Choppy, Jerky, Jumpy or Skipping Video Playback | 6 Fixes

Eleanor Reed

Dec 16, 2024 • Filed to: Photo/Video/Audio Solutions • Proven solutions

Choppy, jumpy, or jerky video playback not only ruins the video watching experience but can also be extremely frustrating at times. Most people think that they can't do anything about it which is wrong and, if you are facing this issue of jumpy video playback, then you are in the right place as here you will learn how to fix choppy videos quickly.

Solution 1. Check Another Media Player

The choppy video playback can be due to the corruption of the video file or video settings of your video player. The first solution is to try any other media player to stream your video. There are dozens of media players out there and some of the most popular are following

• VLC
• Windows Media Player
• Media Player Classic
• Winamp
• KMPlayer
• DivX Player
• Kodi

These media players can run almost any kind of video especially VLC and Media Player Classic. The best thing about these media players is that they are easily available and super easy to install. You can switch to any one of them if your existing media player is not working. If switching of media player does not work then you can tweak your media player settings and here is how you can do it.

Set Preferences in VLC

VLC is one of the best media players which can automatically adjust its settings to match the video's requirements to provide the best viewing experience to its users without any fuss but sometimes it also fails to run videos smoothly. In this case, you can do a couple of things.

1: Disable Hardware Acceleration Decoding

To do it you need to go to "preferences" in the "tools" section. You can also press ctrl+p to open the preferences dialogue box as shown in the figure below.

Open VLC and select "Preferences" in the "Tools" dropdown menu

The next step is to disable hardware acceleration decoding. In this way, VLC will not check the video for compatibility and play the video smoothly.

2: Change Video Output Preference

If the aforementioned solution doesn't work, then you can change the video output. To do this, go to the preference and in the "video" tab change the output. You can try different output options until you get the desired results.

Solution 2. Use Video Repair Software

Sometimes videos don't stream smoothly because of improper conversion, video file corruption, improper download, and downloading from unverified sources. These issues can't be solved by just changing the media player. These deep-rooted technical problems require video repair tools to correct choppy video playback. There are lots of tools out there that can help you to repair your corrupted video

Wondershare Repairit Supported Corruption Scenarios

It can repair a wide range of corrupted files with any corruption scenarios including corruption of video file header, audio-video synchronization problems, Error in loading video in media player, and choppy, skipping, or jerky video playback.

Video Corruption Causes Repairable by Wondershare Repairit

Videos can get corrupted during shooting, file transferring, editing, converting, or processing and Recoverit can repair all these corrupted videos. Memory card/storage device error, file transfer error, improper system shutdown, and virus attacks can also corrupt video files can also corrupt videos and. Wondershare Repairit Video Repair can repair all these corrupted videos.

Additional Features of Wondershare Repairit 

This tool can also repair multiple videos simultaneously with different formats. It allows users to preview the video before saving it. It is compatible with all popular operating systems including Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP and macOS. There is no limit to file size and number as you can repair any number of videos with any size using this tool.

This tool supports all popular video formats including MOV, MP4, M2TS, MKV, MTS, 3GP, AVI, and FLV.

Step 1: Add corrupted video

It is easy to add corrupted video, click on the "Add" button or "Add video and start repairing" to load the desired video.

Step 2: Repair the corrupted video

Click on the "Repair Video" button to start the repairing process. The software will repair your video effectively.

And after successful completion, you will be able to preview and save your repaired video.

Quick Repair Mode

This is the Quick Mode for video repair. It is best for those videos which don't shutter too much. This mode quickly repairs the video and to do this repair users only need to open the software and upload their jerky video.

Advanced Repair

This is also Advance Mode to repair video. To run this model, you will need some sample videos shot by the same device. The sample video is a video file of the same format as that of the corrupted file but it must be created from the same device and it should be working properly.

Recoverit will repair your corrupt videos by analyzing the data and technology of the sample video. This mode is best if your video files are severely corrupted and you have a sample video with you.

In this mode, Wondershare Repairit Video Repair uses information from the working sample files and repairs the corrupted files. It also repairs corrupted data headers.

Step 3: Save video

After a successful repair, you can build a new folder to save the video or save the video to the desired location.

Solution 3. Update Driver Software

Sometimes videos don't play smoothly not because of video corruption but because of video drivers in your device. Your device must have appropriate video drivers to play videos without interruption. So it is recommended to check video drivers before taking any step. Usually, new Windows like Windows 8 and Windows 10 automatically install important drivers but sometimes these drivers get deleted or outdated due to which you may face issues like choppy video streaming. To solve the issue of jerky video playback windows 10 or any other Windows operating system you have the following two options

1. Update Video Driver
2. Reinstall Video Driver

Update Video Driver

To update the video driver you need to go to "device manager" and then click on the "display adaptor". The dropdown list will show all drivers related to your display. You need to update them by right-clicking on them and then clicking on the "update driver software" button.

After this following dialogue box will open. You can click on the "Search automatically" option. In this way, your system will automatically find the updated version of the selected driver on your computer and the internet.

After this step, you can update other drivers associated with video and display like monitor driver and Graphics card drivers.

Install/Reinstall Video Driver

Sometimes operating system or user can install the wrong driver and do install the right driver you can uninstall the existing one by just click on the "uninstall" button in the drop-down menu.

This will uninstall the existing driver and then you will need to download the appropriate driver as per your device and operating system. After installing a new driver your videos will run smoothly. Although the images are of Windows 7 you can resolve the windows 10 choppy video problem by following the same process. All you need to do is to have to download an updated version of your display drivers.

Solution 4. Change the Video Parameters

The size and resolution of your video may prevent your device to play it smoothly. You can reduce the resolution and size of your jumpy video to make it compatible with your device. There are lots of websites and free tools that can help you reduce the resolution and size of your video but the best way to do it is to use the VLC media player. To use VLC for choppy video playback windows 10 you need to download and install VLC first. It is recommended to install the latest version from their official website.

After installing VLC, open it, and go to the "Media" button at the top right. Click on the "convert/save" button in the drop-down menu.

The next step is to add the source file and click on the "convert/save" button.

In the next dialogue box as shown in the figure below select the "convert" option.

In the profile section, you can change the file size, resolution, fps, and format. You can reduce 1080p, 60 fps video to 720p, 30fps to play it smoothly. The only issue with this solution is that it reduces the quality of your video file and you may not want to do it, especially when you don't want to compromise on your visual experience.

Solution 5. Check the Computer Compatibility

One of the most common reasons for choppy video is the incompatibility of the device with the video that the user wants to stream. The world of technology is expanding very quickly, and now Ultra HD videos are available on the internet. These videos provide an extremely realistic visual experience, but all devices can't stream these videos efficiently. Due to this reason, it is advised to equip your device with all those tools which are necessary to play these videos.

For instance, to stream 1080p video with 60 fps (frames per second) your device must have the following minimum requirements

• 3.0 GHz processors
• 6 GB RAM
• Video card like GeForce GT 650M

If your device does not meet these minimum requirements, then the 1080p video will skip and chop in your device. To check the system information of your computer you need to go to "My Computer" and then right-click on any place. Select "properties" in the drop-down menu.

After clicking on the "properties" button window will appear with all your system specifications.

To check your graphic card, you can click on the "Device Manager" button at the top right as shown in the above image. So, before downloading any video you must ensure that your computer will support that video otherwise the video will not play smoothly.

Solution 6. Re-download Your Videos

You can face the issue of jumpy video due to improper downloading of video. Lots of users use their browser's downloading tool to download videos. These tools download videos properly but these tools don't utilize internet speed properly and take too much time in downloading the video. Moreover, generally, these tools don't even allow users to pause and resume downloading.

Due to these reasons, users may install unreliable video downloaders or pirated version of any popular video downloader. These third-party downloading tools may cause improper downloading which in turn can lead to video chopping. The best way to resolve this issue is to re-download your video using any reliable downloader.

This solution is the last resort because if you have a video in your hard drive and some parts of it are streaming then there is a very low chance that re-downloading will work. This solution may work best if your video is not streaming at all and the video format is strange. You can check the video format by right-clicking on your video. In the drop-down menu click on the "properties" button. A dialogue box will open where you will be able to check the video format.

What Is Video Stuttering and How to Prevent It

Video shuttering is the faulty video playback in which video or audio of a video file jump, skip, chop or jerk together or separately during video streaming. It ruins the video watching experience and can hinder important information displayed in the video. It also includes lagging of either video or audio that makes it almost impossible to watch the video.

Lots of causes of video shuttering has been discussed and here is the overview of all these causes.

Media Player Issues:

If the media player is outdated, unpopular, unreliable, or downloaded from an untrustworthy source then you may face video chopping.

Computer Issues:

Outdated graphics driver and windows (operating system), infected operating system, improper system shutdown, and incapability of computer to play certain videos also causing video shuttering.

File Creation Issues:

Improper file recovery, conversion, editing, compression, downloading, and transfer can cause file corruption which may lead to video shuttering

Unique Video Format:

Sometimes unique or new video formats also create issues. The MKV playback choppy video was also because most media players didn't support this format. Even now lots of media players don't play MKV videos smoothly.

All these proven solutions to fix choppy playback can help you to enjoy your video and can even bail you out of any serious situation. So next time when someone you care about says "videos are choppy on my computer" you know how to help him out. If you don't want them to go through all this fuss then you can recommend them to video repair software like Wondershare Repairit Video Repair which can automatically repair all sorts of corrupted video files quickly and efficiently. Try It Free the video repair tool to repair videos from the camera or any other device.