Media Center DVD 'Stutters' on MEGA 865

Hi
I am an IT professional, but I am a newcomer to the MEGA series PCs.  I bought a MEGA 865 Delux for a 'computer newbie' friend as payment for a favour, and I am in the process of configuring it all now.  
Spec is
MEGA 865 flashed to bios 1.2
MSI DVD Player DR8-A2 BIOS 1.6
NO TV CARD (yet)
Win XP PRO SP2
512MB RAM
Celeron 2.0GHz (yes I know, but I had a new one going spare, it'll do for now)
I have applied ALL latest drivers
I have applied ALL latest BIOS patches
Windows XP is fully patched up to SP2
I am currently running in 1024x764 Truecolour 70Hz mode.
Everything works great, my friend should be really pleased with it  ... except  
MEDIA CENTER III !!!  
Now that was kind of the idea of buying the MEGA PC, my friend could use it with the remote control for DVD, Radio etc etc, but when I play a DVD using the media center it 'stutters', the video and sound are interrupted and it really is unwatchable.
Looking at the CPU resource is see that it is strained to 100% utilisation.
If I run the same DVD Movie with PowerDVD (came with the MSI DVD Drive), or even with Windows Media Player, it plays beautifully and the CPU is comfortably down at 40% utilisation.   Unfortunately the remote seems to do nothing for PowerDVD.
Is anybody finding that the Media Center works great on their system? (if so, what's the secret?)
Has anybody else encountered similar problems to mine?
Does anybody know how I could fix the problem so that when I present this great new system to my friend as an expression of my gratitude, it is not 'flawed'?
Please help if you can, I would like to deliver the system in the next couple of days.
Thanks
Steve

Thanks for the advice everyone.
After much searching I found the elusive registry changes and applied them to my system.  Unfortunately these changes made no discernable difference to the DVD playback.
While I appreciate that there are a number of Open Source projects in development (dependant on 'Girder', pay software that still does not appear to FULLY replace the advertised functionality of the Remote/LCD/Radio etc), and also alternative products that I could purchase, I do not feel that I should have to buy these to make my MEGA media center PC play DVDs.  
It's not as if the inability to play DVDs is a minor issue in a Media Center.  It's fundamental!!
If it will not work as a media center PC 'as supplied' then it seems to me that I should return it to the retailer and buy a 'Shuttle PC' for much less money.  I could spend the savings (I reckon on about £70) on a better CPU or just pocket the difference.  Features and software that do not work are of little use to anybody.
With all due respect to you all, if everybody who bought the system and had these problems returned it to the store as 'not fit for purpose' then I suspect MSI would have resolved the issue long ago.  It seems to me that end user tolerance has resulted in MSI's indifference.
If I have no fix by Thursday then it's back to the store.
I have mailed MSI Tech Support, hopefully they will come up with something as the system looks great otherwise.
Still open to suggestions that do not include 'break up the CD' or 'buy this other software'.
Thanks
Steve

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