WMV HD files stuttering on the HD100

[infocus13]

Hey guys

First off some system specs. HD100 connected to an AMD X2 4200 server pc (2gb ram, 5xdisks with 2TB total), onboard video. Connected to the HD100 via a wired lan/switch. HD100 is connected to a 720p (max res is 1080i) CRT TV via HDMI. Resolution is 720p.

Everything about the HD100 is working fine except when I try to play my HD WMV video clips from the server on it (most of the clips are the ones from the Microsoft HD gallery/site http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...tshowcase.aspx, the 1080p "Coral Reef" clip is the one exhibiting the most problems) . The clips are stuttering badly. Whilst the clips are playing, the server CPU is sitting at around 50-60%, indicating that Sage is transcoding the clips and sending them across. Most of the clips are 1080i/p or 720p. My network usage meter indicates that only 3% of the bandwidth is being used.

If I change the video conversion quality in SageTV server properties from High to Standard, the stuttering mainly goes away (still a little bit let though). What could be the problem here??

1. Is my CPU just not powerful enough to transcode these files? Note that my usage is at 50-60%, not 100%.

2. When I had the server working as a dedicated HTPC, I had a 2600pro video card in it (which I removed when I got the HD100). All these clips played perfectly in that configuration. Should I put the card back into the server to help with the WMV transcoding?

3. I have a cheapo 8-port switch (non gigabit) which connects the server and the hd100. Could this be the problem? I read in one of the other posts on here that somene had a similar issue, which was fixed by replacing the cheap switch with a quality one...

4. I've also removed all video codecs (ffdshow) and decoders (cyberlink) from the server. Do I maybe need to install these back to assist with the transcoding?

Note I'm using the latest beta of Sage and hd100 firmware.

Any ideas guys?

Thanks in advance.