Vista Media Center Stutters, stammers, skips and glitches - HDTV and DVD video

  I've been trying to trace why I get constant stutters and glitches
during live and recorded tv as well as DVD playback.

Here's the specs:
Asus A8N-32 Delux motherboard; updated BIOS
AMD 4400+
Freshly installed & updated Windows Vista Premium - only the OS and
basic drivers installed; nothing else
Nvidia 8800 GTX OC video card with Feb 20 Vista drivers (BFG)
2GB Ram
400GB SATA Drive
Hauppauge HVR 1600 TV card using ATSC input & HD 1080i channels -
latest drivers from website

I've tried the Nvidia 8800 on a new HP Media computer and it worked
fine with the same Vista drivers so I'm guessing that's not it. I
tried two other tuner cards -- one USB version and another PCI --
neither change the stuttering. The hard drive is new and freshly
formatted with plenty of bandwith for the video stream. I even tried
switching the recording settings to a second SATA drive I
installed...no change. Pletty of stutter still.

This same computer was used as an Avid video editing system under XP
without any problems. Video always played smoothly. It's a hefty
machine that has plenty of horsepower.

I'm really stumped... any clues where to look?

 Does your audio also stutter? If so look for an updated audio driver.
If you play a recorded TV program with Media Player instead of MC does it
also stutter/
Do you have the problem with NTSC programs as well as both 720p and 1080i HD
channels?

 
Thanks for the feedback. The audio stutters with the video. I'm using
the newest drivers from Asus.

The video glitches occur more often with HD 720p/1080i video but I
still see them on SD. I also tried installing the new Win DVD thinking
it was a codec issue. No change. Tried moving the Tuner card to a
different PCI slot. No change.

Compared to the HP Media computer I tested earlier, my machine is very
close . Both are running the same accessories using the same OS and
drivers. The primary difference is the motherboard. I tested Flight
Simulator X on my machine and it looked and sounded normal which makes
me think the video and sound cards are ok.

 Vista uses the MS provided MPEG2 "DVD" decoder and not any other that you
install unless you use the following utilitly to chage it.

http://mediacenterexpert.blogspot.com/2006/07/vista-media-center-decoder-utility.html

Are you using the 101.41 Beta drivers from the Nvidia Web site or the older
released drivers.  You can also get the newer 101.70 unofficial Vista Beta
drivers from the   Guro3d.com   Website.

Did you look for an updated Vista audio driver for your audio card?

 

I would suspect your graphics card & drivers. You really don't need such a
monstrously powerful
overclocked graphics card for TV & DVD playback. Nvidia have been a bit slow in
releasing decent
Vista drivers & the 20th Feb version (100.65) is still not feature complete
compared to XP/MCE
drivers. By all means try the Beta drivers but I suspect that a lower
specification more mainstream
card such as a 7600GT will work just fine with Vista MCE (it does for me anyway).
--

Cheers

Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur
MCE MVP