Window Media Player (Stuttering)

[Xorcist]

I recently downloaded the following preview clip for the new game PainKiller:
http://www.dreamcatchergames.com/dci...0Complex_1.wmv

However it stutters REAL bad when played (music cuts in and out). I'm not sure if this is a problem with Media Player 6.4, or the file. Anyone know of any common problems with Media Player that might cause this kind of suttering (note I already tried increasing the buffer, it does not help). Quicktime movies seem to play fine, as do realplayer streams.

My system specs are as follows:

Motherboard: Shuttle AV49N (VIA P4X400 chipset)
Processor: Intel, Pentium 4 - 2.4Ghz
System RAM: Corsair, 512MB DDR400
Video Card: Sapphire, "Atlantis" Radeon 9600 Pro (128MB DDR)
Sound Card: Turtle Beach, Santa Cruz
Operating System: Windows 2000 with SP2

Side note: I played a couple other very large WMV files and they both streamed, and played fine downloaded, so I'm really confused. Could it have something to do with the way the files was encoded?

[Xorcist]

Seems versions 7.1 and up play the clip okay, but previous versions have the stutter (I was using 6.4). Now since I don't like Microsoft's privacy agreement in 7.1 and up, what are my alternatives... are there any alternatives?

Can anyone reccomend a good ASF/AVI/WMV player?

[dr_roberts49]

I have a P4 2.4ghz with the Santa Cruz too. I had a stutter problem with my startup sound. Drove me crazy. Sound was perfect on everything else. I'm running XP Pro. At the suggestion of another Techmo member, I went to my Start button and ran msconfig. I then did a process of elimination to find the offending file. In my situation, it was a file named NVCPL, which was associated with my NVIDIA FX3200 card, and which was associated with rundll32.exe. I disabled this file, and the stutter went away.

I'm certain its not the same file in your situation, but you might try this same process of elimination. It worked for me! Good luck!

Robert