Is 4k really that hard to deal with?

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Got my p3 pro over the weekend, took it to a lake a shot some beautiful footage in 4k. Got it home put the card in my computer, copied the video to it. When you try to watch it, it is extremely laggy/choppy. I've built computers my whole life, this one has 16 gigs of ram, quad core 4ghz processor...can't remember what video card I have but it was 250 bucks. I recorded on the card that came with the p3, and the card I used on my phantom 2, same result. Tried converting it to 1080p and it was fine but I shouldn't have to do that. I played them in QuickTime and VLC with same result. Anyone else going insane over this? Are there any specific settings I can change in the app to help?
 
I used to build computer but have since gone Apple and both my Apple MacBook Pro and iMac can handle the 4K video without issue but if I reboot my iMac to Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 and I get choppy/laggy video. Past that I don't know what to tell you, logic tell me it Windows!
 
Weird...i can play my 4k vids on my pipo w3f chinese tablet windows 10 ... Smoothly ..but my freaking mac air cant!
 
Unless you are watching on a 4k screen, you aren't working in a native environment. There will be some lag as the computer works to put it in perspective. Also, the 'choppy and laggy' look of your video can be caused by other settings of your camera. I recommend checking out fhagan02's films on settings.

Also, before editing, I move the mov files to the drive on my pc. This really helps.
 
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I have changed my settings to 1080p simply because in the work that I am doing the 4K is simply gross over kill. In the future when there are more devices able to use 4K and everything else catches up I may go back to 4K but for now it's not worth the hassle. Keep in mind I'm not doing Movie production type work.
 
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What about your hard drive? Increase the pagefile size, get a 10k or SSD drive would help...
 
What kind of 'quad core' processor and how old? How old is the $250 video card? A card that was $250 four years ago probably would have problems with 4K. Are you viewing on a 4K display or are you downscaling? What operating system are you using?
Got my p3 pro over the weekend, took it to a lake a shot some beautiful footage in 4k. Got it home put the card in my computer, copied the video to it. When you try to watch it, it is extremely laggy/choppy. I've built computers my whole life, this one has 16 gigs of ram, quad core 4ghz processor...can't remember what video card I have but it was 250 bucks. I recorded on the card that came with the p3, and the card I used on my phantom 2, same result. Tried converting it to 1080p and it was fine but I shouldn't have to do that. I played them in QuickTime and VLC with same result. Anyone else going insane over this? Are there any specific settings I can change in the app to help?
 
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@robfalcon501
What kind of 'quad core' processor and how old? How old is the $250 video card? A card that was $250 four years ago probably would have problems with 4K. Are you viewing on a 4K display or are you downscaling? What operating system are you using?
A 50$ card today would have no issue playing 4k. Its just a stupid video! NOT rocket science! Any dual core system will play 4k fine IF it has the CODECs needed to handle the process properly. Windows, in any iteration, does not come with that needed CODEC. This link is from CNET.. So it should be clean. DO NOT USE ANYTHING FROM FREE-CODEC.COM!!!!
Free Software Downloads and Software Reviews - CNET Download.com
 
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A 50$ card today would have no issue playing 4k. Its just a stupid video! NOT rocket science! Any dual core system will play 4k fine IF it has the CODECs needed to handle the process properly. Windows, in any iteration, does not come with that needed CODEC. This link is from CNET.. So it should be clean. DO NOT USE ANYTHING FROM FREE-CODEC.COM!!!!
Free Software Downloads and Software Reviews - CNET Download.com
I have no codecs installed in Win10 and WMP plays 4K just fine.
 
Windows 10 is a little different story. The new move/picture viewer "app" brought with it some needed functionality that wasn't there before. That helps everything handle video better.
 
It should play it just fine. Are you transferring to the machine first though?
It can't keep up from the SD card even if you have an inbuilt reader for mini-SD like mine.
It's *only* about 2x as intensive a task as 1080p, but you need a reasonable spec machine to play even for 1080p easily.
My older laptop can only handle 720p but it was good in its day (about 2005!)

Worth trying different players, VLC is a good standby will play almost anything, but the media player classic seems smoother somehow and looks great in fullscreen.
 
It should play it just fine. Are you transferring to the machine first though?
It can't keep up from the SD card even if you have an inbuilt reader for mini-SD like mine.
It's *only* about 2x as intensive a task as 1080p, but you need a reasonable spec machine to play even for 1080p easily.
My older laptop can only handle 720p but it was good in its day (about 2005!)

Worth trying different players, VLC is a good standby will play almost anything, but the media player classic seems smoother somehow and looks great in fullscreen.
I use a laptop from 2004 to play everything up to 4K 3D on my TV.. You have NO idea what you are talking about!
 
I use a laptop from 2004 to play everything up to 4K 3D on my TV.. You have NO idea what you are talking about!
I know my old laptop, originally on XP can't play 1080p video.
It's on Linux now and it still can't play 1080p video.
My current Toshiba W8.1 laptop is only 18 months old, and has 6GB Ram. It can't play 4K either.
You may know different.
 
I know my old laptop, originally on XP can't play 1080p video.
It's on Linux now and it still can't play 1080p video.
My current Toshiba W8.1 laptop has 6GB Ram and can't play 4K either.
You may know different.
It has nothing to do with OS, or the amount of RAM.
 

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