Hardware:
I've spent two weeks trying everything I can think of, and still cannot get the GeForce 9400 IGP to play MPEG-2 without stuttering. When playing Live TV it stutters on all channels, although some are worse than others. When playing DVDs it stutters, but is not near as bad as Live TV. The CPU occasionally spikes to 50%, but usually hovers around 10%.
Here is what I've tried so far (at least what I can remember):
- CPU: Intel Core 2 E8400 2.8Ghz (stock cooler)
- Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H
- Memory: A-DATA ADQVE1A16K DDR2-800 2 x 1GB
- Graphics Card: Built-in GeForce 9400
- HDD: Western Digital WD6400AAKS 640GB SATA 3.0Gbps
- PSU: Corsair VX450W CMPSU-450VX
- Case: Antec Fusion Remote Black
- Other: Hauppage HVR-2250
- TV: Sony 40" LCD (KDL-40W4100) connected to HTPC via HDMI
- Windows XP SP3 (no post SP3 updates)
- .Net 3.5 SP1 plus hotfixes
- GPBVR
- Windows Media Player
- InterVideo Codecs
- PowerDVD 9 Codecs
I've spent two weeks trying everything I can think of, and still cannot get the GeForce 9400 IGP to play MPEG-2 without stuttering. When playing Live TV it stutters on all channels, although some are worse than others. When playing DVDs it stutters, but is not near as bad as Live TV. The CPU occasionally spikes to 50%, but usually hovers around 10%.
Here is what I've tried so far (at least what I can remember):
- Tried built-in Windows MPEG-2 codec
- Tried CyberLink PowerDVD 9 codec
- Tried InterVideo codec (ships with Hauppage HVR-2250)
- Played Live TV in GBPVR, tweaking anything I could think of
- Played DVDs in Windows Media Player 10
- Moved the HVR-2250 card from the PCIe x1 to the PCIe x16 slot
- A thousand other tweaks I can't remember right now
- BIOS
- Disabled serial and parallel
- Increased shared video memory to 512M
- NVidia Control Panel
- Changed output to 1080p@60Hz
- Changed output to 1080i@60Hz and 24Hz
- Enabled & disabled Inverse Telecine (with 1080p & 1080i)
- Enabled & disabled Force VSync (with 1080p & 1080i)
Was not impressed with the board in XP SP3. Works great in Vista, but I had the same issues you did with minor stutters. walford's suggestion to try different audio codecs is a good one, as that is often a source of video problems (as counter-intuitive as that seems). I never resolved it for standard-def interlaced sources or for high-def progressive sources. It appeared to be something in the VMR9 renderer. Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings.
