HomeChoppy GoPro Hero 4K Playback in VLC
Have shot some 4K video with your GoPro Hero 4 or GoPro Hero 5, when you try to play them with the powerful 4K video player - VLC media player on PC or Mac, you may often suffer the choppy playback issues just as the conditions listed below:
"Having an issue here where I'm trying to playback 4K video from my GoPro in VLC and it's super choppy, more actually freezes and that's it. It's not a CPU issue as the CPU isn't pegged at 100. I tried it in the Movied and TV player in Windows 10 and it works perfectly. Any idea? I have GPU decoding enabled and I'm running a 980TI so I don't think it's related to that."
Although VLC is claimed as the King of all media, however, people still have choppy or skipping issues when using VLC to play high definition especially 4K resolution video.
Fix VLC Choopy playback GoPro Hero 4K video
Solution 1: Find best 4K video player to VLC
Since 4K support on VLC isn't good now, therefore, it would be essential for you to find other 4K video players as VLC alternative for playing GoPro Hero 4K video. The following article has picked 3 best options for you.
Top 1: Media Player Classic and K-Lite Codec Pack (for Windows only)
Media Player Classic, also known as MPC, is an open source free media player, mimicking the look and feel of Windows Media Player 6.4. As a matter of fact, MPC on its own cannot play 4K UHD videos. It needs the help from K-Lite Codec Pack. To make things easier, you are suggested to download K-Lite Codec Pack full package which covers Media Player Classic. Despite that it can work on even the oldest computers, you still need a more powerful system to perform 4K playback.
Top 2: KMPlayer (for Windows & Mac)
KMPlayer supports for various file formats and can play videos in remarkable good quality, including 4K UHD. The disadvantages of KMPlayer is that the PC edition only works on Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7(32bit). If you need a 4K video player for Windows 10, 8.1 or 7 (64bit), you'd better choose another program, such as 5KPlayer.
Top 3: Divx Player
DivX Player is another good 4K video player. It is capable of playing videos in MKV, HEVC (H.265), AVI, MP4, DIVX and more. While playing 4K videos via DivX, you can fast forward or rewind to your wanted time point quickly, select chapter, create playlist based on your own needs, and switch seamlessly among soundtracks to hear other languages. And Resume Play enables you to jump right back into the scene you left off quickly.
Solution 2: Compress GoPro Hero 4K to 1080p
For those people who insist on playing GoPro Hero 4K video with VLC, then the most effective solution is to compress 4K to 1080p. Here, you can get the job easily completed with our best 4K video compressor - Pavtube Video Converter. With the program, you can batch load multiple GoPro Hero 4K video into the program for compressing to 1080p or 720p in various different HD file formats including H.264 HD MP4, H.264 HD MOV, H.265 HD, MPEG-4 HD MP4, MPEG-2 HD, MPEG-TS HD, MKV HD, WMV HD, Divx HD, AVI HD, BDAV HD, etc for smoothly viewing on VLC with no choppy or lagging issue.
If you wish to play compressed GoPro Hero 4K video on hot devices or importing to popular video editing application, you can also choose to use our program to directly output devices or editing program preset profile formats with the optimal playing or editing settings.
For Mac users, you can download Pavtube Video Converter for Mac to perform the conversion on macOS High Sierra, macOS Sierra, Mac OS X El Capitan or Mac OS X Yosemite, etc.
Step by Step to Convert and Compress GoPro Hero 4K for VLC Smooth Playback
Step 1: Load GoPro Hero 4K video.
Download the free trial version of the program. Launch it on your computer. Click "File" menu and select "Add Video/Audio" or click the "Add Video" button on the top tool bar to import GoPro Hero 4K video files into the program.
Step 2: Define the output format.
Clicking the Format bar, from its drop-down list, select one of VLC best compatible HD file formats such as "H.264 HD Video(*.mp4)" under "HD Video" main category.
Step 3: Downscale GoPro Hero 4K to 1080p.
Click "Settings" on the main interface to open "Profile Settings" window, in video section, from "Size(pix)" drop-down list, choose "1980*1080" or "1080*720" to compress GoPro Hero 4K to 1080p for smooth playback.
Step 4: Begin the conversion process.
After all setting is completed, hit the "Convert" button at the right bottom of the main interface to begin GoPro Hero 4K to VLC best compatible HD format conversion and compression process.
When the conversion is finished, click "Open Output Folder" icon on the main interface to open the folder with generated files. Then you can smoothly play GoPro video with VLC media player.
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