My Windows XP MCE version 2005 SP3 constantly stutters both the picture & audio when playing a dvd.  As far as I can work out this must be a software issue as CD's play fine and I am able to burn cd's & dvd's & the work fine (when the dvd is played on another machine).  I've tried playing dvd's in other software packages, Windows Media Player & DVD Play but the same issue still arises.

I have a HP Pavilion Media Centre t3625.uk PC with a NVIDIA GeForce 7500 LE using the CyberLink video/SP Decoder (version 6.0.0.2715).

I have had this problem once before & I was able to fix it by using the system restore function on my PC but I no longer seem to be able to use this, I believe previously that my MCE didn't like a certain Windows update, no idea what's causing it this time.

Any help would be much appreciated, this has been driving me crazy for a couple of months now as I haven't been able to watch any of my dvd's.  I've tried reading through everyone else's blogs but none of the fixes I’ve seen have been able to help me.

Did you by any chance updated your video card drivers in the past month or so. Lot of people are complaining about Nvidia 175.19 drivers that were released and thet pulled of nvidia site. Also if your drivers are outdated try updating them to 175.16.

Hope this helps some.

Cheers for the advice, no I hadn't upgraded the driver recently but i've just downloaded the newest one from nVidia's website & it's improved the stuttering but dvd's are still unwatchable.  Any other ideas?

Try a defrag if you have not done one in while. Reason. I think all of DVD video goes to hard drive first then it goes to be processed by video card. Also check your audio drivers,

Cheers for the advice but not helped with the stuttering, back to it's worst again.

I checked the audio drivers (through device manager) and there doesn't appear to be any updates so i presume i have the most upto date one.

Any further advice you or anyone else could give? It's annoying me so much i'm considering smashin my comptuer into a thousand peices, which i don't really want to do, but annoying me that much!!

Try a different codec.

Just tried nVidia Video Decoder 4020.223.0.0, same stuttering, aaarrrrrr

Try the media center nvidia drivers. The new ones give lots of troubles. I have the geforce 7600.

Tried that driver thanks. no difference in the stuttering situation though

I'm throwing out guesses :D. How are your PC temps?

well the fan does kick in quite quickly after turning on the computer & keeps running quite often in the past couple months

MitchSchaft:

I'm throwing out guesses :D. How are your PC temps?

That is good idea. Download a free program called speed fan and check your temps.

http://almico.com/speedfan.php

I've downloaded the Speed Fan program, I presume I'm looking at the correct place but here are my temps;

Temp1:     38C

Temp2:     56C

Temp3:    -128C

HD0:        36C

Core:        83C

Ambient:   0C

Whoa, is "Core" your CPU temp? Temps that high can be fatal. Take the case cover off and see if that changes.

Core might be your cpu or gpu temp. Hard to tell since I can not see what it is doing. In any case it is to high. As Mitch said take the cover of and see what is happening. Ensure that all of your fans are working and that you get some temperature change with cover of. Also ensure that inside of your PC is not full of dust, because PC's are the best air cleaners out there. Another thing that you can try is to load up your cpu and see which of those temps change sudenly. That will be your cpu.

Hope this helps some.