Jerky DVD playback

I have jerky DVD playback on my laptop!

I am running a PIII 1100, 496 megs RAM and Windows XP, plus WinDVD decoder and a variety of players.

Until yesterday it was playing DVD movies perfectly, now suddenly they look really jerky.

The sound seems fine, and audio CDs play fine. It's just the video images that are bad.

Why the sudden change? Any ideas?

thanx,

patrick

(I tried to send this earlier but i don't think it worked - don't penalise me if this is the second time!)

 

Good question would be what has changed since the last time you used it and it performed correctly.

Install any new software, hardware ????
Change resoloution settings for video ????
Make any changes to the dvd player?????

What about background tasks running, if you use control alt delete and end task on unnecessary tasks does the playback improve?