Client stutter/jitter

[cmalinowski]

OK, I got my sageTV working well on my server. The server is a pIII coppermine 1.0gHz. I love it.

I purchased the client and put it on a laptop connected to 100mb wired lan. I was getting unwatchable video. It would show a frame, play a fraction of a second of sound, and then freeze for a second or so. Then do it all over again. It sucked. The machine was a 1.4gHz with 256mb and about 30gb left on hard drive and Win2k.

So, I did a network perf mon from the server, and the bytes/sec going out were very low and were that way for anything the laptop asked for. So, I switched to another laptop, and the bytes/sec from laptop2 topped out at the 100mb speed. So, I installed the client on laptop2 and abandoned laptop1. While it is trememdously better, it still only shows about every one out of three frames. It is very unwatchable. The bytes/sec from the server have not topped out, so I can only guess it is something wrong with my config on laptop2. Laptop2 is a 1ghz pent with 256mb as well and WinXP. The CPU is hitting near 95% which I don't quite understand either.

Any clues what could be causing this?

I changed the video settings from overlay to the other (can't remember name since I am at work). I put directx9 on. I am a novice at all this codec stuff and what not. Any help is appreciated.

The files are 3gb/hr. But, like I said, the network was not tapped out. It maxed out at ~1240000 bytes/sec which, if my math works, is right around 100mb speed. When the client was running, it topped out at around 780000 b/s. So, I wouldn't think it was recording quality (although I am going to play with that too when I get a chance).

Thanks for any help,
Chris