As a powerful media player, VLC is widely used nowadays and welcomed by many video enthusiasts. Almost all audio and video formats could be compatible with VLC streaming media player. Even though VLC media player is quite great in playing various videos and audios, it may also run into some technical problems like other software. One of the most common technical issues is VLC stuttering or jumping while playing. Then why does the problem of VLC stuttering happen? How to solve VLC stuttering? Actually, there are a number of ways you can try to fix VLC stuttering. If you are looking for solutions, you can stop here. This article will have a clear discussion on VLC stuttering. Just follow the instructions below.

Why is VLC stuttering?

Many users have reported that one of the most common issues they face while using VLC Media Player is stuttering or jumping while playing. More specifically, the audio and video are not consistent, or they may not play simultaneously at the same time.

As a result, VLC may skip some parts of the video or audio, and that is not an experience any of us want when we are playing back some media. This problem is much more pronounced for higher quality videos like 4K, 2K, and 1080p HD videos due to their larger file sizes. This could be because VLC is not fully developed to support higher quality video files. Another possible reason is the security flaw that VLC had until recently.

Anonymous and remote attackers could take advantage of the vulnerabilities of this application, and one of the problems observed from those attacks was a compromised experience during media playback. For users with older computers, that could also be the problem because computers have been getting faster over the years, and newer software is highly configured to fit-in with newer hardware. Cache values might also be too high, and hardware decoding might also be another possible reason. If you are looking for solutions to fix this problem, you have come to the right place. We will now start presenting the solutions for you.

How-to-Solve-VLC-Stuttering

Solution 1: Modify Parameters

The first way you can choose to solve VLC stuttering is to check the parameters of this media player which may influence the fluency of the playback. Sometimes, if the caching value is too high, then it may result in that there will be a larger lag when you want to manually skip to a new point and the video will be choppy. It is quite easy to modify this parameter. You only need to go to the settings window at the bottom of the dialog, scroll down to select "All", then go to "Input/Codecs", "Access modules", and "File" where you can change the caching value. By default, the value is usually set in milliseconds, and you just set it to a smaller value (Setting the value to 1000 will buffer for 1 second).

Solution 2: Deactivate Hardware Decoding

Besides modifying the caching value, you can also take another solution into consideration. According to some users' feedback, it will be easy to solve the VLC stuttering issue by deactivating hardware decoding. Usually, hardware acceleration of the decoding process is beneficial for the streaming of playback, but in case, it may cause conflicts with your driver. Here, in order to solve the video lagging issues, you can try to disable hardware decoding. The steps are as follows:

Step 1. Enter the "Preferences" panel.

Step 2. Then click "Input/Codecs" to navigate "Hardware-accelerated decoding" and set it to "Disable".

Step 3. Just click "Save" and you have deactivated hardware decoding.

Solution 3: Update the New Release

VLC stuttering may arise simply because the current VLC is outdated and not upgraded to the latest version. Some problems related to video lagging playback should be resolved in the new release of the software. VLC keeps updating the software inside so it is recommended you install the latest version of VLC to avoid any unnecessary efforts to clear the stuttering issues.

To update the new release, you may find it through the official website about any available updates or directly update from the VLC interface. Like any other software or apps, a new release will surely fix some existing issues such as stuttering issues in this case. This is the most cost-effective method to resolve the stuttering issue.

vlc-update

Solution 4: Augment the VLC UHD 4K cache value

As you know, VLC is an open-source and cross-platform media player software and streaming media server, which has been supported by videoLAN project. To be honest, we have tons of multimedia files developed and created each day to fulfill our needs for entertainment or education or whatever. Further, we have developed 4K technology to make the multimedia files more precise and higher definition of enjoyment. The 4K UHD video content is gradually making inroads into TV channels and streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Sling TV, and Hulu etc. The truth is not all media players will catch up with the latest development of media files so VLC stuttering may possibly be caused by insufficient support of UHD 4K contents. Your UHD 4K contents may suffer lagging playback between video and audio but this can be solved by augmenting the cache value. Technically, this should be achieved by the developer team within the software release. Anyhow, you could do that if you are capable of the process.

You can find steps to increase cache value in VLC media player below:

Step 1. Open Tools > Preferences
In Show settings, select the All option.

Step 2. From the Advanced settings, click Input / Codecs
Under the Advanced heading, change the value of File caching (ms) from 300 to a higher value like 10,000 or 20,000.

Note this will allow more cache value in the playback so that stuttering has less chance to happen and you will enjoy a more smooth and stable streaming experience.

cache-value

Solution 5: Use Leawo Blu-ray Player as the VLC alternative

If you have ever experienced VLC stuttering issues, then it may destroy your confidence in multimedia players. If you still can't solve VLC stuttering by referring to the above solutions, here there will be another direct solution which is to use another piece of media player for alternative. Then Leawo Blu-ray Player is highly recommended to you. As a 100% free and 6-in-1 media player software, Leawo Blu-ray Player contains all media playback solutions you need for your leisure entertainment, including Blu-ray, DVD, CD, HD (4K), ISO files with AVI, MPEG, WMV, ASF, WPL, FLV, MKV/MKA and other popular formats supported.

  • Leawo Blu-ray Player
  • Leawo Blu-ray Player

    Region-free Blu-ray player software to play Blu-ray disc and DVD disc for free, regardless of disc protection and region restriction.
    Play 4K FLV videos, 4K MKV videos, 4K MP4 videos, etc. without quality loss.
    Play 1080P videos, 720P videos with lossless quality.

With advanced image and audio processing technology, Leawo Free Blu-ray Player software could provide you quality-lossless images for even 4K video, stereo audio enjoyment, all regions free DVD decryption, and user-oriented playback control. Besides, Leawo Blu-ray Player's practical bonus features including useful power manager, custom skin/language/background, snap screenshots, especially virtual remote controller make it a better choice for all playback choices. Furthermore, within Leawo Blu-ray Player, you could obtain the personalized settings according to your preference and all the settings could be done automatically. The instructions for playing are quite easy.

Step 1. Download Leawo Blu-ray Player and install it.

Step 2. Enter the main interface and load the ISO movie on the computer by clicking the "Open File" button on the home interface. When you have imported the ISO movie, then you can see it on the playlist.

leawo-blu-ray-player

Step 3. Set subtitles. After loading the ISO movie, it will be played automatically. During the playback, you can right-click the screen and choose Subtitles, then a pop-up window for subtitles setting will appear which includes "Enable subtitles", "Subtitle offset", "Subtitle selecting", "Browse for subtitle".

leawo-blu-ray-player

According to the above referential instructions, next time you will not be bothered by the stuttering playback in the VCL player. The causes may vary and the solutions depend. Anyway, you can simply use Leawo Blu-ray Player as a VLC alternative media player to find the solutions. With it, you can freely enjoy the playbacks without any hitches.