Playing 720p and 1080p videos on Ubuntu 12.04

If you find the playback for MP4 files saved to 720p or 1080p resolution on Ubuntu 12.04 choppy and you're using an Nvidia graphics card, you might want to try using the proprietary Nvidia drivers and make sure to install the VDPAU library installed.

The stock Movie Player does not appear to support the hardware acceleration capabilities, nor does the VLC version v2.0 that comes with 12.04.  You'll need to install VLC 2.2 from the repo.

VLC 2.2 upgrade installations are here:

http://linuxg.net/how-to-install-vlc-2-2-on-ubuntu-13-10-13-04-12-10-12-04-and-linux-mint-15-14-13-via-ppa/

You can also force MPlayer from the command-line to always use the VDPAU extensions:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/63682/how-do-i-configure-mplayer-to-always-use-vdpau