How to fix video stuttering
If you work with video occasionally, you may have experienced a situation where you can play a video just fine, but when you scrub through it, it stutters. What you're seeing is one of the modern miracles: video compression. Let's examine why this happens and how we can fix it.
Why video stuttering happens
As you may know, videos are really just a bunch of pictures your video player is flipping through—really fast. Compressed videos are common these days, as they're much easier to share and lighter to store.
However, compressed videos don't contain pictures of all the frames of a video. Instead, they rely on "I-frames", which are frames with all the necessary information to draw the picture on the screen. The frames in between only include what's different from the previous frame.
Some apps place the I-frames in the wrong places, some place too few (often on purpose to decrease the file size), and that is what causes this stuttering when you scrub through it.
Getting rid of the stuttering
You have to add more I-frames (or place them better) to fix this issue, and there are two paths to doing so. The best way is if you have access to the source video, e.g., a Premiere project, or the original screen recording if that's what your video is.
How to fix video stuttering, if you have the original editor file
- Go back to the video editor you used and take a look at the export settings, under compression.
- It might be set to Low Quality or Small File. Try increasing it slightly to add more detail to the video file.
- Don't worry too much about the file size for now, there are ways to deal with that; see "If size matters" below.
How to fix video stuttering if you don't have the original editor file
Sometimes, you just don't have access to the original, and that's fine too! We can attempt to re-encode the video by calculating new I-frames. That may sound complex, and it is, but luckily, your Mac already knows how to do it.
1. On your Mac, in Finder, find the video file.
2. Right-click it.
3. Choose Services, then Encode Selected Video Files
4. The dialog below should appear.
5. Now, which format do you choose? It depends!
If size doesn't matter
If you're working with your video in another app, like After Effects or Rotato, go for Apple ProRes. This is what's called an intermediate format—a format specifically for the situation where you'll be working with a video file in another app.
The ProRes encoder saves a new I-frame in every frame, ensuring that the software does not have to guess what should go inside a frame at any given point in the video. It also makes exactly zero attempts to compress the individual frames, keeping all pixels intact.
Many video sites like YouTube and Vimeo have also started to accept ProRes as an upload format.
If size matters
If you're uploading your video to a website and plan on embedding it, go for the H.264 format in the right resolution.
Your video should become a lot smaller than the ProRes version.
But if it's still not compressed enough, give the Rotato Compress tool (free, no install) or the Clop app a try. They can aggressively reduce the file size of the video, while still laying out the I-frames in a way that actually works! I've seen it reduce a 5 MN video to 500 KB, with better I-frames than the original. With no visual loss!
While you're here
Rotato is more than an online video compressor.
We have a Mac app for designers from all over the world to quickly build animated mockup videos. Doesn't matter if you're a student, a designer working as part of a bigger design team, or a business owner who needs to create app store images for your product—pick a template, drag and drop it into the Rotato app, and create your own animated mockup within clicks. Give it a spin!