I have heard this is an Ati Catalyst issue yet I am using a NVidia GTX 780 Ti with 347.09 driver and have the same issue. the game hardly starts, it freezes or stalls within the movie and when I try and hit escape to bypass the movies it won't allow me to do so. would like to see the movies yet could live without them however, it takes 2 minutes for the game to get to the point where I can hit escape. also you have to skip the logo, then the movies ect too much trouble to play going through this everytime I start the game! very frustrating! :(

Are you running in admin mode?

Are you running it in compatibility mode windows XP service pack 3?

Did you install it to the C drive directly rather than Program Files?

Have you run the 1.69 critical rebuild?

I installed it to the d drive under D:\GOG Games\Neverwinter NIghts Diamond Edition my c drive is SSD and is used for OS only D is a hard disk WD Black.
did not install critical rebuild. to my memory I had installed Critical rebuild 1.69 once before and it caused some problems
I tried running it in admin/windows xp sp 3 same thing movies choppy and it stalls as I hit escape key.

on my configuration I got this problem fixed by downloading Alchemy. this only works for Creative sound cards though. I also tried RAD 3D decent but creative better(for my card). thanks anyway.

Glad it seems like you got it working. I'd still recommend running the critical rebuild, especially if you're planning on playing custom campaigns (which you should, because many are better than the official Bioware campaigns) or playing on online persistent worlds.

The critical rebuild is usually applied to *fix* the Silver Surfer as you call it, so that's interesting to hear (see this thread as an example: http://www.gog.com/forum/neverwinter_nights_series/silver_skin_characters_cannot_start_game ).

Here's a link to the rebuild on the new vault: http://neverwintervault.org/patch/nwn1/english/nwn-sou-hotu

To be honest with you, it's much less hassle to skip them in-game and watch the cinematic sequences on Youtube. I just made a bookmark, and whenever I get to them in-game, I ESC and watch that clip

Much less stressful :)