We have a few things for you to try that should help clear up the choppy playback issue you’re seeing on your Mac:
1.Make sure you copy your videos to your computer’s hard drive from your camera’s SD card before you play them back.
Playing back videos from your SD card can result in choppy playback.
2.Play back your videos with VLC Media Player.
This is a free program that doesn’t take up a lot of resources to run on your Mac. This means that your Mac can focus more on playing back your videos smoothly. We've found that it's common for Quick Time to give you choppy playback, so we recommend against using it. You can download VLC Media Player here: www.videolan.org.
3. Make sure that your Mac meets the minimum system requirements to play back videos from your GoPro camera.
For higher resolution videos (1080p 60fps and higher): We recommend at least 3.0 – 3.7 GHz Ivy Bridge processors (third-generation Core-based processors or AMD equivalent), 4 GB RAM, and a graphics card comparable to an NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M. The graphics card and processor speed is important particulary for 4K and 2.7K resolution video playback.
Here’s how you can check if your computer meets the minimum system requirements:
Click the “apple” icon in the top left corner of your screen, and then click “About this Mac”. Next, click “More Info…”
4. Record in a lower video resolution & turn off Protune.
If your computer can’t play higher than 1080p resolution smoothly, try recording videos at 1080p or lower instead. The lower resolution means that your computer will have less work to do when playing back the video, so it’ll have an easier time giving you smooth playback. If your camera is equipped with Protune, turn off this feature to make playback easier for your computer.
For those who wanna take 4K GoPro videos and preview on the camera and then can playback on old Mac, we suggest you to convert all GoPro Hero 4K videos to 1080p then play in 1080p and smart-render.
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Although there are numbered tools and utilities can convert and compress the ultra HD videos, few of them can process at a fast speed. Well, Pavtube Video Converter for Mac is considered to be the best 4K to 1080p converter. It is surely in the support of compressing GoPro Hero4 4K videos to 1080p faultlessly.
How to play GoPro Hero 4K videos smoothly on Mac?
Step 1: Download and have a quick installation. The trial version will have a watermark on your converted files. Except for that, there are no time limitation, no virus, and no unnecessary bundle apps while downloading. After that, click “Add Video” button to load your GoPro Hero 4K videos. You can load several files at once thanks to “Add from folder” button.
Step 2: Click the “Format” drop down list to select output format. If you want to play GoPro Hero 4K videos on decent media player, you’d better set a preset profile that best meets your needs. For instance, if you want to play GoPro Hero 4K videos on VLC smoothly, “HD Video>>H.264 HD Video (*.mp4)” would be the best choice.
Step 3: Click “Settings” button; you can adjust video and audio settings, including codec, aspect ratio, bit rate, frame rate, sample rate, and audio channel. To down-convert ultra HD 4K to 1080p, do remember adjusting video size to 1920*1080. That is the exact 1080p.
Step 4: After all the settings, you can preview the final result of movie. If you are happy with the effect, you can then press the big “Convert” button on the lower right to launch the conversion.
Conclusion: Wait a moment, and then the conversion will be done flawlessly. After conversion, click “Open Folder” button to locate the converted video files. It would be easier for you to playback GoPro Hero 4K videos smoothly on Mac.
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