When we play high-definition (HD) videos on VLC Media Player that have large file sizes, the video doesn’t play perfectly at all times. The HD video freezes or skips frames while the audio plays 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 setup of the FFmpeg codec. Besides, there are other reasons as well. However, there are several ways to fix this issue. There isn’t a single or perfect solution to fixing the video stuck or freezing issues. Let’s discuss a few ways to fix it.
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 to fix the HD video freezing issue in VLC:
1. Reset VLC Settings
First, try to reset all your VLC settings. There might be a setting that you have tweaked and now causing the HD video freezing issue.
To reset the VLC Media Player, follow the following steps:
1. Open VLC Media Player on your computer.
2. Click on the Tools option on the top menu bar and then click on 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? To confirm, click on the Reset button. This will reset the VLC Media Player settings to default.

5. After that, close the VLC Media Player and relaunch it. Now try playing the HD video. If it plays smoothly, then you are good to go.
2. Increase Cache Values
To run any program on your system, it has to cache some parts. The same applies to video playback in VLC. VLC Media Player needs to cache the video from the hard drive to your computer’s main memory or RAM. From there, the player accesses it and plays it smoothly.
However, if the cache values are set too low in VLC, you may experience lag while playing HD videos, as the file size is large for such video files. To fix this lag, you can increase the cache values.
Here are the steps you can follow to do so:
1. Open VLC Media Player on your computer.
2. Click on the Tools option on the top menu bar and then click on the Preferences option.

3. A preferences window will appear. Here, click on the All option under the Show settings option.
4. Select the Input/Codecs option from the menu and scroll down to the options under the Advanced section.
5. After that, look for File caching (ms) and change the values from 300 to a higher value, such as 1000 or 2000. The value is in milliseconds. You can also modify the cache values for disk and network caching.

6. To save the changes, click the Save button and relaunch the VLC Media Player.
7. After that, try to play the HD video.
3. Change Video Output Settings
You can also face HD video freezing issues if the video output setting is not configured correctly.
Here are the steps you can follow to change video output settings on VLC:
1. Open the VLC Media Player.
2. Click on the Tools and select the Preferences option.
3. It will open up the preferences window. Here, select the Video option from the top menu and select Output from the drop-down menu. You can select OpenGL video output for Windows or DirectX (DirectDraw) video output. However, you can also try other output options.

4. Click the Save button, relaunch the VLC Media Player, and try to play the HD video.
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. Then open the Preferences settings option.
2. Click on the All option under the Show Settings option. Now, select the Input/Codecs option and Video Codecs > FFmpeg.
3. Under the FFmpeg audio/video decoder, look for Skip the loop filter for H.264 decoding and change it from None to All from the drop-down menu. Also, Disable the hardware decoding option.

4. Click the Save button and relaunch the VLC Media Player.
5. After that, try to play the HD video. If still not fixed try to upgrade your system hardware like RAM, GPU, and CPU.
Conclusion
That’s it! These are a few ways to fix the HD video freezing issue in VLC Media Player. However, if you are still facing the issue, then your system’s hardware may not be powerful enough to run the HD/UHD video files. In this case, you have to upgrade your system hardware.
I hope the guide is helpful to you. However, if you have some doubts, then don’t hesitate to leave them in the comment section. I will surely respond to it.