VLC Stuttering mp4 Playback

[slowmotionbooth]

Hi there--I've been reading through countless forums for tricks to resolve the well-known stuttering issue within VLC when playing mp4 files. I have a couple questions based on what I've read:

1. Is there an older version that does a better job of playing these files? It seems some people had fewer issues until they upgraded.
2. Is there any way to force the GPU to display the graphics? I have tried using the Accelerated Graphics option with no luck. There is still no gpu activity.

I'm just looking to consistently play a series of videos without any stuttering or freezing. I am willing to sacrifice some quality or really ANY features other than playing the videos.

Computer specs:
RAM - 16gb
Processor - 4th Generation Intel Core i7-4700MQ Processor (2.40GHz 1600MHz 6MB)
Video Card - NVIDIA GeForce GT755M GDDR5 2GB

EDIT: I am playing back 720p vidoes that are ~30 seconds in length. Will play a growing playlist of videos from 1 up to 100+.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Disable hardware decoding acceleration and try different video output plugins. Your processor is more than powerful enough to decode 720p videos in CPU. If it still stutters, it's probably a file issue rather than a VLC performance problem.

Note that all but the most lowest profiles of MPEG-4 part 2 video cannot be decoded by GPUs (of any brand) because of the codec design.

[slowmotionbooth]

Thanks for the advice--where do I find the different video output plugins to try?

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Preferences -> Video.

[slowmotionbooth]

I tried this and every output without any luck

Is there anything else I can try? Maybe another version? I should note that when I start playing videos, it will play the first few videos somewhat smoothly. After it plays a few different videos though is when I start to see severe stuttering and eventually freezing.