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[thurston]

I've had Media Center 12 for about a month now.  The flexibility of and support for the program is unbelievable.  However, I have some problems with viewing and browsing for videos that also make it extremely frustrating to use at times.  I was wondering if these issues are common, or if my system components may be to blame, or if I need to tweak some settings.

In standard view, when I select "Video" in the organization tree, the thumbnails appear in the content pane and then the system becomes extremely sluggish for a minute of so.  If I wait it out, everything works fine and I can scroll, etc without issues.  But is this normal?  I feel like my computer is fast enough to handle loading thumbnails.

In theater view, the menu in general is slow and jerky.  The menu animations, scrolling, and selecting are not smooth.

Certain videos will also not play.  They will display a still screen and freeze the system until I control-alt-delete to close MC.  I changed the video renderer for DIVX files to Video Mixing Renderer 7 to solve a similar problem (see http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=41393.msg283238#msg283238), but certain videos still don't play properly.

Here are my system specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+(65W) Windsor 2.4GHz Socket AM2
MB: GIGABYTE GA-M61P-S3 Socket AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 ATX AMD
Video Card: GIGABYTE GV-NX76T256D-RH GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16
RAM: CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400C4
PS: Xion PowerReal XON-600F14T-201 ATX12V V.2.01 600W Power Supply
Monitors: (Dual view) DVI-D to ViewSonic Optiquest Series Q22wb Black 22" Widescreen LCD and S-Video to Sony TV

All the components are relatively new, so a faulty video card, etc aren't out of the question.  Any thoughts?  Is my system not powerful enough?  Any settings I should try changing?  Any more info needed?

Thanks in advance.  As I said I think this is a great program and just wish I could get it to run a bit smoother and without freezing.

[JimH]

It isn't normal. 

What version of MC are you using?  Please copy your system info from MC Help and paste it here.

Please take a look at the video and DirectShow posts by Yaobing and glynor in the FAQ.

[thurston]

Media Center Registered 12.0.279 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 12\

Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
AMD Unknown 2409 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 2096 MB, Free - 1341 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2900.2180 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82.2900 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.0.2900 / Shell32.dll: 6.0.2900 / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping /   Drive D:   Mode:Normal  Type:Auto  Speed:Max
  Digital playback: Yes /  Use YADB: Yes /  Get cover art: Yes /  Calc replay gain: Yes /  Copy volume: 32767
  Eject after ripping: Yes /  Play sound after ripping: No 

Burning /  Drive D: SONY     DVD RW DRU-810A    Addr: 0:0:0  Speed:40  MaxSpeed:40  BurnProof:Yes
  Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: Yes
  Use playback settings: No /

Interface Plugins:
  Library Server (Active)
  TiVo Server (Active)
  UPnP Server (Active)

[thurston]

I downloaded and installed CCCP (after confirming I had no other codec packs installed) but that did not change anything. 

In Video Playback Options, I checked "Use windows media player engine for video playback when possible."  This both allowed me to play the video I was previously unable to, and also smoothed the animations in theater view and eliminated the slow-downs.

The only problem now is that when I try to fast-forward a video, it skips forward rather than speeding the video to 5X, 20X, etc.  I assume this is a function of the windows media player?

What is going on here?

[JimH]

I don't know the answer.  Sorry.

Read about CCCP a little more.  Try other renderers.

Take a look at what else is running in the background.

google for similar problems.

Read about the video driver you're using.

Also try this thread for ideas.
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=24031.0

There are a lot of strange things that go on with Windows.  For example, here's a problem that was solved by raising the process priority:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=24031.0

[Yaobing]

Can you describe more about the videos that fail to play smoothly? What format? GSpot is a good tool to use. You may have to specifically tell MC to use certain decoders.

Also, try playing the video in Windows Media Player (not in MC), and see what decoders it uses.

[thurston]

GSpot is a good tool to use.

I'm not sure I know how to use gspot, but I downloaded it and clicked System>List Codecs and other Filters.  The only codecs/filters listed as problematic were ZJSoft RealMedia Splitter, ZJSoft RealVideo Decoder, ZJSoft RealAudio Decoder, Nero Digital AVC Video Enc. 

Also, try playing the video in Windows Media Player (not in MC), and see what decoders it uses.

How do I do this?
And thanks for the response.