I've downloaded a couple files with the .mkv extention. I eventually found out that it was a new type of avi called Matroska.

So, I downloaded the necessary files for playback, and tried opening the file up in WMP6.4. It looks great! However, the playback is incredibly jittery, and just plain unwatchable. The audio is fine, but the video drops countless frames.

So, I try opening the file in WMP9, ATI File Player, and any other program I have on my computer. I also tried whatever player it was that the creators of the format prefer, and all had the same jittery results. Furthermore, they all seemed to play it back with identical jitters (if that makes any sense). In other words, there are a few places in the file where the video will flow smoothly for about a second, then jitter again. These locations in the file seem to carry over between all the players, so I don't think it's an issue with the programs.

To add insult to injury, I shared the file on my network and had my roommate try to play it on his 500MHz Gateway. He had no problems! Grrr.

So I'm thinking there's a problem with either my video settings or my codec settings. I uninstalled and reinstalled all my codecs, and the problem was still there.

Any ideas??

No suggestions? I'm really starting to think I have a problem with video on my computer. I've had problems with a lot of files, and I had chalked it up to bad capture/encoding, but I just tested a few of them on the roommate's computer and they work fine.

These other files are 40MB AVIs, and they all play for about 1 second before the video freezes and sticks like that for the whole video. I can skip ahead and the audio will keep going, but the video is still stuck on that frame. Perhaps it got to the first keyframe and halted. Not sure.

The only connection I've seen between the two files is that the properties window in WMP6.4 says they're both calling on the DivX G400 codec. They might share more than that, and there might be other files that use it that are just fine.

Lil help?

The file format is Matroska
DefilerPak should allow you to play this file with WMP9 or Zoomplayer

Matroska changed it's file format from what is currently included in DefilerPak. If you still can't play it you can download it at http://www.matroska.org/

P.S. you may want to uninstall any other codec pak you have installed

Thanks for the reply, but as I said in my post, I'm able to play the file, but it's not playing well. I used the same installer on my machine as my roommate, and it plays fine on his.

I'll reply to myself again. Woohoo!

I completely uninstalled every video codec I could find on my PC. I had to manually delete system files and registry keys relating to DivX and XviD. I eventually got it to the point where WMP would open the Matroska file, but no video or audio would be present, and the properties page listed no codecs in use at all.

I then installed DivX from their own site, and followed that with the Nimo codec pack (with DivX de-selected).

The problem is still there just like it was before.

Probably no help to you, but my friend had the same problem with certain video files. Its perfect for some and not for other formats - tried a new hard disk, more memory, new CPU - same problem.

Swapped the mobo for an identical one and it was perfect. He just had a 'bad' board - don't know if it was an ide problem or not., but his PC had been somewhat clunky for a while.

Something to consider.

The stuttering problem might have nothing to do with your video codecs at all. It might be your sound card.

Sometimes a slow sound card (or poor sound card drivers, or incorrect PCI latency setting on the sound card, tweakable with PowerStrip) can use up too much CPU time and cause other things like video playback or 3D game framerates to drop.

Interesting. That's a possibility. I hadn't thought of it since the audio playback is without flaws. Perhaps it is being given the priority. Although a glimpse at the performance charts show that the CPU load isn't 100% even with several other programs open and running.

I'll have to try a few things, including tweaking my sound card (it's an old one, though).

*edit*
scratch that! got it working. I heard back from one of the Matroska people (www.matroska.org), and he offered some possibilities, one of which was simply downloading a later version of the Matroska filters.

Man, I don't know if it's this Matroska thing that's doing it or not, but I downloaded this 20-something minute anime episode, and even though it's 197MB, it's absolutely perfect! It runs at 640x480, not a frame is dropped (it seems to be running at the usual 29-something), and the image quality is amazing! It looks like a TV capture, but the quality hasn't diminished one bit. Extremely impressive.

Oh, and Rorouni Kenshin is one cool show.