GoPro Footage Not Playing? Why and How to Fix with VideoProc

" I recently bought a GoPro camera and have recorded 2.7k and 4k videos (required for timelapses). Neither my desktop nor my laptop support videos with that high a resolution...Trying to view a 2.7k or 4k video on my PC crashes it completely. I view them in Windows Media Player."

"Hello, when I transfer 4K videos on my Hero 6 to my computer, all I see is a frozen video screen, but the audio plays fine."

GoPro camera can help us shoot amazing videos for diving, surfing, cycling, skiing, travel or other activities. But when we import our GoPro video footages into our computer, TV, iPhone, iPad, Android mobile or other player, only to find that some or all GoPro videos won't play properly. We may experience jerky or choppy playback. We may find that it plays normally for a few seconds and then freezes. Or we hear audio only and can't watch video. What accounts for GoPro footage not playing? What can we do to solve those troubles? After analyzing the reasons, we find it easy to fix GoPro H.264/HEVC-encoded MP4 video footage playback error simply by using VideoProc.

• Why GoPro video won't play properly on computer or other devices?
• How to fix GoPro footage not playing error with VideoProc?

Why GoPro Video Won't Play Properly on Your Computer or Other Devices?

When you can't play GoPro video footage smoothly on your computer, the first thing I suggest you to do is to check if you're playing video directly from GoPro camera's SD card. If so, copy your videos from SD card to hard drive and try again. This is because choppy playback sometimes results from you playing through SD card. If GoPro video still doesn't play as it should, below are other possible reasons.

Reason 1: your player software or device doesn't support 4K

As 4K gets more and more popular, many GoPro holders choose 4K video mode hoping to create a super high quality video. 4K is undoubtedly great, but you'd better not capture video in 4K if you're using a low-end computer or mobile. This is because 4K video has high requirements for your device to process the massive data it contains. If your device can't meet the requirements, you will find that 4K video plays choppy or plays a few seconds and then freezes. Additionally, you need to use a piece of 4K-capable media player software. Windows Media Player isn't recommended, because it doesn't support 4K totally.

Minimum system requirements for PC and Mac playing GoPro 4K footages:

Integrated Graphics cards:

• 4th generation Intel® Core™ processor family (Intel Haswell based CPUs) - (Intel® Iris™ Pro Graphics 5200 / Intel® Iris™ Graphics 5100, Intel® HD Graphics 5000 / 4600 / 4400 / 4200)

• AMD A10-7800 APU

Discrete Graphics cards:

• Nvidia GeForce® GTX™ 970; GeForce® GTX™ 980; GeForce® GTX™ TITAN Z; GeForce® GTX™ TITAN Black; GeForce® GTX™ TITAN; GeForce® GTX™ 780 & 780 Ti; GeForce® GTX™ 770; GeForce® GTX™ 760 & 760 Ti; GeForce® GTX™ 750 & 750 Ti; GeForce® GTX™ 690, 680, 670, 660, 660 Ti, 650, 650 Ti BOOST, 650 Ti

• AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 Series or better

Reason 2: your player software or device isn't compatible with HEVC

HEVC is famous for that its data compression ratio is double that of H.264 at the same level of video quality. So, HEVC is often used to encode HD and 4K UHD videos for reducing file size efficiently. If you're using GoPro HERO6 Black and use one of the video modes below, HEVC is exactly the format of your recordings. Check what video settings on HERO6 Black and HERO7 Black utilize HEVC >>

Reason 3. There's no enough space in your computer to handle large GoPro footage

When your computer has very little storage left on it, it will work slowly or experience some kind of error while processing big video files. In this case, you should delete some useless files or move them to other storage devices to make room for your GoPro footage.

Reason 4. The GoPro footage is corrupted.

Video may get corrupted because of improper edit, power-off while transferring or other reasons that are known or unknown to us. Your GoPro footage is probably damaged, if you still can't view it on computer, iPhone or other device after you take all actions you can do: play with a different player (for example, VLC, 5KPlayer, Windows Media Player, QuickTime), change video format, reduce file size, lower resolution, etc.

How to Fix GoPro Video Footage Not Playing Error with VideoProc?

VideoProc is a piece of multifunctional, professional yet simple video processing software, with which we can reduce video file size, change video resolution, transcode video, and repair corrupted video, thus solving many GoPro video playback and edit errors.

To begin with, you should download and install VideoProc on your computer. Windows version is compatible with Windows 10 and lower, while Mac version works well on macOS Catalina and lower.

1. Fix GoPro video not playing because the resolution is too high or the size is too big

-- compress GoPro 4K/2.7K/1080p videos with VideoProc

* Choose HEVC output profile if your device supports HEVC. In this way, you can reduce GoPro footage size by about 50% while keeping original quality.

* Click "Option" to lower resolution, bit rate, and frame rate, and increase the value of GOP.

* Click "Cut" to delete unwanted video clips.

* Click "Crop" to remove needless area.

2. Fix no video just sound playback error because HEVC isn't supported

-- VideoPorc's HEVC video converter

Tips: to boost conversion speed, you're suggested to check Nvidia/Intel/AMD before the final step.

3. Fix GoPro video won't play because the footage is corrupted

-- repair damaged GoPro video with VideoProc

In addition to asking help from video repair tool or professionals, you can use VideoProc to repair slightly damaged GoPro videos. The way it applies is to cut off those broken clips.