Probably the most complicated setup imaginable... please help.  

Ok.. so I will admit that I ended up with this setup completely due to piss poor planning.. I had no intention of going this route.. but alas, here I am.

Here are the basics...

I have my primary desktop PC (XP) in my den.. I used it to rip my DVD collection to disc as .ISO images.. I use a product called VirtualCloneDrive to "mount" the .ISO image as a drive.  This lets the PC play it as if it is a DVD in a drive.  Works great.

I have another desktop PC (XP) connected via HDMI to my plasma in my living room.. works great.  I have it connected to my network via 802.11n and it shows 77% signal strength.

Here is where I really push my luck....

I map a network drive from the living room PC to the den PC's shared folder containing the .ISO.  I then "mount" the .ISO from the network drive using VirtualCloneDrive and then open it using PowerDVD or Windows Media Player.

It kinda works.  It clips and studders a lot.  It works slightly better in WMP than in PowerDVD.

I am not interested in using that PC as a DVR.. I really just want to use it to allow me to watch the DVD .ISO images.

I used to have 802.11g.. 802.11n didnt make much difference at all.  I cant reduce the resolution on the movies since it is playing on a 50" tv.

I am hoping some people here have been sucessful in making this work... if so, how?  Are there ways of tuning the wireless router (dlink dir-655)? or a better player that will stream smoother (buffer)?  a different file format? Something short of "youre screwed, buy a new setup".

Thanks for the time.
-Matt

 I tried running the video reduced in size to 50% to make sure it wasnt a full screen issue.. doesnt seem to make a difference.  CPU and memory are not pegged... video card is a fanless AGP Geforce 5200 w/HDTV out.

Currently I am copying a 7gb iso to the media pc to try and run it locally to determine if the issue is with the network capacity or with the player/codec/etc..

.. Still looking for suggestions.