VLC not Playing MP4 Videos [SOLVED]

It’s just your bad day! VLC player is most widely used players and supports almost all sorts of video formats. Though MP4 is supported by VLC, there are times wherein you have choppy video playback issue or your VLC player refuses to play your favorite video . This can be due to various reasons, may be you have an older VLC, videos settings are not enables and even your MP4 is corrupt! However, there are solutions to fix all such issues, just read ahead to know some easy methods to fix VLC not playing MP4 issue.

In this process of fixing the issue the first thing you need to do is to check where the problem lies, is that your MP4 is corrupt or your VLC is the culprit. No Worries, it’s a no brainer task! First play your MP4 video on other media players and also, play other MP4 video on VLC player.

• MP4 is working on other players, then it’s your VLC that is culprit; to fix your VLC player issues just go with Part 1
• If your MP4 fails to play on other media players, then your MP4 video is corrupt. Its s simple task, just follow the Part 2 steps

To fix corrupt / unplayable MP4 video download and install Remo Repair MOV tool.

Part 2: Fix VLC player issues – MP4 not playing on VLC

MP4 video codec problem - convert MP4 to VLC compatible

One of the issue with MP4 video not playing on VLC is that your VLC is not compatible with the MP4 codec. Hence, to fix the issue, you just convert the MP4 video to VLC compatible format. You can download the VLC codec pack from the official VLC site and for converting there are various online MP4 convertors available. Choose the one that best suits your needs.

Disable hardware video decoding in VLC

One other reason for VLC not playing MP4 can be that your hardware decoding of the player is not able to handle the rendering effects. It seems that your video has too many subtitle tracks and the video card you are using is not able to accelerate the video. Best solution to resolve this is to disable hardware video decoding option on VLC. Below are the steps to do this:

• Open VLC player and go to
  Tools --> Preferences. Then in the lower left of the window, click on Show Settings and select ALL button.
• Here, all the options will be displayed now. Here navigate to
  Input / Codecs -> Video Codecs -> FFmpeg
  Here disable the ‘Hardware decoding’ option
• Once it is done, you can now close VLC and open it up again. Then, just try to play your MP4 video and check if this works. If this doesn’t help, then try the next option.

Upgrade VLC to latest version

At times, when your MP4 codec is not compatible with the VLC, you will not be able to play MP4 video. That means, you might be having the older version of the player, and hence needs up-gradation. So, just download the latest VLC codec packs or upgrade the VLC player to the latest version available.

Configure video Output Mode on VLC

Now, it’s time to check the ‘Video Output Mode’ configuration. Here all you need to do is to configure your ‘X server’ attribute correctly. For this, just open VLC player and go to

Tools -> Preferences -> Video section -> check the Enable Video box in case it is un-clicked.

Then check the box for Window decorations, in case it is unchecked. Then select ‘X11 video output (XCB)’ in the Output drop-down menu. Now, just save all the settings you made and open your VLC Player again. Now, your MP4 video should be playing on VLC player successfully.

Part 2: Fix Not Playing MP4 file with Remo Repair MOV

MP4 video corruption might happen due to various reasons, improper transfer, codec issues, audio-video synchronization issues, interruption while compress the video and many more. Remo Repair MOV tool will quickly fix all such issues and repair your MP4 videos. In the process, your original video will be safe as the tool will create a new healthy file and then copies the audio & video streams separately. This make the MOV repair process safer and easier.

Its friendly interface needs no technical expertise to use the tool. You just have to provide another healthy MP4 file, with same codecs. Also, the entire process is just 3-step process, you need to just Select - > Repair - > Save.

Follow the below explained steps to fix MP4 not playing on VLC or other players issue

To fix this VLC not playing MP4 videos issue, first download and install Remo Repair MOV tool. Then, launch the software and follow the below instructions:

Step 1: From main screen- choose ‘Healthy file’ and provide the location of a healthy MP4 video of same codec

Step 2: Now, provide the path of your unplayable MP4 file by hitting ‘Corrupted File’ option.

Step 3: Then, click on ‘Repair’ button to begin the MP4 video repair process

Step 4: Once, the process is successfully completed, you can preview the repaired MP4 by clicking of ‘Preview’ option and ‘Save’ the file at any location of your choice.

With these, the corrupt / unplayable MP4 video should play on VLC & other media players. You can use this tool to even fix MOV videos that are corrupt. Whatever, is the camera model used for creating these MOV and MP4 videos, this tool will fix them all. Itc an quickly repair videos on GoPro, Canon, Nikon and other top DSLRs. These are some of the easy methods that help you fix MP4 not playing on VLC issue. Hope, this guide helps you to resolve your video playback issue.