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[Dilbert]

When I run the iTunes visualization at full screen, it is fine for about a minute, and then the audio starts stuttering BADLY. Any ideas on what can be causing this problem?

I seriously doubt it's my PC configuration -- it's a pretty high-end machine -- but in case the info is helpful:

Athlon 64 3200+
1 GB DDR SDRAM
ATI Radeon x800 Pro
Audigy 2 ZS

 

[Manics]

When I run the iTunes visualization at full screen, it is fine for about a minute, and then the audio starts stuttering BADLY. Any ideas on what can be causing this problem?

I seriously doubt it's my PC configuration -- it's a pretty high-end machine -- but in case the info is helpful:

Athlon 64 3200+
1 GB DDR SDRAM
ATI Radeon x800 Pro
Audigy 2 ZS

You wanna play iTunes visulalization at full screen and not have your audio stutter? What do you think this is Star Trek? :lol

 

[StrikerObi]

I didn't know people even still used visualization. I thought it was a fad that died the year it got big.

 

[Manabanana]

I just used mine at full screen for about 5 minuntes and had no problems, Manics. I'm on an Apple machine, though so it may be design more efficiently for OSX.

 

[God's Hand]

iTunes PC is poorly designed. I believe the visualization for iTunes Mac uses OpenGL, therefore using your GPU. I'm positive the PC version uses the CPU.

 

[Dilbert]

iTunes PC is poorly designed. I believe the visualization for iTunes Mac uses OpenGL, therefore using your GPU. I'm positive the PC version uses the CPU.

Right...except that my CPU should be able to handle ANYTHING iTunes can throw at it.

 

[Anthropic]

What you want is GeForce.

The iTunes visualizer is a actually an ancient fork of GeForce (from when iTunes was SoundJam), that in this case has also been ported to PC. I have a feeling Apple never did any low level optimization of the visualizer, so it's not surprising that basically, it sucks. GeForce, on the other hand is constantly updated and the performance kicks ass. You can use it with basically any player under the sun for both Windows and Mac OS X.

The author is also rewriting the already fast geForce math engine and expects to release the next version of GeForce with even more serious perforance gains sometime in the coming months. He's also mentioned that he's looking into OpenGL support.

Also, the stuttering problem may be a Quicktime config problem. In the QT Player, under Edit->Prefs->Sound Out, you have to tell it to use waveOut rather than DirectSound. Annoyingly, QT forgets this after upgrades.