Optimization
This section is intended for users who might be having problems playing back HD videos at full speed even with programs such as VLC media player that uses little resources.
Users with older systems with Pentium D, Pentium 4, or earlier processors might have trouble with playing HD videos, even if their processor has a pretty high clock rates. I know I definitely did.
I have found 3 possible solutions to this problem and one of them won’t cost you anything. Which is good for poor college students such as myself ^_^.
1) The best and free solution in my opinion is to use fddshow tryouts with Media Player Classic. After you install it open up the 3 configuration menus (audio, video, VFW) and for each one right-click anywhere in the right side scroll box under Decoder and select “Set all stable formats to libavcodec”.
fddshow tryouts is an excellent media player add on and it DRAMATICALLY speeds up HD video playback. Besides that, it is also constantly being developed and improved.
2) The second and cheapest solution is to use the CoreAVC codec with your default media player. This codec also speeds up HD video playback but unlike fddshowtryouts it will cost you. The bright side is that they give you a trial period to decide if you want to buy it or not.
3) For those who have an extremely ancient computer and the above two doesn’t work for you, it’s probrably time for an upgrade. But before you do, here are some things you might want to try to speed things up.
- Remove Spyware/Adware!
Most of the time spyware and adware are installed on your computer without your knowledge from the sites you visit or the programs that you install. The best way to remove them is to use an adware/spyware removal program such as Ad-Aware and Spybot. Doing so will free up some system resources and might just give you that extra boost to get full playback speed.
-Remove Viruses!
I don’t think I have to say much about this topic. Viruses are intended to do harm to your computer in one way or another and it’s best not to have them. A program that I recommend for virus detection and removal is AVG Free.
If you have your virus definitions updated regularly this program will detect any known virus in its database as soon they hit your computer and the best thing of all is that it’s free.
- Defragment your hard drive!
A fragmented drive will always perform slower than one that isn’t fragmented and will slow down your system. The best defragmentation program that I have used to date has to PerfectDisk by Raxco Software. The program is not free but you can use it for 30 days and hopefully that will be enough time to defragment your drive. Smart Defrag is also a nice free alternative and is also rather fast.
