Choose a video card for smooth Blu-Ray playback

[wrburgess]

Purchase Date: This week
I use my Dell Studio Slim 540s PC as an HTPC. For the past 3-4 years, it played Blu-Ray movies without a problem.

Suddenly, all Blu-Ray movies started freezing my entire computer or stuttering when being played.

I can only guess that the PowerDVD software I purchased is no longer working well with the video card. Even purchasing ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 5 didn't help.

So, I'm hoping to upgrade my video card so that I can play Blu-Ray movies smoothly. I don't play games with this computer, so I'm hoping someone can assist with finding a video card below $50 for this purpose.

Thank you for any help.

Usage: Blu-Ray Movies
Op system: Windows 7
Current GPU: ATI Radeon HD 3400
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 @ 2.66 GHz
RAM: 6 GB
Monitor: Samsung DLP TV via HDMI

 

[jaguarskx]

Before buying anything, did you install any new programs, or upgrade any particular programs?

Have you tried simply re-installing the video card drivers?

If you basically have not changed anything in your PC, then it is possible that the video card is starting to fail.