VLC vs Windows Media Player

**Kato** · 07-06-2004, 11:44 AM

I'm having a bizzarre issue.

I can play divx encoded files fine using vlc player. However, when i play the same file in Windows Media Player...the playback is choppy ( the video freezes for a second or so.) Its not smooth like vlc player. Mind you I don't have a very fast pc ( ibm 390e ..PII 333 with 130 megs of ram), but if VLC can play the file using the same codec, why can't I get Media Player to play it properly.

I've tried Media Player 9 and now have reverted it back to an older version with the same issues.

Its a pain because I can't use mediacar or mediaengine to play the video files since they both use Media Player to play the video.

Any ideas?

**Zenith_Warrior** · 04-27-2005, 09:02 AM

Some movies play fine with the DivxPlayer but don't play in Windows MP, so my guess would still be the codec. Try getting down KLite or ACE, or even just the Divx codec works best with some files.
If it's choppy (start,stop,start,stop) all the way through then try installing just the Divx Codec.

**DarquePervert** · 04-27-2005, 09:32 AM

Quit resurrecting old threads.
This one is only a year old... I suppose that's getting better....

**Vchat20** · 04-27-2005, 12:44 PM

or the problem may be that WMP is just naturally slow and would end up making the playback choppy on that slow of a system.

**god_of_cpu** · 04-27-2005, 01:24 PM

Originally Posted by Vchat20

or the problem may be that WMP is just naturally slow and would end up making the playback choppy on that slow of a system.

WMP is as slow as the codec that it uses to play the video. Windows Media Player and just about every other video player out there that uses codecs uses the same DirectShow components to render the video. The only place you should notice differences in playing speed is if you are comparing a codec based player with one that decodes a video directly. i.e. the DivX player for DivX videos. What this means is that you can find players that are faster then WMP, but you won't find players that are faster then WMP using directshow codecs.

**Vchat20** · 04-27-2005, 02:10 PM

no. i was saying that WMP itself is slow in a sense its a resource hog to begin with.

**Maximus** · 04-28-2005, 06:47 AM

But VLC has it's own codecs/filters so it is not using the ones in the system (used by WMP, MPC, etc) so comparing VLC to WMP and saying that WMP has choppy playback only proves that something is screwed up with the codecs/filters installed.

/M

**Vchat20** · 04-28-2005, 01:50 PM

NO. read my post thoroughly. what I'm saying as that WMP itself is a resource hog regardless of what type of media your playing. with how slow his system is, it could very well be that WMP is slowing the system down enough that the codec doesn't have enough cpu time to effectively play back the video.

just to prove my point, i played back a standard divx dvd rip on wmp and vlc and heres the results i got:

WMP: 15MB memory usage and average 50% cpu
VLC: 40MB mem usage but only an average of 25% cpu