD emachines m5414

My limited observations have been that if the pc is powerful enough to do something in XP, it should work equally as well in 7, possibly better.

I have a second pc that's a P4 1.6 gHz with 768 RDRAM, GeForce 6200A-LE (cheapo card) and it plays most if not all multimedia formats and qualities (not BluRay) well on 7, 7100 being installed now.

As a random example, on XP with this PC, Winamp would take about 10 seconds to fully open as I had it set. On 7 set the same way, probably about 5 or 6.

You could be having a driver issue that needs sorting, or maybe the types of video you are trying to play could use a better codec etc...

The 7 OS is a good one. With a pc like that, you should disable all services not needed. That can only help. Move your page file and temp directories to another physical hard drive if you have 2 or more.

Thanks for the input, unfortunatly its an older laptop so only one drive. Everything seems to be working great so far, Ive installed all the drivers, got the K-lite Mega codec pack (i know some of you are suggesting shark i believe it is, however i cant d/l that right now). Really i use this computer for 1 thing and thats watching movies.

Thanks again

OK, looks as if i got it running to where it should be. I didnt realize that with the k-lite mega pack when i open movies (avi files) it had its own player. If i open the files in WMP the quality is 150 times better. You can tell that the sound is still a bit choppy but WMP is covering it up quite well. So as of right now it seems that im up and running to standards that i can accept. If i have anymore questions ill be sure to post them in the right spot on the forum.