Problems with mp4 HD video on old computers or Windows XP.

I recently changed the format of the videos from WMV (Windows media video) to MP4 (H264 codec).  The old format, WMV is based on a codec created in 2002, 11 years ago. Nowadays there are better codecs that allow an incredible quality, and even using less disk space. The videos are now 1080p and not 720p, however there will be problems with old computers playing the HD video.

The previous WMV codec had a great compatibility with Windows operating system, but not for other systems like smartphones, tablets or Mac. Everyday there is a bigger number of customers using iPad, smartphones or Mac to watch the videos, and sadly they were having issues playing WMV videos. Also many of you were demanding the highest quality possible and using less disk space, as nowadays computers have enough power to handle such video codecs (even tablets and smartphones can do it). So I had to switch to a new format compatible with the new technologies, and also satisfying those who wanted the best quality.

So the problem with the new mp4 format here is with old computers and/or old operating systems.

If you have an old computer running Windows XP or Windows Vista, and your videos won't play or are pixelated, follow those instructions:
       
1.) Turn OFF Hardware acceleration: The most weak point on old computers is the graphic card. A 2.4GHz CPU has enough power to render the MP4-H264 videos, but most of the times the video player tells the graphic card to render the video, which is not the best idea with modern complex codecs.

              a ) To turn off hardware acceleration on Windows Media Player follow those steps. This will solve pixelation and choppy playback on Windows Media Player.

              b. ) If you use VLC player, go to preferences and turn off ‘GPU accelerated decoding’.

2. ) Install updated video codecs. If you play the videos using Windows Media Player you may install a codec pack to play MP4 videos with updated codecs. K-lite codec pack http://codecguide.com/download_kl.htm is in my opinion the best codec pack available for Windows users (highly recommended for XP or Vista users). Select the Full version of this codec pack.
This pack also includes "Media Player Classic Home Cinema" which is a simple but solid player that can play almost anything at the best CPU performance, and it was my favourite player when I was a Windows user.

For Netbooks with Atom CPU, read the next post below.

I hope this tips helps you to enjoy the HD videos on an old computer.

Also if your CPU is too slow for HD playback (720p and 1080p) for example netbooks based on Atom processors, there is a way for fixing it. On this netbooks based on Atom processors you may need to use GPU acceleration, which will increase video playback performance immensely and takes quite some workload off your CPU.

Video card manufacturers have been embedding video decoding codecs in their cards for some time now, but if you want GPU accelerated HD video, you need at least an ATI Radeon 3000 series or Nvidia Geforce 8000 series ( GTX 640/320 and older excluded). This can also be done on laptops, if you have a dedicated video card and not integrated graphics. Follow instructions:

   1.) Download Media Player Classic: Home Cinema (GPU accelerated).
   2.) Extract it somewhere on your drive (you will need WinRAR for this).
   3.) Go inside "mpc_gpu" folder and run the executable "mpc-hc.exe".
   4.) A quite old-school looking player will open, but it is one of the most powerful. Before using it for x264 playback, you should modify one option. Go to "View" - "Options". In the left field select "Playback" and after that "Output". All you have to do is change DirectShow preference. If you are running Windows Vista or Windows 7, please change it to "EVR" and if you are running Windows XP, change it to "VMR9 (renderless)".



After that click "Apply" and you are done.

   5.) Now you can watch HD videos and your GPU should be doing the work. In all other video players settings will remain unchanged- no GPU acceleration there

Some netbooks already support GPU video acceleration and can play HD videos smoothly even though they are based on a power-saving Atom processor.

Get the GOM player.  It solves everything, and is a no-brainer.  With terrific capabilities, like freeze frame, and easy snapshotting.