VLC media player choppy playback

[Tones]

Okay, with a few video files I have, VLC will intermittently pause the video, while the audio continues. During the time, task manager shows VLC maxing out my CPU. The memory usage from the program remains pretty small, at about 55 mb. I tried searching through Google, but couldn't find any clear answers. Does this sound like a problem tied to my video card, a codec, the program, my processor (3 GHZ celeron I think), or something else? It's driving me slightly insane.

[cigsthecat]

Are they mkv files? They can be tough for older/slower computers.

[Rich]

is it only with the new VLC?

I've noticed some videos having trouble playing since I've upgraded.

[Tones]

I ended up updating to a newer version and it solved 95% of my problem. There's still some choppy areas, but it's no longer unviewable.

Edit: I went from .89X to the newest version fyi.