2012-05-02, 03:01
I've been running XBMC on my Windows XP HTPC for a couple of years, and playback has always been smooth. My video collection consists of BlueRay MKV files. Now, in XBMC, the video will hang for a fraction of a second, then it seems to rush to catch up, and this repeats every few seconds. The image also seems to break up horizontally in panning shots. The same video will play without a problem in any of my external players (KM Player, Media Player Classic, Zoom) so the MKV files themselves are okay.
I've ruled out a software issue by testing an older image of the system on the hard drive from back when I know XBMC played smoothly. The drive did recently show an error on a diagnostic test, however chkdsk fixed it and it now tests clean, but I'm still suspicious. Does XBMC use the system hard drive at all in video playback? For example, XBMC is on my C drive, and all of the videos are on external drives. Is XBMC buffering on the C drive when it's playing from an external drive? If so, I probably just need a new C drive.
Any ideas would be appreciated.
I've ruled out a software issue by testing an older image of the system on the hard drive from back when I know XBMC played smoothly. The drive did recently show an error on a diagnostic test, however chkdsk fixed it and it now tests clean, but I'm still suspicious. Does XBMC use the system hard drive at all in video playback? For example, XBMC is on my C drive, and all of the videos are on external drives. Is XBMC buffering on the C drive when it's playing from an external drive? If so, I probably just need a new C drive.
Any ideas would be appreciated.