I'm running xubuntu 11.4 on a Lenovo T520 (core i5-2520 CPU) laptop.

I have played several 1080p video files using mplayer and the playback went generally smooth, but once or twice every minute the video and the sound lagged for 2 or 3 seconds. When I played the same files with vlc all went OK.

How can I make mplayer play the 1080p video without lags?