Windows Media Player is playing slow.

[RATEDRKO]

My windows media player is playing very slow. The audio and video are not in sync for most videos. It takes forever for the video to skip during the short videos. This problem started about a month ago.

My Norton virus protection stated that the player is using 65% CPU. I don't have a lot of other programs running.

I have no idea what the problem may be. Other programs are not running slowly. I doubt the videos are a problem because there are many of them. It's doubt 500 video files are broken. I did a virus scan and there are no viruses on my computer. Windows Media Player is up to date.


By the way I'm using Windows 7.

 

[Wallonn7]

My windows media player is playing very slow. The audio and video are not in sync for most videos. It takes forever for the video to skip during the short videos. This problem started about a month ago.

My Norton virus protection stated that the player is using 65% CPU. I don't have a lot of other programs running.

I have no idea what the problem may be. Other programs are not running slowly. I doubt the videos are a problem because there are many of them. It's doubt 500 video files are broken. I did a virus scan and there are no viruses on my computer. Windows Media Player is up to date.


By the way I'm using Windows 7.

Hi RATEDRKO.
Go to WMP Options > Performance tab > DVD and video reproduction > check "Drop frames to keep audio and video synchronized" box.
Now go to Privacy tab > History > press Clean History / Clean Cache. Then press Apply and OK.
Let us know the results.

 

[RATEDRKO]

The CU usage went from 65% to at least 48%. The videos appear to be in sync. I need to check more videos to be 100% sure. However, the skipping for some videos still takes at least 30 seconds to start.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Wallonn7]

The CU usage went from 65% to at least 48%. The videos appear to be in sync. I need to check more videos to be 100% sure. However, the skipping for some videos still takes at least 30 seconds to start.

Thanks for the advice.

You're welcome.
Are these videos in AVI and MP4 formats? Some encodings and codec packages yield problems as you report.

 

[RATEDRKO]

They are WMV and MP3.

 

[Wallonn7]

Any codec package installed?!...

 

[RATEDRKO]

I have the K-Lite Codec pack installed.

EDIT: After testing it a bit more the problem has returned. The video files are in an external harddrive. If I pause a video for a few minutes then the harddrive will disconnect itself. This wasn't happening before I change Window Media Player's sitings.

 

[cmd187]

Try VLC. WMP is rather useless.

 

[Gornot]

Try VLC. WMP is rather useless.

If you want to rant randomly instead of help, don't post at all!

EDIT: After testing it a bit more the problem has returned. The video files are in an external harddrive. If I pause a video for a few minutes then the harddrive will disconnect itself. This wasn't happening before I change Window Media Player's sitings.

It would definitely help if we knew your system specs, but it sounds to me like you need to change your power settings, because "USB selective suspend" is probably turned on. If you own a laptop, this might not be the best setting to change but it still might be the solution to your problem.

1. Start menu -> type into search "power" and choose Power Options under Control Panel results
2. Find your power plan and click "Change plan settings", then "change advanced power settings"
3. Scroll down until you find "USB settings", there change "USB selective suspend" to disabled
4. Apply -> OK -> close both windows

 

[RATEDRKO]

How do I find my system specs.

 

[cmd187]

Try VLC. WMP is rather useless.

If you want to rant randomly instead of help, don't post at all!

EDIT: After testing it a bit more the problem has returned. The video files are in an external harddrive. If I pause a video for a few minutes then the harddrive will disconnect itself. This wasn't happening before I change Window Media Player's sitings.

It would definitely help if we knew your system specs, but it sounds to me like you need to change your power settings, because "USB selective suspend" is probably turned on. If you own a laptop, this might not be the best setting to change but it still might be the solution to your problem.

1. Start menu -> type into search "power" and choose Power Options under Control Panel results
2. Find your power plan and click "Change plan settings", then "change advanced power settings"
3. Scroll down until you find "USB settings", there change "USB selective suspend" to disabled
4. Apply -> OK -> close both windows

WMP IS useless. It doesn't even support matroska without codecs. To the OP, did VLC work?

 

[Wallonn7]

How do I find my system specs.

Download portable HWiNFO32 and use the information which are written where I colored in yellow. See below.

 

[Wishmaster]

Just out of curiosity,

If you pick a video your having trouble with and move it to your HD, off of the external, and try to play it, does the problem resolve itself?

 

[Gornot]

WMP IS useless. It doesn't even support matroska without codecs. To the OP, did VLC work?

:sarc: Nonsense...

+1 to what Wishmaster said.

 

[Wishmaster]

WMP IS useless. It doesn't even support matroska without codecs.

While this may be true, we must consider:

WMP does a very good job for what it is. And does support quite a few formats by default. Not everyone has, or even knows what a MKV is.
A large majority of Win7 users use WMV, MP4, or AVI for digital videos, all of which WMP does a fine job with.

Many user just want to use the software Windows has with it (WMP, Internet Explorer) and have no desire to use a 3rd party product.

But, in this case, what the OP is wanting out of WMP should be no issue for it.
Theres a obvious problem somewhere, and it may not be WMP at all. So we should strive to locate and resolve the issue.


For the record I am a User/Fan of Internet Explorer but rarely use WMP myself. I use Showtime and Zune instead.
We all have our preferences, and no one is wrong in thier choice.

 

[Gornot]

It doesn't matter if it's mkv, mp4, m4v, mov, hdmov... those are just containers for the actual codec, which is h264, which IS natively supported in WMP... Though I agree, for what it's worth, WMP is as good as it gets.

Anyway, I hope we haven't scared the OP off by asking for system specs, lol

 

[cmd187]

WMP IS useless. It doesn't even support matroska without codecs.

While this may be true, we must consider:

WMP does a very good job for what it is. And does support quite a few formats by default. Not everyone has, or even knows what a MKV is.
A large majority of Win7 users use WMV, MP4, or AVI for digital videos, all of which WMP does a fine job with.

Many user just want to use the software Windows has with it (WMP, Internet Explorer) and have no desire to use a 3rd party product.

But, in this case, what the OP is wanting out of WMP should be no issue for it.
Theres a obvious problem somewhere, and it may not be WMP at all. So we should strive to locate and resolve the issue.


For the record I am a User/Fan of Internet Explorer but rarely use WMP myself. I use Showtime and Zune instead.
We all have our preferences, and no one is wrong in thier choice.

Most now know what matroska is with 720p HD videos and there is no excuse for having a built in player with lacking features.

 

[vaidas3]

WMP IS useless. It doesn't even support matroska without codecs. To the OP, did VLC work?

i have many various formats of video files including many in matroska (few audio subtitle tracks etc.) and VLC generally is the most useless player
the only good thing about it that its all in one and can play very damaged (not complete) files.
but that is the only good things i can say about vlc
band things
random crashes, very bad seek (forward etc), very bad subtitles rendering.
not the best filters you can get better with player + filter. but in vlc its integrated.
i recommend MPC or WMP + choose codecs/filters etc that works best for you.
but really its user preference.. i dont like people who instead of helping say that program they use is better and everyone should change. it would be very nice to stop this offtopic please.
on topic
problem seems to be pc can not handle video, but until pc spec are known i can not confirm this.
or maybe broken codecs.

 

[cmd187]

WMP IS useless. It doesn't even support matroska without codecs. To the OP, did VLC work?

i have many various formats of video files including many in matroska (few audio subtitle tracks etc.) and VLC generally is the most useless player
the only good thing about it that its all in one and can play very damaged (not complete) files.
but that is the only good things i can say about vlc
band things
random crashes, very bad seek (forward etc), very bad subtitles rendering.
not the best filters you can get better with player + filter. but in vlc its integrated.
i recommend MPC or WMP + choose codecs/filters etc that works best for you.
but really its user preference.. i dont like people who instead of helping say that program they use is better and everyone should change. it would be very nice to stop this offtopic please.
on topic
problem seems to be pc can not handle video, but until pc spec are known i can not confirm this.
or maybe broken codecs.

I'd try v 1.1.9, not version 0.86. These problems were fixed a few years ago.

 

[RATEDRKO]

Here is a photo copy of the specs.

Just out of curiosity,

If you pick a video your having trouble with and move it to your HD, off of the external, and try to play it, does the problem resolve itself?

I tried it. The video had the same problems.