How to fix choppy video with VLC player?

When playing most movies in VLC player, the video feed is choppy while the sound is near perfect. Another catch is that this video issue wasn't always a problem. I used to play movies without problem with video or sound.

I cannot pinpoint what has changed between when it used to work fine and when it started being choppy.

I have an ASUS G73JW-A1. Movies that are normally affected are 4-9GB HD videos, but this system should be more than enough to handle the demand of playing HD videos. In addition, the videos are in MKV, MP4 (or M4V), and AVCHD (or M2TS) formats. I get the same results whether playing a movie directly from my hard drive or an external drive. Finally, all the drivers have been recently checked and updated if needed.

Go to Tools » Preferences » Input & Codecs.

Check Use GPU acceleration (experimental).

That just solved the very same issue for me in v.1.1.5 The Luggage.