Why Is My GoPro Video Choppy on Computer? Fix It Right Now

Shooting photos and videos in full HD or 4K resolution with GoPro is really awesome if you haven't encountered the GoPro videos choppy problem when playing or editing those high-definition videos on your PC. When you import it to video editors for easy post-production, it still lags at the preview window.

Well, if you have the same GoPro HERO11, 10, 9, or 8 footage choppy, lagging, stuttering, skipping, or even in slow motion problems, have a look at possible reasons below. Each of which is given related troubleshooting tips. If you are sure the GoPro video choppy issue is due to your poor computer configuration and have no plan to upgrade it for the moment, do a quick fix for your video with VideoProc Converter AI.

Why Is My GoPro Video Choppy on Computer

Editing huge GoPro video files should take a mass of system resources. GoPro video stuttering on PC may occur when the computer not being able to process the data of the large HD video files fast enough. Yet, when the hardware is qualified to handle GoPro videos, the software may still make the video choppy due to improper settings or code missing/conflict.

Since most GoProers prefer to capture 1080p full HD and 4K, sometimes high-fps slow motion footages (in HEVC/H.264), to obtain crispy image quality, it will have a higher requirement on end playback machine.

A beefy machine is highly recommended building for deep GoPro players. But if you have no plan to upgrade your old machine right now, you can choose an alternative way to solve GoPro video choppy issue - resize/compress/transcode it with an easy GoPro video processing software - VideoProc Converter AI.

Solution 1. Fix the Choppy GoPro Video with VideoProc Converter AI

The poor hardware configuration of the computer is a large possible factor that may cause GoPro video skipping. If you have no plans to upgrade your computer hardware, it's a good idea to process your GoPro video into something more manageable. VideoProc Converter AI gives all-around solutions for different choppy GoPro footage with no visible quality loss. Please follow the steps below to fix the annoying playback error on your Windows or macOS computer.

Step 1. Launch VideoProc Converter AI

Open up VideoProc Converter AI and click "Video" button to pop up a video processing panel.

Step 2. Input GoPro Video with Choppy Playback Problem

Click "+Video (Folder)" button to import your GoPro video(s) with choppy playback issue. Drag and drop is also available.

Step 3. Choose the Right Way to Process Video

VideoProc Converter AI provides several ways to fix GoPro video choppy/lagging playback or editing. You can take one or more methods listed below according to your actual situation.

Step 4. RUN Video Processing

Click "RUN" to start transcoding or compression. VideoProc Converter AI would process your GoPro footage at high speed by automatically using hardware acceleration when it's available.

Solution 2. Check Your Computer Hardware Specs

A 1-min 4K@60fps GoPro video (with ProTune on) eats over 600MB memory, imagine how big file size it will be when recording a complete sports journey like boating, surfing and such. Editing huge GoPro video files should take a large amount of system resources and as the GoPro video data increases, so does the importance of a fast CPU and enough memory space.

So among computer hardware components, CPU, RAM, video card and hard drive are the main culprits for GoPro playback choppy. If any of them lags behind, your GoPro footage will look choppy and lagging. Just like me, it's right the less talented Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2300 CPU @ 2.80GHz and extremely limited RAM (2GB) that stop my high-resolution and high-speed GoPro videos play on my PC normally.

Solution 3. Update Drivers

If your computer is decent to keep up with the GoPro videos in high resolution, frame rate or bit rate, but it's still choppy, you're suggested to check whether the hardware driver is not upgraded in time. Keep the drivers up to date or if necessary uninstall and install them to receive normal performance.

Solution 4. Change the Video Player

If the problem with GoPro video choppy only happens when playing, it is recommended to change the video player and try to play it again. And VLC Media Player is one of the best out there. It's cross-platform and offers support for almost all video codecs. So follow the steps below and try to play your GoPro footage with VLC.

Step 1. Download VLC media player and install it on your device.

Step 2. Right-click on your GoPro video, and go to "Open with > VLC media player".

Solution 5. Terminate Apps Hogging System Resources

If your computer runs too many programs at a time, or some program eats up the system resources, your computer may not have enough system resources to play your GoPro footage smoothly.

To find out if there's a program eating up too many system resources, you need to open the Task Manager by clicking "Ctrl+Alt+Delete" on your keyboard. If you find a program that could be the culprit, right-click on the app to terminate it.

Solution 6. Record in a Lower Resolution & Turn Off Protune

If your computer suffers from playing the current video and the actual video file is likely fine, try to record in a lower resolution or frame rate instead. That means your computer will require fewer resources to process your video and thus give you smooth playback. Similarly, switching off Protune will also help.

Solution 7. Change GoPro Video Compression Settings

HEVC video compression options may cause GoPro video skipping when playback or editing. HEVC will reduce file sizes to maximize storage, but it doesn't work well with all devices and platforms. On the contrary, H.264 can maximize compatibility with older devices. So try to set your GoPro camera to compress the video in H.264 instead of just HEVC (H.265).

Go to Preferences > General > Video Compression. Uses H.264 to maximize compatibility and HEVC for advanced settings.

>> Learn more about GoPro video settings that use HEVC.

Solution 8. Adjust Software Cache Value

When hardware is qualified to handle GoPro videos, the software may still make video choppy and stuttering due to some improper settings or codec missing/conflict.

Cache setting is the most typical one. You have to know that when the video playback speed exceeds that of video decoding, source GoPro videos will be choppy and lagging. And when the video processing and playback speed doesn't match that of the audio file, you will see video pictures lag behind the audio. Taking VLC for instance, if video lags when their cache is defined in a high value, say 1000, you can try to lower it to 300 to see if there's any change on frame skipping.

Solution 9. Use Proxy Edit

Speak of video editing tools like Adobe Premiere Pro and Vegas, proxy ingest is worth a try to transcode large GoPro video before editing. Transcoding is an universal workaround when software fails to address some video codecs like HEVC.

Hardware acceleration usage is another cause for video choppy playback. Therefore, toggling hardware acceleration setting is another troubleshooting method.

Solution 10. Set Power Setting to High Performance

Power mode of the computer may also have effect on video display, so on Windows (10) PC, check and alter "battery/power saver" set to "high performance" under control panel -> power options.

Solution 11. Copy and Play GoPro Video on Your Computer

I placed this reason in the last one for that in a few cases certain GoProers get used to watching big GoPro videos directly from GoPro's SD card, but not keep them locally on the hard disk or SSD over USB 3.0 or similar fast connection to obtain the fastest possible playback. In these cases, even a fast graphics card has no idea on video choppy problem.

For Your Reference

Here are some system/hardware requirements for smooth GoPro 4K & HEVC video playback and editing.

GoPro videos are choppy anyway? Process them with VideoProc Converter AI with high quality.

If you have no idea on throwing away the choppy problem after trying all fixing tips related to software, driver, and hardware settings, it's time to invest a new machine or directly process GoPro (4K/HD) video with VideoProc Converter AI once for all.

This all-in-one video processing software is also capable of stabilizing your shaky GoPro footages, removing fisheye or annoying wind noise from your clips, forcing audio video sync in one click and do more video edits like rotating, flipping, adding subtitles/effects/watermark and more.

Hesitate no more and fix the GoPro videos choppy issue with VideoProc Converter AI.