When we play high-definition (HD) videos on VLC Media Player that have large file sizes, the video doesn’t always play smoothly. The HD video may freeze or skip frames while the audio continues to play perfectly. Sometimes, the video might hang for a few seconds and loop around the same point again.
This can happen due to low cache values or improper configuration of the FFmpeg codec. Besides that, there can be other reasons as well. However, there are several ways to fix this issue. There isn’t a single perfect solution for fixing video freezing problems, so let’s go through a few methods that can help.
How to Stop HD Video from Freezing while Playing in VLC
Here are a few fixes you can try until the video plays smoothly on VLC Media Player:
1. Reset VLC Settings
First, try resetting all your VLC settings. There might be a setting that you previously tweaked that is now causing the HD video to freeze.
To reset VLC Media Player, follow these steps:
1. Open VLC Media Player on your computer.
2. Click on the Tools option in the top menu bar, then select Preferences.
3 In the Simple Preferences window, click the Reset Preferences button at the bottom.
4. A confirmation dialog box will appear with the message: “Are you sure you want to reset your VLC media player preferences?”
5. Click Reset to confirm. This will restore VLC Media Player to its default settings.
After that, close VLC Media Player and relaunch it. Now, try playing the HD video. If it plays smoothly, you’re good to go.
2. Increase Cache Values
To run any program on your system, it needs to cache some data. The same applies to video playback in VLC. VLC Media Player caches parts of the video from your hard drive into your computer’s RAM so it can play smoothly.
However, if the cache values are set too low, you may experience lag while playing HD videos, especially since these files are large. To fix this, you can increase the cache values.
1. Open VLC Media Player on your computer.
2. Click on Tools in the top menu bar and select Preferences.
3. In the Preferences window, click on All under the Show settings option.
4. Select Input/Codecs from the left panel and scroll down to the Advanced section.
5. Look for File caching (ms) and increase the value from 300 to 1000 or 2000 (milliseconds).
Note: You can also adjust disk and network caching values if needed.
6. Click Save and relaunch VLC Media Player.
After that, try to play the HD video again. If you’re still facing the same issues you can move to the next method.
3. Change Video Output Settings
You may also face HD video freezing issues if the video output settings are not configured properly.
Follow these steps to change the video output settings:
1. Open VLC Media Player.
2. Click on Tools and select Preferences.
3. In the Preferences window, go to the Video tab. Under Output, choose a different output mode such as OpenGL video output for Windows or DirectX (DirectDraw) video output. You can also try other available options.
4. Click Save, relaunch VLC Media Player, and try playing the HD video again.
4. FFmpeg Loop Filter Skipping
After following all the above methods if you are still facing the same issues. You can try changing FFmpeg Codecs.
1. Open VLC Media Player and go to Preferences.
2. Click on All under Show settings. Then navigate to Input/Codecs > Video Codecs > FFmpeg.
3. Under the FFmpeg audio/video decoder section, find Skip the loop filter for H.264 decoding and change it from None to All. Also, disable the hardware decoding option.
4. Click Save and relaunch VLC Media Player.
Conclusion
Try playing the HD video again after applying these fixes. If the issue still persists, it may be a limitation of your system hardware, such as insufficient RAM, GPU power, or CPU performance.
That’s it! These are some practical ways to fix HD video freezing issues in VLC Media Player. In most cases, adjusting the settings should resolve the problem. However, if nothing works, your system might not be powerful enough to handle high-resolution (HD/UHD) videos smoothly, and upgrading your hardware could be the only reliable solution.
