iTunes 10.5 Video Choppiness

Hi Folks. New here. I like it.

I've got a brand new Dell PC XPS 9100. The basic specs are below, but it's configured direct from Dell, so I'm not aware of the brand of RAM, who made the mobo, etc.

What I do know is that the machine runs flawlessly except for one annoying problem. iTunes video, whether purchased or my own, will have brief but noticeable choppiness. Sometimes, it will pause for a second or two, and be choppy, like it's skipping frames. Audio is unaffected and there are no audio/video sync problems and no crashes.

Strangely, other times it's completely smooth. Even during the same video it will be smooth, and not smooth.

Even more strange, moving the mouse around and causing the OSD to appear on screen actually smooths it out.

This began the day I got the PC with iTunes 10.4.1. The 10.5 upgrade after a reformat has not helped. The video did NOT do this on Quicktime or WMP, however, with protected files, you can now ONLY play them in iTunes. QT won't play them anymore now that iTunes 10.5 doesn't require it. So that option is out.

What I have tried so far...

*Uninstalling and reinstalling iTunes and QT
*Updating all video drivers
*Disabling DirectX use in QT prefs
*Disabling the sound card temporarily (read somewhere this might help)
*Reformatting and reinstalling Windows from factory state.

That's what I've done. Can anyone offer any other ideas?

Mainly, it's the TV shows I've bought from iTunes that I am concerned about. I HAVE to use iTunes to view those.

Anything else, I'm happy to just use other software if needed.

Thanks.

Can you provide specs of your PC (ram, processor, GPU, etc) and what version of win 7 your using? I'm using win7 pro 64 and only see a little stuttering if I have other programs hogging the system, otherwise it works good. Sounds like either memory or graphics card issues. Insure you have the latest updates. Let us know what you have.

Next question. What version of iTunes are you using? Hope 64 bit as your running 64 bit windows. Your system specs look pretty good. How are you connecting your computer to your monitor/tv (HDMI, VGA, etc)? Are you running any programs in the background when the slugginess happens? Sounds like a program running in the background. Does this happen at random times or around a particular time of day? Try this, bring task manager in front of your movie playing the movie that this happens on. Click on processes. Click on top bar (memory) so that the highest amount is on top. When your movie starts acting up, see if there is a program using allot of memory, thus choking your system. That's one possibility. What version of catalyst control center are you using for your ATI GPU? If you do have this, have overdrive on?
Am leaning toward the cable your using to hook up to the monitor but will wait on your reply before going further.

Glad to help. Pretty sure the HDMI cable will do the trick. Couple other questions though. Are these purchased movies, or ripped? If ripped, what program did you use? Presuming your using max settings on you HD monitor, you could check your settings. Have you tried VLC to play the same movie to see if your having the same issue?

Are you totally opposed to earlier versions of I-tunes?

I am using version 4.9--it must be nearly 10 years old---on Windows 7 64-bit, with no problems.

Quicktime is hopeless. I always uninstall it and use Quicktime Lite or Quicktime Alternative instead.

djsmmcp said:

Got a link on where to get an old one?

Yep:

Old Version Downloads - OldApps.com

Dating back to 4.1, from 2003.

I think 8.1.1 is the first 64-bit version, not that it should matter.