Which OS will give the best performance?

[Adora]

I am currently attempting a 'dvd player replacement' type setup after upgrading to a new laptop, and my video playback quality is horrible. VLC is always at 100%, and the sound is usually choppy. Since VLC will be the sole purpose for this laptop, I am quite willing to change operating systems for maximum performance (unless there's one simple option I'm overlooking, but I'm still open to all suggestions). DVD playback is the worst, even at 1/4 size (but works perfectly in other players such as powerdvd).

I have the most experience with *bsd flavors, but know enough (ie. know enough people ) to setup most any other common *nix version. I do all my work by commandline, though, so I have little GUI experience. I've recently setup Exceed on the laptop I'll be controlling from if that helps the solution any.

Specs:
VLC 0.7.2 wxWindows interface
Windows XP (all gui enhancements disabled)
Dell Latitude c600 850mhz 256mb ram
Mobility M3 video card (reports 8mb)

Desired functionality:
Control on one display and video on the other (working under Windows)
Autoplay dvds/cds/burned divx
watching divx from local and wireless network drives (.mov and .wmv too occasionally)
Easily remote controlled interface (I've been radmin-ing from my new laptop to the old one)
I also have a creative serial ir receiver that I've been playing with in winlirc...setting up lirc and vlc would be a BIG bonus!

I hope I'm not demanding too much information here. I'm not looking for a step by step solution, but a discussion of which OS runs VLC the best and pointers to the next step. I'm just trying to include as much other helpful information that I can.

[dumarjo]

on wireless media is not easy to get good result. the transmiter of wireless is constant rate ..

my 0.2$

[danny]

M mom's friend attempted to watch a dvd and the playback was shockingly bad. Their were 9 family/friends there and it was embarassing i'm sure for the woman who's pc we were using (it was skipping frames, skipping sound and then crashed)

All i can say is try dvd's in any mac using os x and you will be happy.