Originally Posted By: tanstaafl.
The most likely culprit is my Tunebite program. It is a transcoder that sets up 28 virtual sound cards in memory, and transcodes up to 28 wma (or mp3) files simultaneously, playing them in 1:1 real time.
I take that back. I changed the directory path to the Tunebite executable so Windows couldn't find it, re-booted, and WMP still took 25 seconds to begin playing an mp3 file.

Next I downloaded and installed another music player (RealPlayer), rebooted, and played an mp3 file with it. It started instantly. Then, without rebooting I tried WMP. It performed with the usual 20-25 second delay. I rebooted, then tried a wmv video file and it started up after a 7 seconds delay. Subsequent plays of that or other video files, or of mp3 files, started instantly.

So, the problem seems to be with WMP, RealAudio does not have the delay, and in WMP both audio and video files are delayed on startup but only after a reboot. Tunebite seems to be off the suspect list.

tanstaafl.
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