a small problem

Well, my friend downloaded some movies via torrents,So now basically they are in .mkv format or matroska files,Whenever he runs them they deliver a very distorted display on his PC and when he tried them on my PC they worked properly... why is it? is it because of lesser virtual memory or something completely different.

Could be the media player or the PC's parts that aren't as good

Maybe because of less physical memory available, lacks of graphic card...How big is that file?

I was thinking so..The files are about 4 GB each.

I'm thinking he has a bad codec for mkv files, you should download the k-lite codec pack and run the movies using media player classic(it's already on your computer if you have xp). I had this happen before and it was indeed a bad codec.

Get the latest K-Lite Mega Codec from www.softpedia.com.If the display is still distorted and laggy..
That's mean your friends PC didn't have graphic card to accelerate it.
or maybe there's only few available memory to run it.
or the Hard disk only have few gb or mb left...

The K-lite codec pack is already installed, and he has about 5-6 GB free space on both drives. He doesn't concur despite some deleting and uninstallation.

psyrenThis guide is intended for use by those who are currently using the latest CCCP (version 2009-9-21 as of this guide). For those who are not using it, find a way to disable your codec pack's h264 decoder.Some preliminary steps:

• Don't use Windows Media Player or VLC. It makes this guide pointless. I recommend Media Player Classic (included in older CCCP releases), or the newer Media Player Classic Home Cinema (a custom build is included in the newest release as of the last update of this guide).
• Free up your RAM. A lack of free RAM has been known to cause buffering problems between your HDD and CPU when playing video on older PCs, made all the worse by the CPU barely being able to keep up. Download FreeRAM XP Pro and run it to clear some free space in your memory before attempting to play the video.
• This may sound arbitrary, but defragment the video file before playing it. Download Defraggler and use its function to defrag individual files.
• This is sort of a 'last resort' step, since it removes some of the eye candy that soft subs can provide.
  Pre-buffer the subtitles. This will cause special effects such as fading or dynamic resizing to not display, but it will remove a fair amount of laggy spots on h264 video.
  To do so, go to your CCCP start menu folder -> Filters -> VSFilter configuration. Go to the Misc. tab and check 'Pre-buffer subpictures'.
  Alternatively, if (for what ever reason) you use MPC's subtitle renderer, then go to MPC's options menu, click on the Subtitles option on the left side and make sure 'Number of subpictures to buffer ahead' is not set to 0. I have no idea what a good figure might be, as I've never had to use that option, but the default value is 3.

Now, onto the main part:Step 1)
Go to your CCCP start menu folder, and click on the settings icon. Uncheck the 'h264' button, then click Next -> Apply. You MUST do this step first in order for the next to work.Step 2)
Find and install CoreAVC Professional. Google (amongst other resources) is your friend here.Verify that playback will use the h264 codec you just installed instead of using ffdshow by playing a h264 video in MPC. If successful, the ffdshow video icon will not show up in your taskbar.
Done.Test out this fix with the Kanon 2006 OP upscaled to 1080p. More HD videos available from THORA's website.If, after applying these 'fixes', your PC is still unable to play SD h264 encodes, then it's definitely time for a new PC or an upgrade. Remember, it's not the codec at fault, it's your PC. Don't complain to us that the PC you bought when the Beatles were around can't handle it.

I try this method and it work for me when i was having problem with .mkv fileEdit: i forgot to say this but... uninstall all codec first before installing new one.. because it might have some software conflicts when you are trying to run the video.... so use either CCCP or K-lite...

Thanks, Phantom.. alot actually.. the guide's tremendous. ;D

Sometimes,
because of little space of hard disk left,
the screen be laggy and distorted just as I mentioned.
Anyway,
try phatom guide.