OK updated and identicle..
Media Center Registered 9.0.179 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\
Microsoft Windows XP 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2190 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 329 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1145 (xpsp2.021108-1929) / wnaspi32.dll: Internal ASPI Layer
Ripping / Drive E: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: No / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: Yes / Play sound after ripping: Yes Soundfile: chord.wav
Burning / Drive E: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-104 Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:8 MaxSpeed:7 Use MJ Engine:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
OK from what you say the 'DirectShow Player' bit at the bottom of the screen makes sense...
This also explains why when I tried MC a couple of weeks ago it was terrible performance on WMP9's and then tweaking around I found that Zoom Player was also awful... Turns out having FFDShow installed it gives itself a massively high merit value and ends up in almost every filtergraph process.. FFDShow is great fopr DVD playback but CPU heavy even with a 720x480 source... Once its applied to HiDef 720p or 1080p it kills it...
I then created some streamlined filters in ZP.. Set them as a media playback filter and ZP was smooth (and I still have FFDShow in my DVD profiles... Gotta love that customisation)... Now in the last 2 days I find MC is also smooth and I assume thats due to me creating stremlined merit values on WMP9 material...
That said that only applies to the non DRM'ed material... I assume that the DRM solution you have implemented is either drawing a lot of resources (and I mean a lot) or its not working as expected in some other way...
For some free DRM content grab the Do Amazing Things DVD... The BMW 'Hire' Clips are 1280x720p with a 60 day license (and the James Brown / Gary Oldman one is a gas
)...
The T2 is definately being presented in a funky AR... I think you are playing the simple encoded rez (1440x816) fitted to the window... If you have a play with the WMP9 encoder you will see that anamorphic encoding with custom parameters is available.. source does not always equal square pixels....
Does it sound like I may be on the right track ??