4k GoPro footage exporting super choppy

[Amiable_Unicorn5F86]

Hi! I made a 2min edit with footage from my GoPro Hero8 in 4k resolution and the exportred video is extremely choppy. I am exporting as an H.264, 6000x4000, 29.97 frame and 80 bitrate, as well as checking rener at maximum depth and vbr 2 pass (using media encoder and have also tried a normal export, neither gave eme smooth video). 

Does anyone know why this could be exporting so terribly? And how to change settings to get a smooth video while still 4k resolution?

Thank you!!!!

[MyerPj · Accepted solution]

Why are you exporting at such a large frame size. The gopro 4k is 3840x2160 UHD. Turn off both of those things you set and export at the same resolution as the footage which should be what I have here.

[RjL190365]

As MyerPj stated, the primary cause of your problem is that you've actually upscaled that 4k footage to 6k. Not surprisingly, 6k footage is much more CPU intensive than 4k footage. In fact, 6k is so CPU intensive that it likely more than maxed out the capability of your CPU. You see, 4k is a misnomer in that it refers to the width, not the height, of the footage (unlike 1080p where 1080 refers to the height).

And on top of those problems, upscaling 4k to 6k will actually degrade image quality on export. There is absolutely no way around this degradation of image quality at all whatsoever. In the worst cases, upscaling 4k to 6k will actually make the effective image quality worse than even 1080p video.

Also, turn off 2-pass VBR: It will force software-only encoding, which slows down the entire export job significantly. And again, your CPU might not be able to handle it very well.