Video playing choppy on Surface Pro 3, windows 8.1

[Darrell KSR]

Not sure what the heck the problem is.

Have had problems playing video (.mp4 files). It's pretty high resolution (1080p, 35 Mbps, 60fps), but plays fine on my "old" computer.

I have tried Windows Media Player, as well as the latest VLC player. This isn't streaming; it's just a short, 1 minute video of my daughter, nothing major, just singing/acting. Have no trouble playing streaming video, even streaming 1080p/60fps on youtube.

When I say it is "choppy," it's not just occasional choppiness. It absolutely freezes for 20 seconds at a time, restarts for a second or two, stops again, etc. Completely unusable. I've also tried xbox video player (have NO idea what that is, or why it is on my surface pro), in addition to windows media player and VLC.

Any quick ideas of what the problem might be?

Side note--I'm using a flash drive--copying a 90 second file, and it is taking much longer than it should also. Weird. It's 50% complete, and it's been 3 or 4 minutes already.

[Darrell KSR]

81% now....taking even longer than I thought. I'm wondering if the flash drive is the problem (although the flash drive plays fine on the other computer).

[Darrell KSR]

ok, it copied to my hard drive....and it works fine. I guess it was something with the flash drive.

[dan_bgblue]

It could also be the USB port. If the Surface Pro has more than one USB port try a different one and see if it acts the same

[Darrell KSR]

Dan, that's a great suggestion. It was even on a hub, too, so it could have been that. I didn't think of that.