Computer help: streaming videos stutter during playback

streaming videos stutter during playback

I recently decided to resurrect my 3-4 year old desktop computer for the purpose of watching streaming movies on my 1080p LCD HDTV.

My current setup:
2.4 GHz pentium 4 processor
1 GB ram
ATI Radeon 9550 256mb AGP
running windows vista business (with all updates)

and I'm connecting to the TV (Samsung 1080p LCD) using a VGA connection.

But I've been having problems with video playback, movies constantly stutter, essentially only showing 1 frame every second or so, which is, needless to say, completely unwatchable.

I don't think the problem is with the internet connection, I'm using a wired cable internet connection. I suspect the problem is with my outdated graphics card, what graphics card would you recommend for watching streaming HD movies? my budget is somewhat limited, and so is my motherboard (only supports AGP or PCI, no PCI express).

Any other tips regarding my current setup would also be appreciated. Should I downgrade to XP? Should I upgrade the RAM? Would a DVI connection be better than VGA? or do I just have to mess with the settings to get it playing correctly?


Thank you, I would really appreciate any help with this.