choppy live tv on my laptop

[#1]

I watch tv online, on my dell inspiron 1545... windows vista home premium... connected wirelessly to the router 12 inches away ...
whilst the tv prog is running,  the router Thomson TG585 v8 (updated software, I think) is flashing on the internet and wireless green leds .... t
his flashing is regular and both are in synch with each other...
the live tv ( and you tube vids) have choppy sound track as though on a record with a scratch and the needle is jumping...
Recent MBB speedchecks show a constant 6mg connection,  and usually this is rock solid....
any ideas how to solve this problem?

[#2]

Quote

the live tv ( and you tube vids) have choppy sound track as though on a record with a scratch and the needle is jumping...

Is the video skipping as well? if not the issue is more likely to be related to your laptop's sound card or possibly the audio drivers.
What you've mentioned re the LEDs sounds quite normal by the way as they flash to indicate sent and received data whilst the connection is in use.
Adam

[#3]

In addition to the above, is the video choppy if you connect the laptop with a network cable or does that solve the problem?

[#4]

The video is not usually choppy on the TV stream.... the sound appears to stop and then start, rather than "miss" a word/syllable.... the stop start delay is fractional, and the video is not affected at the same time...
On youtube vids, the problem only seems to be if the vid quality is 480 or above... if I reduce it to 360 ( or it is 360 ) then the soundtrack seems to run ok.  again, the video is not affected.
Unfortunately, for some reason, I cannot seem to get this laptop to connect to the router using the cable !.. it will only connect via wireless... and as the distance between the top of the laptop screen and the router antenna is only about 12 inches,.. sig strength is excellent.!
As far as I know all drivers are up to date... and the laptop is only 5 years old . The OS ( Windows Vista Home Premium)  is a new install, (fully updated)...  together with the new install of the Dell drivers from the cd. 

[#5]

Sounds like a matter of processing power, where the video stream, being the much larger stream is taking up most of the processing power, and the smaller audio stream is getting cut outs as a result. This doesn't occur with lower resolution videos because the video stream doesn't demand so much processing power. That could be down to your ram, cpu or graphics card not being up to the job.

[#6]

hmm... looks like I`ll just have to put up with it, until I win the health lottery and can afford a new laptop then! ..  Thanks for the info.