How Do I Play GoPro Videos on Windows? (Easy Steps)
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
GoPro makes a very high-quality camera that takes High definition footage. To play the footage and edit them, your PC might struggle a bit. With a phone, you may also face some problems playing the clips as they are very high resolution.
Mainly GoPro cameras make files in MP4 and HEVC format. Unlike Mp4, HEVC requires a high configured computer to play the files. That’s why you might face problems playing the GoPro videos.
Just download the K-Lite Coder Pack and download the VLC player. It will play the HEVC files with no trouble. And in this article, I will show you how to Play GoPro videos on Windows.
Why My Windows Doesn’t Play GoPro Videos?
I already mentioned, GoPro cameras are capable of capturing up to 5.3k videos. To process these videos, computers need to have very robust graphics cards with good CPU power.
GoPro cameras create videos as MP4 and HEVC. HEVC stands for High-Efficiency Video Coding. And it is also known as H.265. Overall HEVC produces better quality footage than MP4. That’s why many photographers take videos in HEVC format to have the maximum quality footage possible.
But playing the HEVC files requires some major configuration. If your PC cannot handle the high-resolution files, it will show you your PC cannot play the files.
The solution to the issue is some simple steps that I will describe down below.
How Do IPlay Gopro Videos on Windows?
Step 1:
Windows 10 doesn’t have any support for HEVC files as it has a new update. So you have to have additional software to render the HEVC files.
K-Lite Coder Pack is software that allows your PC to render high-resolution footage.
So, go to their official website K-lite.
Download the basic version of the software and install it. To perform well restart your computer.
Step 2:
Use the VLC media player. VLC players can play videos in any format. And on top of that, the player is completely free.
If you use VLC Player you don’t have to worry about whether your PC can support HEVC or higher definition files or not. Cause VLC can support tons of video formats. With the consistent updates, the software is very well balanced and safe to use as well.
- Download VLC Player from here.
- Install the player and restart your PC to have a complete install.
- If you already have VLC Player installed, make sure you have the updated one.
- To update or check for updates, open the player and click Help from the top right corner.
- And it will show you an option Check for updates…
- Click it and run the update.
After these two steps, you won’t have any issue playing GoPro videos on your Windows computer.
And if you have any playing errors or cannot support the footage, you can shoot at a lower resolution and consider upgrading your PC.
I know upgrading a PC is not a cheap option to have. So I will highly suggest you shoot at a lower resolution. Because processing the 4k or 4k+ videos need very high CPU and GPU power. If you shoot at 1080P 60 FPS your PC will handle playing and editing the videos with no struggle.
And if you are a professional photo and videographer, you will need to upgrade your system as you need to play with the high-resolution files.
If you still find a hard time playing GoPro videos check this article.
Final Words
If you want to be a videographer, you need to know how you play GoPro videos on Windows. Being a good videographer takes a lot of effort, and patience and requires a high configured computer to work on the clips.
No matter what operating system you choose, make sure you have headroom to play with high-resolution footage.
Many GoPro owners wonder how they will play the high-resolution footage. That’s why I discussed how I play GoPro videos on Windows.
Related Posts: